Tuesday, August 30, 2005  

[So tired that I couldn't even sleep....]

Been so stressed so lately that I couldn't sleep at night. Haven't had a good night's sleep in a few days already. :( And I had to get up earlier today to get to my MKT lecture on time.

It's amazing how I went from extremely relaxed during the holidays to extremely stressed in the space of 4 weeks.

^^^ by Locksley @ 7:50 AM. 0 comments.
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Monday, August 29, 2005  

[Taking stock...]

I've been under a lot of stress lately so I took some time to organise all my modules' assignment due dates. I wrote down all the dates where something is due in my organiser, and what I saw made me even more stressed out.

For the month of Sept, I have 8 days whereby something is due or to be done. Doesn't sound that bad? There's a 4-day break in Sept. So relatively speaking, it's quite bad. I have a total of 18 school days in Sept, and half of them have something due on that day. Same for October, 8 deadlines. But at least October's 1 full month to work with.

Oh, and I realised I've taken MNO1001 in the wrong semester. It seems that the same course when conducted in sem 2 would be taught by another guy, and his methods are more conventional. My current lecturer is Canadian, so his assessment citeria is quite different (we need to shoot a video, which will take up a lot of time). I find that foreign lecturers usually have a very different teaching style, which to be perfectly honest I don't enjoy dealing with.

^^^ by Locksley @ 10:26 PM. 0 comments.
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Saturday, August 27, 2005  

[Yeah, cause that would work...]


I saw this sign yesterday at Woodlands Regional Interchange. I've actually seen it several times already, but I finally took a picture of it yesterday. I wonder which genius decided to put this sign up.

Imagine a group of punks with spray-cans about to turn the wall into their own art gallery. The gang leader saw the sign and said, "Erm...guys...I don't think we should. Look at the sign." He points to the sign, everyone sees it, they all bow their head in sadness and leaves.

Yeah, this sign would work.

^^^ by Locksley @ 10:05 AM. 0 comments.
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Thursday, August 25, 2005  

[Buried alive...]

I think it's safe to say that I've never felt this stressed out since entering Uni. Right now I feel as if I've been buried under a ton of crap, and couldn't get out. Lectures, tutorials, readings, and projects. I've been going at full-speed for the past 3 weeks, and I've finally burnt myself out. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I understood everything that was going on...I can cope with 4 of my 5 modules, I have trouble with just my Computer Security module. I can't understand the mathematical concepts being taught during lectures, and the project/labs for the module is super difficult also. And to top it off, I don't have a lot of interest in this area.

I have a lecture tomorrow, but I don't think I'm attending. Just watching the webcast will suffice this week. I need a break.


The bus was packed today on my way home. I had to stand near the front door, and I took a picture of this sign on the farecard machine. Folks, don't forget that farecards can no longer be used. It went into effect almost 3 years ago, but we're just reminding you just in case you forgot.

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:09 PM. 0 comments.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2005  

[Full speed ahead...]

I can't believe how busy I was for the past few days. This is just the 3rd week of school, but all the projects and assignments are already out. Ton of stuff to read and do, meeting up with friends to start on projects, etc.

It's the 3rd week and I'm already starting to feel burnt out.

^^^ by Locksley @ 8:01 PM. 0 comments.
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Friday, August 19, 2005  

[How could this happen to me?]

1 hours left to the end of tutorial swapping, and no one's swapped with me yet. :(

This is turning out to be a pretty horrible semester thus far. I've had nothing but bad news and problems with bidding/balloting of my modules/tutorials. Last semester I was actually in a bigger mess, tutorial-wise, but in the end everything worked out the way I wanted because all my swaps came through.

This time round, not a single one of my swaps came through.

Into the hands of fate.....I telling you...If I don't get any of my swaps, fate/chance/whatever better let me make a killing this weekend on EPL.

^^^ by Locksley @ 8:03 AM. 0 comments.
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[Oh no....]

Nobody wants to swap with me.... :(

3 hours to go....Hoping for a miracle.

^^^ by Locksley @ 6:04 AM. 0 comments.
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Thursday, August 18, 2005  

[Bloody hell...]

Tutorial balloting results are out. Of the 4 modules I'm taking, I only managed to secure modules for 3 of them, and only 2 of them were my first choice. Damn it.

And so it begins....The edge-of-your-seat anticipation phase, hoping that someone will swap with you.

