Archive for November 2014
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NUS Bowling was like my blood for the first 3 years of NUS. Without it, I could not have survived SoC alone. This part of my journey was so long and arduous, but so worth it. I don't know where to start.
The first person that came to my mind when I started writing this post is Ian. He entered the CCA the same time as me, and I guess we were about the same standard then. Somehow we became really good friends, and
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The first person I met in school, Yong Wei. I remember the time we were all freshies and in our CS1010 class, we sat at the same table. I remember Yong Wei telling me he just came back from an overseas trip, and he didn't attend all the orientation events either. I did, but I was forced to. I didn't want to attend those trivial events, but apparently it was required, so I went for the talks-only orientation package with Donovon. Donovon was the pillar of my formative years in NUS. We trash-talked and whined about our course even before the first day of school and talked about how we even managed to land in Computing when we do not even have any Computing background. Those were the days where we went to and back from school together, as we were in the same course and we live very near each other. However, Donovon was in the IS stream and I was in the CS stream and we didn't keep in contact as much in the following years. But speaking about this, I recall how Donovon actually accompanied me to the University Hall to appeal for a change of course to IS, because I was whining about how much I hated CS already. The result was apparent - the transfer wasn't approved. So there I was, stuck in CS for eternity.
So now back to Yong Wei. In essence, I didn't really 'attend' orientation either. So we clicked, because we found out that both of us are the first person we interacted with in our NUS journey (if I recall correctly on YW's part). There, we expanded this social circle to include many others as we took on more common year 1 core modules, like MA1521 and so on and so forth. So, my CS circle ended up with Swee Khoon, Ben and to a certain extent, Jaslyn. We (the guys) were always in lecture laughing at the prof's miserable attempts at his lame jokes and discussing a storm about the lack of girls in the course. But those were the little things that made me happy. This is university life yo!
Then came second semester. If the first semester was roses, then the semester was the shit that feeds the roses. CS1020 was the deal-breaker in my formative years in NUS. I couldn't grasp the essence of that module and I struggled the entire semester. Not to mention the others in my CS group did well for it, so we kinda got separated after this semester. Since this module was the pre-req for many other higher level modules, I was left behind my clique. That was when the nightmare started. I started taking CS modules alone and was left to face the challenges alone. Donovon was climbing up the IS track quite steadily so we didn't really meet in school as often, though at that time we still trained for IPPT together. It was intense. I often had to drag my body behind the energizer bunny.
1 thing that I really appreciate a lot during the second semester was how Yong Wei stayed back after school to tutor me to code in Java. Java was an absolute monstrosity back then but I conquered it, thanks to him. I remember how he patiently gave me simple questions to do, and teach me the methods step-by-step. Surprisingly, my CS journey went so much smoother after I understood the Java concepts. So thank you Yong Wei. :)
Then there's Swee Khoon. He was instrumental in my database module. I remember I was quite the academic wreck at that time, but Swee Khoon managed to pull me into his sort-of study group with Yai Hui, Daphne and Chervin. Tutorials with them were a joy and because of them, I finally got a decent TA. They just know which tutorial slot to choose. That database module was tough, but I enjoyed reading it just because of the people that did it with me. So thank you too, guys.
Besides all these people, there were many other kind and hardworking souls that I worked with during my formative years. Guys like Eugene and Poh Chiat are the most hardworking and intelligent people I've ever met in school and I respect you guys for that. Marcus, for lending me your MA1101r textbook, and chilling even when I didn't return it on time! :X For all the others that I unfortunately missed out, thank you for being there in my NUS life. It will never be the same without any of you.
This is the classroom that contains most of my happiest memories in NUS. It's the classroom where I met the most awesome people.
I guess from one of my Facebook albums, you all could already see how much they mean to me. When they graduated, I felt really empty, because life in uni just got exciting with them around. But it lasted for only one semester. I remember the first time I worked with Reynold and Nicholas in NM4225. Oh the joys of that module. It was the first time I got to do almost a real Kickstarter project. But seeing how so many news reports are coming out regarding our bio-tattoo idea, I think it could well be a real project anyway! Anyway, I always thought that my NM4225 project was the most polished project I was ever involved with. Nicholas did such a great job with the graphics and website, while Reynold acted so well in the Kickstarter video. We almost knew the whole class. It was like one big extended family. Horng Bor, Jesslyn and Amanda were such a cute group. I had fun being a calefair in their exhibited video!
I guess from one of my Facebook albums, you all could already see how much they mean to me. When they graduated, I felt really empty, because life in uni just got exciting with them around. But it lasted for only one semester. I remember the first time I worked with Reynold and Nicholas in NM4225. Oh the joys of that module. It was the first time I got to do almost a real Kickstarter project. But seeing how so many news reports are coming out regarding our bio-tattoo idea, I think it could well be a real project anyway! Anyway, I always thought that my NM4225 project was the most polished project I was ever involved with. Nicholas did such a great job with the graphics and website, while Reynold acted so well in the Kickstarter video. We almost knew the whole class. It was like one big extended family. Horng Bor, Jesslyn and Amanda were such a cute group. I had fun being a calefair in their exhibited video!
