catch up (2009)

Previously, on ¿wat?: catch up: transitions, the whole story

Thought I better post this before the year ends… It’s about time anyway.

Season 10 (New Dawning)
Aug 2007 – May 2008, 1st Year Uni

Orientation. To be honest, I was kinda worried about what was coming up… my brother in law, who almost went to NUS, told me, “make sure your underwear has no holes.” So, yeah. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened and orientation was fun, albeit stressful, but that’s just me. I dislike having to interact with large groups of people whom I don’t know that well… anyway, I jumped between EH orientation and SoC, which I feel was a good call. Good to know people from both arenas.

Unsurprisingly, I found myself with EW and Computer Comm with Raymond, Yong Xin, Joshuatj, Jie Jing,  and Huan Jin. That, it would seem, has largely set me on the path to where I am now, including the other friends I’ll be meeting. I would say that EusoffWorks filled the void left by the Editorial Board, so much so that initially I kept calling the EW room the EB room by mistake.

Ten Minutes Late. I’d admit, right at the begining I had doubts that I’ll be able to fit in. I guess I thought that my other band mates were from rather different social circles… but looking at us all the way leading up to Stardust – there was not much problem there. I remember our nervous first gig: Cambodia Heartbeat. Phew.

The first sem I was bouncing around churches… I tried to settle on Woodlands EFC. I guess the reason I really wanted to go there was because it reminded me a bit of SWMC. But woodlands wasn’t really all that practical. Eventually, for a while there, I stopped going altogether. Fortunately, in sem two I resumed going to church, and finally settled on Bible Church.

Christmas time… was… well… one of the things it was was miserable, to be honest. I don’t think I’ve let go of Sitiawan yet. I remember joining the Taiping carolers. They’re fine people, but I kept getting “flashbacks” of Christmas in Sitiawan. The Camps, the caroling, the musicals. So… yeah.

Sem two… DP. Bump in was kinda a hell week… and it left a lasting impression. Kinda bitter sweet, but bitter enough to make me decide not to rejoin DP. Also joined S@S. Didn’t quite realise how big this decision was at the time…

Then came the holidays. Went for the Taiping camp and finally got to know the Taiping MYFers better. Thus endeth another season.

Season 11 (New Industrial Age)
May 2008 – May 2009, 2nd Year Uni

“New industrial age” simply because, like the last industrial age, I (and I quote) “made myself too busy for my own good”. And here’s something to laugh about: in the Season 5 write up, one sentence after I said that I said, “Add math really became tough after that…” Apparently I really don’t learn…

Anyway, I shifted to D1, next to yx and rcyl, also because I got tired of climbing so many stairs. Fun times walking into yx’s room and waiting till he’d noticed I was there…

At this time EW was stretching out “a bit”. And so was I… from EW to S@S, I did learn a lot… but… well… let’s just say I spent a lot of time there.  But at least I met and got to know people like Sheila, Carolyn, Yi Wen, Kar Yi, Kana, and Leng Choo from EW and people like Ridza, Xiao Chen, Raphael, Isaac, etc from S@S.

As for Ten Minutes Late, I finally got comfortable enough with them to let go a bit. (I remember someone commenting, “He’s changed…”)

Then, at the end of sem 1, I took a nice blow to my grades. My fault, of course. But there it is. Initially, it didn’t affect me too much… (grades rarely do.) But towards the end of sem 2, I was really worried.

I don’t remember when exactly, but around this time, I really felt that I also really bit off more than I could chew. I thought of quitting certain things… but decided that I couldn’t. Well, at least I scraped through… with my sem 2 grades taking yet another dent, proving that I didn’t learn.

————————

As for the past half a year… well, this season ain’t over yet. We’ll see how it continues as yet another year goes by.

completed…

…this holiday is. Glad to be able to see all the raceofjoseph.

Holiday Phase 2a begins

=)

infrequency

posts here have becoming increasingly rare… partly due to time (or rather the unwillingness to commit time), and partly due to the lack of things to write. once upon a time I actually had time to write more “thinking” posts, but it seems like I’ve got nothing much to say/ask here these days. Even when I do, they’re really short. I wonder if it’s because I’m thinking less…

- – -

It feels kinda refreshing to wake up at 7am after a “double chiong” and a long sleep. Looking forward once again to the holidays… (less demoralizing than exams) so… james, gonna have gathering at your house again near Christmas?

why

do I bother? I guess I should find an answer to this question soon. Otherwise… But the answers aren’t quite satisfactory yet.

- – -

Perhaps I am starting to glimpse why there exists cringing pain in corners.

point of most change

Let’s say I can go back in time once and influence a change in my own personal history by changing one of your “shaky decisions” or “chance event”.
Goal: Make one change that will change the most things about your life today.

Let’s try… “decision to go to rag area as a rag helper” and change it to “continue playing freespace in room.”

• Would not have met Joshuatj
• Would not have been in EW IBG Ops
• However, would most likely have join Computer Comm at CCA week, resulting in contact with Old Man 1.0 and 2.0 as well as jj anyway

So… not really much change.

Maybe we try “the Eusoff server blows up because of an old UPS”

• Would not have learnt to reinstall a server
• Would not have michael.ew.local’s first incarnation
• Would probably have started experimenting with servers in year 2 after moving the server into the new room — if mega comm structure continued. Otherwise, one skill set would be missing, but that’s it.

Not really significant either…

Let’s go further back instead…

Can I change “Attempt to apply to NUS and NTU” to “Just make do with local unis/colleges”? Maybe… in this case I can’t predict how things would be… I’ll probably be in Uni of Nottingham studying Electrical Engin or in Inti doing something electrical or computing.

So, very significant change… but “attempt to apply to NUS & NTU” isn’t really a shaky decision….

but… talking to Kelvin was what brought me to NUS and especially Eusoff Hall… so if I can eliminate Kelvin…

Lets change “decided to join ACS Band” to “did not join ACS Band”. Then:

• Majority of contact with Kelvin eliminated. (along with Jeffrey, Tiang, Christopher Ling, and possibly even otter and penguin?)
• Chance of applying to NUS? still quite high…. but chance of applying for Eusoff goes down and I would likely have applied to Temasek or Shears.
• Temasek being still largely a sports only hall, may not have accepted my application… Shears…. this one not sure… but if both failed, I’m quite sure Eusoff would still have been a choice due to location…

Also, I’m not sure “decided to join ACS Band” was really a shaky decision… (can’t really remember now, though…)

So… not really sure I can change the outcomes so much…

hmm…

equilibrium

Things seem to be stablizing… falling into place… almost as if I’m begining to get the hang of this, rather than having things slip through my fingers.

reaching equilibrium, althoguh I suspect there’s still a term (or more?) missing, but at least for now, I don’t have to feel out of balance.

phail

people who always appears to be stressed and overworked generally lacked personal competence, and the really capable people are usually very composed and at times appears unaffected by their work or responsibilities, or worse enjoy the feeling of stress.

dang. chronos management fail. and has always failed since a long time ago. will things change this time round? sigh.

and normal life begins…

Rag day marks the end of vacation period and the beginning of semester… Life goes on… twas… fun, I guess, to cover from 1am to 3+pm on one and a half hours of sleep…

Of course, the raggers are worse off.

But damn, school starts.

=)

Jonathan Lee Wern Han. My second nephew (sister’s side).

Jonathan Lee Wern Han