Okay, I know I super duper long never blog le. Haha. Ok, not really long but considering I blog everyday previously, 1 whole week without blogging should be considered long? Anyway, I'll just sum up this whole week's activities in this blog.
I now really hated going to school at 6am for 8am lesson. Not because I got to wake up early, it's just that you'll find it hard to get onto the bus95 as it's real crowded. Ok, going there is still fine. But going back at 6pm really sucks. I remembered on Tuesday I boarded the bus after missing 2 buses of 95. And dad called. My hand's already full of stuff, but I still picked up the call and try to balance. The guy behind me kept trying to support me but in the end I still lose my balance and stepped on his leg! I can hear him 'sisisi' while listening to my mp3! So paiseh!
Bus journey aside, the worst is the mrt. Really squeeze till I can't be squeezed anymore. Then there's still this guy, who looked well-educated kind, wearing working suit with a suitcase, sitting down there on the floor! I tried taking a video of him. But wasn't able to catch the crowdness of the train so i tried retaking in the end didn't realise it's a camera and there's flash somemore! Got people looked up but he didn't notice. Luckily at Yishun Station already! LOLS.
Ok, a video of that guy. You can't really see the condition in the train, but he's like oblivious to the surroundings. And someone say maybe he shi lian. But still inconsiderate lo.
Anyway, I was shocked by the workload and by how they conduct tutorial-assuming we've already know everything. I nearly broke down on Wednesday. I turned down Brenda to try solving the problem. I was super stress. I wanted to cry out loud! But at night, after calling LiQian to help me solve the problem, though she didn't really help much as she also didn't really know how to do. NTU quite slack huh. And we people in NUS like pulling our hairs out! But in the end I managed to solve the questions. Quite proud of myself and did some reading up on CZ as well. Since tomorrow I got a late class, I need not sleep early. But in the end I was late.. AGAIN! Always late for HY. Haiz.
I met up with Brenda on thursday and saturday to play ball. Need some relaxation or else I'll really die! LOL. And I got my pay on Friday from the tutoring! YEA! But already spent more than half on it on textbooks. Just as how I always tell someone, spending future money.
Anyway, I was supposed to meet that someone today to study. Ok, got fly pigeon again. Nevermind used to it already. Just that I was pissed by the fact that it's always her emotions that make us not able to meet. You can be angry or unhappy or sad or disappointed but always like that then don't want go out. Somemore want me travel 1hour to the place again! And I got lesson at 8am tomorrow la. Always like that. Why am I always the one giving in? Ok, forget it. Pissed.
Anyway, I've planned my schedule for next week's work. Need to do alot of things. Go lab complete my assignment, go library do some reading up etc etc. No time to be wasted. I want to get good GPA throughout my study. Anyway, I think I most probably going to SU HY if I don't put in more effort! So need to work harder! No time to waste my energy on useless things already.
6:26 PM
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Woke up at 9am today, thanks so much to bro for not bringing his key back. When he got back, I went to take a look at his laptop. It's also HP but it cost so much more than mine! $1900. But it's business vista and processor is the better one-T9600. It's also very nice-maroon colour and anti-spill and also not as likely as my laptop to get dirty as the surface is not glossy. After eating the breakfast he got for me, I went to take a nap. Woke up at 1pm and did MA1102R tutorial. Managed to finish it but got a few questions that I'm not sure of. So need to get help from my tutor.
My bro's notebook. Nice colour right? And it weighs only 1.9kg! 13-inch! Haiz.. But the price abit steep though.
It got a fingerprint recognizing sensor! At the bottom right. So need your fingerprint to log in.
Left house at 4pm to go NUS to get a race pack. Got early and I collected my race earlier than expected. By the time I reached FOS, it's only 5.25pm. Sat at the canteen table and waited for Jolyn as we're going for the basketball club welcome tea. But she took very long and I started to think whether did she forgot about our date! By 6.05pm, I'm feeling a little dejected. By she did turn up! So we went to have our dinner and make our way to the courts. After changing, we reached there at 6.45pm. There were lots of activities going on but we didn't see any basketball team seniors. So started to feel whether we came to the wrong place. But I saw the guys captain, Xin Ru. Pity I don't really know him as I only know Darren from his batch. Haiz, if only Darren's here, I got someone who's a freshie like me coming for training. Though Darren is not really 'fresh' anymore compared to me. LOL!
In the end, I went over to the netball courts to see the match. It's Kent Ridge Hall inter-block games. I saw Joan! After that, I saw Sun Lu and Carena, and it seemed that their training will only start at 7.30pm. And they were saying that I tagged their ugly photos! Haha.. It's youth la, youth... LOL. Since their training will start so late, me and Jolyn decided to leave and since it's only for team training and not recreational, I doubt Jolyn will want to stay too as she doesn't have any background. And I saw the Anderson Secondary cum VJC, Qianxin's primary school friend there too! So she's in NUS as well! And she doesn't change much though. Haha. Doubt she'll remember me.
So in the end I went home. Got home at 9.15pm. Called Chen and talked to her as she intended to to go Bugis tomorrow. In the end we talked about her studies in Australia again! And we also chatted about my studies. After which, she decided to retake her A's again! Haiz. Guess will talk to her in detail about it tomorrow.
Ok, another few digits for you to buy 4-D. LOL.The NUS shirt. Looked nice right? The design is real nice. I like it!Simple but real nice!
Oh, I'm deciding whether to go for the NUS RUN next week or not. Since it'll not make a difference whether I run as I'm not running in the competitive category anyway and also have gotten my race pack. And I postpone my this week's tuition to next Friday. So I'll be giving tuition on Friday and Sunday again. This week no tuition! A break! Haha.
12:48 AM
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Yesterday didn't really get a chance to blog. Though it has been three days since the marathon, I still feel really lethargic. And yesterday legs were still damn painful~ But nevertheless, pain aside, more importantly is to get cheap textbooks. So I went over to Blas Plaza after my lesson. However, the 1.5hour walk proved to be futile as I didn't manage to get any book. Oh and did I mention that yesterday Ms Tay tried calling me but my phone's flat, so I messaged her and her message was that they had termed me as Tau Kia!! LOL! Anyway, she wanted to ask if Darren and I will be free to go Phuket from 5th-8th September for holiday with her, Mr Lee and Mr Chua. But I got lessons on 7th and 8th! And Monday and Tuesday are the days of the week where most of the lessons are packed in! Monday I have 4 lectures of 4out of 5 modules and Tuesday I got the lecture of the other lecture, the HY2206 which I can't afford to miss since the lecture slides will not be posted online and I'm not really proficient in China's history. So I got to turn down their offer. =(
I only got 1lesson today. After my lesson, eat at the science canteen, alone again :( After which, I made my way to the Central Library. As it was still early, the Union Week activities had yet to start. But I can see that people were setting up their things and preparing. I borrowed the history material- China's Imperial Past to read through first.
The library was real nice! And the atmosphere was really just right for one to study! I think it's even bigger than National Library or comparable! There are lots of tables for the students to study. But I wonder during examination period will I be able to get any seats.
At about 12.15pm, the seller for my GEK1527 called. Met her and paid for the papers-$10!! But for the sake of good results, worth it. And at the same time, I went to collect the NUSSU Welfare Diary. The queue was damn long. Managed to get it in the end. It was decorated okay. Can use it to note down things to do and my to-do list is really getting longer as the workload starts piling up.
