11.25.09
Liberation
Finished my one and only exam for this semester yesterday actually 
Its one of the rare times ended amongst the earliest in my cliques. Quietly hoping to get some respectable results this sem. I’m feeling positive, lets hope its not a false hope again.
Even though I was really really tired yesterday after the exams (I think I merely slept about 4 hours or something maximum), there was a pre-planned outing already so I began dragging my zombie like body around to join the rest. Met up with gary huixin susan alan for lunch and kbox, though I must say I sux at that. Surprisingly I’m still quite awake at this point. I guess the temperature and the sound level must have helped.
After dinner we caught 2012 (wait for details of it on a new post obviously), only 3 of us left though. Now this was the time I began to start yawning uncontrollably. Not that the movie is bad, its my own fatigue, hurhur.
Now that my holidays officially started, I can begin to start enjoying all the goodies in life again, or I can mull over not having 1 billion euros and contemplate emigrating to the Cape of Good Hope.
11.04.09
Reaching the End of the Tunnel
I am finally beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Most projects are now over for this semester, though there are some pretty big ones yet to be due, plus who can forget the awesome finance finals that are going to come so soon. On the contrary, the entire recess week that will come after that seems too much for a single module I have exam for. Another major project down today. It is great to be working with such a closely bonded group. We had much fun together (minus the consecutive sub-5 hours sleep nights mornings we had while enduring early morning lessons).
Thinking back, it is really fortunate to have classes with a bunch (actually different bunches) of good friends here and there this semester. People who you can really depend on when the going gets tough. I’m not even sure if these people view the blog, but here goes anyway.
Thanks alot Gary for enduring sleepless nights with me, especially for finance. Otherwise, I think perhaps I might really crumble under the sheer weight of it. Chicken pox jokes aside, great job for finalizing corp fin. It is a massive relief to have you around listening to all my demand, nonsense and expectations, and delivering respectable output. Btw, pls don’t be so nervous during presentations. You have awfully obvious hand trembling for a guy hurhur.
Thanks uıxınЧ for sweets and sandwiches (and sharing sleepless nights too). I think you are really really hardworking, and a fun person to have around. Cheers to our memorable topics and secrets, hahahaha. Mood-lifting in the face of the crushing workload. Sorry for being fierce at times. Frustration kicks in with a lack of sleep & food. Jiayou, don’t give up.
It is so wonderful to have Joi and Susan back for 1 module. So much more natural to work with you people. We can all do the most retarded stuffs and say the most retarded words and have a good laugh over it. I think we have a great range of complementary skill sets. Thanks for sweets too, and lots of lame jokes.
Thanks Cherie for lending me your textbook. I need it one more time 
And also appreciate all the wonderful people around who made my day in this horrendous semester. It is coming to an end soon enough… Hang in there dude. I think I really deserve a tight slap if I delay working on projects and major assignments next semester.
10.16.09
Moving On
It is time to move on with life, no matter what happened… no matter what. Easier said than done, but I must admit I probably had it better than many peers. Those people who stumbled onto obstacles now and then, hold strong and keep going. I guess this is life.
I always regret the little stupid things I’d done. I’m always afraid to spurt out retarded stuffs in class, I guess that must be the reason why I keep quiet most of the time. And yes, I HATE presentations, because it represents one of the prime candidate for allowing me to let out utter nonsense without thinking. I/A presentation, ouch, I felt stupid back then. The only consolation I can offer myself is to be convinced that the case isn’t straightforward and that most of the class was probably not any clearer. And now I’m starting to worry about looking stupid for Corp Fin case presentation.
Maybe I have too much ego. Why the hell am I in biz? Hurhur… Anyhow, I finally finished all my midterms this semester. Didn’t seem all too bad. In fact, great to know that I happen to be in the top quartile for FM. Unfortunately, it isn’t the case for some people. Sometimes I wonder if I let down my group mates in terms of projects/cases/presentations/whatever. I usually really hate those stuffs unless it is like certain quantitative stuffs that really get me going (certainly not all quantitative stuffs as evident from massive finance distress). Maybe I have a large buffer eventually from written tests, but hey they don’t. Please put in more effort Mr slacker. Tackling 5 level3000 sectionals is definitely not easy though, especially when luck plays a little joke on you and decides to focus a heavy concentration of workload within a short timeframe. Much as I wish the worst is over, horror weeks appear to be in waiting still.
