My results!

I'm a graduate!

2005/2006 Sem 2 Examination for COMPUTING 4

CS3224 ARCHITECTURE OF INTERNET B-
CS3248 DESIGN OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA B+
CS4101 HONOURS PROJECT B
LAJ2203 JAPANESE 4 S
NM4202 TRANSNATIONAL INFORMATION PRODUCERS A
UBZ4001 MANAGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY B+

CAP: 3.72

Examination Status: 2ND CLASS HONOURS (LOWER)

Photo Catch-Up

I finally got down to transferring the photographs taken on my mobile phone into my laptop. It's so much easier and more convenient to blog using photographs, sorta like show-n-tell. :) So here goes!

Last Sunday (gosh, it's a week already) we went to East Coast Park for a fishing-cum-do-nothing afternoon. While everyone else including my uncle, my parents and some cousins fished or roller-bladed, I did nothing but dig into horror novels I got from the library the day before.



NS and my brother (at the far end) trying to fish

A shot of East Coast Park from the breakwater we're standing on

Uncle Boon and my cousin CL

CL posing for the throw

Last Tuesday morning I went to the airport early in the morning (that's like 6 plus am) to send HM off to China. You go girl! She's off for an 11-day exchange trip. I had a nice time chatting with her parents and her best friend CTN who were there to send her off too. As usual, my fascination with leaving made me take this picture.



HM's on the 07:40 flight to Chengdu. And How I wish I am On the 08:10 flight to Tokyo-Narita! Sigh.

I smsed HM vis Singtel's free Internet SMS today, who's now in China and she sent a reply back from China to acknowledge that she's just reached Beijing. Cool to hear that she's having lotsa fun. :)

Just 5 hours or so ago we met our uncle and his family for dinner, this time at Changi. The cousins were in my house since the afternoon, playing on the mini-LAN in my house - my laptop, the home PC and my sister's fangled laptop. While walking to the hawker center, we spotted the following:



Well it might look quite normal, isn't it? Well it isn't, not especially in Singapore. And indeed if you think of it, finding it in Changi might be a little normal too, considering how the place becomes a haunt for transvestites when the stars come out to play. Goodness knows where this used object comes from. The immediate thought that flashed was - got AIDS?

My cousins CL(A) and CL(E) (oh gosh they share the same initials)

Oh, RY just asked me if I will be interested in a a business-IT Position with ABN AMRO. I passed my resume over so let's see what happens.

Ned Nickerson

Job woes

SG and I went for our second last session as lab assistants to Java programming this time with the PRC kids. Finally something closer to home, phew! However, most of the time was spent struggling to make java files work well with Symantec's Visual Cafe, an outdated(in my opinion) integrated development environment. What a buggy software! It reaffirmed why I hate computers - so marfan!

After the two hours in the lab, we headed to the cafe in PGP for lunch. We both had this Oriental set and shared a hawaiian pizza. The Oriental set was lukewarm, hinting that it is not as freshly-cooked as I felt it should be. The pizza was alright, though a tad undercooked. So the verdict? I'm not gonna return there anytime soon. However it's a good place to chill out and relax though.

We headed back to a computer lab in SoC and continued our discussion of our HK trip. SG got me all excited again, though we haven't planned much. :) Let's leave the detailed planning out - surprises are fun! (those kinds I mean) However, it was along our trip back that made me question my perspective towards my current job hunt.

Until now, I was unwilling to commit myself to a particular industry thanks to the question over the finality of my examination results. I suddenly realised that I am having the notion that as a 2nd lower, I still stand a chance of entering the creative communications industry, but if I end up being a 3rd, I'll be relegated to positions such as administration and *gasp* programming. Now since was this assumption valid? It suddenly dawned on me that I am just hiding behind the facade of not knowing my final results as it seems that the private sector is ignorant towards the classification of the degree I eventually get.

