Poly Days 5 - Year 1 Sem 2

2nd Semester! This is the period of time that I really start to "get back on form" again after a very "slacky" first semester. This is also when I started to interact more with the whole class (basically started to do group projects with other people than Jerry, Adriel and Toby)

CD: Aha...the most "slack" lesson. Actually it's more of like a rest time after a hard day work (cause it's at the end of the day). Most memorable event was going to the Bishan Home of course. Very funny man. I think I asked Xinting how to fold a bra cause I didn't know how to. (She also 'agar agar'...) Then there's one where Ken tried to do some stunt when cleaning the floor and fell down. Mwahahaha...

The Lecturer: Lai Fook...Hmmm you know. Nice guy and all. Nothing much to say.

DAUD: Woohoo. This is my most unexpected module to did well. I thought I did really badly. First assignment was assignment 7 pieces to 1 piece. I listen until headache man. 2nd assignment did with Mengzhi and caused me to burn 50 bucks for one stupid recorder which I never used again. (Regret man) 3rd assignmnt is the most fun. Got Zhiwei to act as Gay DJ (Alright I admit he did a great job) and we did a ghost story (Thanks Yuling for that wonderful punch line at the end). I think we really scored for the last assignment.

The Lecturer: Timonthy Teo...stress man. I am not a very "music" person and everytime he played some random stuff and want us to tell him what instrument we heard. I always super scared he will call me. His pet phrase is, "there are some forces out there trying to get you", and likes doing random banging on the table.

DVID: Whew...sometimes I wished I can redo the assignments again. (I could did a much better job) I scored really poorly for the 1st assignment and for the 2nd one we had to combine ideas from our team 1st assignment (When all our ideas didn't really match). In the end, Toby and me went to Adriel house to did all the filming in one night. Turn out to be a scary and lame movie, but it was really a good experience.

The Lecturer: Chun Li...uh...I mean Jennifer. Think Xuan Jie likes her...Another guy is Mr Quek (Frankly the lecture and tutorial is super boring).

STSC: Fun!!! This is one of the more enjoyable module...How can you not enjoy when all you did during the tutorial is watch movies? My worst part of course is drawing the storyboards for the last assignment, but I really enjoyed writing the story for the last assignment. Read some really good stories as well (I still remember parts from John super long story).

The Lecturer: Lau Mun Ying! I think he's a great lecturer (next to Mr Tan) but not many people think so. He's always very stressful (frowning his head). I guess that's what happen when you got all the students coming up to you for appeal. Remembered the electives system screw up and he was soo stress. Haha.

MATH: Really, I don't like Maths. Just did what I had to do.

The Lecturer: Forgot her name...but she's a nice lady...most important influence by her was...Happy Tree Friends! She likes to show us Happy Tree Friends clips when she gives us a small break. (And she's pregnant during that time!) Weird...or not...Haha.

OOPM: First programming module. I picked it up quite fast and at first did some random text adventure game. Later even did a long Sims text adventure on my own. First assignment did a Bomberman Clone. Many of my classmates hate this module......

The Lecturer: He got so many memorable quotes! "Everything under control?", "Everyone's happy?", "Build a toy one first", "I'm a bad typist...", "Oh that's my wife Linda..."...Haha. I would say he knows what he is doing and knows how to teach.

Summary: Fast 2nd semester, and an enjoyable one. I think I got to know Xuan Jie around this time, and start to have more crap with 04 buddy class.

Poly Days 4 - Year 1 Sem 1

Tough time after nearly 7 months without touching books and adapting to a whole new system. Remembered my very first lesson was GDIT and Wendy Lee was the lecturer...Oh yeah during this time we were "plagued" by the SARS outbreak and had to take temperature to report or be fined. That was a pain in the neck...

DBMS: Hahaha. DBMS grants me the first exposure to some sort of programming and really spark my interest. I kind of enjoy doing the practicals. However, I absolutely hate the theory portion (I totally flopped the assignment portion), especially when you have a lecturer that says...

