Monthly Archive
Browsing entries posted on May 2008
Foxkeh Loves You!
Foxkeh, the mascot for Mozilla Firefox, loves you.
Because it loves you, it wants you to accept its message of awesome web browsing.
Firefox 3 will be officially launched soon, more info here.
I’ve been using the Beta, and now the Release Candidate. It’s been good so far, with no crashes for the RC version.
Won’t you accept Foxkeh’s loving invitation on Download Day?
It’s finally over!
GEK1541: Reproductive Health: What One Must Know
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
Result: B+
Well! It turned out to be not so bad after all. In fact, if I choose to S/U this module, I could actually kick up my CAP a notch. But between a barely noticeable change in CAP, which makes no difference to my degree class (2nd Upper Honours), and the chance to boast that I made it through 4 years without exercising S/U, I choose the latter. Hee hee!
PL4213: Cognitive Neuropsychology
Optimistic: A
Pessimistic: B
Result: A
Well done me for a well-chosen module. The final exam wasn’t all that enjoyable, but I suppose I must have impressed the lecturer sufficiently. Either that or she was more lenient, since we’re mostly graduating students who need a final push.
Oh, have I told you how much I enjoy her classes, and what a great instructor she is? *butter butter butter*
PL4219: Advanced Abnormal Psychology
Optimistic: B
Pessimistic: C
Result: B+
Well! That wasn’t all that bad, considering my fiasco with the final sentence. Again, I suspect the instructor was a soft touch with us, as he knows we’re graduating students. Still, every kindness in this cutthroat academic world is deeply appreciated.
JS3213: Alternative Lives in Contemporary Japan
Optimistic: B+
Pessimistic: B-
Result: B+
Hooray, hooray, I didn’t screw it up, yay! My essay came back with a B so the final exam was probably good enough to make up for that - again, taking into account the final QUESTION fiasco.
On the other hand, though, this is the worst grade I’ve ever had for a Japan-related module.
PL4208: Introduction to Counselling Psychology
Optimistic: A
Pessimistic: B-
Result: A-
*dance dance dance* Hooray! Contrary to the trend of the previous modules, I scored an A in the continual assessment, which means my final exam was not up to par. But I will admit that I didn’t do as well on the final paper as I had hoped. An A- is still pretty good - it’s a triangle!
So, in the end, after 8 semesters of slacking and slogging:
CAP: 4.14
Examination Status: 2ND CLASS HONOURS (UPPER) <—– w00t!
I return to campus one final time on the 9th of July, following which I get to be an annoying old woman spouting reminiscences about the way things were “in my time”.
God’s most beautiful creatures
If I were being interviewed and was asked this question: “What do you think are God’s most beautiful creatures?”, I would probably reply “Christian fundamentalists, because they believe in their God and teachings to the exclusion of logic and common sense. God must be so pleased that His creations love him so much.”
Nah, just kidding. No one’s ever going to interview me, and that’s supposed to be a satirical answer, anyway.
God’s most beautiful creatures are dogs.
Firstly, their name is an anagram of His.
Secondly, they’re so loving and non-judgmental, which is what God-fearing people should aspire to be, no?
My next-door neighbour, meaning the dude who has the room next to mine, has an Alaskan Malamute. They’re naturally beautiful dogs on their own, with an attractive colouring and lush fluffy coat. But what makes the dog so darn lovable is that he gravitates towards people.
I was in the kitchen pouring myself milk when I heard someone enter. I didn’t think much of it, then something bumped up against my butt and I knew it was the dog. He had exited his room to come and see what I was up to. And later, as I left the house, he poked his head out of his room so I could wave him goodbye. How could you not love a dog like that?
God got it right first time with the canines.
Things fall apart, again.
Why do my things break all at the same time?
My laptop hinge broke, so I had to wake up early and lug it to the service centre in the rain. Total cost of repair and labour: $123.
Darcy has a tumour on her right hind leg. I’m going to just leave it this time, I don’t think surgery is very beneficial anyway.
Last night my clothes rack broke, in the middle of the night, and collapsed against my room door with a loud THUD. It woke me up immediately and then I had to set about fixing it so that it wouldn’t fall again. This is why I am extra sleepy at work today.
Why do misfortunes always travel in groups?
First day at work
My feet are blistered and I’m tired. This must be what life after work is like.
To be honest though, this isn’t work’s fault, and it isn’t even my first day at work. Theoretically speaking, I was supposed to have started today, but I started last Friday instead. No, today is not the day to rant about work.