With that, I felt quite bad upon thinking about this morning when I got into a squabble with my mom over my apparent lacklustre attitude towards my job hunt. I even brought in JET and how the decision not to go is costly. I hurt her quite a lot in the end, something which is very unnecessary since I can't do anything to get it back in any case.

Sigh.

Ned Nickerson

NUS E-Career Fair

http://www.nus.edu.sg/osa/career/

Right, I'll better get off my butt and find a job. Here are some pickings that I have sieved from the NUS E-Career Fair.

Singapore Airlines - Administrative Officer
Royal Bank of Scotland - Trainee Operations Officer
Republic Polytechnic - Academic Staff or Administrative Officer
Ministry of Defence - Research Associate
Meiban - creative writer
lehman brothers - Analyst
Bloomberg - Global Customer Support Representative

Books to Read

Current Reads

Investing
- Mutual Funds for Dummies

Travel
- Lonely Planet: China

Communications
- Selling the Dream: Why Advertising is Good Business

Fiction
- Desperation (Stephen King)

Wanna Reads or even own!
- Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
- Freakonomics

Exploring Interests

Now that I'm officially an Adult having full responsibilities, I'd better decide for myself what I should do to keep myself occupied and lively as I shoulder the painful routine of office work every day. I dropped by the nearest Community Center for a clue and picked up the following:

- Guitar lessons
- Piano lessons
- Dance lessons (ballroom/latin samba? social dance/square? street jazz?)
- Malay
- Japanese
- Badminton
- Karaoke
- Crotchet and Knitting

The Desire to be Financially independent

It's manifesting! The clash of the individual versus the family!

My parents just received their utilities bill today. It came to a grand total of S$197. That sounds like quite a lot yeah? Indeed it is, but considering three young adults who spend a lot of their time at home with the computer either playing games or surfing the net for pornography (opps!), having such a high utilities bill is quite unavoidable in my opinion. As such the call to not play on the computer has surfaced its head once again, the exact nightmare that I have been expecting to materialize when I move home from PGP. If I had similarly repeated my feat at PGP where I leave my laptop on the whole day just to listen to net radio and this time in the home, she'll flip.

I offered to pay for the bill, though she made a valid snub - "Later you got no money to go to HK". Quite true to that, which brought me back to my innermost desire to be financially independent (and thus sever all the impossible responsibilities such as staying off the computer in this modern age of telecommunications). I just came back from the banks and checking the loans I've taken - a hefty S$18k. It doesn't matter that my school fees haven't been deducted from my father's bank account since I left for Australia and there was actually money credited into his account thanks to the loans. The figure of S$18k is such a huge eyesore that it is wrong and I am in the wrong.

I can't wait to find my first job and collect my paycheck. I'll then turn on the computer and play all I want. Childish and selfish as it sounds like, I can't imagine a world where at the age of 25, I have to think twice and end up not able to do anything whenever I need to fish my wallet to pay for ANYTHING, including miscellaneous daily money-spending activities that are quite necessary like eating out and transport. No, I'm not referring to those people out there who still rely on their rich fathers to finance their expensive lifestyles of Versace, but on the basic necessities. Imagine an IT and Communications graduate not being able to spend more time on the computer? I'll get myself a good old typewriter in no time.

Ned Nickerson

GG Attempt

I just finished an hour long interview with representatives from the Scholars Programme in an attempt on my side to enter GG, one of the top ten advertising companies in the world (!). I didn't really apply for it primarily because it was a top-10 or what (though the thought sounds exciting), but rather wanted a feel of what the advertising (and communications) industry is like.

How was the interview? It was pretty amicable I guess. I fumbled my way through the interview panel of two, so let's call them DN and IS. The whole ordeal started with DN sent a mass email out to the cohort seeking for two interns at GG. Thick-skinned and optimistic as I have been since the end of examinations, I thought I'll try to ask for a GG contact if it was convenient as that will be a great way of pursuing intimate contact with the company. I can also know more about the company too. To my surprise, DN replied arranging for an interview (or rather a chit-chat session). Oh well, just go lor, since I'm so free. (actually not very free - I've got so many things to do that everyday is a packed one, though with frivolous activities such as games and books but those are some things that I've neglected over my undergraduate years..)

