*chomps on apple muffin while typing this post* Man! Am I on the ball now, InterStella HyperDrive, Schedule On Track with NO Eminent possible Serailment, Beam me up Scotty, 3 Papers To Go!

My first paper will be on tomorrow, starting with Engineering Maths II. Been looking forward to it as it would mark the end of another module & one step closer to the end of the exams. For me, it would be with the Newbalance Realrun 2006 to look forward to at the end of the week.. & maybe a nice relaxing chill at the Sentosa beach with the track team thereafter in the mist of all this exam heat. Just dun rain… When the holiday starts, it will be the start of a new set of interesting challenges & “chores”, till then, chill.

🙄 You may notice that my blog these days are not really photoblogs, as my handphone is still currently down. & it beats carrying my digicam around too. Thus the ever bitching about technology & gadgets in search of a replacement phone these days. Otherwise, (as many would have already did) you can call my home phone (which I never knew still exists). Ahhh the tranquility of being away & ignoring GSM… Just let me savour the quiet, peaceful moment before the uncontactable angry mobs come after me in a few weeks to come…

😐 Guess IVP caught me at a bad time this year. Firstly off with the semester exams smack right on weeks before the event, miscellanous commitments, marathon preparations (in mara mode now) & the possiblity of a light leg surgery during the september holidays. Interestingly, the doctor at TTSH had to postpone my appointment 2 times already, so inconvenient & inflexible schedules, hope they did not piss me off again when I am there or change my appointment again!

Nevertheless been training/running by myself despite missing offical track training, with the adsence of gym training. Anyway, heres my exam schedule:

• 17th August, Thursday – Engineering Maths II (2-4pm)
• 18th August, Friday – Mechanics II (9am-11am)
• 25th August, Friday – Thermofluids II (9am-11am)

Things will start to be clear by this friday, with the unloading of Maths & Mechanics from my temporary L2 cached memory brain cells to accomodate packing over the next week for Thermofluids II, think 640KB would be enough for anyone, well so as Bill Gates said…

😎 Bwahhahaha all your ‘A’s are belong to me!

Caught up with revision over the weekend. Guess its wake up, study study, eat, bath, study study from now on.. Recieved a call from Shuppedo regarding the 01S22 SAJC class of 2001 gathering the coming Friday, haiz might not be able to make it due to papers on that day & the week after. When I told matters could be worst, I might need to also reject my Primary School Class outing soon too. Bgwwhh! Not to mention Mum’s invitational Fireworks function next Tuesday night… Sorry Gals & Guys, da dude’s nerdy *takes out thick nerd like glasses* duh now, chill-out nights are little off now… Haha no-life-mode now… duh!

Studies:
Almost splatted flat on the table after finishing the Thermofluids revision tutorial, only to try to raise another finger at getting few Engineering Maths sample papers cleared. Good thing that all my projects are done now this semester. But the funny thing is that I am the only one in class who actually got every assignment done & handed up. Why? things are very different in my present class, there is no mood to study at all, most like to do is just play game on mofunzone.com everyday, if not it’s DOTA or gunbound.

My class as of now:
I kinda miss my previous class of DME/25 at least we were a good study bunch not to mention more disciplined, that really set the mood to study, not to mention friendly competition (& at least there were 3 girls in that class too, compared to NADA now). When the classes split in Sem 3, & I was streamed to CIE class, many thought that my new class was the “elite class”, where I was brought too to more “compatible arena”.

Latter were they wrong. Things are much more challenging now – if it is not self-studies & pushing myself to standards purely on personal discipline without any class benchmarks at all, it’s helping others in the class who really needs it most, so that they won’t slack & die, not to mention happily managing leadership roles in 3 of my project groups (GEMS, Workshop & Product design). Nevertheless, contacts & studies are still strong with my other class, where I can at least maintain a frequency of studies.

Yes, its a very challenging Semester with my goal to get at least 5 Ds (Aim 6) this semester to maintain the standard, currently it seems bright for 3 modules already, GEMS, PDD & hopefully DTS, aiming to bag the rest in CAD, CAM, MECH & THERMO. I feel completely out of place, not to mention having to set my own pace of study & not be distracted by them or adhere to their pace of study, which can be rather detrimental to me as a whole.

