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I've graduated!

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exactly 7 days to the last paper.

i mean last paper of NUS.

how cool is that?

it's been a long wait.

i have endured hardships and overcome challenges.

and forged valuable friendships & "fiend"ships

dear friends, i thank you for lending support when hope was in short supply

dear fiends, i thank you for the experiences which bestowed upon me the ability to discern

it's been an eventful three years

good mug and drool times

good hacking code times

good coffee times

i have so much to say, being someone who dwells in school 7 days a week

gaining freedom soon feels like going out from jail

i hope the day would come but uncertainties abound create a tension of the opposites

even with a job, i am still lost and confused. What's next?

i put on the graduation gown and wondered why we couldn't just dress in tees

I finally discovered what works best for me.

i haven't been this cheerful, energetic and "alive" all the while.

completing work on time. having enough sleep. eating well and feeling good.

here are some of the habits which has helped me a lot:

- setting just 3 major tasks to do everyday (find your own optimal size for each task)

- read something or listen to something while you travel. (exceptions: don't do this standing, don't read on bus) I generally avoid newspaper because i hate people who spread their 'chicken wings'.

-avoid potato chips and junk food. eat sensibly.

-devise your own exercise routine. can't help you lose weight but prevents you from getting sluggish. my own routine takes about 10 minutes everyday, with a mixture of on-the-spot jogging, slow push ups, crunches, bridge, etc.

-have enough sleep.

it's almost the end--graduation.
even the snail mail has arrived.
indicate your attendance, order your graduation dresses. ("why dress and not outfit?")
that also means the dissertation is due soon (omg)

i must push on using my last burst of energy!

~20 days to submission of dissertation
~22 days to submission of 5000-word case study
~11 days to presentation for case study
~6 days to submission of service oriented architecture assignment

what's the motivation?

a good honors degree
a graduation trip (i long to have a holiday)
catch up on sleep and exercise i sorely lack
visit people and places

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Everyone's crazy about applying for jobs before graduation.

still, i don't feel the urgency because i don't know what i want.

but herd behavior has drove me to start applying.

i saw how others wrote their resumes, took some samples and re-did mine.

into 1 neat page.

something that really made me laugh was this career objective(s).

it's fake, sounds fake and, in my humble opinion, throttles growth and versatility.

so i left that out when i sent my resume.

should there be any objectives, it should at best be a high level statement.

At least i didn't try to "smoke."

besides applying for jobs, i planned out my last stretch of school.

Things that i want to do:
1. write up thesis report
2. write paper notes/cards to express gratitude to those who helped me in my research (even if things don't turn out well)
3. donate useful materials to deserving juniors.

Things that I may do:
1. Graduation trip
2. Switch to mac
3. Learn python programming

I'm near to giving up.

half the data I have collected could not be used.

people simply didn't care.

they just anyhow filled up the questionnaires, promptly collected $10 and ran off.

yet i spent hours keying in the data.

mostly useless.

There's a suitable term for this. that's GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out)

with such junk data, i could hardly squeeze out any results.

tried numerous ways to interpret the data till 4 am yesterday.

i remember who you are. yes, beware. you will always be in my heart.

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the experiment is over.
10 hours. recruited 196 participants.
all sorts of people.
of course, you'd expect it to be quite crazy for a first-timer.
Every hour, i would recite instructions least 1-3 times to early comers, late comers and random walk-ins.
most came for the ten bucks, and honestly i would expect them to work for every buck by participating properly.
but as usual, that's the ideal.
someone told me before, "don't think these are university students, some are really idiots"
that stroke a chord with what I am thinking right now. spot on.
sometimes, i wonder why we can't have a jerk-free society.
as i now flipped through the completed questionnaires, there were people who obviously circled the same answers for every question.
I still remembered on the day the experiment took place, there was one guy who told me,"can you phrase your questions properly? I think it's not well-phrased."
well, i was appalled by how rude people can be.
"just who do you think you are? a professor?"
hot-tempered as i am, i controlled myself.
at the end of it all, i was totally exhausted. still i carried the whole stack of completed questionnaires back home.
only to realise many had simply anyhow filled up their questionnaires.
it was obvious.
i spent a lot of effort to prepare everything. creating the web pages for experiment, the questionnaires, the stapling, the coordination of time slots and the list goes on.
but still, i feel very much indebted to the phD student who helped me out. she woke up early on that day of experiment. and i was also aware that she had her own work as well.
thank you so much.
and thanks to another friend who sacrificed his time to conduct the experiment with me.
i really had my fair share of hard knocks this time.