The Lecturer: "Not to worry", "Not to worry"...Who can forget this pet phrase? Haha. Everything also not to worry...She's quite a nice person and also frequently "call us up" for activites even after she's not teaching us. Other thing I can remember is frequently calling students up to "demonstrate" the answers to the practicals...Heh...

GDIT: Yes. Art. Always my weakest point. Most enjoyable assignment was the designing a CD Cover. That was fun. (My first time borrowing the digital camera and filiming a tree at the back of the building) "Design Principals" was totally "catch no ball" and merely did what I did. Last assignment was designing a series of items, which I think I did with Adriel and forgot who. That was stressful. By the way, I still suck at Photoshop after this module.

The Lecturer: "Fa Chai", "Art Flen", "Luler". Enough said. I don't know how Toby get associated with her. Think it was once when she's in the foodcourt and she raised her...arm. Poor Toby got joked about this for the next 2 years. Leon joined shortly after to teach us.

ICIT: Lame module. Nothing to say. Did the project with the girls.

The Lecturer: Starting was taught by Mr See. Remember he was extremely "soft" at the beginning and we were joking about that. Later he used a mic and it became better. Still remember the joke about the person using the mouse. (Put hand on top of mouse and move the hand) Lame...later it changed to another guy but I forgot his name.

MORG: Again a "art related" module which I kind of suck at. Remember most lame was I did a Jacky Wu funeral and coffin for the first assignment. 2nd assignment did theatre scene with 3 friends. Remember Toby took 2 weeks to model a......fire extinguisher! Which at the end got placed at a small corner of the scene. Very stressful when we almost failed to hand in the assignment on time. (All rushing at the last minute) We kept checking whether Kenny is going to collect the CDs at 5:30pm. Turned out it was still in his letterbox the next morning...Grrr...

The Lecturer: Kenny was OK...it was during the later part that he got associated with Nuggets. Haha. We always thought he has this "Tu Bo Shu" look...Hee...Another lecturer is "Billionhair" (don't know his name)...He's a nice guy but a bit lame...

WEBP: Woohoo. Favourite module in the first semester. Too bad I flop the Practical. Now I think about it the practical was freaking easy, but i was too "newb" then. Everything also don't know. Couldn't finish it on time and all that...Haizz...Then I look back at the first assignment website I made..."freaking horrendous" (Now I understand why I got such crappy score for it)

The Lecturer: Probably number 1 lecturer. He explains his concepts in a very clear manner, and really make an effort to help you understand. Friendly and give lots of tips. What more can you ask.

OC: Oral Communication. One event I remembered was like the 1st or 2nd lesson, where Mrs Goh got us to back-faced each other and ask some lame questions to each other (Still remember my 'partner' was XinTing). Think she ask me what color underwear I was wearing or something. Super super lame...Then there's one where we wrote down 3 of our characteristics (2 true 1 false or something). Most memorable was Shi Yuan wrote "I draw Hentai"...He's godly man. 2nd Project, teamed up with Adriel for a presentation about "Capital Punishment"...Whew he was so serious...-_-

The Lecturer: Friendly, and knows who to teach. Don't know why some people don't like her.

CRS: Aha! The "General Paper" of the Poly. Basically it's a load of junk stuff that made me took up the pen to write somthing again.

The Lecturer: Ho ho ho! I remember this! Irene Lee! One time, we went to SPGG to play bowling and came back quite late for the lesson. We told her it was Toby birthday...and she believed! ROFL...I think the term "Gien Peng Kia' was borned around then! One event, we had to show some controversial stuff (TV violence or something, and Toby played "Shane getting his XXX electrify by Kane"...Haha. Fun times.

Summary: That's all for the first semester, and also one that I regretted a lot (about the study). I shall be truthful to myself that I did not put in much effort and I got some pretty bad results. Maybe it's that I still haven't adapt to the new lifestyle, or I just dont' like the modules as much...

