Another Glance at Past-Present...

... results.

Uh-oh, I had better pull up my socks higher. Giving the current trend, it might just dip further.

We Have Enough Rice!

Planting rice is never fun,

Bent from morn' till set of sun.

Cannot stand and cannot sit,

Cannot rest a little bit.

TEN hours was the amount of time it took us (Will, Ryan and me) all to complete the movie clip for our final ASE401 assignment. We began from 6 P.M. yesterday and finished it at 5 A.M. at Will's place. The first part of this assignment was rather fun to begin with; we simply loved the idea of using rice to showcase racial harmony. In fact, all we wanted to show our tutor - Dr. Mark Evan Nelson was our concept but he was quick to tell us to work on PRODUCTIVE DIVERSITY. What was that?

And so we worked on productive diversity; we had multiple meetings, gathered 70+ digital images, revised our script for umpteen times, and went back to our drawing board to finalise what message we wanted to showcase. We began to feel the toil of the rice farmers, really. Though we had the comfort of chairs and air-conditioned environment, we thought it was really no fun. Anyway, completing the movie clip was only half of the progress because we still have a 3-page individual reflection to write.

 

ASE401 is never fun.

Disappointed by all tests...

Ta-da! Nice to be back again! :D

It has been slightly more than a month since my last entry on 12 August, Tuesday. That was when I last commented on SingTel's customer recovery service. Serene Yeo definitely did a brilliant job to retain me as their loyal customer. Anyway, at present, I am quite satisfied with my Omnia. I hope to find a coat for her before she starts to get scratches all over her slender and beautiful body. It would really pain me to see her suffer.

My last few days were packed with tests, one after the other. On Monday, I almost fainted when I sat for the ASM401 test. It was not what I (and most of my classmates) had expected. The format was totally different; more questions (12 compared to last year's 6), and they were longer (lasting 5 to 6 sentences)! Reading and understanding those questions really took me a lot of time. And they were extremely challenging, and to some extent, frustrating. I left TWO questions completely unanswered and made a few blunders for the rest. How to pass like that?

On Tuesday, I sat for the AMX301 test. I could not answer the first question initially and I skipped it. Doing the next question suddenly knocked some sense out of me and inspired me to work on the first one. I spent the last 20 minutes vomiting out what I had memorised. Not sure if I could do well?

This late afternoon, I sat for ASK401. It was an MCQ test. Of course, what looks seemingly easy is often not. I just could not think properly with my brain during this test. The formulas were all given but they just looked alien. Frankly speaking, it would be extremely embarrassing if I did badly, because friends around me thought I could manage it without any difficulty. Ah, pressure!

What is Good Service?

This morning, I received a call from SingTel at 11:21 A.M. On the other end of the line was a lady by the name of Serene Yeo. She said she would assist me on the phone to purchase the Samsung Omnia. I explained my situation to her and asked if I should be penalised to pay more (S$50) when the online problems actually came from singtelshop.com. I demanded for the original trade-in value of my V8. She promised me that she would check with her manager and get back to me ASAP.

At approximately 1:05 P.M., I received a follow up call from Serene. She brought with me good news - that I could eventually purchase the phone for S$348. She initially told me that the phone could only be delivered on next Monday. I rejected her idea and asked her if she could help me with the delivery schedule. Eventually, we settled for a delivery this Friday, from 6 - 9 P.M.

This is what I called "Service with Quality". This is unlike the bad experience I had with the earlier CSOs who did nothing productive but tested my patience. Ha. Of course, I had such good patience that people might think that I was too stupid to have waited for so long. They would probably call and scream at them the following day. Anyway, I really thanked Serene for her genuine assistance and would probably write in to SingTel to praise her service within this week. I am now waiting patiently for my Samsung Omnia to come to me this Friday. :)

SingTel Sucks Very Badly...

Last Monday, 04 Aug, I finally made up my mind to purchase the cool-looking Samsung Omnia via the singtelshop.com web-site. I thought it was quite a nice bargain if I traded in my Motorola V8 for S$200. I just had to pay S$348 in all, with renewal. Like any other buying/selling sites, it provides step-by-step guidance to get consumers like me to empty my pockets using my credit card. Happily, I filled up my particulars, double-checked what I had typed, and clicked on the "Submit order" button. It took a while to process and finally greeted me with the following message:

Frantically, I called up my bank and spoke to one of their friendly staff. I was eventually assured by the lady on the other end that there were no transactions being recorded. Phew! I called up SingTel as advised by her.

