Several ominous things have happened in the past few hours. my chicken rice chili packet exploded burst when i dropped it, and i lost about $16000 (in virtual money) in online mahjong. is this a sign of things to come, or have these 2 mishaps helped me ward off something potentially greater? it depends on the school of superstition you subscribe to i guess. personally, i really, really hope it's the latter.

by right, i'm supposed to be doing my physics assignment (reading up on nanotechnology) now, but the michael jackson concert's showing on TV. what a convenient distraction! lucky the assignment isn't too heavy...a trip to wikipedia should give me all the information i need.

went back for judo training today. didn't get as much of a workout as i'd have liked, but at least it beat rotting at home. relatively few people showed up today though, which was kind of a dampener. managed to catch up with a few of my friends, one of whom is going overseas to study law. it's kind of funny...i never expected law to be such a popular degree choice. let's see now...i know 8 people (all of them are my age) who are/will be studying law either locally or overseas. who'd have thought?

anyway, i'm thinking of going down to join in on one of NUS judo's training sessions. if all goes well, i'll go for the one on this coming monday. no coach there = less potential for something bad to happen. but right now, it's time for me to finish up my physics thing. and if i'm feeling particularly hardworking, i'll go through my chem notes and come up with a condensed formula list.

before i go off to do all that nasty stuff, here's a little poem (+ variations) which i stumbled across:

The Purple Cow - Original
I've never seen a purple cow;
I never hope to see one;
but I can tell you anyhow;
I'd rather see than be one.

Variations
I've never seen a purple cow.
My eyes with tears are full.
I've never seen a purple cow,
And I'm a purple bull.

----------

I've never seen a purple cow.
I never hope to see one.
But from the milk we're getting now,
There certainly must be one!

-random thought of the day: Lab reports are a pain.-

Ever since the start of school, i've been getting the feeling that the weeks are becoming shorter. after a couple of repetitions of my schedule, i think i've finally figured out why. my monday's timetable is extermely similar to thursday's, and the same goes for tuesdays and fridays. on top of that, wednesday's a day off. so it's like within one actual work week, i have 2 mini-weeks and 1 mini-weekend. what's worse is that secondary school and JC have sort of conditioned me to expect 7 classes per day on average, in which i'll see about 5 different tutors/lecturers. however, in university, i have 2 lectures a day and 2 to 3 tutorials per week. converted to JC equivalents, that's like a half-day. so it's (80% X 50%...) 40% of what i'm used to in JC. sadly, the workload seems to be about the same.

honestly, i don't know if i should be worried about my academics at this point of time. i mean, i can follow what the lecturer's talking about, understand the notes when i can be bothered to read them at home, and do *most* of the tutorial questions. still, i don't think that's enough. chem was all fine and well in JC; all it took was getting used to some new ideas, most of which were elaborations/expansions of old ideas anyway. at university level, the new ideas we have to get used to border on ridiculous. like this one..."imagine that the electron is spread out around the atom, like peanut butter on bread." better yet, try "an electron, travelling in a one-dimensional line, gets from point A to point B without passing through the mid-point of that line." damn quantum physics. there's a lot more i could stun both you and myself with, but let's not get into so much detail. bad for health. i should probably put more effort into all modules...those formulae aren't going to spontaneously embed themselves in my brain. if there's one thing i can be grateful about, it's that my modules do have some overlapping content, which makes for easier understanding since i hear it from different disciplines' point of view.

my flu-like symptoms are clearing up...guess today's added rest did help after all. there's still some slight coughing, nose blockage and general sub-normal feelings, but that should (with a bit of luck,) disappear by the time i wake up tomorrow morning.

so far, i still haven't confirmed my laptop order yet. yes, i know i'm slow. my dad seems to want me to take the student loan for it, and i'm quite against that, despite it being interest-free. personal policy/values and all that. i don't know...right now, i'm still surviving fine without a dedicated school laptop, but i don't know if i can say the same thing next year, next semester, or even next month! well...i guess we'll see how it goes (as usual). only disadvantage of not having a laptop right now is that i can't make use of the school's free wireless network. it gets annoying when i want to quickly wiki up a figure (say, a molecular mass value accurate to 3 decimal places) when i'm nowhere near a library. sure, i can use my phone, but it somehow doesn't pick up NUS' wireless signal very well (tried and tested). oh well.

it's fast approaching 1:00am now, which is my cue to get off the computer and go to sleep. i hope that i'll be able to fall asleep quickly tonight...past trend shows that i don't sleep well the night before early morning classes. i wonder why?

