Monday, December 14, 2009

从 Bukit 到 Pasir

从 Bukit 到 Pasir 我就爱新鲜加刺激
郁闷的舒缓途径尽情 party
灌一杯 mocha coffee 化身为 ice lemon tea
一触即发的臭屁

Soon I'll be descending from the hill and shifting to the coast. Nope, not orchard haha (refer to 1 Apr 2007 entry).

It will definitely save me a lot of travelling time. Doesn't take more than 30 min to reach school. Nearest MRT station is harbourfront, which makes NEL area more accessible. Moreover I'll be going against the majority commuter flow during peak hours. Direct buses just outside which can take me to the unfamiliar east side, eg. Kallang, East Coast, Bedok, Tampines, etc. Of course there are still buses that connect me to west side, eg. Jurong, Boon Lay, Clementi, Choa Chu Kang, and my old Bukit region. Ang Mo Kio, Yishun and Woodlands areas will become further though. But with the completion of Circle Line in the coming years, it shouldn't be much of a problem anymore.

I'm thinking if there's any way to get up onto the viaduct just above the main road outside, because it's blocking the beautiful sea view. (although it's full of 'sea giraffes')

Monday, December 07, 2009

Semester 3 Overview

It's probably a good thing that I didn't overload this semester. Was already struggling with weekly tutorials though projects and lab reports were minimal. And the rising difficulty of the modules would mean that I have to spend more time reading textbooks in order to understand and catch up with the syllabus.

Like last semester, I'll be rating the modules according to their difficulty, workload, lecture and tutorial/lab. Here are the criteria:

Difficulty - Self explanatory.
Workload - Amount of lesson hours per week, assignments, tutorials, projects, self-study required, etc
Lecture - Enjoyability and understanding
Tutorial/Lab - Enjoyability and understanding

*Note that the ratings are set at an arbitrary scale and the maximum is not necessarily 5 stars.


CN2121 - Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics


Difficulty: ★★★★
Workload: ★★★★
Lecture: ★★
Tutorial: ★★★

This module resembles CN1111 (the most basic chemical engineering module) which I took last semester - concepts of thermodynamics are further extended. Thermodynamics is indeed a very abstract subject, using a lot of conceptual values (eg. enthalpy and entropy) that cannot be measured directly. Furthermore the tedious computations can drive me crazy sometimes. Also, the decision about whether to assume a condition or not takes on greater importance in this one, since the steps to arrive at the answer can greatly differ in complexity.

I thought the 1st lecturer wasn't that good until I met the 2nd one. Quite grateful to the 1st for setting easy questions for both mid terms and finals. He puts in effort to make sure we understand the concepts, though at many times I still had trouble grasping. Thankfully the final exam didn't require much computation and it seemed like a breeze for many. However the easy final would mean the midterm takes a bigger grade determining role, which I didn't do well for...


CN2122 - Fluid Mechanics

Difficulty: ★★★★
Workload: ★★★
Lecture: ★★
Tutorial: ★★

Out of the 2 Chem Eng module, I prefer this one. Somehow fluid flow is much easier to visualize than heat flow. Actually most questions can be solved just by using a general balance equation, provided a good diagram is drawn (or visualized) such that all the known parameters and assumptions can be determined. Put everything into the gigantic equation and tada, the unknown can be found!

I think the lecturer is quite poor thing, as he often gets blasted for his 'ambiguous' questions, test format, lecture notes, soft voice, blah blah anything you can pick on for a lecturer. Some people say the tough final was an expression of his unhappiness towards us...

Honestly I find it annoying when students ask about how the set-up is supposed to be like in the question. Ok the question is completely in words and there are no diagrams. Dunno if question is badly phrased or the students' visualization skills are poor, but I think it's rather straightforward. To avoid this kind of situation I think the lecturer should try to include a diagram.

Sigh, if only I had more time in the final exam. Why must it be shortened to 2 hours?!


CM1501 - Organic Chemistry for Engineers


Difficulty: ★★
Workload: ★★★
Lecture: ★★
Tutorial/Lab: ★★

A more relaxed module since the fundamentals are already covered in A Levels. Not much new stuff except more reactions and mechanisms. Since the exams are closed-book, a good memory is key to scoring well. You must know all the reactions at your fingertips to transform one compound to another. Used up a lot of memory space trying to cram everything before the exam. Fortunately, the exam format is simpler than expected. It felt like an art-and craft assessment haha. No written explanations needed but precise drawings and structure recognition are required.

Making crystals is so fun! Wished I could bring some home for keepsake.