It is the journey to and from work that tires me out. I have to take 2 buses to get from home to work, and those transfers involve a bit of walking because the bus routes don’t jive nicely, and I have to cross a very busy road. I got to work just fine, in fact I got there early enough to pop into McD and buy the new McGriddles breakfast. I wanted to see what’s so indescribable about the taste. Well, let me just tell you now: McGriddles are griddle cakes, which are essentially fat, thick little pancakes. 2 of these sandwich a sausage/egg and make up the breakfast meal.
Now, pancakes are a little sweet, and sometimes there’s syrup on them to sweeten them further. So it is in this case. Can you imagine sweet pancakes with a savoury sausage slice? Yup, I thought so. That’s probably why the marketing people decided to stick with “indescribable”, because “sweet and salty” sounds like a recipe for failure.
By the time I got to work, my new shoes were biting me. Or rather, the left shoe was biting my Achilles tendon with a vengeance. My right foot remained blissfully unharmed. Add to that the fact that the shoes were narrow, and my feet are broad. Yes, yes, this is the price I pay for vanity. But it wasn’t for lack of trying to find a comfortable shoe, I assure you. It just seems to be my destiny to be sandal-shod for the rest of my life, and you can’t blame a girl for trying to change her destiny.
The journey back was markedly worse. First I had to cross to the opposite side of the street. Makes sense, because this morning I alighted on the “correct” side, so I am on the “wrong” side when I have to travel in the other direction. But even such a short walk is murder on blistered feet. Then, I got off a stop too early. And when I got to the proper stop, I decided to use the MRT underpass instead of crossing the road on the surface, and came up at the wrong exit, so I had to cross again. Whew!
Bukit Timah Road is so boring, especially if you have to travel from one end to the other. I am literally going its entire length, from the eastern junction with Rochor Canal Road to the western termination at Upper Bukit Timah Road. It’s straight all the way, so you don’t even have the excitement of swaying from side to side as the bus turns.
And after this urban adventure, I get to walk back home. Uphill.
I am going to work in sandals tomorrow.
Cockblocked!
Last night I put Tim into Darcy’s cage so they could have a playdate. They both live alone, so I didn’t want them to turn into mouse recluses.
Everything went well for about 20 minutes, they each ran around doing their own thing, then settled down for a grooming session. It was so cute seeing Tim’s little hand-like paws pressing down Darcy’s fur as he groomed her head.
I left them for a little while, until I heard very loud squeaking. “Very loud” is a relative term, since mice, being very small, can only be so loud. But considering that they’re also silent most of the time, squeaking of any sort is very loud for them. The cause of the noise: Tim had mounted Darcy and she was not receptive of his amorous advances.
I leapt up from the bed, opened the tank cover and shooed Tim off, then tried to capture him with his favourite Brand’s box. This manoeuvre failed, because he had chewed a big hole in the bottom of the box. I didn’t want to hand-capture him because he has a history of biting me (usually after provocation) and he had just been interrupted, so he had a brilliant reason to bite me. Eventually I picked up the ceramic cube with him inside, and sent him back to his bachelor pad. Playdate over!
Poor Darcy. Her guest tried to date-rape her. And poor Tim. After I returned him to his cage, he went to his food bowl and started stuffing his face. Perhaps he figured that since he’s not going to get laid, he might as well eat all he wants and never mind weight-watching.
I never thought I’d have to say this, but: I cockblocked a mouse!
On another note, I wonder how animals know the mechanics of copulation. Tim has lived with me since he was 3 weeks old - that makes him a child when he was separated from his mother and sisters. Presumably no one has ever shown any p0rn or instructed him, yet he knows what to do. I didn’t know instinct was so strong - I mean, how do you know WHAT to insert WHERE? Plus, this sheds light on why the panda p0rn initiative didn’t work all that well. They either know, or they don’t.
Goodbye C205
On Saturday, 10th May 2008, I left the room I had been inhabiting for 7 semesters.
My life in boxes. To think that all this still managed to fit inside a goods-transport van. I seriously have way too much stuff.
Mess, mess everywhere!
The hub of my waking life - the desk/dining table/dresser where I slaved and slacked for many hours.
This is where I lived. I’ll always have fond memories of it. But I’m moving house, not being evicted, so no point or reason in being sad.
I also left behind a sizeable population of dust bunnies, so the cleaners had better get to the room before the new occupant does. Not that a room that’s about 6 square metres is going to be very difficult to clean, but those blinds are a bitch to wipe.
After the jump: Hello new room!
Prognostications Sem 2 07/08
GEK1541: Reproductive Health: What One Must Know
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
I refer to this as my sex-ed class, which is a very apt way of putting it. It’s run by a lecturing OB-GYN from the School of Medicine, and it’s enormously popular - it cost me 1500 CORS points. No, I don’t think the popularity is due to the content - at least, it’s not because we’re prurient. It’s because, bluntly speaking, it’s easy. C’mon, everyone has a set of “this” or “that” so the class runs mostly on common sense, actually.
