Home is where the Heart is

Sports Club Appreciation Night

Date: 4th November 2011 (Friday)

Time: 6.30pm (Registration starts at 6.15pm)

Venue: MPSH 4

Dress code: Cocktail, Black and White

It's already Week 3 into Semester 2. My modules are finally settled and I'll be able to complete my second major this semester as long as there's no major disaster on my grades. Yippee!! They've allocated me, Supply Chain Management in replacement of Service Ops. 


This semester is also the first time that my P account is bankrupt. I've used up all my points for Tumour Biology. 2103 points in total. I hope it's worth it. So far the lectures had been okay but I don't really like the lecturer and the LT. He'll explain simple concepts quite throughly and rush through the more complicated ones. Today will be his last lecture, hopefully the other 3 lecturers are much better. And that LT is super squeezy such that you can't move around much. If you're late, you better hope that there's corner seats available, if not, you'll just have to seat on the steps.


I'm also taking Immunology, Hormones and Health and Darwin and Evolution, a new module offered for the first time this semester. The module is rather interesting but there's lots of readings, even more than what I have for my core modules. It's supposed to be science gem but there's so much history in it that I'm beginning to think that it should be classified as an arts gem instead.


The inaugural Residence Games is finally over after months of planning. Well done to the team! I think most of them really work very hard for it. 


I've just received one of the most troublesome coverage that I've ever done in VPC. The organising chairperson is so annoying. He keeps calling you almost every other day to ask about different things. Can't he just wait for e-mail replies?? It all started in December when we agreed to loan them the equipment for some shooting because we were short of manpower. He's request for the camera one day before he needs to use it and expect to get it. I'm not so free to everyday sit here and wait for your call with the camera. And I've never need to have 23 email correspondence with the organiser for one event. Arrgh..I'm just so irritated by him.


Time to take a break and play games!

So many things had happened recently to the extent that I'm not sure whether what I'm going through is worth it. I could have just gone home during this holidays, not doing my internship, not becoming a resident assistant and not having to help some people to be their messenger.

I don't really mind helping people as long as it is within my means but can't they be more polite when asking for help. It's you that want my help yet you are asking me as though I'm the one that wants your help. I don't like being 'shouted' (I can't think of a suitable word, maybe it's just the tone that you are using) at especially you are asking for help. I have no obligation to do what you asked me to. It's not even my job to do it.

Someone came back to bug me again asking for some ridiculous 'help', but he will never be able to do that again. Thank you for helping me to get rid of him. I'm guilty for not telling when it first occurred. I was thinking that it would not have such a great impact. But now I realise how serious the problem can be after putting some thought into it. I'm really really sorry about it. I might need some time to get over with it.

I'm also missing home. I haven't gone back for more than half a year, the last time being Chinese New Year which I was back for just 2-3 days and about 2 weeks in December. And I foresee myself not being able to go back for holidays so soon. Being a resident assistant means that we are required to be in campus on certain days and remain contactable and we are only entitled to 10 days of leave per semester. I will need to use about 7 days for my camp in December and will that mean that I will only have 3 days left to go home??? Mummy said it's okay since she can come and visit me whenever she thinks it's convenient. But I think the feeling will not quite be the same? Dunno :S Maybe I will feel much better when the term starts. I'm just too free these few days.

I'm also starting to get bored with my work. It's been less than 3 months and I'm already bored of it. I wonder how am I going to survive in the future. I guess what my friend said is true. Why do we need to work so hard when at the end of the day, we will not have anything? What's the purpose of life then? I have yet to find out :S I'm looking forward to some 'real' holiday. I'm tired of having to wake up so early in the morning, going to the lab and not having anything to do. If this is really what a researcher does, I really have to reconsider.

And I totally forgotten about our welcome fest event yesterday. Really sorry to the committee. I will do better next time. As for the meeting, I really didn't mean to forget about it. It totally slipped my mind.

