Been a While

Have not been updating for a while. Internship has been pretty good, and I am taking every opportunity I can to learn and experience what the working world is like. Am also really glad to have met a few other fellow interns, and we've hit it off really well in just a short span of one week. Good company always makes working hours much easier to get by.

And so, the dreaded results were out again. Apart from the stupid 1101E curse which I can never seem to get rid of, I'm pretty much happy and relieved for getting such grades in what was the slackest and most last minute semester ever. Studying 1 day before exams, chionging high percentage projects over just 1 weekend, and of course, skipping many lectures. The pay off though for such 'slackness' was good in some way though. Definitely much less pressure and stress (and can be seen from my much reduced blog post this semester), and of course most importantly, more time with my significant other.

Lady luck has been smiling on me again, and in fact she even made sure that lightning struck twice for me. At the start of the semester, I started to ponder if I really should have used my S/U to get myself listed the previous sem. I took a safe gamble which I was assured about, just that it kinda landed me with nothing. This time round, I am put forth with the exact same scenario. So in some way, it kind of self assures me that my previous S/U was saved to be used for this semester, to hopefully get me back on that list again.

I cross my fingers and pray.

Down

The last few days have been horrible for me. There has been this constant fever, chills, headache and diarrhoea for the last couple of days, and although most of those have subsided since this morning, the horrible diarrhoea is still there. The disarrhoea is real real bad. To make things worse, I haven't been sleeping well, and that i-thought-was-astig-tiredness in my eyes is back again. Of course, with all these symptoms, I was of course worried and checked for dengue symptoms online, and to my fear all of those were symptoms of dengue! But considering that most of those symptoms have subsided, I am dangerously assuming that its just some bug. But oh well, if the fever returns, I will definitely see the doctor.

Being so down and out for the last few days, I spent my time both in front of the TV and my laptop. Been reading the hardwarezone forums, and an issue surfaced. Co-incidentally, I think because of everyone's involvement in jobs and internships, this issue also surfaced in at least 3 blogs I read in the past week. The infamous issue of 'Grades vs CCA'.

Of course before I go on, I would first like to say that both are not exclusive, and they can, and should in fact come hand in hand. Meaning, one who is good at CCA need not necessarily be bad in Grades, and vice-versa. The issue surfaced in the forums was that an e-mail sent out by a company not too long ago was looking for interns who have first class honors. As much as I understood their intentions to really want the best of the lot, the fact that the particular criteria which was specifically higlighted, bolded and enlarged left me feeling a little disturbed. It somehow seemed that first class honors is a must, and nothing else really matters. I know I may be jumping to conclusion here, giving the company the benefit of the doubt that they will still consider CCA experiences during the interviews, but you know where I'm getting at. And as mentioned, it co-incides with how some blogs I read weighed grades as more important than CCA.

This has of course sparked me to pen down some thoughts of mine. Just want to say that as much as how the world is becoming more practical, and as much as how that piece of paper we are all slugging for is really important, CCA experience should definitely not be undermined. As much as I know I won't be getting a first class, and as much as I envy those with better grades, I am not saying these out of 'sour grapes'. Because I can firmly say that these are words from experience (whatever I have that is).

No doubt those with better grades may somehow get a better first impression, and no doubt they may land better jobs. Similarly, those with not-so-good grades may not land jobs as good, or may never be recognised, but one thing they can proudly acclaim is that of experience, and respect. I believe with these, they will go a longer way, and will eventually overtake their 'all about studies' counterparts. Okay, maybe not always in terms of the money and job aspects, but definitely in the networking, experience, leadership, EQ and many other aspects. So to sum up my confusing last sentence, networking, experience, leadership and EQ can or may bring you money and a good job, but on the other hand, can money or a good job land you those EQ and experiences? Period.

Bangkok and The Holidays

Bangkok was good, and despite it being my second trip there in like 6 months, I still enjoyed it alot, reason of course being that I went with my gf this time. With that said, I was glad that I could finally spend alot of time with my girlfriend, as I have this horrible tendency to neglect her whenever the school term starts. Worse is that if all goes well, I will be flying off to Hong Kong in a few months time, and I was looking at this bangkok trip as a good 'time together' for us.