It was a lady. I explained to her my situation and she said that she could not rectify the problem on the spot. She assured me that she would give me a response the following day. I asked her for the timing and she replied, "In the afternoon, sir."

So I waited. And waited. And waited. It was already Thursday and I got no response from her. My patience abated and my anger rocketed. I called SingTel again in the morning. A guy called Reef answered my call and requested some time to "think of a solution". Like the lady, he promised me that he would get back to me ASAP. I asked him when. And he said, "Before I P.M." And so I waited.

I must be very silly to trust them. Till evening, I got no calls at all from SingTel. I called them the umpteenth time. Another guy answered my call. I could sense that he was very reluctant to help me out because he persistently assured me that he would email his colleague (that lady) and request her to reply me. F*** OFF, SingTel.

On Saturday, 10 Aug, I checked the trade-in value of my V8 from that unreliable web-site and was surprised that it had depreciated to S$150. Gosh, what a sum! >:( And there was still no response from SingTel. I decided to try my luck again. This time, I had this error message:

Bloody SingTel! Irritating SingTel! Damn SingTel! I called them again. Ha. It was the same guy (not Reef). He checked and confirmed that I was still eligible for contract renewal. When I asked him what he could do to assist me, he suggested that I could go down to one of those hello! shops and get them to assist me with my purchase. BS. "Then what is the web-site for? Isn't it supposed to minimise inconvenience on the consumer's side?" He blatantly repeated his last message like a tape recorder.

 

First Week at NIE...

Well, I used ONE full Thursday to complete two readings for the preparation of my first (and eventually the last) Record of Study for AAE445. I should not have lamented about it because I had that day to myself, unlike some of my classmates who had lessons to attend on every Thursday. By the end of the day, I almost completed my Record of Study. Anyway, at the very last minute, we (May, Cabrina and I) decided to drop AAE445 and add AAE440 as all of us agreed that though the module was interesting, it was too heavy for us to manage. And I was starting to doubt my capability.

The funny thing was that all three of us dropped AAE445 together but I was the only one who managed to add Dr. Xiao Lan's Bilingual Education successfully. Ha, talking about the fastest fingers! :D Anyway, since we had earlier spoken to Dr. Xiao Lan and got her assurance that slots would be allocated for us, we just had to send her an email to request her follow up with the FPO. And I was quick to sell my AAE445 notes to Sherylene too (at a discounted price, of course)! With the burden lifted off our shoulders, we went to 8Flags and Cabrina bought herself the Samsung printer CLP-310 for $268.

Moral of this story...

Last Thursday, 31 July 2008, I accompanied Harry to Far East Shopping Centre to get his PS3. There was already a crowd when we reached the shop. Like any customers, he made a few technical and after-sales enquiries, seemed satisfied with those anticipated responses, and got himself the deal. Yeah, it was definitely a better deal than mine because he paid S$ 10 less. Not that TEN dollars is a lot, but the price fell less than than a week I bought mine. Arrggghhhh...

Anyway, that was NOT the main story. The story only began when Harry requested that his PS3 be tested on the spot to avoid any inconvenience. The staff acceded to his request and proceeded to set up his gaming console. All was fine, and a happy Harry left the shop S$ 621 dollars poorer. (He bought MGS4 to play with).

In the evening, he called me and said that there was a blue screen on his TV. I tried to troubleshoot for him as much as I could like a Sony customer service officer. Gosh, the feeling really came back! Unfortunately, the problem could not be rectified and he asked me to go back to that shop the next day.

We reached the shop at 12 noon. He explained his problem to the staff very calmly. The guy suspected that when the HDMI channel/configuration was selected during the last testing, it needed to be switched back. Since the system only came with a normal VGA cable, the future-proof product could not detect the VGA cable (apparently still wanted to be connected with an HDMI cable). Well, the guy's conjecture proved correct and Harry went home a happy consumer again.