The class covers basic anatomy, puberty, prenatal diagnosis and care (although not fetal development), contraception, abortion and menopause/andropause. It’s basically everything you should know about the reproductive feature of the biological machine commonly called the human body.
The true appeal of the class, however, lies in the extremely honest approach. A penis is a penis, a vagina is a vagina, and you better get used to these terms unless you want to spend 13 weeks blushing in embarrassment. For crying out loud - we watched videos of live births. We watched babies being forced out of vaginas, and while I had absolutely no problem with all of that, the poor dude in front of me was cringing at all the blood and poop. Sometimes, babies poop as they’re being born because they’re getting squeezed and they have no bowel control (duh). The miracle of birth - rather a messy affair.
And while it’s not part of the official syllabus, there was a lot of discussion on homosexuality and transsexuals, as well as sex workers. The lecturer did a good job in not being judgmental, but that’s part of being a doctor anyway.
I guess I learned quite a bit, even if most of the stuff is fairly common-sense. I already had a grasp of the basics, and I know quite a few medical terms so none of the stuff on contraception and abortion was new to me. The extra information for me came in the form of the lecturer’s expert knowledge on why certain medicines or procedures are preferred over others. Having taken classes with a few practitioners, I can say with confidence that those adjunct professors who have a day job in a practice bring something new and different to the classroom. Theory can only bring you so far, before you need to see what the situation on the ground is.
Anyway, the exam was a pretty standard 2-hour closed book multiple-choice paper. This is my one and only Medicine module so I can’t replicate the experience, but those folk do stuff slightly differently. Firstly, their answer sheet had 150 answers on one side. Standard NUS sheets have only 100. Plus, there was an “over” printed at the corner, and when I flipped it, answers 151-300 stared blankly back. The very idea of a 300-MCQ paper sounds like a monster from an academic horror story, like Cerberus and its 3 heads. Presumably, doctors have to recall everything extremely quickly, hence the different format.
In NUS, most papers have a time limit on when you can enter and exit. You can’t leave until the hour mark, even if you finish the paper in 30 minutes. However, this exam was different - the first person left slightly past the half-hour mark, I left just before the hour, and by that time the hall was more than half empty. Not that it was an easy paper. If it was, most of the class would have found it easy anyway, so I have no advantage there. Plus I made a few silly mistakes, so an A- would be a real boon. It used to be that my GEMs were default A-, but competition is stiff in these popular modules, especially since most of the class are 3rd and 4th years who already know the finer points of academic warfare. Moreover, my term paper came back with a B-, so the B+ to B range seems most probable.
PL4213: Cognitive Neuropsychology
Optimistic: A
Pessimistic: B
This is one of my few hopes for at least a decent A- grade. It’s the second time I’m taking a module with this lecturer, and I got an A for the previous one so that bodes well. Plus the content is rather similar - only hell of a lot deeper. I also did pretty okay on the midterm, 28/30, and 8/10 on the presentation. The range for the presentation was quite narrow - 7.5 to 9 - but at least I have a leg up on most of the class.
I kept falling asleep during this class - I blame the Monday afternoon timing, the stuffy classroom (it’s notorious for a faulty air-con) and the shuddering projector that for some reason just couldn’t hold still and project a stationary image. If you looked at the screen without blinking for long enough, you could detect a vertical oscillation, maybe at a frequency of 30-40 Hz. Just estimating. What all this boils down to is a very panicky Lynn during study week, going “what the hell is this I don’t remember learning this in class oh I must have been sleeping”.
But all in all, it wasn’t the worst possible module in the world, and I quite enjoyed myself because I had fun groupmates to sit and chat with whenever class got boring. The exam wasn’t a lot of fun, I did have writer’s block, so that probably erases my advantage a bit. In the end, I’d be perfectly happy with an A-, but considering the cutthroat competition in Honours-level classes, I might only have the 3rd years as a cushion and end up at the B- range. I seriously hope it won’t be that bad though.
PL4213, you’re my only hope (so far).
PL4219: Advanced Abnormal Psychology
Optimistic: B
Pessimistic: C
It’s not that I hate this module. In fact it’s a very informative and challenging module. But it is extremely heavy going, with a lot of emphasis on reading research papers, and I just found that part to be less than engaging. The adjunct professor knows his stuff, and had a lot of anecdotes and case studies to flesh out the otherwise theoretical module.
The whole class did pretty okay on the presentation, range was between 15-18, if I recall correctly. The midterm, however, really separated the wheat from the chaff, and it’s pretty obvious where I fell. This time, I am the cushion for other people to push up their grade (assuming the curve is in effect). Knowing you’re handicapped from the beginning just kind of reduces your motivation to do well. Yes, I know it’s counter-productive, but realistically speaking, not only am I disadvantaged, chances are, whatever I produce in the exam will be inferior to those of my classmates, simply because they absorbed the material better than I did.
