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

Untitled

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.

Untitled

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.

Untitled

drive is a thing so elusive, one moment it comes, the next moment it slips.

thankfully, i'm driven today. perhaps by fear?

tomorrow is the day i conduct my pilot test with eight people.

and the next week is the real thing.

without saying, today will a busy day for tomorrow's sake.

In school now. Just settled down.

there's not a single soul, except for the foreign students quietly hidden away in the labs.

tomorrow's is also the first day of school for the new semester.

can't help feeling the blues.

as always, there are two sides to the coin,

it's either the start of school or the last semester of undergrad studies.

i prefer to think the latter but tend towards the former.

let's hope the next two crucial weeks will be smooth sailing.

okay it's time to sign off. down to work.

FY2009 Report

it's almost another year. not very eventful.

Jan-May 2009. student exchange programme.

I loved being an exchange student. Those were the days of respite. I could put aside all my worries as I need only average passes.

the professor teaching the supply chain module inspired me with his unconventional ways.
Intensity and toughness radiated within his tiny wiry figure. He gave practical take-home advice and I like that.

At the partner university, I was also lucky to have hardworking people in my project teams except a small handful. Coincidentally, the outlaws formed a team:

it was a all-girls team except for my friend and I.
one girl didn't show up at meetings until the day before presentation. reason: not feeling well.
another girl claimed to be knowledgeable but would panic at the sight of problems. just like a doctor couldn't stand blood.
another girl would cling on to writing reports.
the end?
I marked them down in my appraisals. despite one of them being from the same polytechnic as me. having met numerous fiends, i was extremely intolerant.

Aside from this experience, i had some difficulty understanding statistics and coping with my operating systems module.

But overall, exchange was a good experience.

Jun-Jul 2009. start of final year project.

lots of printing and reading. learning the ropes to research. other than work, life was monotonous. took on some freelance work but ended up not delivering on time and eventually aborting the project. i felt like a joke.

Aug - Nov 2009. This part of my life is called hell weeks.

research combined with heavy development.
developing a large scale system was very hard.
not everyone was committed.
five of six guys had to cope with research work. i was one of them.
the system development had a few milestones and deadlines.
each represented one or more sleepless nights in school.
for almost every day i was typing code and pulling my hair out.
shortly after we delivered the system, three others and I continued to write our progress reports for another two nights in school, one of which fell on the day everyone speculated that there would be meteor rain.
in fact, upon finishing the report, i sat staring at the skies for a whole 2o minutes in the wee hours just outside the faculty building and i saw nothing.
a few days later, the first exam came and i still prepared to my best of ability.
unexpectedly, a lot of questions came from the guest lecture and i slept through that lecture out of sheer fatigue.
actually, on hindsight, only one guy on the project team wasn't committed. he was smart and he presented himself well. he wrote good english as well. but he just wasn't with us. as much as we didnt understand him, he didnt understand how bad our team situation was.

that pretty much summed up the entire part of hell weeks.

Dec 2009 - future.

I'm currently still busy with research work. I'm left with half a year and then I would serve my remaining days in national service. my new year resolutions are:

• shape up (a lofty goal)
• secure a good job
• stay happy
  

i didn't set out to write a financial report but it looks like i have written a fiscal year report. I hope next year's "financials" would be better not just for me, but for you too, my reader.