Sabah Trip

Sabah was fun! The usual impression from pple of this place (including myself initially) is that its ulu, rundown, and bascially not a very fun place that would top a tourist's list of destinations. Going there changed my impression of it...its actually quite a nice place! Sabah is what Singapore is not, and u can catch some kampong life in action. If you ever want to go to a regional beach resort, you can consider this place. It has nice clean beaches and seas for you to do watersports etc. And as Sabah isnt marketed much as a tourist destination here, I feel its not as commercialised as other places (eg: langkawi etc).

I was immediately reminded of one of the bio lectures, where the lecturer went on and on abt crabs etc (try to see if u can spot it)

Hotel Pool

Hotel Room

View frm Room

This trip was paid for by ourselves, with no funding taken from the church. We all stayed at Shangrila Tanjung Aru Resort, and its a fabulous place, part of the reason why the trip was good. (I went for my first ever massage there too!) We were also quite fortunate in having very good weather throughout our stay there, as the gloomy dark forecasts of 5 consecutive days of rain and storms failed to come true, with one or two nights affected by the weather.

Poolside Bar

The main purpose of the trip was to perform at Sabah's Sacred Heart Cathedral, which was a success as we managed to raise some funds for several charities there. It was a pity that we werent at full strength (abt 60plus pple went), but in the end the performance somehow or other turned out to be alright. This was my first overseas concert and frankly, it was very fulfilling to perform for a worthy cause. I was also quite surprised at the impact that we left behind on the Sabahans. It was a full-house at the cathedral there and somehow I felt we made a good impression of Singapore in general as well.

I was also quite amused and surprised to find that a video of us found its way to Youtube (not very good quality though) and after doing a blog search, I found several blogs blogging abt us (with our pictures in there too)!

Of course, we went for r&r as well. On Tue, we went on a river cruise to catch a glimpse of proboscis monkeys and fireflies. Too bad the weather turned bad towards the evening, and that sort of ruined our chances of seeing a lot of fireflies. And on Thursday, we went to Manukan and Sapi Islands, both part of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park! The sea and the beaches there are really clean and nice to swim in. Dont expect the water clarity to be of the standard of the Great Barrier Reef, but overall in general, its quite alright for snorkelling.

Its been a worthy, fulfilling and fun-filled trip....the perfect antidote to a crazy past month of mugging for the exams..

End of Exams

At long last, the exams are overr!! Yeah...even though the final paper (bio) wasnt easy, at least there was the feeling that at last the exams are over. Like philo, bio was also an open book exam, but this time, there were a lot more flipping of papers and books....though there was hardly any time to really search for answers thoroughly...oh well we shall know the results soon...before christmas if i'm not wrong...... Considering that my last exams (a lvls) were in 2005 (unbeliveable! Time really flies!), it took a while to get used to exams again...haahaha

And i'll be heading to Sabah tmr as mentioned in the earlier post...i think it should provide a good break and rest..With all the funny business and unrest going on in the world today (in particular in our very own dear region), lets hope nothing goes wrong in sabah....well lets hope i dont see proboscis monkeys and orangutans deciding to stage a protest and shut down the sabah int airport. Now that will be a sight.....ok, thats abt it for now, will be back on fri!

EXAMS!!!

Its exam week! Yes, officially it alr started last sat. (philo-those mad mcqs: which incidentally the last qn was based partly on one of the worst lectures i ever sat for in my life, the one where the guest lecturer went on and on about why we dont know all about bats because we will never get the feeling of whats it like to be a bat. And he even went on to wonder whats it like to be a shoe! Needless to say, many pple walked out halfway. Ok sorry i digressed.) And its gonna start again tmr and will last till sat. Yep 4 days straight in a row....and then i'll be done! Man i'm so looking forward to the end of the exams...i'm kinda sick of studying alr.

Its kinda interesting that last year at this point in time, i was preoccupied with totally different stuff...which reminds me....its gonna be my first exam since the A lvls, which was like 2 years back? And what seemed impt and worrying last year seems to be overshadowed by the exams now.... Haha well i guess time really flies huh.

And of course there is something to look forward to.....SABAH! Yeah i'm be flying off (no i dont have wings, i'll be taking a plane in case u're wondering...) to Sabah on 1st Dec and will be there till 5 Dec.....and from what i've seen of the itinary, it should be quite fun and relaxing! Just what i need after these crazy exams.