The front cover of the book. There are side-tabs at the edges of the book to mark out the months. Not a bad way for an organiser, makes it more convenient. There's even a bookmark attached to it! After that, I made my way back to the library again. This time to borrow the other reference book to read. As the loaning period is restricted to 2hours, I wasn't able to complete reading the whole chapter for lecture 2. Perhaps I should come back again tomorrow. So this means that I got to come to school earlier tomorrow before my lecture. Ok, I shall work hard. After that, waited for the bus at the bus-stop. Shall take bus 96 to Clementi so that I can buy my textbook and start reading for the module CZ1102. It's a good investment since I'll need the textbook for my exam as well-it's an open book test and also for my laboratory assignments too. Saw Xinyi at the bus-stop! We talked a lot but communicated in English. Felt so weird. As I always communicate with her in Chinese and suddenly-English! It's like talking to ChenChen or Nicole in English suddenly or to QianXin or Mel in Chinese! It is weird! Anyway, parted ways with her at the bus-stop and made my way to the Clementi Bookstore. Since I've already made up my mind to buy it, I shall not waste too much time browsing. So I got the person to help me get the text. It's the last book! Bought it for $46.30, which is about $1 cheaper than that in Co-op after discount. Really like what Xinyi's friend said- their books are slightly cheaper only by $1 or so. So there's no need to make a trip down personally if you want to buy as it'll not be worth it. But I think it's ok, since after this I'll be boarding the train back home at Clementi. Read through the first few pages of the chapters. It's slightly in greater detail. But the algorithm part of it is still very complicated. It wanted me to plan the steps without any tutorial on it! Just an example! Which means, the answer is quite subjective to how I phrase it etc! Now, pondering whether should I get GEK1527 text since I've biology background and I still got the notes with me. So the course will be a breeze for me although with the text, I'll be able to get more details. Ok, shall see how the lecture goes and decide. Oh and the text for ST1131 is also about $1 cheaper than Co-op. But I guessed I'll not be buying it so early too? It costs $49! But I think with it, I'll get more examples to practice on and also greater details telling me how to analyse the data etc. Ok, I shall end it here. Got to read through my texts. And do some of my work as well! Shall reach school by 12noon tomorrow to settle the GIRO thing first, then go to Central Library again to borrow the book to read! See ya!
9:16 PM
Monday, August 17, 2009
I was late for lecture today. Woke up at 6.50am and missed about 25minutes of lecture. However, the front part of it was still understandable so it's ok. Felt realy tired today and everytime I sat down and stand up, my knees kept giving way. It's tedious to go down stairs and I need the support of railings. It felt like I was a handicapped.
Went to explore the Science Library after my lecture for Statistics ended and also after my brunch. And read through my statistics notes again and also my computing notes. It's so complicated, but hopefully that after the lecture I would be able to know what it means.
Took me quite awhile before I noticed that LT33 is actually across the road! Went to the lecture and the lecturer sucks like hell man. The notes is already quick simplify and what he does was just reading straight off from the notes! And his pronounciation was damn bad too, not to mention his teaching style-boring and making us more blur. Decided that I've got to buy the textbook for this module. Definitely got to buy as not only is this course an open book test but also because the lecturer sucks and that I think with a textbook I'll really understand this module better. Messaged Chen that I'll not be able to go Bugis with her as my knee really hurts and I doubt I can walk real long.
After that, went to check out a few textbooks prices. After that is MA1102R lecture. I was still able to catch up and understand the lecture. Still manageable I think. And I'll be able to do a few more questions of the tutorial after this lecture.
After that, made my way to LT32. And since I still got about 20minutes to lecture time, I went to washroom first before I followed the signs to go LT32. Climb up the stairs and up and up and up but still no sign of LT32! After that, took a lift to the fifth storey. And I though I've reached but not yet! Still need to walk and then take another lift down to the first storey and walked a few distance before I finally reached there! Took me nearly 10minutes! Nearly faint at the distance I got to walk!
My last lecture today was LSM1302 or also called GEK1527. The lecturer was really enthusiastic about teaching. And though I was really tired, was still able to catch my attention. The lecture was seriously interesting as the lecturer really made it real interesting and engaging. He kept walking about as he speaks and his tone wasn't that monotonous as compared to the CZ lecturer.
After lecture, I packed my stuff and intended to walk by the way I came. However, I saw that majority of them walked by the carpark way, so I guessed it's a better way and decide to make a U-turn. That's where I saw Joan! OMG can you believed it? I saw her here! Haha. And she's taking the same course as me too! So we can have lectures in the future together. Joan invited me to go and stay Kent Ridge Hall next semester and participate in their IHG. Luckily it's held in the second semester, so I will not really miss out any fun this semester for not staying in hall.
While taking the train back, slept on the train. I was really really tired. Alighted at Yishun to get my dinner. Got this urge to eat KFC chicken. So I bought my dinner, and after that went home.
Reached home at around 7.35pm. Dad was already at home. After my dinner, felt like going to bed. But still got a few notes to print out. And I checked my tutorial balloting results. Got 4out of the 5 I chosen! Only ST1131 tutorial, ST12 was not gotten. But the next available one is still ok. It's at 1hour after ST12. Though I'll prefer it to be much more earlier since I've already got a break time at 10am. So I'll really appreciate it if I can end much earlier instead of having to wait for another hour. But will just wait for the add/drop to try getting the earlier timing.
Anyway, by now I've already experienced all of my lectures and got a few of which one I'll need to work harder and which I can slack abit but will still need to put in effort. For the textbook for LSM1302, since the lecturer says it's not compulsory, I guessed I'll just dropped by the library once a week to borrow the text to read. And since my timetable is already out, most probably I'll go on Wednesday, which is a super early day or Thurday, where my morning is free and after my lessons I can also go as Fridays are free of lectures and tutorials!
Ok, I'll end now I guess. Keep coming back for more updates! Sayonara!
10:05 PM
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Ciaossu! I'm damn glad that I'm still surviving! Woke up at 4.35am today to get ready for the half marathon later at near Marina Square. Boarded a taxi at 5am and reached there at 5.25am. By the time me and my bro got to the starting race, it has already started. The first KM was definitely easy. And we started out slow and steady too.
However, by the 3KM, we started running up a slope. This put strain on my left knee as it started to hurt. But, bro was there and he helped to pace me. However, can feel that he was not running at a speed which he can jog at. He said it was okay as he didn't want to go at a speed too fast too. So basically he helped to pace me. I was wanting to give up and stop at the nearing the 8km point. But I didn't want to do that. I know I still can make it. And it was quite depressing to see that the posters showing every km is taking longer and longer to show up.
I took my first water break between 7km-8km. Drank water and isotonic drink. I was already at East Coast Park, and saw that those faster runners are running at a direction opposite to me. So, I told myself. Jiayou Zhi Jun, just awhile more, you can turn and run in that direction that they are running now and it'll soon finish. Persevere on.
The first timing mat was at the 10km point. So I made the turn there and ran in the other direction now. Bro was still pacing me. And I kept running half a step behind him. So I keep trying to keep up with him. It's a good thing that he was pacing me as it helped me to maintain my speed. Or else, I guess I'll be running at a speed even slower since my knee really hurts. And by now, both my knees hurt as I depended on my left knee too much since my right knee hurt.
The front part of my sole also hurt. And my back neck also sored. I guessed it was probably due to yesterday's kayaking. Whenever I leave up my leg and put it down, pain seared through from my sole to my knee. Though I can feel the muscle of my calf tightening, but the pain felt by my knee overwhelmed that felt my my calf. Bro's knee was also hurting, so we started stretching at the 9-10km water point. After that, we took a drink and started running.
And after drinking the isotonic drink, I was like Oh shit, I feel like shitting. But was able to hold on.
We finished the path of East Coast route at the 11km point.At the water point, we took a drink and started walking until we turned out of the route. And we started to run through Kallang area to go back to our starting point. I overtook a group of army guys and one of them said sian, letting a woman overtake them. But they still continue to stroll. For the next few water points, I did stop and took drinks. However, I skipped 2 water points, 1 of them was at the 14km water point and the other is the last water point at the final 1km plus distance.
We took a break at 13km, stretching our legs again. By now, I realised that my whole shorts was drenched in my sweat and it was real uncomfortable. This is the first time that I exercised to such an extreme that my WHOLE pants was wet and I can still feel sweat dripping down from my knees as I stretched! In the past, even if I exercised, for example training, for 3hours or so, only the top part of my pants and perhaps the inner side of my pants was wet. I never ever experienced a situation where my whole pants was wet! I feel like squeezing my shorts to get the sweat out, sort of drying my shorts so that it'll not feel so uncomfortable. However, I think that it was quite disgusting and people might feel disgusted too. Moreover, I, myself already find it very disgusting, I can't imagine those who are running behind me. How they'll feel when they saw my shorts drench in sweat, sticking on to my legs. But I doubt any of them will have the energy to care about that at this point in time, most of them already using their mond power to continue running and some of them had their pants drench in sweat too!
Bro started to run at his own pace slightly after the 15km water point. And from now on, I'm on my own. I stopped at the Kallang pass there, at the 17km point. And there was another slope again! And by now, the 10km runners have caught up with us. And there was this group that was cheering. I started jogging after the band, going down slope and stopped at the water point to get another drink. After that, when I noticed that we're going into the bridge area, I was quite glad. Because this meant that the race is going to end soon. Though there was still about 3km before the race ended.