What is the moral of the story?

___________________________________________________

When Harry asked the staff if any of their customers had encountered this "problem", the staff replied confidently with a "NO".

"You are the first one," said the staff.

"Why?" the befuddled Harry asked.

And what did the staff say?

.

.

.

.

.

"You are the first customer who requested testing at our shop."

New Phones to Sex?

"Getting a new phone is like having sex for the first time: You figure it out and then spend the rest of the evening just playing around." - Drew Carey, in a dated article from Parade.com (http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_11-18-2007/Drew_Carey).

Do all men think or feel like this? Well, I share quite the same thought with this man.  (Read my previous posts here and here).

Not sure how women think?

Electives? Not Much Choice!

Well, it seems that NIE has screwed up again. My elective combination (AAE441, AAE442 & AAE445) looks perfect, if interest is all it is about. To my dismay, two of my electives clash with each other on Wednesday: one is a 2-hour IT tutorial, and the other an hour long lecturer by Dr. Dahl. And according to the information provided by FPO, I would have to surrender one of them and choose another one. Yet, the other one must not clash with the other two. WTF! And the other one must not be full house! WTF again! So all ends up that I would have to "choose" one which fits in my timetable nicely with the other two electives... waaaaaaaaaait a minute... did I mention that even the CORE modules clash as well?

 

Friends who have the same combination as me:

July, May, Cabrina and Michelle Heng

 

WTF = What The Fish (and not what you think IT is) ;p

A Glance at Past-Present...

... results.

 

I have never studied or compared my past and present results but I think I should. Seriously. Because I think there are some patterns between them.

Nice Chat with Lecturers...

Yesterday, I went back alone to NIE to buy English Grammar FAQs: 100 Questions Teachers and Students Frequently Ask by Alvin and Ludwig. It retails at $23.50.

After that, I went to visit Ludwig, hoping to find him in his office so that I could get his autograph. Luckily, he was there and I requested him to autograph the book in cursive. Brilliant handwriting! (Look below and you will be impressed). Since I went there unexpectedly, I did not want to take up his time for long.

Then, I went to get my second autograph from Alvin. I did not expect that we could talk for so long. I expressed my desire to get a Master and if possible, a PhD in the future. He gave me some pointers (such as to take up AAE347 Research Methods) and got me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. His suggestion is that if I am an analytical/mathematical person, I should opt for a Master in research (as opposed to coursework). One more thing - I should at least get a 2nd Upper in my basic degree. Alvin is definitely a friendly and funny lecturer I have ever encountered at NIE. Oh, he did not seem convinced that I was just a (marginal) 2nd Upper student. He thought that my CGPA was above 4.5. But still, he encouraged me to do well in my basic degree in order to secure a better future.

Retro Game, Paper Mario!

When I saw how engrossed my sister was playing Paper Mario (an N64 game) on her Fujitsu, I decided to replay the game. Well, I have not been playing the game for years, ever since I completed it several years ago. (For those who are not into console gaming, the N64 was Nintendo GameCube's predecessor. GameCube has since been replaced by the extremely innovative and popular wii.)

Here are some very beautiful images of Paper Mario, a highly addictive and entertaining game.

Princess Peach's castle sitting on top of Bowser's evil abode.

Princess Peach, the damsel in distress, can be seen talking to Twink, a young star.

Uh-oh! The evil Bowser, Mario's all-time enemy, seems a little agitated here.

 

A Star Spirit is trying to explain to Mario how Refresh (some kind of special power to kick Bowser's bum) works. :D

 

I really enjoy playing the game.

Open House, Open House!

Last Saturday, I met up with Ernie at Chua Chu Kang bus interchange to attend Chua Chu Kang Primary School's open house. We boarded 300 and alighted at the fourth bus stop, which was directly opposite the school.

The school is really big, compared to my practicum-cum-posted school - South View. Its main building is six-storey high and is connected to 3-storey high buildings by its sides. The school was thoughtful to distribute mini-maps to its guests to help them get around its premises. We spent an hour more there before leaving for another open house at South View.

LEGO Designer, I Am!