-random thought of the day: Need a haircut soon.-

Doing homework for the first time in 2 years feels kind of good, in a sick sort of way. of course, that's only when things go well, as in the case of my lab report. despite the odd-looking results, the graph i plotted looked pretty decent. calculations came out pretty ok too...results are believable and generally up to (my) expectations. only thing that's bugging me is the "discussion" section of the report. i'm not exactly sure what goes there, so i just filled it up with precautions and general stuff from SPA skill C (or was it D?). hopefully the TA will be nice enough to look it over and tell me what's missing/in excess so i can change it before submission.

my other tutorial - the physical chem one - didn't go so well. aside from the various formulae (which have yet to get stuck in my head), there's this little thing about units and conversion. for instance, a-levels teaches us that R = 8.31 J per K per mol, right? what if the unit of pressure you need is say, bar or torr, and they give you the volume in litres? ok, maybe this example isn't the best one to use, since all that's needed is straightforward conversion. just wait till you see the cases where the factors are hidden in the equation. for the sake of my mental health, i decided to stop for tonight and go at it again tomorrow in school. maybe the academic aura will help me attain enlightenment more quickly.

you know, it's kind of weird to not have teachers chasing you (me) for homework. weird, and just a little scary, especially when you consider that the work that they assign is counted in your final grade. have to keep track of stuff really really well. so, as a reminder, i have to finish up my 1131 tutorial by tomorrow, and my physics assignment by wednesday. then, i can get started on my 1101 tutorial, which is due the tuesday after next. see what i meant when i said work would come streaming in?

had the NYAA interview yesterday. it was quite relaxed and short. in fact, i think i spent more time getting processed and waiting than in the actual interview itself. of all the things that the interviewer could ask me, he had to ask about my residential project, which i had comparatively little to smoke about. why couldn't he have asked about my skills or sports section? chalk one up to uncle murphy i guess. nevertheless, i think it went quite well. he even talked to me about the gold award holders' alumni (saying "gold award holders like yourself" in the process), so i'm going to take that as a good/positive sign. even then, i won't assume anything until i've actually shaken hands with the president and have had the award presented to me.

i've been feeling slightly under the weather lately. as mentioned previously, i think it's due to all the burning and increased pollutant levels in the air. almost makes me want to wear one of those hospital masks all the time. ALMOST. on a slightly-related note, my brain's beginning to feel heavy. not due to knowledge, mind you, but in an i'm-falling-sick way. arrgh.

look at the time! i'd better be off to sleep. have an early day tomorrow, after all. with any luck, i'll be able to sleep the brain-heaviness off and be in good condition for school.

-random thought of the day: Mango chicken sandwiches...interesting.-

Brief update to record something interesting that happened today...

while taking (the extremely crowded) bus 95 to school this morning, some idiot motorcyclist decided to turn and cut in front of the bus from the opposite direction at a four-way junction. naturally, the bus driver jammed on the brake really hard (can't blame him this time), and all the standing passengers were literally thrown forward onto the floor. all except me, that is. fortunately, i saw the motorcyclist attempting his retarded move, and was thus holding tight to the support bars. the motorcyclist was lucky to escape almost unscathed...i'm guessing the worst he got was a few scrapes from the road when his bike skidded. though i'm no longer wishing death on him, i am still wishing that he gets his license revoked, better sooner than later.

as of 11:pm yesterday, the 7th month has started. or so i hear, at least. being chinese, i understand the need to follow the tradition and custom of burning offerings for departed relatives. problem is, the HDB has set up those burning points unbelievably close to the blocks. ever since last night, i've been breathing in higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, monoxide, and other stuff that's bad for health. there's now an irritating, scratchy feeling located behind my nose, above the roof of my mouth. could be because i haven't been drinking enough water too.

ok...that's basically it. i seem to be less productive (work-wise) at home, so i think i'll go to school early tomorrow to print my bio lecture notes and finish up my lab report.