Poly Days 3 – SP Orientation

One of my most “wasted” time of my life came after the O Levels, where I actually spent more than 3 months entirely on Gaming. To this day I still regretted how I spent those 3 months. It was so painful after that I made a point then everytime I have a long period of break, I must spend some time to “upgrade myself”...Time flies and July 2003 arrived. I was quite nervous at this point because I am the only person from my class that came to this course.

First Day: Remember when I “reported” at the wrong place. I went all the way down to “Mcdonald” area to realized that I've been to wrong place. Then went back to dover MRT area again before I was directed to the auditorium. Nothing much I could recall there except they played a video of SP Life, telling us to not only learn the skills for the next 3 years, but also interact with friends and have a great campus life. Yeah all those. It's also the ONLY time where I saw the Principal (in the video) of the school, which to this day I still have no idea what his name is.

Met my first Personal Tutor that day......Geraldine Tye. First impression was that she's very friendly and all. Could not remember much except she lead us up a long road of hill to an area with benches. There, she wanted us to introduce ourselves...after that...went home I think. I only like recognized Sean and John as my classmate...(Their faces)

Orientation: Aha...again couldn't recall much. One part was they got all of us to line up in a long columns as the ICT leaders talk some gibberish. Somewhere at this point Ben came up to me and asked, “Are you from Xishan?”. What the...! I don't really know him but surprisingly he can recognized me. Turned out he's from 6A, which is sort of like 6B buddy class.

After that, the ICT people wanted us to stay behind to do some lame activities. A LOT (almost all I think) of my class went home and only I (And if I recall, Waicheng) stayed behind to participated in it. I think it was to use some old newspaper to build some figurine....Haha.

Flag Day: There was a Flag Day activity and this is one I can still relive to this day. I went to Jurong Area with Toby, Adriel...and Jerry. Basically we did what we were supposed to do, and I remember Adriel complaining to me that all the passer-by were “donating” to my and not his. Haha. Maybe I more friendly (and cute). After that we went to the back to have lunch at the coffee shop. This Flag Day actually had a very profound and long lasting effect on my entire year 1 Poly Life......because the 3 of them became the only people that I know more in the class. Whether that's a good thing or not...well...

Orientation ended. First lessons is about to start...Time to “pack up my feelings” for a new phase of my life...

Poly Days 2 - Singapore Poly, Here I Come!

With JC eliminated, the decision now left with the 5 different polys. The only 2 I was considering was Nanyang or Singapore Poly. In fact, the only 2 course I was considering was Diploma in Multimedia or Digital Media Design.

Back then, I have not a single idea what the hell "programming" even is. I looked at the prospectus given and totally catch no ball. The only thing that caught my attention was "Game Development". Who doesn't love games. Now that I think about it, it was a really risky choice, considering that I have almost no information about the course. I don't have any friends in the course, I don't have a good idea of what the modules mean.

First stop was Singapore Poly Open House. That basically "sealed my fate", totally "memerized" by the final year projects they put up. (Although it was pretty lame now that I know how to make it myself) Still remember it was a 2D hack and slash game (Kind of like Diablo). One very important thing I feared was...Drawing. My art, frankly, sucks. (Even to this day) My Art, since Primary School, has always been C. Even during Secondary School it was one of my more dislike subjects. Talked to a lecturer at the open house and he said we'll be drawing using computers (Did not even heard of Photoshop back then).

After some consideration I finally decided to study Multmedia at SP. I still remembered Matthew tired to "dissuade" me from doing so (Cause he is sooo physco by our Chemistry Teacher Ms Lai). Ms Lai always said that the next century will be the biology century and life science industry will explode, lots of prospects and stuff. (I think 5 of my class top students went to Life Science course)

Seriously, I don't know if they really have interest in Chemistry or just "go there because there's job". I think it's a very sad thing. But of course if they really have interest then it's great and I wish them well. When I told them I'm going to IT, all sort of "WTF" stuff came out. Like "IT Is dying...", "What job you want to do if you do that Diploma", "IT no use liao cannot find job"...etc...