^^^ by Locksley @ 12:27 PM. 0 comments.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005  

[I'm so fucked...]

Tomorrow's the second lecture for my Comp Security module. I was reading the notes and textbook in preparation for tomorrow's lecture when I got a rather rude shock.

I couldn't understand most of it. Most of it has to do with maths, and I couldn't understand a bit of it! I then flipped through the rest of the textbook, and I realised that about half the book was on mathematical concepts used in computer security.

I'm so fucked.

What I don't understand is, why is this a major requirement for me? I'm in the E-Commerce stream. The security concepts I need to know are probably stuff like SSL and the like....The more "practical" side of computer/network security. Why am I being forced to take this Computer Science-oriented module? :(

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:40 PM. 0 comments.
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[Out for the count...]


Hahaha!

Oh, and the CORS server is still down.

^^^ by Locksley @ 12:13 PM. 0 comments.
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[Repeat telecast...]

Almost 1 hour has past by....Server still down. Aragh....

Reminds me of elective "bidding" during my poly days, where the fastest will get what they want.

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:50 AM. 0 comments.
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[Server down. Again.]

Tutorial balloting today, started at 9am. So far, it's been the same as Round 2A. Server down. Great.

On a side note, my MSN is usually very empty and dead in the mornings. Today, the list of people online is like what I'll see at night. Most of them are my schoolmates. Haha....Everyone woke up early to do tutorial balloting it seems.

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:32 AM. 0 comments.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005  

[Bus antics...]


Took the above picture today on my way to school. I don't know whether Singaporeans are retarded once they step onto public transport or what...But for some reason you always see this on the bus. The passengers would crowd around in the front half of the bus and no one would move to the back. I'm sitting on the right side of the bus, about 2 seats behind the back exit. The aisle is empty from the woman in blue all the way to the back of the bus.


Next person to incur my wrath....Is this "auntie". I was on the internal shuttle bus, from Business School back to SoC when I met her. The bus was very packed, and I was standing and holding on to the little plastic holders on the corner of every seat to keep my balance. I was minding my own business (and glancing to the back occasionally to move in if possible) when I felt someone touching my hand. It was this auntie...She's decided to "share" the plastic holder with me.

I wasn't able to get a picture of the plastic holder that I used to keep my balance, but it was not very big, definitely not like those on SMRT or SBS buses. It's just one small little thing on the side/corner of the aisle seats, just wide enough for 1 hand to past through and grab hold. So of course, this auntie ended up grabbing my hand(!). When I moved in towards the end of the bus and switched plastic holders, she followed suit and grabbed my hand again! I got so pissed I whipped out my phone and took a rather-shaky picture of her. The girl sitting down in front of me saw me doing it, and I don't even care.

I feel so used.

^^^ by Locksley @ 6:26 PM. 0 comments.
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Monday, August 15, 2005  

[Today's a bad day....]

I received 2 pieces of bad news today.

First up, I found out that from this semester onwards, FNA1002 will have group projects, which is weird because it's a finance accounting module. Before this semester, this module had only individual assessment. This poses a problem since I have a few friends taking it this semester and I didn't know that until recently. This means most likely I'd be taking this module alone, and have to do projects with people I don't know. To top it off, many people say this module is quite difficult. Great, just great...Things would work out a lot easier if I took it this semester with my friends. Not taking it with them feels so...."wasted".

Just when I thought it couldn't get more fucked up than that, the second piece of information came through. CS3266, which is an E-commerce application module, has drastically changed it's project specs. In the past, students can use any platform of their choice to come up with an E-commerce application, end of story. This means I can basically port over my FYP from poly.

But starting from this semester onwards, students must use either .Net and J2EE, both of which I know nothing about. Yes, both *must* be used. And the best part is that I cannot run away from CS3266. It's my major requirement and I have to take it no matter what. At least I could not take FNA1002 if I wanted to, although most likely I still will, since I need to take 4 Business modules from a list of 11 (I think) and FNA1002 is one of the four level-1 modules on the list.

Looks like it's going to be a very busy December for me....Need to learn as much as I can about .Net and J2EE.

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:06 PM. 0 comments.
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[Brothers in arms...]


Saw this picture on Soccernet, and I knew I had to put it on my blog. That's Phil Neville on the left, and brother Gary on the right. This is the first time the Neville brothers had been on opposite teams in a professional match.