Then i guess i didn't really sell myself there and then :( Over the course of the interview, IS spoke much more than DN. The first issue she broached was the 'pity' that I was not actively involved in the Scholars Programme - something which was way a little unexpected (I came mentally anticipating a discussion on my suitability for advertising and communications rather than issues directly related to my involvement in the Scholars Programme) but on hindsight, I should've prepared for since I knew they are the ones who I'm to meet just now, not some HR personnel from GG. To IS (and DN I guess), the Scholars Programme is a whole package - to me, I'd prefer to do what I think I like and is useful to my personal development, thank you very much. While the Programme encompasses the academic and the extra-curricular activities (which is called GP), I didn't feel very excited about GPs as I felt there weren't many during my prime undergraduate years (which I think will be 2nd and 3rd years). They might have a point there that I should've joined GPs, but then I was busy with two major leadership roles during those two years that are outside the programme. During the meeting I gave myself several mental kicks in the groin for not participating wholesale (and thus believing?) in the Scholars Programme and thus not contributing to my overall packaging as a Scholar, but then again, I haven't been resting on my laurels either.

Well I guess I don't know what I am getting myself into, but I left the meeting thinking about how paltry my 2nd lower (or even - gasp - third!) is. Though HY thinks it's not that important (I'll love to agree with her too and I did voice that out during the interview), IS she had an issue with my B+ from writing class on masculinities (under none other by KC). During the interview she'd had a few B+ circled on my transcript (likely Scholars modules cos my B+s come predominantly from there) but she didn't pursue the rest after speaking about it. She didn't directly enunciate that the grade was atrocious, though she sounded despondent about it. I almost wanted to tell her I think B+s are Great Grades but then stopped myself when I recall other fellow Scholars who take As as a staple diet. I don't really fault her though, cos she had earlier expressed how tragic it was that I wasn't in the Global Programme (and thus I am not a PURE Scholar).

I also realised that I should've considered the interests of the Scholars Programme (and specifically that of DN and IS) and prepared myself for questions about it too. To IS, the internships with GG seemed to have been a hard-fought battle with GG in the past that took place in two bouts of internships. Apparently, the first internship went quite badly which whetted GG's appetite, and it was the encouragement of a fellow academic staff member to the company that they decided to hold ground and hold a second internship. The second internship, however, was a roaring success (congratulations to whoever that participated - you've found an excellent job I think!) and thus there was more confidence in the current round of internships. I guess there is pressure on IS to make it a viable one as it will allow the Programme to have a future relationship that is more intimate with GG. On that note, I immediately thought that I should not be considered as I will not want to rock the boat, though after cooling down I slap myself and wonder why have I so little confidence in my abilities? I guess I should know where I stand...

Though the meeting ended not in my favour and I really should not harbour any expectation about what will come out from it, I must appreciate their willingness to speak to me to advise me on how I should tailor my packaging as a writer in technical communications. Indeed, being able to articulate effectively with an IT background seems to be a very viable selling point, something I got out from the meeting. Oh well.

Ned Nickerson

Engrish TV Programme filming @ Century Square

Singapore is just so boring! It's been raining for the past few days on and off, so not a lot of opportunities for outdoor recreation. Decided to take a quick spin in the shopping malls at Tampines for a quick fix of commercialization desire though it was unfulfilled in the end... However I caught Mark Lee and some other local celebrities outside the music studio at the top level of Century Square filming another episode of some Chinese-speaking game show where they put poor, hapless Caucasians under the camera and force them to speak in Mandarin. Poor chaps.





