Thursday, July 31, 2008
I'll try hard not to go in specifics, but a frequent user of the library will be well aware of what and of whom I'm talking about.
A week before school started, I started buying up the books I needed for the new sem. Aim? To beat the snake long queues in the bookroom made up by freshmen who lack the experience to tackle the "system". Commerce books are very expensive, so I was quite thrilled when I found recycled books at the back of the bookroom going for $70 odd a piece. A good $30 to $50 saving from the mark price. Most expensive on the booklist was my macro book. A whooping $127!!! I contemplated photocopying the entire book then binding it myself. If it was cheaper that was. So I popped over to the library and saw 10 to 12 copies in the reserve so I figured I'll just photocopy the pages I need.
Lecture ends 10am tuesday morning. I reach the library 1015am tuesday morning. Only ONE copy left from that pile I saw last week. And it's in the hands of some ang moh browsing through. So I stand by and wait patiently. Then two internationals come waltzing in speaking the language I studied and never mastered for 10 years. And right in front of my very nose, take the book I was so patiently and obviously waiting for!!! Outrageous! I know! I didn't want to borrow the book in the first place, I just wanted to photocopy. And from my limited knowledge of that language I gathered all they wanted to do was to browse, and they had to go and loan out the book. If only I knew how to say share in that language.
So I stalk the library for the next few days, hoping to get my hands on that cursed expensive book, when I realise that it's all been loaned out!! The next one was to come in at 1145am. Time now? 1130am. So I wait patiently at the computer, trying not to make it too obvious that I'm lingering, and then BAM 1145am. I leave the computer and walk as fast as a man with a tight bladder going to the toilet would, and search that shelf for the book that's brought me so much irritation. But it's not there!!! I refuse to believe that the same internationals beat me to it by a split second. And I was right. They didn't. It was another international this time, whose former prime minister had to sack Kevin Keegan when he was doing a perfectly fine job at Manchester City. Standing at the loans desk, his face can only be described as "beaming with pride", and no prizes why.
Dan
11:59 am
Monday, July 28, 2008
First day of school today. Felt kind of strange walking back to lectures, it was like I never left. I think it's finally sinking in that I'm in second year. I was sitting in lecture, and I was well aware that the terms used in discussions were not lay man terms, and I was able to follow the arguments, and sometimes formulate some myself. It felt weird knowing your speciality. I've always been used to just the generic form of studies. Guess its time to change.
My goal last semester was to get good grades, and I think in some sense I did achieve that. Not to say that thats not my goal this sem either. But I think I'd like to try to be a better friend. Don't ask me what that means, but I know I'm not there yet. OK, maybe friend isn't the best word to use, perhaps person might be more accurate. Just having one of those moments in life, where I look back and wonder if I could have made some better decisions. Then again, if I have the fortune of hindsight, I wouldn't have done what I did, which made me what I am today, so I guess really what I did previously is the best that could have been done in that time and situation to be where I am right now. Did that make any sense at all?
Rach and I did some pre-semester shopping. I spent $122. She spent $10. I guess we rub off each other in some way.
Dan
11:16 am
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Applications are such a tedious thing to do. Whoever thought of them had a reservoir of patience and sure expects everyone else to have that same kind of patience in filling them out. I mean one is fine, but when you have to do like 4 or 5 of them in one day! And that's not the worse part. Not knowing whether you might get the job. It really makes you wonder if you should just fill up as many as you can, and see who respond, or use that effort to fill up a few good ones and pray that those get through. I guess both strategies can be argued to bring success.
I finally managed to call my electricity provider to ask them why they haven't billed me in 6 months, and guess what??? They can't bill me until I've set up an account with them! How crazy is that? I of course had no issue with that, I mean I had not set up my account in 6 months, and nothing happened. The only risk I run is my electricity being cut off if their technician comes to check my meter, and I don't think that would happen anytime soon since they got my address wrong. Oddly enough, when I tried to be the honest citizen that I am, and gave them my correct address they insisted that I was wrong, and that I check the meter myself to see if I had got it correct. No way am I going to check some meter, which I don't even know where it is. You would think that a big electrical company like them would have thought of a better system right??