^^^ by Locksley @ 1:23 AM. 0 comments.
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Sunday, August 14, 2005  

[Tell me your sins...]

Just watched Sin City. I don't know what the fuss was all about. It was a good movie, reminded me of Pulp Fiction, but I still think Pulp Fiction was better. Too much gore in Sin City I feel...I think that took away something from the movie. Lots of familar faces in Sin City though...I'll never look at Frodo the same again. Ditto for that Gillmore Girl.

Saw the penultimate episode of the current episode of Punk'd. The next episode is the season finale, and they're punk'ding Shaq, Avril Lavigne and Triple H. It's the most star-studded episode of the whole season, and in keeping with the tradition, they're punk'ding a wrestler on the last episode. Last season it was Steve Austin, and the one before that they had Goldberg.

^^^ by Locksley @ 1:40 AM. 0 comments.
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Saturday, August 13, 2005  

[Opening day...]

First day of the EPL 05/06 season today. Man United visited Everton at Goodison Park and walked away with a 2-0 victory a few minutes ago. It was Phil Neville's Premiership debut for Everton, and how fitting it was to be against his former club.

Van Nistelrooy grabbed the first goal and Rooney the next. According to the commentators, van Nistelrooy's goal is officially the first goal of the 05/06 season. I hope this season will be better than the last.

^^^ by Locksley @ 10:03 PM. 0 comments.
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Friday, August 12, 2005  

[Let's get it started in here...]

There's a chinese funeral at the block next to mine, and for the past few nights, we've been treated to some really loud chanting and last night we even had opera.

I don't want to be distasteful or disrespectful to the dead or anything, but does anyone realise that we chinese are the only race that throws a party when someone passes away? To be fair, it's just the Taoism faith, but whatever. I mean, malays and indians make it a quiet affair. Malays have a party when someone gets married, which is fair as it's a happy occasion. We chinese have a party when someone dies.

And another thing...Anyone notices the "flower girls" at Taoism funerals? There are always like 10-20 of them. They look young, and some of them are actually pretty hot. Has anybody ever wondered what are they doing at funerals and not in school?

^^^ by Locksley @ 2:23 PM. 0 comments.
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Thursday, August 11, 2005  

[Bored on the bus...]

...so I took some pictures of people doing things that irritate me.



Ok, don't you just hate people who sit on the aisle seat and pile up the window seat with their things or whatever crap they happen to be carrying? This old man had no shame. Even when the bus was packed, he did not have the common courtesy to remove his things so that more people can get to sit. And to top it off, he didn't even have anything bulky with him, just a copy of The New Paper. Well done. He scores a 9 on the Inconsiderate Prick meter.


As for this guy, I realise the picture isn't the best. It wasn't easy taking his picture since I was seated next to him. Many people are irritated by people who talk loudly on their mobile phones. I'm even more irritated by people who cover their mouths BUT still talk loud enough for others to hear their side of the conversation. I heard everything this guy said, and I was listening to my MP3 player. Unfortunately, I was unable to take a reading of this guy using my Inconsiderate Prick meter because, firstly, he wasn't really "inconsiderate". He's actually pretty considerate, trying not to disturb everyone else although he still talked too loudly.

Secondly, I think the old man earlier broke my meter. :-(

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:27 PM. 0 comments.
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Monday, August 08, 2005  

[Back to school...]

Today's the first day of the new semester, and already I can feel the stress coming. From my experience, usually modules in SOC do not have everything planned out in the beginning of the semester. Information about the modules are usually given out slowly, as and when needed. Like project requirements, quiz scope, etc.

But it seems that the modules taught by Business Sch are different, the difference being everything about the module is already made known by week 0. All the project requirements, etc, are already out. Reading them made me feel very stressed out. :( Not to mention this semester there is a good chance that I'd need to fork out over a $100 for textbooks alone.

And to top it all off, I came down with flu yesterday. Not completely recovered yet. I'm supposed to go watch the fireworks tonight with my OG, but I might give it a miss. Wouldn't want to spread my flu or have it come back since I'm still semi-recovered.

^^^ by Locksley @ 11:46 AM. 0 comments.
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Thursday, August 04, 2005  

[And so it begins...]

I've secured all my 5 modules for next semester, lectures start next week. I went online to see if any notes have been put up. My GEM module has a ton of readings, took me a while to print them all out.

