Trying to do research for one of my assignments involving building a model for a building. Have a gazillion tabs but I just can't find what I want. ARGHHHHHHH. I have totally underestimated the time needed to do this. Dare not slack for the rest of the assignments liao...

I passed my BTT!! The funny thing was I got the date totally wrong. I thought it was on Sat when it was on Thursday. So imagine my shock when halfway through class my phone alarm sounded and told me the test was in an hour's time. I was like, oh shit I haven't revised since I thought I could wait till Friday, gg. But between waiting a month more to rebook and trying to pass, I'd take the latter.

Thank goodness it landed during lunch break so I was able to attend. But still I got there 15 mins late cuz the lecturer just wouldn't stop talking even though class ended and I was too paiseh to leave halfway through his enthusiastic speech. Anyway I gave up and told him I had to go. By then the test had started already.

The examiner almost didn't let me take the test until I explained the reason. Haha. He gave me a really grumpy look and said, " no extra time for you". Meh. Managed to finish 20mins before the end of the test anyway, cuz there were much lesser questions than the evaluation. And I passed!!!!! Wheeeeee. So lucky lol. I think I scraped through. Forgot some of the signs also.

Back to researching my Shinto shrines....

Labels: updates

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been extremely busy trying to juggle with my new schedule, and trying to incorporate my daily activities inside it. It's really tiring, but I feel so happy and alive that I am finally doing what I had aspired to do, and in a sense it has become a neccessity to do (since I paid the fees) rather than just a hobby that I could just do whenever I feel like it. Weird description, I know. It's like, my life is dependent on it and I'm enjoying it at the same time. Weird huh. Haha.

It's a 5 day week from Mon to Fri, and mostly I end at 4pm. I'm getting along with my classmates quite well, it's only been 3 days since we first met but we are starting to chit chat more often and I feel more comfortable around them. It's my first being surrounded by people who can draw, so I do feel a pressure to work harder and outperform, but I don't mind. In fact it's pretty good practise as I can really develop my skills.

For this semester, we had introductory modules like basic life drawing, principles of animation, basics of maya, sculpting, concept design and all that. My favourites so far are probably life drawing and anatomy. Tmr's the first lesson for sculpting and digital art, hope they are going to be just as awesome :)

Intending to buy a new wacom tablet... I realised that my current one while still functioning is a little inadequate in terms of drawing space and sensitivity. I could live with it if I wanted to but if the school if going to use the better ones I had better start getting used to them as well. Getting poor buying all my school materials lol. Including all the cartridge paper, pencils, what, some kneadable eraser... and many more to come. Later during the sem we have to buy oil clay or something like that which costs a bomb too. Meh.

Assignments for the semester, exercises and homework already given to us. They were really right when they said it's going to be extremely busy and you won't have much time for other stuff. It sounds daunting, but I still feel excited. I think I'm still like in honeymoon mood for getting into the school or something. Haha.

Ok sleeping. The school's schedule is really strict, can't stay up late anymore. Actually blogging at a time like this already means I'm sleeping later than usual... drastic change from being in SOC... will try to update again. Gd nite!

Labels: updates

Was on the way home last night when mum msged me that papa was worried over the opportunity cost of me taking the diploma. *sigh* I'm not sure how to even begin typing out my thoughts, but it's roughly along the lines of "unsupportive all along" and "why now when I've already enrolled".

I came home, and talked to mama first. She got a little teary eyed as she was telling me what happened, with papa flaring up at her when she asked if he had talked to me to clear his doubts. But at the end of it all, she said she was ok with me taking the diploma. I guess like mother like daughter, really. Mum used to work as a architect, and she loves to draw. So when she came with me to visit the school and view the students' work she probably understood my passion.

On the other hand, my dad was the silent one. Despite my insistence in taking up the diploma ever since I was in my final year, he never agreed with it but neither did he openly oppose it. It was an indirect disagreement of sorts. Sometimes, when I talk to him about the future in general, he would tend to promote the "right" and safer way, which was to just be a teacher and settle down, get a steady pay, save for my future etc. I can't remember just how many times I've heard of such conversations and even my sister, who tried to persuade him on my behalf by telling him it's ok if people don't do it that way gets exasperated with him.

I'm not saying that papa is unsupportive, for as much as he doesn't agree with my decision he still loves me very much as his daughter. He still sends me to the school if I need to make a trip there, if I need anything in preparation for my diploma he would still do it for me, and of course I appreciate that. But it saddens me sometimes over the small things like him not wanting to come and have a look at the school, or not wanting to ask me how are things going on and what I needed to do.

