Happy Chinese New Year

I spent the first day of CNY in Singapore, because Jetstar canceled my flight a couple months back. I'll be flying back tomorrow. What this means is that I've missed both the family's reunion dinner and the first day (we usually have lunches at the grandparents's); if that isn't nasty enough - I've spent most of today studying in my room. Then I went to Universal Studios with my cousins, and I saw some pretty awesome things.

(Note: all the images below are taken with a 2 megapixel Nokia E63, which explains the image quality you're going to see. The camera really forces you to work within a limiting set of constraints. It lags (there's a 5 second gap between what I see and what I record), has terrible resolution, terrible distortion, and it just won't work under certain types of light. Despite all that, I must say that I quite enjoyed taking these photos, and I'm rather pleased with the results. (I also think they're proof that you don't need a good camera to say interesting things.)

Here they are:

Outside the Egyptian Tombs.

Back alley, Universal Studios.

Jurassic Park hatchery.

Madagascar fun!

More Madagascar fun!

12 year olds. PDA. Go figure.

Old men comparing wheelchairs. They seemed quite pleased with themselves.

Old man; roses; little girl. Wife doing shopping somewhere else.

Happy new year everyone!

The Second Semester

I met Amelene over dinner a couple of days back, and as I set my tray down I asked: "So how's the second semester?"

The short answer: terrible. The long answer: incredibly fun. It seems impossible that a semester can be both and more at the same time, but it is. I'm taking five modules this semester - the typical load - except one of them is this crazy, 8MC-equivalent course named CS3216 (alternatively known as Software Development for Existing Platforms; alternatively known as "The Facebook Module") and suddenly I look up from the grindstone and it's Week 4 of Sem 2 in NUS, and I wonder how I got here.

A short explanation: the 'Facebook module' is this course that emulates - approximately - how it feels like to be working in a tech startup. You're dunked into this pool of talent, and it's up to you to pick your teammates and choose your projects and program and design and market your way to riches. Or at least to a big nice A. And it's really tough, because we're asked to build whole applications in just two weeks (each), and the pressure is intense to deliver on whatever it is you set out to do.

I don't intend to go into detail on why CS3216 means so much to me, or even what we do in it, because blogging's part of the module and I've got a place set up where I can write about my experiences. But the course is really heavy, and it probably explains why I've been so inactive here over the past coupla weeks.

I have four other modules: EC1301 (basic economics); MNO1001 (bullshit, err, management); ACC1002X (accounting) and CS1102 - (a programming module called Data Structures and Algorithms ... and it is challenging, believe you me). I've spent four or so sleepless nights thus far in the semester, all of which were in COM1, programming for the Facebook module. Which means I have yet to catch up on all my other modules. Which means I should get back to work. Which means I am sorta kinda totally screwed.