31 January 2015
Finally BAW 2015 has ended. So far, it was the most tiring week after I become Resource Director.
On Monday, I did not attend CZ3001 lecture as it was “not at the right time”. I finished watching the recording of last week lecture. I published the revised Raun and then went for lectures: CZ2007, break, CM8003, break, and finally CZ3005. I found CZ3005 lecture was not very valuable to attend: the CZ3005 lecturer spent first half an hour answering and sharing students email and his teaching pace was really slow. Going back, I did nothing productive (and half-heartedly did tutorial) before going to Hall 12 to celebrate Dion’s birthday.
On Tuesday, I went for CZ2006 lecture and then lab where the group work has officially started. After a quick-lunch, I helped Jeff moving a poster stand from SIMTech to our temporary store-room at NBS borrowed from Prof Tan, our staff advisor. I was late for tutorial of CZ2007 but can catch up eventually. After that, I went back to have a nap before moving stuffs with Ivan & Si Hui from my room to NBS; and then from SMPS to NBS; and finally from Jeff’s room to NBS. IT WAS REALLY TIRING (and annoying at the same time as Jeff was just can’t be quiet for a minute). After finishing all those stuffs (and accidentally skipped CZ3001 tutorial), I went to NYH meeting Evando and Martin; and after that, I went back to my room and rested while finishing some tutorials.
On Wednesday, it was BAW day 1. I woke up quite early (0645) and after very quick breakfast, I went to meet the others at LKC Terrace and went to Prof Tan’s room to start moving stuffs to the BAW booth located at Linkway of NS & SS (beside CBTL). I was also in-charge in setting up the booth for a moment while Jeff was gone. At 0930 I went to my CZ2006 tutorial in which the pace was nice although the tutor was so high-spirited. After that I went back to BAW booth volunteering for the booths. After lunch, I still continue this volunteer work until 1500 where I was gone for a seminar conducted by Hon Hsiau-Wen, the Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia, talking about what Microsoft have researched and its impact to the society. Basically he talked about: Xiao Ice (which is like Cortana, but different in usage as Xiao Ice is a chatbot while Cortana is a personal assistant), HoloLens, and Smart City. After that, we were provided some refreshment and then I went to Canteen B for my early dinner before MDT class which was quite boring as we were only presented all examples for the whole seminar, but actually was quite useful as there were numerous tricks (and I was tricked during the In-Class Exercise). After that I went back to my room and revised my URECA Poster and rested.
On Thursday, I woke up feeling half-dead due to sleep deprivation, after moving stuffs again from Prof Tan’s room and quickly setup the booth. After that I went to booth, settled some stuffs, and then went to NYH taking some free distribution books to the booth as it seems to be quite popular. Then when I was back, it was time for lecture and hence I went to CZ2006 lecture which was very boring as it repeated materials that were taught in CZ2002 OODP (UML Class Diagram). After lunch, since I had some free time, I visited the booth to stay there for a while before going for CZ2007 and CZ3005 lectures. After that, I went back to the booth, skipping CM8003 lecture. We started to pack up around 1630 and around 1710 I and Marcel, having pack up essential stuffs, went to NYH to set up the meditation class (while the rest were packing up BAW stuffs and put them into Prof Tan’s room). It was around 1800 that we have finished setting up and we had a lot of time: we then went for a dinner before going back there. The meditation class, conducted by Ven Chuan Guan, was quite nice. I learned that there were various posture for the legs and the correct was of naturally straighten the spine. Besides that, the class were full of new faces, due to BAW. After the class, we quickly packed up and went back. Whew, finally it was done, although the aftermath will be just as hard.