I spent the weekend watching television and VCDs. Re-watched Musa, Farenheit 911 and I No Stupid 2. Indeed, I No Stupid 2's not as dramatic as the first one, though it's a good attempt to highlight local social issues nonetheless. Now if the product placements can get a little less invasive...

Sigh, why is it so tough to look for a job! Or rather getting an interview haha. I can't to be officially declared a graduate so that I know that I am officially jobless and need to get my asses moving.

:)

Ned Nickerson

Haw Par Villa & Settlers Cafe

SG and I went for another session of laboratory tutoring for C programming today. After knowing what to expect, I didn't really want to do much preparation, though I still woke up early to run through C programming stuff. It ended that we became late but it was no misnomer. Oh well, for the money!

We had a quick lunch at NUH and had a fun time walking to the morgue on the way to the staff canteen. SG raised an interesting question of how the bodies are transported from the other parts of the hospital to the basement where the mortuary is tucked in a corner of the hospital. We had much time to burn after that, so SG went back to his favorite hobby of forum postings and I went to Central Library to zap past year papers for JLPT3. Wish me luck!

It was around five when we decided to move ourselves to Settlers @ Katong where we'll meet up with the rest of the SoC friends. We walked to Haw Par Villar from PGP and spent some time there since it was free (and still is).





A very excited SG at the famed gates of Haw Par Villa

*snort* Can you hear me through your big ears?

Make peace with any kind of dragon! Even cute-looking ones!

SG, you must have done many bad deeds! Why must you make peace with everything everywhere?

Lotsa monkeys at the Sun Wukong exhibit

Welcome to the crazy zoo!

Quite a big guan yin statue

Singapore's own King Kongs

SG chillin' out with the koalas

Is this some Aussie section of the park with the 'roos and emus?

Genkina shyashin

Aiyo, with him also you must make peace with!

Cute pandas

A last look at Haw Par Villa

I felt a little poignant when we left as I remembered everything looking so ferocious and scary when I went there as a young kid and the statues were just so huge! I remembered being terribly afraid of the statues that depict killing scenes from Chinese classics. Oh well. :)

We then head for Settlers Cafe after that. Everyone was late as expected, haha, which put both SG and I in a spot as Settlers charge according to the number of hours spent in the cafe (as they offer a lot of board games for their patrons to enjoy - that's their business model). It was with relief that we were given a flexible eat-first-play-later plan and we ended spending S$12 each. It was quite fun! We played games like Green Apples where we have to "sell" ourselves to the judge by showing that "Girl Guides" are indeed "Juicy", for example. (Guess who had the honour of doing that.. ;) ) Very, very fun and funny too, with YH getting stitches on her side!

However, we were the only customers for the evening (goodness.. which was a blessing 'cos we can shout all we want). The food was alright (western style) and the waiters and waitresses, friendly and willing to teach us to play the games. I guess as we were the only ones who were there tonight, we had the honour of being guinea pigs to try out their new dishes (we have to give comments in the end). Not a bad deal!



Everyone tucking in to a dish of clams (so lucky!). I didn't get to eat though as it's seafood.

See, finally everyone took notice of me taking photos after you've finished eating everything!

YJ bue tahan liao - laughed too much and/or felt 'high' after playing "Green Apples"?

A series of pictures to analyse LY's reaction to eating lovely clams

HY Trying to be sweet and lovely.

Can't wait to go back there again, this time with KK and ZJ! :)

Ned Nickerson

Japanese Language Schools

PYAESS Language School
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~pyaess/

• LEVEL 2 (INTERMEDIATE) - leads to JLPT2
  

  Course Duration - 2 years    
  Class Duration - 3 hours a week     
  Class Frequency - Once a week       
  School fees - $200 for one term of 10 weeks

Hougang Japanese Language School
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~sakura42

• J.L.P.T. 3 Preparatory Class: S$210 for 40 hours..

Hmm!