When I saw the 18KM sign, I was gladful that I'm going to finish this race already. However, I remembered that Bro reminded me before that the last 3km, is the hardest. As you'll find the distance from the 3KM to 2KM real long. I can't really remember how I manage to survive through that. Just that I'm trying to hold my bowels and at the same time tahan the pain in my knees.
But at the last 1-2KM or so, I saw another water point. This time, there was bananas! I wanted to get a banana as I'm started to feel my stomach growling. But there was so many runners infront of me that took away my banana! Forget it, I thought to myself. Just continue to jog. I'm gonna finish soon anyway. Though I'll really appreciate a banana at the end of the race.
For the last 1KM, I told myself to keep going. Just keep going and I can do it. 1KM means nothing. But this 1KM seems so long and I've already past by the starting point. There was this guy behind who was like saying haven't finish? As all the 6km runners had already finished their race, it was real depressing for us, 21km and also 10km runners to continue running past our starting point and who knows how long to go to get to our finishing point. By now, there were more supporters and there were also people holding up signs that put encouraging words and phrases: 'Pain and suffering is what differs men from boys' (not really apply to me), ' Many others had done it before you, why can't you'... and many others. Can't really remember them too. But I told myself to just go on, go on, go on, go on, go on... ...
Eventually, seeing the word FINISH is like seeing an oasis in a desert! I started to take larger strides and tell myself that less than 100metres to go. Passing through the finishing line, I breathe a sign of relief. My timing, 3hours 26minutes. By right should be 3hours 16minutes since we started off like 10minutes late.
I followed the rest of the runners to the carnival place. Collected my medal first since I saw it. When I got the medal, it was like telling me what an achievement I've made! Took quite awhile to find the place to collect my valuables as there were many people and it's hard to spot the tent where I deposited my belongings. Finally, I retrieved back my stuff and called bro to meet up with him. I called bro and he said that he was at the other end of the bag collection point. So I walked down to meet him. Trying to look out for a guy who was wearing a blue sleeveless Standard Chartered tee. But wasn't able to spot him. So I called bro again. He said he waved alot of times but I didn't see him. Because he took off hi blue singlet! And I was using that to see him.
I sat down at the side of the road, drinking the 100Plus I got at one of the tent and also stretching my legs. This is important if I want to be able to walk to school tomorrow. My knees were really breaking. We sat there from 9am to about 9.20am before we walked to Bugis area, Blas Plaza to try to take a look at second hand books.
A picture me and bro took before we moved off. We've completed 21KM together on 16 August 2009!
After that, we walked to Mcdonald's first to clear our bowels and also change our clothes. My whole shirt and shorts were wet and I really need to change out of them before I catch a cold. We ate at one of the coffee shops at Blas Plaza. I ate dumpling soup noodles and bro ate curry chicken. Quite surprise that he ate something spicy after a race! We bought Bandung to drink too and after that eating, it was like 10.25am, which was damn early.
We passed by one of the bookshops which is already open so went to check out whether they buy in second hand books. The uncle was quite rude and unhappy, saying that they pay as low as 10-20cents only! WTF he can go jump down buildings already. But when asked if they got sell university books, his attitude changed immediately to of course we have, and that you can come back after we finished packing the things. Which is a really big change in attitude! So me and bro just walked away to wait for more shops to open. And he also went to withdraw a large amount of cash to buy his laptop tomorrow.
Initially we decided to go National Library to hang out while waiting for the rest of ths shops to open. However, bro was feeling really tired and suggested another day instead. So we boarded a train back. Since there were lots of people around, we decided to take to Marina Bay and then wait for the train to make a turn back. Eventually, we alighted at Khatib, sleeping on the train during the journey. I felt as though I've slept for very long, though it's just 30minutes. While walking back, I was feeling that it was already in the late afternoon instead of late morning. I guessed because it was such a long day that I don't have the feeling of it being 11am, but 4-5pm instead. And since I normally wake up in mid-morning, the number of hours I've experienced today will give me the feeling that it is already late afternoon.
When I got home, I unpacked all my stuff, bringing out all the things that need to be washed and then went to bathe. And it was at this point in time that I realised that I've abrasion at the upper part of my triceps there and the part below my chest, where I guess the sports bra rubbed against my skin and caused abrasion. Took a quick bath, tried to dry my head as much as possible and then went to take a short nap. I set alarms to get myself to wake up by 1pm, latest 1.20pm since I got tuition later on at 2pm. Although I felt really tired, I still decided to go and teach since I just started out and it's not really good that I cancelled my third lesson.
Woke up at 1.17pm and prepared all my stuff. Knee was feeling as though it doesn't belong to me. Yet, pain continued to seared through my nerves. And bro was still sleeping.
Luckily I turned up for the tuition this time round as Rosalind(the girl I was giving tuition to) was having her A Maths test tomorrow. Went through with her some of the things that she's weak in, mostly it's indices and linear graph. But can see that she had improved, making some progresses and also getting to know some of the concepts and applying them.
After that, I went over to NorthPoint to get black ink for my printer. Else, I can forget about going for my lectures tomorrow. 8hours of lesson- from 8am to 6pm! And just nice, Russell Lee was there at Popular to carry out his promotion of his 19th book! And 19th book already! Still remember a few years back when he's still writing his 2nd or 3rd book and how I liked reading his book!
But I still bought his book. I don't know why, when I've got so many books half-read through only. Maybe I ran until I wasn't able to think straight. Perhaps I was thinking that it must be fate that I came across him when he came over to NorthPoint today. So perhaps fate wanted me to get his book! But got my printer ink and the book and his signature as well!
Russell Lee, signing on the book and meeting his fans. Still wrapping up and covering his face. I guess one of the reasons he is famous is because he never reveal his face to the readers. So mystery breeds curiosity and thus bring about more fans and supporters.His 19th book. Originally $10.35. But offering a 20% discount so it is $8.50.The signature he gave. And also words he wrote. I didn't really spoke to him much since I'm not really a fan of him. But nevertheless, I still try to act as friendly as though I'm his loyal fan! Lol! Oh and they gave out a number of freebies as well, like a memo pad, a notebook, a wristband and also a poster. But I guessed I'll not post all these pictures here. Firstly because it was quite troublesome for me to do so and I didn't see the need to anyway. Just letting you know what things there were is enough already.
Called Chen to ask her whether she wants to go out to Bugis tomorrow. But not confirmed yet as it would depends on the condition of my knee, whether I would be able to take the strain of walking after today. Bought bread for my breakfast tomorrow as well. And after buying each a cup, I went home. Took over one hour to get all my stuff so there goes my rebate of 50cents!!!Oh, this is a picture taken with the medal and my bib number when I got home. You might want to buy a 4-D too if you liked! Haha~
Add to the collection of my medals and trophy. The most extreme right of the photo. tried to highlight it, apparently, black colour doesn't really shows as it is too dark.
When I got home, bro was still sleeping. It was near 6pm. And I can't believe just 12 hours ago, I was still running a race! Anyway I just printed out my notes after changing the ink cartridge. After that, got dad to help me massage my neck and shoulder. Then, have my dinner and start to blog. It's real boring as there's no show available! All showing the PM Lee's talk at all the channels! What the hell, they die die want us to watch it no matter what la! Zzzz... ... So no channels to watch, just keep blogging and using laptop to check email, facebook etc lo.
Anyway, I guessed I'll end here. Still feeling tired. And I doubt after this run, I will participate in the Standard Chartered 42.192KM run since my knee can't even take 21KM, not to say 42KM. But I will not mind 10KM though. And in 2weeks time, I'll be running the NUS run. But it's just 5KM. Anyway, feel that I've made a great accomplishment and till now I still can't really believed that I completed 21KM! But I don't think that I'll be able to do any exercise for the next 3-4days. Definitely out of action. Lol. Okay, feeling real tired now, it's a really long day today, so I'll just end here.
8:28 PM
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Ciaossu! Woke up at 8.15am today. Got the kayaking thing. Reached Kallang MRT at 9.35am. Kel called me! OH SHIT! I GOT THE DAMN TUITION REMEDIAL THING! OH NO! Felt bad throughout and wasn't really in the mood to enjoy myself later on to make new friends. But luckily they managed to get another tutor to help out. Haiz..failed..
