Seeing Stars

My eyes are very tired recently and I think I have to avoid staring at the computer screen so much. But that's not an easy thing to do, considering the fact that almost everything I do, from work to entertainment, involves using the computer. I wonder if anybody from our generation can avoid touching the computer completely for just one day.

The modules Im taking are getting tougher and there are a lot of assignments to do. And I can't understand a lot of what the lecturers are talking about. Especially for Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Networking. I wonder if I've chosen the wrong modules. My research on Ontology Alignment is not going very well either. I've been reading a lot of papers but I can't seem to comprehend more than 40% of what is being written in the papers. And I feel that I've been lacking in self-discipline. I haven't been sleeping at 10pm for weeks and I've been waking up late. It's time I shape up or ship out; either I improve or I face getting chopped. Comparing my attitude now to when I was an undergraduate, I have only this to say: “这感觉已经不对，我努力在挽回。。。”

Enough about work. Went skating with Rong Hua, Siying, Weiming, Peiru and Jastinian at East Coast Park yesterday. I took the wrong direction for bus 15 at Eunos MRT and ended up an hour late. Haha. But then it was drizzling also. Just nice that the rain stopped when I reached. We lugged our skates for hours and ended up skating for slightly over half an hour. Went to Geylang for supper after that. I really need to go out or I'll end up using the computer the whole day and see more stars.

We got the samples for the family potrait from Serangoon Broadway last week. Here they are:




I think I'll look good if Im really that tall. Haha.

Usain Bolt!

Usain Bolt just won the gold medal in the men's 200m, breaking Michael Johnson's record on the way to achieving that. He's just too fast, just too good, creating history by winning the 100m and 200m in world record times and being the first man since Carl Lewis to win both the 100m and 200m. He may appear arrogant but people adore him because he's good enough to be.

Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps with his 8 gold medals in the pool will certainly be remembered for this Olympics in years to come. Tributes to the two of them!

Sentosa

It's been a long time since I last went to the beach. But too bad the weather wasn't exactly nice yesterday. It started to drizzle when we reached Harbourfront but luckily it stopped. The weather was cooling and not sunny at all. The attendance was good. As of Friday night, only me, Zhen wei, Sicong and Jiehe were confirmed going. But in the end, Daji, Eddie, Sihan, Ryan and Ching Siang turned up as well.

We played frisbee, beach soccer and beach volleyball. The only bad thing was that there were not many bikini babes around which sort of defeated our purpose of going. =) But then it was fun and I hope to go back there soon.




Congratulations to Singapore for getting our first Olympics medal after 48 years! I didn't watch a lot of this Olympics but I like the volleyball matches. Swimming and track events are exciting and I saw one cute Japanese table-tennis player on TVmobile this afternoon: Ai Fukuhara. However, I still prefer the Russian girls. =)

Money No Enough 2

Was expecting Money No Enough 2 to be a comedy but it turned out to be much more than that.
Some parts of the movie are funny but the show became very touching towards the end.
Though the storyline of how children shirk their responsibilities when it comes to taking care of their old age parents is rather cliched, it is still heart-wrenching and I guess it reflects the situation of the society now.

The song "Mother, 你只是一个名字" was repeated several times to enhance the effect of the moving scenes and you'll have to try hard to fight back your tears (that is, for those who have a heart). One meaningful phrase from the film by Mark Lee: You are poorest not when you have nothing in your pockets nor when your bank account is empty, but when you do not have your loved ones by your side.

All in all, the show was nice and brings a good mixture of laughter and tears to the audiences but I don't like the parts done using computer animation. The technology is still not good enough to make them look realistic. Bottomline: Spend your money carefully and take good care of your parents.

Back to school

First day back in school. The same old environment but not many more familiar faces. First lecture was Computational Intelligence and there were only 2 locals in the lecture group, me and Alex! Also no pretty girls, as expected.

Went to my assigned lab at CAIS after the lecture. I was assigned a cubicle in a not so strategic location where anybody coming in can see what Im doing. Tried to register for my graduate modules but the system totally sucks. To those who think STARS was bad, you haven't seen the worst. First I have to select the modules I want to take. After that, I will be placed on a waitlist for that module and I have to print out a form for my supervisor to sign as a mark of approval. However, if there are no vacancies, I may not get the module and I'll only be informed if I get the module or not on the 15th of August which is after registration ends.

What this means for me is that it may happen that I choose 3 modules, get my supervisor's approval, attend 2 weeks of lessons and find out on the last day of registration that I didn't get any modules allocated to me at all. What an "intelligent" and "logical" system! Good grief! Give me STARS anytime, I don't mind playing "fastest fingers first". Spent an unproductive day in school as a result. Hope tomorrow is a better day.

A week of slacking

Finally, I am out of job and got my one week break before school reopens. Monday was spent meeting my professor in school for a discussion on what I have to do. Following that, there's the Junqin + Feng Cheng + Watson treat at Paulaner. It was initially only the Junqin and Feng Cheng treat but I decided to chip in as well since I can be considered to have a job. 11 persons turned up and the total bill was a whooping $432! Thanks to Zhen Wei's Citibank credit card, there was a 15% off and the amount was reduced to around $360, so that's $120 from each of us.

Picture of everyone with all the food.

After the dinner when the food's all gone.

The treaters.

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter and I had to finish it before the due date on Saturday. Well, I managed that. Met Tooter for lunch on wednesday too as I went to return the hood to Melvin in Jurong West. Received some souvenirs from her as well for her trip to Redang some time ago. I also registered for the half-marathon in Standard Chartered. No more full marathon this time round because of my previous injury. Don't even know if I can manage a half, hopefully yes.

Thursday was spent watching not one, not two but three dvd movies at home! Namely, Maid of Honor, 10,000 B. C. and Batman Begins. In between the movies, I went for a swim at NTU and I realised I haven't been swimming for some time. The feeling of the evening sun on my skin is great.

Before I realise it, it's already Friday. Watched another movie, Quill (导盲犬小Q) in the morning. Another nice touching doggie show. Decided to cook some pasta for lunch which is also something I haven't done in a while. Went to NTUC to buy minced chicken and then cooked a big plate of pasta with minced chicken plus a fried egg for myself. Guess I cooked too much, feeling a little too full. Next, Im going to watch another DVD: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.