ah 2 tutorials down. 2 more to go tomorrow. somehow i think i need a watch when i really start teaching though. so that i don't dwell on a specific question for too long. went through main points with the class today and not detailed solutions. i mean my impression was that there was no need for any detailed solutions because they would be given to them next week anyway. so doesnt it make more sense to highlight potential problems and general methods for doing certain stuff? i dont know, but we'll see if this is the favoured method of conducting tutorials at the end of the year when the evaluation results come out. haha.

it's been a tiring week thus far. got to finish up grad algebra tutorial by this friday so we can have a group discussion and deliver a better presentation compared to the group today. also got to get the first section of herstein done and ready for discussion by friday. so in some sense, i'm looking forward to the week ending, but also dreading the arrival of friday.

let's see what i have to do:
group tutorial by thursday
start reading up on markov chains
herstein by friday
grad alg by friday
grad alg notes
group notes
matrix comp by monday
engine math webcast by sun

doesnt sound like alot ya. well we'll see.

speaking of fridays, nus extension has sent me a confirmation letter for my korean class. yay! now there a greater plus to look forward to fridays as well.

us open this week. i doubt i'll be able to catch any of the matches during weekdays. so well at least those 6 on the left won't be jinxed by my presence. haha.

anyway, lang proved on monday the simplicity of A_5. The proof rested entirely on just 1 table. It was one of those proofs that after I fully digested it, caused a perpetual smile on my face. it's so cool! haha. sigh if only someone could share my excitement. haha! i love group theory. ok fine, i guess the proof isnt really unique and special in that sense, but for someone who has seen another more complicated proof, it's beauty lay in its, for lack of a better word, simplicity. haha. i really thought that when i attended ccw's course last year. i thought it was one of the most complete, comprehensive and compelling courses i've ever taken. but now, i think lang's course is even better. why? because he uses low level machinery to such good effect that there is no need for elaborate high powered tools. haha. nus would lose a great lecturer too once lang really retires. he's the only finite group theorist in nus anyway. haha.

ok time for me to get down to some work. hope everyone's doing well!

{8:54 PM}

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what a week. i have a feeling this is going to be one of those slow painful semesters. changed music. maybe this is how i feel now.

i have 2 modules which i am expected to get A+ for, another module, which is arguably the most taxing module in the math dept which i have to AT LEAST pass, a computation module which i have no idea how i'll fair, and a seminar module which i really have to start perparing for because i dont really know the subject matter.

on top of that, i have to tutor 3 classes. under normal circumstance, this wouldnt be an issue but because the last time i touched most of the topics was 4 years ago, and some topics i have never even learnt (read: pure math majors dont do fourier and laplace transforms...) , i now have to watch current webcasts of the lectures and read up on sufficient material before i can even make an attempt at conducting a tutorial. and also prepare for consultations for any errand questions that may surface in the minds of young engineering students.

and, 2 weeks from now, i should also be begining korean classes.

i have no doubt that i will make it through this semester. maybe not unscathed, but at least i'll make it (with battle scars and all).

went to the grad lounge after class today, to zap my parents' ics. bumped into wl and wm who are like me, tutors for that module. except of course they are more experienced. esp wm. anyway they were about to start printing the tutorials and their solutions when i decided to be sociable and offered my copy for them to zap (we're given more credits for photocopying than printing so it makes more sense to xerox something if you already have a copy printed). that kind of broke the ice a bit so now at least i have 2 other people i can look for when i have trouble with my tutorials. haha! got 2 of my class lists printed out with one class still a bit unconfirmed. i really think most people in math dept are a friendly bunch, if only one opens up to them.

graduate students had a welcome tea. and as usual, all the newbies clustered together at the start. it got better later. haha

had an interesting chat with jerome today. i promised to put him second after tkm in my acknoledgements for my masters thesis because he's still trying to modify his program for me. haha!

oh yes. kayjin has left singapore. now i'm in a bit of a loss when i'm in the department. sigh. but oh well. here's wishing my shixiong all the best in his pursuit of his phd.

our farewell dinner last sunday for kayjin. 3 generations.

nostalgic glance. nah we were looking at the nice car next to the bmw. haha!

ok away from school matters. next week is the us open. i doubt i will be able to catch much of it. so for my sake, lets hope the 6 over there to the left get past the early rounds first. esp henman who's due to meet federer in the second round (AGAIN!). looking for that davenport-henin hardenne clash in the quarters and hopefully dementieva will go a step further than just a semi and final appearance for the past 2 years. meanwhile, over in badminton, korean open quarterfinals are now over. lyd lost both matches today, too much pressure i guess. that means

that he and hym are entirely out of the competition. on the bright side, shon and ii are in the semis along with lee&lee for xd and wd. HAHA i just realised how stupid that sounded. nvm.

looks like i'll be playing tennis with my prof soon. as soon as i see him in action first. haha. dont want to malu myself.

anyway i feel so disconnected from everyone now. well kind of. my kappa is 0 now. sigh.

i'm already looking forward to the 18th of next month already. so i can get my windbreaker.

oh well going to head to school tmr. so gotta catch some shut eye. nitey.

{10:18 PM}

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what a tiring day. i'm already behind in my schedule. have to at least make an effort to finish latex-ing my notes for group and grad alg by thursday. cannot afford to postpone it any longer.

today is the penultimate day kayjin will be in NUS. we had our last game of badminton and then he went around taking photos with the lecturers. he also treated us to dinner. had a rather interesting day because prof lang was sort of hanging out with us as well. he's a cool guy. haha! how many people can say that about their profs? haha.

got my phiten necklace last saturday. extremely happy.

heard that i may end up tutoring up to 5 tutorials this semester. i'll just die if that's the case. FIVE is quite alot considering my workload. i wouldnt mind doing 10 next sem if i could skip the 5 this sem. hopefully they will inform us by tomorrow what our assignments are. my name doesnt seem to be on the graders list so looks like a tutor i will probably be. sigh.

been doing my finances down to the cent. it's quite a good exercise. helps manage and plan for the future.

ok. time to go sleep and prepare for another day tmr. hope all's well with ya all! gd nitez!

{10:45 PM}

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what a tiring day. but fun nonetheless.

made a big boo boo today. i thought i saw leslie in the science canteen again. so i walked up and went "hey! you're eating here again!". it took me a full 2 seconds before i realised i was talking to his twin brother. haha! from far you cant really tell them apart (they had the same hairdo to make matters worse). but luckily he seemed amused by it, so that sort of reduced my embarresment. haha! i guess he must be used to it somewhat.

the more i talk to lang, the more i find he's such an interesting person to hang around. haha. and what an excellent lecturer he would make too!

tomorrow supposed to have dinner with qiang, ting, marcus, yun, ping and josh. wah long list.

ah. almost time to hit the sack again. haha! nitez!

{10:49 PM}

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yay! school starts tomorrow. i cant believe i'm saying this. tomorrow will be the start for so many things. hope it will be a good one.

still need to get grad alg sorted out. coordinator still hasnt approved anyone, and i hope the timing will be changed soon so that i can attend lang's group theory.

as of now, i have my tuesdays and fridays free. but i suspect that will be for 2 weeks only. best enjoy it while i can.

ok time for an early night. ciao!

{10:20 PM}

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yay school!

racecar =x

By  Anonymous, at 10:49 PM  

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the house next door is under renovation. the drilling is annoying.

anyway, i didnt realise that it's national day tomorrow until one of my badminton "kah ki"s mentioned it in passing. seems like each day doesnt seem to hold any major significance to me these days. days weeks and months just pass by, occasionally without notice. i wonder if working life is like that to. during our schooling days, we had alot of dates to remember. the start of the term and more importantly the end of it. the school holidays. the public holidays. the celebrations before hand. exam dates. assignment submission dates. cca training days. cca competition dates. we had something to "look forward" to every day. but when we start to work (i havent so i'm merely speculating), a whole host of these dates simply vanish, and the primary group that remains are work deadlines.

my mum has officially nick named my maid the "dust buster". haha. she's always busy cleaning something somewhere in the house. and really, my house has become relatively dust free. and the best part is that she does it on her own. we hardly have to say anything. my cousin once remarked that my mum has good foresight in choosing maids. well looks like she hit the jackpot this time again. haha.

transparent with white!

sunsets here in sunset way are a warm affair.

red and orange and pink and green. purple and orange and blue. haha lyrics from a song used in a motorola ad eons ago.

i remember telling myself that by the time i'm doing masters i should be wearing at least short sleeved shirts to school. but really. in terms of comfort. nothing beats adidas' climalite and climacool, and nike's drifit and spheredry. if only they made that into shirts. plus no ironing required! haha!

just took a glance at the commissioning ball photo i have on my table. they sure did a good job making our skin look so smooth and flawless. haha! too bad i had to inherit large pores from my mum. oh well. luckily i dont spend any money on any facial product (or skincare for that matter). sometimes i think people spend so much trying to improve their skin, whilst at the same time pouring litre after litre of chemicals onto their faces. dont think that very natural but hey, i aint no scientist. i'm still a strong believer that water is enough to cleanse the skin. haha.

a bottle (empty) of absolut apeach is sitting on my table. waiting for my sister to bring back somemore this saturday. oh and honestly anticipating the tooth whitening strips that she says really works. haha! if it works i'll refund her the money. if it doesnt. too bad. haha.

oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!! (in a few more hours)


mel mel has suggested going to celebrate national day at her house. haha i wonder if it will take off. oh well. we'll see. what are you going to do tomorrow?

{6:42 PM}

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yay! finally registered for korean. and as fate would have it, the supposedly best tutor there is taking the course we opted for. haha! but i must say, the administration at NUS NEX is a bit well, lackluster? it took us a full 45 minutes to complete the registration and we only filled in a one page form. I am still quite uneasy because the lady wrote class 6 on the list when because of a change in class timings, our selected slot is actually 4 on the new list given on their website. however, she assured us that it wasnt really important. i can only hope she is right.

met gerri after that to hang out for a while before the batch outing. so the 2 of us followed run'er to look for her swimsuit and goggles for her triathlon next week. i also tried looking for that sports necklace i was eyeing, but they ran out of the colour i wanted. dang!

batch outing was interesting. yunpei was there and christina turned up a bit later. tried their signature iced tea. which to me tasted like normal iced tea. all in all a pretty good night. oh and yunpei declared that she wanted to get married on the 7th of sept next year. apparently wayne knows about it. haha! met wayne later on as he came to pick her up for supper. he offered to drop me home, but i didnt want to be an extra sitting at the back of his car. haha!

ok for the next 2 days i guess i'll have to read up a bit on graduate algebra. was actually thinking that i could give that module a miss but now it looks certain that i will take it.

nus sem 1 week 0 starts on monday. they will probably have some briefing i guess.

watch this.
http://eepybird.com/dcm1.html

have a good weekend!

{10:30 AM}

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i thought it's 7 July? there's something abt 7th nite of july in all bandmembers... haha!

By  Gerri, at 8:47 PM  

haha oh ya... 7th july... type wrongly...

haha i think it doesnt really have to do with 7th nite of july in her case... i think more cos of 07 07 07 hahah!

By  20 sec interval... fire!!, at 9:40 AM  

I enjoyed the song more than the video haha!!

racecar

By  Anonymous, at 4:10 PM  

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ok. i've decided. it shall be group theory, matrix computations, graduate algebra 1, and graph theory 2. plus seminar of course. tkm helped in the decision making process. haha!

i was just lazing about today. flipping through channels. and then something struck me. i've always wanted to work overseas for a while. after serving my bond that is. problem is, i never really could figure out what i could or would do overseas. possible options i've considered include furthering my studies and then maybe doing research or teaching overseas. but it just struck me today, that i could very well go into my second choice career. journalism. dont kown about how feasible that is, but it surely struck me hard that i have never even considered it an option.

i think fear factor home invasion is such an interesting thing. haha!

photos arrived today. the grad ones. i look terrible.

i am now an official graduate student of nus. dont think there are many perks though. i did get a whole stack of paper from the department though. haha!

no one asked if i was a freshie this year. finally! maybe i've grown more white hairs or wrinkles. haha!

going to register for korean tomorrow. i'm so happy everything will be settled soon. i must remain motivated throughout this semester for everything i'm taking. to prove to myself that i can actually acomplish something major that i set out to do.

motivation. it's such an important thing isnt it. why do we slog through the better part of our lives? why do we clock hundreds of kilometeres in preperation for a marathon? who do we lose sleep over a small question? it all rests on how important the motivations behinds these actions are to us. the reasons that propel us forward. the fuel of our life. motivation. i think i've found very solid and sustainable ones for the goals i want to achieve in the next year. have given it much thought and now i think i'm ready to face the challenge head on. haha! this year is going to be my crowning glory! or so i proclaim. haha!

{9:09 PM}

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going to matriculate again. finally! the school term is starting! it's about time actually. i find it really hard to extract any bit of motivation to read up/study if the semester hasnt begun. coupled with the fact that i have yet to chose my modules, life's a little bit uncertain now. and i for one hate uncertainty to a certain degree.

anyway, supposed to have a flute section outing tonight. this time it's the j7 and j8's only i think. not sure who will be going, but since i was free, i agreed to go. looking forward to that. and another outing this coming friday. batch outing. i decided i should just pop by after dinner for a drink perhaps. not too keen on eating at hard rock cafe.

i've a dart board in my room now. i never knew someone actually gave it to me for my birthday until we were clearing the store room to make way for the maid. so now it's sitting on the floor in my room. waiting to find the time (not literally) to hang it up and try throwing a few darts. so there, something new to do at a stayover or a dinner at my place. it has 4 sets of darts so it's perfect. it's quite a stunning piece actually. not simply the dart board and the darts. there's the coat of arms or some insignia of some sort and chalk board for recording scores. i still dun believe that someone actually agve me a present that never registered in my brain. either my memory is not as good as i hype it up to be, or my mum's living in a false reality.

ok short entry. time to get ready to go school to get my matric card. yay, then can get ready to register for korean and get a 20% discount! 17 more days to the allowance money coming in. haha! ciao!

{9:40 AM}

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