-random thought of the day: Why must people burn stuff at all odd hours?-

My blogging reflex/impulse seems to be triggered by hot showers...i don't know why. could be because hot showers make me feel relaxed, and helps to put me in a blogging-optimized state of mind.

so, school has been ongoing for a week and a half already. it's not the worst-case scenario that i had in mind, but it's not the best-case one either. i haven't met anyone who has swept me off my feet (yet), nor have i done any sweeping of my own. perhaps a week is too soon for such stuff to happen. on the bright side, i'm not drowning in the workload either. guess i should wait a little longer. anyways, now that the various rounds of bidding are over (for me at least), here's my final schedule:


of course, you don't see my full-day monday labs for weeks 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10. believe me, they're there. i should know. what you also don't see is the 90-minute travelling time between home and school. so, even though it looks like i have mostly late days, i'll still be out of the house fairly early, and reach back home fairly late. i don't even want to think about when my NCAP course starts in around one and a half months' time. i'll get off at 10:00pm on tuesdays and thursdays, which are the days of the course. just imagine - five weeks of reaching home at 11:30pm on those days!

despite my griping thus far, i'm actually pretty ok with the schedule. looking from a more optimistic perspective, i only have early classes twice a week, which means i only have to wake up at the ridiculous time of 5:45am on mondays and thursdays. furthermore, wednesday's an off day! this is the first time in my life as a student where i have zero classes on a school day. to be perfectly honest, it feels a little odd not to have a home tutor or subject teachers checking up on me when i'm late for/missing from school. liberating, but odd.

the ONE thing i absolutely can't stand about going to NUS is, well, going to NUS. i dread going to school...not because i have tough modules (well, i do, but that's besides the point) or because i'm unhappy there, but because the travelling is a nightmare. i swear, nothing says "ugly singaporean" like crowded public transportation. people start to crowd around the area in line with where the train doors would be the moment they hear the safety announcements. what's worse is that they rush into the train...only to stand right in front of the door, even though there's space further inside. so much for courtesy campaigns, eh? now, i've taken to bashing through the crowd when i get off the train at a particularly crowded station. i'm not really apologetic if i hit anyone either. the way i see it, they deserve it for being inconsiderate.

and if you thought trains were bad, just wait till you see bus 95. it's the only link between buona vista MRT, NUH, and NUS. so, you can imagine how high in demand it is. worst part is, the waiting time can be as long as 15 minutes between buses. naturally, it's quite a fight to get on the bus, and the lucky passengers that do make it suffer from "sardine syndrome", since everyone has no choice but to be packed that closely together (kind of like a supercritical fluid, which we were learning about yesterday). it doesn't help that the bus drivers are prone to jamming on the brake suddenly, and generally making the ride as unpleasant and uncomfortable as possible. arrgh. travelling to and from school generally puts me in a pretty bad mood. i think i'm going to try a new route tomorrow. bus 56 to toa payoh, then 151 to the engineering faculty, and shuttle bus to science from there. hopefully, the travelling time will be the same (or if i'm lucky, even shorter) than what i'm experiencing at present. most importantly, i'm really really hoping that it's less crowded.

like i've mentioned in an earlier post, i'm starting to get hooked on naruto. not the best time for it to happen, but it's not like i'm hopelessly addicted either. it's quite interesting, actually. pretty good character and plot development. oh well. i think it won't bug me that much as long as i don't let it get out of control.

well, i think i'm going to call it a night here. was planning on doing my lab report and maybe a tutorial or two after publishing this post, but screw that. there'll be time for work during my 2-hour break tomorrow. right now, i'm just going to relax and enjoy the remnants of my day off before school tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: Need to get a new coloured ink cartridge.-

Uncle murphy (of murphy's law fame) has struck again! yesterday, while in maths lecture, one of my friends and i were discussing printers. i just had to open my big mouth and say, "my printer's been showing me low ink warnings for the last 3 months...for all i know, it'll die tonight." true to my words, the black ink cartridge just happened to run out in the middle of printing my general bio notes. cursing and swearing, i went to j8's popular to get a replacement. as luck would have it, i proceeded to cut my toe open on the escalator en route to the popular, thus explaining my choice to wear sandals to school today. i'd be more appeased if the notes printed properly after that, but they didn't! luckily, one of my friends helped me to print it and gave it to me before the lecture. so take that, uncle murphy!

