The Busy New Semester!

Now, now, don't get me wrong.. I'm not particularly busy with school work this sem, even though I did take 1 more module as compared to the last year. This sem is exceptionally busy because of the added travelings around the campus..

With SOC shifted to the new site at the old Law building, I have to travel alot between lessons. Taking 3 computing modules, 2 science modules, and 1 engine module, means i have to travel to all 3 faculties on mondays and thursdays, and especially thursday, I have to go between each places twice.

Travelling from the new SOC to Science is the most troublesome. Even though the straight line distance isn't that far, they are separated by a hill. The bus route will make a big detour, and on foot, you can choose to take a hike up the hill, then down again to reach Science, so travelling between this 2 places takes a long time. Perhaps if I take a hike every week, I won't have to go exercise anymore.

The SOC new site isn't a really good place either. It's nicely done up after Law moved out, but it's already a leaking in the second floor today. Hope is not due to the heavy rain that caused the leak, if not I cannot imagine how many floors are leaking in that block..

Tutorials starts (again)^2...

As pple like Kai and Oys rejoiced that tutorials are starting and that they can once again showcase their knowledge in class, I'm left for dead in my computing tutorial questions.. For the first 2 wks of lecture, one of the lecturer seems to have kept us well entertained, but has failed to teach us anything useful that will come in handy for the tutorial.. No wonder at the end of last wk's lecture, he said "enjoy your tutorials.". Guess it just means that I have to find all the answers from other sources of informations.

Usually, i won't bother myself with preparations for tutorials, but this module is really annoying, asking us to hand in the answer for the first question and be prepared for discussion in class for that 5% of participation marks. So, left with no choice, have to prepare for all the questions.

Anyway, today is once again the last sunday of the month, so it's back to settlers cafe @ clarke quay. We played a new game(which the name is quite weird, so i forgot le), about pirates, and expectedly, Captain Kaiak showed why he's Captain of the imperial crew, Fourplay, by winning both games we played. The next game is what we played on the first visit to settlers, Havoc. And wow, Kai won again!!! He's just too pro..

WorkLoad

This post is for own reference.

CS1231 -- 3-1-0-3-3 --- 10
CS2105 -- 2-1-0-3-4 --- 10
CS2106 -- 3-1-2-2-3 --- 11
EE2006 -- 3-0.75-0.5-2-4 --- 10.25
GEM2900 -- 4-0-0-3-3 --- 10
ST2131 -- 3-1-0-0-6 --- 10

* A-B-C-D-E --- F
A: no. of lecture hours per week
B: no. of tutorial hours per week
C: no. of laboratory hours per week
D: no. of hours for projects, assignments, fieldwork etc per week
E: no. of hours for preparatory work by a student per week
F: total no. of hours of workload for module

** Information taken off NUS / CORS website

Total no. of Hours / Week: 24 * 7 = 168 hrs
Total Hours of Lesson: 10 + 10 + 11 + 10.25 + 10 + 10 = 61.25 hrs (R : 106.75)
Total Sleep Time: 8 * 7 = 56 hrs ( R : 50.75 )
Total Travelling Time: 2 * 5 = 10 hrs ( R : 40.75 )

So it remains 40.75 hrs / week for doing miscellaneous stuff and leisure..

How to get the phone number of a girl?

Step by step guide to get the phone number of a girl.

1. Enter Forum Coop, and join the textbook queue in front of a girl.
2. When it's your turn to be served, tell the shopkeeper what book you need.. Surprise, the shopkeeper ask for the next person and the girl join u and told the shopkeeper what book she need.
3. Thanks to the shopkeeper's brilliance, you found out that the girl is 1 year your junior, and is looking for a book you have.
4. Offer to sell her your books.
5. Exchange your numbers.

Isn't it simple?

The Final Piece of the Puzzle?

With the conclusion of round 2a of bidding, I've found myself the 5th module for sem 3. A general education module GEM2900 (Understand'g Uncertainty & Stats Think'g). Another thinking module, guess I just haven't learnt my lesson from the mathematical thinking, but nevermind that, this is i think the cheapest Type B GEM I can get though it still costs me a massive 100 points. This could well be the final module I'm bidding for this semester, but I'm still open to options for a 6th module.

