Wednesday, September 27, 2006
why am i typing an entry this late? because i've been thinking about simple groups of order 168 for 2 days already and i think i've finally gotten most of the proof in my head, time to write them out in words. hope to be able to submit it by thursday, then i can focus on grad algebra and matrix computation.been such a busy week. went to watch the banquet with gerri. was a pretty good show. or at least i liked it. although i must say that some of the dialogue sounded a little weird. music was good though. i like the cheoregraphed fight sequences. quite a beautiful spectacle, even with the blood and gore and dismembered head. haha.
went to make a new set of spectacles. thankfully gerri was with me. i always need someone to tell me how i look. i dont trust myself. so i made the entire decision based on her comments alone. even the colour. but hey i went back and asked a few of the same questions i asked her to my mum and sis and they both gave similar answers. haha. clearly i should learn to actually listen to other people's opinion more when it comes to other things. haha.sigh now my bank account has been slashed again due to the new spectacles. haha. so no i cannot treat the guys when we go out to celebrate mao's bdae. but maybe someother time. supposed to get ting's birthaday present this thursday with qiang also. roon's birthday present is still on hold. still havent a clue what to get her. haha gave my sister an "ang bao" since she kept insisting that $$$ would do her more good than anything right now. haha. that debt ridden girl. haha.
badminton. playing tomorrow and thursday. yay! oh yes and china scooped 4 titles at the world champs. haha. finally fengyun have fufilled the mandate.
haha. oh and anyway, I just love their shirts. haha i recall wanting a similar yellow adidas one last year. didnt have the $$$ then. and now that i do, i dont seem to see any nice yellow shirts around. also, nike shirts are starting to look uglier and uglier. what's up man?going to reserve friday for consultations for my students and getting a last minute revison sheet done for them. hopefully it isnt too late. i feel so terrible if i dont do it because i somehow feel obliged to help them in anyway i can. i really need to find a balance between my own work and dealing with that module. luckily (or more like hopefully) next sem i'll be free as a bird to do what i want.
korean class is still as fun. made some of my flash cards already. i want to be the best that i can in that class. haha. within my contraints of time of course. haha. motivated huh. haha. very painstaking to make these cards. haha. on the front there are the korean words and on the reverse side, the english AND FRENCH translations. haha. so i can also revise my french. haha. come on. say you're impressed. HAHA!
ok i should sleep tomorrow. i want to thrash everyone! haha. nitez!
{1:25 AM}
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Sunday, September 17, 2006
another week gone by. this week there will be no grad alg cos berrick will be in zurich. so it's kind of a mini 'break in that sense'. but i will have to get past my presentation on wednesday which will be on markov chains and scale free networks. i still have no idea (ok maybe some idea) about what they are. hope to get the ppt done by today.yay got my hair cut yesterday. finally it's nice and short again. haha. well, not as short as i used to cut it, but short enough for me not to complain.
the nokia n93 still isnt out here! WHY?!?! even the n73 is here already. well not like i can buy it now anywayz. i just want it to be out earlier so that it's value will depreciate significantly by the time i can consider buying, which is probably next month? haha.
nus is very efficient in the handing out of stipends. already recieved mine even though it was meant to 'arrive' tomorrow. haha. yay!
haha. recently been talking to some financial math pple. actually when we talk we usually dont talk about financial math, but it's just that sometimes i hang around them and they talk to each other about it. then just the other day i remember that after the a levels, i applied for the mas scholarship also. haha. of course i didnt get it (they didnt even reply) HAHA! hmmm i wonder why during my ns days when it was time for me to accept the psc/moe scholarship, i only seemed to choose between moe or perhaps even the army (!!! yes one wonders why i was that crazy then). whatever happened to banking? haha. anyway i guess luckily i didnt really go into that field. didnt like the econs module i took in nus anyway (maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was essentially the a level syllabus and they did not preclue any students who had already taken economics at a levels from taking which resulted in my having to struggle to keep afloat). yeah perhaps if it were in more ideal conditions i would have liked it better. or not. looking at this paper i have to present this coming wednesday, i'm pretty certain financial math or economics would have been the death of me. i just cannot seem to be able to assmilate anything theoretical with any real world experience. haha. it's almost as if i live in a world of my own. bah. nevermind.
one more week to go before the midsemester break. luckily there will be no mid term test for group. so that reduces to just 3 tests after the break. starting with probably grad alg. then matrix comp and graph. i should be ok i guess. or rather, i hope. have attended every single lesson since day 2 minus day 4 (not day 1 and 4 because on day 1 and 4 i had 2 lessons at exactly the same time so i had to choose 1 over the other). we'll see by the end of this semester if things may have turned out differently had i gone for most of my lessons during my undergraduate days. with 7 modules a semester, i think i could have easily skipped up to 2 or 3 modules worth of lessons every semester. haha!