Well, at least he asked when I was starting school yesterday. Guess that's a start. *sigh*

Labels: updates

Today was kind of like a crash and burn day. Was very tired out from the previous 2 days where I had to go with lack of sleep. As usual, started off the week with zerging out my points before I can turn to other activites... so... very little sleep. =/

Thankfully there's a maintainence now so I get to rest for an hour. Gonna sleep it off. Just broke my nice schedule of not playing too much =( Oh well... maybe I'll take it as giving myself a treat for sticking to my healthy lifestyle schedule... haha.. at least I still sleep at the normal hours. Guess I won't be exercising tmr as well, too tired.

Gonna head down to the school to submit my acceptance tmr... *yawn*

Labels: updates

So I went back in, and to my surprise I had to draw again. This time testing me on concept art. Instructions was to create a character outfitted with moves/skills/styled after 5 items given on the paper, complete with a description about my creation, 100 words.

I flipped the paper and went, omfg. The five items were a rubber duckie, a set of cutlery, a boiling kettle, a blender and a hairbrush. Very interesting indeed...

So I thought for awhile and initially, the idea was to create some household superhero, throwing rubber duckie missiles at naughty children who mess up their houses and wielding all these... equipment to solve household problems. Then I thought about it further and decided it was too superficial, so I decided to go a little more abstract as it was kind of a boring concept... not thinking out of the box. Since the paper said I could deconstruct the items in any way I like, I selected bits and pieces of each item and created this martial artist adorned with various parts of it.

Took the brush and knife to form a polearm... the handle of the kettle for her shoulderpad... the cover of the blender for her belt, hair accessory from rubber duckie. Theme that I set for myself was some ancient chinese era... in any case, I ended up overshooting the time slightly (was writing the description when the girl came in to tell me time was up) because I got a little too engrossed unlike the first part, lol. Took me like 5 mins to think of a description and I couldn't help giggling at myself as I wrote it, it sounded so passable but ridiculous.

Then came the last part which was the lecturer interviewing me. He didn't really critque my artwork much, I guess he already looked through beforehand... he did say on the whole I showed some technique, but of course not the best out there. Asked me on my reason for wanting to be here... background... etcetc. It wasn't that hard an interview per se. I guess my passion really showed cause he sounded quite positive to what I said... and the interview overshot because occasionally we derailed to talk about other stuff about animation, lol.

Finished the interview. Was told that I would be mailed my results in 7 day's time. But interestingly the admin asked me to wait and disappeared to find the lecturer who stayed back in the room where we had the interview. Then later she came back and just said, " You passed". I was a little stunned initially, because I hadn't expected such a fast result. Anyway the next half an hour was a blur, getting papers, calling my parents about the result and basically just revelling in the outcome.

So... 2 more years of student life, and much more fun to come :)

Labels: updates

At starbucks @ fusionpolis now, blogging while waiting for the 2nd part of the entrance test to start, which is like in an hour.

I woke up this morning feeling very jumpy, wondering how the test would be like, how I would get grilled for my lousy art skills and imagined squirming under the critical eye of the tester. And worried that I would have not much energy/brain block due to me sleeping late last night as we ended the raid at 3am... but thankfully, so far it's been fine.

So Dad dropped me off in front of fusionpolis and I made my way downstairs to the school. Could see some people already on their way to attend classes there. The admin recognised me immediately and let me through. Paid the fees, filled up the form... and then the test.

I haven't exactly been through apititude tests before, this was my first. So I was rather intriqued that all I was required was to draw a scene given to me. Quite simple in my opinion. She gave me a template to follow, which was a standard office scene. The task was to redraw the office using the template together with several other items, such as a rug, coffee maker etc inside, and the setting was an office of a 2nd-hand car dealer.

I think I took about roughly half an hour to sketch out what I wanted, and another hour to actually reproduce the template with all the items inside. Had to draw 9 items. The test was limited to 2 hours, but I finished about half an hour earlier. I should have taken a picture of it before I turned it in to the admin for keepsake. Haha. My very first apititude test drawing! But it looked a little kiddish IMO. The kind where the kid doesn't sharpen the pencils towards the end and the lines look blurry and smudgey. Though I did try to erase the obvious marks... ok noobcake.

And that was all there was to it. Was told to wait till after lunch before the lecturer would come and interview me.. I vaguely remembered her saying he would be testing me on concept or something. Meh. Would take at most half an hour. So wish me luck.. :D

Labels: updates

For the past week or so I've been sticking to some sort of a schedule in an attempt to be less like a bum.. which includes playing less online games. So far so good, sleeping and eating hours are a lot more regular and I think my parents are happier (although astonished at the change lol) that I'm starting to do what I need to.

