The Radiance Of An Opium Dream: March 2006

idle ramblings

Hello. I guess I'm quite relieved to have the university applications problems solved. Alhamdulillah. Now, my only worry is about the supporting documents being received by them.

I realised that I have become quite attached to my com after the upgrades. I'm been sourcing out computer optimizing programs from download.com and I've been busy cleaning up my hard disc and RAM, scanning for viruses, spyware and malware, immunising my com, configurating the start up options and so on. I'm gonnna defrag it again after this. I so heart my com. I guess the only thing that is hindering it from being a super com is the sound card+speakers and the hard disc drive. The processor chip is good enough I guess. Its running at about 2.4Ghz after Greg overclocked it for me.

For those who did not understand anything that I have said just now, go to download.com and download this program called Ashampoo WinOptimizer. IT ROCKS!

metaphysics

Isn't it sad sometimes to lose some of your brothers and sisters sometimes who deviate?
Sad thing is that they don't realise that they are lost.
I was one of them once.
The thing is, am I still?
While I can safely assure myself that I am indeed different from the lost,
I sit back and think, How far?
I still have mountains to climb.
Yet, I am very much thankful to have started the process and to begin the journey.
To retrive the lost, an example I should be.
Yet, I wonder when the lost would ever see.

application blues

exhalee

gosh I'm feeling so much grief cause of the university applications. Just as I thought that all my worries would be over after the application, fresh ones come pouring in

NUS: my open and closed inverted commars and my apostrophe came out as weird symbols when I tried to copy and paste my essay. Upon hindsight, I should have editted it manual there and then but I still continued anyway thinking it was a server error.

Reflection and course of action: I sent an e-mail query regarding that. Will be calling them on Monday. Nothing else that can be done.

NTU: As I had applied for teaching, I had to complete the teaching application form which required me to create an account and fill in another set of forms. So after creating an account, I tried to log in only to fail several times. However, the only way that I managed to log in was when I clicked on the blue i/c option instead of the pink i/c one. This is a problem as I am NOT a PR. Secondly, my payment was not reflected in my application status page. Lastly, NTU requires appraisals as a means of evidence to substantiate the information provided in the application. Hellooooooo? Why can't they just allow for other documents to be used as evidence?

Reflection and course of action: I will be calling them in 30 mins when the office opens. If all else fails, I would still submit my teaching application even though I might be classified as a blue i/c. I would still send in my supporting documents as proof. If they are not flexible enough, then NTU is not a university that I would want to enrol in.

I'm glad to announce that SMU was still the most efficient. There was no problems whatsoever. I shall consider studying there.

I'm going to send all my supporting documents today and I hope that eases a whole load off me.

Music Station

Wahahha. I've finally got my own music station in my room.

Basically, it consists of

PRS Santana SE electric guitar
Oscar Schmidt by Washburn acoustic guitar
2 way guitar stand
Ibanez TB25r amp
Medini electric table drum
Song tab files
Ipod
Speakers
Guitar picks, capo, cable and the works

Here are some pics

Yay.

Special thanks goes out to our kind partial sponsor, Zaf Inc.

University courses

The week has been rather hectic with open houses to go to, course modules to research on and also the choosing of courses. And no, I'm still not done yet.

I've more or less decided on law as my number one choice. The selection process is just scary to say the least. The average subject grade to simply be shortlisted is an A-. Last year, about 750 people got shortlisted for the interview and test and only about 240 were selected eventually. Despite that, I have faith in myself and I will perservere to get in no matter what through sweat, faith and prayer.

The headache still lies in choosing the other courses for NTU and SMU though. I know they are not my priority but one can't afford to be too overconfident right? NUS made my life a whole lot easier by just asking for selection by school of preference. Psychology, sociology, English or teaching? Arghhhh. Confusing man!

On a much brighter note, I've upgraded my com again! (with the help of Greg that is) My computer ram is now 1Gb and i have a dvd-rw drive. Yummy. Wow my com sure has gone a long way from being the slow com that it was. Check this out.

Pentium 4, 2.32Gb
1Gb DDRram
Leadtek 6600GT 128mb Graphics card
BenQ 16xDVD+R Drive

Man that sounds so tech-geek but it rocks anyway. :)

"A" level results

Phew. Let me take a deep breath. Yesterday at about 2pm, I had one of the most nerve-wrecking experiences of my life waiting for the A level results to be released. On my way to the hall from the amphitheater, I met Ms Cheng who told me that my results were "disgustingly good" so I felt a bit better.

Ok so Mrs Goh was taking forever going on and on about the general performance of the school. She then proceeded to name the students who did well. My heart was like beating damn fast cause she had already mentioned the names of several people. My heart almost stopped when she called out "and from A01...". Just as I thought that my heart was going to burst, she went "I'm sorry if I pronounced this name wrong..". You know its funny how I get a tad annoyed when people can't pronounce my name but this time, I was REALLY REALLY hopeful. I have no idea what what went through my mine as she eventually mentioned my name. I had my hands in my face the whole time and I was shaking. I didn't even hear what my grades were. I just remembered the applause. Man. It was really like a dream. I sat down to have a rush of people congratulating me and man that felt really good.

The following is a rough pictorial overview of what happened.