My daughter's wedding

Alas! The day has arrived. My little girl will be finally getting married later this afternoon at 2.30pm. It has been one year since she got attached and the relationship has blossomed into an adventure filled with a mixture of fun, love, distress and sorrow. Last night, we had the rehearsal till 10pm to make sure everything was in order. The room was filled with people laughing, chatting, exchanging experiences. Everybody is elated. The long awaited ceremony will be what we have been waiting for all these time...

I'm not sure what to feel after the ceremony. The joy and sorrow of seeing your daughter leaving you. One side of my soul tells me that this is the moment of blissful union. Yet, the other side of my souls tells that I'm finally going to put her into the good hands of another man. Oh... What irony! Human emotions are indeed a concoction of feelings.

To my dearest daughter, my little FYP (Surface planarization of microstructures for biomedical applications), I'm happy for you. No words will be able to express my happiness after today's presentation at TR6 at 1430 hrs. Prof Yeo Swee Hock will be there to ensure you have been under my good guidance. I have high hopes for you and I know you will not let me down.

You have grown independent for the past 12 months. You have been the best daughter a father could ever have despite your occasional tantrums which led me to late nights down at the laboratory's cleanroom. It's time for you to build a new future with another student. I'm off to sleep now. I want to be at my best for my little girl's wedding. Now, that will be one load off my mind. :)

Another story for another time

This will be my last entry that I'll blog in hostel ending my 4 year stint as a hostelite of NTU. I'll be checking out at 12:00pm and surrendering the keys to the hall office. I'm still packing some of my remaining stuff. Zhijian's stuff is all cleared. Nothing left except for a water bottle which I think he forgot to bring home.

The general elections were out yesterday. Low Thia Kiang of the Worker's Party (WP) retained Hougang and Chiam See Tong of the Singapore Demoratic Alliance (SDA) retained Potong Pasir despite the People's Action Party (PAP) dangling multi million carrots to upgrade the estates in these 2 constituencies. It seems money cannot buy people's loyalty. The opposition fortresses stands out strong and I'm proud of them.

Nothing's changed in this elections despite very credible contests by the opposition. The PAP won 82 out of 84 seats in parliment. Once again, another sweep by one political party which seems to be almost invincible. Yet, it's worth nothing that the PAP's support dropped to 66% of the valid votes down from 71% (if i recall correctly from the 2001 general elections). The opposition support seems to be growing within the ranks of the younger generation of Singaporeans who are more inclined to vote of the opposition to have an alternative voice in parliment. The statistical votes seem to show a projected growth of support of the opposition in future elections.

It's the same old story. The PAP takes control of the parliment in Singapore, the opposition seems to be unable to upstage any upsets. So seriously, the political scene looks set to remain stagnant (yet again) for Singapore. What's new? Still the same old story hor? Another era for the PAP dynasty? How can we be a first world country under a one party stronghold? No doubt, the PAP has done a good job so far, but I still think an alternative voice will prove to be more beneficial for the country's economic and social growth. Just look at Japan and Korea, both these asian countries have higher GDP growth as compared to Singapore despite having opposition parties in parliment. But that's another story for another time. Let's see what will happen 5 years down the road.

Since I did not get a chance to vote, I spent by weekend in good fashion. Chilling out with friends at cafes, dining yummy food, watching blockbuster movies (at Cathay Cineplex which I rate very highly for the super duper uber fantabulous service quality), & coincidentally meeting up with avid freelance photographers and their hot models. More on that in later entries. Heh Heh. :)


Side note-
Exams are over, but I'm still stuck with work. My Final Year Project presentation is round the corner and I have to do my powerpoint slides! Time check- 3:33am, yet another sleepless night bogged with work. Bummer.....

Polling day for general elections

6th May 2006. It's polling day for the general elections where singaporeans choose and vote for their preferred party to be the parliment for the next 5 years. For the past 9 days, political parties have debated actively on many issues. From major issues to matters concerning on how James Gomez from the workers party didn't submit this minority certificate to the electorate office.

People have listened, people have seen the candidates making rallying speeches on plans to make Singapore a better place. Who will win this time round in the "hot spots" GRC/ SMC? Will the PAP prevail or will the opposition put up a strong fight? Today's the day where people will decide.

Having a chance to vote is cool and sacred, only if you get a chance to vote. As of 10 am today, Channelnewsasia have reported that almost 22% of the people have voted.

I'll still be keeping a very close watch on the election results. This is afterall, my home, my Singapore. I'm excited despite not getting a chance to vote since my home falls under the walkover GRC. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to vote the next time round. Till then, I very much remain a virgin voter. :)

First world university my ass!