The downside to all of this is that I get extremely bored in the afternoons. Well granted I can always use the time to do drawings... get my project done but urgh.... besides that there isn't much to do. Wanted to spend my time productively and sometimes just want to do something else. No, watching anime, reading manga doesn't count. I considered going out with friends but it's not like I want to go out everyday. D: More often that not, I end up taking a nap in the late afternoon as the weather's so hot and I get drowsy after lunch... which would mean I am still a bum. D:

I need some advice on what else I can do...

ps: day 2 of blogging, not bad. and illustrator's a bitch. i prefer photoshop so much more :(

Labels: updates

So yeah, I haven't been blogging for 2 months. I suppose it would be a good practice to blog a little more regularly as a fresh start... but really, don't count on it too much lol. Most of the time I don't think I have anything remotely interesting to say.

So to sum it all up... yeah I've graduated/had my commencement on 5th July :) after 4 long years of studying! I was so damn happy going up there shaking hands with the president and receiving my transcript. And so so so happy taking pictures with everyone.

Then came my birthday on the 8th, which was prolly one of the nicest celebrations I had in my life. I never expected my friends to buy me such expensive presents (yay @ razor keyboard and mouse!!!!) , and they even organised a surprise dinner for me. I can't really express my happiness, but really guys, you made me really happy that week with what you have done for me. I'm very touched and grateful :)

Finally, my future plans. I've been checking up on the schools and finally settled for Egg Story instead of FZD, reason being financial costs. Although the dip @ egg story will take 2 years, I decided it was a worthwhile tradeoff. I can't say my parents are entirely happy with my decision as true enough, delaying finding my job for a year is quite a disadvantage, but I think I would be more comfortable this way. Will be taking the entrance test in 2 days time, so wish me luck that I will pass! There's a lot more things I need to think about... but I'm gonna focus on just getting in first. One step at a time.

Contrary to what many people say, I'm not really addicted to WoW. I just happen to have too much free time (since I'm no longer studying anyway) for the past 2 months and been procrastinating on my stuff (i.e. just don't feel like touching them), that's why I play it a lot. Sometimes I don't understand why people like to keep stereotyping when the way we do things are just so different. It's as simple as, "today I would like to level my character to level 10", and I set that as my goal today. And when people ask me if I'm free I'll say no, because I plan to do this today and they go WTF. I just don't understand. It's my personal schedule, I've already arranged and planned it this way (and sometimes with others) and just because it doesn't work in your interest people just say I'm addicted to the game and that "I'm not a good enough friend". I'm never a person who likes to make changes on the fly, so if I make a plan I would really prefer to stick to it unless it's urgent or neccessary (like it's a rare gathering or sendoff etc). So it really gets on my nerves at times when people start to KP to me when they just don't understand this is how I work. And it's not as if I prefer them over the game, it's cause I already PLANNED. Goddammit. Do you ever see saying OK to a Sunday outing with them beforehand and then later telling them I'll cancel cuz I want to play on Sunday? No right? It's just that simple, and sometimes I feel that they aren't being very considerate.

The more I type the more annoyed I feel... =.=

Labels: updates

Sometimes I think I can read people. Sometimes I can't. Sometimes I get it wrong. But more often than not, my intuition saves my ass from many unimportant situations that do not concern me.

And this is a load of bullshit you are reading, dear reader. Because I have just reached home at 7+am and spent my time making my sentences readable than being coherent.

-----
ok enough with the bullshit. last few sentences of sanity before I lose it:

- it is highly enjoyable to talk cock till 7+am again like old times

- i feel somewhat bad. but the guilt is apparently not my fault. but i still feel it.

- i. do. not. effing. understand. just what is wrong with the whole wide world. some things are just so common sense but people just don't get it, i discover more and more adult babies (the horror) after the lengthy discussion. it's half annoying, half worrying, half exasperating to watch. wait, that's 3 halves and i don't make sense.

- it's not that i don't compromise. but it's pretty much a great difference in values.

- some people do not make great actors.

- i feel cheated, but thanks for your care and 2/10 (to that certain someone). i do appreciate what you do for me. be very assured the remaining 1/10 for my side will never happen in our lives though.

- bumpy ride, tough times. please take care of yourselves people, no matter what happens.

Labels: random stuff, thoughts, updates

Thanks to a certain SOMEBODY *coughs* I decided to make a blog post. Not that the person asked me to make la. But since I'm back here, why not.

Actually I'm feeling a tad sheepish now 'cause I did promise myself that I would try to update every now and then, but well.... you see. *stares at previous post made in January*

In my defense, I shall explain that I have tons of projects. 5 actually this sem. As of now, I've just completed one, and another is due tomorrow, but we have finished preparations so all's good. That leaves a crappy GEK1531 essay (that has not even been touched yet), special effects, and the gigantic game dev project. Starting to feel the crunch, even though I have 2 projects down.

