Its all over.... for most.

Had completed my presentation yesterday. Felt that it went pretty well, as my presentation went without any hitches, and that the moderator was a good guy. Not much of big mistakes made by me.. apparantly. Looks like i can approach him in regards to using Visual Nastran for future FEA simulations as he teaches peeps on how to use that software. Thank goodness we went to find out the basics of the software and luckily, no need the maths.

All members of the team had their presentations, except for Kai Xin, which was changed to later today as her moderator was ill yesterday. Looks like i will be poping back to NTU later on. Hopefully all goes well for her presentation and she can obtain the good grade she deserves. =)

Looks like i can only head down to Vivocity tomorrow. Hopefully Mom can come along too.... think even my mom went to vivocity before. Looks like i have no life. =P

Decided to 'rest' for today and tomorrow, although i am still thinking about the solar car project , almost constantly. Have to keep at it as its going to be a tight affair. 2 month wait for the parts to arrive, 1 month to fix everything up. its going to be close, very close. Talk about challenging.... i guess its now about keeping faith and putting in my best, to motivate and have everyone put in their best of efforts and i believe we will be on our way to Australia in Oct.

Awaiting FYP presentation

As i wait here in my room for time to pass, i wonder what it would be like during my presentation. Hmmm .... its been a long time since any major presentation. Hopefully i wont get too nervous... hahaha. Although i feel quite excited really, to be able to feel nervous and stuff. Will need to calm my nerves before the start. Had prepared enough to stay cool... i hope.

Maybe as i had sat in for quite a number of presentations of my friends, feel nervous liao, but i guess it boils down to whether the moderator is in a bad mood, and whether one have enough knowledge of one's work.

Anyway, will be busy hopping around my team mates and friends' presentations later.. before and after my presentation. =P

Completed my examinations for my degree =)

Today is a happy day, i took my final paper in NTU, MP 4004, nanotechnology. Had actually mugged till 2 am last night, and woke up at 830 this morning to continue studying. Luckily my efforts paid off, good that i created higher chances of me getting lucky. =D

Went to see Butler to check on FYP presentation timing and solar car matters. Unfortuately, we won't be doing a group presentation, so its one by one on different timings. Good news is that we will have same slides for the front portions... or rather if we want to.

Things are looking up, heh heh, they are looking at funding of up to half a million dollars.... sweeet! So i guess i wont be looking for a job anytime soon... its solar car all the way !!!

And yeah!!!! still cant get over the wonderful feeling of completing my papers. Half way through the 4004 paper, after completing the 1st 2 questions... i was like.. 'yes! i can graduate liao!!' . then i looked at question 3... oops.. 10 marks dunno how to do, so i did question 4 before tackling question 3 last. So... although not very sure if i can get above a B, but dont really care... was smiling like an idiot while doing the paper.

One goal in life achieved, to complete my degree in 4 years... and hopefully can get 2nd upper too! That will be known only in mid-June. heh heh. But now, lets push on another dream ... to race the solar car in Australia !!!

Possible 3 out of 5 so far ... =)

Rather happy day today. The efforts for the past 2 days paid off with me knowing how to do today's paper, especially when it was an easy paper, could do all the questions and hopefully not much of careless mistakes. Looks like the lecturers are kind today, which is very good news for us final year peeps.

Right now, should be hitting 3 out of 5 targets, maybe have surprises for me with regards to the other 2 papers, but its out of my control. Resting at home today (after 3 weeks of camping in NTU), and likely tomorrow too. Meeting up with my navy friends for dinner before heading back tomorrow night.

Will be starting my swimming routine (probably added 1~2 kg liao) and will be working hard towards mastering Nanotechnology, which will be my finale paper for my NTU undergrad studies. Going to try to make it 4 out of 6 that can reach the target. Better to get an A with my efforts, hopefully 7 days is enough for mastery... or rather, the immense memory work required. =P

I guess goal setting is rather important, feel rather focused for this exam, compared to the previous ones where i just strive to do my best due to the many modules i was taking. This semester feels like i have more time (likely to be due to lesser modules, which is 6), although still feel that the exams should not start immediately after completion of lectures. =/

QA in 2 days, and 1 day had passed

Having QA paper on Mon, started studying part 1 today, 75% confident for the 2 questions by Lim CS. Going to start on part 2 tomorrow, and hope that i can do the rest of the questions by Mr PhD Kim Chi by tomorrow evening.