My dear fellow readers,

By the time you read this entry, a few hundred students would have already been claimed as casualties by the fluid mechanics paper disaster on 3rd May 06: 1200 hours @ Nanyang Technological University examination hall B.

It's ironic how contradicting the opinions are from students from universities worldwide. I recall that slightly less than 4 years ago, people once told me university life was super relaxed and relatively stress free as compared to the 'A' levels. To the super elite uber intelligent people with brains of super computers process capability, they probably say,

"I never touched textbooks/ lecture notes/ tutorials/ research papers all my life and yet I scored all straight distinctions for the exams. So easy!"

Yeah rite..... in my 4 years of university life so far.... I can only think of two words that best describes this.

BULL SHIT !!!

No such thing! As a fellow student, I sympathise with your situation. The administration has always made everything sound so easy. Despite being the incumbent, the university's top heads have failed to comprehend the situation on the ground. Where are the creme la creme when the students need them. I can safely assure you that 8 out of 10 professors suck in teaching despite their "amazing academic track record". So what if they have the best qualifications, it doesn't mean a thing to the students if they cannot relate, speak or teach properly. Go ahead and ask the students down the lecture theatres. Oh... then again, does the top administration go on the ground the relate to you the fellow student? I've never ever seen a top head walking around checking on the state of the student population. Not convinced? Go ahead and sue me for defamatory remarks. I challenge you to do so.

Forget about all that "hoo ha" imagery that the media has painted on television. No where in Singapore do you see students sitting on a big green field staring at the clouds after a hectic day of lessons. Forget about the idea of enjoying a good cup of ice blended mocha every now and then grooving to the background music while chilling out in between lectures. Going out to play and shop whenever you feel like it? If you do lead such a lifestyle, there can only be 3 possibilites.

1. You are not a student from NTU/NUS/SMU.
   
2. You forget that you are even a student.
3. You skip lessons 5X daily, 5 days a week.
   

If you wanna know the extent of madness that goes on in university, think of it this way.

If you thought PSLE was hard,
'O' levels is 5X more difficult,
'A' levels is 10X more difficult than the 'O' levels.
University education is magnified 15x more than the 'A' levels.
Question: How much more difficult is university as compared to PSLE? (15 marks)

University education is ...
5*10*15 = 750x more difficult than your PSLE standard.

Simple right?

But wait... academics in universities never like making things simple. This is how they will pose the simplified hypothetical question to you.

The degree of difficulty can be modelled as the rise in water level in a tank. The water level rises under a steady state for 5 seconds before overflowing from the tank. Assume only frictional pipe loss f , DERIVE an expression of the rise degree of difficulty of university h(x) with respect to time using the following equations. (15 Marks)

Function of PSLE : f(w) = 6wy + 3t
Function of 'O' levels g(u) = tan (4u+7w)/ dt
Function of 'A' levels h(t) = (dy/dt * dt/dz ) 4xu * cos (5wt) + du/dt

Hint: You may find the following formula useful...
[P1/pg + V1^2/pg + z1] = {P2/pg + V2^2/pg + z2+ (fLV^2/2gD)] + K(V^2)/2g + (l/g)dv/dt}
The displacement of overspill is z(t)= (z2 - z1).


Or something like that. WHAT "USEFUL" hints. Which doesnt really make sense to the common man on the street. WTF?! Why must derive? 3/4 of the paper is based on DERIVATION. "Siao leh!" Cannot ask application type of questions found in the tutorials is it? After the professors drill the students with lots of graphs, complex formulae and application questions throughout the entire semester for the module, they examine the unexpecting student on DERIVATION? Curses to you and your freaking overdeveloped brain. Thanks to you my dear professors, many final year students with hopes of graduating in 4 years are now living in morbid fear that graduation may never be a possibility.

Assuming that some student will send an email to the administration complaining about the many matters which are considered "trivial" to the top heads, they will probably detract the student that he/she did not have his papers (lecture notes) in place, and say the student is a liar and a person who lack of integrity. How dare they accuse the top heads of the administration of such atrocities. The administration is FIRST WORLD ok? Our professors are also FIRST WORLD ok?

To to first world, we must have first world professors who will produce first world students. Nothing but NATO (No Action, Talk Only). Even all those evaluation forms are darn useless. The same old dogs still come biting you semester after semester. Who says life in university is wonderful? A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? I don't think so. Stop dangling the carrot with advertisements like.... "I can clinch a deal anywhere, I can address the world and what not...". Nothing but hot air and bullshit. Academic theories rarely apply in real life. First class university education? I don't think so!