I know in the past few weeks I've hurt someone really badly and not knowing how to make up for it. Even need the person to tell me what to do. Really disappointed in myself.

It's not really fun to be working. I think I like being a student more. It's so much more fun and relaxing. I'm already one week into internship! Yippee! My mentor will teach me some new stuff tomorrow. I'm going to learn how to cut the electrophoresis gel and extract the DNA from it. I will also do cloning and sequencing. So excited...but it's quite tiring to go to work also. So little time left to sleep:(

Went for a meeting on standing committee updates with Yee Han, Feng Fu and E Yin (I think). Haha..cant remember her name. But it was just a short meeting. There's another one on 5th of June. So I foresee myself being very busy this holiday.

One week of internship is over and I'm moving on to the second week. I finally got started with my project. Quite excited about it although its a lot of repetitive work. I will have to troubleshoot many many times before getting the appropriate settings and combinations.

And we are also moving out from NUSSU Secretariat so last Thursday, we were there to pack up our things and clear the room. Found quite a lot of antiques in the room. Haha..I'm also supposed to move out from my room today but the management didn't record which room I'm supposed to move to and so the security guard who are there for the 24 hours check out don't know which is my allocated room. So I can't move yet!!! Argh, so frustrating...this is the only weekend left to shift so that means I will have to move them during the weekdays after work..the thought of it is tiring enough :S

We had our RA Training yesterday where I get to meet a lot of new friends. We had lots of fun playing the games and getting to know one another. The senior RAs were there to share their experience too. And I guess after our training, we are more geared up for the coming semester :P We also decided to have BBQ for the outgoing RAs some time in June and we had our first R3 meeting last night to plan for the upcoming activites. Today, our professors will be treating us to a restaurant to celebrate the end of another semester. Haha..I'm there to eat since I wasn't part of the team last semester :)

Yippee..no more assignments, no more CA, no more tutorials to do..wait..maybe not..one more tutorial to go..statistics:S but i will finish it later..hehe

Tuesday was the day to submit the report for our accounting module. I volunteered to print and submit it since I will have no lessons except for a one hour tutorial. I thought I knew where is the place to submit it but it was totally unexpected. I thought there will be a box place in front of the office for us to put it inside. That's what Ms Belinda told us. But the place was actually an office which we have to enter - office similar to that of a professor room - and pass it to the person. I was wandering around looking for a box which is as big as a room..haih..silly me..met Zi Jian my tutorial classmate there. He went to submit their group's report too. We took quite some time before deciding to knock and enter the room because there were no sign indicating that's the submission venue.

After lunch, I went for tutorial and back to PGP. I was supposed to go for an interview too but never mind, there's some misunderstanding and it's postponed. So I will go over later. Was a bit disappointed but then as least someone is happy.

Was busy rushing to prepare my presentation slides and report at night. Manage to finish the report during IGC meeting and came back to do the slides. Sleepy and tiring.

And today's the presentation day. And I was LATE! Arr..I overslept. Woke up at 8.50 am and I got a shock. I so so so late:S Luckily I wasn't one of the presenter today. But I think we didn't handle the Q&A very well. Quite disappointing. And worse, we got below average again for our assignment. So in conclusion, I scored below average for my midterm, below average for the first assignment and below average for the second assignment. There's a lot of catching up I need to do before the finals. I guess our way of working with the assignment wasn't good enough. I don't know. I do not blame my groupmates for that. I have the responsibility to check the answers for them too.

Haih..today's just an unlucky day. I need more luck to get through my interview. Lots of luck!!!

Earth Hour celebration was quite successful. Everything went on smoothly, at least in my point of view. There was movie screening of The Day the Earth Stood Still at the lecture theatre after which we proceed to the Football Field for the candlelight vigil. I was assigned to be one of the ushers to direct people to the field and when everyone are going to the field and no one's left at the LT, I went to join them too. Haha..not that I'm running away from my duty. Zhirong allowed me to go play and have fun too.