Giving my best shot for this paper, my second last paper and yes, it will make a difference. =) But i will not be sacrificing my health, cos i sleeping liao, have a good rest and continue tomorrow.

Yong xi had went home liao, having completed his examinations for his bachelor's degree. He earned the early rest, having overloaded in previous semester. Me? heh. 2 more papers to go!! the last 2 chances to challenge myself to do my best!! (that is, in examinations ...)

HRM down .... 2 to go.

Back in hall, completed HRM paper today. Self snooked.. it was a 2 hour paper, but somehow, after 1 hour and completing 2 questions, i was reading through questions 3 and 4 when i panicked and thought that i had only HALF an hour left....

i immediately started chionging through everything,think my hand writing went from crap to shitty. And wrote notes, short form and rushed through everything. Until at 4 pm, then i realised that they have not announced that time is up and i was stunned for about 30 seconds as i catch up with the actual situation. Slowed down my pace and added stuff but was like... i didnt leave any space for writing extra stuff as i was rushing, so didnt add much, though i think my hand writing was approaching 'illegible' and hideous... hope the markers wont fault me for that... sigh..

While the good news it that i probably wont fail, i guess reaching my target will be a stretch too far. hmm... 2 more papers to go, and the next one will be on Monday and i guess it will be a challenge to be prepared for it in 2 days time. Nonetheless, i will concentrate and give my best for it. =) Carpe Diam !

HRM later on ....

Slept early last night to have a fresh start today. It will be my fourth paper this afternoon, a tricky one at that. Human resource management, to pass it, shouldn't be a problem cos it is a subjective paper... they cant mark you wrong for your personal approaches. However, it will mean that scoring would be difficult cos u have to 'impress' the marker with something new and unique.

Ironic here .. cos though most of our thinking is unique, we still have to 'follow' certain 'rules' and normal logical thinking. What seems logical to me, seems logical to most. So lets hope i will be able to think of something special today. heh.

Heard rumors of higher chance of securing funds for the solar car project. =D But will have to wait for official confirmation before i officially disseminate this joyous news to the team, thus will just be putting it on my blog now ... happy happy feeling. Chances of going Darwin for the race of a lifetime is creeping up. =)

its the start of final exams!!

As the night dwindles on, the clock mercilessly ticks towards tomorrow. The loom of the NTU examination period stretches its invisible fingers in the sickly darkness, easily enclosing the huge school compound. The silence around the library, canteens and halls are screaming with stress.

As i sit here, typing away, am feeling rather excited at the thought of my final examinations in NTU. Four years of studying, and having cramped 24 modules into the last 3 semesters (in a 10, 8, 6 formation) in order to graduate this Jul despite a slight set back of having to fight cancer, i feel very happy that one of my goals in life is within reach.

Am now fighting for that cherry on the cake, which is to attain a second upper while i am at it. Which means i have to at least obtain a A- for the 5 core papers (+ 1 GE) i am taking, and tomorrow there will be prof comm (core) and biology in movies (General Elective) in the morning and evening respectively.


There will be another 2 papers this week after tomorrow, one on Wed and another on Friday. Wishing good luck to myself, feeling relaxed but excited. Looking forward to the best examination period i will have, cos it will be the most crucial and most likely, the last examination period that i will undergo which really matters. =P

My target = 6 As .. here i come. =)

Back in LWN library ... for the final sem

Found myself back in LWN library, the main library in NTU, studying for the final exams. Though this year seems a bit late, but i realised that there is no longer a week's break before exams. Instead, my last lesson ends this friday, and the paper is next wednesday..... talk about giving students time to prepare for their exams.

