Kah Wai@spherebox

Ahhh… It’s good to be back

Feels like I just came out of a jungle. Life without the internet was hard since I have to trudge to uni to check my mails and keep up with things. Sian Siew’s first message once I finally get to log in:-

Now that my internet is up and running, I can finally come back to the pace of going through my stuff in the comforts of my own home. I would like to complain about the “not up to standard speed” and the “minimal download quota”, but what can I say? ADSL1 with 1.5Mbps and 20Gb total d/l limit a month isn’t gonna kill me, but it does well in retarding my usual download spree. *cry* Oh how much I miss my old 24Mbps line with 40Gb download limit and with hampsters to boot! Que sera sera…My girlfriend has been complaining about my camera lately. She wants to take lots of photos as memorablia but stupid me leaving my camera battery charger back home in Malaysia. D’oh. With a camera I bet my blog will look livelier too. Kinda drab without pictures to colour the scene. I might go get a charger after my exams and finally start snapping away :D

Speaking about exams, I’ve got 2 more gruelling papers left. They pale in comparison with the one I had. The second paper that I had was a nightmare. DON’T ASK. I’m seriously praying that my efforts the whole semester will pull me through this subject. *sigh*

Check out Sian Siew’s blog on an interesting ringtone that only some people can hear. I can hear it :P Can you?

Till next time :D

Down the drain

OMFG. MY Eng Analysis B ASSIGNMENT 2 IS MISSING. KNNCCB. I discussed the assignment with Robert and I can clearly remember handing it up right after him. He then gets full marks but mine is considered “not handed in”. WTF!?!? Robert getting back his assignment means my assignment getting misplaced is through NO FAULT OF MINE. I worked sooo hard on it to make up for the first assignment (which, unfortunately, had been labeled ‘collusion’) I can’t believe it. 5 marks. Even then it’s the effort that was put in that is so heartbreaking. I stayed up till 3am doing up the report well, then spending the whole of the next day going through it again. This is certainly not justified as I’m not getting the marks I deserve. Even talking to the lecturer directly didn’t help. He was sympathetic, but not helpful at all. He said they would try looking for it, but I should not put hope in them finding it. He then asked me if I kept a copy of the assignment. WHO THE HELL KEEPS A COPY OF THIER ASSIGNMENT UNLESS IT’S A SOFT COPY????? The only other option is to look out for that draft of the assignment that I did and rewrite the damn thing. Which I almost have no hope of finding since I shifted already. Argh… The anger and disappointment.

On the move…

Waking up this morning makes me feel like I’m in Genting. A blanket of fog covers the city as I look out of the window to ‘compute’ what clothes should I wear today. Doesn’t look very cold, just the appearance of the fog will make the chill a little bitey. Gloves then. After taking a hot shower, I noticed the fog rolling into my toilet window (hot and cold reactions?). Dammit should have taken a picture.

Anyway, as you guys would have guessed by now, I’m already at my new place. :) No internet yet though, so I have to rely on uni internet to get by for the moment. Bear with me if I take long to reply and stuff. Postings will also be a bit rarer, but I would expect to get my router+modem this week, as well as apply for internet connection too. After checking out some packages out there, I opted for Internode’s extreme package 20Gb d/l limit. No ADSL2+ connection in my area yet else I would have gone for IInet cause of their hampster service. *cry* (For those who do not know what the hampster service is, the crux of it is iinet takes quite long to cap a user once the user has busted his/her limit. ;) Exploitation of that weakness is therefore a very welcome plus point for me. Too bad their max ADSL1 speed that I can afford is only 512kbps *bullshit* so I’m going over to Internode then. A 1.5Mbps is still good.) Took one day to shift all my furniture across. Man… I gotta thank Robert, Khor, Nick and especially my girlfriend for helping me. I couldn’t have done it without them (makes it look like a award-accepting speech eh?) But seriously. One day. And the furniture that had to be moved isn’t a joke. Not only do we have to walk from my old place to my new one, we had to climb 3 floors up to my room. o____O Oooooohhhh the aching thighs. I bought Khor and Robert dinner though. Gotta remember to buy Nick dinner one day too. I got myself a small 14 inch TV too. World Cup is JUST around the corner. Too bad I can only spare time to watch it only after my exams. The good thing is, the important matches are AFTER my exams (aka semis and finals). If anyone of you would like to know where my new address is, send me an e-mail or drop a comment and I’ll get back to you. :D

First paper on Thursday. Doing past year papers now. *sigh* Exams will always be part of our life won’t it? Ah well… Gotta get back to work. Till next time…

New place finally?