now that the first week of school is over, i have a better idea of what university life is going to be like. i've also met the lecturers for all my 5 modules this semester, and i think i got lucky with the draw. they comprise of 3 singaporeans, 1 australian, and 1 german...all male, though a lady will take over one of them halfway through the semester, in general, all of them are nice, funny (an added bonus) and seem to know what they're talking about. i think i'll be able to do pretty well for their classes.

for some reason, it's quite scary to refer to your teachers as "doctor". previously, i only knew one teacher with that title (she's a chinese teacher in CJC, with whom i had zero interaction in my 2 years there). but now, teacher-doctors are so common! there are even some lecturers who are associate-professors, which i understand is kind of tua-kee in the university world. worst thing is, some of them look like the typical auntie/uncle you'd expect to find at the wet market (except that the professors are obviously better-dressed than those aunties/uncles). guess this reaffirms the "don't judge a book by its cover" lesson.

what really tickles me is that sometimes, even associate-professors make mistakes. like in today's physical chem lecture, where the cool german professor said that velocity was a scalar quantity and speed was a vector. any secondary school kid could tell you the problem with that statement. hearing him say it was kind of unnerving, but i suppose that's why he teaches chem, and not physics or maths. he may have very well been teaching physics today though, because we went through all the gas pressure stuff again...you know, if a molecule bounces off a container wall, there'll be a change in momentum, which means there'll be a force, which means there'll be a pressure. and here i was, thinking that i could throw it away after J2! arrgh. what makes it worse is that that was never one of my stronger topics. at least i have the weekend to re-learn how to derive it, along with other new scary stuff.

now that week one's over, i'm expecting the pace to pick up a little. reason being that tutorials, labs and all sorts of other funny stuff will start revealing their presence. if everything goes well, i should still have wednesdays off, and half-days on friday. tuesdays and thursdays will be three-quarter days, and monday will be my only full day of the week, provided there is chem lab or physics tutorial. if not, it's a half-day too! all in all, i think i can live with my schedule, especially with the long breaks in-between classes. problem is, some of the breaks are too long. too bad i didn't know earlier that lecturers have to cater for students' travelling time by ending class at least 15 minutes early. makes me feel kind of cheated because i initially avoided cramming consecutive classes for that very same reason. at least i have too much time now, as opposed to too little. lesser of 2 evils.

long story short, i'm adjusting nicely to school, and i hope it stays that way. no major problems with the administration or any of the people in my lectures (though that may change once we're in tutorial groups...*touch wood*). off the top of my head, the only things that really bug me now are the cramped conditions on bus 95, not to mention the long travelling times from home to school and vice versa. it almost makes we wish i was a transformer, so i could hit the road in my alternate vehicle form and get to school in half the time. of course, there's the added benefit of not requiring a drivers' license, and parking is never an issue. bleh. i know it'll never happen, but still, one can hope/dream/fantasize, right?

-random thought of the day: Not going to school at 7:30am every day feels odd.-

Having only 2 classes and a half-day was kind of anticlimactic for the first day of school. so far, i've had lectures on my elective physics module, as well as my one of my chem major modules (the physical chem component). the physics module was deceptively simple...even the lecturer admitted that. for instance, take a question such as "why does coffee get cold?". normally, answering this in terms of heat transfer would be more than satisfactory, but here we have to bring in thermodynamics, to explain why it cools instead of getting hotter, etc. i suppose its expected at the university level, but the module prerequisite is o-level physics! lucky i have an a-level background...things should be easier to understand. the thing about this module that worries me is the report-writing aspect, specifically, the structure of an official scientific-looking report. the lecturer thinks that we learnt it in secondary school, and to be honest, it does sound kind of familiar. but who the heck remembers that!!? it was probably covered during sec 1 or sec 2, when science as a whole was significantly less interesting.

my physical chem module is kind of interesting. the lecturer's german, and he has a really cool accent! i'm actually quite surprised to find that it's not too far off from the stereotypical accent that you hear in cartoons. lucky it's nothing i can't understand. he was going through some a-level stuff today (mainly about gases and pressure), so it wasn't really new. despite that, it served as a good recap after 2 years of brain inactivity. i really like his teaching style, as he tries to be interactive. not only that, it's impressive that he does several chim calculations in his head. of course, he could have spent hours memorizing and rehearsing his lines in order to give such a nice delivery...but i doubt it.