Looking at 4 papers next week, 2 on tues, 1 on wed and 1 on friday. Trying to complete studying for the Wed paper, of which the last lecture is this friday... so still have materials not covered. 'duh!' The twin papers on tues will be challenging, so already covered the evening paper once, today just had the final lecture. So probably will touch it again tomorrow to cover it once more.

Parents came by this afternoon, bringing me my supplies of chinese herbs and extra sets of underwear.. heh... just in case didnt have time to do my laundry during this exam period. Really thankful to them for driving around for me, and having lunch together. dawn, roy and yongxi joined us in lunch at king cobra there, and had duck rice together. Brewing the chinese herbs now and after more than 2 years of taking it, it seems ok lah. Part and parcel of my life liao, to come back early to brew and drink.

Feeling a bit heaty, though suspect cos i was moving around today, especially in/out of air-conditioning. Think my consitution not fully up yet, anyway, it is expected to take quite a long time actually so ... lets be patient then =)

Oh! will be heading to taiwan for my grad trip this coming May. heh heh so quite excited to be going overseas again, and received my NSS (New Singapore Shares) of $900, so i guess that will be my funds for the taiwan trip. =D And have to remember to buy quite a number of stuff back for people like Dr Noorainun, Belinda, maybe a postcard to Cancer centre to thank them again, my chinese doc, my auntie .... and so many more. =D I wont be able to thank them enough, but everyone will be constantly (or rather... often) on my mind (taking turns) as i feel grateful to what they had done for me. =)

Started studying .....

Started studying for exams today at the Mac at Taman Jurong. Kicked started with reading through GE notes, on Bio in movies as it is rather easy going and can gain momentum. Completed reading thru + some notes taken before moving on to Quality Assurance (QA).

Well, in between studying, or rather should put it this way: - 'I had went to arcade (twice), makan, buy otah, had fries and sundae today. In between those relaxing activities, i studyed a bit.' With this kick start, hopefully by tomorrow I will be able to complete studying the entire QA notes as i only managed to read thru the 1st half by Lim choon seng, + maybe work on HRM abit.

All in all, a wonderful day with study objectives accomplished, furthermore, had dinner with Dawn's family, at a vegetarian 'ze cha' store in Jurong West. Thank you uncle and auntie !! =D It is always a pleasure to dine with Dawn's family.

Yeah!!! Printed out FYP report !!

Its raining outside now, just got back from Lee Wee Nam library when i heard the thunder. Rain getting heavier, lucky we made it back in light rains.

Went to LWN library this morning to print the rest of the report, cos black ink getting low, so printing B&W in lib is cheaper. Use my printer for colour stuff. After having completed the printing and binding of my report, help to vett through dawn's and YX's reports ... although i think Roy would be more suited as his report was given an "EXCELLENT !!" comment from his prof. =P

So now i can fully concentrate on the coming exams liao... abt 10 days to go !!! However, will be heading out tonight to my uncle's place to celebrate my grandfather's birthday ! Think it will be steamboat as always .. yum yum .. =D


heres an updated picture of the books i had to go through, 2 of them are for the project, the rest FYP. and they stack up higher than my monitor liao... heh heh. To the left is my soft bound FYP report.. hope not much mistakes left. =P

Mission accomplished ... for today. =)

Did what i had set out to do today. The visualisation project was completed and handed in, with graphics, modeling and animation all done by us. With some help from reference books borrowed from national library, of course. But overall, think was a great learning experience and hope that we will be able to use it for our FYP presentation.

Technical drawings are up, with critical help from YX and Gerrard? (dunno how to spell. =P) on doing up drawings and explosive view. So should be able to complete my FYP report tomorrow. Think will attempt to add about 2 addition sections which i think i rather valid and important, need to outshine someone who had excellent for his FYP report. heh. =P

Went out for dinner at King Cobra, not a bad dinner, walked around. Wanted to buy fruit juice, but the queue was very long and there was ONLY one counter open, so decided not to buy liao. After that, while waiting for the bus, roy suggested ice cream at the Sun by walking there. So we ended up at the Sun, playing with frisbee along the way and then back to hall after they had the tub of sinful Ben and Jerry's. I didnt had any. heh heh.

