your Lucky Streak has been ended by Maths Test(???Gold)..

My lucky streak which started on Sunday ended abruptly today at MPSH1 where i took my MCQ Maths test.

The streak started on Sunday when i visited my grand-aunt's house. After the heats of the swimming competition last week, the finals came. This time i got back to my usual standards and finished strongly on some occasions. Most swimmers who competed probably had their participation fees forfeited and added to the prize pool. Eventually after around 20 rounds of competition, i came home with a fair share of the prize pool, enough to make up for the participation fee i paid during the heats.

Yesterday, back in school after the February School Holidays, I managed to cough out a piece of physics tutorial, decent enough to be handed in. During the Logic lab, the answer to the last question in the lab manual also magically appeared at the last minute after me and ck discussing the whole day. Oh well, it was supposed to be done alone, but not that most people really care. After that Beyond-Godlike! KAI even spent his free time tutoring me for the maths test that i took today.

Today, after i had my tutorial, i went to techno to lunch with chubbs, at the same time asked him about some concepts in the maths notes. And after lunch, I still met Beyond-Godlike! KAI who went through some of the past year MCQs. Thinking i was fully equipped with the materials for the test after having 2 tutors tutoring me, i went for the test. Instantly brought back to earth when i read the questions. It was nothing like the past year question i did. All the questions have 5 choices like before, but this time, the fifth choice was "e) none of the above". Exactly what i hate in MCQ paper, cause this choice basically means it can be anything other than the other 4 choices. What a headache.. In the end i think i only manage to get exact answers to 3 of the 12 questions. Some of them had either a different sign or a slightly different value in the 4 choices, putting me in a very awkward position of choosing between e, or the closest of the 4 choices and some totally looked foreign to me. So most of the 9 answers i just "tekam".

Just hope my luck hasn't really ended totolly, and get a few more correct.

Please Queue Up!!

I never knew managing queues was so difficult until now. The part time job I held last year was mainly about managing queues, and no matter how long the queue gets, it was always still managable.

However, the lastest programming assignment is really becoming a pain in the neck. The purpose of the program is to count votes using Australian ballots, and the way to implement this is to make the votes "queue up" so that you can count the first vote of every voter. I did manage to make the votes "queue up" in the right places, but seems like no one is around to serve them, and I need to clear all these queues by tuesday.

At the same time, I have to open counter for my queues of tutorials and tests coming up this week and the following. How am i suppose to get all the job done?! I need to hire some temps to come and work for me, but how can i find them?

Improvement?

Yuppie, I've made some improvement from the running route i take. This time is 17mins 12secs. But is that really improvement?

From previous runs, i usually spend quite some time at traffic light junctions. This time however I chose the easier way to cross the road, obviously cutting short alot of waiting time at the light junction. This leave me to ponder whether I'm really running faster than the last time or slower.

Same Old New Year

The new year just started and it's the year of the Pig, but it still feels the same to me. Everytime, on the first day, it's a visit to Hougang. The routine for this day is also very standard, the must do will include lunch to swimming to take picture to dinner and continue swimming.




family photo




There are a whole series of photos to be taken every year, usually taking at least half hour to finish up everything.



Another routine for new year is the swimming session.



swimmers in position




Notice the age of the swimmers, all younger than me. I donno why so many of my friends keep complaining no one to swim with them, while I can only grumble that I have no swimming pool to swim in.

The wealth prediction for Rats is supposed to be pretty good this year, but it doesn't seem so for me. I've been losing in swimming to my cousins this weekend. Most of the time, I seem to start off too slow. At time when I thought I have a headstart ahead of other swimmers, I seem to swim too slow and lose the race. Can only blame it on luck. Maybe it's because I don't have a Rabbit's Foot with me. CHUBBS!! I need your help to change my luck!!

Happy CNY!!

Happy Chinese New Year, and happy mid term break. Signed off this lunar year with a bball session in the morning with my secondary school friends and kids from the neighbourhood. 5v5, full court, very fun, but the side effect is whole bodyache for at least 1 full day.

Hope everyone has good luck in the new year, in everything you do.

It's Dinner Time(s)

How many dinner can you take in 1 night? Well, I had 3 tonight.