the negative aspect of today is that it has cast some doubt on my module choices. whatever i've heard so far in the lectures sounds quite intimidating, especially the DIY components. think i'll have to get used to not having people breathe down my neck to hand in work. nevertheless, it's another step up the academic ladder, so i suppose i should get used to higher standards/expectations. i can't believe i actually paid to subject myself to this.

i've finally decided to get a laptop. previously, i had intended to use my macbook for university, but like i said before, i'm a windows kid by training. even though i use my macbook pretty frequently, i'm still not at the level of familiarity with its OS as i am with windows. besides, i think the fujitsu tablet (which i've had my eye on from the start) is kind of cool. only problem is that it costs around $2500 after factoring in GST. think i'll work something out with my dad.

(un)fortunately, tomorrow's an off-day for me! so much for building up momentum, huh? but it's not like i'll be slacking...not much, at least. have to give tuition, deposit a cheque (my last one from the sports school) and run some other miscellaneous errands - like shopping for stationery and other stuff.

-random thought of the day: Am I supposed to feel nervous for university?-

In the past few months, i've often found myself wondering whether the older generation is hiding anything from us. upon hitting a certain age, they seem to get special powers or a license that makes them sound wise and enables them to give good, solid advice when they're speaking to their juniors. my suspicion is that this minimum age is 30...or maybe even 40. it sure as hell isn't 20, because i've tried doing the same thing, but with limited success. perhaps calling it a power or a license isn't the best description...a more common-sensical name for it would probably be "accumulated life experience".

anyway, the reason i brought this topic up is because my dad just called for a family meeting (which is a rare occurrence in itself), and proceeded to do the whole "sound wise" thing mentioned earlier. it was kind of unexpected, seeing as my dad isn't the most vocal person even on the best of days. come to think of it, i think today's the first time he's done something like this. to give a better idea of how unexpected this was, consider this: when he asked whether we could spare some time for a meeting, my initial thought was that he was inviting someone over and he wanted us to vacate the living room. the realization that we were the attendees only came to me when he asked us to gather round and sit down.

i won't go into the details about the meeting itself, but the gist of it is that it's typical parent-y stuff. you know...feedback, reassurance, votes of confidence, general life advice, the works. hearing his little speech sort of reaffirmed the stuff we kids normally take for granted. i mean, we all know deep down that our parents will be there to help us through any problem that we may face. we just don't think about it all that much, until something screws up somewhere. to hear it actually being said out loud was...heartwarming.

since today is national day, i decided to give all my kids (and myself) the day off and pushed everything to tomorrow. in retrospect, i think i should have went ahead with tuition today. spent the day in bed, watching naruto episodes on a nice website which provided free subtitled videos. it's interesting to follow how the storyline develops, and to get to know each of the individual characters. as a side benefit, i'm getting more exposure to the structure of the japanese language. for all i know, i may end up taking a japanese language module in a future semester.

on a slightly related topic, i'm also starting to (re-)listen to some anime opening/ending theme songs. in spite of the fact that some of the songs are over 10 years old, they're still good listening material. it takes me back to my secondary school days, where i was a bit more anime-crazy than your typical cat high boy. interesting memories. strangely enough, i've been feeling a little more emo recently. as in, "i'm all out of love, i'm so lost without you"-kind of emo. not a good sign. i wonder whether these are linked in any way? or perhaps it has to do with me reading naruto fanfiction. yes...i'm going to go with the fanfiction as the main cause for my increased emo-ness. can't be helped though...some of them are really interesting reads.

look everybody, it's a rocket ship! already close to mid-august! university starts in approximately 36 hours. arrgh. to think it used to be 36 weeks. better learn to sleep early again, starting tonight. even more so because i have tuition tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: Lethargy isn't good.-