We walked over to our kayaks and reached there about 10.15am or so. Got to know a few of the guys, and I was the ONLY girl there!!! Feel so out! And I thought Shi En was a girl. Sorry, but it sounded like a girl's name to me until I saw him and realised it's a him!
Anyway, my team consists of Firis(I think is spelled like this, sounded as Far east.LOL), who's from Nursing Year2, Michael, from Medicine, Year1 and same age as me! So my team can be said to be consists of those people from the Medical area. Ok, I took Science so not too bad though I specialise in Statistics. And surprisingly, there was one senior there who took Statistics too! OMG! I mean so coincidental! As normally people will take Life Science or Chemistry, at most those who really like Maths will take Maths, but hardly anyone will choose Statistic. At least not in my circle of friends. And he's in year3 somemore! He told me that CZ1102, or any module starting with C is not an easy computing module unless you are really good at computing stuff as he got a female friend who took this module and fail! So I decided to change my module to IT1002 when I got home immediately, appealing for it.
I teamed with Michael and the boat we got is really hard to manoeuvre, changing it's direction really easily. After kayaking about 5km++, we began doing capsizing and saving practices. We managed to finish and completing all this exercise by 1pm. After all the washing up and bathing, we left there about 2pm and went to Beach Road market or what they called the Army Market to eat. I ate the famous Ah boling and also Char Kway Teow there. We left at about 3.15pm. Got home by 4pm. Complete my appeal exercise, however almost all the blogs and review I read showed that actually CZ1102 was doable as compared to the CS modules. Nevertheless, I still tried appealing, if I got this course, it'll be much easier to do I guess, since the exam paper looked much easier too.
As I was tired, I didn't join Brenda. And I don't think I'm really that SUPER enough to play basketball before a 21km run and after a kayaking event. So I stayed at home. Was really tired. Actually got alot of things to say, but due to limited time, I guess I'll stop now. If got time I'll edit and repost this post again.
11:18 PM
Finally no school already for this week. I guess I'll really like Thursdays from now on. Started to ballot the moment I woke up. Since I've already planned and written down all my choices and ranking, all I need to do is just checking of box and drop-down ranking them. Really hoped I get all my first choice tutorial and lab lessons for all my modules, so that I need not rearrange and set for second best.
After that, tried to do the history homework, but it was quite hard to do. And all I have are just reading materials. The lecturer has yet to really venture into these topics. And anyway, the tutorial lessons will not start until week3, so I guess I'll just do them next week after my tutorial classes. I did the tutorial notes for MA1102R though, but it was only 3questions as the rest of the questions involved limits, which is another lecture. After that, read Domestic Goddess. Then, ate dinner and went down to play ball. Brenda invited me to go and play pool with the other 2 China guys we played ball with. She said they'll be playing in the evening. But I doubt I'll have any energy left after kayaking and I also need to rest for the Army Half Marathon on Sunday too! It's in the morning and I got to reach there quite early! Race starts at 6.30am! And I got school at 8am the next day too! Also, after the run, I got tuition! OMG! I think I'm becoming a super woman!
Tried to print the remaining notes when I got home, but the printer ran out of ink. The notes that I printed out became green colour. Haiz. In the end gave up printing and decided to buy the cartridge tomorrow then I'll print them tomorrow instead.
Anyway, I going off now. I got the kayaking course thingy tomorrow. Imagine playing basketball today, kayaking tomorrow and running a marathon on Sunday! 3 different activities, 3 straight days! And the extent of the strain increases throughout the activity. With running a half marathon the most strenuous. Ok, till then! =)
12:04 AM
Friday, August 14, 2009
As my lesson was quite late today, I took my own sweet time to get things prepared in the morning. Left home at 12.30pm since lessons start at 2pm. I'm having MA1102R today. Read through the notes already. And it's still quite manageable. And I was quite glad that I'm able to get the ebook for Calculus! This way, it'll saved me quite abit of money.
Reached school just on time again. Waited for one train at Khatib station for 10minutes plus! And surprisingly, bus95 waiting time wasn't very long despite me missing one. Reached about 5minutes before the lecture began. Lecture hall was relatively packed. However I didn't go and look for LiRong, since she might be with her friends and it'll look weird for me to just suddenly pop up and sit with her. So I sat alone. I think I'm becoming more and more like a loner. Zzzz.. Can't wait for tutorial lessons to start so that I can get to know more people who can accompany me during lecture and revise our work together!
The lecturer was quite humorous as well. And he made me understand the concepts of functions, instead of what I did in Secondary School and JC, where I just know the method of doing without really understanding the meaning behind it. So, it was still a fruitful one. Went to NUS Co-op to take a look at the textbooks after that. It's expensive! Selling at $40-50 plus for some of the text! Wonder why people are willing to sell it at $15-25! After that, initially intended to board a bus to the Co-op at LT16, which is at business school. I did go there, but feel rather off. Science and Business were at loggerheads with each other you see. So I dropped at the bus-stop near kent ridge hall. It looked very nice! Haiz.. What a pity. But I'll eventually stay in hall. Maybe next semester. Because, what's university life without hall life? I mean, I die die have to stay in hall at least once. This is sort of to complete my College life. Rather than just travelling to and fro from hall to the school. The bus took rather long for me to reach a bus-stop with bus 96. However, I got to have a look and tour around the college. Many places are undergoing renovations and building new buildings. But I guess by the time they finish building, I would have graduated.
Eventually, I boarded bus96 and went to the Clementi bookstore. It isn't a second hand bookstore afterall! And the books doesn't look cheap too! Haiz. Though it says it's tax free. But, or well, I don't intend to get a brand new book. I'll only be using it for 1semester anyway. After that, I'm supposed to meet Brenda. So messaged and confirmed with her the place and time to meet. We decided to go CausewayPoint to catch UP. I reached there about 1hour early. And luckily, I brought my laptop along. So I started to look out for cheap textbooks for sale at IVLE. Spotted a few quite nice one. But I keep hesitating-why would they sell so cheap? It's like more than half of the price. And some of them are not the latest edition as well.
Brenda came at around 6.30pm. We pondered what to eat, but bought our tickets first. Ate Mos Burger in the end, and we missed the front part of the movie. It seemed that always miss the beginning of the movie. Anyway, UP was relatively nice. The plot was not bad, it flowed quite well, with occasional jokes made.
By the time I got home, it was 10.20pm. After bathing, went online to print out my lecture notes for CZ1102 and also tutorial(which I finally have) for MA1102R. Decided to do them tomorrow. And also, there's one more material for HY2206. After settling these stuff, it is time for me to settle things on the textbooks. It seemed that textbooks are snatched rather quickly. 2of the people I messaged said that their texts had already been sold. And I was pondering whether should I buy the practice questions for LSM1302. In the end, I bought it for $8!! Thinking of it now, the person didn't seem to be taking this course and is just taking advantage of the fact that this course doesn't released past years papers to earn money! Nonetheless, I don't mind paying for it. I mean, we can't really measure good grades with cost right? As long as I got enough questions to practice on and score well, money is secondary. Anyway, it isn't really that expensive after all. I can just sell it again to another party next semester.
In the end, I decided that I should get a first hand book for ST1131 and also perhaps get the rest of the books during the second hand book sale. However, there'll be additional charges of $1-2, which will be use as funds for the Science Club. WTH! Okay, I don't care, I think I should get it from the seniors via the forum instead. My last choice will then be to buy from the fair. And I think it'll be better if I asked the lecturer whether it is good to buy a textbook for CZ1102. Or is it okay if I just put in more effort to do tutorial and study.
Okay, think I need not worry too much first. See how things go then.
2:16 AM
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Woke up damn early at 6am today since my one and only lesson for today starts at 8am. Ate the egg tart bought yesterday. I think that egg yolk tarts tasted nicer. Bus 95 was long as usual, though I reached there at 11.30am. Boarded 95A and was damn uneasy as I'm afraid that it'll not pass by NUS. Eventually it did turn into NUH but terminated its service there! Luckily FOS is just one stop away, hence I just walked my way to there. Reached the theatre at 7.50am. I saw that outside LT27, there's alot of vendors getting ready to set up stalls. Some of them had even set up the stalls already!
