Materials Science and Art Exhibition

Phew... it was very tiring... I just got home...

Yesterday (note the date-line above) I did my materials science paper. It comprised only one part, all by Prof. Philip Cheang. I didn't know how to describe it; was it a battle? Or was it a turmoil of mind?

The questions were supposed not to be difficult. Almost every points in the paper were covered in the lecture notes. Yet... since the lecture notes themselves weren't very lucid, I got trouble studying. I decided to study from the textbook... and found that it was way easier and more comprehensible. Well, since I skipped ALL lectures about phase diagram, and the notes from that part couldn't be anymore convoluted than they already were, I got no choice but to self-study from the book. And hey, it wasn't that hard.

BUT... there were unexpected questions. One, describe—with sketch—the mechanism of propagation of microscopic striations. Two, discuss the change of the profile on solidus line if a metal alloy is to be cooled from the liquidus line to the solidus line. Just what on earth were those questions? The former was still ok, but the latter... Maria said that if you hadn't attended the lecture on phase diagram, you wouldn't be able to answer it. I guess it held true.

Anyway... after the exam, I ate ayam penyet, just to kill some time, at Broadway Foodcourt. It was nice... one serving of it only costs $3, and also quite satiating. I must say, it's a good alternative if you can't go out to Bukit Batok, Orchard, whatever. And what's more, it can save you a considerable amount of money... hahaha...

Afterwards, responding to Cumi's (Dennice's) invitation the day before to enjoy an art exhibition and have dinner, I went down to ADM (school of art, design, and media), his school.

I was a bit late, but the dinner hadn't started yet, so I was given a small tour by Cumi to observe the magnificent exhibits. Not long, Tommy and Charlie came to join. We took wine. It was delicious, but... Tommy couldn't stand it, so he gave me ALL his wine (he still got half a glass of it), which made me very dizzy. I had to dump it, darn... it was ok though, after all they gave the wine for free... =P

We then watched a movie screening boasting the skills of animation students. The screening itself was splendid, but took too long. Tommy repeatedly complained and said how he longs for food. So, to keep him (and me) contented, we rushed for food as soon as the screening was over.

There were all sorts of food, ranging from sushi to pasta. Too bad for us, the sushi had been swept clean when we were still watching the animation screening! Aaaahh... so we had to try something else. Didn't matter though; there was abundant food.

And so... we finished eating. Tommy and Charlie went back, while Cumi and I stayed. We went around to see more exhibits. Cumi showed me the studios of ADM; they are used for painting class. He said that there's always a model for the painting session, either a man or a woman... and sometimes, if you are lucky enough to have a woman model, there are some chance that she would be nude... huaaa... *pining mode on*

After seeing all exhibits, we took a rest on the student lounge, went to the pond, and played with a Swiss ball taken from the pond. We even took a photo of ourselves... so twisted.

Cumi, playing Swiss ball. Posted without his permission =P

All of these were done just to wait for Astrini's birthday party, which dragged for almost 1 hour.

After a period of waiting, finally the party took place. It was so amusing; Astrini and Jimot performed a duet. They sang Fixing a Broken Heart, just like when they were auditioned for T-Spray musical. It's not common to see such things here, you know... so moments like those have to be enjoyed... =)

And so here I am, lethargic. I could have written more if I didn't have exam on Monday. Aaaahhh... organic chemistry sucks...

See you next post, hopefully on Monday. Lest I can't, I'll be sure to post after anatomy & physiology exam.

Engineering Physics

The battle was unexpectedly hard...

Again, the paper comprised 2 parts. Number 1 and 2 were the manifestation of Prof. Lee Kijoon's mind, while number 3 and 4 Prof. Björn Neu's.

Prof. Lee's part was conceptual, with a few calculation-type problems. Most of them are of a-little-bit-hard difficulty level (yet he assigned equal marks, 5 points, for each question), and I was really clueless at the beginning, "What should I do with this?" Well, at least I managed to answer all the questions, albeit some of them might have been only garbled scribblings. Only heaven knows. What's worse, I fell victim to a simple, stupid mistake... ok, I have written Xc = Xl, and derived 1/2πfC = 2πfL from there. I stupidly CANCEL the 2πf out... and I didn't realize it, not until the very last second... I managed to correct the value of capacitance by setting C = 1/[L(2πf)^2], but still didn't have enough time to calculate the capacitor reactance needed for impedance... so careless and stupid...

Prof. Neu's part was pretty much the focus of this paper. His mark-assignment was more brutal (e.g. there was one that weighed 10 marks) than that of Prof. Lee's; consequently there were far fewer questions. Although not as convoluted as the first part, of course, the problems were still difficult and, in fact, able to provoke bafflement. The questions themselves were not easy to perceive, and again, I was left partially perplexed. Again, I managed to answer all questions, but still... chances are what I wrote on the answer book was more of refuse. Aaahh...