Consult yesterday saw some changes made to the game design. Not in terms of game mechanics, thank god, but in the number of levels we intend to use. I think on my part, and Wei Feng's part too, we were very relieved as it meant less work. Until they started to talk about backgrounds and I realised I was in for deep shit as I had to recreate another 4 new backgrounds while almost entirely discarding the one I did before. Kind of like how there's a sudden downpour when the sun is still shining. Yeah the super suay kind. And it's not helping that I have to do it ALL with that stupid moving background thing........ urgh so troublesome. But if I can pull it off, I'll be really proud of myself.

Major reworking needed for special effects too... -.-. I have to say after watching the lecturer's video on the behind the scenes effects, I was rather psyched to ramp up the quality of my special effects. But again, time constraints (and procrastination) make it really hard to reach for my goals. I really hope I will be able to deliver in time, and in high standard. And because if I churn out shit I will malu in front of the public presentation. LOL.

Was talking to LG awhile back, and he asked if I liked drawing. I replied, " If there is something you do in which no matter how tedious it is, you feel happy doing it, that means you like it." And well, that's how I feel about drawing. Granted, I do not have any background expertise (unless you count my crummy artwork during primary school drawing lessons) but I love to dabble with colours. I love experimenting on ideas, and creating the image that I feel would fit the mood, and provide flow to whatever it is supposed to contribute to. That's why I love my role as the assets creator in my game dev project now, despite how heavy the workload is. It is very well my first and last time in NUS where I really felt like I was in my element, just churning out piece after piece with average effort (i.e.: no brain drain feeling I get from solving maths questions or coding), and feeling immense joy looking at my creations. In fact, when I feel like taking a break, I actually turn to my game dev stuff and start to draw assets that I need later, and it really helps me relax.

I truly understand the joy of getting the dream job now. I am SO going to get that dip, seriously.

Labels: resolutions, school life, updates

since the server in WOW is down for scheduled maintainence, time to do some stuff on things i've been neglecting like my blog, etc.

2011 is a great year because i finally filed for graduation. finally got my last module that i bidded for, finally got the "You are QUALIFIED for graduation" quotation from the verifier, finally pressed the submit button and finally on the last stretch to graduating from NUS!!

it's been 4 long years. when i first came in, i was excited; everything was new, made tons of friends, experienced so many ups and downs in my life in all aspects. there was so much to do, so much to see. while i still have many regrets like not appealing for FASS, i am glad i ended up in SOC with a huge bunch of friends doing stuff together, making the entire school life really enjoyable even though the modules sucked big time. studying together, mugging + overnighting, talking cock, all the FOP stuff, parties and outings. i think it's probably only in SOC that you can get something like that since the faculty is so small and we know each other.

while i always tell everyone how happy i am to graduate, of course there would definitely be some sadness at leaving a place where i've grown used to and enjoyed for 4 years. i might not see my uni friends as often as before, may not be so in touch. but more than feeling sad, it feels like a whole new beginning like how i entered uni - being excited, wondering what's in store for you, making new acquintances, starting on new things... but this time round it's much more serious. anyway i know that definitely there will be times where we will meet to occasionally to catch up, and as i start to do other things, i will probably get busy too.

there's so many things i want to do when i graduate. go to places i've dreamt of (grad trip FTW) , take japanese, game art, driving, get a job... and the list goes on. it gets me so excited when i think of them that it just drives out any trace of sadness away actually, haha. my mum even sewed me a graduation picture last year in preparation for this, haha so kiasu right.

ok back to the present. school is intensely slack since i only have 2 cores, 3 UEs out of which i'm gonna SU 2 of them, haha. gonna pack up my room for the brand new chinese new year now, and as a fresh start to everything in my life. tata =D

omg omg i'm gonna graduate!!!! XD yeah~~~

Labels: updates

first off, i'm super sorry that the current blogskin you see now is taken from blogskins.com. halfway through trying to figure out how the codes were working i got lured into watching anime....

how it happened:
- thinking of how to design
- decided to go have a look at some nice wallpapers
- went to minitokyo.com, and there was a bishie wallpaper at the front page
- went to click and found a horde of bishies
- was so excited, went to wiki them up and found out it has an anime
- the rest was history.

and there's that. epic fail. btw i finished the entire season of anime in one night... hahhaha -_-

i will TRY and do some modifications to the skin to make it a little... personalized. haha. but i quite like this layout for now. it's very simple and elegant, what i've always wanted.

i guess some things people need to consider should be the ease of access of posts, the design of the backgrounds. for me, i hate it when i have to click excessively to get to read posts. i hate it when the colours are horrible and jarring to the eyes. and i definitely don't like it when the background doesn't fit in with the text or overlaps. (think of black lines with black text, nonono) something around there. so when i design my skin, i will always try to think in terms of what i would want as a reader and try to incorporate that into my design. haha this sounds so CS3240... human comp interaction

off to do some tweaks and change some info. cya =D

Labels: updates

Wanted to wake up early to start work on my 3D modelling project, but lol I woke up at... 4pm instead -_-. That's like 6 hours after I switched off my alarm clock which also meant that I overslept by 6 hours. I'm quite amazed at how much of a sloth I can be........ zzz.