Some of the photos taken by VPC photographers (Guoqi and Daniel). Nice shots.

The letter "NUS" formed by candles!!

Panoramic shot by Guoqi

Taking part in the candlelight vigil

Complete darkness...
Glow stick!
Join us again for Earth Hour 2010!

Woke up early in the morning and went for tuition. So sleepy and lazy to wake up but no choice, have to drag myself out from bed. Haha..the weather's so cold and nice to sleep lor.

Had lunch at Jurong Point. Nice nice lunch. So happy. Came back to PGP to nap after that before going out to do some preparation for Earth Hour next week.

Met Zhirong at OED and the 4 of us walk to the SRC open field to try things out. Hehe..quite fun lighting candles and making formation. Manage to make the letter "N". There were some curious passer-bys that thought we were doing some tribute to someone. Haha..anyway, it looks cool and hope everything will turn out fine next week.

After our last practical at Changi Beach, today's the animal diversity practical in which our lecturer told us to be prepared mentally and physically. Haha..I hope I am. It's another 1 hour plus later.

This semester is getting busier than the previous one. Maybe because I'm taking more modules with assignments and group project. Just submitted my law mid-term paper. I redo it for 3 times so hopefully the final one is OK. This weekend we'll be having our second econs assignment. And our physics term paper is due the week after that. It's going to go on like this for the rest of the semester.

I totally agreed with what Eelin blog about. Uni life is only partially FUN. And I would say the fun comes from the friends around us. What I look forward to everyday is not attending the long boring lectures but rather the chance to meet up with friends during lunch time or maybe just a simple chat. And what's fun about doing projects? It's being able to know new friends and maintain them even after the projects are completed. I really don't know how long I can survive without them walking into my uni life. And definitely the competitiveness in people are not something that I enjoy. It's just putting more stress on each other.

We had our open house last weekend. I was quite disappointed that the photographers went missing. How can they not informed me if they are not able to make it or at least why did they gone uncontactable? I wished I didn't have to do the sports club duty then I can at least help them take some of the photographs which I did before starting my shift. But of course also thanks to people who are willing to help although I contacted them last minute. Really grateful for that.

And this week during the law lecture, our lecturer told us that she'll need to postpone the next lecture as she had to travel. I just don't understand how can she just postpone the lessons just like that. She should at least consider that we might be having another lesson during that time. Why did we need to bid for the lecture in the first place if there's no fix timing? OK I admit I don't really like this lecturer. I have a feeling that she doesn't even prepare for lessons. She's always going there every week and reading from the piece of paper. I even wonder if she prepared the slides on her own.

Another interesting thing that happened during this week's lecture is Mark and Jahabar trying to get "famous" on the web cast during our Physics lecture. Haha..it was during the lecturer's demonstration that they let out a loud "waaa". Super funny. But I told them later that it might not be captured on the web cast coz they usually don't take in the surrounding sound meaning they take it directly from the lecturer's mike. So we will not be able to hear them on the web cast. But we have yet to check it out. Haha..maybe I shall watch during the weekend to see if there's any:P

This Wednesday was the 'super critical' group's turn to present. They never failed to raised a question during every group's presentation and trying to point out people's "mistakes". But this time was their turn to make a major mistake. They used a totally not good example and making certain assumptions. So our tutor questioned their project examples. As always, they often do not admit they are wrong and thus trying to find their way out, given all sort of reasons for them choosing the "wrong" example. In the end, the tutor still thinks that the example is not a good one. Lesson for our group, make sure we chose examples that we can relate to our every day life and be specific to avoid being "killed". Haha..super exaggerating hor:P

Today's the photoshoot for all NUSSU Sub-Comm. Hehe..and I was lucky enough to be part of it. It's so fun thinking that we'll be visiting the studio and have our photographs taken by professional photographers. Haha..not many chance in a lifetime. I mean why would we want to pay so much just to have photos taken rite:P