Ned Nickerson

Suntec & Marina Square Day Tour with HM

I finally went to Marina Square yesterday! That's like after it reopened since its renovation half a year ago, and given the size of the paltry island I live on, a feat that I haven't visited it at all. GIVE ME MY CONSUMERISM LIFE BACK!

I met HM at City Hall MRT to celebrate her awfully belated 22nd birthday (opps!). Walked to the K-box in Marina South and stayed there for the 3-hours lunch package. It was then that I realise 1) my Chinese's Really Atrocious 2) HM can sing way better and I croak as well as a frog 3) K-box doesn't keep its English database of songs updated. I ended up selecting all sorts of oldies and felt 52 instead of 25. Lunch was some teriyaki salmon with rice, quite alright I guess though the salmon turned rock hard after being exposed in the cold air for a long time.

We then walked around to shop for HM's mp3 player. The Creative Neeon is so nice! However, nay, I dread the idea of carrying so many devices when I go around, not to mention the high price (where got cheap?). Anyway we then went to the arcade (YAY!) and saw this guy who mastered the latest House of the Dead 4 and completed the game with only one credit! It's such a pity that he cancelled all the cutscenes 'cos I'll love to find out what the plot is (since I'm such a lousy gamer that I never complete games).

Wow, we really splurged today! After some shopping which saw us sitting on ergonomically-designed chairs that transfer body weight from the spine (at the cost of S$1k/chair), we found ourselves in Suntec where we ate Bens&Jerry ice-cream. Yummylicious! :) More shopping ensued as HM got to get socks for her trip to China next week. I played drummania too, but it was awful as I was too tired after all that activity earlier (old liao lah, what to do). I then became real hungry at 5.30pm, and dragged HM to try out this corner in Suntec that serves local delights like roti prata and laksa. One'll definitely pass the place when coming from City Link to Suntec's Dell 'cos it's perpetually busy! We were lucky that most Singaporeans prefer to have dinner at home rather than outside, so we found places at that time of the day. I had a plain and an egged roti prata, bagus! However the price came to S$3, around twice of neighbourhood prices! We also shared a bowl of laksa from the eatery too, which was pretty nice. While I commented positively that the hawker soaked the noodles twice before draining the curry gravy away to lock in the flavour, it was with surprise when HM pointed out that other famous laksas like those in Katong do that 6 times! Wah!

More shopping ensued and we even went to the Harvey Norman at Millenia Walk.. after coming back to Suntec again, I asked HM for her opinion while I tried on specs.. fell in love with a pair but ARGH I forgot to Take Pictures to consult your opinion! Maybe next time I guess. :)

It's going to be C programming lab tutoring again in 3 hours and I haven't done my preparation. It's gonna be a rough ride again. Persevere! Oh! By the way I got a reply from JobsDB that a "Cornerstone Career Connections" is seeking my resume in consideration for a position of "Japanese HelpDesk Specialist(JLPT 2 or equivalent)". Personally I think I'm whacked as I only have JLPT4, the most fundamental JLPT level and my Japanese sucks. Oh well, let's just go for the experience and to know the market (and its prospects) better.

Ned Nickerson

House of the Dead 4
http://hod4.sega.jp/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Dead_4

JobsDB
http://www.jobsdb.com/SG/EN/Job.asp?R=JDBS055775450

A Crazy Day - PGP Checkout, C Programming Lab TA, New Zealand Ice-cream, Jun, Tuition

I officially passed the PGP keys back to the management this morning. It felt pretty insignificant, really, but just as I made my way to the management office there was a sudden compulsion to go on a picture snapping frenzy just to capture that last moment of my undergraduate life. All of a sudden it seemed so irreplacable... it was almost as if it was my first day there.



So boliao, fan also take picture. Actually I spent a lot of hard effort cleaning the blades in the past! Dirt accumulates in the room like crazy.

Abandoned bolster and pillow - for the next occupant haha!

My dearest Room B

Corridor from my room leading to the kitchen

Kitchen - the stove never works! Wasted my cooking attempts!