Went over to my cousin's house at AMK for her housewarming today. Decided to wear my shoes that were full of awesomeness. Describing it, I would call it sneakers on heels. I spent the whole evening trotting around in it at Junction 8 where my family had dinner after vising my cousin's house... haha. Despite everyone staring at me thinking I must be a lunatic to prance around in heels that make me look like a towering monster, I thoroughly enjoyed every single moment of it :D I'm 169 cm and with it, I'm almost 180cm tall haha. That's how high those heels were. But they really looked awesome!!!! I loved them too much to care about how people thought. Haha. But I wished I dressed up better. Poor heels, you need better clothes to match with. Maybe when I have money next year. For now you are stuck with lousy clothes =/ what an abomination. It's like buying a pair of SGD$60 razor orca headphones and plugging it into my laptop to play music from solitare - that's the level of abomination I'm talking about.

Speaking of it... I've really been wanting to get those headphones. Just can't get it out of my head. I even DREAMT of it last night -_-||||| I dreamt that there was some weird exchange thing going on. If you put any pair of headphones into this machine, you have a chance of it turning into those orca headphones. If unlucky, u get a pencil or some shitty thing. Anyway that machine strangely looked like those in customs, where you put your hand luggage onto the conveyor belt and it passes through the machine where they scan your belongings. Lol.

In the end I put a regular pair of headphones in, and I got back the same pair... how sad. But I was relieved that I didn't get a crappy pencil haha. When I woke up, I felt that same tightness that I had when I was putting my headphones into the machine.... lol!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit. I really want them =< maybe I should borrow from dad again.. but I owe him so much already!!! Sian. But I really want them. */impracticalwhine* Arghhhhhhhhhhhh. I NEED TO WORK, ANYONE HAS LOBANG?


p.s.: with reference to the title, yeah I had bubble tea today. When I came home, yanlin showed me this pic of some cafe advertising their bubble tea which had the slogan "The joys of sucking on balls". WTH -_-

Labels: updates

Wheeeeeeeeee I'm finally done with the AI project. Honestly, I really think we are going to ace it and pwn every other team. Our own robot is zai to the point where it can deduce from situations far easily than me. Ironically, I was the one who came up with most of the inference rules some more. LOL

All in all, 2 days of hard work from Travis (coding the inference rules) and CY (calibration). Ok la I have to admit I think I got off with the slackest and lowest contribution of the job - documentation and QA for the robot evaluation + various other insignificant jobs like helping to comment on code... blah blah. Part of me me shakes my head at being so useless, another part of me say that's because you just aren't good enough -_-||| But I'm proud that at least I made sure the robot was zai to the point where it can virtually pwn any setup you throw at it =3

It was a huge pity that we submitted late due to cock-ups from SVN... which was totally unneccessary =( I do hope we can negotiate with the tutor because the changes we made to the 2nd version was just uncommenting code that we blocked out when running the stuff on our PC... bleh. Not anything very significant. Totally not worth losing 5% for -_-

Ponned 2 of my tutorials for this. Well not that I really want to attend them but... this had better be worth it. Haha. I can't wait for evaluation on Monday to see how the robot fares. We didn't have any chance to test it on any board or anything due to time constraints. So everything was all theory only which was very risky especially when our calibration wasn't perfect.

Friday's Deepavali and I totally forgot about it till someone mentioned the holiday when we were all going home. Now I suddenly have a free day which is very nice INDEED. Work done, extra holiday, what else could be better =D What's more I got an email from my Japanese Studies lecturer telling me that my group project ppr did well and she wanted us to go present it next Friday. A totally great end to my day =D

Think I'll make soba tomorrow, maybe go out with parents (and try my heels lol) or reorganize my room. Whee thinking about it makes me happy!

Labels: school life, updates

Before I begin on the topic, hi jiesheng. LOL i didn't know u still read my blog. haha

Today was the greatest shopping sin I have ever committed in my life. Was shopping with my parents yesterday at ION, and we went into New Look and got a pair of heels we liked. Then while paying up the guy at the cashier kindly informed us that there was going to be a 50% sale going on tmr on selected shoes and my eyes immediately lit up. Like, OMG, 50%?!?!!?