First one, sort of a small gathering with 3 of my other secondary school frens, Ah Bee, Shake Bell(nothing to do with Zatch) , Engoh.. We were supposed to meet at Lot 1 at 730pm, but me and Ah Bee reached earlier, so we went to play pool at the 4th floor(lucky didn't bump into someone I wish I would never see again). The other 2 were late, but doesn't really matter since we were just starting to enjoy the pool game. The first stop was Ajisen, and had a bowl of Ton Toro ramen, fried prawn, and ice lemon tea.

Already feeling quite full, Shake Bell led us down to the basement. There, we saw the new stall, which had replace the BreadTalk, selling HongKong food, and don't know why, we went inside and sat at a corner seat. Shake Bell wanted to order some more food and the 4 of us could share. Lucky some of the food are sold out, but still, he managed to get us some desserts. I'll take that as another dinner since it's eating at a different place.

We stayed there for quite a while talking crap stuff as we always did, before going home. Back at home, during the dota session, my mum came into my room, holding a bowl of bee hoon.. Though already full and trying to keep my fitness to the peek before the IPPT next month, I still ate that up. Now, I really need to exercise more to burn away the fats that I have accumulated this pass few weeks, while at the same time clear up the tonnes of work that have accumulated since the start of the year.

It's still an alright day today, apart from some glitches during one of my tutorial, when i had to present the discussion of my group to the class. Looking on the bright side, I won't be needed to present again.

Meaning of Mid-Term

Mid-term is just a nice word to say that we have reached the half-way mark of the semester. In actual fact, it's supposed to mean "It's time for TESTS!!". And today, my SS module kick start the series of tests coming up in the next few weeks.



For the past 6 weeks, from all the lectures on this module, I can simply say that I've understood nothing. So many names, so many dates all coming out from out of nowhere. And there's already 30 readings for this module alone, each of at least 10 pages to read, it's quite an achievement that i have actually finish 4 of them.



Even today, i was struggling to finish up a reading which was around 35 pages, in preparation for the test. Reading from the lappy was very disturbing, always alt tab here, alt tab there. Then I will forget where I was and start on the same page all over again.



A 4-hr break between my last lesson and the test didn't help matter. Feeling so sleepy and bored, I basically go loiter all over the place, this time taking the bus towards harbourfront, and from there to JE, walking by my old workplace to look see and realised everything havent change there. Kopi soh (2IC of the place) was there but I didnt go in to greet her, seeing how busy she was.



After that, I went back to school to meet up with godlike Kai. I took 5 buses just to loiter around, trying to utilise the concession pass, since next week is gonna be a wk break. Godlike Kai helped me revised a bit on the 35-page reading(He basically can recite the whole reading), but too bad the test didn't even use anything from that reading.



We sign off this super sad day with a bachelor's day dinner at Bukit Timah area.



sec 2 class photo - that's my favourite teacher taught
me HC for 2 years

28 more days

Exactly 1 more month to IPPT..

Same route as less week but my time is 17min 45sec.. Omg, even slower, by a gd 14 seconds.. It's got to have something to do with what you eat and what you do.

Had to push forward my running day, because tomorrow is V' Day, and I have an appointment with my dear lecturers at LT12 for mid-term test. Really not looking forward to this test, cause it is my worst subject of all -- History. So many things to prepare for this test and it feels like I havent done anything. 6 sets of lecture notes, 1 tutorial, and 30 readings(at least 10 pages each). Test format is gonna be a short article, with 3 part questions. Hope I can answer them..

Cholestrol / Calories intake too high

Wow, I had fast food for 2 dinners in a row. Yesterday, Ah Bee jio me out to eat dinner at LJS and I had combo #2. Today, I had PizzaHut/ KFC delivery. That's a lot of cholestrol intake. My once a week jogging session will not be any good if I continue like that, I'll have to increase the number of times I go run every week, else I'll get really fat soon.

Today was the first time that I was actually the one to call and place order for home delivery from Pizza/KFC. The intended order was a set of treasure feast, and 1 hawaiian pizza. So i called the hotline and was greeted by a mechanic voice. "Press 1 for Pizza, 2 for KFC". I pressed 2.

