NTUBS

IV

• Journal

8 September 2013

This year’s National Science Olympiad (OSN) was held on this week, too. As always, I’m interested in monitoring the event of OSN in Informatics. It was heart-beating to monitor the public scoreboard of my juniors (and my supervisees). I somewhat could not concentrate on the lectures while I see the scoreboard. I just want them to get a medal and go to the training camp (Pelatnas). At last, Chalvin (from my province, different school; also joined OSN last year but did not get a medal) got a bronze medal; Febrian and Agus (my supervisee) got a bronze medal, Alva (friend of my supervisee who like to communicate with me) got a silver medal; William (my supervisee) did not get a medal; Andi (from my province, different school) did not get any medal, but I’m sure that his score almost made it to get a medal.

This week we got our first meeting in CZ1004: Great Ideas in Computing team (FS2 Team 2) at the double-screen monitor PC at Lee Wee Nam Library on Friday afternoon before the tutorial class, it was quite a short meeting but we brainstormed some ideas and shared the workload of the tasks.

NTU Buddhist Society on Friday evening held its Investiture, the ceremony of passing the positions from the 30th committees to the newly elected 31th committees. That day serves as my first day on duty as a NTUBS Resource Subcom as I helped bringing stuffs to NTUBS cabinet at Nanyang House.

This week marks my laptop’s 4th anniversary, which was bought in 4 September 2009. That time, the laptop, Acer Aspire 4810T, was quite cheap with mid-high specs: 320GB HDD, LED display, and 2GB RAM; what I did not know is, the processor is quite slow so it can conserve battery power more. The battery-saving mode was splendid, I ever run into using battery only for around 8 hours. Over years, the battery condition was still good too: it can still be used for 5 hours, with wi-fi.

On Saturday, I went to Comex at Singapore Expo (very far from NTU) to buy a new laptop, which will replace my current laptop. This laptop is Asus S46CB which features high-end specifications with reasonable price and it got ‘Ultrabook’ label. But I’ve tested the battery, the capacity is just around 2 hours. I need to adapt to this new environment and moves the data from the old one to the new one quickly. By the way, this post is the first post written at the new laptop.

On Thursday, I attended the NTU Student Union Recruitment Drive interview. I did quite bad at the interview for the design team as I couldn’t answer most of the questions asked and hey, for the logistics team interview, I did well; the results will be posted next Monday. Hope that I can quickly secure a hall point of 5 quickly. On Sunday, we went to Buddhist Fellowship to attend the Sunday service and went shopping at Fairprice, Jurong Point. Overall, this week is quite tiring but still fun, may the spirit of first week still burns!

3

• Journal

1 September 2013

This week is quite normal already, there were less and less CCA activities. I finally can come back to my hall room earlier.

The sad news is one of my friends, Marcellino, failed the medical check-up because he is diagnosed with tuberculosis and needed to go back to Medan to cure the disease, and can be admitted back to NTU after the disease is cured. Hence, he must wait until the next academic year to be admitted back to NTU. We celebrated the farewell party on Tuesday at Block 54 TV Lounge around 11pm.

Thursday was union day. On this day, some classes are cancelled because of the event. Union day is the day to cast our vote to elect our school club’s main committees. This day too, I met my academic mentor, Dr Li Mo, at his office. Our meeting was very short as it was just introducing myself and he get to know me a little bit. At evening, the make-up class for the union day was held. It was my first lecture at evening.

On Friday, many events happened. First, I almost late to attend the lecture at 0930 because of me doing laundry. Second, SCE held a student-mentor lunch at Nanyang Auditorium to gather all the mentors and students in which my mentor did not attend. Third, international students are to collect their student pass of which I collect around 1.30 pm. Lastly, at the evening, I attend NTU Buddhist Society Annual General Meeting which results in a new management committee. Actually, at the time of AGM, I also wanted to attend NTU Open Source Society Welcome Tea, but it was impossible to attend 2 events at the same time.

On Saturday, PINTU held a recreational game called T-SPRAY (Traditional Sports Day) 2013 which commemorates the 68th anniversary of Indonesia’s independence day. We also played modern games like Futsal and Captain’s Ball. The event was fun but it made me got tanned again.

On Sunday, I went to Buddhist Fellowship. This time, we got on time to attend the Sunday Service from the beginning. The dhamma talk is about happiness of giving, helping others, and unconditional love. At the evening, I went swimming and ate dinner at Canteen 1 of which I seen Dr Li Fang, lecturer of CZ1002, was there too but I was unsure so I didn’t greet her.

 

Second week

• Journal

25 August 2013

This week was more relaxed than the previous one but the academic lesson was busier.

On Monday, I had my first tutorial class at TR16 for the course CZ1005, Digital Logic, which the tutor I find was quite nice and friendly. On the evening, my orientation group (OG), Kelilingjengking, held a barbecue event at Hall 11 BBQ Pit while at the same time, my hall also held a “compulsory” welcome tea at the canteen which was very near to the BBQ Pit. Most of the time I spent at my OG’s BBQ, but I attend the Welcome Tea just at the beginning and at the end. In the beginning, the Welcome Tea kind of taking attendance and giving away free Coca Cola Zero. In the end, they held a free dinner and sold hall shirt which I bought one at 5 dollars. The barbecue was nice and fun although each had to pay 8 dollars.

Tuesday was Peter’s birthday. At lunch, he treated us a glass of orange juice then after lectures, he treated us an hour of Wii games. At the evening, I went to NTUBS sub-committee interview of which I applied for the position in resource and publication.