We were supposed to meet 9.15am at Little India MRT. But somehow, it's hard for everyone to wake up so early. Haha..we were all late, except for maybe Ximin:P Woke up at 7.30am and gave Guoqi a wake up call. Met at the bus stop at 8am, waited for quite awhile until I was wondering how come the bus stop was so empty before I remembered that the shuttle bus only operates from 9am on Sundays! Arrgh...so we had to walk all the way to YIH. Now I really admit that there are a lot of stairs and slopes in NUS. Super tired and sweaty by the time we reach YIH. Haha..and we forgotten to call Chris also:S Anyway we reached about the same time.

Packed 2 videocameras, 2 DSLRs and 2 tripods and set off to get a cab. Hehe..there was some function at staff club so are people coming in with cabs and we just stop one when it was about to exit from Staff Club. We saw Ximin on the road while travelling on the cab so we stop somewhere before the MRT and walked over to the studio. Haha..and we were super early so walked around to look for a place to have breakfast. I had mine before going:P

We weren't prepared for the photoshoot. Didn't put much thought into what we want to take and how we want to position ourselves. But it's ok. We are satisfied. Slack around the place and took some photos on our own.

Had lunch at Food Junction@Bugis. Then walked back to the studio to collect our equipments. I was super tired and sleepy by the time I came back to PGP. Showered and did my stats tutorial. Haha..Ee Lin asked me how to do question 4 yesterday but I think that's the only question I didn't know how to do. Hee..sorry.

I enjoyed my dinner. Super nice:P Thank you!

Yay..the week is finally over. Hmm at least for academic week. I can't imagine myself having 1 assignment, 4 tutorials, 1 presentation and 1 CA all in the same week. Our assignment question was release last Sunday night! I thought she would release it in the morning at least I would have the whole afternoon to do:S Presentation question was also given during last week's tutorial. And of course tutorial questions are only release the week before. Hehe..so I'm not really considered procrastinator rite:P but sometimes I do felt quite lazy to do my tutorial.

Anyway, one week's over, 4 more tutorials next week (no tutorial for Physics..yay!) and another term test. I think this is going to continue all the way till the end of the semester. Do I regret taking so many modules? Actually no! I enjoyed every lesson (at least most). Haha..I like Practicals so that's the plus point for diversity. And I have great project mates and classmates for Managerial Econs. It's so fun going for tutorial although it's 9am in the morning because we will just wake each other up. But I don't like the tutors though. Haha..both of them:P I like Accounting lectures more and of course the tutorial is equally relaxing and fun. Our tutor is doesn't mind joking around with us. Stats lecturer's fun too but she go through the lecture quite slowly so sometimes it will be boring:S. Business law was a bit frustrating but again it's my group mates that made my day. Well done for our presentation although it wasn't really that good. We could have done better. And Physics used to be my favourite subject in secondary school.The questions are quite hard but I enjoy learning about them. Plus I have super hardworking and thoughtful group members.

Yup yup. As much as I don't like doing projects, I think projects are what bring us closer to our course mates. Even online discussion and simple e-mail asking how's the project going on, let us know that there's always someone the for us. Someone we can depend on, someone we can fall back on.

But life is always fair. We gain something, we will lose something in return. These few days made me realise that life is very realistic. We can't afford to live in fantasy, our own world, our own dreams. When you failed, you are out. No one is going to help you. This is a competitive society, when you are slow, that's it, you failed. But I just don't understand is winning really that important that we can neglect the people around us? Where is the loving society that I used to live in? Where are the people who cares? I'm so confused. Sometimes you won't even know who are true friends and who are those that are using you as a stepping stone towards success. How are we to judge them? We can't. All we can do it just treat them with sincerity and hopefully they will do the same.