korean class has been going on well. i find my self practising stuff when i'm not actively doing anything, like waiting for the bus etc. haha. that's a good sign i guess. have never done that with any other lang. haha. although i must say, i'm a little lost as to who's who in the korean entertainment circle. haha. like just the other class they were talking about a lady han. and i wonder who the heck she was until yesterday when i happened to catch an episode of da chang jin. watched through the whole episode yesterday. reminded me of this jap anime thing they used to show when we were kind about some talented boy ccok, going around beating other cooks from like everywhere around the world. haha. but nonetheless it was fun to watch. haha.
oh yes. had my first 'videotaping' session last tuesday. for the tutor assestment thing. yeah got to watch myself teach. i thought i was pretty boring, but well everyone seemed to be looking at me and coping down stuff so i guess it wasnt all THAT bad right? well, hopefully. they did a survey after that and i had like 2 7s and 2 10s with the rest being 8s and 9s out of a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being bad and 10 being good. so i guess i'm doing kind of average ya. haha. well i dun expect much, i mean you cant teach to the best of your abilities if you dont possess more technical know how than your students. i mean come on. the last time i touched such material was in year 1. and it was only because i had not choice but to take it. throughout the rest of my life in nus, i've been on a drastically different track of math. but well, let me dispense with the complaining. what's life without challenges right? as berrick once said to me (about another unrelated situation), you can't have everything served to you on a platter right?
well ok time for me to get back down to trying to decipher my paper. hopefully i'll finish by evening so i can catch the wismilak open finals. haha. have a good week to ya all!
{10:37 AM}
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Saturday, September 09, 2006
korean class was fantastic. haha! nuff sed. highly recommended. haha. better than any language class i've had so far. haha.anyway, going to have one of the senior tutors sit in for one of my tutorial slots this coming week. well not that it really bothers me. i'm usually quite immune to things like that. it's just that he wants me to finish at least 5 min early. so i gotta plan for more leeway just in case. dont think i would have a very big problem with that, hopefully. other than that. it's another routine week for me. looking forward to friday again. haha!
just watched "from the earth to the moon: the signature edition". quite a good show/docu. haha. doesnt every little boy just want to be an astronaut when he was little. well i know it was certainly my dream. i still recall a trip to australia when i was young. brisbane and the gold coast. my family stayed in a service appartment. the day before we were leaving, we bumped into a couple who were living next door. they invited us in for a drink and while chatting, the old man suddenly asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up. without any thought or hesitation i told him i wanted to be, yes you guessed it, an astronaut. so now when i watch shows like this, it always makes me think about how i veered off from that path. was it the lack of oppournities? or the gradual realisation of its impossibility? haha.
anyway justine vs maria. what a final it will be. in any case, justine will be the first woman since possible serena williams to make it to all 4 grand slam finals this year. haha. good job! badminton world champs on the following week. how nice. just before the break! haha.
i think a can of shaving foam has just exploded in my mum's toilet. haha! not mine. after watching a docu about how dirty your things get if you leave then in the toilet, i'm moved all of them to my room. haha.
had carl jr's super star burger on friday. it's huge and tasty! possibly th best burger i've ever eaten. moist and juicy with lotsa lettuce and huge slices of tomatos. topped with enough onions and mayo! YUM---EEEE!!! haha!
anyway time to go do other things. have a good week! (stipend coming in next monday! that's 9 days time!! haha)
{10:31 PM}
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Sunday, September 03, 2006
week 4 of the semester. and i cant believe i'm looking forward to week 13, when just week ago i was looking forward to it starting. there just aint no satisfying me. haha!us open's been a wash out for 3 days already. and just when i had a little bit of time to catch a few matches. johansson's out and so is henman. well that leaves 4.
today i found a good way to stop myself from giving in to my food cravings (in this case it was bubble tea cravings). When in a building, head towards the nearest escalator, when outside head towards the nearest traffic light crossing! when i saw the familar sign of sweettalk today, i was tempted once again to grab a drink. but an internal battle raged on in my head as i deliberated about whether i should or should not indulge myself. by the time i realised that i had made up my mind (today i decided i would get a drink), my legs had already carried me up the escalator to the ground floor and with me being too lazy to go back down, i gave the idea of having a drink up.
2 more weeks to stipend day! haha!
korean starts this week! yay!
ok now to try and get at least one graph qn done. ciao!
{3:31 PM}
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