I always liked New Look's shoes cuz they had my shoe size (I'm a huge 40/41) and for heels(flats including), they price them rather decently. Not to mention the styles were generally nice. So for a person like me who has a horribly pathetic range of shoes to wear when I go out, this was like a godsent. 50%?!?!?!?!?! \(^o^)/

Initially I was hesitating to go because I needed to finish up my lab that was due midnight. I was sighing away this afternoon while doing it thinking I probably wouldn't get to go but who knew @ 7+pm I finished it!!! I was ecstatic and immediately ran out of my room after submitting the zip file asking my parents if they could send me to ION for the sale. HAAHAHHA. I have to really thank my dad, he's probably one of the best dads in the whole wide world who would still accommodate to his daughter's whims even though he is a little grumpy about going out so late. So I happily went down to ION, and went bonkers over there.

Bought 4 pairs of shoes, and all together I racked up a grand total of 270+ bucks. Omfg... When I saw the bill I kind of cringed, but when I look back at my shoes my eyes just couldn't stop twinkling with joy. LOL. Yesssssssss new shoes! Wheeeeeeeee. Thanks so much papa for paying for the shoes first <3

Probably one of the happiest days ever when I actually finish an assignment without tearing out my hair before the deadline, and buying FRIGGIN 4 PAIRS OF SHOES at a go. K I should exercise some discipline now and stop shopping for the next month......... =D

Omg I'm so happy when I think of my shoes. LOL

Labels: updates

As the title goes, I finally got a new CPU to replace the one that went kaput. It was quite an amazing feat when I think back on it. I didn't particuarly read up on anything before I went to Sim Lim to purchase my stuff. I only knew basic stuff like, "ok I need more RAM, maybe a bit more disk space, and definitely a good GC to do my assignment". When I arrived at Sim Lim, I totally didn't know what was the best GC to get and was so scared that it would be uncompatible for my GPU assignment, so I only picked those PCs that had nividia inside (because I remembered the cards they mentioned was nividia so....). Together with my Dad who knows nuts about computers, we went through all 3 levels of Sim Lim (4 -6) just to look around.

I was about to select a PC that looked decent, till I came across this small shop in an ulu corner. Took their leaflet, checked out their stuff and it came up around $200 cheaper than most retailers at the main passages. The only disadvantage was the risk if the shop folded before the warranty expired...... lol. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided to return to the shop and got my CPU for $1.2k.

Ouch isn't it. Specs wise, 4GB ram, GTS450 GC, i3 processor 2.9Xhz, 1TB HDD, well... I guess that's more or less the noteworthy stuff. So I happily brought home my CPU and decided to start tinkering with it... removed the HDD in my CPU and was trying to figure out where on earth I could put it in the new case, because apparently it was too small, and it doesn't have multiple HDD drives. LOL uber fail. My dad kept nagging at me saying why didn't I bring my old HDD to the guy and ask him to fix it for me... which I never thought of.

Then came the monitor. After spending half an hour in frustration of why nothing came up, I asked Chef for help and he told me to use a converter. I felt insanely geeky cutting up that plastic sachet, fixing the converter onto the plug and socket and watching the whole screen light up. LOL++

I probably irritated my Dad countless times as I pestered him to take off the case for me (cuz I don't know where he keeps all his screwdrivers -_-), and not knowing what the hell to do to get the CPU up and running, but eventually I figured out how to plug in the old HDD and how to configure the booting (based on vague past memories when Chef helped me reformat my lappy) . Well right now I can choose to boot XP in the old one, and win7 in the new one and I'm feeling happy. I have to say, having more RAM to run win7 is a godsent. My laptop is suffering badly with just 2GB even though they said it was the bare minimum. Think multiple screen hangs before submission deadline. Nightmare indeed.

Now I've just spent roughly 2 hours installing every single crap I can imagine. 1TB is an overkill, especially when I have an external disk that's 1TB as well.... need to get a new mouse. I realised my casing really sucks, too small, no multiple disk drives, and worst is the there's only 1 port where the mouse and keyboard should be inserted. So I had to sacrifice my mouse, and use my laptop's USB mouse to do my stuff now. Lol this is too pathetic >.> shall go buy another mouse asap.

All in all, geeky experience. Thank god I didn't try DIY-ing this entire CPU myself; I would have spent a week just trying to fix the innards and probably end up blowing up the entire CPU when I switch on the power. Many thanks to Chef who helped troubleshoot every single thing I didn't know. Ahahhaa even the most mundane stuff! And now I'm quite tired... >_>

Went out with XJ today. Initially we planned to just window shop. Who knew I ended up buying $90 bucks worth of stuff....... 2 jackets, hair accessories, facial products. Uber window shopping experience. We privately agreed that we should only try to window shop again when we have money, somewhere in December. HAHHAHAHA. But I love my jackets to death, can't stop wearing them. I even wear them at home! Happened to be cold anyway so the feeling was awesome <3

Labels: updates

The past 2 weeks have burnt me out like nothing. One deadline after another non-stop. Finally my last major assignment due is handed in already so I'm chilling a little, going home earlier when there's nothing to do, playing my DS, sleeping more... all that.

