16 September 2014
Recently, I’ve experienced a hard time to write since I was quite busy, even sacrificing sleep time for doing stuffs. These two weeks had been a very busy and tiring one, and luckily I managed to find time to write it down.
Week 4 was my first week being NTUBS Resource Director. Although newly elected, I basically know most stuffs already as I had experience as Resource subcom and as CNS 2014 Logistic Manager. That being said, I still find it hard to have free time.* (time where even Facebook is boring, and started to think other stuffs)
On Monday, I started the day with CZ2002 tutorial where fewer people attended and then continued by CZ2001 Example Class. Here, we were grouped and presents the solution of problems. I met some new friends here. At night, I went to NYH as Thiri, the new Metta Director, intend to take some stuffs out from the cabinet.
On Tuesday, I had morning lecture, continued with CZ2001 tutorial and then afternoon lecture. As the lecturer was not available, the CZ2004 lecture was cancelled, and we were told to watch previous years’ lecture recording. Then I met some of my subcoms in a dinner where I’d say it went on quite well although I still find there were some awkward moment of silence. At night, I went for the first meeting of my competition group of ABCC SEC 2014, where we discussed the matter until quite late.
On Wednesday, I had my first CZ2002 lab, where it was quite easy and I finished the lab in an hour where I went back to my hall for nap and lunch before going to HW0210 tutorial which discussed about literature review. At night, I started to do slides for Resource first meeting. Out of tradition using PowerPoint, I used reveal.js and put it online.
On Thursday, I had morning lecture and continued with a quick tutorial. In the afternoon, I skipped BU8301 lecture to go to Google Asia-Pacific Recruitment Talk (for Software Engineers). Inside, besides getting to know the popular “Google interview questions”, we were also given tips for preparing to Google’s interview. Well, it was quite hard, since there were at least 6 stage of interviews before being recruited, and to be even offered an interview, we need to take APAC test, a Google Codejam-like competition. After the talk, I went to BU8301 tutorial and then at night I went to NTUBS Investiture briefing.
On Friday, after the tiring 4-hour marathon of lectures and tutorials, I went to lunch and then to Shienny’s room, collecting NTUBS publication, Prajna, and newsletter, Pattra, to be stored in Nanyang House. Well, the journey was super tiring, it’s like having all your one-day energy drained since the path was sloppy and NYH was located on top of a hill. After some times of rest at NYH, I went to SCE to meet my URECA prof, talking about our project for a while and then I went to Ivan’s room and NYH, moving stuffs, together with my subcoms, to LT8 for setting up NTUBS Investiture.NTUBS Investiture is the official pass-down ceremony to the new committee. Here, I wore formal again, but this time not jeans as previously I was highly being questioned because of that. It was this time that finally I had some rest, listening to speeches and Dhamma talk by Venerable Chuan Guan. After event, they took some times first before we were able to clean up the mess and move stuffs back to Ivan’s room (since NYH is closed already at that time).
On Saturday, it was the 2nd ICPC training session, here the normal sequence commenced with warm-up, discussion, and then group contest, where our group performed 2nd. After that, I went back for a rest before going for SEC 2014 meeting again, with Leonard, Alwyn, and Filbert, where we discussed until quite late.
On Sunday, we started the day with lunch at KFC, did the discussion till 4pm where I continued to meet Aristo & Peter for an online contest (“Colombian Programming Contest” at uVa) which is recommended by the trainer that also contributes a factor of team selection for Regional ICPC. We finished #9 overall and #2 if filtering the groups from NTU. After this tiring contest, they left and I continued with SEC meeting till very late.
On Monday, I woke up to face morning meeting of HW0210, discussing our project proposal, then the 2nd lab of CZ2004, which we used the opportunity to ask questions to the supervisor. After that, I went back and went to NTUBS MC dinner at Pitchstop, which is full, and we moved to Canteen B :( After dinner, I continued to SEC meeting at SSLP and chiong the executive summary and bits of the presentation slides until dawn, 5am, where I arrived in my room at 6 am and sleep for 4 hours before I woke up, had lunch and then went for tutorials and lectures in messy mind. I had nap later and then went to CEC Recuritment, where I applied for IT and PnP position, and finally for the very final meeting of SEC (since the deadline is that day at 2359) to finalize the materials, send, and celebrate the end of suffering.
On Wednesday, I had early morning lab on CZ2005, about introduction to simulating NachOS in Fedora. After that, I had a nap before going to LWN to print HW0210 proposal and then submit the proposal to our tutor, where she asked some questions which we can tackle all of them. Then I continued my nap before having dinner with Resource team, and had our first meeting at Hall 13 Block 61 TV Lounge. Personally, I think my presentation was just like a lecture, where no ideas came up from the audience. And I never though that they laughed so hard at my lame jokes that I put up in the slides.
On Thursday, I had again early morning lecture, continued with CZ2001 Example Class 2 meeting, where we discussed on how we should work. Then I went to BU8301 lecture and tutorial with a lunch between them. After that, I had a nap first before going to CITS duty, where I did my HCI draft and continued my URECA. I think that this 4 hours is a very productive one.
On Friday, I had lectures, tutorial, lunch, then labs. After that, I went to take Ivan’s room key and continued to NYH for Thiri to take out some Metta stuffs, and I continued my nap before I went to Canteen 1 for dinner together with MCs and DP subcoms that help to prepare the Dharma Class. The class speaker is Bro Kweh, discussing about what Buddhism is not about, religion, spiritualism, and Buddhism itself. Then we got refreshments from Metta and song singing session from Fellowship. After cleaning up, I went back to prepare slides for MC meeting the next day.
On Saturday, I woke up quite early (as I slept quite late) and went to MC meeting, which started with an interview workshop, where I experienced a number of interviewee types (including one like me), then continued with a lunch at Canteen A. After that, we started the MC meeting that lasts for around 4 hours and we proceed to dinner together. Going back, I arrived in my room at 9pm, starting to do my HCI final sketch, doing laundry, and then finally the write-up.
On Sunday, I woke up late!!! I intended to wake up around 7 for going to PMT for Sis Sylvia Bay’s talk but then my Nokia E-72 (now only functions as alarm clock) did not ring (dunno why). It was 8.46am that I woke up and I directly tell Dhika (who jio people to join to PMT) that I won’t come since I calculated that I will be too late for the talk. But he said that I can come and be late for the talk. Well, then I engaged in panic mode, doing everything very quickly, then took bus to Boon Lay and then a direct bus to PMT. Woah, I was on time for her talk (skipped the opening puja, etc). There, only Dhika, Hutama, and Dian was attending the talk. Her talk was about practicing Dhamma in daily life, practicing precepts, doing meditation before sleep, having positive thought when wake up, and others (which I can’t remember). After lunch, we went back to the hall and there was a small “Awaken Challenge 2014 Meetup” and prize presentation. After that, we went back, stopping by Fairprice, and I had a nap before continuing my HCI write-up. For dinner, I went to Samudaya outing at Hall 17, Chun Wah’s TV Lounge for a steamboat. Shienny, Jeff, Hui Lin, Stephen, Thiri, and CT also joined too. Here we had lots of fun while eating a lot. After I went back, I had some rest first before going to celebrate Zillion’s birthday at midnight at his hall together with friends.This two weeks had been a very busy one. Hope that I can survive the rest of the semester while continue writing blog weekly.:)
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