Looking at my current timetable, it really looks kinda slack. Having long breaks on Thursdays, and only 1 lecture on each of the odd days. Think I'm gonna place some of the tutorials on the long breaks on Thursday, and declare the odd days as vacation days in the LT.

Hm.. Something seems to be wrong with me. I am actually looking forward to the start of school.

Paprika

I've been wanting to watch the show even before it got on the screen of the Picturehouse, and I finally get down to watching it today. The first week it was screened, I was still working, and didnt watch. The second week it was screened, there was the darn meeting which foiled the plans of watching. This is the third week, and after planning for 1 wk, a last minute call for meeting almost foil my plan again, but I wasn't going to let it happen. Even if I'm going to watch it alone, I will watch it today.. After the bad week, I really need something going. I'm glad that chubbs asked for a delay for the meeting from 4pm to 5pm, and went for the movie and the sakae buffet as planned. Poh and Miz also went.

The movie wasn't bad, just a bit abstract. It was about a dream machine that allows people to enter the dreams of other people. Initially used as a medical tool, but was stolen by someone and used for harmful purposes. It was quite difficult to tell when the scenes are in the real world and when they are in the dream world.

After the movie was the sakae lunch / dinner (tea break). Been a while since I had the buffet at sakae sushi. Though we are 22, we still manage to get a youth rate price at $13.90++. Think Poh must have given the waiter a wrong impression that we are all 21 this year. But it's ok, as it saved us $3.00++ each.

Stale Feeling

For some unknown reason, I have been feeling rather upset throughout the week. Perhaps because I'm really bored to tears hanging around aimlessly.

As the saying goes, strike while the iron's hot, but it seems like my iron has already cooled and taken it's final shape. After signing up for the event that would be held at the end of the month, I've practically been given nothing to do while everyone else who signed up together already gotten their assignments. My enthusiasm gauge has fallen tremendously from the time I signed up.

Nevermind that, I got to put my focus on something else. What would be better than to play at a friendly neighbourhood basketball court? And off I went to play on Tuesday. With no one at the court to play with, I started off with my routine shooting practise. After countless of shots, an uncle in his forties came down with people who seems likely to be his family. Anyway, he challenged me to a 1v1. Even though I dont really like to play 1v1, I accepted the challenge anyway. He wasn't really a good player, but I must have been a lousier player to lose to him.

The rest of the weekdays were uneventful. By the weekend, I was already filled with nothing else but negative feelings. So I organized another basketball this time with friends, from sec all the way to NS. Of course, Kai, the Legendary, attended the bball session, and his presence just adds on to my frustration by treating me to a lot of steamboats, even though the intention was to vent some of my frustration.

The bad week was summed up with a grand-aunt's visit. I always like to practice my swordsmanship, but today's practise targets are something that is really slimy and slippery. And it really got on my nerves just cutting them...

The task, to separate the green portion from the white

Change of Plans

As the module bidding exercise commensed, many things did not happen according to plans. Having found that I do not meet the prerequisite for Database Systems, I have to look to other options.

So finally after some major discussion, I ended round 1 bidding with 4 modules. CS1231x - discrete structures, ST2131 - probability, CS2105 - Introduction to Computer Networks, and CS2106 - Operating Systems. And all these 4 modules, if I can get my tutorials at the right timings, will fit nicely into 4 days. Which means that for my fifth module, I will probably look for something that will not jeopardize the plan.

Sigh, I guess I wasn't destined to take the project module in sem 4, gotta push it back to sem 5. Need to do some topo-ing on my modules, if not I may messed up and end up graduating late.

Modules to take after sem 3: CS2102s , CS2103 , CS3212 , CS3215 , CS3230
At least 2 modules from: CS3211, CS3220, CS3231, CS3234, CS3243

Hmm.. Actually I've met or will meet the prerequisite by sem 4 for most of them except the project module CS3215. Hopefully not a problem to graduate in year 4.