Hui Mei

Tired Me

"I know u can multitask" This text appeared on one of my MSN screen.

Is it true? I often chat, watch youtube, reply email/wall/comment, or do any other things in the same time. Those are simple things that I do everyday. I believe it's common for some people. In fact, some of them can do more.

What am i trying to say now? I felt very tired to talk these past few days. Some of my friends said I looked dull, stressed out, sad, "shack". What did I do these days?

It started from the time when I got the email which told me about the unsuccessful hall application. I knew I needed to move my stuffs to my friends' room. I started to plan everything accordingly. I tried to spread my things here and there since most of my friends said that their rooms could not occupied to many boxes. I did plan to bring back some luggage to Indonesia since my Mom said she wanted to visit me with my Grandma.

Besides that, I was doing my internship at IBN. That email was sent when I had done my main project. After I did my main project during my internship, my mentor added additional project for me to do. It was a very slacking project in the beginning. I only needed 3 to 4 hours on one day and slacked for 2 to 3 days. This means I had a lot of free time to relax. I thought that by the end of my attachment, I would be able to shift my stuffs as well as exit my internship happily.

However, those sweet plans did not really work as what I expected.

First, my mom cancelled her visitation. Well, this eventually made me need to think where I should put my remaining stuffs. I had a lot of things! On Wednesday and Thursday this week, I started to pack my things into boxes after work non-stop until 1 am. I only slept for 5 hours those days.

Secondly, the result of the additional project did not come out with a nice one. Most of the time, the machine could not detect my samples. I redid the last experiment over and over again to get the result. And then another machine that I needed was broken down and the staffs just started to repair the machine on my last day!

Besides that, I was between happy and sad to end my attachment. The happy part was holiday for me. How about the sad part? Although I know that my english skill was not good enough compare to my friends, although some of them might tease my communication skill, although some of the lab officers never replied my smile, I found that I like to talk with people in my company especially the intern students in level 9 (and newbie of level 4 ^^). They had different experiences to share with me. All those things were considered "new" for me. I realized that I was too close to my Indonesian friends that I did not know a lot about cultural differences, about this country, about world traveling, about being grew up in other country such as Japan, about foods, about crap conversation, etc. I felt like I would miss all the fun I had in IBN.

Furthermore, I need to prepare my presentation on July 25th later. With the "no result" experiment to present, I worried that I would not be able to present well.

By combining the stressfulness of my experiment result, sadness to leave my fun society in IBN, and the tiredness to move my belongings more than one time, I found that I could not do such multitasking. The unhappiness to leave and the pressurized feeling to get experiment result did not consume my energy much, but I still felt very tired. I did not have the mood to talk (except by MSN) for 1 week. Then, the 3-day almost full day working in lab and NTU caused my body unable to rest well.

I might think too much about what was happening with me these days. I might exaggerate the effect on me. I felt it's tiring and not fun at all.

 

My Notebook

It has been a few days for me to bring my laptop to my work whenever I know that I won't work for the whole day or I will have a plenty of waiting time. During lunch time, I will just leave my laptop in my office as I think people who can enter my lab need a card. I usually just flip my laptop and let it standby when I am having my lunch.

I remember that these 2 days my laptop was still in good condition, no distinct scratch at all. I did wipe my laptop 2 days ago to make sure that it was still in the good shape an shiny. However, this evening I found out the heartbreaking reality. SOMEONE DID SOMETHING TO MY LAPTOP! I feel sooooo sad!! I just found out that my laptop got a very horrible scratch.

I remembered that I never dropped or did anything that can caused any scratch to my laptop. Then why my laptop became like this? This is cruel!

Holiday after Second Year

Currently, I'm doing my internship during holiday. It is a research attachment opened for students including secondary, JCs, polytechnic, and university. However, until now, I only manage to know JC, poly, and uni students in my company. I thought I found some secondary students when I had my first interview. Where are they?