So, Reynold, Shiyun, Regina, Shing, Nicholas, Edwin, Kai Che, Yuin Theng, Biscuit, Jason, Yi Wei and Ha, THANK YOU!
I would like to give special mention to John. I wasn't close to you during NM4226, but thanks for accompanying me through my final stretch for Science of Music. Really appreciate it!
Not to forget, the weird but super interesting and fun module, NM4227. This is the module that I got to do with my first and always the most academic CNM buddy, Szeming. I was so glad that I went through this module with Szeming, Reynold and Nicholas (I wasn't close with Shiyun and Regina at that time). As they all should know, my project for this module wasn't very smoothly done, but they were always there for me, backing me up no matter what. I got to see Nicholas' genius again with his fun little boardgame, and Reynold's humor with his little humorous cards for his boardgame. I will never forget the life lessons I learnt in this module, something that Szeming and I should know very well about. So Szeming, thanks for everything too, and thanks for giving so much assistance when I was at a dead end and finding a way to take level 4k NM mods without fulfilling the requirements.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to my CS3283/4 team. If I'm not wrong, we gave our final presentation in the room beside this room. I am absolutely blessed to have you guys in this group, or else I wouldn't have survived this module! So ZUYET (the hero!), Goutham, leader Kai(!) and Joel, thank you so much.
Last semester. I thought, "go through the motions lor. 3 unrestricted electives". So I asked Chris, my TA that I worked with during Random Blends 2013, for the modules that he's taking this semester. In the end, I ended up taking Interactive Storytelling. It was just the kind of module I needed for my "empty" final semester. No exams, project-based, and the workload isn't workload - it's like playing games! Chris always made tutorials either informative or fun, or both. Maybe it was helped by the activities we got to do during tutorials. Like what, play interactive storybooks? Play card/board games (whatever you call those kind of games)? Fun! Moreover, I always liked to write, but not to-the-point or seriously (that's why I can never write good essays). Writing stories was the best thing for me. So for this, and the Random Blends experience, thanks Chris for everything.
Then there was prof Jude's module. I enjoyed NM4226 so much I decided to take the predecessor of that module, NM3226 (weird I know). Under prof Jude, I knew his lecture style and the chill environment we can work in. What was a plus was that I got to know 4 wonderful groupmates that really thoroughly made me enjoy my last semester. The Punggol cycling trips, as tiring as they might be, were a welcome change to normal group meetings, while the collaboration between all the group members were a delight. It's a pity I couldn't get to know you all better, but it was a pleasure working with you girls, Shermaine, Tongwei, Eehwee and Vanessa. :)
You know they say "xian ku hou tian", that really sums up my NUS journey. It was a great 4 years. Grad lo!
Utown. One of the little things that make my uni life awesome.
Countdown to graduation: 1.5 more weeks.
Utown gave me hope that my university wasn't as ugly as it seemed. It was rather representative of my university life as a whole.
There were days where I didn't want to leave my bed for school. Then there were the days where I didn't want to go home from school. People like Reynold, Regina, Edwin, Biscuit, Shiyun, Shing, Jason, they were my "Utown". They beautified my university life. Sometimes I feel like I was made to go through the tough road of the first 3 years of university to truly appreciate and cherish these people.
Utown boasts many of my favourite memories. From mugging with Nicholas and Sheila in the PC commons to doing up the AR mockup for Weiquan with Yi Wei and Ha, also in the same room, I had such a wide variety of memories there. Speaking of Yi Wei and Ha, I will never forget our hilarious but effective deal. The exchange of effort for my NM4210 project and your CS3343 video was hilarious to say the least, but thoroughly enjoyable! Filming your video was one of the highlights of that semester for me. Now, back to topic. The time where I ate my first buah keluak made skillfully by Reynold's mum in Koufu, to bio-ing all the chio-bus that congregate in utown; the CNM Homecoming dinner where I had free NUS lion soft-toys (to be later taken away by my good friend and now successful actor Jaspers Lai :p ), to the "painful" memory of my best university friends celebrating their graduation right before my eyes at the meticulously maintained grass patch, all vividly play in my mind every time I step in the boundaries of Utown. But that is not all. When I thought that my last semester would be a boring one, new memories were forged with the young (really young) and spunky ladies in my location-based experiences project group. Tongwei, Shermaine, Vanessa and Eehwee are like blessing showers. We most probably would not meet after the end of the module, but all the tutorials in Utown were most probably the easiest 10am timeslot to wake up to.
I never once thought much about this place, but layer by layer, the sense of place grew and festered quietly like a shy little boy in the corner of a room. I can't say that the sense of place in Utown is as emotional or close-to-heart as say, my faculty's building or even Arts building, but as a whole, it brought me much joy and happiness and I really appreciate this place and everyone that I interacted with in there.