Pretty frustrated, I left the exam hall. Although I knew that it was over and we couldn't seem to make any difference despite our reaction, I was still a little bit more than down.

We could only pray and wait for the results to be released, not forgetting to hope for the best...

Mathematics for Engineers B

A big battle for my first exam in semester 2...

The maths paper comprised 2 parts. The first 4 numbers were Prof. Wang Xin's crafts of art, while the last 4 numbers Prof. Xu Rong's.

Prof. Wang's part, albeit not very easy, was humane. The problem set was very similar to that of last year's. The most irritating fact was that his part was more of a game of plus / minus signs; that is, a small mistake in sign could be outright fatal. As for myself, I nearly calculated -∂F/∂y (note the minus sign) where F = 3x^2 - 8y^2 as -16y, while it should have been 16y. Sigh... I was lucky I spotted that sick little mistake before the time was up...

Prof. Xu's part... this was the nightmare of all candidates. She--a brainy, beautiful beast--is infamous for "unleashing" notorious, near-impossible-to-solve problems on the previous quiz (hence the nickname "beast"), and on this exam, that was no exception. She was made even more infamous for her dastardly Laplacian. The equation seemed so much to be lacking necessary boundary conditions... many couldn't solve the problem. I've heard some students complained how Prof. Xu ruthlessly attacked them with her upper-half plane Laplacian. I myself could only cover 2 of 4 from her part.

Yet... now it's no use to mourn on our mistakes. It's become a sunk cost. What we can do now is to expect yet another battle. Knowing that, we should prepare ourselves hard to confront the remaining exams.

At least, from now on, SCBE freshies can speak about maths in past tense.

Good luck everyone on your exam! GBU! ^.^

P.S.: For those taking Physics exam and wasn't sure about the outcome, cheer up! Many said that the paper was hellish, so chances are the standard will not be very high as well. You can still score an A+! =)

I Hate Fogging!

The title itself is self-explanatory.

I do hate fogging. The smoke inevitably seeps in my room through small gaps above and under the door and windows. My room smells horrendous. My blanket, pillow, bolster, and bedcover do too. My saucepan, bowl, mug, spoon, and fork are contaminated. Even worse, my clothes--which are being dried--are literally SMOKED! Arghhh...

Wait... they always fog when my clothes are being dried! Oh, shit... I hate this...

I know... I know it's done as a precaution against dengue fever, malaria, or many other nasty maladies... but still... T_T

I guess it can't be helped after all... it's better to wear a horribly dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane-smelling clothes rather than having myself troubled with dengue fever, despite DDT possessing its own danger...

He Saves

I found this humor in the November 2007 issue of the Canticle, NTUCSA's bulletin. I think I can share it with you. I edited it though to add more spices onto it.

Oh, it's slightly religious in nature, so please bear with it.

Jesus and Satan were having an ongoing argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly, God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough."

"I am going to give you a test that will run for two hours. From the results, I will judge who does the better job!"

So, Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. They faxed. They emailed. They emailed with attachments. They downloaded. They did spreadsheets. They wrote reports. They created labels and cards. They created charts and graphs. They did some genealogy reports. They did every job known to man. Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed.

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers.

Satan searched frantically, screaming, "IT'S ALL GONE!!! I lost everything when the power went out!!!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate.

"Wait!" he screamed, "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any!?"

Seeing that Satan could not accept his loss, God said, "It is simple... he does something you do not."

Satan asked, "What? What's that supposed to be?"

God just shrugged and said again, "Jesus SAVES..."

Vocation

Hi there. I don't know why, but lately I've been slightly more insightful to these things commonly referred to as "values of life". If you see my recent posts, chances are you recognized their reflective and spiritual nature, also as indicated by the tags "Spiritual", "Life", and "Friendship".

Now, to the main course of this post...

Yesterday (and this morning) I attended the Mass of the 4th Sunday of Easter. Fr. Michal Gitner, one of my favorite priests, elaborated on the homily the importance of this special work--or should I say in more appropriate word, commitment--called vocation.

What is this vocation? What makes it singular, or distinctive, relative to that usual work?

According to the Encarta Dictionary, vocation can be comprehended in two senses:

1. somebody's work, job, or profession, especially a type of job demanding special commitment

2. a strong feeling of being destined or called to undertake a specific type of work, especially a sense of being chosen by God for religious work or a religious life

What the dictionary says is of no difference from what Fr. Michal opined during both Masses. From how he elucidated his views, one could observe that he is outright serious in taking his vocation. He also told us how his family deeply influenced his spiritual life... that made each and every attendant--who, at the moment, was able to visualize or take a glimpse on his family--believe that he came from a faith-affluent family. This holds true, after all.