LSM1401 - Fundamentals of Biochemistry

Difficulty: ★★★
Workload: ★★
Lecture: ★★
Lab: ★

Being a student who has never taken even O Level Biology, this module could be a nightmare. It's like venturing into a completely new subject, as a core module somemore! The first few lectures about cells blew me off, then metabolism made it worse. Luckily the last part on DNA and genetics brought me back on track, all thanks to the hyper super ultra active lecturer. I wonder where his source of motivation is. Talking on and on for 2 hours straight with a loud enthusiastic voice in the early 8 am lecture is no easy task. On the other hand, the 1st lecturer seemed to emit sleeping gas haha.

With only 3 lab sessions, MCQ assignments, no tutorial...and oh, lecture ended very early at week 10 too - this can be a very slack module, although it requires extensive reading for people like me.

The Biochemistry textbook was overwhelming at first, with all the jargon and bio-terminology. But I slowly conquered the odds and eventually gained a better understanding of biology. =p In fact I think it sparked a little interest in biology on me. Metabolism is such an interesting process. ^_^

Despite that, I've not much confidence in scoring well for this one since the final exam is fully MCQ (with many giveaway questions). Who knows how much the bell-curve will be skewed. Hopefully my silly mistakes won't cost me a lot.


GEM2901 - Reporting Statistics in the Media

Difficulty: ☆
Workload: ☆
Lecture: ★★★★
Tutorial: NA

The most expensive module I've taken so far. And also the slackest. The lecture time serves as a weekly gathering with friends. Content is simple and easy to relate to daily life. Yea I love to listen to the lecturer's interesting stories. But he has something against women though, not that it matters so much to me haha.

The project results weren't that satisfactory but I guess it can't be helped. Scores for final exam are hard to predict. Just pray hard lor. Ready to S/U but it's really a waste to do so.

---

Drop or rise? Let's leave it to fate ba...

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

What are you looking for?

Looks like my blog has attracted quite a few visitors from my module review entries. When it comes to exam periods or time to bid for new modules in CORS, module related searches that lead to my blog will increase. This also means as the number of modules I take increases, viewership will increase too haha.

Well, here's the evidence:

(FYI viewership counts are actually mostly contributed by past entries (and even by uploaded pictures) rather than recent entries. Thus any sudden increase in viewership doesn't mean much)



Just a simple glance will tell how 'popular' a destination my blog is for curious module searches. Let's comment on some of them:

--- I didn't know exam papers and questions can be searched through the net. I haven't done it before but I don't think anyone will upload them so freely for public to search. (at least for NUS) Isn't the Library Portal a better source to search for papers? If not available, approaching seniors would be the next best bet. I wonder if any student would scan and upload exam papers by themselves... That's against the University rules right? But anyway, most non-essay papers will have their questions collected back since answers are directly written on the question booklet itself.

--- Searching for sample cheat sheets? Don't be lazy, write it yourself! Lol.

--- Score range for an A grade? Please please...this question has been pondered, analyzed, asked, debated, rebutted to death by many university students, but nobody is able to give a definite answer. It differs from semester to semester, lecturer to lecturer, cohort to cohort. With so many influencing factors there is no use knowing the ranges (if available) from previous semesters. Just have to accept lor.

--- If anyone noticed at all, I made a typo with 迷路兵's new song. Looks like someone made the same typo (or misunderstanding) as me too haha.

--- If you're thinking what's 'Love Concierge', it's 2005 Mediacorp drama 爱的掌门人. The ending song is 勾勾手 by 郭美美. Another ending song is some cha-cha sung by 薛家燕. Just to add on, the main theme song is 我愿意 by 蔡淳佳. Why do I remember so much? Haha, it was one of my favourite dramas at that time. Is it showing in Indonesia now? (Look the the Google domain)

Not that viewership matters a lot to me, but I just want to know what my blog visitors are exactly reading. (and how are they entering here)

Will review my modules next week. For now I will flush out all my sem's knowledge from the brain and create memory space for my coming test.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Forgotten Holiday

Just a short entry to show that I'm still alive haha.

Glad that it's about halfway through the exams. And hurray to those who have finished theirs. =)

This morning I woke up and was surprised to see my parents at home. At first I thought I've mistaken a Sunday as a Friday. (Oh I fastforward 2 days ahead of time?!)

Things are still realistic - days and hours will still have to pass no matter what. Despite being told before, I had totally no awareness, anticipation or whatsoever about this public holiday. This is probably a reflection of student's life, where the impact of school holidays or exam periods override national holidays. On the other hand I'm sure most working adults look forward to this long weekend.

The only time when I really anticipated and was truly aware of public holidays much in advance was during NS...haha.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Servbot? What's that?