Yay! I went to see the new place today. They opened up 4 units for viewing, units 5, 12, 22 and 38. Unit 5 was kinda wierd. It had a pillar right in the middle of the place. Definitely out. Unit 12 was better, but no view. It faced a wall and i think it also overlook the offices downstairs. Hmm… nope. It was between units 22 and 38 then. Unit 22 looked quite good, with the agent promising that it will be cleaned prior to moving in (the place wasn’t extremely dirty, just the usual dirt that was under the fridge). It didn’t have much of a view, but it was better than unit 12. Unit 38 was nice. That was the original unit that I wanted to have a look at previously. It’s on the highest floor, with quite a nice view. All that apartment needed was blinds though. It was hot under the afternoon sun even though during winter. Well, I could always put extra ‘curtains’ over it (aka clothes). The morning sun would work very well in getting me up too since it would kick me outta bed :D The unit isn’t very big, but it can be considered quite comfy for one person to live in. 2 would be OK, but you’d have to be very good friends/family/girlfriend (hint) to stay together. Hehehe… The place looks bright and cheery, although moving in to the highest floor WOULD be a pain in the ass.

Funny thing was, when I went there with Mei Yen at 12.30pm, there were like… 5 to 6 people waiting for the agent. Including me, there would not be enough rooms to let if all of us applied at once. Some of us would definitely be knocked out. I decided that it will NEVER be me. Gawd… I prepped for this for soooo long. NO WAY I would lose out to other ppl for any of those units. Well, unless the person has been also trying their luck like me, pestering the agent every few days to check if the key is in, and preparing the necessary documents before hand. Muahahahaha… Bet no one did. After having a look at those 4 units, I decided to take unit 38 (Not only that, I had already prepared the form beforehand *LoL*). My girlfriend and I stood around, waiting for the rest to slowly ask their questions and file out of the apartment before making my move. o___O (Hmm… the wording makes it sound suspicious. Ah well…) After the last person left, I asked the agent if I could hand in my application. I sorta knew his name, since I was told before that he was handling those units. Craig. Well, he was kinda surprised I had everything ready. He actually told me to hand it into the office in Toorak, but after hearing that I had everything prepared, he took it immediately. Well, after checking through first. I was worried at first, thinking I should just apply for all 4 units to increase my chances on getting an apartment (Actually, only 3… I would not take unit 5 even if I had to). I asked him if I should, but he said I SHOULD get the unit since the application was handed in that quickly, and I could start the tenancy immediately. He also told me that everything seems to be in order and I should expect to hear from him this afternoon. Whoopie! We left him as he needed to take measurements for the blinds for my new place. XD

Had lunch with Mei Yen, then zipped back home to grab my lappie and headed back to the library. Robert and Khor were kinda surprised to see me back so early since I told them I would be heading to Toorak to hand in my application. They both were happy that it was kinda settled. Time ticked by. 5pm rolled in and still no call. I got very very very worried. Naturally, I gave a call to the office and I was told that he was on the phone and he would return my call. 15 minutes later, he called. We arranged a time to sign the contract, and he told me the details of the money order/bank cheque that I had to prepare. We fixed 10.30am tomorrow for the signing of the contract. *SIGH OF RELIEF* After that I trotted back to my desk to continue studying. Gyahahahaha… Damn happy. Well, I would be even happier tomorrow after I get the contract signed and get the ‘finding a new place’ problem outta my hair.

Dinner came. Subway again. :D Khor promised he’ll help me move to my new place. I should pull Robert too. We sorta decided on Friday (or maybe Saturday) night after 9pm, after the library closes. Yes, I’m nerdy… but then again, nerds are the ones who graduate with good results ;) Hehehe… Till next time… (Don’t know if I’m tired enough to sleep)

SwotVac Starts!

Today (technically yesterday since it’s 2.30 am now) would be the last day of classes for this semester for me. SwotVac (study vacation) starts and I’ll probably be very much acquainted with the library by the time I get to my final exam paper. Hmmm… come to think of it, I’ve been extremely hardworking this semester. I even surprised myself by persevering and going to the library and actually put on my thinking cap for more than 6 hours. I seriously have to thank my girlfriend and Robert for being there. *LoL* I definitely can say that I’m motivated to stay on in the library because they are there.

