3,438 posts
since 2002
Ahead of Return of the King's 18 December release, Warner Bros Singapore is screening a limited run of 35mm Special Extended Editions of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, a treat for fans.
Spent Monday at home doing nothing productive, but finished the GLA campaign in Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour, far tougher than the original Generals. Today was my 18th driving lesson, taught by a different instructor.
Celebrated Li Xiang's birthday, belatedly. Her actual day fell on Wednesday the 12th, but with so many people working we pushed it to Saturday. We gathered at 4.30pm at a buzzing, packed Marina Square.
Had a steak lunch at Sizzler with Georgina, priced much like Ponderosa. Ponderosa's salad bar has more variety, though Sizzler offers more unique steak choices. Overall I prefer Ponderosa, and my Popular card gets a discount.
Went to school to help my FYP supervisor install our project on his laptop, which he'd show the committee for marks moderation, hoping for an A. Met my group for dinner at Long Beach Marina.
Went for my Industrial Training Programme interview at The Alpha, Science Park II, with Pi Eta Consulting, a risk analysis firm. Seven interviewed, four from my course and three from DIT, for four or five places.
Met Jacky, Serene, Laily, Johnson and Li Xiang at Suntec's Carrefour to buy ingredients for Li Xiang's birthday steamboat at my place. Saw the Nokia 6600 dummy, good features at a fair price but bulky.
Lunch at Tiong Bahru Plaza with Jacky, Serene and Li Xiang, collecting our tickets for Saturday's Matrix Marathon. Li Xiang headed to SP to return books while the rest wandered Jurong Point, where Jean spotted us.
No spoilers unless you click through. Spent the afternoon at Sim Lim Square with Suqin gathering price lists, since I'm getting a new computer and a 17-inch LCD; my mom's office is buying my current machine.
My 14th driving lesson covered vertical parking and negotiating slopes on public roads. With the guide poles, parking feels easy, but slopes are tough, my weakest point by far. Played a bit of Counter-Strike 1.6 afterwards.
Sunday breakfast with my parents at the Orchard Cineplex food court, apparently closing after 14 November once the lease expires, with no word on what replaces it. Met Georgina afterwards, glad my exams are over.
How time flies; 61 days until 2004. I've settled into updating this blog every other day. Haven't touched ELIT revision lately, though I've read my notes twice and will memorise the key points tomorrow.
Sat my JSPG exam yesterday and the paper was easy, far simpler than the mid-term, like the lecturer was helping us. A two-hour paper, but most finished early. Dinner at Clementi, with Lester Goh driving fast.
Slacking these two days with my JSPG exam tomorrow. I hate programming exams, the theory especially, like how many JDBC drivers exist. Who cares? We're meant to be tested on Java Server Pages, not Java GUI.
My last lecture of the semester was ELIT, where the lecturer shared exam tips, vital since I'm terrified of this paper. It carries 70% weightage and is pure memory work, all about cramming.
Happy Deepavali to my Indian readers, not too late I hope. My 11th driving lesson was at night, and surprisingly there were more cars than in daytime. I should clear stage two soon; five stages total.
Rushed through my GAME test, wrapping in an hour of a two-hour paper. My FYP presentation wasn't as strong as the interim; my supervisor said the presentation fell flat though the demonstration was fine. We agreed.
Finally handed in our Final Year Project, around 400 pages of documentation, a poster design and the source code. Sixteen weeks of hard work paid off; despite a rough start with problems, we finished on time.
Went on an ELIT excursion to CID's Technology Crime Division. I didn't learn much. I'd hoped for a demo on how they trace hackers, but it's confidential. The job interests me, yet there's no direct entry.
Three days without a blog update, swamped with my FYP and helping friends with their JSPG assignments. Most is behind me now, with two days to my FYP deadline and the final presentation Tuesday, 21 October.
Just submitted my JSPG assignment, an Online Auction, despite some weird intermittent bugs (IllegalStateException and ResultSet Closed) that I can't pin down. All I can do now is pray nothing breaks during my assignment interview.
Went to school for an FYP discussion; I hate documentation. Twenty-five pages for the project, and the appendix will top 300 since the code alone runs past 200. My 8th driving lesson nearly saw an accident.