My LiFE, mY stOrY

After a long battle, I am finally done with school. This has been one crazy semester for everyone. Whoever said poly was easy is either not a poly students or not in my course (some courses are having an easier time). Anyway, all that is left now is a series of briefings and interview on Thursday, followed by the project showcase on 3rd March and I am officially free.

Well, it’s a relief really. For the past week, I have been grumpy, cranky and sleep-deprived thanks to all the work they packed into the final week. On Thursday, when my last presentation was over, I should have been happy, but I was far too tired for that. But I did spend my whole time on the bus creating a playlist on my iPod to suit the mood. I couldn’t sleep on the bus cause all my playlists all had songs that are simply not suitable for sleep.

I spent Thursdayand Friday night just celebrating on my own. Enjoying my free time after a super busy week. Too bad some of my coursemates still have one more assignment to go, if not, we could have went out together to celebrate.

Received a piece of news the other day. Apparently, I was nominated to become either the MC or the speaker for the showcase. One of my groupmate was nominated as well. We were wondering who was behind it, guess we’ll find it out on Thursday. We saw something interesting in the list of nominees. There was 2 very interesting names in it and we are planning to support them to become the MCs (evil laugh). I doubt they read this blog so this information is safe.

Anyway, if anyone is interested to attend the showcase on 3rd March (Wednesday), do let me know. It’s from 2pm to 5pm at TP. It’s a showcase of all the FYP done by my course this year. Also, if you go, you get to vote for my project! Wait, strike that, you have to vote for my project! So, do let me know if you wish to go.

Time for me to go, shopping today! So glad that I finally have time to do my new year shopping.

Was at their concert last night. It was legendary. Been waiting for it for a very long time and they lived up to the expectations. Since they announced that the concert on the 28th of January, I thought it would be a great way for me to celebrate the final presentation for my FYP. That was a hundred bucks well spent.

I was too busy being squeezed and holding Kes’s file and my book to bring out my camera to take photos or videos. Besides, the crowd was so crazy it was almost impossible to take a nice stable shot most of the time. It was pretty chaotic but we all had a great time. We did not even have to push our way in, when the show started, everyone just pushed through and we got so far in front from where we were originally.

Anyway, I have been pretty busy with all the projects in school. They loaded a hell lot of stuffs this term just to make up for having no exams. Today was my last individual submission. Next week, there are 3 group submissions and 3 presentations to go through. They are actually trying to kill us before we leave the polytechnic. But I once got an advice from my tutor, always have the end in mind. Everytime I get tired of all these crap, I just picture myself relaxing and taking a vacation after everything. The next couple of days are going to be tough, but after that, I am officially free. Our 3 years in TP is finally coming to an end. Time flies like an arrow.

Well, I am off to make full use of this rare rest day. Man I have so much planned for my vacation, I can’t wait.

Well, got my results back. I did relatively alright, all of them were in the 30+ range out of 50. This term is going to be hectic. With only 3 weeks of school left and 5 more deadlines to go, I have to recharge for the final ‘battle’. 2 of those deadlines are about 70-100 pages worth of documentations. I doubt I have done anything like it before. I have been pretty much resting for the week that just past. Hardly doing any work since we are fans of last minute works and there were no deadlines last week. I went for a great dinner at East Coast with my coursemates on Thursday, I have no idea what the reason was. I just went along with it since I had nothing to do. Man, I really have to start working on my projects.

Anyway, I am so looking forward to 28 January. On that day, it will be my final presentation for my final year project and I am going to celebrate it by going to the Boys Like Girls concert. We have been looking forward to it since they last came to perform at the Nike run which we did not go for. After that day, I will only have a couple more reports to hand in and 5 February will be the unofficial last day of school. The last week happens to be elearning, so the official date is 11 February. I am so psyched that the long vacation is coming up. But that means I have to go through the process of looking for a job again. I think I will squeeze in a holiday trip with a couple of friends, before we lose our freedom to the much-dreaded NS.

It will be sad to leave TP though. Because for the first time in our lives, we have no idea whether we are going to continue studying or we will start working for the rest of our lives. My grades are not exactly impressive, so the chances are, I will not be accepted into the 3 main universities. On one end, I am psyched that I will not be studying for the next 2 years, but on the other end, I feel lost. I guess it is time to step out of our comfort zone, “listen to what the world is telling you to do and take the leap”.