The LT was already almost filled with people by the time I reached. Found an empty seat and sat...alone. Sounds pathetic. And I feel really pathetic anyway. It's another lecture of introductory again. And I'm actually allowed to bring in a piece of A4 help sheet, with all the stuff I need to know written it down there! The lecturer was quite cute and funny too. She laughed at her own joke before she said it out. She said that though we are allowed help sheet, but please do not write so small that we need a magnifying glass to enlarge the wordings since magnifying glass is not allowed. The lecture was okay, relatively basic. I still need to strain my eyes though, to look at some of the wordings.
The lecture ended early. At 9.30am. The I-Week bazaar will only begins at 10am. So I went to the canteen to eat some stuff first, though I wasn't really hungry as I ate 2egg tarts in the morning. Bought a bowl of duck noodles. It tasted really good! And it costs only $2, for a relatively big bowl! AJ canteen vendors really sucked us dry. Portion small, food tasted average or below average, cost is horrendous! By the time I finished, saw Sri! Quickly returned the plates and called after her. It seemed that it was her between lecture break. Talked to her for awhile and after that I bidded her farewell.
Saw Mag. He was in-charge of this whole bazaar event! Got the goodie bag from him and signed up for this business committtee in Science club thing. He said that it's relatively similar to marketing, how we need to get sponsors, what we need to do to prepare and event etc etc. I think that it's quite useful, since if I venture into Financial Statistics, I'll be touching on these stuff as well. So, no harm signing up right? But it's a pity that Mag is stepping down as a director this year. Otherwise I'll get to have a senior that I know there.
When I got home, it was 11.15am. Relatively early. Packed some of my stuff and turned on the television. No nice shows. And I nearly fell asleep when Sheena came. After that, talked to her about modules and stuff. She's trying to bid for Level2 Korean in NTU and using the add/drop option. And we also talked about Forensic Science since she took it before. She said that language is quite fun and encouraged me to take it and try it out. Hmm.. Maybe I'll consider for next semester then. Since Level 1 Korean in NUS is exam-free! However, I might be full with 5 essential modules next semester, having missed one essential module that I'm required to take this semester-MA1101R.
After which, I turned on my laptop to try to search for ebook copies for my modules. Sadly to say, there isn't any. Looks like I'll have to buy them. After looking through the used textbooks forum, I decided to go and take a look at the Clementi Bookstore first before I make any decision whether to purchase it from seniors. Some of them sell it for real high prices. And I also found out that I might need to purchase past year examination papers for LSM1302 since it's not available online. And the seniors sold it for $10! WTF. For just papers and not books, not booklet! ==
But there were also some offers that sold textbooks and exam papers for $20. Not bad a bargain I guess. However, will only decide whether to buy from them after I toured Clementi bookstore. So tomorrow shall be a busy day I guess. To save money, I need to buy a cheap book. Condition wise I don't care. Just not too much scribble that I can't make any sense out of it can le. And also, after viewing some of the papers of my module, I felt so damn scared! Especially HY2206! It's like 25marks question asking you to write a concise chronological essay for Chinese history from the year 581 to the year 1799 in terms of the achievements of major dynasties!
Haiz..Maybe it looked frightening now since I've yet to master the module. Just got to study hard then. No choice..
4:50 PM
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Today is the official start of my College life. I only got one lesson at 12noon, which is the module on History of China. Left house at 10.30am. Reach the bus stop at 11.15pm, which is quite early. However, the frequency of bus 95 was so bad that I waited until 11.30am before I was able to get onto the bus. And I saw ZhiLin. She wasn't able to get onto the bus. And I remembered that she said she's always unable to get onto the bus, losing in the battle of squeezing into the bus.
I got down at the wrong stop again. So by the time I reached the front of FASS, I only have 5minutes to 12noon. Building AS1 is really far. Took me quite some time before I finally reached there. Lesson has already started. And quite surprisingly, there didn't seemed to have many Ah tiongs taking this module despite it being a China-related module. In addition, there's Ang Mohs in the class somemore! And I heard that they're exchange students from USA according to the lecturer.
After the Professor finished introducing the module, the co-lecturer began his lecture. His China-accent was so damn strong that I hardly made any sense of what he had said. His pronunciation was so bad that 'bright' became 'brup'. I really pitied the Ang Mohs. They must be having a much worst time understanding what he is saying. However, the module was relatively interesting. But as I was late, I was sitting at the end. So I was having trouble viewing the slides from the back. Next time I got to go earlier to sit at the front or maybe middle so that I need not strain my eyes.
The lecture ended at 1.45pm. 15minutes earlier. By the time I got home, it was 4pm, as I travelled to NorthPoint to buy some stuff for myself and also breakfast for tomorrow. Bought a box of egg tarts. The other time I bought from here, it's really nice. Hence, this time I'm trying the egg white tart instead of the normal egg york tart. While walking to the bus-stop, I passed by Breadtalk and the smell of the bread was so aromatic that I decided to buy a bread. However, the Breadtalk was so pack with people that I decided to buy from Four Leaves instead. After that I boarded a bus back home.
Though it was already 4pm, my bookshelf had yet to be delivered yet. And dad was damn pissed. I went online and saw the MA1102R lecture slides from the other lecture group was up. Read through it. Their lecture notes was much more detailed than ours. However, I noticed that it's exactly the same as the lecture slides. Read through it and understand it.
The bookshelf finally arrived at 6pm. After that helped me to clean it, I started to pack my stuff and put things into it.
This is before I packed my stuff in.
These are all my prized collections. Haha. Almost all are sports related. However, there are non-academic de. Including essay-writing trophy, leadership plague etc.Finally re-arrange them and put them neatly. It's so much spacious now.
Finished arranging all my files. Still got a few compartments left. Will be using it for my modules-related text and notes and also for mum's stuff.By the time I finished arranging all my stuff, it was already 9pm. After finished watching Forensic Heroes 2, Brenda called me down. So I went over to Block623 to gave her back her Twilight bookmark and also talk talk.
Anyway, since I'm having an early lesson tomorrow, guessed I'm going to sleep now. 8am-10am. 1lecture only again.
9:07 PM
Monday, August 10, 2009
Woke up today with a choking feeling. The haze condition was damn bad today. I could smell that there's an air of burnt smell. Super uncomfortable. Initially I was supposed to meet Brenda for breakfast and after that go out with her to NorthPoint. However, she's going out with her family. So guess I'll meet her another day.
The Statistics notes are finally out. But I was having difficulties printing the notes as the black ink catridge seemed to be running low. However, was able to print out the notes properly in the end.
Later still got to clean my laptop and prepare for my lessons tomorrow. Just having one lesson from 12pm to 2pm. Tomorrow still got to do bidding and also balloting. And my new bookshelf will be coming tomorrow! So need to do some packing when I get home tomorrow as well. Oh.. and I need to order the NUS Co-op card. Since it cost $5.35 for the whole year I'm studying in NUS. Anyway, let's pray that I got the tutorials and laboratory lessons I want tomorrow.
9:12 PM
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Yesterday forgot to blog. So I'll just sort of summarise it. Morning went to ChongPang to look for my bookshelf. Got one for $350. It's the same colour as my current bookshelf and clothes cabinet. Was thinking whether should I get the darker wood colour. However, it'll stand out weird in my room. So got the same colour instead. Thinking of it now, it's quite expensive though include delivery and GST. If mum's there, sure will become $330 de. Haiz. But I yesterday also no mood to haggle price.
When I got home, read through the history notes again. Very interesting indeed. Though I'm real confuse about the cultures. There are so many of them, locating at different places of China, occuring at different times. But still, seeing them argue the different ages are really interesting. Hmm.. Not too bad I guess. I think after the lecture on Tuesday, where we'll br covering the topics in greater detail, I'll just plot a mindmap to simplify things.
After that, went to have dinner at Block 838. The dinner was okay. Although I was so tired and in such a bad mood that everything I see I was super unhappy and unsatisfied. Reach home and played some games on my laptop before I slept as tomorrow(which is today), I got to wake up early for tuition.
Today I woke up relatively early again. At 9am as I got tuition lesson. After teaching the student, I sort of rush back home and meet JinYeow and his friends to play ball for awhile. But feel very tired. Still, was able to read through the reading materials when I got home. So I learnt quite a few historical terms like Neolithic(which means New Stone Age, or development of human civilisation, started about 9500BCE) and Paleolithic(which means Old Stone Age, or the development of first stone tools). So it is real interesting to see where we, humans begin. Also, I've printed the lecture notes of Calculus. It's so simplified! And it looked hard. The terms and so on. And it's on functions! OMG! Haizz.. I think I'll really need a textbook.
