Back to School (Again)

How does it feel sitting for a test after ages of not doing one? Sort of dreadful: the same old routine all over again. Ensuring you did sufficient preparation and the anxiety if you pass or fail since this time around the stakes are higher too.

Classes can be pretty dreadful too, with long 8-5 hours and the presence of some obnoxious people adds to the bane. This is also the first time in my life I’m encountering a bona fide bimbo! She will shriek when she gets excited, talks with that irritating bimbo slang, bitchy, overconfident and guess what, she’s blonde. To do her just, as a saving grace she’s friendly.

Yet, I don’t know if a bimbo is worse, or someone who could just ramble on and on at the speed of light. Two of the combined: they really make a team. My ear drums are at their limits and I’m looking forward to a seat rotation.

Subject matter’s pretty interesting actually. Instructor’s pretty cool: a paunchy man who looks a little like Hitler, who is after all a little sadist. All in all, school’s still good whereby you still have the dominant control over your time.

Ultimately, do I miss uni? Honest answer: yes, but not the studying. The friends, the company, the crazy moments, the blitheness, and if uni was in a more urban area I think I’m really going to miss my student life greatly.

A Revival, from the Desert

It's been a long while, almost eternity. Few reasons to be motivated to blog: Dean had a customised picture link to my blog which was totally awesome, and the fact that we've all since graduated the best way to keep ourselves abreast with the progress of peers is via a blog.

A lot happened since June, with a lot to gain and lose. A whole new exciting world to explore, a lost family member, months long HK like lifestyle due to major renovation and the dire need for sampatness. I officially miss the karaoke sessions singing at the top of my voice, the regular (not even occasional) Coffee Bean cakes and muffins, purposeful hunt for food and all the outdoor expeditions.

Everyone's moving on, embarking on their own respective journeys. Opportunities to hang out now becomes so rare that even chatting online becomes difficult. These are the times when solid friendships are being put to test, or times we have all taken for granted now being being cherished more than ever. My only wish is for convocation to be as complete as it can be. A final gathering. An official close to a great chapter in life.

Brood Yes, Then Learn

Last week was helluva week, from the pinnacle of KL Twin Towers to the deepest trench in UTP. My emotion graph for the week mimics our KLCI: erratic. I was high, way high in the beginning, dipped a little, picked up, dipped again, then went plunging into the black hole, and picking up again.

I learnt that your dearest person can either lift you up the most or bring you down the most too, but only little to that person's notice. Nevertheless, it came in this pang of realization on the importance of saying the right thing at the right time, even when I might think it is innocuous, it may mean entirely differently to someone else.

Two interviews I've experienced, priceless. Both were of different approaches, but they ultimately lead to the same conclusions:

• Be confident. Speak with conviction, fast or slow in whichever demeanour of yours, yet beware, not too slow till it's inaudible or too fast like a Volvo on the Autoban.

• Be yourself. When you try to be someone, you end up giving contrived answer and when you're being quizzed further, you'll start to contradict yourself.

• Be resolute on what you seek. Employers are not there to recruit irresolute people who would just jump ship when they feel like it.

• Learn to develop good communication and listening skills. Be clear, concise in your choice of words. Never ramble like and old granny. Learn to listen and obey instructions too, cause a bad listener won't be a good follower, neither a leader too.

• Talk to your interviewer with humility and respect, but nonetheless, not with fear and inferiority cause that will only portray diffidence.

• There is no one right approach for all scenarios. Try to be attentive and identify the ambience and adapt to it.

As for me, I rekindled my interest for technical jobs. The excitement stirred up in me from the interview by one of the most technical companies in the oil and gas servicing line just flourished imperceptibly. While a comment given by the interviewer in a separate interview made me realize despite my interest in non technical line, I might just perform better in the technical line.

Trust Your Gut Instinct

Industrial Automation and Control Systems lab is 9am to 11am today, but it was de facto 9am to 12.15pm, lunch break then 1.30pm to 3.30pm. The staggering long hours? Here's why.

This was the given connection diagram for a closed loop control system:

My first time in 3.5 years of study, I'm seeing a T circuit. Cool. So how to connect physically? I interpreted it as such:

"Hmm, I'm not too sure myself, but do this:" was the response of the teaching assistant

Then I replied: "Huh? Doesn't this means that the Controller, Reader and the Resistance unit are all in parallel, like this:"

Teaching assistant: "Not too sure, just connect the T circuit first, then jump the terminals to the Resistance unit."

Hooked everything up, assuming that the black box Resistance unit has some special connection hidden. Double, triple, quadruple checked, swapped terminals, still not functioning. Fiddled, meddled with the Controller not working still. Swapped controller unit, futile. This experiment seemed forlorn we almost relented.

Just when all hope was gone, the TA showed us a circuit diagram from his manual, or his previous lab report saying the connection should be like this. We then realized something was not right. The resistor was blardy in series with the power supply and temperature transmitter while in parallel with the Controller and Reader, which was this:

This is an epitome of how something simple turned complex. Next time, I shall learn to trust my instinct and bother to try it out instead of taking others' words for granted.

Valentines Day Movie

Finally got to watch the movie which Ipoh decided in her own wisdom to not show. On a scale of 1 to 5 for a romantic comedy, I'll give it 3.5/5.

The Plus:

There weren't any chummy cheesy fairy tale love story. That really allowed me as an audience to relate better to the movie. Not to forget the star studded cast. Even if the plot was crappy I think it was worth paying to watch the stars =\. Best part though, was how the scriptwriter intertwine the lives of all the characters in the movie, demonstrating how they cross paths at the ending which really did the trick.

The Minus:

HOW DID THEY CAST TAYLOR SWIFT TO BE A BIMBO CONTROL FREAK?!! I was really expecting some average school girl like how she was depicted in her You Belong With Me video kind of character who stumbles upon love in high school. Instead she's this showy, lowbrow dancer (note not cheerleader) doing her bimbo dance every other time during her TV interview in her scene, not forgetting how she likes sticking her tongue down Lautner's throat too. Comedy wasn't exceptionally great, but it wasn't lame or banal. I was perpetually entertained by it.

There were some messages from the movie which really rang through. When you love someone you really love them warts and all, not only for their likeable traits. Valentine's Day isn't all about romantic love alone, it's a celebration for any form of love: friendship and also parental. And to cohabitate or get married? I think it's cohabitation from what I perceive. Ultimately, two is always better than one, was what the movie was essentially about.