Finally, I have graduated

Many things have happened between the end of the examinations & the release of results, some of which I have revealed in this blog, some of which are secrets I hold close to my heart. This is indeed the day I have been waiting for a very long time. 26 years or thereabouts. The day which most parents expect to see too, when I graduate from a university.

The road has indeed been long, but I have made it & so have some of my closest friends.

8038
DK7
OST
yenchua

& many others which my feeble brain is unable to recall each of the names. A million apologies.

EK7, we are all waiting for you at the finish line, hang in there.

Now I have some spare time on my hands, I would like to take this opportunity to update my blog more frequently.

Ja neh!!!

End of exams (Dec 2006)

The examinations have ended. For now. No idea what my results will be like. 3 papers are on the knife's edge, it could so go the other if Lady Luck is not very happy with me. Come to think of it, She is not happy with me most of the time. I pray that the bell curve gets shift all the way to the left. No inspiration for new posts at the moment, even less motivation to finish previous incomplete articles. Let the dust settles for a wittle while more before I get my posterior moving.

I hope all of us can graduate as soon as possible, then make our mark in this society, of which there are many things I am unsatisfied with.

Widening income gap is my main concern.

I must break out of the poverty cycle!!!

Ja neh!!!

For those struggling with their sanity because of the examinations

I just want to say, when you think you have hit rock bottom & things can't get any worse, the only way to go now is up!!!

Up, up & away!!!

Stubborn cow

I cut my nails again because I found them a wee bit too long for my liking. Sigh. Why can't I just wait till after the examinations?

Everything I studied is now in the wastepaper basket.

Back to square one.

I'm such an idiot.

All nighter in Seminar Room 6 (S3)

Exam welfare goodie bag from Se7en

Studying makes me hungry really quickly, even though not much of the brain is being utilized. It is during times like these when I snack a little.

Thank you for the goodie bag bro!!!

Ferrari Enzo not included.

Ja neh!!!

Exam Taboo 01

Do your remember the saying that knowledge should be at your fingertips? Well, I just cut my nails so I guess the knowledge at my "fingertips" are now in the dustbin.


Damn, I have forgotten the little knowledge I have revised so far!!!

Sigh, time to start all over again & go back to the drawing board.

:(

Do not cut your fingernails or remove the dirt that has accumulated underneath them!!!

Ja neh!!!

NTU lecturer & his feedback forms

I guess some of you have heard about this video as it is making its rounds among the student population. Mischa sent me one of the sites on which this video was hosted so I went YouTube to search for it. As some of you might already know, the feedback forms make their appearance at the end of every lecturer's part & I am guessing whether they are promoted or getting a pay raise is never dependent on what is written on these forms that cost SGD$0.22 each. Well, they are printed on thick, good quality paper, but that is all they are worth. Usually a lecturer will teach for one half of the semester, either before the recess or after.

No matter how badly a lecturer teaches, he never gets cautioned or sacked, so in my opinion it is just a formality. Something to show the auditors to get ISO certification or something like that. I have seen my fair share of horrible + terrible lecturers, whom nobody can understand their accents, or what they are trying to teach us. Some are just plain lazy & smoking his way through. Sometimes it is really not their fault but trust me, there are those who are doing more harm than good to the undergraduate population.

Anyway, enjoy this video & work hard for the exams. I believe he is a EEE (Electrical & Electronic Engineering) lecturer. AT least some of them seem genuine in their desire to teach in a manner that captures a student's attention rather than make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

By the way, I feel NTU are paying their lecturers too much. I definitely cannot afford to keep a mistress even if I want to, or if a girl / woman / sweet young thing wants to be my Number Two because the bar has been raised so high. You know who I am talking about. Yes, it is you. My personal opinion. First, I need to find Numero Uno. Are you out there or have I already found you?

Lastly, if all of my lecturers are just half as entertaining, I would have been on the Dean's List for 4 consecutive years & graduated with First Class Honours. I know I am not that stewpig, just unbelieveably lazy. :(

Ja neh!!!

Afternoon drive from NTU to 907 kopi tiam

Hey guys, here's my very first video that I have posted on YouTube. It is the journey to the coffeeshop. Not as exciting & dangerous as compared to the Journey to the West, & we are in the western part of Singapore liao!!!

Video got cut off halfway because of the stewpig Samsung UltraSlim 12.9 mobile phone. While it captures decent videos, it cannot record directly to the external memory card & the internal memory runs out pretty quickly when taking videos at the highest resolution.

Enjoy!!!

Ja neh!!!

What civil engineers study in NTU

The war has begun!!!

Fellow students of NTU as well as (insert name of school you are studying in), every semester we will receive this email in out mailbox, informing us of the commencement of the welfare package for the revision period. This only means one thing to me, the exams are dawning upon us like a plague & it is time to prepare to fight the war.

I hope this will be the last semester for those late bloomers, i.e. 4.5 years & above, as well as a rewarding semester for those still on track to graduate on time.



Please ask me out to study!!! I cannot do it on my own!!!

Fight-to fight-to!!!

Assembling global coordinates matrix

My timetable for semester 01 06/07

Just a simple entry before I go to sleep. My hair is still wet. This is my timetable for the semester. Hopefully it would be the last timetable I have to plan. It is 99% confirmed, barring any last minute changes.

I hope everyone can graduate at the end of this semester.

Ja neh!!!

Blogging during Hydrology lecture

Darence is on time (what do you think is the possibility of this happeneing?) & Jasmine, who has already passed this module, is sitting in with me as she has a free period before her Integrated Design meeting. It seems that they are to design a bridge this time, which might seem a little easier than the amphithreatre the previous time it was offered in 2005.

However, I'm sure every house has a book that is very hard to read, so maybe it might not be any easier than designing the amphithreate.














I bet the question on our mind is how come I am not paying attention to the lecture but blogging instead. Well, that is a very difficult question that cannot be answered by simple theories or simple research. The difficulty of answering this question can be on par with the type of questions that deals with the purpose of having human beingson planet Earth.

Anyway the first step to designing would be to first determine the service life of the bridge & the purpose of the bridge? So here are some pictures of bridges that I found on google. Heez.

Darence would like me to mention too that he is very hardoworking, unlike me, & he is paying full attention to the lecturer & taking down notes to summarize the concepts being taught. (Once again, what is the possibility of this happeneing?)

Ja neh!!!

Alone in NTU

After 2 lectures (Structures 2 & Wastewater Engineering), it is time for a break. Since I have no appetite for lunch, I decided to go to the CEE "Club House" for some airconditioned comfort & a spot of surfing on the information superhighway. I brought along my lappy because I have a 3 hour break in between lessons.

While I managed to log onto NTU's imfamous network, MSN seems to be a bit of a challenge. MSN for Mac seems to be okie but it gets disconnected every other 5 minutes or so, but Adium which is supposed to be the more stable program doesn't even want to log in. Sigh.

Sandy told me my notes will be ready in the afternoon, so I might go home after collecting them. The next lesson is Reinforced Concrete Design lecture & it is a repeat module.

Ja neh!!!

Fastest Finger First

It is that time of the semester again, where all students, at their designated times, will play this game we all hate to play, called Fastest Finger First. It is just another name for our subject / module registration process where everybody has an equal chance to get the limited time slots for each module / subject.

For every subject, there is only one slot of the lectures but a few options for the tutorials. That is what we are trying to arrange into an oder that we are most comfortable with. Some people like to have a free day within the study week, so the lessons are pretty packed. Others want a more spreaded-out arrangement. Early birds want to start early & end early while a lot of students staying in hostel might want to start the day late & do not mind ending late. Some do not want many breaks in between lessons, the rest do not mind. So everybody's timetable is a bit different from the rest.

The modules you take in each semester also determine the outcome of this game. Some modules like Prescribed Electives will clash with Core Modules & you are forced to drop some in oder to register for the rest.

Anyway, I do not want to bore you with the specifics of this game. All you need to know is it might cause serious heart problems & breathing difficulties, hence it only takes place once a semester. Here is the tentative timetable I am aiming for. Awaiting approval to take the next higher level module. Sigh.

All there is to do now is to wait for the add / drop period.

Ja neh!!!

Boring day

Nothing much happened in the past few days since the last post. Had my GP 07 exams yesterday which was a disaster. The exam questions were no surprises. I even managed to spot the first compulsory question & a few others before the exam but there was a severe lack of preparation. Too little too late, again. Sigh, when will I ever learn my lesson. Maybe I should just post some pictures I have in my computer. Anyway the weather is pretty cool this morning, making it a nice day to sleep in, but I know I should probably pack my room or go to the gym or book my IPPT. How come I procrastinate so much? Must be some bad gene I have in my body. Wonder who gave the gene to me?

The mouse is probably having more fun than I have in my whole life!!! He (I assume it's a male, no reasons for my assumption) knows what he wants & how to get it. He takes risks & lives life to the fullest. I just live day by day. There's something seriously wrong with me. How can I have a life-changing experience that would make me the opposite of what I am now? Hmmm...

Anybody out there had something (nice or otherwise) happened to them that let them see life in a different way? Please share.

Ja neh!!!

Update on GP07 examination tips

Today I was studying alone for the coming GP07 exam at Kallang Mac. Was looking through the tips & the lesson plan when I realized that the tutor had effectively told us to study 95% of the content. What tips?!! Phew chao nuah!!!

He just read from the lecture summary that he gave us on the first day of lessons. I though he was a nice guy who understands how serious we are about General Electives & want to help us in our revision by leaving out the things he will not set questions on. But NNNNnnnnooooooooo, he wants us to study everything. He wouldn't even confirm with us the format of the exam paper.

I really thought he was on our side, now come to think of it, he is trying to throw a huge smoke bomb and confuse all of us. Sigh.

Guys, just study everything lah, don't even hope the past year paper he gave us will be of any help. And don't be like me, take 6 modules, bao 3, the rest all D-. How stewpig can a person get? Time to quit smoking soon, who knows what it is doing to my brain. Time to quit drinking, who knows what it is doing to my brain too. Time to eat those bloody farking books (actually, mostly lecture notes & tutorials lah, not much textbooks)!!!

Ee-tah-dah-key-mahss (itadakimasu)!!!

GP07 examination tips

Ladies & gentlemen, here are the tips that our dear tutor has given to us after the last presentations. For those of you who have missed the lesson, I hope you can make sense of what I wrote here because I did not sleep the night before just to finish rushing the report & presentation. For those of you who were there for the lesson, compare this with what you have copied & if there are any differences, please let me know.

Do ignore the comment about ass rimming.


Here are the parts which I think are important.

Lecture 1 (Understanding Organization)

• Introduction to organization (its vision, mission & values)
• Characteristic features of an organization
• Elements of organization structure
• Function of organizations

Lecture 2 (Organization Coporate Culture)

• Definition of coporate culture
• Cultural typologies (types of organizational structure lah!!!)
• Fostering a people-centered culture
• Examples of cultural change

Lecture 3 (Creating Team-based Organizations)

• Principles for managing people in a team-based organization
• Understanding the elements of a team-based organization
• Establish measurement criteria & feedback systems
• Performance based rewards and compensation

Lecture 5 (Framework for Organization Change) (Should be one of the more important lectures)

• Needs & benefits to change
• Conditions for organizational change
• Models for systematic planned change
• Analysing change models

Lecture 6 (Concepts for Management of Change)

• Targets of organization change
• Task of implementing change
• Problems & barriers to change
• Importance of employee participation & involvement in change
• Guidelines to implementing change

Lecture 8 (Organization Development Techniques & Skills)

• Definition of OD (not overdose hor!!!, organizational development hor!!!)
  
• Characteristics of OD process
• OD techniques
• OD skills

Lecture 10 (Motivation)

• Myths of motivation
• Theories of motivation
• Integrative approaches to motivation

Lecture 11 (Holistic Approaches to Managing Change)

• Total Quality Management (TQM) (I got a feeling this is not crucial)
• Success factors in TQM (I also got a feeling this is not crucial)
• Business process re-engineering (I feel that we should concentrate on this)

I want to disclaim that these tips are what I have taken note when Francis Lim gave a short summary of what is important. There are by no means conclusive or definitive. Do not treat it like it will come out in the exams. Tutors & lecturers have a bad reputation of confusing students with tips. Just study hard & if I have done a proper revision, I will post whatever I have discovered here. So do watch for any updates or new posts.

Gambattee!!!

Ja neh!!!

GP07 presentation

The final day of our Special Semester General Elective lesson. The presentation. Running on pure adrenaline due to lack of sleep. I was the fourth person to make my presentation that morning , out of 13 people. Jasmine & another guy made theirs on Monday.

Ben making his presentation on how to assemble high performance teams. I think.

Darence giving his presentation on how to manage organizational change or something like that. My presentation was on innovation.





Due to time constraints, there was no break given that day, & everybody was told to just dive into the gist of the topic. No lengthy background introduction, no history lesson on how the company came out. Just introduction, recommendations, conclusions, questions from tutor & the floor. Wham, bam, thank you madam, just the way I like it. If you are thinking dirty, of course I understand the fundamentals & importance of building on the mood and foreplay, but sometimes, I want to be in the driver's seat. Actually, most of the time. Wait, make that ALL of the time. Muahahahahaha (evil laughter).

Everybody did a very good job with their report & presentation. Heez.

Ja neh!!!