So ... ya. happy day cos the odds of finishing the report and printing it out by tomorrow looks good. =D

Almost done !! Tomorrow is the D-Day!

Everything is almost completed, for both FYP and visualisation project. Luckily, the efforts on Sunday did not go to waste cos managed to complete quite a few milestones within 2 days. And could not go on improving not because of no knowledge, rather is due to the process being very time consuming due to the slow computer, or rather, the large resources required for detailed rendering of scenes.

So by tomorrow, should be able to finish up whatever is left, we got the landscape, animation and can edit the video too! So will be using 3ds max 7.0 for our solar car presentation too, if we have the time. Although there are still TONS of features of 3ds max which i have yet to learn, but i guess, picking it up is rather quick. *phew* =P

So other than finishing up visualisation project, also have to complete the technical drawings for the suspension parts so that i can do the final admendments to the FYP report and print it either on Friday night or on Saturday so that i can finally start on my studies for the coming exams.

Here's a few quick screen shots of the progress of landscaping the Sydney harbour. About 6 hours to learn from the Fundamentals of 3ds max 7 borrowed from national library to do up the landscape and the rest took about another 7~8 hours... i think, cos going for lessons and waiting for rendering, trying out stuff..... the same screenshots are for the poster submission too. heh.

Well, time to conk off. Get some shut eye, hopefully can sleep earlier tomorrow. Sleep tight and sweet dreams everyone !!!

Efforts in the morning .... in vain....

Had woken up at 830 this morning, looking to a bright new start of the week, and tried to install the 3d studio max. Unfortuately, it requires internet explorer 6.0, which i then downloaded and installed, AND then it failed again, cos it requires Windows 2000, SP3, so i downloaded and installed also, which by then is already near 930.

Finally with eveything done, it says that i dont have admistrative rights to install the program.... despite me being the administrator of the com... ARGH !!! Thus after repeated tries, i gave up, had breakfast and went to sleep.

So just woke up, feeling rather refreshed, and am going to use yx's com for the animation thingy. so sian. cos prefer to use my own PC... oh well.... at least i am well rested. =D

A sleepy day

Wanted to finish up stuff today, but was rather tired and.... well.... lazy ba. i guess. Woke up, typed a bit of the FYP report, then went for swimming at 11 with yx and dawn. Unfortuately, someone had booked the swimming pool for some experiments so... we went for lunch at can 2 instead.

Very hot and humid weather made me rather sleepy, so instead of finishing up fast, it took me a long time before i completed the corrections to my 1st draft of FYP report. So finally, i have completed the entire report and the corrections and formatting, with a grand total of 84 pages. Now am wondering if i want to include a few more details into the report, think they may be important, but rather sianz liao cos it is time to change my attention to the upcoming examinations, so only left about 16 days to study for it. Well, see if tomorrow i get any inspiration to add what i wish to add to the report, else it will be time to move on, still have the presentation to think about.

Still raining out there, and to think we agreed to delay our swim to 5 pm, looks like luck is not in our favour. Now, its time to hit the books... or rather more like hit the notes. =P


Well, heres a picture of my table, with the books which i had actually read through, except for about 2~3 books which i only read the relevant chapters. If you think the photo is rigged, you are slightly correct, cos i turned the books for this photo so that their spines are visible for this shot... else how can i see the computer screen? =P

2 down, one to go ...

Was very tied up the past 2~3 days, as was in preparation for the presentation yesterday and also the QA project. Met up with the presentation group twice, once on tues and again on Wed night. For both nights, stayed till quite late for everyone to get prepared and rehearsed for the actual presentation.