Speaking of which, presentations for design lab were finally over. All I can say is, (honestly, no offence, and if I did, I apologise) there were some impressive groups, and there were… groups that could have improved in certain aspects in their presentation itself. Hahaha… Who am I to comment though? I’ll be taking that subject the next semester and I’m sure I’ll be going through the same amount of stress they went through this past month. I kinda regret not taking pictures on some presentations, at least give you readers a clue on how it went, but Robert had taken some pictures of his group before and after the presentation (and he is kind enough to let me put them up) so I guess I’ll be putting that up in my next post. Man… I wanted to watch his group though. Too bad my controls lab was in the way. Missed his presentation. I heard from him they did quite well though. *LoL* With Amy there to answer the questions, I’m sure they won’t be found lacking in that part. I’m happy that he felt that his presentation went well. Well, a job well done to those who had impressed the supervisors (Well, Sei Zhen, Sam and Sunny DID impress us, and Kenny’s group, imo did very well too), and to those who did their best but it didn’t turn out well, cheer up! I’m sure you will impress them in the report, the PCB design, or even the amount of work and effort that has been put in.
Winter is here. Autumn (imo) lasted quite long. Not that I minded, the ‘golden’ coloured trees were always beautiful. I was wondering if winter would ever come. The weather this week was cold though. Yes, if you stay in London or even further north, the temperature here is nothing. But to me, 15 degrees max and about 5~6 min is cold. I don’t have the luxury of having thermal wear.

I had KFC at around 9.30 pm today. It was after a good solid session at the library, and I was happy to get out and stretch a bit. Too bad the library closes at 10pm, else I would have stayed longer. I couldn’t believe that the closing times for the weekends were much earlier than the times on weekdays. But thinking a bit more, it’s kinda logical, cause the librarians (and even the guards!) need the rest from the hectic week due to the surge of students coming in to study. After making sure Mei Yen had gone up the tram, I walked back home with Robert (it was on the way) We talked quite a bit during that walk. He told me quite a bit about China, and how the economy is faring and stuff. I told him about the politics back in Malaysia, and the racial disparities that sometimes flare up. Quite a lot of information came as a surprise to both of us, especially the part about the education level in Beijing. Top universities in Beijing had a strict selection system, and that comes from quotas and stuff. I wouldn’t wanna go into details, but the gist of it is, only the top of the top get into the universities. Think about it. The population is approximately 1.3 BILLION ppl. Taking part of it to be teens entering university, the number is still HUGE. And why should you try for a second rate university? Even so, the number of good universities are definitely limited. The competition to get into the good universities is so fierce due to the number of people, that a quota system must be set to filter some application out. That’s why only the cream of the cream get into the university.

I finally tramped back home at about 1.30 am. Gawd the fog was thick. I took pictures but they were kinda blur, no point putting them up. Makes it look like a scene from a horror movie or something (you know, those old ones, where the nights are foggy and the damn movie itself is blurry…) I even took a photo of myself walking back. Ok. That was even worse than the horror movie bit. It was kinda like a slap to tell me 3 things:- I need to shave, I need to get my hair cut, I need to fix those pimples up. I don’t really like to put my pics up because of my bad pimple problem. I know some of you might beg to differ, and my face looks like a spring breeze compared to your pizza oven. I’m not gonna dispute that, but I’m gonna complain anyway. I can’t believe it. I’m freaking 22 years old and my pimples are still popping up just like the age when my voice started to break. Ah well… I will probably be posting pics where I’m far away then. I will not post close ups unless my pimples get better. Back to topic. So yeah… the fog was thick. There were times when the fog was just as thick in the mornings, but this was the first time I actually walked in a fog in Melbourne. I noticed that the fog was thinner at the commercial areas, as compared to the area near Robert’s place. 5 minutes walk can cause such a difference.

*Cry* MY MOM TRADED IN THE YELLOW CRV!!!! *Sob* That car was my trademark vehicle. It was the only original yellow CRV in Malaysia. It was actually a showroom model, but I fell in love with it when I saw it, and of course, my family liked it too else I would not have been able to convince my dad to get it. :D Since then, when my friends spotted a yellow CRV, they would always take a peek at who the driver was. More often than not, my mom would be driving it (she loved the car and used it for work). Sometimes I would be the one cruising around with it, so my friends would hail me as I drove by. But it’s gone now.. *Plays the worlds smallest violin* Can’t blame her for trading in that CRV though. The in-built TV had wiring problems that caused power leakage from the car battery. That means the battery would be flat faster than normal. Fixing it would cost us a whopping RM10,000. Yes, it had an in-built TV. It was awesome. Guess what though. My mom traded in that CRV for… ANOTHER CRV!!! Can’t say it’s the same though. The yellow one was the old model. The new one is a new model. For those of you who wanna know how it looks like, it looks like this. And yes, I THINK it’s this colour. I kinda forgot what my sister told me. Something along the lines of brownish silver. Guess it would be this then. Man… I could have told my mom to wait for the new Toyota Yaris, the Toyota model that is supposed to rival the Honda Jazz (I THINK it’s the Yaris) Too bad she bought it like a month and a half ago, and she’s happy with it. If she’s happy with it, then I’m happy she got a car that she likes. :) Personally though, the car that needs to be changed is my father’s old junk, the green Mazda MPV. Man… that car is falling apart. “Sentimental values” was his excuse it seems. Hehe… I cannot deny it’s a good car though. Took my family around through thick and thin.