I have so much fun with the newly discovered LEGO Designer 2.0 from the Denmark company. Take a look at the above picture. It is my dream house. Unfortunately, it has not been completed yet because I am still contemplating if I should build a 3-storey or 2-storey building. Hmm... Anyway, what do you think of my house? :D

More pictures...

I Am Rotting Away...

I have been meeting up with many friends during this super long vacation, which lasts from 22 April to 27 July! This is my second longest vacation. The last one was in my Diploma years. Ultimately, the first question they ask would be, "What have you been doing all this while?" Great, the answer to this question is surprisingly hard to give.

 

Anyway, here is a breakdown of my past activities:

22 Apr - Changed bed and sofa sheets.

23 Apr - Collected SONY PS3 from IBP and lunched with Fannie.

07 May - Went to SVPS.

13 May - Collected ALS101 Research Paper from NIE.

16 May - Watched DVD - "The Kingdom" (much like Black Hawk Down but story pales a lot).

17 May - Tidied one corner of my living room. Yawn. Watched DVD - "National Treasure 2" (same formula). Yawn.

19 May - Went to Tampines Mall alone. Can you imagine the bus journey from CCK to Tampines is 2 hours!!! My bum hurt! Watched DVD - "Kill Bill 2" (I only watched it for the gore).

20 May - Watched DVD - "The Butterfly Effect" (intriguing story). Great!

21 May - Went to Raffles Hospital for A95 Review. Finally cleared it!

22 May - Watched movie - "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (lousiest story of the lot). Yawn, and more yawn.

26 May - Visited Ludwig at NIE.

04 Jun - Results out! So depressing... :'(

07 Jun - Watched DVD - "Interview with the Vampire" (unexpectedly good).

09 Jun - Met up with Ernie, Fazy and Lydia for breakfast at Lot 1's McDonald's. Watched movie - "Kungfu Panda" with Lydia.

13 Jun - Watched DVDs - "Jumper" and "Skinwalkers".

 

Short and Sweet Gathering...

Yesterday, I met up with Weiming, Raymond and Zhongxiang for lunch at the Coffee Club (the one at Raffles Place). As usual, I was the first, followed by Zhongxiang, Weiming and Raymond. We waited for thirty minutes before we were being ushered to our table.

 

Zhongxiang has been working as a trader for seven years! Weiming is an accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Raymond is a successful Prudential associate manager. And I am still a student teacher at NIE. *Sigh*

 

We had a good chat. Weiming told us that he would be getting married soon as they had already applied for a 4-room flat at Dover. We were rather surprised that they would opt for a HDB flat instead of a luxurious condo, given their combined income. (Well, his other half is a scientist at A*Star).

Nice Chat with Tutor...

Yesterday, I had a great time with my tutor - Dr. Tan at NIE. I went to see him to clear some doubts on phonetics, particularly the pronunciation of /t/ at the end of words like "rest" /rest/. And how do we pronounce "rested"? Why the fuss? Because I heard people, including English teachers, pronouncing the final /t/ as "tsk".

Anyway, what he said to me was more important and encouraging than anything else. He said something like this, "Your work is truly a good piece of essay. Although I have given others A+s as well, I think yours is still the best. Simple to understand. Clear, as well." Do you not feel great to hear all these words coming out from your tutor's mouth? I DO!!!

He proceeded to tell me that when he told Dr. Leong he was impressed with only one assignment, Dr. Leong could say out my name (after a few tries)! No lah, I am not trying to show off here. I just realised that I have the potential to write an excellent piece of work!

There goes my PS3...

On Labour Day, I finally sold away my PS3 to May's brother at a heavily discounted price of SGD450. The initial price that he quoted was $400, which was way too little for a new system that is currently selling at $599 at local shops. I had actually wanted to sell it at $500. Anyway, I needed the money to pay for my new pair of Titanium spectacles ($380), which is due for collection today. Looks like I am going to postpone my LASIK operation to next year when I will be getting my salary!

Talking about salary... I doubt I will be getting a 2nd Upper by the time I graduate next year, given my mediocre performance this dreadful semester. I seemed to be down on luck for my academic studies this semester. I only got an A+ for my phonetics research paper (worth 15%), but I was not satisfied by the way I managed the exam paper (60%!!!). (Oh, yah, I got an A+ for my AAE102 group assignment with Ryan, Lee Ching and Ernita.) In comparison, I got less As lah this semester.