Of course being just me and my gf at a foreign land, it meant more alertness and independence, as it was our first overseas trip together, as both of us had only previously gone on trips with either the school choir or a larger group of friends. And the importance of alertness was highlighted as early as our taxi ride from the airport to the hotel on the first night. Despite taking a meter cab, the meter read like 189 baht, but the driver had the audacity to say 400 baht, and even managed to say it in a very calm and polite tone. Thank goodness the bell boy came to save us of 200 bahts. From then on, we were always very careful with our taxi rides.

The hotel this time, as compared to the previous artsy fartsy one, was much 'classier'. The previous one in with the bangkok gang was good, but this one was different in a sense that it was more like a normal 3-4 start hotel you would find in Singapore. The lobby looked good, the breakfast was not bad, and to my surprise, the room was surprisingly big for the price we paid. The both of us first thought that it was perhaps too big, but we ended up using the big space and sofa we had to put our stuff and clothes. However, one big big disadvantage was the location. It wasn't at all close to any famous shopping centres or train stations (closest was chatuchak which was 15 mins drive away), and that meant that we had to spend on cab to and fro everyday. Eventhough cab was much cheaper day, it still added up in the end. Worse was, after tiring shopping sprees, we always didn't have the luxury of going back to the hotel to rest first, and always ended up resting at some fast food restaurant. As I booked it rather last minute-ly and rash-ly, it was a good lesson learnt for future trips.

The rest of the trip was pretty much shopping at places which I went with the bangkok gang, although I did try a few new places. Again, we shopped till our feets were all aching, but I'm sure my gf enjoyed the shopping. As expected, Platinum was her favourite, but we discovered that Suan Lam also had lots of stuff, something which the bangkok gang kinda missed out on. Chatuchak affirmed my opinion that it was more of a 3-hour-go-in-the-morning thingy, but I found more reasons to walk MBK this time. Apparently MBK seemed boring the first time I went, but it was somehow rather enjoyable in a shopping sense if you really take the time to walk the mall. As our trip was much longer, we went sight seeing, and the grand palace was an eye-opener.

I am glad that I am now much more familiar with the streets of bangkok, especially their train system. I always think that it will be nice to know how to go around a foreign land, as the world is just that big, and Singapore alone that small. Next stop, Hong Kong. It may be a while before I go back there. After this trip, I am quite sure I have covered most of the shopping areas around the country, and am perhaps looking forward to another country.

This roughly wraps up my trip, and I am now looking at the rest of the holidays. Internship wont start until near the end of the month, so its kinda like a slack period for me now. I do have some worries in my head though, with SEP at the top of it. Still haven't received the confirmation, although an e-mail yesterday from CUHK came. It was about course registration, and I always knew that module mapping would be a big headache, but the e-mail just got me a little more worried. I just realised that I had quite limited modules to choose from, and to make matters worse, I just realised that quite a lot of their modules are actually thought in either purely Cantonese, or a mixture of Cantonese and English. That is just so uncool, as I have almost zero knowledge of the language. This isn't confirmed yet, so I am enquiring about it. One of the reasons why I chose Hong Kong was because it was one of the asian countries which has English as one of its languages, but now I'm starting to worry. Sigh.

Well, I shall just wait, as I look forward to my internship and of course, FOP. It's that time of the year again, and it seemed like just not too long ago it all happened. Many people say it's during FOP that you see everything, especially for the management committee. But I am not the biggest advocator of this statement. All I can say is that it will definitely be the time of new formed friendships and memories. Have a good holiday everyone!

Back from Bangkok

I'm back from bangkok, and somehow or rather the thai accent and language is still constantly ringing in my head, all the krup and ka. But am too tired to blog about my trip today, I so have to talk about the EPL first, and also the earth quake in China.

All of my predictions in my previous post came true, including the heartbreaking fact that Villa beat Blackburn to the Intertoto spot. Man Utd did indeed beat Wigan to win the title, and Chelsea did infact slip up as I predicted. Villa did beat Blackburn to that precious 6th spot, but it wasn't via Villa winning. Instead Vill'a draw with West Ham was enough for them, as Blackburn got thrashed. And as predicted, Fulham's win was enough to keep them alive, and the 8 goals scored between Reading and Birmingham in their final matches was not enough.