After which, went down and played ball with Brenda at 7.30pm. Super duper sian. There's nobody there at all! I didn't know people will celebrate National Day! Oh, Singaporeans are really so patriotic! But there were still some people. However, playing with them was damn damn sian. So we just randomly played some matches and then me and Brenda went to the coffee shop and chit-chat. So, tomorrow I'll be meeting her for breakfast. Hence, got to sleep early today. Also we'll be going to NorthPoint tomorrow after that. Hope that I don't spend too much tomorrow. Recently was on a shopping spree. Sure to spend when I go out. Ok, shall try to save up. Though whenever I think of having taught 2tuition lessons, I've earned $100, but that's still not alot considering that I've spent up almost all of my 'future' money. Ok, try to cut back ZhiJun, jiayou... ...
10:51 PM
Friday, August 7, 2009
Printed out the reading materials for the module HY2206. There were 3 copies of it. Decided to read it later on. Bidded for my last module: LSM1302. Ok, after bidding this module, I've got to work harder because I'm killing myself. 3 modules having the final examination on the same day. 23 Nov, morning: CZ1102; afternoon: MA1102R; evening: LSM1302. After that, felt real restless.
Went to Toa Payoah Safra to collect race pack. Initially wanted to get it tomorrow. However, since I had nothing to do now, might as well go and take it. Helped Bro to take too. The goodie bag wasn't really nice. Haiz. Wasted money on it. But nonetheless, after completing this I'll still be able to get a medal.
Reached home and read the materials that I've printed. OMG! The things about China archaeology was so damn confusing! However, after reading the second set of materials, I managed to understand it more. Guess the first reading material was too chim. Summarised the notes at the side so as to make it less confusing. However, my headache was back and I decided to take a rest. Anyway, it was dinner time too. And mum cooked today. It's been a long time since she last cooked a meal. So today's dinner was finally not packed food.
Looked through the tutorial timetable after that. Tried my best to make it compact and nice and onto 4 days. Monday is definitely not tutorial day when I've got 8hours of lectures in which 6hours of them are back to back. So decided to cram all my tutorials and laboratory classes into Tuesday and Wednesday. Finally came up with a good one. However, since I'm allowed balloting up to 20 rankings, I continued to allocate the lessons in case I didn't get any of them. Looks like I'll be rushing for my module MA1102R lecture on Thursdays since for HY2206, the only suitable time slot for me is the 2hours just before MA1102R lectures. It's really rush as I got to travel from FASS to FOS. So guess that I'll have to catch the online webcast for it every odd week since HY2206 tutorials are held only on odd week. Anyway, hope that I can get the tutorial according to the time slot that I've arranged and not many people placed them the way I did.
My headache is coming back again. Grrr.. Guess I'll stop here for today.
11:50 PM
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Woke up with a terrible headache today. There's a bidding round today, however, after looking through it for many times, still was not able to find a suitable last module to bid. And MA1101R had too many bidders bidding for it. Highest bid was 599 and there's only 1 vacancy. So I might as well forget about it.
Decided to bid for it instead in round3. Noticed that MA1101R will still only have 1vacancy in round3. So decided to look for other modules. Found out another module-EC1101E. This definitely will have enough spaces and hence I should be able to get this module.
Head is still throbbing painful now. I guess I'll stop using my lappy now, going to read my storybooks.
9:14 PM
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Was really tired today. I guessed cause last night I slept late and also very tired from all the walking and so on. Managed to get myself up at 11am as I'm meeting Xin later at 12++ at City Hall MRT to celebrate her birthday with her. At the same time, I can go there and take a look at whether there are any laptop cases.
After a bath, I felt so much more refresh. While taking a train to meet up with Xin, saw alot of China people. So sian. One of them dressed up damn uglily. One look and you can see that she's from China. With her short curly permed hair and a bright pink long sleeve cartoon printed shirt and a bright pink pants that match her shirt, it looked like she's going to bed instead of going out! Like a pajamas suit!
Met ZiXin at 12.40pm. She had already reached there quite early as her lesson ended within half an hour. Made her travel all the way to Dover to attend such a short lecture. What a waste of time. We walked over to Suntec City and had our lunch at Aston's. I ate the black pepper chicken and it tasted rather nice. Next, we walked around aimlessly. Not exactly aimlessly. I was trying to look for my laptop case. Eventually, we walked into a Nike shop and I spotted the laptop sleeve. Though it's Nike, there's an offer for it-40% less! So it costs only $21! So much more cheaper than some of the cases at Popular which are brandless! And this, it's a Nike brand!
This is a picture of the case I bought. Nice looking right? The feel of the case was also not bad. There's another dirty green colour. However the colour looked really weird. So I took this black one instead.
Bought the case for $20.95. Finally gotten it! And not a bad looking one somemore! After which, we continued to walk around and visited Raffles City. I hardly visited it, but surprisingly, there's not much things to see either. But we visited some of the shops to look at some things like toys and ornaments from CardsNsuch and also Precious Thots. I also helped Xin to take a photo of the front of Swatch shop secretly as we're not allowed to take pictures of the stuff in the shop. After that, we went to a toilet next to Coffee Club. It's very quiet and despite having alot of cubicles, it seemed that there would not be alot of people visiting it except for the shopkeepers around here. We also took some random pictures there. Didn't use the mirrors to take the pictures as Xin said that her mum always said scary things about takig picture using mirror might capture those 'things' as well.We're trying to look ugly. But instead look funny and weird. LolThis is another picture that we're supposed to make faces but Xin smiled! -.-
After that we bidded each other farewell and I also passed the Stitch plushie that I bought to Xin with a card that I wrote for her. Haha. Luckily Xin didn't have the plushie so she can add it to her collection.
When I got home, initially wanted to go online to CORS to look at my modules one last time. But still miss the timing, so took a look at the summary of the open bidding round. The summary showed that I should be able to get my modules. And I checked my NUSemail too, but it seemed that they've yet to complete the allocation. So just have to wait till nighttime. Initially, intended to go for a jog and after that maybe go play ball. However, the sky was really dark, so not really sure whether I wanted to or was able to go for a run. Brenda called me to ask whether I wanted to ball. I said okay, but not confirm since the sky was dark and might rain anytime. However, will go down if it didn't rain. Anyway, going to have my dinner and hopefully can go for a run or ball later.
Just came back from balling. Very tired. Wonder whether I will still be able to play ball like this when school starts. Just check my email. Gotten the 2 module I wanted. All just using 1 point! Haha~ Now left MA1101R to bid for. However, only left 1 vacancy in round 2B! WTH! Maybe should try appealing I guess. If really no choice.
Now still not sure whether I want to go for the dean's talk tomorrow or not. If bro successfully rented the car and able to drive me back from NUS, I don't mind going for the talk. Though it's just 2hours. And might not be going for the rag preparation tomorrow. Feel so tired.
5:32 PM
Woke up at 5.30am today. Super duper early. Don't really feel like going at all. And started to regret my decision of going flag day. However, after washing up, felt so much better. Met ZhiLin at her block and walked to MRT station together. We reached Bugis at 6.35am, 5minutes early. When we reached there, I was feeling hungry, and ZhiLin wanted to look for a washroom, hence we walked to the other exit, to find Mac's, which most probably will have a washroom. Sadly, when we reached, there isn't one. Oh, and by the way, we're not the earliest to reach. There's another freshie who got there earlier than us. In the end, I bought a meal, $2.50 sausage mCmuffin with tea and ate there. By 7.30am, we have yet to begin. And we were supposed to start at 7am! There're even people starting to ask for donation as early as 6.30am! WTH! So kiasu! LOLS
Anyway, my group was allocated to Lavender. So me, Jolyn, ZhiLin, Gienah, SuYong and Mag and another senior whom I can't remember the name, took the MRT to Lavender. After which, we split into 2 groups. Me, Gienah, SuYong and Mag one group. While ZhiLin, Jolyn were in another group with the senior. When we reached Lavender, there were already people from other Faculties and Halls asking for donation! And we've just started! I bet they must be from Business, since I heard the seniors saying that Biz fac people very chiong one. Lol.
