Monthly Archive for January, 2008

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School’s back!

Published on January 14, 2008 in School. 0 Comments Tags: , .

So, school’s back, together with all the boring lectures and stuff. Nothing much to mention today, except maybe about the stats GEM lecture I’m taking. GEM stands for General Elective Module, or something along that lines. When I first entered the lecture hall, I thought it was rather small for a class of 350. True enough, as more people started to flood into the lecture hall, some ended up seating on the steps and stuff. However, there’s something the university administration probably knew that I didn’t, which was that the lecturer was boring as hell, and that the number of people attending subsequent lectures will lessen. Kudos to the uni team for having this foresight, and also kudos to the lecturer for being the first to put me to sleep in 2008!

After my 6 hours marathon of lectures, I met Jing Xian to get Econs notes and textbook from her, and headed home in the rain. On my way home, I gotta say that the rain I experienced was the heaviest I ever saw! The visibility was about 5-10 meters and as for the lightning, all I can say is that you wouldn’t be surprised if you got struck by it… And no, I didn’t do any big wrongs the past few days… not that I know of anyway! However, when I was reaching AMK Ave 1 along the CTE, there was no rain. I wished it didn’t rain near to school and rained around my house, rather than the other way round. I know you might think the amount of rain would be the same, but you can’t be more wrong. If it rained nearer to my house, I would just get wet and reach home. For the other scenario, which I experienced today I might add, you would get wet at the start, then have no rain for the rest of the journey. What you might forget would be that you would still be wet from the rain, and riding on a bike at 90kmph (around there at least) all wet is no fun at all!

Yet Another Jap Buffet

Published on January 12, 2008 in Food. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Well, jap buffets are a common thing among us nowadays, so we went to yet another one today! Don’t misunderstand my title, it does not mean that this buffet was not nice or anything. It simply means that we’re trying more and more buffets. To the list of Ikoi, Hanabi, Himawari, Kuishinbo, we welcome our new addition of Minori! It’s located at UE Square at Clemenceau Avenue, and is rather near Clarke Quay MRT. I say rather because, distance can be quite subjective to each person, so yea it is rather near. Went there with the usual of Huijing and Nick, together with Melinda+Charles. Met Huijing, Mel & Charles at Clarke Quay and took a cab to UE square from there. The fare was only $3.00, and Huijing did say that she heard the uncle snigger when we told him the place. Oh well, he earns $3, while we save walking time and energy, so I guess it’s a win-win situation. I know I took photos of the menu of Hanabi the last time round, but this time, when you have a link straight to the menu off their official webpage, why should I bother. Jump over here to check out the menu.

As for photos of the food, let’s just put it in perspective. It was Grabbing my handphone to snap photos when the food arrived VS Grabbing my chopsticks to dig into the food when it arrived. No prizes for guessing who won. Okay okay, I promise I’ll try and take photos the next time we go! Anyway, we ate the usual of lotsa sashimi, and then the rest. I don’t know about you, but Jap Buffets to me are more or less about lotsa sashimi, and then the rest. Okay, the rest included stuff like soba, tempura, handrolls, maki sushis, and some other special stuff like Pumpkin with Special Sweet Sauce, Salmon with Special Sauce, Peach Fresh Green Salad etc… Overall, I would say that the buffet was reasonably priced, with a great variety of food too. The restaurant was not very crowded while we were there, but who are we to complain when we get prompter service.

After that, we took a bus to China Town and had a foot reflexology and shoulder massage for 45 mins package. It did hurt, but I guess the reflexologists might get kicks out of hearing people wince in pain. I didn’t really wince in pain, but just chose to close my eyes so I didn’t have to do idle chatter with the reflexologist, unlike Mel who had a reflexologist who was rather chatty, to say the least. Anyway, after the reflexology session, they went to town while I took the MRT home. The worse thing was that i was greeted by a heavy downpour when I walked out of the MRT station. The walkway was slippery and there was water running down the inclined walkway. So in the end, I decided to take a cab home, since even taking the bus I would have to walk in the rain for quite some distance from the bus stop to my house. The cab fare was $5.15. Compared to the $3 we paid when the 4 of us shared the cab, I would say that this was rather high for a slightly longer distance. Oh well, at least I got home not-that-wet.