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I didn't' believe in those bullshit and went for what I believed in, and where my passion lies. Diploma in Multimedia...Singapore Poly....我来也~

Poly Days 1 - Anderson Junior Collage

Whew…3 years of Poly Life is finally “officially” ending…(Well it ended “unofficially” about 3 months ago) Just felt like doing a series of recount of my life at the Poly. Everything, from my decision to go there to study, and the lecturers, the modules, the facilities, the campus and of course my “wonderful” friends~!

Let's travel back to almost 4 years ago, at the end of 2002, when my secondary school life came to an end...That was when I have to make a very important decision (I consider that decision the 1^st big decision of my life) -- about where to continue in life. Believe it or not, I wasn’t even considering a poly education back then. The common “misconception” back then was that I get to “save” 1 year. (Still remembered Louis telling me that he’ll “live 1 year longer than me” cause he's going to Poly…)

Being ignorant of the JC life, I took up the 3 months “prohibition” period at…Andersion Junior Collage. Guess how long I survived there? Less than 2 weeks. By the end of the 1^st week I already “DREADED” going there. You cannot imagine how stressful it was. I had to wake up even earlier, and travel for a long time.

JC Subjects: Comparing O levels Maths (even “A” maths) to JC standard is like comparing climbing Bukit Timah Hill to Mt.Everest (Not that I have climbed Mt.Everest before, but you get the idea). Some of my most memorable lessons were the “Trinomial Theorem” from the Maths and some kind of even harder Qualitative Analysis during Chemistry. Basically, I hated almost everything I was doing. I was almost suffering from depression. I looked at every single subject - Physics, Maths, Chemistry and I made up my mind, I'm not going to spend the next 2 years of my life doing something that I totally have no passion for.

JC Friends: I really don't have any contact with them (I only stayed there for 2 weeks), but I do met some old friends, including Zi He from my Primary School! There were also some guys that leave a particulary deep impression on me. There's a guy with some sort of eye handicap and had to use a "magnifying device" to study. He's a really nice person though and I sat beside him quite often during the mass lectures. There's another guy that told me "A Degree is very important" when I told him I wanted to leave the JC. Wished I could have told him "Go Poly also can study University" back then. Heh...

JC Lecturers: Really don't have much to say. Basically in JC, the lecturers is "teach and you go study yourself". No more "spoon-feeding" style like the Secondary, which is why the students tends to be more "distant" from the lecturers. If you can't catch up, it's your own problem. 2 lecturers left a very deep impression but I forgot what they teach. 1 of them is a 40 years old plus old hag, always very "Black Face". Attending her tutorial is super duper stress. Sometimes I really don't know how to do those questions. Be prepare to stare at her...

Another is my form lecturer. I talked to her about my decision to leave JC education, and she gave me a lot of advice. Like "why not try on for some more time" and "what you going to do if you leave the JC now" etc...I think she's a really nice person, but at that time my mind was made up to leave JC, at least Anderson JC.

JC Orientation: Still, Anderson left me with some deep memories. I must say their orientation night was extremely well done. Everyone is assigned to a special team and the whole event is based on an event known as “Reconnaissance”. I am from the “Cielo, Sole” team and I still kept the badge as a memory. We went around doing community service and there were 2 leaders, I think known as "Mark" and "Grace". (Hee still remember)

Basically we'll compete and cheer and do all sort of crazy stuff (Even did a stage play together in the hall), and taught to dance some songs as well. Biggest regret now that I've misplaced that "booklet" that contains all the cheers/songs/chants that we used during the orientation. Some of them were really nice/hilarious. Biggest event was the "campfire-style" dance at the end where almost the WHOLE SCHOOL join in and we sing some stuff. That part was totally everyone "high". (Still remember it very vividly)

Goodbye To Anderson: Even though I cannot stay with AJC, I still never regreted going there. It not only allow me to have a taste of JC life (something I'll never experience again, not that I wanted to again), but also left me with some great memories.