We started off rather smoothly. However, there were only old people around the area. Despite this, we found out that the senior citizens tend to be more willing to donate than the younger working people who have an air of snobbishness around some of them. One thing I liked about flag day is I actually get to see the different reactions of people when they see us holding cans. They will- 1) smile and mouth no thanks 2) just smile 3) said they've donated already 4) die die point to the sticker that they've gotten even if we've seen them 5) say that they don't have change (some of them will go buy stuff and get change back if they're walking back to the same place. Otherwise, forget it.) 6) say no 7) put up a hand to stop us 8) detour (there are many ways to do this, some looked very humurous to me. Seems like we're more scary than SARS patients!) 9) donate (and sometimes ask what is it for) 10) [I hate this category the most] Become a handicapped, in-need-of-help person themselves : Blind, dumb, deaf.(Didn't see you there, didn't hear you there, didn't answer you back)
These are mostly the typical reactions of people, with numbers 1,2,3and9 more common than the rest. Of course, other ways to avoid us include walking super fast when we stopped one of the people infront of them to donate, or suddenly break into a run to run for the bus or to cross the traffic junction.
I started off with one of the auntie at the coffee shop giving me a $0.50 donation and another auntie giving me a $2 note. Not too bad, I thought to myself. Especially when I've yet to begin asking for their donation. However, the coffee shop area has already been occupied so we moved to the opposite side of the road, at the HDB flats area. Anyway, the collection at the HDB flats, where me and Gienah started off with was not really good. One thing was because the people returning from the market had mostly donated to those leechers at the market way earlier than us. Another is because there were mostly senior citizens there and I don't really have the cheek to ask some of them especially since some of them are in need of help themselves. And they themsevles are also not working. So at 10am, me and Gienah moved to another place. Suyong's place was surprisingly good. He got alot of people to donate for him. I guess he used 'mei se' to hook up those aunties to get them to donate for him. Hahaha~ And after that, the place where I stood was a traffic junction. Though the crowd was not large, but as they were waiting for the traffic light, I targeted them to donate. So, I was able to get many of them to donate. However, for Gienah's side, it was not as well, so we decided to move on.
We moved into the HDB area, and onto Beach Road. Then we split up. I took the upper side of the road while SuYong, Mag and Gienah took the inner part. The place that I stood did not have alot of crowd. Mostly just a few people walking past and in addition, not all of them donated too! So, I walked upwards somemore to The Concourse building. It seemed that there were crowds there. Sadly, crowds tend to be gone when I appear! WTH!
I stood there for awhile, 'business' was not really good. So I walked back down to the hawker again. However, since it was morning time, there wasn't alot of people there either. No choice, I got to make another trip back up the overheard bridge to the St John's building there. However, halfway up the stairs, I noticed that behind the hawker, in the midst of the HDB flats area, there seemed to have a number of crowds. So I went back down and in again. I stood at a junction between one of the hawker centre which also link to some shops. Managed to get some of the people there to donate. And it seemed to go on well until a few 'vultures' came along! They occupied my region, taking away most of my 'food'. And it seemed that they've strategised well. One of them went around asking for donation from those uncles and aunties or grandmas, grandpas sitting down, the other stood at the other end of the road that I'm in-charge, asking for donation! And since then, the number of donation that I've collected started to drop! Nonetheless, I still managed to make some nice amounts of donation. And there's this Auntie who's quite nice. She donated to me previously, and when she walked past me the second time again, she donated a $10 note! That's the first and largest contribution to my collection can! After which, there were a number of people who continued to make contribution to my can before there came along this auntie who started scolding me while she's taking out her money to donate. She said that why I was so stupid as to stay here and ask all the old man and woman money instead of going over to KeyPoint where all the OLs and businessmen reside in. They will be more willing to give and have money as the senior citizens here mostly don't really have money. I replied that most of the people there don't have coins and will not be likely to make a donation. And that's the worst mistake I made as she started to nag at me, scolding nagging while at the same time, struggling to take her coins out. So I totally shut off her speech, which is a skill I've learnt after listening to Arthur nagging at me everytime he called me to his office, and waited patiently for her to make her $0.20 donation. That's the hardest donation that I've ever made.
So after being scolded by her, I can't really risk staying here any longer to get nagged by her again if I see her later on. So I walked back to Beach Road and crossed the overhead bridge once more to the St John's HQ area. There, I managed to get some collection. But the progress was too slow. And the crowd too little. And there were people who will stand at the overhead bridge, halfway down the stairs, looking at his phone, finding ways to make a call to someone so that I'll not bother him before he made his way down. And there was also one man who stood at the other stairway of the overhead bridge, saw me, detour a bit and made his way up the stairs instead of walking over to my side. Finally, knowing that things were not going to get any better even if I continue to stand there for another hour, I made my way up once more to the place where it seemed that there was alot of office boys and ladies. Managed to get more collections this time round and there was this caucasian who winked at me after he donated for me! Seemed so friendly!I made my way down further later on to the middle part of the road between the POSB, UOB ATMs and KeyPoint. There, I managed to get quite alot of donations. Although I kept seeing familiar faces again and again and even asked them to make a donation when they've donated for me! And I realised it only after I've asked them. I've also met some of my ssssseniors who donated for me as well. One of them said that he had done this 35 years ago, another 25 years. And there's some younger ones who said that he must support since is from NUSSU, while his colleagues said that he was not from NUS so he need not donate. -.- And, not surprisingly, 'vultures' started to flock up my territory in awhile's time. And my donations started to drop once more...
Initially intended to finish my first whole piece of sticker before lunch time, however, wasn't able to meet that target as many of the donators decline to get a sticker and with the emergence of the 'vultures', it made it even harder for me to complete my target. So, went to meet up with the rest at near 12noon to have lunch instead. Gienah's can was super heavy. I guess the other overhead bridge had more people passing by. Had Ba Ku Teh and sugercane with lemon before we started off to flag again at near 1pm. Since this is the lunchtime, it's a good opportunity for us to get more people to donate as many of the working class people will be coming down to have their lunch and we'll be able to get more people to donate. So we started to station ourselves at different points along KeyPoint building. We stopped at 2.40pm to take a rest and Mag had to handle 2 troublesome guys who didn't went to make donation but instead went off to have breakfast from 9-11am! And they still dared to ask Mag what time is their lunch!!! So Mag got them to station themselves around KeyPoint while the 4 of us took a rest a Mr Bean. I bought a drink and we sat down and talked crap and also about what we've seen and experienced so far. Gienah complained about 1 woman who don't want to donate when she saw her approaching to ask, but instead donated to SuYong! Lol! So one thing that's certain, SuYong charmed that lady! Haha~
We rested until about 3.10pm before we went over to 'pick up' the other 2 guys and started our flagging again. The second part of the flagging didn't go on too smoothly as there were lesser crowds now that lunch time's over. We stationed ourselves back to the place where I originally stood at 10am, at the traffic junction there. We split ourselves up and went off to flag. At the place I was flagging, I was asked by a senior, mostly from biz, since she asked me to do a survey on marketing. And when I mentioned that i was from Science faculty, her face went a bit blank and then continue smiling to ask me to complete the survey for her while she made a donation for me. It was just a simple survey about my hobbies and preferences. So since the crowd was not alot too, I helped her to do them. After which, one of the guys came over and I directed him up to the traffic light area. After a few more moments, I realised that the place I stood was not a very good place either, and hence moved upwards. Since that guy was already at the junction, I crossed the road to the other side. Following up is a series of walking around, up and down. I walked to the bus terminal for buses to Johor and then walked back down and crossed the traffic light. I walked past Raffles Hospital and saw Bugis Village, but made a U-turn back. Then I walked back to the traffic light where that guy was standing and he was gone!
Assuming he went to find better places to get donations, I took over the traffic junction area. However, it seemed like the people there were all unwilling to make donation. Without a choice, I made my way back to the spot where we split up to look for the rest. And they were all missing! So I stood at the traffic light there to continue my flagging. But the crowd now doesn't really want to donate. So I made my way back to the market area where we started our flagging, hopefully to find the rest and perhaps flag there instead.