Heard about the earthquake in China from the bangkok news, and its shocking to know that 12,000 people have died. This has come after scores of people died in the Myanmar cyclone incident. I remember vaguely that a feng shui master predicted that this will be a year filled with natural disasters and deaths, and the feng shui master has hit the nail head on. It's really sad how over a short period of 2 weeks, thousands and thousands of people just die like that so unnaturally.

Back Home

I'm finally back home. Had a strange kinda feeling just now when I was walking to YIH to buy dinner. It suddenly dawned upon me that it was perhaps the very last time walking that very path from tower block to YIH to buy dinner. Similarly, it was my very last bath and very last meal in tower block. Ok this may sound stupid and very duhhh, but it felt kinda .....hmm .... sad, haha.

Managed to lug everything back with my parents fetching me home. As my parents have not had their dinner, we went to east coast. And I almost embarassed myself, and almost sinned horribly. When buying satay, I was thinking of what meat to order. You know when you talk about meat, its usually those 3 for me, chicken, pork and beef. Since my dad doesn't eat beef, there was only chicken and pork left. But oh so blur me forgot that I was ordering satay from a muslim stall! I was thinking to myself chicken alone so boring, so maybe should order half chicken half pork. Thank goodness just before I made the order, the obvious suddenly sank into my brain, and I saved myself from both embarrasment and idiot-cy. Cannot imagine if I made that wrong order.

Was reading the news just now, and the situation in Myanmar is scary. Can you believe it, the cyclone death toll has just hit 22,000 and its still rising. Just yesterday or so, it was 4,000. I was like oh dear, and then just a few hours later, I checked the news again and it rosed to like 10,000. Now, its more than double of 10,000, and its still rising. I know many of us here are not feeling the impact of it. As what I learnt in media writing, there is no 'relevance and proximity' factor to deem the news big enough. But 22,000 deaths is just really sad. Prayers to the people at Myanmar, and I really hope the next time I refresh the news the figure stays.

End of Another Semester

Well today marks the end of my 4th semester (5th semester on school records), that is excluding the dreaded results of course. Exams finished today, and I am having this lost and lingering feeling again. It always has to be the last paper which leaves me feeling not here not there. Last semester, it was intercultural. I spotted 3 questions, but spent too much time on those 3, and neglected the other 2 questions. Thankfully, I did well.

This time round, I am hoping for the same miracle. It was always a little scary going into an exam knowing that there was nothing much to study for the module. Eventually, I still did spend 2 days on the bare amount of notes available, but it kinda didn't pay off. MCQ was tricky and too ambiguous, and I am just praying for that. As for the open ended questions, I am left a little worried. I probably didn't write too well due to the time constraints, but worse, it was only after I came out and discussed with the rest that I realised each question was only limited to one page. I kinda wrote like 1 and a half for my first question, and 1 page plus a couple of lines for the other two questions. Blessing is that I think even if they cancel out the excess stuff that write, most of my contents are still there. But somehow or rather, I really hope I won't be marked down for that. Sigh.

Well this semester has been simply, slack. Slack not in terms of module workloads, but slack in terms of my performance and conduct. Of all my semesters, this is perhaps my most under-performing one. Whatever the results on 30th May, I may just have to blame myself for it. The ironic thing though is that if you ask me to turn back the clock, I still wouldn't change anything. Its just that tiring feeling of the past 3 semesters, resulting in me not puting in as much effort this semester. I am really praying I get my SEP, as it will be a good break from all these. A break I really need, as I would need some form of recharging for a final lap in honors year.

A little worried, as I need to maintain my CAP to cement a peaceful final lap. The scary thing is, from what I see, there is only one pathetic module I'm quietly confident of. Thats bad.

Oh well, going to sleep over this. Today's also my last day at RVR after one year! Goodbye T803, hello home, and hello bangkok!