By the way, that quote was from How I Met Your Mother. Just watched the 100th episode recently, there was a musical number in it and Neil Patrick Harris is freaking awesome. Next week, Amanda Peet is going to be the guest star and if I remembered correctly, Neil is going to be the director for the episode. It is probably my 2nd favourite ongoing show right now, right after The Simpsons.

Time for me to get to work, I have a small journal to write which is due tomorrow.

Well, Christmas just past, next up, New Year. Been on a short vacation, which got me sick again, but it’s been a long time since we took a family vacation, so it was worth it. Being sick sucks, I haven’t really recovered fully from a single sickness before falling ill with another. Had a headache for like 2 weeks, went on vacation, came back with a very bad cough and possibly fever for another week, so that is 3 weeks of being sick, coinciding with my 2 weeks of term break. At least I got to relax and have some fun, that’s always good.

Genting is pretty cold this time of the year, mainly because of the excessive clouds and strong winds everyday, we went a little downhill to a temple on the second day and I swear the wind was strong enough to push me while I was walking. But what a view that was! We had a couple of photos taken, I haven’t uploaded my share but neither did my cousins, most of the photos are with them so I hope to see them soon. We hardly had fun at the theme park thanks to the weather, it was raining after a couple of rides and the queues were super long. We queued for the Space Shot ride for pretty long, watching people get sent up and drop down on the ride as the clouds gathered and blocked our view several times. It is so different from taking that ride elsewhere, because at Genting, you actually see clouds below you when you get to the top, and the place is built on a slope, everything seems to look so low from far, adding to the thrill. There was a guy sitting with us on the ride that was cursing and swearing the whole time. We just found it freaking funny.

Christmas went without a countdown, I hardly noticed it was already 12am until someone sent me a message, I was too busy playing games with my bros. Sounds like we’re lifeless, but we’re all broke for the month, so everything was on budget. Staying home playing games is the cheapest activity. We did meet on Christmas though, JJ, XC and I headed to JD’s for dinner, booze and some mahjong. It was pretty funny playing mahjong high. Finished after 12 and I had to take a cab home to continue the celebration (played a game and went to sleep). Although it was only 4 of us, it was fun to hang out and eat pizza for dinner with my bros.

School starts tomorrow, I had fun for the past 2 weeks despite being sick, now comes the concequences for paying ever so little attention in class: test results! I’m pretty sure I did alright, although I’ll be thankful that I even passed for one of them. Time to hunt for my next activity on my last day of my break.

EDIT (28/12/09): At the point of posting, 2 of my clothes were known to be destroyed to me due to some other shirt’s dye during wash. I realised another one was missing today. So a great gift for me next year would probably be clothings. Also, if anyone is going shopping, give me a call.

I was out today, despite my killer headache, fever, cough and sore throat. I wanted to get out to go enjoy, for the past few weeks I’ve been overworked, stressed out and just tired of everything. Was planning to join JD for Zombieland despite turning them down yesterday because I desperately needed rest. I woke up feeling shitty but my urge to get out was far greater. They moved it to Toa Payoh, so I turned them down again. So when Donn asked if I wanted to catch the movie with Nick, I agreed almost immediately.

Planned to watch the 2.10pm show at Vivocity, they were going to have lunch at 1.30pm, when I heard this, I told myself they are never going to make it despite Donn saying it will work. But I ignored myself and agreed to meet at 2pm. I showed up, they were still having lunch and told me to wait for 5 minutes. 50 minutes later, they were finally done and met me. By then my headache was killing me and I was feeling really stupid for not listening to myself. But we went on to buy tickets to The Storm Warrior. What a waste of time that was, my head almost exploded during the show with all the high-pitched sound effects. We finished the movie at 6pm, walked all around until we were outside Vivocity, then I asked where we were headed, it was only then that I know that Donn was spending the night at Nick’s and they were going to head back already. When I heard it, I couldn’t help but feel fucking stupid and laugh at myself. I walked off to the direction of the train station and headed home.