Well pretty sure after this week, things will start getting hectic again and THIS TIME, I have learnt my lesson. I will finish off my minor assignments this weekend so that I can have a headstart on the major ones.

Tomorrow is my first official AI project meeting, and guess who's the last person who joined us? Travis. Haha. When CY told me about him joining our group I was quite stunned, and my reasons for being stunned were proved today. He's really... quite... fierce. In the sense that he's really out to win the rest of the teams for AI. Haha but it's good la. I think the remaining weeks till November will be really busy indeed... to the point that I feel so stressed, I'm already reading up leJOS programming language to prepare for tomorrow's meeting.... =/

Just realised there's a world of emulators out there, so even if I don't have the console I can still play. The idea occurred to me when I was googling out videos to find a way to solve the damn sheep puzzle that I was stuck at. Nothing I tried works, not even those on the forums. =.= Oh well some part of me feels bad for the piracy, but ohhhhhhhh.... the joy of playing those games that are out of your reach! Makes me happy to think about it =D

Now that I have "some" time to myself, shall draw up a proper schedule to manage my deadlines. Off to do it now, toodles and have a great weekend guys =)

Labels: school life, updates

Argghhhhhhhhhhhhh my GPU midterm is doubly screwed. I was so frustrated with my inability to write out the code even though I KNEW what I needed to do. It's that frustrating to try and grope around blindly, writing out and rubbing off the code over and over on the paper. And in the end, I handed a very sorry looking answer script that was mostly blank (for the coding parts) while emotionally shedding a tear in my heart ;_; please have mercy on me Prof Low.

Suddenly lots of money issues coming up. Desktop broke down, need to pay hp bills, school fees, money for outings, printer no ink etcetc... I can't wait for the year end to come till I can take out the money that I locked away. Underestimated the spending I'm doing this year. =( Shall cut down on my suppers and outings I guess.... anyway, I do believe I'm gaining quite a lot of weight due to this. Kns.

Currently watching K-on right now. Although I'm a sucker for fantasy/romance themes, this one managed to attract my attention and got me to sit down and keep watching it, which is an impressive feat. That and that it was so random and funny. My all time favourite is still Gintama though. Left with around 4 more episodes before I finish the 1st season...

Just finished and submitted 2 assignments due in a few hours' time, and decided to spend some time to relax. Makes me feel happier to chill for awhile in my own room :) It feels good to finally go home normally... like, going home when there is STILL bus service. Haha. What I lack is bubble tea to get into seventh heaven... will try getting it tomorrow? Tmr's going to be awesome: I only have stats lecture, no more lab for modelling, this week's even week so no japanese studies tutorial! More time to do my lab assignment for game dev. (k i sound like a workaholic...)

3am, nights all :)

Labels: random stuff, school life, updates

It's been way too long since I last visited my blog. Many times, I remember it's existence, but many times, I choose not to re-read its contents or update posts because of the memories.

I do not know whether I have moved on or not. My heart twists painfully at some points as I read through my old posts, these memories I have written here. The saving point of this was that this has always been the way it was between us. My lifestyle has not changed a single bit ever since the parting of ways, and this was because it has always been that way even though we were together. It makes it easier to cope somehow. Thinking back, that's really very sad to see, a relationship like this and if it is of any comfort, it was a good decision done by Kevin after all, because I would probably just hang on even though the relationship was way past the expiry date. It was a good wake up call for me.

Many times, I tell myself that memories are memories. I write them here as keepsakes, just like how I can't even bear to throw away my primary school birthday presents which was like more than 10 years ago. I'm happy that although I hardly update anymore, I decided to create this blog (on a whim initially) and make the effort to pour my thoughts into it. I'm not one who excels in writing a diary or a blog though. Somehow at the end of the day I find it tiring to go through the sequence of events of the day, unless it was something that had a huge impact on my life.