The Final Showdown

As an avid barclays premier league fan, I so have to blog about the final round of fixtures next weekend. Having followed the EPL (or some of you call it BPL) for so many seasons already, this one has proven to be the most exciting one, simply because everything is to be decided on the final day itself. For quite a few seasons already, the final day of matches would be just a formality for most teams, with nothing to really play for, but this season its all different. There is just so much to play for in all divisions of the table itself.

At the top, Man Utd and Chelsea will be gunning for the title. Ok let me attempt to do some predictions here. I say Chelsea will succumb to at least one draw in their last 2 matches. I see the possibility of Chelsea slipping up either tomorrow at Newcastle, or against a Bolton side who are still fighting for relegation. I personally believe that when it comes down to the last matches of the season, and knowing that there is either a threat of relegation or chance for a title, it becomes like a cup final. It sometimes doesn't really matter if one team is better, or more on form, but it's just what the players can do in that very 90 minutes. Wigan shouldn't be a problem for Man Utd, and if Chelsea really slip up and draw in one of those matches I mentioned, then all Man Utd need is a draw, and they will still win the title on goal difference. So we'll see how Chelsea fare against a much improved and in-form Newcastle tomorrow. Man Utd should eventually still clinch it. Hmm title clincher on last day, the all so familiar scenes of Blackburn's 94/95 win, right Man Utd fans? :)

Just below the top, and the fight for Intertoto Cup, and thats where my beloved Blackburn comes into the picture. Miraculously after last night's result, we really do have a chance at 6th place, and the Intertoto spot. Blackburn has a good run of form recently, and they are now 1 points behind Villa. Pompey and City are close by, but I'm saying it's a fight between Rovers and Villa. I am crossing my fingers here though, as I don't see Villa losing in their last match, so that would mean that Blackburn must win at a relegation-threatened Birmingham, and hope for Villa to secure only a draw or less. If Blackburn draws, the will fall victim to the 'goal difference' devil too. Oh well, just praying that Blackburn makes the last minute cut. Quite disappointing though, as due to the unpredictability of the League and FA Cup this season, it meant lesser spots for Uefa Cup, and Blackburn is the cruel victim of that. Oh well.

And as excitingly, the bottom. Only Derby are relegated, and its a 3-way dog fight between Birmingham, Fulham and Reading. I am impressed at how Bolton got themselves out of it from almost nothing, and how Fulham are almost doing that too. Few weeks back it looked kinda confirmed that Fulham and Bolton would go down with Derby, but kudos to them for doing a 'West Ham' this season. Looking at things now, I predict that Birmingham will go down, and based on form alone, Reading to go with them. Eventhough Reading should win against Derby, I see Fulham winning against a FA-Cup bothered Pompey. So guess what it's down to again, goal difference! It's kinda sad for Reading, who did so well not too long ago.

So yup, so lets see how true my predictions will be. I will be in Bangkok hoping to watch the matches. To wrap up, as can be seen goal difference turns out to be really important this season, but well, every goal matters huh. Prediction at a glance:

Champions - Man Utd
Intertoto Spot - Aston Villa (as much I'm praying for Blackburn)
Relegated - Derby, Birmingham, Reading

To a great weekend of EPL matches next week! Oh I was amazed to know yesterday that Starhub are actually showing all 8 matches at one time! Feast on that soccer fans!

Post Exams

I still have one paper left in 3 days time, but I have been living the life of 'someone whose exams have finished' for the past 2 days. It was a night out with my gf last night, and today was all about sleeping and resting. I actually woke up at like 1.30 pm, and I believe that the sleeping 'session' itself has more than made up for whatever sleep I missed over the last few days. And just to be doubly sure, I dozed off again in the late afternoon and slept for another 3 hours or so.

Still feeling relieved and happy about my internship. It was really a long wait for the reply, but I'm glad I waited, as I see this as a hard-to-come-by chance. I am already a year 3 student, and I know that I sooo have to make use of the time in holidays for internships and work experience. At this moment, if you really ask me what I am intending to do in the future, I would give you a not-here-not-there answer. I was asked this very question during my interview, and I said that it is really hard for me to give an answer about my future plans, as the one thing that can help determine that answer, is the one thing that I am so lacking in my life right now, work experience. I know that doors are open for private sector internships, but I have always wanted to also see what the public sector is like, and then compare both experiences to really know what is best for myself. With this internship offering, I believe I am halfway there to knowing what I really want for my future. Yay!