Anyway... after my work, I usually just stay in my room, sit in front of my computer, and play game+chat with my friends through MSN. Until today, I am only able to finish two very old RPG game which I partially played 8-10 years ago, i.e. Legend of Legaia and Final Fantasy VIII. I just finished the latter tonight. So?

Well, I'm thinking whether I must continue to find another PSX game or just watch all the movies "deposited" in my laptop.

I like RPG games very much. But, I don't know what game should I play next. I'm currently considering some games that I had in my Indonesia's home but I never played that before.  However, I only have PSX emulator in my laptop so the animation quality is not so good.

The other choice is watch the remaining 7 GB movies stored in my computer since December 2007 hehehe... After watch the movies, I can delete all of them and let my computer work faster when I defragment it. Unfortunately, I don't always enjoy watching movie as I may fall asleep in the middle if it gets into somewhat boring part.

So? I'm still thinking :)

Email for My Three-Day Work without Supervision

As I predicted before, my supervisor was really on MC again. But, for today, I barely finished my work on time. I finished 15 minutes after the working hour. It was considered early for me as I ever stayed in my lab until 07.30 pm. So, for today I did not slack or sneak out again :p

However, I was shocked for several seconds when I checked my email. On top of all the emails that I received today, I saw an email: "Students Cheat Sheet and Announcement." It was like a psychological warning for me as I sneaked out from the building before the working hour over yesterday.

Furthermore, there was one prominent statement that I should point out in the email: "Students found outside IBN during appointed IBN working hours without authorization or valid reasons will face disciplinary action and/or termination of attachment. "

Wew, for a few seconds, I thought that I might be the only one who received this email. But I eventually relieved when I knew it was a mass email to all the internship students.

Well, I think I won't do such early leave anymore. I am not so evil in which I hope my supervisor will be on leave very often. I feel extremely bored without my supervisor because I am only able to continue my project after I get her advice. Actually, I'm kinda sick of doing the same experiment for about 2 weeks.

My "Evil" Early Leave

Today, I reached The Nanos at about 08.35 am. I tapped my card to open the level 9 glass door. As usual, I went straight to the locker area to put my belongings and took some stationery stuffs for my laboratory recording purpose. Then, I had my breakfast in the pantry. I also was waiting for my mentor (or so-called supervisor) to come to the pantry to fill her water-container which meant that she had arrived. I was hoping that I could report to her what I had done yesterday. She was on MC yesterday, so I just did everything without her supervision yesterday.

I looked at my watch, 09:07 am. She must be on MC for today again. Oh my, what should I do for today? Continue my project? Impossible! I had a very weird results which I need her to decide if the results were acceptable. Slacking the whole day? Impossible! If any of the officers in my company notice that I was slacking, I might get warning. Then what?

 ***

I looked again to the computer screen where I saved my yesterday's experiment result. Still, weird. I could not just continue the project using that. Well, I re-did my two days work. I thought she should take a long weekend to recover. Definitely she would not come tomorrow.

When I re-did the experiment, I found out that the lab was deserted. As in, the other lab officers were busy in their office, staring on their computer screens. It seemed that all the machines were mine. I didn't need to queue for using the machine. So, I could just leave the machine while I did the other part of the experiment without causing anyone removed my stuffs there. I can work very fast then :)

Yeah, I really did my experiment very fast. I finished everything 2 hours earlier than usual. Wew!

***

Two hours? What should I do for this spare time? Waiting for nothing? Do the experiment for tomorrow? Then what should I do for tomorrow? Anyhow, I will spend my time at least 8 pm to finish everything. Impossible again! Two hours... I looked around my lab... no one. I looked the next door lab, some people there, but most of them are the internship students. I went to the pantry. Just another intern student. Where are the lab officers? I searched around the office area, well, I found some of them there.

Then I met my friend at the corridor. He said that there were no point for me to stay in the building for two hours. It would be extremely boring.