On the bright side, I see renewed hopes for finance. I had seriously contemplated if I should continue a major in finance recently when the going got tough. I got the niggling feeling that it was such a huge mistake to take on the 3 essential finance mods together. It invited responses like “siao ah”, “he’s mad lah!”, “omg”… I didn’t know what was the problem, in fact many people do the same thing. I already have to start worrying where to slot in level4000 modules, so 5 level3000 is actually not a bad case in any sense. Oh yea I was deviating from the topic. Back to finance, I must say that I have pretty good lecturers. Sometimes the workload may be heavy, sometimes the content is tougher. But hey, you want to extract something out of it when you finish the module don’t you? So yes, it reaffirms my philosophy of picking lecturers instead of “favourable” timetable which usually doesn’t turn out pleasant anyway because of the wonderful things we call project.
Speaking of lecturers, perhaps I should some effort to interact more on a personal level with them. Some of them are really nice people, and its a whole big world out there, the insights they offer you and I guess sometimes it helps to ease their boredom with a refreshing chance to talk to students about non-academic subjects. Mabel is really really nice to the class. I mean wow, if you had ever been in her class before, you know, its not easy finding another such considerate, observant, encouraging and cheerful lecturer. Btw I do address her by name, while I find it quite difficult to remove the salutations for most other lecturers. On hindsight, Ruth Tan isn’t as intimidating as she looks! Thanks for providing the class with snacks after some horrendous life-draining weeks. It always feel good when lecturers/tutors remember you. Oh yea I don’t think he even knows me but, this semester I saw Ishtiaq once. Coming out of office one fine day, he was walking plenty of steps in front of me, about 5. After opening the glass door and stepping out, he actually waited and held the door open for me. I just wanted to say that was a great gesture. The world would have been much nicer if more people did little things for others to make their day.
So what does all this mean to me. Reflect reflect… Perhaps I should try harder to bestow people with whatever little happiness I can offer.
08.31.09
Do You Feel the Heat?!
I am crushed under a shitload hell of workload. Need to take a step back to ponder whether trying to handle 3 finance cores in the same semester is a good idea. Apparently, early signs suggest it is NOT!
I’ve practically burnt my entire weekend on 1 module. ONE
Tutorial 1 of FIN3xxx due 12noon 31/08/09.
And so it begins… from 26/08/09, different group members started working on different questions. Eventually it is hoped that each question would be attempted by more than 1 person. Guess who did everything, or tried to do everything.
29/08/09 – There were some signs of some good work being produced, but laden with many many many errors. It is impossible to efficiently facilitate discussion online, or worse still, through email. Due to difficulty of discussion, it was suggested that some of uf meet up, and there was the nudging feeling to leave it till then. Since I already have most of the answers… I decided to eyeball soccer at night. It was a bad bad decision.
30/08/09 (10am) – I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock, feeling annoyed that I’m going out for project on a Sunday so early in the semester. Eyeballed soccer results, felt happy (but the satisfaction level didn’t last as the day went on).
30/08/09 (11.30am) – Set off to HX’s house with GT. Ate lunch, chit-chat abit. Started work on FIN3xxx tutorial 1 in the last final attempt to collate and come to an agreement of all answers.
30/08/09 (~3.30pm) – Lunch2 break. Chit-chatted more, maybe shouldn’t have. Plus all the intermediate short gossiping and self-sharing sessions. Resumed work on FIN3xxx tutorial 1.
30/08/09 (~8pm) – Dinner break. Chit-chatted more again… bad move again probably. But by now substantial stuffs had appeared, but believe me figuring out how to best present your answers to the tutor is one of the harder parts. Resumed work on FIN3xxx tutorial 1.
31/08/09 (~12.15am) – Answers were out, but super messy, and obviously indicative of the handiwork of different people. So HX decided to reformat and stylise the whole thing, while GT and I made our way home, via cab…
31/08/09 (~1am) – Started re-eyeballing our product while HX is doing her editting on the other side. Thankfully found errors which I informed her to correct.
31/08/09 (~3.45am) – HX was elated with finally completing the whole piece of crap. When I received the file, it was exactly the same as the pre-edit version. Holy shit something wrong has gone off somewhere. GT had slept, we were feeling like the biggest piece of crap ever. Didn’t know when K will print out whatever latest version he see for the tutor. HX decided to went for 1 last superhuman effort to go through the painful edits AGAIN. I slept.
