Exams Are Over

Exams are over and I want to go De-coders! De-coders is a board game cafe. Usually we go for a $8 four-hour session with free flow of drinks. And by now I know how to play quite a number of board games, enough to fill 10 hours of one round each I think! :p I'm seriously a board-game addict. What's more I just saw the alumni gang playing Bang! in the upper lounge two days ago, and I instantly missed Bang! So anyone interested please PM my Facebook account, as long as I'm in Singapore! (Should have min of 4 persons to be fun.) But I'm not going to be free to go out until after next Tuesday evening at least.

I usually don't like talking about my papers after exams, but I quite like the two modules (actually it's three, including IA) I'm taking this semester so here goes! HR is quite heavy for 3 MC, but I don't mind because it's 'my type' of module. Much 'critical thinking' and debating involved. And what I like about it is you can actually disagree (or agree partially, and disagree partially) with the readings and still get high marks if you argue it nicely! I wish I was in some course that would allow me to take this sort of module all the time, but I wonder what career (besides teaching/counselling), would accommodate for this sort of 'thinking skill' all the time? It doesn't seem very useful for a full-time job.

The other module I'm taking is a level 5, on Downstream Processing of Biochemical Products. The module is nice, the workload is OK, the professor teaches well. HOWEVER, we are taking with a bunch of Master's students, and other undergraduates who are star-learners. Mid-terms are awfully tricky and I died in them. The term paper was OK for me, and for everyone else. The final paper was OK too, just that from my postulation, half the class would have the capability to score 100% for it, and unfortunately that doesn't include me! But oh well, it could have gotten much worse, so thank God for the finals! I really like this module from the bottom of my heart - it's just that bell curves are cruel things most of the time in Chem Eng modules.

IA is going to end in another month, and I have a load of preparatory work to do before ending it. For instance, I believe my supervisor deserves a really nice souvenir for all the love she put in coaching me! And I don't know how, but I do plan to do something for each person I know too because they've all been so nice! But how to do something nice for everyone and at the same time make it cost effective? I have this LONG list of names I've compiled, and I have only one month to think of what to do. T__T

And yup, on top of IA at the back of my mind I still have to take care of my research with Prof Lee. Next year is Design Project semester and Final Year Project Presentation. They do have to end our final semester with a big bang like this. Then after that graduation! And a new myriad of possibilities ahead of me.

Yesterday when I was studying, my mind couldn't just stick in one place, and I was fleetingly thinking of a range of interesting part-time jobs I wish I could do if there is an opening, and the pay was decent. There are things I feel that would be really fun to do if they could feed me at least before I get a proper job. Some of them are here:

1. Do translation (preferably from Chinese to English) for a drama series/ movie! I don't know how this pays, but some of the translations I've seen are really horrible, and I believe I could do a way better job than that. And it would be fun too. Book translations are welcome too.

2. Tutor a kid who genuinely wants to learn. Music or school-work (which is not beyond my capabilities). I actually love to teach you see. Especially subjects like History, basic Biology, and maybe essay writing.

3. This is not exactly a job - but I want to join some short-term mission trip or something - local or overseas. I seriously lack experience from serving in this field! No payment required - I'm willing to dig my pocket money out for this (provided that the cost is not explosive).

4. Teach a kid/adult how to improvise in music lessons. Must be willing to learn, easy to teach AND not take my efforts for granted. Unfortunately, you need to pay for this though. :p

5. Play board games and get paid? No such dream job in existence though. T__T

6. Some methodological sai-kang work (maybe for a few days only) - such as packing goodie bags, data entry, documentation work, report writing, grammar checking for thesis only. Must be a well-paid sai-kang job. :p

That's about what I can think off at the moment. Now to get out of dreamland and back to research work. :D

Between Week 13 and Reading Week

As I've mentioned many, many times, this is the first time my exams end in reading week itself! Unfortunately I can't lie back and enjoy after that, because I still have to rush Prof. Lee's research project, and of course work from Mondays to Fridays (without early leave for lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays).

Still, I will miss my IA a lot when it's over. :( My supervisor is really very nice, appreciative, and understanding; and I do like the people and the working environment in SP. Every time I feel like 'oh no, I'm going to mess this up...', people there are just so ready to teach and put you at ease when you're doing things you've never done before. If my future working environment is like this (provided that I have a little more assignments than I already have), it would be perfect!

HR project is officially over, ending with a class presentation and a class photo. Behold myself and my group members. :p Really learned much about communication, and people management through this project. It was really messed up with a lot of subtle conflicts, and everything was extra difficult because everyone was friends with each other. But we did end on amicable terms, and the preparation process for the presentation was quite fun. My greatest regret for this project is probably the fact that I didn't get to talk to Fuchao much and only knew how to write his Chinese name after the presentation.

Just want to specially appreciate YH for his honesty throughout the project, and Mei for sharing all the same burdens and frustrations with me, and for being so supportive. Also, our HR lecture, for being so nice and caring towards her students (she really goes out of the way to do so), for teaching us so many salient applications of communication and people management, and for making everything so fun :) She even gave us a bar of Toblerone each!

Our group members (in no particular order in the photo): Yew Hong, Fuchao, Kasun, Mei, Wendy, Shi Hui and myself.

Yesterday there was this email about our design project group allocation rules, and everyone went into a frenzy with group formations. Trust Chem Engineer wannabes like us to give such instantaneous reaction towards updates like this. The domino effect was, I had to start asking around too as I was always one of those left-behinds who 'filled in the gaps' and was grouped with random people in technical group projects. Decided to take the first offer available for safety's sake, and I was really happy that Anna called me just now. My being glad was not so much that I had a group at last (though yes, I was happy to have something definite like this to hang on to), but it was rather because I was accepted so appreciatively. And I really thank God for a very important reminder that she gave me regarding my perspective of the group work, or even school work as a whole.

Exams are on Thursday and Saturday - so I'd better continue bucking up for both papers! Hopefully I'll make the fullest of my school life before I graduate. :)

LKK

We had our LKK Getai performance two days ago! LKK = Lao Kok Kok by the way, a term coined by Raffles Hall Final Years, for ourselves.

It was fun to work with our Block 6 Gang again (that's how we coined the gang in Year 1). Not everyone who was originally inside is still around. And there were some of us who joined in and somehow we formed this big group and we did a skit to spoof on certain key hall personnel. I loved the fact that we all got to work together to prepare something like this.

At first I thought the performance was going to be horribly lame - mainly because we lack contributions of talented script writers. Piang did the front part, and I did the back part (that was the lame part) on the Q&A. I am not made to write witty dialogues, at least not formally on paper. I still remember in Year One where Boss mentioned that it was a pity that my sabo skills did not make its way into my writings for RH-Ed. The articles I wrote were very descriptive, but however, boringly politically correct.

Anyway, the audience liked our performance! Thanks to everyone who let their hair down. It is something I still can't do, despite it being my fourth year in RH. But I really do admire people who can do so.

I really admired the spirit of those who contributed a whole lot of time and effort to our Getai. It required sacrifice, and it was that sacrifice that brought about its success. I remembered poor Gant and Brian leading the meeting despite the reluctant expressions of our semi-bored seniors. It is really because of people putting effort into hall, that hall can reach new heights every year.

I collected my Phoenix Magazine today. It had three (lengthy) articles of mine inside. My writing style had not evolved much from Year One. That was why I thought it was more apt for me to write for Phoenix rather than RH Ed. But it seemed like now RH Ed has evolved to adopt political correctness also, and is now part of Phoenix. However, I saw one distinct difference from the way I write now, than the way I used to write. Instead of merely shedding stuff in a positive light, my thoughts are more critical now than it used to be. The difference is really very subtle, but I really felt it was there as I read through my writings.

My favorite part of the magazine must have to be the two pages nearing the end where Pei Yiing drew a two page spread of her design memories in hall. Those colors and pictures really brought back a line of memories since Year One, and it should be even more so for her as they reflected her actual experiences. The pages where the Final Year comments really left me thinking: What is hall to me now... and how has it shaped my life?

I have detached myself from Hall too long to answer this question, although I am physically within it. Hall is merely a definition of the memories between me and my close block mates; as well as the friends I made through activities, some who are still in Hall, others who are not. As I approach my last semester in Hall, should I play my role differently to be more involved, or just stick within the little circle I'm comfortable in? I'm still not sure. Uni life is a tug-of-war of commitments and priorities. I need much wisdom to make the right choices.

More Potentials

Was just thinking today that I had the makings of a good secretary. I'm starting to become my supervisor's personal organizer. Up to the point that I can now guess contents of docs I don't even have access to in the first place.

How much pay does a secretary earn? Not that I think I'll end up being one, but if I could, I won't mind.

Anyway, I've been thinking that I'm now looking at things from the wrong perspectives. All this lateral focus is killing me. Where's my upward focus? Once I think up, every burdened is lightened. But I always, forget, to think upwards. Until today when I got this packet of tissues at the MRT stop advertising Pastor Tang's evangelistic meetings. I didn't feel like going, but it reminded me, God is there, God is in charge, and my thoughts and actions these days were too self-centered to be worthy of being His child.

I need to focus on the right thing, once again. And then petty little things like academics and the future won't matter anymore, because what matters most, need to matter most to me.

Another nice thing that blessed my heart this week, is that I can't help noticing and feeling, how sweet some of my colleagues were :) This is pretty random. But life is always prettier with random little observations like this.

And my spirits were lifted today because I actually managed to finish reading up some articles for my downstream processing essay. Sigh. Give me research papers over patents any time. Patents are just so horrible to read.