So I pretty much gave this one up for dead. I showed up for the exam, spent 45 minutes drafting my essays because I didn’t understand what the question wanted from me, went for a toilet break halfway through (toilet was being cleaned, so I had to walk farther, what fun) and was in the middle of writing my concluding sentence when the dreaded “please put your pens down” came. Unwilling to see a pathetic incomplete clause, I broke out the correction fluid and erased it. So my essay ended with a comma.
After the exam I went for shopping therapy and blew more than 1000 bucks. That’s how bad the paper was.
Nah, I exaggerate. I went to IKEA to buy furniture for my new room.
At least the new furniture will be untainted by memories of the horrific experience I had with this module.
JS3213: Alternative Lives in Contemporary Japan
Optimistic: B+
Pessimistic: B-
Pretty narrow range of predictions there, but that’s because it ranges from “pretty bad” to “quite bad”.
The term paper came back with a B. That’s “bad”. I expected better, but apparently my paper wasn’t as deep as the lecturer would have liked, so it got downgraded. Oh well.
The final exam was open-book and quite easy. Or at least, it would have been, if I had read the bloody instructions.
After a lifetime of NUS 2-essay exam papers, this one came with 3 questions, of which I did the first 2. With 10 minutes to go, I looked one more time at the rubric. And goggled.
The third line of instructions read, “Answer ALL questions.”
I started writing furiously, and had one side of the argument down on paper when the time was up.
Utter stupidity. I don’t know what else to attribute it to. Attentional blindness. Over-reliance on schema. What it all boils down to is, the instructions were right there on the page, and somehow I understood the one before and the one after, but not the one that mattered.
I’ve given this one up for dead, too.
PL4208: Introduction to Counselling Psychology
Optimistic: A
Pessimistic: B-
The lecturer for this module is the same one that gave me an unpleasant surprise last semester, so this semester my vastly more experienced classmates and I pestered her for every bit of pertinent info so that we wouldn’t get nasty surprises again. We wanted to know how the presentations would be graded, what concepts would be tested, what was expected of us in the exam… we were all kan-cheong spiders and you’d be too, if you had been in my position last semester.
So far it looks decent, my group got an A for the presentation which she says is “a good grade”. However, she was unable to give me a numerical equivalent for this grade. Sure a triangle’s all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t give me much comfort if say, an A is 35/40 and a B- (the lowest presentation grade) is 30/40. Okay, I exaggerate, but you see the point of making the numerical grades transparent as well? My letter-grade advantage should carry over into the exam room! Assuming, of course, that our final performance doesn’t vary that greatly. Of course I could get a C for the final, while the B- kids get an A, and then who’d have the leg-up on who, eh?
I hope it won’t turn out that way though. I wrote 4 pages for each question, which should be enough to satiate an examiner’s thirst for information. It was nearly impossible to write any more, as I was writing all the way until time was called. I could have spent less time drafting the essays, but I didn’t want to risk being incoherent. So, all in all, I gave my best, which I think is of a pretty damn good standard, so an A- doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
But I’m not holding my breath, because turnabouts always happen just when you think the case is in the bag. Just ask Miles Edgeworth, Franziska Von Karma, or any other prosecutor with the bad luck to come up against Phoenix Wright.
Finally, none of this really matters in the long run - unless it causes me to downgrade my degree at the last minute (KNOCK ON WOOD!). I already have a job, I’m done with school, and it looks to be that way for the rest of my life. I can’t stomach the idea of more school at the moment. Maybe in a few years’ time I’ll start longing for the carefree campus life again, but right now I just want to let my brain (and wrist) recover.
Fending off insurance surveys
My phone just rang, and I thought it was one of my friends so I answered without looking at the screen.
A chirpy voice asked, “Hello, may I speak to Lynn Chang?” Yes, there was definitely a ‘g’ hovering around the end of my name. I asked the caller to identify herself, and she said she was from Prudential, and could I spare 3 minutes to take a survey.
What the hell, it’s past 9pm at night and I have nothing to do, so let’s help out someone who’s getting paid by the hour.
Her first question: “Are you Singaporean or PR?”
I answered, “Neither.” Which is perfectly true.
“Okay, thank you, bye bye!” And she hangs up.
Well! That was fun and painless! Now I know what to answer to these surveys.
Mind you, this might only work for surveys, and not for hardcore cold-calling salespeople, who couldn’t care less if you were a deposed dictator of some tiny country somewhere who now spends half the year fishing the Arctic sea for crabs, as long as they make a sale.
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