The assessment for my GEM has me a little worried. There are five 500-word essays to write, and a last one of 2000 words. That's not easy. If things don't go well, I'm using my S/U option on this module. I didn't plan to use my S/U on my GEM, rather on my Breadths. Let's see how it goes.

On the upside, my GEM module is called Film & History, so I thought that there would be a lot of history movies. As it turns out, not true. Some of the movies we're going to watch in the class includes Josie And The Pussycats, Memento, You Only Live Twice (James Bond), Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and Kill Bill Vol 1.

I've already seen some of them. I can't wait to watch Memento again. It's a great film.

^^^ by Locksley @ 7:35 PM. 0 comments.
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Wednesday, August 03, 2005  

[Passed...]

QET results were released this morning. I passed, thank God. Most of my friends failed. :(

Bidding today was a nightmare. CORS could not handle the load and went down many times. I couldn't log in properly for the whole 2 hours of closed bidding. Good thing they extended the bidding by another 2 hours to 5pm.

Anyway, the results came out before 9pm. I got the GEM I wanted. My most expensive module so far at 368 points. All my 9 other modules so far cost me 1 point each.

Overall, things look good. Of my 5 modules, I have friends with me in 3 of them. Of course, if we can't get the same tutorial slots then it wouldn't mean anything, so 1 more hurdle there.

Now I have less things to worry about...Although there are still some things on my mind. I told someone not to worry, that tomorrow would be a better day.

I wish I could believe it myself.

^^^ by Locksley @ 11:33 PM. 0 comments.
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[Can't sleep...]

...too many things on my mind.

^^^ by Locksley @ 6:06 AM. 0 comments.
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Tuesday, August 02, 2005  

[Milestone...]

Today's the day.

Is this the first of many? Or the first and the last?

Will things ever be the same? Or will things go back to the way they were?

I'll see you at the crossroads.

^^^ by Locksley @ 7:36 PM. 0 comments.
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[A heavy head...]

Didn't sleep well last night, too much on my mind. It's funny, someone I know told me recently she had trouble sleeping, and now it's my turn.

What's on my mind right now? Let's see...First of all, it seems like I passed my QET....Since several people had the ET1000 module allocated to them under Module Management in CORS and I didn't. That's the module you have to take if you fail QET. If I really passed my QET, I'm 101% dropping my GEM and bidding for CS2301. GEMs will always be hard to bid for, but I'm still protected for CS2301 this semester. There are 45 slots for new students, and if I were to bid for it, I'm GUARANTEED a slot. I've got way more points than other new students, seeing how this is my second semester and all.

Second...Called my unit yesterday and told them about my exam clashing with ops manning at the end of this year. Wrote a letter yesterday and mailed it today to them, asking for deferment or excuse from ops manning. Most likely I could get excused, but even if I don't, it's not a big issue since it's just one day. In my letter I asked not to be placed on a holding list because I want to do my ICTs with my platoon if the ICTs are held during school vacations. Hope they will honour my request.

Third...The most pressing one of all since I honestly don't know how it'd turn out. All sorts of different signals are coming in....Missed a chance yesterday. How can I be so receptive to signals yet be so numb-skulled when it comes to acting on them?

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:06 AM. 0 comments.
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Monday, August 01, 2005  

[Gems and diamonds and other precious stones...]

Bidding for my GEM module started today at 9am. I checked just now, both of the GEMs I was considering are already over-subscribed. Big surprise. The beginning of my first module bidding war.

Yay!

Well, not really. :-(

^^^ by Locksley @ 7:15 PM. 0 comments.
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[*piak* *piak*]

Last night I was lying on my bed watching TV when I heard the sound that insects/beetles/bees make when they're hitting themselves against a wall. It was coming from my table, so I went closer to take a look. I remembered thinking it was weird since my air-con has been on for a while.

So I got up for a closer look and saw something black flapping around on my table. I was about to go and get a wad of newspaper to whack it when I realised it was a fish from my tank! Yes! It was a black neon tetra! That's the 2nd BNT to ever jump out of my tank. First one died because I wasn't around when it decided to commit suicide.

I scooped it back into my tank. This morning, transferred both my BNTs to my Dad's tank as it has a smaller "exit way" in case they decide to jump again.

^^^ by Locksley @ 10:43 AM. 0 comments.
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