Why am I updating? I suppose it's just the mood I get sitting down in my room, with the steady patter of rain outside.. I've been quite busy lately, in the sense that I'm trying to catch up with all my friends, past and present and make new ones, and of course striving for certain goals in life. Honestly it is not easy to face my JC classmates, because that was where we met. I can tell that he avoids our outings like plague. It's easy to tell the reason, but of course, I would not know what was it that he feels to act like this. It could be that he felt guilty after the very thorough telling off I gave to him when we broke up (where I simply just whacked bad point after bad point about him... I wince when I think of that. Too harsh but I felt it was necessary ) , it could be because he just feels awkward and thinks that we should not talk to each other until time passes, well it could be millions of reasons. Whatever it is that he feels, I suppose it doesn't concern me anymore. I accept the reality of the situation, and I want to move on. I regularly attend my JC outings because I still treasure them as my friends. I'm doing it for myself and nothing more. Sometimes, it gets a little tired to maintain an uncaring face when he's around, to encourage myself to try and enjoy the outing, to know that they don't talk but have many questions about what has happened but time will pass and everything will just die down. And thankfully it is going that way.

I'm not trying hard to forget whatever that has happened in the past. They are, of course an integral part of me that has shaped my life. Whatever we had done together, I vividly remember. But memories are memories and they are going to stay that way forever. Of course, I will not proudly proclaim that I can meet him face to face and hold a normal conversation, but I'm glad that this has not hindered me in what I want to do.

Honestly it's odd, to write and praise/evaluate myself for how much I'm moving on. If I had to critique myself, I would probably say that people who have truly moved on would not even bother to write to tell themselves they have moved on, because it would show that they are merely trying to deceive themselves from reality and are still struggling. But ever since then, I feel a little emotionally detached, in the sense that I am not so emphatic towards things and I tend to handle my emotions a little more awkwardly, or should I say, logic > emotion (even though my CS1231 sucks big time). Maybe it's because I have started to view many things from a new perspective and am not experienced in handling the situation that way... I do not know. I'll just treat it as a learning process of rediscovering life then. And not to worry, I am absolutely NOT turning psychotic, demented, in need of counseling or other bullshit. I am perfectly normal, I just need some time to cope with new stuff that's coming up, but if you are truly concerned I appreciate that and thank you sincerely. But yeah, just know that I'm fine =)

Ok emo-ing shit aside, I'll try to make this blog a little less gloomy. I quite enjoy catching up with my friends, and it made me realise how much I have neglected the people around me, which again I regret. However it's a little hard to catch up without $$... haha I can't wait to graduate to get a real part time job =( My game artist aspiration is currently put on hold because of the slew of deadlines and tests that are just.... beyond madness. Next week I have around 4 deadlines on consecutive days, and I foresee a very jialat week of less sleep, hair-tearing(figurative) and the feeling of wanting to punch the lecturer. I hope when the exams end and december holidays come I can resume all the things I want to do.... which is quite a bit of stuff.

And annoyingly, my sister is jumping on me about guys that I happen to take photos with and post on my FB. Well as a sister, I can understand that she wants me to be happy but aiyah. I'm not going to tell her off, but where got people so fast get bf one -_- ... haha. And I realise people always keep trying to stir shit between me and random guys in our circles. Maybe they tried last time but always fail because I too oblivious when I was with Kevin, HAHAHAHA. It's quite funny really, but sometimes it gets awkward and I don't know what to say especially if the guy was present, even though it's amusing they think that way.

Chris says I'm a lot less grumpy this semester. I was surprised when I heard it, but when I thought about it I agree with him. That was because when I was still with kev, during the period of time when things were not going well (which is often) I tended to get really moody and irritated easily. After the break up, my mood naturally lifted. Frankly, yes the relationship was not helping me at all, but he's not the sole person to blame. I thank him for giving me a wake up call and thankfully I turned out to be a happier person. And I wish that he has of course become a happier person as well, moving on, finding new joys in life.

Enough ranting. I told myself to sleep 1 hour ago... god -_-. Minna, oyasumi. (omg I know how to write that in japanese, awesomesauce!)

Labels: thoughts, updates

Desktop fixed, hurray! Special thanks to ray ray, wei sheng and kevin (who says you are a computing student why don't you know these things!) and my parents.

After everything, I still have no clue as to why my desktop kept freezing, but there was an option during bootup that asked if I wanted to go to the last known working state of my computer - selected it and everything went happily ever after. I'm really happy because that very night I was feeling really handicapped with just my laptop left. Anyways, I think I will want to reformat my laptop during the vacation after all since it tends to lag (I haven't reformatted in 3 years, mind you and my warranty is expired).

Crisis aside, I have been watching youtube videos of those people doing painting in photoshop and these people are amazing. I wish I could be like them, and I really wonder how I'm going to get there. (Well if I could I would already be a shoo-in for that diploma application I think) It's a long long road.........

Tommorrow's going to be the start of my work. A little anxious, and I seriously wonder what I'm going to exactly do during work =S. And means I can't sleep late but I think I will because I'm super wide awake right now and it will probably carry on for the next few hours.

Meanwhile, I can't bear to see my atrocious drawings. And they aren't even part of my intended portfolio. argh -.-

Labels: updates