So, this is what my timetable looks like at the moment. apparently, friday will be the killer, as i have back-to-back lectures for all 3 sciences. bear in mind that tutorials have not been factored in yet. hopefully, i'll be able to slot all the required tutorials into the empty slots on monday, tuesday, thursday and friday, thus leaving my wednesday free for R&R. with even more luck, my tutorials will occupy only monday and thursday, leaving me with 1 day off and 2 late days. of course, there's that little issue with the bio lab (which doesn't have a fixed timeslot yet). wouldn't it be nice if that took up a monday slot, just like my chem labs? i doubt everything will fall into place that nicely, but it never hurts to hope, right?

i just realized that i forgot to mention NYAA in yesterday's post. after 2 news-less years, things are moving again. from what i understand, i have to attend an interview and submit yet another essay before receiving the award. thank goodness for backup copies! my NYAA report backup really helped to guide the essay-writing. i still can't believe some of the stuff i've written in the report...it sounds way too cheesy to come from me. nevertheless, the essay's been handed in, and my interview's scheduled for 2 saturdays later. right now, i'm just kind of wondering...does messing up the interview = no award? while i don't think that's the case, i wouldn't really be surprised if it was. i'll see how it goes i guess.

-random thought of the day: Finally got a place in the NCAP course!-

Apologies for the recent lack of posts...there were simply too many things to settle; so much so that blogging had to take the back seat for a while. but now that there's a momentary gap in all the chaos, i'd thought i'd take the time to tell my readers all about the past few days.

in a nutshell, the whole bidding for modules thing is quite vexing. the process itself is simple enough...it's the choosing of which modules to actually bid for that really drives me up the wall. my 3 majors were decided easily enough (not like i had a choice anyway), and it turns out i have to take maths again. as if that wasn't bad enough, the module's first 4 lectures or so are focusing on calculus. somebody kill me now! whatever little knowledge i had on the topic has been thrown back to my JC maths department and whatever i didn't manage to throw out then proceeded to be eroded by army's brainlessness. just looking at the lecture notes already made me panic. well, i think i can dig deep, deep down and pull out another miracle.

like i was saying, getting the major modules isn't the problem. it's the electives that cause the headache. given the wide variety of options, and my tendency to stay far, far away from the arts, i chose "general biology" (because i have to take a life science module next semester) and "physical questions in everyday life". i am thus effectively a triple-science student! go me. not too worried about chem or physics...only bio, as i've never taken it before. worst case scenario is i get help from friends, or even one of my tuition kids, who's a bio student...though i don't think it'll come to that.

based on first impressions, i think my schedule's going to be quite full. lectures, tutorials and labs will most probably be keeping me in school every day of the week. comparing with my cousin's schedule (he's taking triple science in monash), mine looks absolutely atrocious. to think that i'm a single science major! even comparing with friends closer to home, 2 of my JC classmates (who are in SMU now) have 2 days off a week. i wonder...is it NUS in general, or just my major? whatever the case, it's my chosen area of study, so i shouldn't complain too much, right?

oh. about the 2 topics i left hanging in my previous post. i don't think i'll be doing any aikido at all. for some reason, the over-emphasis on formality is kind of a turn-off. i do agree that martial arts training should have elements of formality and respectfulness, but i think aikido overdoes it. actually, i don't think i'll be joining any CCA within NUS. not even judo, due to certain differences of opinion. but in all fairness, i'll go down for a training session to look-look-see-see before making my final decision. maybe they'll amaze me with their warmth, hospitality and friendliness. ...NOT!

as for laptops, i have my eye on a fujitsu model - the tablet one, to be precise. it would be cool to take notes directly onto the screen, and i've heard some good stuff about it from my cousin in SMU. however, my previous experience with fujitsu stuff was not all that smooth-sailing. their power connectors have a funny habit of melting/breaking and detaching off of the main laptop body, which is an inconvenience at best. at any rate, i still have a week or so to decide if i want to get another purely-work laptop.

last thing before bed. call me crazy, but i'm going to sign up for the NCAP level 1 course. it'll mean 10:00pm days on tuesdays and fridays for about 5 weeks, but i think i can handle it. after all, it won't last through the entire semester, right? besides, i might as well get it over and done with while my schedule permits. it would be way worse if i pass up on it now and not have free time to take it when i finally decide to clear it. anyways, tomorrow looks fun...and tiring. waking up at 8:15am to secure a spot for the NCAP course, followed by a trip to NUS to get my lab coat and safety glasses. should be interesting.

-random thought of the day: Why do I feel odd?-