On the long way home, I couldn’t stop thinking how things would have turned out if I just listened to myself. I went out today needing a friend, I was looking to slack, hang around, talk, anything to get my mind off work. I needed to destress. But I came home feeling so much worst. Disapppointed at both myself and my friend. I cannot remember the last time we ALL just hung out together as a group. I’ve been trying to plan but in between all my work and being sick, I simply don’t have the time to persuade everyone of them. If there is one thing that Scrubs taught me, it is that it is okay to let yourself take a break every once in awhile. I’ll be going on a short holiday next Sunday, hope it takes my mind off stuffs.

It’s almost Christmas and I can’t feel it coming, unlike the past couple of year where I looked forward to it, I’m numb this time round. This has been a sucky year and I can’t wait for it to end. Since I don’t post much recently, here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, may 2010 be better than 2009.

This is just a notice to all who use the services on that site. I have scheduled the cancellation to occur on 31 December 2009. All activities should cease a week before, on 24 December 2009.

It was quite a tough decision to let the server go. It was my sanctuary when it all started back in 2007. At that time, I did a lot of coding, took up lots of programming projects including websites and games. It was one of the most precious thing I had in my life. We had a lot of fun on that server, through the past 2 years it has done a lot for me. Many people have benefited from the server but with the declining need for it and increasing upkeep, I discussed with my partners and decided it was time to let it go.

By the way, I did not delibrately pick New Year’s Eve. It was the earliest I could schedule the cancellation and the next date would be the end of January. And it so happens that a week before New Year’s Eve is Christmas’ Eve. So for those who will be busy on that day, make sure you are done by then.

This blog will NOT be affected as I have already transferred this to a US host which will be my new toy. It is much cheaper but it is shared. Guess I will have to make it work. Anyway, those who had interest on operating on my server can still look for me, I will look around for alternatives for you guys.

Humans, the following is not meant for you guys. Server, you have served me well over the past 2 years. I cannot even start to list the things I have done with you. Just today, you amazed me by showing a single stream download which totally maxed out my speed. The only other sites that does that is Microsoft or local websites. Thank you for all the good times, for the first half of the best time of my life, for giving hundreds of people a reason to come online every single day during that period of time, for never failing me, for the constant amazement I get, for all the stuffs I have gotten thanks to you, for spreading the joy with all my bros, and lastly, for all the joy you have brought to me. You will be missed and I will never forget you.

Now humans, am I wrong to say you read all that? Corny? Yes, but it deserved every bit of it. It is a tribute to something that brought about the best time of my life so far. I don’t think I have ever told anyone about it being the best time of my life. It was quite a while ago (as I recently realised), I ran on however little sleep I got every night. I had school in the day, and when I got home, I was scripting to satisfy the hundreds of people expecting from me. I had to balance my life and it was tough. I often worked late into the night just for it, and sometimes, I would go to school without sleep. It was the toughest time but it was something I loved with all my heart. My heart broke when operations ceased. Have fun guessing what it is. Regular readers should know.

Anyway, back to life, been busy the past couple of days. All I could squeeze out was an hour or two for some me time, at the cost of my rest time. This week is going to be a super hectic week and we are expecting to see some relief after next week (sounds like some weather forecast). Projects sucks, tutors sucks, school sucks. I have no idea what the tutors are thinking. They jam-packed this semester so badly we hardly have time to rest. Whenever we see signs of a break coming up, it is usually interupted or incredibly short. Well, let’s hope the upcoming break will be a relief, for all our sake. We will probably fall sick at this rate. My immune system is already breaking down even with my regular intake of Vitamin C tablets.

Well, I better get back to work. It is already past 12am and I am hoping to get to bed by 1am.

Why do I have to fly
Over every town up and down the line
I’ll die in the clouds above
and you that I defend, I do not love

Where will I meet my fate,
Baby I’m a man, I was born to hate
And when will I meet my end
In a better time, you could be my friend

I wake up, it’s a bad dream
No one on my side
I was fighting,
But I just feel too tired to be fighting
Guess I’m not the fighting kind
Wouldn’t mind it, if you were by my side
But you’re long gone, yea you’re long gone now

Where do we go
I don’t even know
My strange old face
And I’m thinking about those days

Beautiful song coupled with a great scene on Scrubs. I never really took note of this song from that scene till recently. It was a great scene that I’ve seen over 10 times in the past couple of days. Just love the song.