Ok. It’s 3am now. I’d better get to sleep since I promised myself I’ll be at the library at 10am. If you need to ask me anything, send me a message. I should be bringing my lappie along, so I SHOULD be online. Till next time.

P/S: Ah yes… Sian Siew finally updated his blog with some posts. A bit more on the tech side, it makes for an interesting read. I highly recommend visiting his blog, especially if you know him as a friend :)

Library camping mode *ON*

2.15 am. Just came back from the engineering labs. Stomach is growling because of an unsatisfactory dinner, and thinking makes me hungry. Well, at least I sorta got my Engineering Analysis B assignment ALMOST done. All that’s left is error checking, recheck Q1 (seems to have a problem) and to write it up nicely. *LoL* I think Robert didn’t expect to stay up that late with me in the labs. But, no complaints from him, since we got everything done up and we won’t have to stress about it too much anymore. *sigh of relief* Studying diligently until 2 in the morning takes so much more out of you compared to ’studying’ (note the quotes) at home.
Update on the property: The keys are in, but the agent had to go through a final check up before I could view the property. Damn. Oh well, it IS encouraging news actually, since I now know for sure that the keys are with the agent, and not running off with the previous tenant. I would likely skip my Electrical Circuits tutorial tomorrow to see the place. Not gonna bother with the last weekly assignment. The other assignments are already driving me crazy.

Ok… I SHOULD be starting my library camping mode. Most likely I’ll be haunting Khor and Nick to study together. Gyahahaha….

Possible burnout before the exams?

My head’s hurting. Literally. 2 midterm exams in a row PLUS a project due on Monday. *sigh* Thank god I have a good partner for the project who actually guided me through the pain. Of course, good friends are always good to have around. The project discussion that lasted from 2pm (actually 3pm, I got there at 2 and waited at the wrong place *bleh*) up until 11pm gave me a lot of insights on the project as well as the subject itself. I was happy I was able to clarify a lot of things for myself as well as other people. Yay!

Stupid tenants who won’t move out on time. I was so excited about Friday and how I was gonna zip through the house, take a look at it and apply immediately. My hopes were dashed with cold, icy water. In the dead of winter. Sitting on the tram for 20 minutes to get to Toorak only to get turned away JUST because the tenants have not given in the keys yet. Yes, I’m partially to blame for not giving them a call first, but it still doesn’t negate the fact that I went there for nuts. LUCKILY I was smart the second time round, giving them a call this morning at 9am. No luck, no keys. Woke up early for nuts. Oh well, at least I started on the project a little earlier myself.

Fingers crossed that I WILL be able to settle all of this bullshit on MONDAY. LATEST. I would at least have the comfort of studying in my new place during SwotVac.

The dream’s almost over… a nightmare of a month is on it’s way

Yay! Thanks to Sian Siew, the blog now is complete in terms of coding. Gyahahahaha… Gonna belanja him dinner one day. Well, only things left to update on this blog would be my Short Biography (a.k.a About me) and my Resume. -_- Dunno if I will ever need the Resume part, but it would look more professional rather than asking people to rummage through my achievements in my biography. Skeletons in closets are usually found hiding in chucks of words that people sometimes don’t bother reading :LoL: Rather than having unexpected surprises(whether it will be unpleasant or not will be up to you), I’ll be sweeping them under that ‘chunk of words’ I call biography.

*sob* Mid-term test tomorrow and on Friday. God knows why it’s called mid-term when the term’s almost ending. 1 project due next week, with 2 more assignments to be handed in during SwotVac. I guess I’ll have my ass handed back to me with all the stress incoming. Exams are also JUST around the corner, to add salt to the wound. It starts on the 8th, ending on the 22nd. Thank god they are distributed quite nicely, with only the last 2 papers one after the other. Gonna have to cope with it if I’m ever gonna finish my course in time.

And so the nightmare begins…