Gotten A 3 Semester Project

Yeah, finally! I should have gotten the project on Tuesday though. However the course co-ordinator who uploads all the project proposals, has uploaded my project in the wrong folder. There are 4 streams in Engineering department, Electrical, Communication, Computer and Electronic. The co-ordinator uploaded my project which is supposed to be in Electronic, to Computer and went for a 9 weeks vacation; furthermore he was a temporary co-ordinator, 'half-hearted'. I went to look for the discipline of Electronic whether the project can proceed with just 1 student. My supervisor is not sure as he is from a different department (explained below). The discipline said it is no problem but he needs to clarify if this project is under his authority since it is in a different folder and he told me to wait until he has sorted out with the other discipline. I finally got the approval on Thursday.

My project is 'Design a Camera Mouse for Papertrail'. It is to integrate a camera underneath the mouse, not the camera with the mouse software. Just do a 'cameramouse' search online for those who do not know what I mean. Papertrail is a software use to verify the authenticity of a document. I will find out more from my supervisor during our 1st meeting which is next week. My supervisor is from the Maths department, yeah maths. He came up with this proposal as he has been using a webcam for the software. A 2nd supervisor from my department will be involved too. He is the Chief Technical Officer of my department!

This project came out last Thursday as my supervisor does not know the Engineering system well. This turn out to be my lucky charm. I immediately applied for it. I found out that I was the only 1 who applied. Guess I was the only 1 without a project at that time and the only 1 who will start at next week. The other groups had already started 1 week ago! All the project groups are supposed to submit a 'Requirement Analysis' the next following week! I am definitely gonna ask for an extension!

A small incident happened during 1 of my computer labs. A very common mistake for careless people. I forgot to take my thumbdrive out of the USB port! Fortunately it was still plug into the USB port when I got back after 1/2 hr. Lucky!
posted by Estan @ 5:51:00 AM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Something funny

Went alone to a Shanghai restaurant for lunch today during my 1 hour break. It has the cheapest noodle dishes I know from all the other venues I had been to. It was crowded so the service crew placed me in a 4 seat table. During my meal, an Aussie lady wanted to sit on my table diagonally. She asked if the seat was "free". I shook my head before she finished her sentence. She was stunned. I was almost finishing with my meal and clearly there were no one around me, thus, she repeated her question. This time I nodded my head and she pulled out the chair and sat on it. I could not help but repeat what had happened in my mind. It had never happen to me before in Singapore. People there never use the word "free", they usually use "taken". Then I thought about how come we never use "free" and I started to wonder what would it be like if we use "free" in the phrase.
posted by Estan @ 10:21:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Moving On

Attended my advanced electronic laboratory today, have to be in groups of 3. I am group together with a Malaysian and an 'African', I use 'African' as I do not know where the place he is from even after he told me. However, he did tell me that it is somewhere near South Africa so I use 'African' and yes, his skin colour is black. It was fun during the laboratory, as my practical was 1 of my strength in poly. All the cables, circuit board, power supply, signal generator, oscilloscope...etc. However the oscilloscope is the only 1 I recall how to use as it is the exact same model in my poly. The rest is like an upgrade; having a hard time learning but it was fun.

Form with another group in another subject, an Aussie and an 'African'. This 'African' looks more like an Asian than an 'African' and no, his skin colour is not black. We had a lengthy chat, seems like we will get along quite well, oh, they are all males by the way. I could not find my course co-ordinator, went to his office like 4-5 times on different timings. He also did not reply my email so it is highly and likely that he did not come to work today. Hope I can find him tomorrow.
posted by Estan @ 11:01:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

The Lowest Point of My Life

The past 2 days can be considered to be the lowest point in my life. 1st, I received a letter from my school, confirming I will be taking 2 sup. paper. 2nd, my friends decided to omit me from their 3 semester project group. It was hard for them to made the decision. There were several reasons behind. Depending on what angle you look at, it can be genuine or just plain simple excuses. The 2nd one covers more of my 'lowest point' as I was in such a high spirit before when I heard their module has been unified with mine. Knowing that we will be together for the rest of our undergraduate days after we select a project. Funny how humans are, I came over here alone, prepared to be alone for these 2 years but after knowing them, I have grown so attached to them. We are seeing each other practically everyday, 1 of them even joke that we are family. Well, not all families are perfect, there are bound to be some ups and downs. All I know is from now on I will be all by myself for most of my academic life, after all. Now I have to move forward, gonna look for my course co-ordinator in the morning, tell him my situation and hope he can find a project that interests me and group me with decent group members.
posted by Estan @ 12:23:00 AM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Gotten A Free Meal & A Free Movie Ticket!

My friends asked me out for movie 'Fantastic 4'. Usually I would turned it down as I have other means of watching but I tagged along anyway. Guess it was due to the tension about yesterday's results and I only found out I had to take supplementary papers this morning. The results online did not specify pass or fail but with some initials not clearly stated. All the while my mind was thinking the worst scenario. Now, I just need to wait for the supplementary paper date to be finalized. Back to the topic, after the movies, we went to eat buffet, after that my friends went to the casino. 2 of them wanted to play the Russian roulette with $20 however they did not dare to ask the service crew to change for them as other people changed with $50 or higher. I, with some casino experience changed for them, they won around $70 each. Since they were very happy with the money so I voiced out that I was the 1 who dared to change the money for them. In return they paid for the buffet and the movie ticket which was around $20!
posted by Estan @ 11:07:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Good News, Bad News & Somewhat Neutral News

Yesterday was the start of 2nd semester and the released of 1st semester results. The bad news 1st, I passed 2 out of 4 subjects & did not pass the other 2. Somewhat neutral news, The other 2 subjects that I did not pass were not consider fail, they both fall in the category that I will be able to take supplementary papers. 1 subject is confirmed while the other is still considering whether to take supplementary paper or a 'faculty' pass (term from aussie friends). Now the good news is that my friends and I will be reunited to take the 3 semester project together as their original module has been unified with mine. A lift off the shoulder as I was not able to get any project alone.
posted by Estan @ 11:24:00 AM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

12 Apostles Changed

2 days ago, 1 of the Apostles collapses into the sea. It is kind of funny recalling that my girlfriend and I just went there on on 25/06, 8 days before it collapsed. Here is the article with the photo before and after the collapsed.
posted by Estan @ 8:30:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Hit By A Tram

Went to eat buffet with my friends. Since the place was quite far from our apartment so we took a tram. City Circle, a free tram that circles around the city. The tram was supposed take us to a location near the buffet however I did not know whether if it was Sunday or part of the rail is still on re-construction, the tram terminated half way. All the commuters got off the tram and crowded outside the tram not knowing what to do or thinking of what to do next. My friends and I were the last to get off the tram. We moved around the crowd and stopped at the junction to wait for the traffic lights to turn green in order to cross the road. Suddenly, I was hit hard by something, I felt it pushing me away and I was about to fall. Miraculously, my body shifted itself from left to right and managed to get a foot on the ground without falling. (Description from my friends, that moment was total blank in my head). In a second, pain from my leg struck me and I figured out that the terminated tram made a turn to the left instead of its original straight route and my friends was standing on the safety yellow line while I was standing inside it. Ironically, we did not get to eat the buffet as there was a long queue so we decided to go to other place where we would not be using the tram in the 1st place. Lucky me!


posted by Estan @ 11:35:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments