Tag Fun (?)

Thanks Joanne the bimbo!

Instruction: Name 20 people you can think of at the top of your head. Don't read the questions before you write, and tag 5 people to do the survey.

1. Xuan Ni
2. Yong Chin
3. Yee Pin
4. Winson
5. Alvin
6. Eric
7. Ren Jie
8. Ka Lip
9. iQing
10. Dr. Heather Rowe
11. Chong Chyn
12. See Hua
13. Boon Phiaw
14. Wee Loon
15. Li Enn
16. Heng Liang
17. Jiun Wuu
18. Michelle
19. Hui Bing
20. Freda

Tag 5 other people:
Boon Phiaw, Yee Pin, Winson, Eric, Chong Chyn

Note: This list is by no means an order of "importance", "relevance" or "closeness", and I purposely left out my family members as they would have taken up half the list... =P (I am the youngest of 7 siblings) It's just the order of names that popped out as I was writing.

1. How did you meet #14?
Eerm, he changed from Sam Tet to Keat Hwa in Form 5. I can still remember how he came into our form 5 classroom on one of the days, looking rather dazed and shy.. (which he is not.. :P)

2. What would you do if you had never met #1?
Haha, I saw this question coming. I would have been entirely different, and may have lost a lot of impetus in my life..

3. What would you do if #20 and #9 dated?
Oh Ooohh... I am gonna tell her boyfriend, who's living under the same roof with me now.. :D

4. Would #6 and #17 make a good couple?
Lol, I am not sure whether they will accept same-sex relationship.

5. Describe #3.
My soulmate who has been forced to become a bookworm since he started doing Law in Cambridge. =D Has been growing more handsome day by day.

6. Do you think #8 is attractive?
Ka Lip, YES of course!

7. Tell me something about #7.
He is sentimental, can cry in the library... :P A very very nice guy, even if you are a bully you will feel guilty of bullying him.

8. Do you know anything about #12's family?
Eerm, according to his own description, his mum was kinda strict in his studies last time... Kena rotan for the errors he made. I don't know much about other aspects.

9. What is #8's favourite?
Eerm, have fun with friends?

10. What would you do if #11 confesses that he/she likes you?
AHHHHH!!!!! Run!!!! :P Just kidding.. haha

11. What language does #15 speak?
English, Malay, Chinese, Hokkien, Cantonese...

12. Who is #9 going out with?
Eermm... Don't know. His girlfriend?

13. How old is #16 now?
Just turned 21!

14. When was athe last time you talked to #13?
Eerm, two days ago? Not so sure.

15. Who's #2's favourite singer?
"Don't know lehh... 周杰伦啦周杰伦啦！" Said #2.

16. Would you date #4?
That would be wrong. Wrong chromosome.

17. Would you date #7?
Oh yes, he's so kind!! hahahaha....

18. Is #15 single?
Eerm, not sure lehh...

19. What's #10's last name?
Rowe.

20. Would you ever consider being in a relationship with #19?
HELL NO!! Xuan Ni lives with her lehh... haha...

21. What school did #3 go to?
Superkid Kindergarten, SRJK (C) Keat Hwa (H), SMJK Keat Hwa, Sunway College, University of Cambridge, UK.

22. Where does #6 live?
Currently in Michigan, US, but back in Malaysia lived in Taman Aman, Anak Bukit, Alor Star.

23. What's your favourite thing about #5?
Bak kua advertisement, Jolin Tsai newest MV, Lord of the Ring remake!!

24. What do you think of #13?
Narcissistic smart guy. :D

25. What do #4 and #19 have in common?
They are both into English songs.

26. What special qualities does #17 hold in your life?
He taught me how to behave nicely.

Three Down...

... two to go.

The previous three papers were quite hard, but I guess it's the standard we should expect from a university called University of Melbourne... Most of the people complaint that it's hard, but I guess many who complaint themselves are the same people who get the best scores later.

I was waiting for my Tom Yum when I found out that someone linked to my site. I followed the link, and realized that it's pointed to a touching article I put up in my blog one year ago.

I read it again, and after one year, I am still thoroughly touched. Perhaps even more, after the churning exams. Probably I will have a bit more strength to go through my PBL tonight. :) And if you are free, I would recommend everyone to read it - it's worth your time.

Put Down Your Pen or Pencil!

Some schools or universities have a penchant for wronging people for writing a few more words after the bell in the exam. Perhaps it is the invigilators' pastime to give people a little scare, after being so bored after suffering a few hours of hushing and cramping legs. But see, do you think it is right to penalize a student, just because he or she writes an additional line after the bell?

In my university, the invigilators are not particularly strict about the put-down-the-pen thingy. What they do is, when the time is up, there will be a public announcement through the speaker, saying some indecipherable words (due to the low volume and the reverberation around Royal Exhibition Building), which I think should be "put down your pen" or something like that. However, you can always continue until the invigilator comes near you and give you some "gentle" warning. However, it's not all that sweet and fun - the last time when it was the reading time (the 15-minute no-writing time before the actual test), I got scolded rather crudely by one of the invigilators for writing my student ID on the paper. Sheesh..

However, things are not the same in different universities. Recently, Yee Pin has just shared his experience about you-should-stop-writing in Cambridge, UK:

Exam in cambridge is a different experience. the invigilators are not as strict as those in malaysia. if u continue writing after they said 'put down ur pen', they would walk slowly to u to tell u that 'u arent supposed to write anymore' instead of screaming at u 'saya kata LETAKKAN PEN PENSIL' (sounds like form 3 math teacher mak leong :P).

He also told some stories about some stricter / madder schools:

In singapore Hua Chong, they would jz put a big cross on ur paper if u continue writing. so scary.....might as well dun sit for the exam....(siao eh, sit also get 0, dun sit also get 0, might as well go back n sleep.....)

As for universities in Singapore, Winson gave his two cents as well:

Hmm, in singapore, right after the exam, the invigilator will ALWAYS read the following sentence until it sort of imbibed in me already. Here goes: "Any student found writing from now on is considered to have cheated and his or her name will be taken down for disciplinary actions which will result in his or her repulsion from the university.." Ewwhh, scary huh? And indeed, i have encountered one student being literally shouted at by a female invigilator and then stared at for a long time when then the student was found writing after the time limit. :) Well, i always wrote even after the time was up but then i guess i was a bit lucky. we will see whether " Up mountain many times will see tiger" holds true or not in my case. :)

Come to talk about the strictness in enforcing "put down your pen", I always think it's kinda harsh and ironic. If you really want to make sure everyone has the equal amount of time for their papers, you should also have allowed more time for those who had to answer the nature's call halfway through exam - or if one has a diarrhoea... I am sure everyone has the memory of having a sudden urge but were forced to battle the urge, for the fear that there would not be enough time left for the paper...

It is such an irony. If you don't take into account the few minutes lost on the journey to and from the washroom, I don't see the point of picking on a few seconds and give people a big cross for that - people don't choose to go to toilet, they are forced to. Before they give back the few minutes lost to the toilet-visitor, I seriously think that they should not fuss over the few seconds, which may only mean writing the last 2 lines.

Exam

Sometimes we tend to forget that exams are meant to test what we really understand, not what we have just studied in the last 7 days before exams - or what we have just gorged ourselves in the last hour.

Sometimes we have to remind ourselves, we are studying hard now to save people's lives in the future / build a better building / uphold justice / be better in whatever we choose to do in the future - not to get a high distinction / pass.

Sometimes we are so worried over a paper, when it doesn't really affect who we are.

Sometimes, we have to tell ourselves that we are always blinded by what we do.

...

Sometimes I should remind myself to go to sleep too. Good luck everyone! :)


p/s: My exam is on today (5th), 6, 7, 8 and 13 of July. It's a crazy timetable.

Left and Right

If you happen to tell someone to turn right but he / she ended up turning left, I am willing to bet that person must be a doctor.

Blame it on anatomy. :)

Royal Exhibition Building

The Royal Exhibition Building means many different things to Melburnians. For most of the pitiful students though, it's where their nightmares happen. For me, this is the place I am going to when the countdown timer on the left strikes zero - the exam hall.

It's ironic how this iconic symbol of Melbourne is used as the most dreaded place during the exam season. You can see that the REB is so beautiful, from the picture above. Now, if the facade is glorious, the decor inside is even more impressive (pic on the right). I can still remember the moment I first entered the hall in the first semester exam last year - I was awestruck. While my result achieved inside is nothing to be proud of, I can at least have pride in having exam in one of the most beautiful exam halls in the world. Unless you have your exams in Westminster Abbey, of course.

Oh ya, I haven't mentioned that the Royal Exhibition Building is part of the only site in Melbourne, Victoria to be listed as the UNESCO World Heritage Site - Carlton Gardens and Royal Exhibition Building. The reason it has got listed in the heritage site is because of the significance of the building (as the only few surviving "exhibition building" in the world from the 19th century) and also the botanical significance of the surrounding gardens.

Oh well... probably another reason to be proud of having my exams there - who else here have their exams in a World Heritage site? :P

Duh. Does't give me any inspiration for studying though, having my exams there. I have just wasted 20 minutes typing this out. Enjoy, and fellow UniMelb students, be proud of your exam hall!

Flurry Screensaver

I like Mac. I can still remember that the first time I saw Mac, I was immediately enthralled by the sleek design and the "cool" factor. And then I saw this screensaver:

Screenshot of Flurry Screensaver

I was like... Wow!! From that moment, that screensaver became my favourite screensaver. Its simplicity and the aesthetic curves is simply captivating. Until yesterday I never knew that the screensaver is called "flurry", but its swaying arcs have always kept me in awe whenever I saw them.

I always lamented that why can't Microsoft programmers create a screensaver as good as this one, or at least give us more interesting screensavers. But for years, after Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, XP SP1 and what not, what we get are always the same ol' dull-looking simple lines, scrolling words, picture slideshows and so on. Yesterday, I did some googling and found that I can actually have flurry on Windows! Well, it won't turn my Windows into Mac, but it certainly helps a bit.

For those who are interested, you can get it from the original download website here. However, the original file doesn't work on laptop with integrated video adapter; therefore if you are using a laptop, it would be best to download this version.

Enjoy!


Note: For those who are technically-minded, the only modification made in the latter file is changing the "scr" extension to "sCr", and this way you bypass the integrated video card checking by Intel integrated video card in laptop. The original file causes lagging in laptop because the OpenGL technology is turned off by the integrated video card.