I recently read an article that suggest banning students in school uniform from entering shopping malls. I thought it was just an idea but it's already happening in Singapore (if I'm not wrong, just one school :P). I remember back in Malaysia, once school's over, I will usually go straight home unless I've got co-curriculum activities in school. We don't really have the luxury to roam around shopping centres like those in Singapore.Furthermore, it's really inconvenient and there's not shopping malls around my place. Okay maybe one if you consider Wisma Thrifty as one. So that's the way things were all the way till I'm in Form 5. Daddy fetch me to school in the morning and take the bus/walk home with my sisters. But since I came here, I realise that most students do not go straight home after school. I came to realise that when I was teaching though coz I will usually head back to hostel after lessons. We can see many students in school uniform walking around the shopping centres.

Although I'm not a fan of going to shopping centre, I think the banning of students to enter shopping centres in school uniform is futile. Students do not go to shopping centres to waste time. I remember I will usually do my groceries after school. That will save me a trip to specially visit a supermarket to get the things I want. Wouldn't it be such a waste of time if I have to go change, then go out again? Well, I guess it doesn't really matter to me now since I no longer have any uniforms to wear. I actually missed having uniforms. It not only gives us a sense of identity but save us the trouble of thinking what to wear. Haha..I'm hopeless with clothing.

We'll be having our Main Committee meeting tonight. We haven't had one since the semester started. So it's time for us to keep each other updated of what's happening and what we had done or will do. I think it's a form of respect for the committee members if they are inform of the latest happening in the club. In fact, I think the members have to be informed too. Besides, having meeting regularly will keep us bonded together. If the committee members can't work with each other, how to you expect to get the respect and confidence from the members. So I'm glad we are all doing fine.

Sunday is going to be the standing committee photo shoot. I think it's going to be exciting and fun. We haven't really got our dress code yet but looking forward to it. Haha..we are going to be shoot by professional photographers. Cool....

I just love this month, it's super exciting with lots of happenings. Oh we had our NUS Reversi Open last week. I've got 8th. Not bad rite. Haha..I think there's about 20 people participating in it. And this week is the NUS Food Festival. So don't forget to vote for your favourite canteen stalls. Prize giving will be on the 20th of Feb. Not sure if I'll be attending. We are having 4 coverages in the same day if I'm not wrong - IES Committee Photo shoot, NUS Food Festival, National Sustainability Conference and OSA Volunteers Appreciation Night. And the last one is going to be a paid coverage! Haha..have to do well for it.

Okie I think my post is super random and messy. I just can't help it. A lot of things are going through my mind so I just type as it comes along. Time to prepare for practical. Arr..another CA!

Yay! I got nice groupmates for my managerial economics module:P At least I think they are nice, we can get along quite well. Hope we will have a great time working together. Our first assignment will be released this weekend. And the most interesting thing is all of us come from different faculties; Engineering, Arts, Business and Science. We didn't manage to get the topic that we wanted to do, the tutor just refuses to pick our Group name. So we have to settle for the last topic which is yet to released.

I think I'm quite lucky, so far all my project groups are really nice. I enjoy working with them. Physics groupmates are super hardworking..hehe..sometimes I feel quite bad not being able to contribute much but they are just really helpful. I haven't started working with my Biz Law group yet, our first assignment will be tomorrow and we are Group 1 so see how things will go. So far only know one person well enough, Steve. That's quite good considering I don't even know anyone from the same tutorial group. Will get to know the rest of them soon, there's 8 of us all together.

We had our Physics group meeting at 1pm and manage to finalise quite a lot of things. Now is just the information gathering part. Haha and I feel so hardworking - first time going to library to do research and borrow books:P

Also had a short meeting with Guoqi at Science Canteen regarding the upcoming coverage. Hmm am I too occupied with CCA? Haa..I totally forgotten to collect the money from the IGC booth at Engineering today. So sorry..too busy.

Anyway, we have another lecturer for Biodiversity. Yay! At least I think I understand more things now. Continue to study hard:D