On to something else which is also post exams. Last semester, somewhere near the exams, Joshua asked the bangkok gang and myself if we were interested in going to bangkok. As impromptu as it was, we all agreed, and just a few weeks later, we found ourselves at bangkok! Still thankful to him for taking that initiative, as I knew that if we were to just talk about it and not do anything, it would drag and drag, and we would never have had that wonderful trip.

One semester on, and I am going back there again, this time with my gf. And if the previous one was last minute, this one is worse! We actually just made all the bookings last night, and we will be leaving 2 days after my last paper. After the trip last semester, I knew that my gf would love the shopping there. So I made a promise to her that I will bring her there. However, due to my laziness and the sudden influx in assignments and school work, I didn't really manage to book the stuff. Just glad now that despite it being a little late, and a little more expensive than previously, we got the necessary procedures done. This trip means alot, because I know it has been a while since she went on a holiday, and she has been anticipating this trip since I told her about it at the start of the semester. I know she's real excited about it, and so am I. More importantly, this trip would be mean alot, because I would be flying off to hong kong in a few months time (if that acceptance does finally come). Bangkok here we come!

Oh and because I am rushing off again, it would mean early check-out from rvr, and packing again! Am actually packing my stuff while typing this, and boy am I glad that I brought back much lesser stuff to my room at the start of the semester. It's paying off now.

Time Out

Just came back from 2102 paper, and apart from the last question which was asking about whole-semester-study-and-do-but-still-don't-know-anything SPSS, the rest of the paper was pretty much straightforward and do-able. Under normal circumstances people would be happy with a simple paper, but under the NUS circumstances you know that it means that the paper is as good as a formality, as it would be the other aspects of the module which would determine your final grade. Now I'm really hoping that our project would do well.

Now that this paper is down, I am left with one more paper on tuesday. As I said in my previous post, that paper has kinda got nothing to study for, so all the more I should take this break. Apart from clearing 2102 from my semester today, I would also officially clear my 3217 after I hand up my brochure, website and printer specs later. This is really a huge burden off my shoulders after about 2 weeks of last minute-ness, and I would say that I would really have to either reconsider taking modules with deadlines in reading week, or take a less last minute approach for these kinda deadlines (which is sooooo not possible).

On a side note, thanks cherie, xinyu and everyone else for the encouragements. Good luck for your papers too!


--- Just In! ---

My internship has been confirmed! Yay looks like I won't be wasting my holiday away then!

Screwed

May Day! Crisis! I am feeling damn worried now after yesterday's JS paper. I find it really hard, as the questions were all either very indirect, or the choices were all very close. Being an NM major and having done relatively more mcqs than the friends from other majors, I have my own way of doing mcqs. I would usually do a first run, circling on the bubble form only answers which I am very sure of. And guess what, after my first run of 50 questions yesterday, I was only very sure of 10. I started to panic.

I do not have many friends taking that module, so I don't really know the consensus of how the paper was. I am seriously worried of getting a C, and that would totally screw up an already screwed up semester. So much for breaking my 1101E curse.

For the past 3 semesters, I have always been studying real hard during the reading week. But for this semester, I kinda left everything to just before each module. No doubt I think I managed to study finish for my papers so far, but could I have studied more? Thats always the unnecessary question which runs in my head.

2102 is tomorrow, and since its a morning paper, its another 1-day study thingy. My last paper is on the 6th, and guess what, I actually have at least 4 days to study for that paper. But as ironic as it may sound, that is the only paper which I have nothing to study for. It's a writing module, meaning we will only get the topic at the exam, and can only get down to planning and writing after we see the topics. Some luck with the order of my papers huh.

Oh, and I'm finally done with my website, brochure and printer specifications. To think of it, this project has cost me lots of time, money, and even studying time for my other modules. But oh well, perhaps it was just all my last minuteness. I do have a constant worry though that all the sacrifices and hard work may not pay off in the end. The uncertainty of that word called 'grades'. Looking at this semester, I really need to do well for this module, and will be contented enough if only this module gets me a grade I really want/need.