I seriously hope to do well next semester. :)

PS3, Anyone? Selling Cheap...

I got a shock when I checked my email on late Wednesday's morning, after washing my fan and the one at my living room.

Wow! Just unbelievable for me, especially only the night before I asked my dear sis if I should get a NINTENDO Wii, an XBOX 360 or a SONY PS3. I like Wii because I like Mario and his friends. I will get an XBOX or PS3 ONLY because I like ULTRA-VIOLENT games. Ha ha... And less than a day my wish came true...

Anyway, I immediately travelled down to IBP to claim my prize. Not my ideal colour, really. I would prefer a black one. The Sony Staff was quick to defend her company's position, "Here says colour is subject to availability..." I just smiled to her. How come no free games?

Check out my PS3 below!

The suggested retail price for this 40GB ceramic white PS3 is $599. Interested friends out there who know me will get a discount lah. Anyway, I made a few cold calls but nobody seemed interested leh. No wonder they are losing out to Wiis elsewhere...

But thanks to SONY for selecting me! I will always support SONY! :)

 

Silliest Mistakes on AAE103...

I looked at the "A" on her test paper and wondered, "How did she manage to do so well for phonetics as well?" In fact, she made fewer mistakes than I did. When I looked back at my paper, I realised two were "careless" mistakes; I forgot to mark the unit boundary "" for question 2 (whereas I did for all the other questions!), and I used the wrong long vowel for the word "Joyce". Then the other two were genuine ones because I simply could not distinguish fall and rise tones (after so much practice)!

Am I too complacent this semester? Yeah, I think most people are (like our Home Team), if you could still remember how MS escaped from the detention centre. When I looked back at May's grades for her recent assignments, I thought she had really done well. She got A-s for both AAE102 Individual Reflection (15%) and ALS101 E-Learning Assignment (20%). What did I get? Just 9.5% for the former and a B for the latter. Sigh.

I am not jealous over May's achievements. I just thought if she could manage to bag the As, so could I. That means something is definitely wrong with me! Am I too complacent this semester because of my past achievements? I compared myself to what I did last year. Almost the same, though May quoted "Yeah, you seem less panicky now. More relaxed and optimistic than before, which is good." Could that be the reason?

Time Is Not Enough...

On 23 March 2008, Sunday, I had a project discussion with Ernita at the Civics Plaza, located opposite Woodlands MRT station at 3P.M. Initially she wanted to postpone the meeting because she did not prepare anything. She said she had not read the required reading. Anyway, I assured her that we should be able to get it done since I had completed some reading. We managed to find a place to sit and discuss at the McDonald's. We left the place at about 7P.M.

On 24 March 2008, Monday, we decided to meet up after school to proceed with the Field of Discourse analysis. Since she had to give tuition and the assumption that Bus 67 drivers that night went missing, we ended up meeting up at about 10P.M. and finished our discussion a quarter past eleven.

On 25 March 2008, Tuesday, we met up again at the Civics Plaza at 10:30A.M. This time, we had Ryan and Lee Ching. We started at about 11A.M. and ended at half past four. Ernita accompanied me to the Sony Style shop at Wisma Atria to get my Vaio carrying pouch.

It seems that we have spent so much time on AAE102 thus far. Actually, we started our project discussion early January and stayed rather focus until after the recess week, whereby we postponed for THREE weeks because of assignments! We are now catching up with the time lost. I hope we will be able to complete this project by next Wednesday because it is due for submission by next Friday. Enough said. Tired and got to get back to work. :(

Good Luck to Myself...

On Monday, 10 Mar, we finally saw through our ALS tutor.

First of all, during the recess week from 23 Feb to 02 Mar, when all of us were rushing to complete our assignments, we were utterly shocked to receive his last minute announcement via SMS. In his message, he wanted us to submit our progress reports to him on the following day! There was no any explanation provided. And so we naively thought that he was trying to find out our progress and perhaps, offer a helping hand. We thought that he would at least acknowledge our emails, but he did not.