When I got there, there were no NUS students at all. I took SuYong's place and managed to get 2 people to donate $2 each to my can. However, after that, the rate of donation made by the people didn't increase anymore. Hence, I started to make my way back to the traffic light again. I crossed the traffic light instead of standing at my usual spot, hopefully able to target those people who alighted from the bus. But, this was a terrible mistake. They started to make turns and cut across the road to the bus-stop instead of taking the paveway to the bus-stop. There's even this man who made a U-turn and cut through the bushes, walking by the side of the road instead of the pavement to avoid me! By then, it was already near 5pm. And I'm starting to find myself feeling lethargic and legs turning wobbly.
I tried to squeeze all the remaining stickers onto the can so that I could throw the sticker slip away. However, no matter how much I tried to squeeze, I still couldn't manage to get all of them onto the can!
This is just a picture of the tin can that I used to ask for donations. Oh, we're flagging for 20 different communities this year and all are listed there. So whenever there're people who asked about what we're doing, I just show them this. Haha~
I continued flagging, hoping to clear all the stickers but it was real hard work. And just at the time when I thought I was going to die, Gienah called me! She's at the Jin Jin Cha Cang Ting with Mag. So I went over to meet up with them. It turned out that I was supposed to look after the guy who came over to my side. But I didn't know and I thought he would be standing there collecting donations as before he left my sight, he was doing quite fine, asking for donations. So when I met up with Mag and Gienah, it turned out that he went MIA. Lol. But managed to find him in the end. And Suyong wanted to do night flagging when just now during the break, he seemed so tired! He's so enthu! Lol. For me and Gienah, we slacked at the place until end of flag day!
Went back to return the cans. And we walked from Lavender back to Bugis so as to save trip fare. I think that I've walked about 3-4km today. And my legs were going to break anytime. This is the first time that I'm so enthu into flag day. Normally for flag day, I would just slack away and go shopping after i felt that I've made enough donations. This is the first time that I almost filled up the can and there were 2 $10 and more than 15 $2 notes in it! To prove that I've really worked hard, my right wrist has the tanned line from my watch.
Oh, you might not be able to see it clearly as I took it using my phone, not camera. So it's only 5 megapixel not 10. But you can roughly make out the white patches.
I went over to Northpoint, wanting to get hot chocolate again as I'm running low on them. At the same time, bought a birthday present for Zixin as I'm meeting her tomorrow to celebrate her birthday with her.
Also bought myself dinner. And by the time I got home and finish bathing, it was already 8.40pm. Ate my dinner and started to look for suitable modules again. Finally I gave up. It seemed impossible for me to arrange a 3-day week with no clashes and with modules that are not expensive and I'm interested in. So in the end, I chose HY2206: China's Imperial Past-History&Culture. I really liked China history for those of you who do not know. Especially China's ancient history. When I told my bro about this, he was shocked too and asked me which dynasty is my favourite. I think I really liked Qing dynasty. It's like the most happening dynasty in China's history, with 3 considerable great emperors. And initially, I intended to buy a book on the emperors' histories and dynasties instead of the history on the changing times of China. However, the book seemed very simplified and that it was already not in good condition. And to buy it for $20++, I would rather go Kinokuniya to buy a whole new book and wrap it up myself to prevent folded pages.
So, finally I've made almost all my choices. When I got MA1101R in the next round (hopefully), I would have all the essential modules for Level 1 completed. And next semester, I would be able to bid for more Stats module instead of having to get Comp mod and Maths mod. Oh, and I received the reply from the QET in-charge! It seems that I'll still be able to take my QET in November and registration will start during November! That' my last chance. But super sian still. Because my earliest exam commences on 21 November! This means that I'll have to spend time looking through my English GP notes while having an exam 5days before, since QET exam is on 16November! Nonetheless, I guess should be okay la. Added the website in favourites and capitalize it! Make sure that everytime I scroll down the list, I'll be able to see it and remind myself to go check the webpage for registration.
I know this is a super long post. As I really put down almost all the details of my flag day down. Many will ask why did I go for Flag day? It's such a waste of time. Perhaps for some. But I see it in another way. It made me learn about human behaviour. And it's really interesting to see how different people react differently. And as time passed, you'll roughly guess whether a person is highly likely, likely, not likely or highly not likely to make a donation from their body languages and eye contact and movement. So I guess, it's a great lesson for me today :)
Oh, for those of you who noticed about the title of this post, it's actually The Day With The Metallic Monster. The Metallic Monster is of course the tin can. And why is it monster, is because for everyone that sees it, they'll turn their back and walk away, detour, become blind, dumb and deaf. That's why it is a monster. It destroyed a person! But anyway, I felt fulfilling to be the owner of this monster for today, having learnt a great deal through it ^^
1:24 AM
Welcome!
Life is full of uncertainty, and it is these uncertainty that makes life colourful and interesting... ...
AboutMe
Name: Ow-Yang Zhi Jun
Age: 19
D.O.B: 1 November
Horoscope: Scorpio
Hobbies: Sports-basketball;Badminton;Swimming;Bowling;Pool, Surfing the net, Facebook
Schools: Naval Base Primary School, Yishun Town Secondary School, Anderson Junior College, National University of Singapore
Wish List
* CAP of MIN 4.0 throughout my university life! :) *
>> Repair my Laptop!
>> Get my driving license by September >> Get a haircut >> Get a slipcase(nice one) for my lappy >> Anti-virus software-most probably AVG
>> Get a crumpler bag
>> 14.1" screen protector for my laptop
>> Basketball shoes-though now not playing in team, but still playing outside! And my current shoe no friction and cushion already!
>> Get iTouch
>> A pair of slippers(comfy type + for beach)
>> A wallet to put my keys(to prevent them from scratching things like my handphone and mp3, actually just for convenience)
>> Get a NEW Keyboard protector (old one torn -.-)
>> Get a better mouse(wireless)
>> Heels(to match some of my clothes)
>> A cupboard-cum-bookshelves for my books
>> 2KG Dumbells(to start doing abit of training lest my arms get flabby!)
>> Buy a dog (preferably Shetland Sheepdog or Border Collie)
>> Get a pinky ring to 避邪 and 防小人
It got a fingerprint recognizing sensor! At the bottom right. So need your fingerprint to log in.
Ok, another few digits for you to buy 4-D. LOL.
The NUS shirt. Looked nice right? The design is real nice. I like it!
Simple but real nice!
A picture me and bro took before we moved off. We've completed 21KM together on 16 August 2009!
Russell Lee, signing on the book and meeting his fans. Still wrapping up and covering his face. I guess one of the reasons he is famous is because he never reveal his face to the readers. So mystery breeds curiosity and thus bring about more fans and supporters.
His 19th book. Originally $10.35. But offering a 20% discount so it is $8.50.
The signature he gave. And also words he wrote. I didn't really spoke to him much since I'm not really a fan of him. But nevertheless, I still try to act as friendly as though I'm his loyal fan! Lol! Oh and they gave out a number of freebies as well, like a memo pad, a notebook, a wristband and also a poster. But I guessed I'll not post all these pictures here. Firstly because it was quite troublesome for me to do so and I didn't see the need to anyway. Just letting you know what things there were is enough already.
Oh, this is a picture taken with the medal and my bib number when I got home. You might want to buy a 4-D too if you liked! Haha~
Add to the collection of my medals and trophy. The most extreme right of the photo. tried to highlight it, apparently, black colour doesn't really shows as it is too dark.
These are all my prized collections. Haha. Almost all are sports related. However, there are non-academic de. Including essay-writing trophy, leadership plague etc.
Finally re-arrange them and put them neatly. It's so much spacious now.
By the time I finished arranging all my stuff, it was already 9pm. After finished watching Forensic Heroes 2, Brenda called me down. So I went over to Block623 to gave her back her Twilight bookmark and also talk talk. 
This is a picture of the case I bought. Nice looking right? The feel of the case was also not bad. There's another dirty green colour. However the colour looked really weird. So I took this black one instead.
We're trying to look ugly. But instead look funny and weird. Lol
This is another picture that we're supposed to make faces but Xin smiled! -.-
I tried to squeeze all the remaining stickers onto the can so that I could throw the sticker slip away. However, no matter how much I tried to squeeze, I still couldn't manage to get all of them onto the can!
This is just a picture of the tin can that I used to ask for donations. Oh, we're flagging for 20 different communities this year and all are listed there. So whenever there're people who asked about what we're doing, I just show them this. Haha~