Friday started quite late around 8 am and I did CZ3005 tutorial and some Wikipedia stuffs before going to NYH retrieving trolley for moving stuffs for BAW aftermath. When I went to NBS meeting Jeff at Prof Tan’s room, I met Prof Tan along the Nanyang Lake road. At first, he did not recognize me and then I just walked by when he parked his car there. After that, when I reached NBS, we were in the same lift going up. Well, it seemed that no matter what, we were destined to meet :P He first apologized for not going to the BAW as he was very busy and then wanted to see how much stuffs were stored in the room and he offered help to move the stuffs using his car. Well, it was really helpful, and he was really smart: we managed to use only 1 trip to move the stuffs down to the NBS carpark (we utilized the trolley fully plus the wheeled desk chair of NBS :P ). Next, we were driven to my hall, at hall 4, but alas, I forgot my room key which I put inside my bag which is at his room. He actually drove me back to NBS and then back to Hall 4 before going. I really appreciate his help as if not for his help, I and Jeff wouldn’t make it in one trip. Nevertheless, that’s just the beginning. After we settled the stuffs to my room, we went back to NBS to return the exhibition boards to SPMS. After that, I had lunch before accompanying him to do the last work: returning exhibition pole to SIMTech. After this, I went back to my hall, having a rest and printed my URECA Poster (in A4 size) before going to CZ3005 tutorial. After this tutorial, I & Edwin met Prof Sun, having his approval of the poster and then submit it to URECA Program Office (at N3, MAE).
After this, I rushed to NYH, meeting Jeff & Ivan to prepare for NTUBS Dharma Talk (by Prof Tan Hun Tong) that will be held that night at LT 15 (at North Spine). We went there early but upon arrival, I had this little crisis: I lost the bag full of pens in which were presumed fell out during we alight the bus which was full of people. As experience taught me (during CNS 2014, as logistic manager), I stayed calm, talked to people, and resolve it. The point is that those items can’t be used for the event already, hence we need to find alternatives instead of regretting and finding those items over and over. After a dinner at Can A, I went back to the LT and waited until Prof Tan came and started the talk. He talked about the path as a human, reflecting on how lucky we are to be born as human because human has this cognition ability and has wider expression; also on we can be dead any time [and 2 more reflections, but I can’t remember it]. Besides that, he also talked about how creation of stuffs (even concepts) acts as impediment to enlightenment as we were constrained to what society have taught itself, like the cycle of: “go to primary school -> secondary school -> high school -> university -> get a job -> get married -> have kids -> get old -> die”. He also touched on how we should be more genuine and not acts on how society wanted to see even tough we can feel vulnerable by expressing our true feeling. He shared on how he acted when he was appointed the head of department and hides his feeling at all for the sake of his work. He then realized this and then started to change this. It was a nice talk and after it ends, we were presented refreshments by the Metta team (and it was a lot of food). Next, Resource team packed up and went to NYH to store the stuffs. And finally, the BAW, including its aftermath, were done! Yay!
Saturday started early as I met Martin at NYH at 0900 and then I went to the first meeting of ICPC Training at TR+4 which were a briefing on what the series of training looks like for the rest of the year. Apparently, we will be trained individually for this Semester 2 and then when the summer holiday started, we will be asked to formed a team and finally when Semester 1 started, we will be trained as a team for ICPC Regional Contest. And there will be a Regional Contest in Singapore for 2015 (which will be held at end-2015 hosted by NUS School of Computing). After this, I had lunch and then had free time at LWN before CZ2006 2nd group meeting until 4pm. Next, I went back and then did some Wikipedia stuffs, dinner, laundry, lecture recording, and then Codeforces contest (which I was late to enter by 27 minutes, and hence with only 2 Accepted problems, my rating dropped although my friend’s rating rose albeit the same number of AC).
I woke up super late on Sunday. Before I slept the day before, since I read somewhere that making my phone silent will still fire off the alarm, I tried it, and the alarm did not ring at all, and hence I woke up at 1030. Feeling miserable of overslept, I did code some of my idea that struck me the moment before I slept. After lunch, I started to watch my lecture recordings and around 5pm went swimming at SRC with Filbert, Handoko, and Leonard (Tanoto). I swam the usual 2*5*8 round of the swimming pool width. It was tiring, but nice at the same time. After dinner, I went back and ended the day by continuing in watching lecture recording while experimented some JavaScript in Wikipedia.
I was really relieved that BAW 2015 has ended. Although it results in space usage in my room, now I can focus on my study and other works. I was thinking of applying for internship for filling my summer holiday, or for WMF Scholarship for attending Wikimania 2015. Let’s see if they can be real.