The last hurdle
Funny isn't it? I have been studying for the past 15 years or so and now suddenly after my final paper this Friday, I potentially will never ever need to touch a book again. The routine of school and then school holidays and then school again is something which I go through every year. All of a sudden I miss school.
Sounds irony but true. On every Monday we always dread waking up to go to school and always cheer when weekends come along. To be honest, to me, I had most fun when I was in school, not during the weekends while I was at home. At least in school, we still can disturb the teachers and get off scot-free. Try disturbing your boss when you are working and see what you get.
Anyway my paper is on this Friday but somehow I still cannot find the motivation to start revising. There are simply so many temptations in the house. My computer, DVD player, playstation 2 and even my fridge are always in my mind instead. IMGT really sucks, so many formulas to memorise.
Really had lots of fun last week. I went JB with my classmates last monday and then a 3 day chalet at east coast. Next week, I will be going Genting with them, that is provided there is no last minute hassle. Saw from CNA yesterday night that another earthquake rated at 8.5 occurred in Indonesia. There is also a warning on potential tsunami for some countries which include Thailand, Japan and even Malaysia.
Haiz, I think God is punishing the people again. Funny right? The advanced we have become, the more disasters are hitting us. From SARs to bird flu. bird flu to natural disasters like this. Conincidence or what?
My final semester at a glance
Time really flies and I am going to graduate soon, prior to whether I pass all my modules this semester. This semester has really been a roller-coaster, really quite happening for me as an individual. To be honest, I would admit, without the help of my classmates I really don’t think I could have got this far. I really owe it all to them.
The first or should I say the most happening event is my attachment where I was posted to India together with 25 other students. This was the trip of my lifetime and I honestly doubt I will ever forget about it throughout my entire life. That was the first time I was away from home for so long and I was even alone when I went as all of my classmates already had their attachment.
What can I say about this trip? Well, in summary, we were supposed to go there and make a difference in their lives and instead it ended up with them making a difference in ours. We really ought to be thankful for the environment we were born in. Most of those students over there don’t even have a proper desk to write on.
Those 21 days spent over there passed like a breeze seemly like a dream. But the events that anchored together will stay firmly in my mind.
School started 2 days later after I came back from India. It was only after I reached Singapore did I manage to see my time table. It seems so cool as I only have classes on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. In fact I only had 2 modules to take, BA and IMGT excluding the 2 IS modules which I take every semester.
Horrors of horrors when I went for my BA classes on Thursday. Yes, one of my classmates for BA is the ONE. Yes! Of course not a pretty chick that I have been gorging at since year 1 but Mr Jonathan Lin Zhi Wei. In case you don’t know who He is, He is that very guy who goes around the school looking for empty classrooms carrying a bag on his back and a lap top on his hand. Most or should I say all students of ICT should know who he is. As what I say before, what goes round comes round, I never expect retribution will come in such a harsh way. Years of teasing and imitating Him has come back in the worst possible way. I was to be his partner for the final BA assignment. Pair work. Just me and Him.
But well, as what I always say and still stand by, What Will Be Shall Be, eventually we managed to pull it off. He wasn’t really that hard to work with although there were times where I almost exploded when he gave me some very lame and stupid excuses. Overall it was quite ok and he was quite cooperative although I would attribute that to the reason that my fist was twice his size. Haha..jokes aside. Honestly I think people ought to give him a chance. A chance for him to speak up and express himself although most of the times I still couldn’t understand him. But at least I am one of the very rare few who managed to work successfully with him. That is if I managed to pass my BA this time round.
Poly overall, was a school for the slackers. A place where people can miss 20% of their lessons which means 1 day of school every week. The place was still like a heaven until FYP comes. Yes, mention the word ‘FYP’ to the year 3s and they would tremble with fright. FYP is especially scary for bogus students like me. Bogus students are students who despite after studying 3 years of IT, still know nuts about IT. The FYP is a large-scale project and an individual one too. An accident waiting to happen. Somehow I managed to pull through thanks again to my classmates, who saved my arse for God-knows-how-many-times. Those days of worrying about deadlines and the inability to finish the projects are finally gone. But the horrors that come with it is enough to give my weak heart a big scare. Old men cannot take in such thumping stuff anymore.
The FYP report was okay overall. That was the only thing I am able to do on my own. The only little happening was me going specially out to get a printing cartage, a color one and a black and white one, making sure that the printer is in working order, all the files can be transferred properly to my sis’s com and upon printing, only to realize that I have no paper. Damn. Shit do happens although I often wonder why they always happen to me. The best way to console oneself, What Will Be Shall Be.
Finally, a little cause for celebration after the traumatizing FYP. That is I won the ICT soccer 7-a-side tournament for the 2nd year running with my team, Rebels. What a tournament this is and I am sure unless you are a player of the team, you will never understand why I am so especially happy to win this one again. All odds are really stacked heavily against us and only we knew what a difficult period we went through. Eventually it was the team spirit which carried us through and retaining a championship is always something special. Of course, there is also JJ to thank for. Special thanks to this nice bloke who came specially down to give a helping hand when we do not have enough people. That was really a very nice gesture.
For conclusion, I would like to give a little tribute to all my fellow classmates. You guys have really been great these past years. Full marks for everything. Although there have been some unhappiness and misunderstandings which I think is unavoidable whenever there are human beings around, I felt there are no regrets and I honestly think you people shouldn’t have too. We spent more happy times than unhappy times we had and I think all those should have made up for the unpleasant times. Why brood over those unpleasant things when we have much more happy moments to indulge in?