Well, yesterday I missed a small deadline because the server thought it would be a good time to go down just when I click the submit button. I now think it may be due to a blackout. Apparently, it wouldn’t be the first. On friday, there was a short blackout and a couple of lessons were pushed back. Today, the blackout lasted a little longer. Luckily, I was on my break and having lunch, so it didn’t really affect me.

This week is going to be one heck of a week. With NAPFA on Thursday, a project consultation on Wednesday and a couple of deadlines at the end of the week. It’s going to keep me busy the whole time. Well, I better get to sleep now, not feeling really well and I’m just too tired.

The beautiful Friday is upon us yet again. Since my timetable is completely clean on Fridays, I pretty much rest at home after a long 4-day week in school. Mostly due to the major project which got me going to school every wednesday even when I don’t have any lessons on that day.

Speaking on the project, we were out on an excursion yesterday. We had to travel there on our own, and my group was late! We reached Buona Vista at about 2.20pm, and we were supposed to meet at 2pm. Luckily, our tutor didn’t scold us. We went down to IDM to check out their new project which was wicked cool. We were first led to a 74-seater theatre where we were told the movies were rated. They showed us a several 3D trailers. The theatre was really well furnished, it even has a table for every seat with a plug for notebooks. I think it serves as a seminar hall as well. It’s cool to know where decisions are made to bar us from some movies. After the trailers, we went on to visit the rest of the place. There was a huge meeting room with so many cool stuffs. There was a XBox station on the side, about 5 projectors and screens, and a couple of softwares and applications that just blew my mind. Then we went on to check out the office where the allow start-up companies to utilise before we ended with a photoshoot. I wonder if we’ll ever get our hands on those photos.

After the tour, we checked out the supermarket in the building. It has the smart push-cart which has a screen that displays advertisements, product informations, etc. We shopped around a little bit and got a couple of drinks. Our tutor then directed us to the self check-out counter where we pretty much become the cashier. Scan the products, place it in the bag and pay. Since there wasn’t a cashier, the payments were all electronic. I had to use nets to pay for a $3 purchase. How dumb.

Well, I had a pretty good time yesterday, if not for the rain, it would have been a great time. Great to be resting home today, finally slept more than 8 hours. I guess this week is indeed better than the last. Let’s hope I can find someone who will go out with me tomorrow. I want to get out of the house and probably catch a movie or something. I’m so outdated! Off to chat.

Just finished a lesson in school and waiting for lunch. This is so boring. I’ve nothing to post though, so this is probably going to be a short one.

Life seems so much easier after the two deadlines. Although there are still a couple of deadlines coming.

It’s been quite a relaxing week for me. Watched a movie, although it’s something I’ve already watched, but still, haven’t been to a movie for a pretty long time.

Alright, that’s it for now. Time to find some entertainment.

Been really busy the past week. Thanks to my final year project. Rushed for the report deadline on Monday morning and then prepare for a 5 minutes presentation in a mere 3 days. I even had to go to school when I had no lessons on Wednesday. Was there till well over 7pm.

Today was my first official day off in a week. Caught up with a deadline today, then my TV shows and movies, which I still have one left to go. Forgive me if I haven’t posted in a while. Got so busy that all I could squeeze in was a couple of tweets.

Anyway, presentation went well, nothing huge came up. I received no feedback on my part which I think is a good thing. We have another one coming up in a month, this project is a killer.

Oh, an accident occurred right in front of my block today, they manage to rescue everyone after a while. Many people started crowding around the area, and the lane was filling up with vehicles like the ambulances, fire engines, police cars and traffic police bikes. I cannot imagine what the family must have been going through as they watched the paramedics rescued the victim out of the vehicle. Not entirely sure what happened, my mother told me and I just looked out of the window. Hope everyone’s alright.

Back to project. I realised, when I do something like this project, which is somewhat my passion, I don’t feel that tired and exhausted. It has practically took up any leisure time I had in a week, I have even pushed aside all other work from other subjects and concentrated 100% in this project. What I do is really important, if it is something I like, I would do anything for it. I already knew this some time back. But this is the first time I have ever had to commit fully to it and it proved the theory right. I was less willing to work on stuffs that I am not interested in. No matter how important or how close the deadline was.

Alright, time for me to watch my last movie and probably get some rest. Hardly slept or eat well for the past week.