 ***

An evil thought popped into my mind. If I go back now, no one may notice. Rather than I stay in this building without doing something fun, I'd better sneak out :p My two other intern friends had also went to the library at the next building as they were done for the day. They just stayed there until 6 pm, then they would went home.

Again, I faced two choices: waiting in the library with my two other new friends or sneaking out to the MRT station and headed back to NTU. Then, I went to the library to meet them. My goodness, those two NUS students seemed studying some journal papers related to their project Wow, I had no journal paper that I needed for this time. So?

 ***

I really did that evil thing. Hahaha, I chose to sneak out of the building. I took MRT to Choa Chu Kang Mall. It was a kind of enjoyable "break" after working more than full time hour for almost two weeks.

Weird Call

I was chatting with my friends through MSN. Suddenly I heard "I can mayowazu ni susumou..." I looked to my phone, yeah someone called me. A number started from 9 which was not in my phone book directory. Let me labeled A (as in labeling experiment specimens  =9).
Me: "Hello?"
A: "Who are you?"
Me: "Eh? Who are you looking for?"
A: "I don't know, u called me today."

I spoke to myself: Weird, I didn't call anyone today. In fact I just activated my new number after I bought this number 9 days ago.

Then, the conversation continued...

Me: "Oh really, sorry then, maybe I called a wrong number"

I was hoping to end the call but he asked me again...

A: "Then who are you?"
Me: "I think I called you by mistake, sorry aaah!"
A: "Oh ok, but I want to ask you a question"

At this point, I realized that I really didn't call this stupid guy.

Me: (felt annoyed) "ok"
A: "Are you Singaporean?"
Me: "what do you mean?"

Here, I know that he should call a random number. Perhaps, he wanted to gain something from this call.

A: "Are you Singaporean or what?"
Me: "Yeah"
A: "Oh are you working?"
Me: "Sorry aah!! I just activated my number! I think I DID NOT call you today!"
A: "Oh, you just activated your number? Then, are you Moslem or Christian?"

I kept into silent for a while. I was thinking what was that guy want?

He repeated his question again with louder voice.

A: "Are you Moslems or Christian?"

I turned my head to my roommate who was sitting behind me.

Me: "I don't have religion!"

I did not really know why I answered that to him. I saw my roommate using her hand gesture indicating that I should hang up the phone. Well, I immediately pushed the red button on the bottom left of my phone.

My roommate said that it was not usual that I kept talking with weird call. I used to hang up the phone immediately when I knew that it should be wrong call.

I then told one of my MSN friend who was chatting with me before that call.

Well, the last question still remained a mystery for me. What was his purpose. From his accent, I knew that he should come from certain race. I would not tell it in this blog. hehehe...

A 2nd Special Case

"Simple is beautiful"... A statement made by my thermodynamics lecturer today. A burst of laughter came out spontaneously just after he said those words.

Suddenly, something popped up in my mind just right after that. I disagree! Simple is  not always beautiful. If I had followed everything organized, if I didn't try to change something to what I wanted, I would have faced "not beautiful" stuff this whole semester.

Everything started when I accidentally click on "Imagining Singapore" subject as one choice of my subject electives. Eventually, I got that subject registered. Whatever, I got an AHSS elective! As long as I listened to the lecture, everything should be fine.

The lecture indeed was interesting; it told me a lot of things that I never know. I believe I wouldn't get what it taught unless I took this course. You know why? That was a literature course - a subject which is not covered in my field of study. I must  read a lot of reading material such as poems, memoirs, and reviews (remember there are an "s" letter there).

A few days later, I managed to borrow the reading material from the library. With full
of spirit, I turned on the air conditioning in my lounge, set the temperature to 18 degrees, and sat on the sofa. I started to read page by page...

I knew the texts were worthed readings. I could learned about Singapore and its history, social issue, and political situation. Unfortunately, I don't have any Singapore story background. I spent 3 hours just to read 25 pages of the 600 pages memoirs as I should to figure out who in the memoirs were via internet.