How to make yourself worried for nothing

Published on January 9, 2008 in School. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Today is the great CORS bidding day of Round 2A. Basically, CORS is the bidding system for NUS (my university) for us to get our modules allocated to us. Anyway, no need for the great background history of CORS, but straight to the point. I was bidding for 2 modules today, and the round ends at 5pm. So at around 445pm, I checked and saw that a module with 350 vacancies had 400+ bidders, and another module with 50 vacancies had 30+ bidders. So, naturally, I wanted to lower the bid for the latter module and increase my bid for the first one. My 1st module had 1000 points and my 2nd module had 307 points at the start. And here’s what followed:

* withdraws bid of 307 points from the 2nd module, since stupid CORS won’t let you lower the bid, but only lets you withdraw and bid again

* system slows to a crawl, and dies on me

* logs in to CORS again, and see that my bid point for 2nd module is 0, but my points left is 0 too

* panic starts to set in

* logs in again to see if problem will be rectified

* sees a message that the bid round has ended, checks clock and handphone to see that the time is only 450pm

* GREATER panic sets in

* dials CORS helpline to ask them what is going on

me: Hi, the CORS website says that the bid round has ended, but it’s not 5pm yet.

CORS helpdesk girl: The system was experiencing some problems earlier on, but it should be rectified now.

* logs in again, and sees that the round time has not ended, but remaining points left is still 0

me: I tried withdrawing a bid earlier, to increase the bid of another module, but my points seem to have been eaten up by the system

CORS girl: Please give me your details…

me: (details given)

CORS girl: Ok I’ll help you get your points refunded, but I don’t think I can do it before 5pm.

me: So there’s nothing I can do? I have 1 module with 1000 points and my other module has 0 points left.

CORS girl: Maybe you can try bidding for it in another round?

me: Should I withdraw the other module, to have points to bid for my 2nd module? I’m scared my points will be eaten up again, and I will have 0 points left with no modules.

CORS girl: The system should be rectified now, so you should get your points if you withdraw now.

me: Ok… Thanks for your help.

* abit angry with the system for eating up my points

* withdraws 1000 points from 1st module to bid 900 points to the 1st module and 100 points to the 2nd module

So, at the end of the round, I went from 1000 points and 307 points to the modules to 900 points and 100 points to the module. So much for trying to increase my chances of getting the modules. I know the CORS girl couldn’t do much, since she probably wasn’t in charge of the system or anything, but I was kinda angry that I had less points at the end of it and there was nothing I could do about it. Thankfully, that was not the end of it all, in a good sense that is.

* Receives call at 515pm from CORS girl

CORS girl: Hi, we know the round has ended, but since you were affected by the problem with the system, we decide to help you change your bid accordingly. We see that you’ve bidded 100 points for your 2nd module, so…

me: (gives details on changes to be made)

me: Thanks for your help.

So in the end, I did indeed get my bid of 1207 and 100 points for the respective modules. But, alas, my worry was all for nothing anyway, and I probably would have been better off not bothering about the bids in the first place. I got my 1st module for 301 points, and my 2nd module for 1 point. So much making myself worried for nothing…

New Year Resolutions!

Published on January 5, 2008 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

New Year resolutions are something you make and don’t keep! But since it’s 2008, and someone said I should blog more, then I will!

2008 Resolutions

  • Work Hard
  • Study Hard
  • Play Hard

Ok that’s it! I love school! I love work! I love play! And I love life! Ok this is one of the dumbest post, but whatever :P

I think I should add my timetable too! It’s still work in progress, or bid/ballot in progress, but hopefully I will be able to get it. 3 days of school, 2 days of work yet again? Let CORS decide.

timetable.png

Happy 2008!

Published on January 1, 2008 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Yeap, it’s a new year! Time for great new things to happen! May everyone’s wishes for 2008 come true! Nothing much happening lately, didn’t go for any countdowns, didn’t go out, just stayed at home the whole weekend and stuff. Fell sick last week, so took a few days off at home to rest, play games and watch some shows. Well, not really a big bang to start off the new year, but may great bangs come soon!