So on Monday, a few classmates asked him for the reason. You know what he said? He said that he realised some of his students were clueless on what they should be doing, and hence he wanted our progress reports to ensure that we were all managing fine. Fine, a valid reason he made. But when we asked him why he did not acknowledge at all, he gave us two superbly lame and "out of the world" responses:

1) "On the other hand, when I sent out the SMS, most of you also never replied to me." (insinuating that he did that out of vengeance?)

2) "When I didn't reply you, it means that you could go ahead and carry on with your assignment." (insinuating that we should have taken the initiative to check with him?)

Anyway, one of my classmate sent him two e-mails regarding her assignment. All she got was endless waiting and the replaying of "I didn't receive it" from his mouth. She would probably prefer to hear it over the radio. You know why? Make a guess lah....

Recess Week Day 6...

I started my AAE102 response paper on Tuesday (late again!) and had it completed only on Thursday. How unproductive! My friend said she could just finish the assignment in a day!

 

And on Wednesday morning, I went back to SVPS to help my friend scan her OAS. It took us hours because there is only ONE functioning OAS machine in the school, and the pair before us made some mistakes in their scanning and therefore had to redo the whole process!

 

Anyway, I took an opportunity to mingle with ex-colleagues and April, who was there for her final year practicum.

 

On Thursday, other than completing the response paper, I also managed to submit my progress report for ALS101. Sometimes I really wonder if there is any relationship between my ALS101 tutor and the course coordinator, as both have the same surname. We were all very pissed off when the tutor sent a very late SMS on Wednesday morning to request us to submit our reports by the following day. Hey, he should have informed us earlier, not when we were all inundated with our own assignments! And that was not even the official deadline! I just hope that he will REALLY take a look at our progress reports and offer us some constructive advice. Some classmates lamented that he was not sincere in offering constructive advice. I guess you do not have to blame yourself if you do not get good grades because sometimes, how you perform depends on:

1. who your tutor is,
2. his/her expectations of you and the whole class,
3. his/her knowledge and skills, and
4. his/her willingness to help you achieve better grades.

Enough said.

Yesterday, I met up with Lydia at the NIE cafe at 11:30A.M. I was lucky to see Ludwig and ask him questions on AAE103 assignment. Lydia and I spent more than 6 hours at the library before leaving for Jurong Point.

Recess Week Day 1...

We arranged to meet up at 11A.M. at NIE for our AAE203 group project. On my way there, Michelle sms-ed me that she would reach school at 11:30A.M. As I was early, I decided to see Ludwig for the AAE103 assignment. Unfortunately, he was not in his room. When Michelle and Shuxin arrived, it was about noon. We discussed our work till about half past one before we decided to go for lunch.

At 2:30P.M., I had another group discussion with Azman and Linus for AAE231. Kavita was not with us because she had an appointment to attend. However she did e-mail us her points. In the midst of our discussion, we saw Ludwig and his colleagues. Sigh, I should have approached him to make an appointment. Eventually, the discussion lasted three hours. Azman offered to give me a ride to Yew Tee.

Taking A Baby Step...

Last Friday, 15 Feb, I felt quite certainly that her words were meant for me. Her eyes were fixed on me when she was delivering the utterance. Quite vaguely, they were:

"I'm sure the workload will be divided equally..." 

Ernie assured me that it was just a simple comment. She asked me what made me feel so. I told her I had been rather quiet in tutorials. And I had presented fewer times than my group members. I knew if I continued to be as carefree as I used to be, I would be marked by her. I asked Lydia for her comments. We thought I should make a difference.

So on 22 Feb, when we were in our usual group discussion, I decided to demonstrate my knowledge on Themes (part of Mode of Discourse). While they were busily highlighting and discussing what the answers could be, I arduously skimmed through the reading and explained to them the topic. The enthusiasm in my explanation must have captured our tutor's attention because I could soon feel her presence beside me. And she said, "I'm sure Ker Wee will present for the group later." The rest nodded in agreement.

When my presentation was over, Ernie said that my presentation skills had improved. I was very happy, much like a small boy being praised for something good he had done. I guess even when we are adults, we are always searching for a sense of personal and social recognition.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Well, a new year signifies a new beginning. And so I shall leave behind all those sad experiences and embrace the new year with optimism.