31/08/09 (~5.30am) – HX finished it, finally. I applaud the effort, greatly. HX slept, I woke up. Re-eyeballed the whole piece of crap again. Found some things I felt compelling to change. Did so.
31/08/09 (~6.50am) – I finished the goddamn final copy. FIN3xxx tutorial 1… 14 questions, 32 page answers.
31/08/09 (~7.30am) – I slept again after a light breakfast.
31/08/09 (~11am) – I woke up to ensure that the right things get delivered to the tutor on time. I saw IVLE, FIN3xxx tutorial2… 11 questions, due 07/09/09 as of last known.
And that is 1 module… well done. I have 3 case studies to prep by 03/09/09. Can someone teach me the esoteric art of time manipulation?
08.25.09
Mixed Bag of Updates
I’m starting to feel the heat! I mean the amount of onslaught I will receive from all the wonderful projects and case studies that will start to haunt me now. One major accompanying crappy moment comes in the form of group formation I guess. There were some disappointments there. Oh well, time to move on, less fun definitely, but hopefully constructive work gets done at the end of the day. Well, not all groups have been formed yet, but I’m already positive that not one went according to plans out of five. How’s that for luck eh?
Before I forget this, maybe I should talk about a lil incident this morning. The first bus I was on to school just stopped in front of a traffic junction. The engine died, and revived… and died… and revived. It went on for some time and we were like DAMN. Until the next bus actually came, and we were all sent off onto that bus. Consider that I need a bus transfer to another service with horrendous time variance, it could very well mean that I would miss the next service. Yes I’m talking about 151. I barely made it in time before lesson starts today. Had it happened tomorrow instead, in which case latecomers have to submit a 1-page bonus critique of a case, you will bet how pissed I’ll be. I hope the lecturers can be more understanding that it is not always our fault to come late.
One more thing, I am running out of drafts to buffer the inactivity that will bound to come in due to reason outlined in the first paragraph. So I guess there will be a dearth of entires soon over here, in which case you don’t really have to keep coming back. In any case I noticed the visitor rate dropping since school term starts, and I don’t think it is a coincidence, even though I dunno who is reading this blog (which just seems to be endless streams of blabbering text).
Finally, I’m in the mood again, for more nonsensical chinese crap.
望遥镜中缘
期晓眸内君
相顾无非梦
一念转瞬空
无居柳絮飞
引化满霜鬓
p.s. sorry rachel didn’t know you can’t read chinese text on whatever you are using, but some things just can’t be replicated nicely otherwise
08.19.09
The Inevitable Rambling
Finally as of this morning, I had met all my lecturers/tutors for my 5 sectional classes. Having only gone through at most 2 classes each, it is still early days and I wouldn’t pass judgment that quickly. Though I must say the feeling is mostly positive, and I’m glad to have followed through and nabbed my modules for over higher points instead of succumbing to the allure of 1 pointer. Well, the more unique thing (for me) this semester would have to be 5 full sectionals. It may seem a very very short work week, just 15 hours, but I’m sure the cases and projects will start haunting me soon. The good thing, which is just a fleeting moment of panicky nail-biting in front of the pc waiting for tutorial allocation result was non-existent this sem. Oh the nostalgia!
I can see a shifting trend in the level-3000 modules, and more lecturers are actually trying harder to involve students more. But I felt there are still far too many passive listeners. I mean comeon… how can you do worse than me! Okok… I’ll try to crank up those class participation points more if I have constructive things to say. But sometimes I tend to talk nonsense, and try to make sense of the nonsense I just blabbered, and had to make instantaneous effort to repackage my nonsense. Not bad for a way to force hyperthinking eh?
As usual, I think I have not much constructive things to say, (that I can say over here) so… I guess this marks the end of the entry.
07.29.09
More School Updates
Well, as it goes, every semester there is this mad bidding period on CORS that we have to endure through. But at least this time I got all the mods I want again! And overall for lower than the expected amount of points. But then again the bidding in my faculty this sem seems abit bonkers, totally out of expectations. Its a good thing I still have a healthy balance of points to continue the battle in future sems.
I should also be relieved that there is no classes I am sitting in alone, though hopefully project teams formation will be free and easy too. I think I have to work extra hard this sem. Hopefully a couple of motivations from all around will help to push me towards my goal. Felt that I had let myself down over the recent past few semesters when I could have done much better.
Jiayou everyone as a new semester dawns upon us.