Ahhh....and i shouldnt be blogging.......alright gotta go back to studying again.....

Game theory - NUS Students Dilemma

What is below is an application of the game theory from econs. I took the idea from the forum and apparently, this game theory tree below is called the nus students' dilemma. (though actually it can be called singapore students dilemma) Because blogger has rubbish typing facilities, i have to present it in the format below. Just pretend that there are boxes around the words and just follow the arrows, with m - mug & dm - dont mug.

It works like this. I have to make a decision on whether to mug (m) or dont mug (dm), and then, other students will respond 'strategically' to my decision. They can either choose to mug (m) or dont mug (dm).

....................................ME:Do well
.........................m.../....OTHERS: Do well
............OTHERS
...m....../...........dm....\......ME: Do well
........................................OTHERS: Fail
ME
...........................................ME: Fail
...dm......\.............m....../.....OTHERS: Do well
............OTHERS
....................................\
......................dm...........ME: Do well
.....................................OTHERS: Do well

If i and the others mug, then we all do well. But if i mug, and others dont mug, then they will fail and i will do well. etc etc

Since nus uses a bell curve for grades, if everyone doesnt mug (dm), then we will all do well, and can live a stress free life. BUT, based on the diagram above, mugging will be the dorminant strategy for others since the outcome is always advantageous to others. The incentive from 'undercutting' others or being 'undercut' is too strong. So given that others mug, our best choice is also to mug. This is the Nash equilibrium. Hahaha :) And as the person said in the forum, that is why we all mug when we all could just relax and get the good grades.

HAHA! ok i guess econs got to my brain.....

Midterm...and F1 weekend!

Time really passes by damn fast...Its unbelieveable but midterm is already here...and my 1week recess week is about to be over! Yeah this week was a break...so its like half a term or 2months left to the end of the 1st sem. Time in uni really passes by fast....

And its the F1 weekend tmr! Was watching the practice session just now on tv, and its quite cool to see F1 in singapore itself, with the likes of hamilton racing on marina bay....though i must say, it would have been great if we had ERPs on the track. I kept seeing ERP-style advertising boards for Singtel etc etc...We really should go put ERP there! Its the perfect advertisment and tourist attraction for those F1 pple....

With regards to sch stuff...At last i'm almost done with the 1st draft of the philo essay...bah was quite a crazy assignment...doing an essay is bad enough arl...imagine the prof refusing to tell u straight the qn?? Yeah, we had to figure out what the assignment is by figuring out what the assignment is about.... But at last its almost done, and i hope its alright. Alright thats it for me. Go catch F1 if u can!

Sch....

Next week will be wk4 of the sch term alr....and alr the stress is starting to build up....even though in a way, uni is slacker than jc (at least its a 4day wk)...actually prob the only way... All the readings/future assignments all look quite daunting.

Mods this sem are generally alright, except for one or two crazy mods. (philo and bio) Yeah, BIO...thats a science....didnt touch any science at all ever since O lvls man. Philo is....................(you can go fill in the blanks urself....i'll leave that to ur imagination....) Its the only lec/readings where u can go in and come out blur and clueless abt what the lec/readings were abt. Ok maybe not totally, but u get my point. It makes u feel rather stupid. Quite irritating...just like socrates...i think this mod should be Introduction to Irritating People. So if i turn out to be irritating by e end of this sem, u'll know why!

But the ps lecs are prob the most boring...though philo can be confusing, at least the philo lecturer can be a bit funny at times. Prob had his mind affected by plato/socrates/euthypro etc. Here's the philo blog if u are interested by any chance in it -
http://examinedlife.typepad.com/ph1101egem1004/

Sch is Abt to Start soon.....

The last week of the official sch hols has just passed by, but frankly with all the talks, registration, orientation rubbish to go for....its almost as though sch has started. Everyday from mon - fri involved going down to sch for some reason or another.

After going down to sch for 4days straight, i must say that its almost as though its back in cj all over again. Maybe its because almost my entire jc class (with the exceptions of a few) are in/entering fass. Or maybe its because a few of us decided to just hang around each other the past few days. Frankly the way we just sat around for lunch at the arts canteen or later at the LTs for talks, it was almost like jc, albeit with a different scene now.