Ultimately, given the dire situations, there are limits to who I can help & teach in class as well, thus a few inevitable & selective principles I’ve set: Help those who want to help themselves, IOW I will help those who want & are willing to strive & learn. Yes, situations are a little extreme in my class, with students missing 70% of attendance, not doing any e-learning at all or any assignment. But I just have to make do with what I have. I know people who blame their lousy teachers for lousy grades, not knowing that they are the one who can make the difference, that is the model I am embarking this semester.

Out of the ashes will rise the Phoenix.

After closing the books for the day, killed stress by going relaxing 15km run in the evening. Came back fresher, not to mentiona with lots of flatulence!

Woot the poolside gym will be closed today, as they are installing a a new multi-rack weight station. Out goes the 2 decade old Universal station in place of a newer spanky one. So as told by the gym Auntie yesterday. Wonder what will it be… & that would be a good reason to visit the gym tomorrow (3rd time this week) after my Mechanics practical test!

Mmm after tomorrow, can safely strike out modules Design Technique & Skills (DTS) & GEMS (Online Entrepreneurship) only when I clear my last blackboard online test component tomorrow. Product Design Module is more less done too (so thats 3/8 modules done), with just another presentation to give to the department heads next week & be rest assured it WILL be impressive! *3 ICA Exams, 1 Pres, 1 Prac, 3 Papers To Go*

New stuffs, well beside my haircut & using a “new” phone without all my contacts, Firefox 1.5.0.6 is out, just updated, Mmmm the themes feature seems new to me, Niffy.

Talking bout browsers, SP website had been updated with a brand ummm, new look. As it goes, I find that I am always criticising SP releated websites. Not sure sure why but I personally find it bad of always doing so. Come to think of it, I guess thats the next best thing Singaporeans are good at right? Complaining, well… beside the country-wide sport of queuing. I think never had I every commended on any SP related website. But as a Web designer & IT Consultant myself, just like to voice & share my thoughts, here are few of them:

The intranet based elements (such as SAS) are the same, nothing much new, except a change in colour from replacing the header images. Blackboard running same software version, so is the library, all still independent systems. Otherwise nothing new.

Inaccessible menus. You have to navigate past 3 pages from the main page to finally get to the login page either SAS, Blackboard or Eliser facilities. Instead of the previous dropdown menu launch, not to mention more number of clicks.

The page have to be displayed at 1024×768 res, otherwise it will be completely distorted (don’t the designers know how to set fixed table widths or css?). Actually 800×600 is actually a web standard, though 90% of laptop & desktop market share come pre-installed with mainstream Win XP running at default 1024×768. However, this is a nightmare for slower computers, older monitors, UMPCS & mobile based devices as the distortion will be greater. Anyway, even if you are not maximised @ 1024×768, the distortion will show – very very bad & unprofessional image for an organisation for first impressions, especially right on the mainpage.

The certificate frenzy is still on. In this present materialistic world, its all just up for the collection of TrustSG/ISO ratings, if that is one’s definition of “fantastic”. But the thing which users hate most are browser prompts, being a clicking nightmare to accept site certificates on SP web – just for the stake of having site certificates. Don’t they ever know about web interactivity & user-friendliness?

Heard from staff that they actually have to consult an overseas designer to do the redesigning, mmm because we don’t have faith in our own students & teachers alike? Or maybe we just lack local talent…

SP Web feedback? I have! I have!

Last Saturday – Happy Birthday Darius! (No CAKE!?) held at the Caribbean condo at harbour front. Its literally a water city, yea cool with swimming pools, fountains here & there, but otherwise not my taste of housing (No CAKE!?) with a giant longkang running through the whole area, like Venice? haha maybe not…

I just find Singapore sea water too strong smelling, dirty & stinky to appreciate, just ask any Scuba Diver (No CAKE!?) & you will know why we don’t like to dive in Singapore (No CAKE!?) either. Met up with Elrick earlier that day before to get Darius Bday gift, got this neat punk rock T-shirt over a few Devilish shirts I’ve shortlisted in Queensway, the rest are just too sinister I guess. Coupled in with that are 2 pairs of neoprene socks courtesy of Elrick & Derek with the (& most expensive) Barracuda mousepad.

Nevertheless had few nice intro games of Tennis courtesy of Darius Dad (Thanks Uncle!) who booked it for us. Played tri-doubles (No CAKE!?) with Yiying, Guetping, Weijian & Elrick as coach. Till Sir-Artillery-Addison came into the game, started whacking & losing 4 tennis balls out-court straight at a go…

Left the party round 11.30pm only to be greeted with an empty habourfront bus interchange. Derek was there too & guess we just stood there staring at the Timing Board in disbelief for 5 mins or so before actually realizing that we continue doing so, we might even miss the last train – which we caught on our way in (No CAKE!?).