And I shall work towards my goals.

Less procrastination.

More diligence.

But today, I shall give myself a break.

Because it is the first day of Lunar New Year.

I am now at my third aunt's place.

Blogging.

I wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year.

Be showered with abundant love, health and wealth.

新年快乐。万事如意。

龙马精神。步步高升。

年年有余。一帆风顺。

No AAE231 Tutorial Tomorrow...

This morning, I went back to school just to attend an hour of AAE231 lecture. Well, this week is e-learning week so everyone has to stay at home and work on any assigned tasks, unless being invited back. I thought I would be a little disappointed without May's presence. She SMS-ed me last night to inform me that she would be at overseas.

I thought I would be sitting by myself for the lecture. Soon, Azman came and asked if the seat beside me was vacant. I was a little surprised because he would usually sit with his group of returning teachers. I hurriedly removed my bag and signalled him to occupy the seat. I was not going to be lonely after all!

The lecture was on Discourse Analysis. And I attended the class with Language Policy reading. Yeah, I guess not everyone was as awake as the lecturer because even the group which was supposed to present Discourse Analysis this week was a bit lost. They were not prepared at all! And so tomorrow's tutorial has been cancelled, much to everyone's relief.

One More From May...

See the boy (Des) and the girl (May)? Aren't they cute? May told me she learnt to draw them from a primary school text. When she told me she wanted to get me a present for my birthday, I told her this was more than enough.

 

Birthday Blessings From Friends...

Thursday was my birthday. I received many blessings from friends and family members. Thank you for your blessings and I hope they do come true!

"Morning beb! Happy Birthday! :-) Wishing u all the love, happiness, health, fortune and luck this yr! And may all yr dreams come true.. :-D" --- Ernita, 31 Jan, 6:51 AM

"Hi big cousin! Happy Birthday! May u achieve success in your studies n hope all your sweet dreams n wishes come true! Yeah! :-D" --- Cousin Ruby, 31 Jan, 6:51 AM

"Happy birthday! Wishing u bountiful wealth, health and happiness! I've brought the stuff i wanna pass to u to SVPS. If u're free to drop by, it's on my chair. Just a lil for ur birthday and that book u loan to me. Hv a great day!" --- Mun Ching, 31 Jan, 8:16 AM

"Happy birthday to u! May u continue to execl in yr studies but without much stress. Stay healthy but no much exercise require.. N find a girlfriend soon! :)" --- Raymond, 31 Jan, 10:35 AM

"Heya mr lim! Hapi bdae! Wah, someone is 1 yr older oreadi sey. Dun eat 2 much seaweed 2dae ok. Btw, May all wishes come true yea! Hehe!" --- Lydia, 31 Jan, 11:06 AM

"Yo Ker Wei, today's your birthday. Happy birthday to you! How r u celebrating man?" --- Joseph Chang, 31 Jan, 11:08 AM

"Happy birthday teacher" --- Gerald Kooi, 31 Jan, 11:12 AM

"Dear big bro, happy birthday to u! May u hv a wonderful day n best wishes to u :)" --- Dearest Sis, 31 Jan, 1:28 PM

"Happy birthday bro! Wishing u great health and success." --- Andy Hang, 31 Jan, 1:49 PM

"Hey bro, happy birthday!! :-)" --- Alan Lim, 31 Jan, 7:22 PM

"Bro, many happy returns to u on yr bday! Enjoy yr day." --- Thian Boon, 31 Jan, 8:12 PM

"Belated happy birthday! :)" --- Derrick Lim, 01 Feb, 10:31 PM

Week Four at NIE...

Three weeks has passed.

I am still inundated with tons of reading from the various modules, namely AAE102, AAE203, AAE231 and ALS101. I believe I will be on the verge of self-destruction if there is no change in the way I manage my time for the many weeks to come. Where has time gone to? What is the problem with my time management? And I know I am not alone.

This morning, I was reading The Straits Times when dad suddenly wished me "Happy Birthday". I replied coldly to him that it was not my birthday. He was expressionless. I wondered if I had made him mad. When mum came back, I told her what dad did and she said, "Today's your lunar birthday!" I was abashed by my absolute silliness.