Fr. Michal seemed to be very proud of his family. He described them as being "down-to-earth faithful", and how they ignited sparks of religious life within him. He recalled, "... I remember every 4.05 in the evening, my family would kneel and pray. They are not fanatical, no; they simply practice Catholic faith..." That's what vocation is, the nearly 50-years-old priest said: to immerse yourself in commitment and to take what you do seriously. "To be a priest... that's also a vocation. So is to live a married life... and to be single," he said. As a trivia, he also expressed how he revels in spending his holiday with his parents and sister.

Now, we should refer back to the fundamental sense of vocation: to be extremely committed to carry out our activities. When we put it that way, we can associate almost everything with vocation. Take our responsibility as students, for instance. Most probably, only a handful of us realize that this particular case can actually be considered a vocation. Many fail to understand the very basic meaning of the process of learning itself, since they have shifted orientation into "taking education for granted". Some are committed, but it is not as an endeavor to seek for the paramount. And if one is claimed by others to be steadfast to be able to sprout the best flower, not for failing to see their true significance... glad are they.

Why is it that this process can be considered a vocation? Well, simply because it requires a fervent commitment, continuously from time to time. You may ask, "Big deal. What happens if we do have that commitment?" It is rhetorical, isn't it? Let us instead elaborate on what does not happen with that commitment; or maybe, for sake of common sense, what happens if we do not have that commitment. All of us must have heard various cases of people dropping out their education, deviating from their purposes of studying, or even getting themselves reeled in a string of educational concerns. These three horrendous cases are but a tiny wee bit of all plausible consequences of not having the aforementioned commitment. Take this process of learning seriously and selflessly, and chances are we have the right to thrive and blossom. As we immerse ourselves in the progress, we gradually pick up all those cognizance offered by the spring of wisdom itself, which, in turn, aids us in developing our acumen and broadening our horizon.

The instance of learning above was just one of the many cases we can consider a vocation. Now, why don't we try to reflect on our own commitment, and find out if it is apt enough to be taken into account as our own present vocation.

God bless all of us =)

Wheel of Life

Hari ini aku melewati quiz anatomy & physiology.

Dalam mengerjakan soalnya, aku salah antara 15 - 20 soal dari 50 soal. Sementara aku berpikir, "Itu karena aku kurang belajar." Kemudian aku berpikir. Mereka yang biasanya mendapat nilai yang bagus. Mereka yang jauh superior di atasku. Beban yang mereka pikul sangat berat. Beban psikologis. Beban emosional. Pikiran-pikiran yang mengganggu, "Mau ke mana kamu jika nilaimu jatuh? Di mana akan kamu sembunyikan mukamu?"

Aku memang bukan tipe orang yang terlalu peduli akan nilai. Terus terang, aku termasuk orang yang puas dengan hasil yang termasuk pas-pasan. Aku tahu bahwa itu tidak baik untukku. Namun, dari sini, aku melihat sisi lain dari sebuah perjuangan... bagaimana seseorang (katakanlah, orang itu adalah kamu) harus menyokong nilainya yang sudah bagus itu? Kamu harus berjuang dengan segenap tenaga, bukan? Sebab, dengan nilai yang bagus itu, kemungkinan untuk menjadi lebih baik jauh lebih kecil dibandingkan dengan kemungkinan untuk tergusur ke tempat yang menurutmu lebih tidak layak, atau dengan sangat kasar kita bisa mengatakan bahwa "orang-orang yang nilainya bagus tidak bisa ke mana-mana lagi selain turun". Dan itulah akibatnya jika mereka tidak berjuang untuk mempertahankan nilainya.

Namun, seperti seorang teman katakan kepadaku, sebagaimana roda terus berputar, kehidupan pun berputar. Ada kalanya kita menikmati angin segar di atas roda, ada kalanya kita terhimpit di bawah roda. Hidup adalah kumpulan dari berbagai macam siklus. Dengan merasakan bagaimana sakitnya terhimpit roda tersebut, kita berusaha untuk menjadi lebih baik lagi. Sebagaimana pensil harus selalu diraut agar tetap runcing dan besi harus ditempa agar keras, sesekali manusia pun harus dipaparkan kepada pengalaman pahit untuk mencapai pengalaman baik. "No pain, no gain," ujar sebuah pepatah. Positif dan negatif yang bagaikan antimateri satu sama lain itu sangat penting; sebagai contoh, jika tidak ada "kesalahan", maka kita tidak akan pernah mengetahui "kebenaran".