So, yesterday morning, we presented our topic of cultural differences, i would say all had improved in their presentation since the 1st time they did it on Tues night. And it all went quite well, except for a little hic-cup for some. Dawn's accidental hit on the bell at 3 mins 20 secs instead of 4 mins was also rather funny. Am rather pleased with my presentation, except i will need more pictures in my slides and speech clarity. heh =P

Also completed the QA project, understanding the concepts at the last minute. Looks like i have to start studying for exams soon... already late by 1~2 weeks liao. In previous semsters, started studying 4 weeks before exams, now it is slightly more than 2 weeks to go, and i have yet to find time to study. FYP would be 10 AUs worth at the end of the sem. hahaha

Oh... Butler returned me my 1st draft of FYP report, had just completed making the admendments, now i have to find out how to get my document all in UK english, cos apparantly, mine have spellings from UK and US (mainly due to spell check actually) cos my spelling quite sucky. xP

So the only project left is the visualisation project.. hope can finish it by next week. the countdown to exams is ticking louder and louder liao. =P

Oh well, back to typing the report, and looks like i can only arrange the technical drawings next week. .. sigh, too bad i can only do that in CAD/CAM lab.

Its a working Saturday!!

Today is a much free and easy day. Woke at 0855 this morning, quite some time didnt get to sleep so late already. Did the laundry, the bedsheets, cleaned up the room abit.

Going to work on the prof comm presentation slides and the QA project also, and finally back on the FYP report after taking a break for a day. Doing the references and appendices, which is quite a bother actually, so better start now so that my final draft will be ready before the dateline. Especially since i was late for the 1st draft..... =P

Added a new cute soft toy in the collection above the TV set. So it adds up to 4 of them. heh. The latest addition is the cute Doraemon with the uber cute expression. =D


As shown in the figure 1.1 (OMG !!! been writing too much reports!!) .. ha ha ha.. =P The 3 on the left are mine, and yes, that is a croaking frog, press on its stomach, it not only croaks, its cheeks will flash red too! the reason why i liked it? -> its croaking is better than my singing. Ee-or is Yongxi's, as u can see, his sole purpose in life is to watch TV (Ee-or, not yx, though i guess he wont mind that too .. hmmmmm).

Well.... its a wonderful morning for me, wishing all not only a wonderful morning, but also a wonderful weekend ahead!

Finally .. i did it!!!

At 0100 hrs, on this quiet wee hours of the morning of 23 March, i finally completed the 1st draft of my FYP report. Although there is still references and appendices to do up, the majority of the work, including formatting have been completed. *Phew*

In the end, the report spanned 81 pages, with approximately 64 pictures and about 10 graphs/tables, filling up 9,218 KB of my harddrive. Having settled at about 10,000 words, it would be the document with the most words i have written. And i hope to break this record once i get started on my book. heh ...

Well ... its time to get some good shut eye. =D

If all goes well ......

I should be able to compelte the FYP 1st draft report today, that is, if everything goes smoothly. Left one simultaion to run, hopefully can be completed in less than 2 hours. The conclusion is still 1/5 done, as i cant really conclude much without the results and 1 or 2 things more for detail design.

Currently at page 75, most of the formatting is done, not to mentin i broke 11,000 words... then again, those include the list of contents, abstract etc, so should be about 10,000+. Hopefully my draft is correct, then i wont need to re-do anything and can prepare for my exams. Maybe i should set a target for this coming examinations instead of just do my best.... hmmm....

Oh well, need pictures to for my blog, else so boring, all words like my report... haha

Progressing today

Yes... another day has passed, and it has been used to the max! Managed to do the correct FEA simulations and managed to obtain a video clip of the FEA simulation before the computer crashed!! Sadly, when i re-started the program and opened the saved file, some errors occured, which is when i realised that it is 344,748 kB in size!!! Think it will be my biggest saved file to date....

Managed to do till 67 pages and is just over 10,000 words... yes, 10,000 words is about the limit liao, still a few things to include and hopefully should be completed by tomorrow as the readings are almost all out. Then at least i can focus on the other 2 projects and 1 presentation which is coming up.

Unfortuately, tomorrow have quite a few hours of lectures to go to ... if only i can borrow a laptop for tomorrow, then porbably can sit in lecture and type at the same time, cos formatting and stuff... is tedious stuff.