Communal showers

I must be glad that Lady Luck allowed me the luxury of living at such a nice height of 7th Storey for the entire academic year. I really can't imagine going back to that jailbird lookalike room in B2 when I was in 2nd year.



View out of the window whenever I study at my desk

The podium in PGP where people go to celebrate birthdays ... quite useless ...

The playground where lots of noisy kids (and mosquitoes!) hang out

I actually caught a Canadian exchange classmate suntanning at this little balcony on a number of occasions, hah!

Things of note in a PGP lift

Walking to the internal shuttle bus terminal

NUS Internal Shuttle Bus Terminal at PGP

After the poignant moment where I realised that I am leaving the undergraduate days behind, I had to rush to the Physics department where SG and I did laboratory tutoring for a C programming course. The students, from PRC, are here in Singapore as Scholars who are heavily subsidized by the government to complete their undergraduate studies here. They're quite alright I guess, though I must admit I had a rough time there as I am not too familiar with C (I suspect some of them know better!). For the money I suppose.

SG and I went for lunch in Sakae sushi at YIH after class.. and we met the course conductors there, such a small world I say. I ended up eating $10 worth of sushi and chawanmushi which costs $3, much to my chagrin. Oh well. Then was more spending as we indulged ourselves with ice blends from New Zealand ice-cream... finally NUS is getting its act by offering quality food outlets at discounted prices. It is such a pity that we won't get many chances to appreciate the new changes. Even Subway's coming to NUS! We enjoyed lounging ourselves at the new all-in-one Student Center at the basement of YIH and none of the staff chased us out so that's really a cool place for students to chill out, especially away from the horrid Singapore heat blitz these days.

After bidding goodbye to SG who went home, I went to the health center to get my combined hepatitis A/B jab. It's a package of 3 shots over 6 months costing a whopping $225! I guess for the sake of my health it's a good investment.. Oh well it'd have been immediately worthwhile if I've continued to go on JET... sigh... Met HM there in the health center too, getting her jabs for her China trip next week. So cool!

The jab was alright I guess. After that was tuition with a new Korean kid, Jun. Goodness he is a real terror all right. I'm not sure how long I can last, now that I realise tuition's not really my cup of tea in the long run, especially with pesky kids like these! Sigh, give me obedient kids anytime.. :( It was a torturous 1.5 hours and I really felt glad to leave when time was up.

As it was quite late when I left, I only had an hour to myself for dinner and an assessment book for MJ before I had to go to HB/MJ's place for another 2 hours of tuition. That was alright - HB/MJ are very nice kids who know how to behave themselves, thanks to a strict mom. I had to ask the mom for drink and she got me a cold glass of korean tea (it's actually some brown tea water which they drink as if it's drinking water, very interesting taste... like rice?) and even treated me to juicy korean pears towards the end of tuition. I guess I was too tired and literally slept my way back on the train.

What a busy day! I'm so looking forward to tomorrow where I can finally take a break and go out with HM before she leaves for China. We're planning to go karaoke and shop for her MP3 player around Marina Square. I haven't been to Marina Square at all since it reopened after renovations completed last year (that's so country pumpkin), so quite excited to go. :)

Some miscellaneous photographs around NUS and Clementi:

Sideview of law library from school of business - taken after intellectual property exam

Walking past the law library and up the slope towards the arts canteen



Along the slope - Arts & Social Sciences Block 6 - AS6

Programming Lab 2 over at S15, School of Computing. I died in there while desperately coding a binary tree for the practical exam for the data structures programming module.

Clementi Empress cinema - one of the dying 80s cinemas where seats creak, air conditioning has a smell and acoustics lacking. It costs only $5 so oh well. King Kong looked very cheesy on it though. Has a decent arcade where everything goes for only 50 cents per game, including my favourite percussion freaks (v9!)

Kbox! Haven't tried singing karaoke there before though, speaks tomes about the kind of lacklustre undergraduate life I lead