Dan
9:49 pm
Monday, July 21, 2008
One more week of holidays. I've been thinking about my holidays and I couldn't find a word to describe it. It was definitely fun, and I think much more adventurous than if I had returned to Singapore, but I can't deny that some part of me thinks it could have been better. But the time has come to put that behind me, and to go back to studying next week. Not much excitement in me this time round, but I do have this "I-want-to-go-out-and-slaughter-everyone-in-studies" feeling, so I guess that's good since it'll make me more hardworking. Wonder how long that will last.
Dan
4:01 pm
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
I watched Mamma Mia the other day. It was not quite what I expected but totally hilarious. This weekend is ski!! The final trip of the winter holiday, and I think a great way to end this winter. The break has been refreshing, and it has definitely felt like a long deserved holiday. Now I'm energized to go back to school to fight the flow of knowledge. Not sure if it's something I'm looking forward to.
Dan
12:37 am
Monday, July 14, 2008
The winter semester has started. How do I know? Because Rachelle is doing one winter subject. 2 weeks intensive, and at the end of it, they examine you. I don't think I'll be able to do it. Though I'm not sure. 2 weeks, and then an exam?? During normal semester I study way before 2 weeks for any exam. I think I'll die from the 2 week stress. But that said, I attended the lecture with her anyway, and it just reminded me how much history interested me. Just listening of course, not having to study it.
I caught up with an old friend the other day in church, and heard from her how she fought to get her internship in Australia. She told me never to follow the system, and I couldn't agree more. The system is for the company to see who will think out of the box and who will not. So what have I resolved to do? I'm going to spam and hound MTI until I either get the internship or am blacklisted as the most annoying undergraduate.
Dan
10:32 pm
Friday, July 11, 2008
Results are out. I guess I should expect the unexpected right? It's strange how God answers our prayers in different ways. I pray for 4 H1's, but what am I really praying for? Good results, plus consistency among the results am I not? I never really got the second part until today. I guess no 4 H1's is the price I pay for not being specific in prayer. But it's not like my results are down the drain, but if you expect 4 H1's, you don't really leave much room for flexibility right?
I'm just shooting out ideas to make my results sound good, but in reality they are actually a pretty version of what they are. Nothing is perfect in this world, and there will always be something we could have done better. See there I go again.
I went to the museum the other day. Did you know that as a student, going to the museum is free!! So Singaporean, but its FREE.
Dan
9:30 am
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The Rainbow Connection
Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.
Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that
and someone believed it,
and look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.
All of us under its spell,
we know that it's probably magic....
Have you been half asleep
and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.
Dan
11:18 pm
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Camp tomorrow. Exciting. So I'll be gone for the weekend.
Dan
9:41 pm
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Go Singapore for the Olympics, but I've noticed two things. The sports which win us medals are either represented by people who are either very young, like teenagers, or foreigners. Granted that they may be the best in their field for the nation, but isn't there a problem there that needs to be solved? I've seen the kind of people that Australia has sent to represent them at the Olympics, and they look like true Olympians, not some teen who has to worry about their A's at the end of the year.
Maybe Singapore's emphasis on human capital has become so good, that everyone in Singapore, especially sportsmen can work and do sports. But as human, eventually there will come a time to choose between committing to work or to sport, and we will obviously choose the one that pays more won't we? Screw passion, when doing the next best thing pays me twice as much. And it's not like I can't play the sport anymore? Just not at a competitive level. In addition, how many parents will ever really see Singapore sports as anything more than just a form of leisure? I know that if chosen to invest money between a hardworking Singaporean employee, and a hardworking Singaporean sportsman, I will choose the employee as will many others.
Of course other presenting the problem, I do have a solution, but one that is probably going to be rejected in parliament for being too dictator-like. Sometimes I wonder if the communist way or state planning would achieve greater heights for Singapore.
Dan
9:59 pm
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
I sat at Gloria Jeans today and just spent the entire afternoon reading. I miss that. Being captivated by a story, and reading just unable to put the book down. I was reading and I came across phrase I feel I should quote tonight.
"When it comes to inches,my boy, you should only consider the forehead, better to have a spare inch between the top of your nose and the hairline than between the ankle and the knee cap."
Dan
1:07 am