Catching the last train is kinda cool too, with staff running all round the station telling people to get in or NEVER! & all the underground tunnel lights are on too, so I could actually see how wide our tunnels are, not something we can see everyday. Exited the train at my stop with a rather interesting platform announcement politely telling all commuters to SCRAM from the station as there are no trains left for joyrides boy! or we will CLOSE & leave you to starve here for the NIGHT! Bwwhharrr!

Well thats all for last Saturday, on a more present side, I’ve never had funny dreams so often lately, especially being school & exam related ones. Well I do not know how you can define a nitemare, but can one in an exam situation where I could not attempt all questions and get 100 be considered one? Arrrghh! & though the exams are fast approaching too, but yea I really had such a dream… so free, so helpless in an exam, thats really so scary…

Waited dingying-ly long for my bus today only to see it arrive 20 mins later, not one but a CONVOY OF 4 OF THEM TOGETHER! Omg… All Superbuses… Caught TV mobile onboard then & heck there was Elmo on Channel News Asia! Dancing away to the start of each program each time a string of commercials ended. Niffy!

There was some petition booth at FC4 collecting signatures before closing day today against the change of the current Kofu management. & man was FC4 packed man, with most stores sold out before 1pm.

Last by not least, I am finally GSM contactable! Till I drool over a SE p990i, I am currently using my sister’s old Nokia 7250i in place of my now disfunct Siemens SX1. Dug around my home drawers & found that on top of a few old DECT phones, a Nokia 880, Nokia 3315 & my old Siemens SL45! Interesting things you can find lying around the house… its like a mini treasure hunt!

With the Semester Exams sighted on Horizon, been very very busy with tests, projects & reports over the last few days. Not to mention catching up on tutorials & eventually *qualify myself* to dig up the blackboard for sample papers to do in practice for the semester exams due in 2 weeks time. This term is extremely short, with an increased workload & modules taken – a very bad combination. I think this is the worst it can ever get as second year is usually the most toughest period of study. Hopefully the ‘A’ modules next Semester will be much easier. I guess I will be training most of these few weeks by myself & may not be able to make it for official track training till the exams are over. Mmainly as training takes time & usually ends too late to actually get anything productive done for the rest of the night. As of today, I have 5ICAs, 4Races, 3Papers, 2Reports, 1Presentation to do till end August. Busy Busy Busy.

To wrap things up short & sweet, happenings worth noting for the past week & present:

North East line was down on Monday, due to a power cable breakage failure. Coincidentally on the day where I rode through the line my very first time the day before (Sunday). Maybe my Magneto powers after the Mizuno Wave Run could have caused it. Dammit

Universal Studios gonna build Singapore’s 2nd IR on Sentosa, promising a themepark bigger than that in Hollywood (ride area only) & spotting more indoor (not to mention air-conditioned) attractions. Whee! looks like we will be seeing Doc Brown, ET (The ride) or The Mummy Returns Indoor inverter coasters in the not too distant future… right on our shores!

My Phone Died yesterday (KIA), Thursday. Refusing to boot showing only a white screen. Would be considering a Sony Ericsson p990i, had been considering this range of SE phones since the P800 around 2001. And Sony Ericsson phones are definately much much better than what it was many years back (remember the problematic T68/T68i & T610?). It’s hearty to hear too that SE is the top ranking & best rated brand overall now, topping the charts at Cnet too.

We have 3 days left (As of 28th Aug) till Food Court 4 closes on 1st aug, with a contractor change & Kofu leaving the current premises. So as told from after asking the cleaner auntie when clearing our plates during lunch today. The place will be down for a month, renovated with new stores. BBArghh!!!! No more favourite Chicken Cutlet, Pasta, Fried Rice, Nasi Padang & Giant Bowled Ban Mian! Arghh!!!! FC3 & FC6 will IMPLODE with lunch crowds! well.. unless they move FC7 (aka mobile FC) to the T16 plaza area, not to mention the ultra long queues presently for fatty drippy Ramly Burgers at FC7, aka the business side.

Happy Birthday DARIUS! Hehe wait.. just wait for us at your party tomorrow! Brrwhahahaa ya know swimming pools & birthday parties definately don’t mix! Now where do I keep those cable ties & super soaker… *deep evil laughter*