As you guys have already known, my online nickname is 'servbot'. I've started using it since almost 10 years ago when I developed a liking for servbots. This entry can probably tell you why I chose to use this nick, and how servbots are such lovable 'creatures'. I don't really see them as robots since they are so animated, and have a mind (though simple) of their own.

But first of all, play this video and pause to let it load first. No need to watch the entire video since I'll be referring to certain parts only.



So basically servbots (aka servant robot or legoman) originated from a video game called 'Megaman legends'. You know Megaman? That blue-armored boy. The game shown in the video 'The Misadventure of Tron Bonne' is a spinoff from the Megaman series. Used to love playing these games. ^_^ In 'Megaman Legends' Megaman faces a group of villains called the Bonne family. Within the family, there is a girl named Tron Bonne, who has the image of a spoilt girl - keeps complaining and such.

The Bonne family specializes in creating gadgets and machines, to deal with Megaman of course, as well as to fulfill their evil plans in taking over towns and cities. To aid in their efficiency, they developed minion robots as assistants that will help out in several aspects, from missions to maintenance to even household chores. This is how servbots come about. =)

Servbots work for everyone in the family (actually only 3 siblings) but are mainly managed by Tron Bonne. Servbots call her affectionately as 'Miss Tron'. Tron isn't a very kind and patient master but the servbots don't seem to mind at all...

Now back to the video:

At 0:15, you can see the headquarters of the Bonne family. Fully operated by servbots. Tron just has to give them instructions for various tasks. There is even a gym for servbots to exercise?! As if they have muscles to train and fats to burn...

At 2:33, it shows the full list of servbots available. There are 40 in all, and each of them has a serial number. Furthermore each has a different personality and vital statistics (attack, health, etc). Somewhere in the game I was asked to choose my favourite servbot, and I chose #28. I remember he (it) works in Tron's bedroom and has a good caring personality. =)

3:30 - Mission briefing. You can bring up to 6 servbots along for the mission. In this case the plan is to rob a bank haha. So sad that servbots belong to the bad side.

4:20 - The servbots made a blunder and were scolded by Tron. In fact the servbots are often punished by Tron because of their silly mistakes. Sometime I feel they deserve to be scolded too haha. But it can't be helped since their brains are too simple. What I like about servbots is, at the next moment after being scolded they become cheerful and motivated again. Really short-term memory I guess...

This shows that scolding servbots are useless actually, since they don't really mend their ways haha. I'm sure Tron knows that too. Just that sometimes she needs to vent her frustration. In some cases she doesn't even know how to respond to their brainless actions.

4:55 - Mission Start! To command servbots to investigate something, you have to aim at that object (or place) and shoot something called the 'beacon bomb'. Look at how the beacon bomb is used to send servbots to rob the houses. Upon stealing something, the servbots will cheer happily while scurrying and delivering their loots back to Tron (inside the mech). How cute. =p

Later in the mission the servbots will make another blunder. (And get scolded again). But this time they could think of a clever idea to save them from the situation...

So that's all for my introduction to servbots. Hope you all find them adorable too. =p Watching this video really makes me want to play the game again! (Though this isn't a very good time to do so...)

Friday, November 13, 2009

Japanese shows are so interesting =)

Lai lai lai, come and watch stuffs that you probably won't ever get to watch in Singapore TV.

Frightened Cub



I know it's a bit sadistic but the little bear cub is really cute. Anyway the zookeeper has already apologized for such unethical treatment but then this clip is still being well-watched by many people. (Look at the poor monkey at the end...)


So much effort for so little work

This programme focuses on unique domino projects created by various teams. I think this is one of the better teams (set up in a school compound). The dominoes will pass through several zones with different themes, and it gets more interesting towards the end. What a grand finale!



Here's another good one. Such mechanism only works once and that's it lol.




You can try it at home

Some useless but amazing trivia:

- Obedient Ping Pong



- Ballet Garlic




Goodbye Pan-kun

Due to ethical reasons, Pan-kun has to be returned to the zoo. So this is the last episode of the variety show featuring him. In this episode Pan-kun will get a parting gift for his owner. He will also attempt to take a photo with the bulldog James for memory sake. When Pan-kun was reminiscing about the good old times he had with his owner, something happened...



Quite touching at the end when Pan-kun was so reluctant to leave his owner. Some of the guests even cried.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Like that also can?!

Probably some of you have already seen this popular video which was circulated some years ago:




This genius monkey, Pan-kun, will face another challenge - cooking. This time its 'pet dog' is not involved though. With a little more training, I think Pan-kun will be able to become a chef haha. Hmm, I wonder how the udon will taste like... Would you like to give its cooking a try?



Many other video links about Pan-kun and the bulldog can be found in Youtube. You guys might want to take a look (if free and interested). No, you don't need to know Japanese to understand these videos...