On Wednesday morning, I had almost missed my first lab session. Usually the lab sessions started on week 3 but this was unusual, it started at week 2! Time shows 0830, I’m at Lee Wee Nam library, started to using the public PC and will do the tutorial assignment for CZ1001 and HE9091 class at 1030. But an unexpected SMS came from Deka, who asked me if I did not come to the lab. I got panicked! I ran out of LWN and straight to level 5 of NS (which tutorial class was there), and then I checked the location code of the lab class. After that I ran to the 1st level of N4 and seen that there were many labs there and it was quite big. Finally, some minutes before 0900, I arrived at the lab class. Didn’t know what to do, I just read the lab manual and did what it said until the prof asked us to meet the members of group members we were assigned. I am one group with Gary Ng, Prakash Sekaran, and Liu Liling. We then brainstormed what will be the idea of our presentation in group project for the course.

In the afternoon, I went to LKC to complete the Student Pass formalities. Because of this, I got my CITS SA slot covered by Leonard Tanoto. Around 3pm, I was done and I played in the Red Week event of which I got a lucky draw ticket, then went to LWN until 6pm. After dinner, I went back to hall. This was the day where in the evening, there were no events.

At Thursday evening, there were ICN 2013 screening. Here, the ICN itself was good although I did not understand the message at the end of the story. The screening time was not that good as it reached midnight and there were no buses any more.

Friday was a relaxed day where I just got one hour lecture class only. After that, we went to play Wii again at SAC until before-lunch. After lunch, we went to Business Library for the first time. Here, although small compared to LWN Library, there were so many business related tools like iPad with business apps, computers which connects to Bloomberg, etc. After this, I went back to hall to do my laundry. The washing process of the free washing machine took time around one A Rush of Blood to the Head album which I listened while waiting at the TV Lounge. There, I met a security staff which was very friendly.

On Saturday, Computer Engineering Club held a rally, but I missed it because I woke up late and there were online contest from TOKI for OSN participants as a warm-up contest which I helped supervise. In the evening, I went to Warung PINTU which I ordered Nasi Uduk and Roti Bakar. The food was okay but I would say that it was quite costly. The board games provided was nice though.

On Sunday, seniors from Medan held “Medan Gathering 2013”, a gathering event for freshmen and seniors from Medan. First we gather at Hall 12 TV Lounge. There were introduction session then games session. After that, we went to lunch at Canteen 16. In the afternoon, we went to Labrador Park to play another games under the hot and sunny sun. After the games, we went to have an ice-cream and then had dinner together. Although the games was nice, the ones played at GTD was nicer and funnier because at GTD, the games were for competition while this one was just for fun. Thank you Filbert and Miechie for organizing this event.

First

• Journal

18 August 2013

This week (12-18 August) is the first week at NTU Academic Calendar.

At Monday, I got my first lecture at Lecture Theatre 2A from CZ1003: Introduction to Computational Thinking course at 1030-1130. That day before going to the course, I used the public computer of Lee Wee Nam Library for the first time. After the lectures, I went to the NTUSU Welcome Week browsing CCAs. I accidentally found there is NTU Open Source Society of which I put quite lot interest in. Maybe my high school should make a CCA week so the students will know what CCAs are offered in the school. Around 2pm, at the stage set by NTUSU, there are some question asked by the host and I answered it, then I was given a prize, it was my first time getting prize for answering question asked by a host from stage. The question was quite easy, he just asked who the president of NTUSU is.

At Tuesday, I registered myself to more CCAs like Board Games Society, C3, and Choir. Maybe I should drop choir as I don’t have much interest in it. The evening of Tuesday is the first time I attend a Dhamma Talk organized by NTU Buddhist Society.

Wednesday afternoon served as my first day working as Student Assistant at Centre for IT Services located at One Stop @ SAC (Student Activities Centre). For new SAs, they assigned a senior to work with us. Filbert, a senior of mine who also worked at CITS, got assigned to help me during my first shift. The evening, for the first time, many students (freshmen and seniors) who were from Medan gathered at Canteen 11 to have dinner together.

At Thursday evening, NTUSU held a Welcome Tea at Global Lounge. At the dinner session, everyone queued and I got the first to queue. Quite embarrassing, but I could overcome it. After the tea, I went to PINTU ICN 2014 Main Committee Interview session, it was my first interview session at NTU. I’m not confident that I could be recruited as I did not prepare anything for the interview.

Friday was very free. This day served as my first time borrowing book from a library. I borrowed “HTML5 Games: Creating Fun with HTML5, CSS3, and WebGL” from Lee Wee Nam Library. After finishing lecture at 1030, I went back to hall and did laundry. Waiting for the laundry, I watched TV at the hall TV Lounge for the first time. Then, I and Peter went to Jurong Point to shop at Fairprice and Valu. Then I joined NTUBS Welcome Tea at Hall 12 Function Hall. Before the tea began, we were grouped in many groups and played things together. Overall, the welcome tea was nice.

I intended to go to Indonesian Embassy at Saturday to commemorate the 68th anniversary of Indonesia, but I went up at 9 am in which the ceremony started at 9.30 am. I decided to cancel the plan and just watch the live streaming of Indonesian TVs which broadcast the flag ceremony. This is my first time having the Indonesian anniversary outside Indonesia. Then I went to Lasalle College (located near Bugis and Little India) to visit my friend Jessica. Satyananda came later. We then had dinner at Velocity (Novena) after visiting Jessica’s “home”.

At Sunday, I went to Buddhist Fellowship vihara at Pasir Panjang with friends and seniors. The dhamma talk there was about loving without getting hurt. The main points are love arise because of attachment and attachment will bring pain. At the evening, I (and friends) went swimming for the first time at NTU Sport and Recreation Centre (SRC). After that, we went to Canteen 1 to have dinner. This was my first time visiting the canteen.

This week was full of first event, I hope that subsequent weeks will be more fun.