After this, each and everyone of us will be going our separate ways and looking for our own futures. But hopefully, in future, no matter what troubles or stress we may encounter in our quest for success, we all are able to think back the events we all had together in poly and that should be sufficient to put a little smile back on our faces.
Good bye and all the best, MMC class M02.
Report!!!!
Yay!!! It's 7 am in the morning and I have finally finished writing, compiling and printing my report!!! Wooo...Kns how come nobody tell me printing will take the whole damn night..Never mind..its finally over..now the only worrying thing is playing hide and seek with my supervisor later in school...hopefully can find him...
Argg...public nuisance
I was really terribly tired when I boarded the bus to go home from school today. The bloody 157 takes such a freaking long time that I almost fell asleep in the drain beside the bus stop.
The bus finally came after 700 years and it was a double-decker air-con bus. Cool, I thought to myself as I went up to my favorite front seat on the 2nd level to have a shut-eye throughout the half an hour journey. Just as I was about to drift off to dreamland, 4 secondary school kids(3 girls and 1 guy) boarded the bus and of all seats, decided to occupy the 1st and 2nd seats beside me.
I don’t actually mind company but the secondary school boy was talking like an amplifier. His volume was loud enough to let the whole bus know his presence. He was making some very lame jokes to the girls and laughing out aloud. Really low class jokes but to my horror, the girls with him are actually laughing along with him and disturbing my beauty sleep.
I was really tolerant to put up with him throughout the journey but a guy who sat behind me was obviously very irritated. He was making some sighs and erm-hem to signal them to shut up. But hell-no, these monkeys continued with their ranting.
It was a bliss for that guy as he went off soon after upon reaching his destination while I still had about half of it to cover.
When the hell are these kids alighting the bus?
Someone really ought to give these brats a slap across the faces. Unfortunately no one did and I closed my eyes to try to shut out their noises, indulging myself in the fantasy world of tying them to the back of the bus and dragging them along on the road with blood spattering and cries of “Helpppppp” filling the air. That should really let them understand the theory of
‘never disturb a tired man’.
Slowly I began to drift off to sleep as I was really too tired. When I woke up I found myself near Boon Lay place having missed my stop 2 stops ago. Eventually I alighted and walked a 20 minute journey home. DAMN THE BLOODY KIDS. NNB.
Demo
I am supposed to hand in my FYP today at 3.30pm. After 3.30pm, my server will be closed and I will be considered late for submission of FYP. The worst thing is my demo will come straightaway after my submission.
The day before my deadline I was already kind of freaking out because there were so many bugs and lots of functions not working. Luckily there is always the ever so helpful Mr Loy Ah J around who managed to put everything right in just a day. I figured that I couldn’t put ANYTHING right if you had given me a decade. Talk about the difference between a genius and an idiot.
But so anyway, during the demo we are supposed to demonstrate to our supervisors and 2nd marker about our project and also show him our work. From there, they will ask you many stupid questions regarding your project and even expect humble answers from you despite knowing our standards are levels away from one another. If not, why the hell are you being paid thousands of dollars every month while we are paying thousands every year just to be taught by you? In fact, if we dissect carefully, we are paying your salaries and maybe you should call us ‘boss’ instead of ‘boy ar’. Ok, this is so out of point. Back to FYP.
And so, despite most of my program is working without any obvious bugs, the fear is that my supervisor may ask something which will expose the weakness of my FYP. The real weakness will be not exposed here because you never know who may drop by your blog. The night before, I was scanning through my program and imagining myself in front of that 2 markers and presenting to them in my mind.
Of course, in your mind, everything will go smoothly because humans are naturally optimistic. You then imagine the 2 markers applauding your FYP and even promising you an A for it. Yah, crap.
Another thing that I will need to consider is the clothes I am going to wear to the presentation. Most of my peers wore formal which means a shirt, black pants and formal shoes, those which will go ‘click click click’ one. Formal wearing is something which I really hate the most and I feel utmost discomfort when I am in one.
But of course we just have to compromise. So, I will not wear that formal, but I at least need to look neat. (Notice I only say neat instead of neat and smart because I always look smart whatever I wear.WHAHAHAHA)
Thus I decided to take out the shirts I have available in my cupboard and picked the ones which will make me look at least neat. Horrors of horrors, I realized that I am unable to button up my buttons due to…..arg….forget it. Looking into the mirror, I realize I actually looked quite comical with my shirt buttoned only up to my upper tummy and my belly button exposed. Bloody hell.
Eventually I decided on a white Polo T-shirt which at least make me look like a golf player and someone of a higher status. Wahahah…imagine the typical man you see in a country club on Sunday mornings. And of course, I am wearing my jeans and my favorite trademark slippers. Aiya, demo only mah. Not matchmake leh. For the sake of 30 mins and then feel uncomfortable for the rest of the day is just not worth it.
Before the demo, I actually held a rehearsal in front of my classmates and there were some bugs or problems. Whatever, I also don’t know what they call those. Luckily, there is always the debugger Loy around to save my arse yet again.
3.30pm came real fast and I had to make my way to my demo classroom and set up all my stuff. I was really nervous and was afraid of screwing myself.
3.40pm and there is still no sight of my supervisor and 2nd marker.
3.45pm and I decided to give my supervisor a call. All I got for response was “Hi, I am Andrew Yoong and I am not around. Please leave a message after the Beep.”
3.50pm and I am dying of anxiety. I was afraid I might get the location of the demo room wrong.
In the end I decided to try my luck and give my 2nd marker whom I have never seen nor met before a call. Luckily he was at his office and picked up my call. “Oh, Yong Yifan. Yah. I am your 2nd marker but your demo is on Monday, not today.”
So much troubles all for nothing. Thanks ar, Mr Andrew Yoong.