I've made two observations abt nus so far. One, its full of stairs! Everywhere u want to go, there are stairs, and more stairs, and even more stairs! Its really the National University of Staircases... I think i'll sure end up fitter after a while there.....

Two, there are so many smart pple there and i'm sure competition there will be tough. It sure wont be Never Under Stress... more like constantly under stress...

Here's the week's highlights so far.

MON - Registration

TUE - Tennis at Inami's place with gab, dhan &sk! Haha and it was damn fun, though maybe i should be more careful with how i aim...lost several balls over the fence... Haha but it was fun and really should play more often actually. Oh well, the hols are ending...and sch's really abt to start....

Thur was the first day of the orientation week and rather grudgingly i went for it. (rather like inami) Turns out sk & us ended up in the same house but diff group, and it was rather hilarious seeing inami go through the orientation grudgingly. Orientation was the usual rar rar enthu stuff, so not my kinda stuff. But surprisingly i went for 3 days. What an achievement! Haha. I guess orientation just isnt my cup of tea. I certainly prefer coffee...

Southern Ridges

Start of the Marang Trail (Going to Mt Faber)
Going up the Marang Trail
Mt Faber
Guide to the Southern Ridges

Southern Ridges

- Mt Faber

- Telok Blangah Hill

- Hortpark

- Kent Ridge Park

- Normanton Park

- Science Park

- NUS

- West Coast Park

This post is rather late...no thanks to my laziness in posting this up...but hey anyway at least its up now... This dates back to 17 JUNE 08. The Southern Ridges is one of the much hyped new places to emerge in spore and clem & i decided to go explore it! (since we had nothing better to do anyway)

The Southern Ridges is a new nature hotspot in spore, that allows u to walk from mount faber at the vivo city area all the way to NUS and West Coast Park at clementi.... Basically its a new walking nature route, and bridges etc have been built to facilitate the walk. Apparently millions of dollars have been spent on it and its been rather popular, with many locals swarming it on weekends etc

Henderson Waves

We started off in the morning...and since it was a weekday, it was a great walk as there werent that many pple around. It was amazing the way we managed to complete the entire trail...frm mt faber all the way till NUS... Frm the start of the trail all the way to kent ridge park, the route is fairly easy to follow, but it gets tricky frm there to nus/west coast park.

Henderson Waves (those are seats above....but there is no shelter...as there are gaps for rain/sun to get through the 'roof' which is something like a rib cage)
View frm Henderson Waves
Near Hilltop Walk Sideline distraction - A disappointing 'stream'
Entrance of Forest Walk
Alexandra Arch
Floral Walk
Hortpark
Hortpark Hortpark
Some staircase at Hortpark A sculture at Hortpark toilet
Hortpark Wall display at Hortpark

Another display at Hortpark

Hortpark

Hortpark tree with beard

Hortpark

Hortpark

Leading out of Hortpark to Canopy Walk

Leading to Canopy Walk

Canopy Walk

Canopy WalkView from Canopy Walk
Kent Ridge Park

Kent Ridge Park is the part where most pple will get lost and wont know how to continue on to get to NUS/West Coast Park. Haha it was rather funny how we were walking around in circles at kent ridge park/normanton park as we were totally clueless abt how to get to nus frm there. And there were two other groups (one grp of sec sch kids and another grp of two gals) who were i think also walking around in circles and we kept bumping into each other along the way. Haha

Kent Ridge Park

Do not catch black birds....and the bird seems to have gotten out of the sign/cage....

Do not catch black fish...and again the fish is out of the sign...
Tricky Exit to nowhere (Do not enter....)If u want to get out of the kent ridge park maze...then just follow the sign...
Normanton Park (Getting near to Science Park, which in turn will lead to NUS...) Those are apparently brains....fake ones of course...and this is Science Park...
Direction to NUS
Ended off with ice cream at Daily Scoop at Clementi Sunset Way

Apparently once u reach Normanton Park, just walk on out to Science Park and then head on down to NUS/West Coast Park. But we stopped at NUS. It was really a rather nice walk..and the horpark esp had nice scenary. A good family hangout place. Worth checking out if u have the time and want to try doing something diff in spore apart from the usual shopping etc.