The next week, I was given another poems. I should interpret it according to the memoirs. Suddenly, I felt that I would not be able to pass in this course. Fearing of unsatisfactory result, I tried to find another substitute for this elective.

No more vacancy!! Oh dear!! What should I do?

I stared at STARS PLANNER - the program which is used in NTU for subject registration for a few days. Reload-click-plan-click-reload-etc... those are the things I did for a few days.

Later, I remembered that my friend took Engineers and Society - a core subject which I should take in my final year.

Still had 16 vacancies left! But it's late already... I need to wait until tomorrow morning, 930 am... the last day for add and drop period.

The next day, I was able to registered Eng Soc and dropped Imagining Singapore. I was relieved. I just need to wait for another one day to get my subject being uploaded in my edventure account - the site which is used by NTU students' to download the lecture notes and other posted documents.

Unfortunately, after the add and drop period had over and after my Eng Soc subject was written as REGISTERED in my degree audit, the Eng Soc didn't came out in my edventure site. I started to get panic. Then I asked the general officer of my school, she said that my friend was special case as in she was direct entry to this university. I should not be able to get that Eng Soc registered.

But I did register for it!! What special case? I do not understand at all!!

She said to me that I should dropped Eng Soc!

Wait!! Drop it? No! No!

After "proposing" a lot of reasons why I need 22 AUs this semester and I do not want to take final year major elective, finally the officer told me that she would approach the HSS office to gave a place for me - any HSS subject that I wanted. Cheerleaders were dancing in my head...

Then, after I waited for a few hours, I got the reply that HSS has refused the appeal. So, in the end my school decided to let me take Eng Soc this semester as I should take 22 AUs this semester.

Wew!! All of those things were out of my original plan... But, I felt better. Even though I made this subject registration a bit complicated for these 3 weeks time, but in the end, I felt that simple things would not grant me the nice ending of the story... Hehehe...

I Did!

It was a night when the crescent moon was hanging on the dark blue sky. Without any stars visible from the NTU.

I was on my way to my room at that time. With energetic steps, I passed rooms by rooms at the third floor of block 49 in my hall of residence until I saw kitchen on my right side. I turned right and I saw a dark stairs without any street lamp at all. The only lighting available was the light passing through residents' rooms' window. It was the same as usual.

I didn't feel scare or anything when I saw that 2-story stair. The only thing that was on my mind was, I was near to my room, just 2 more stairs. With more energetic steps, I walk through the stairs and...

"Crack!!" I did something!

I felt a wet sticky gel below my right thong. I lifted my right leg. I saw something brown below it. I barely could see what was that actually. But I realized I had become a murder! A murder of a gastropod.

I terminated its life within seconds. I didn't do that in purpose, but I did kill it. Did I add one more sin?

Holiday

As usual, I set my alarm clock at seven everyday even in this holiday. I guess it is useless hehe, since I usually turn the alarm off and then.. sleep again until I really feel fully refreshed!

I wake up without any pain from my eyes and start my activities without rushing. I can take a shower as long as I want, brush my teeth until each corner in my teeth is free from any food remnants, and enjoy my breakfast.

I do not need to "use" my brain. I play game the whole day - no study, no improvements, no crams before exam. I feel my brain is "rusty" hehe, since it has been long time ago being used for mugging. Well, I just use it for deciding what should I do next during holiday.

I'm in heaven?! Maybe it's here with me now ^^

Same

I was sitting here, looking around my room. I just wondered how could I stay in a four-times-five-meter room all the day. I looked in front, yeap, computer and internet -the answer.

I put my head on my left hand. I closed my eyes for a while. I felt the silence of my room post exam. Calm and peaceful. No screaming after paper. No comments during studying.

Empty. That is what I feel now. I think I am just bored with this holiday; no tension and fluctuation in life. All remains constant - just like an arbitrary figures in a mathematics solution which lays with silence on a piece of paper after it has been solved.

I understand now why I should enjoy all the challenges which I face in my life. Besides providing opportunities for me to growth, I think they prevent me from boring life.