On my way to the bus stop, I plucked up the courage to tell dad shyly that I had made a mistake this morning. He just smiled. I smiled too. I laughed at my own silliness and insensitivity as I was narrating the whole story to May. Oh, yah, thanks for the wonderful birthday card, May! I really hope we will be friends forever!

Week One at NIE...

Friends and classmates who saw my time-table exclaimed, "Wah! Your time-table is so good. Not many breaks in between." Good? I was expecting something like a 3 or 4-day week. I looked at theirs and nearly fainted. Some have 6 or 7-hour break between the first and following lessons while a few fortunate ones have 3 or 4-hour break.

Anyway, nothing interesting happened this week. I have got nothing impressive or exciting to talk about except for the following:

For AAE231 - Formed group with Azman, Kavita and Linus. I have never worked with any one of them for a major group assignment.

For AAE203 - Formed group with Elizabeth, Cindy and Zoie. This will be the third time I am collaborating with Elizabeth. I have yet to know Cindy and Zoie, especially the latter.

For AAE102 - Formed group with Ernita, Lee Ching and Ryan. I have known Ernita since practicum at SVPS and she has conveyed her expectations to me. I hope I do not disappoint any of them.

I really look forward to meeting up and collaborating with these group mates.

小鸡bye!哈！

小牛从小鸡家哭着回来，老牛吃惊见了问小牛为什么哭？

小牛哭诉说被鸡妈妈和全家的鸡追着打，老牛又问为什么被打？

小牛说我只是向他们道别，那里知道鸡妈妈和全村的鸡很生气追打我。

老牛问小牛你是怎么道别的？

小牛说我只是讲：

小鸡bye!
老鸡bye!
全部鸡bye!

Contributed by an anonymous SMS recipient.

Wedding at Sentosa Shangri-la...

Last Sunday, I attended Li Kokh and May Inn's wedding at Rasa Sentosa Resort, Shangri-La. For some unknown reasons, I think I always like to promise people whole-heartedly that I would attend their weddings or birthday parties and then end up cracking my mind whether I should attend at the very last minute. Well, the heavy rain that day might have dampened my spirits or made my bed a little cosier. Yah, the rain.

I went to Jurong East MRT Station and boarded the specially-catered coach to Sentosa. We were told to board the bus at 6 P.M. It left after 20 minutes of waiting, with 6 passengers aboard. We reached Pulau Blakang Mati at about 6.45 P.M. I decided to wait at the lobby for some familiar faces to appear. Within a short moment, I saw Jasmine (Poi). She wore a radiant look on her face. It was her make-up, she told me.

We went down to the wedding reception at level 1, bid our ang pows goodbye and grabbed drinks to quench our thirst. Soon, we saw Debbie (Koh) walking towards us. Shortly, Ludwig and Benny appeared. I was wondering if Li Kokh had invited ALL the lecturers and tutors he knew! After standing for so long, we decided to go in, find our table and make ourselves comfortable. The seats around our table were slowly filled up by Jennifer, Wanyu, Ailian, Susan and Peiling. The last to grace the wedding was Ryan. It turned out to be a gathering for most of us!

Won An Acer Laptop!

I got a shock when Jasmine from the other line told me that I had won a notebook worth $1,500 from a contest held by The Handphone Shop. I could not believe my ears and asked her to repeat what she just said. I was quite sceptical too. Could it be some fraudsters trying to con me? “Where do I collect it?” I asked. “Okay, here’s the address. You may like to take it down.” She replied.

53 Ubi Crescent

Thanks to my svelte Motorola V8! And thanks to my dearest sister and mum who bought this phone for me. She brings me such good luck despite the way she behaves recently; she is unresponsive whenever I try to get intimate with her. Just two days ago, I was contemplating of breaking up with her after seeing Alan pampering himself with a new love - SE K910i.

I had been contemplating of getting a new laptop after recent protests from my Macbook. I had wanted to get a Sony but the price was too steep and I was not sure whether I would fall in love with Vista. Well, with this new Acer Aspire 4520, I am grateful that I did not spend thousands of dollars on Sony/Vista - nice to look at, but incorrigibly slow. Anyway, it's a prize so why hiam?