Then i placed my order for the treasure feast and ask if I can place the pizza order together, and the reply was she will get the pizza agent to call me for my order. Ok, fine by me. A few minutes later, my phone rang and as promised, the pizza agent called, so i placed my order for the pizza. I found this quite funny to place the orders separately since the number for both the delivery services were the same but had to order separately.

After a waiting time of around 45mins, the door bell rang. Yay, the delivery is here!! Oh, only the treasure feast is here.. After another 10mins or so, the pizza was also here. Amazing isn't it? I had always thought that both will come together since both the restaurants can be found at the shopping mall near my house. Think their ways of doing things quite funny. Ok, just be glad I get to eat my dinner.

28+6 days more to IPPT

Didn't realise that the IPPT I've booked was only 34 days away.. Today went out to have a short run to distress after another hectic rush for my assignments. Actually after looking at the question for my lab assignment, and going down to do it, I found that this assignment was rather easy. Guess the problem lies with the way the question was phrased (means I do know something, phew!!).

Distance ran: Around 4km, timing: 17min 31 secs. Super slow, how to get silver for IPPT.

After the run, I had a short basketball session with the people at the court, playing the 3v3, but was rather tired after the run, so was really lousy on the court. Those kids are playing for fun anyway, no need to play too competitively. When we ended the bball session, the youngest of the kids (just guessing from the looks) found that his MP3 player was stolen, seems he left it lying beside the court when he plays. Felt sorry for him, but nothing I can do. I lost my handphone and wallet while playing street soccer a few years back too, so it's up to yourself to look after your things after all.

What's with me?!

Damn, I've been telling myself "I can't do it!" so many times in the past 2 weeks. The last 2 Comp Lab assignments, "I can't do it!". Tutorials for the 5 modules, "I can't do it!". Lectures, "I can't understand it!". Argh.. These are really driving me nuts.. Before long, my morale will be hitting a record low. What's worse, I spent so much time on the notes yet I still dont know how to do the assignment. What am I supposed to do? And I really hope I can start to tell myself again that "I can do it." soon..

Please stop bombarding me with profound words!!

Had another long day today, starting from 10am and ending at 6pm.. Having a 2-hr lunch break, i tried to jio godlike Kai to lunch, and he bang seh me and had an early lunch with his other friends. In the end, I had to eat lunch myself, AKQF.. What can be more boring than having lunch alone, so i bought a curry puff and a yam pie from Old Chang Kee, and went to my favourite haunt in NUS(S13 corridor) to eat. It's my favourite place as it's really cooling there with the wind constantly blowing, even better than air-con. Just 1 bad thing about this place is that the wireless reception is bad.

While "lunching", i tried to prepare myself for the tutorial of my SS module by reading the readings provided. They were damn long and really, so many words that i never ever seen before in the readings. Meaning I dont even know what the readings were trying to say. That's really demoralizing as I really wanted to participate in the tutorial discussion(as if)..

As expected, in the tutorial, i kept quiet throughout with other people babbling away with all the bombastic words, and i dont know what they are discussing. I couldnt even have any opinion since i dont understand. Really feel out of the way in the tutorial. Sigh, there goes 5% of the module score.

22 Ways to Overclock your Brain

Found this article on the Mensa website a while ago, but only managed to finish reading it today, dont know whether you will find this useful.

From this 22 ways, things that I've already been doing are:
4. Laugh (Been like that all the time)
6. Remember (I like to live in the past, and dread the future)
8. Do A Puzzle (It's obvious!)
12. Play (the same thing as number 8)
19. Write To Be Read (you are reading now)
21. Drugs To Increase Brainpower (Drink coffee every morning, hope no side effect)

I'm currently also trying to make 1. Run up your brain cells, a routine. And yesterday, i went for a short run around my neighbourhood, came back with aches all over my body. My fitness has really taken a dip. That's really bad cause I'll be going for my IPPT in March.

I really have a long way to go to accomplish all the 22 tasks.. Anyway, Kai is planning to go for one of the chat and chill session organised by Mensa Singapore, anyone interested to go with him go tell him.. He can only bring 2 more non-members for free, so grab your ticket now!! Chat and chill should be on a sunday around the end of each month.