...and so it draws to an end.

yup... have not been blogging for quite some time already... been rather busy / slack (the latter being the more dominant reason) for the past 2 weeks or so.

very much settled down i guess. yesterday i attended the ceremony for the l'oreal brandstorm competition that was held at MOS. l'oreal booked the entire studio for us (well.. they're rich rite) and gave, i suppose, a goodie bag to each participant which is worth 100+ on the retail market. 3 products and 1 comb (which i dun use) and well... i didn't stay for long as i was very tired... and thus for 2007, brandstorm draws to an end.

i've managed to secure a 3 day week... yup... after some add-dropping now i'm taking 4 cores + 1 ge for this upcoming semester. previously i told some friends abt the ge i was taking... intro to public admin... my advice to fellow ntu mates if u ever are considering this ge (code ha101):

if you do not mind the following -
1) a rather boring lecture
2) slide content a ripoff from the text
3) you have to buy a textbook (for 3 au?!) costing abt 30
4) a total disregard by the lecturer on slide presentation i.e. 1 slide all filled with words
5) constant skipping of slides (min 5 at a time)
6) the drag (approx 100 slides per lect)
7) an effortful decryption of the lecturer's speech (i.e. you need to bypass the pronunciation)
8) a passive tutorial session
9) a debate and an individual assignment, with accompanying reports of 2000 words min
9) endless frustration due to the combination of the above factors esp 7 - 9

you can go ahead and spend 13 weeks with the best lecturer i've come across in ntu.

i was really halfway thru on dropping this after i attended the lecture. i mean, public admin is so dry a subject, and reading off the slides is not gg to be very helpful in stimulating interest. well, not that i care about interest, i juz wan to take the ge and clear my damned requirements. the spur came when i attended the tutorial (okie... there was a chick but it wasn't wat i wanted in the course). we were organized into 2 groups and the lecturer simply came in and wrote the topic for discussion. it was "why do we need a government?" i was in the group that required more prompting.

so then, someone started the ball rolling. finally. after, like, 5 minutes of silence and looking at each other, while the other group is busy chatting and discussing away. the group took turns to speak: each gave a reason why do we need a government. now, language nuances aside as that they're asking "why" and not "do we need", the entire discussion was hilarious.

the person who prompted is hereon named P. also there's the active speaker (A) and the knowledgable speaker (K).

P: ok, let's start with me. I think we need a government because (i forgot)
A: yah, blabber blabber.
me: i think we need a govt because the country requires some form of representation that it exists, with proper law and order, in this world and that it may present itself to the international community. (go wow - no la joking only)
P: Actually, why do we need the govt? Why can we juz behave as we are and don't do bad things? Let's say today we don't pay taxes, or have complete disregard for traffic lights (i.e. juz go on red), and we don't care wat the govt says, and it cant do anything abt it! (omg... smart)
A: more blabber
K: (i really salute this guy) (to P) then wat is your definition of right and wrong? (juz wat i was thinking as well... P, you're suggesting that every person comes out from the same moral mould that you come from, which sadly isn't the case and probably, your words of "unwisdom" has gotten the group to wanna either laugh at you or kick your ass) law exists so that each individual are subjected to a fair (debatable though) form of treatment and... (more... but each word made more sense than P)
A: more blabber
P: actually (haha you like a lot of actually... actually i also like actually) why need a govt? you see in other countries they have royal families and they blah blah...
K: they have because its part of their history. but you must remember they do not have so much of authority as they had in the past. they existed simply becos of respect and tradition.
A: (smartest statement of the day) well, in our history, we didn't have royal families ruling us so there wasn't a need to have one in place, but we do have one already that's ruling us.

the tutorial lasted 1 hr. it was like hell... imagine another 12 weeks in the same group. the tut wrapped up aft each group had a rep to say the reasons out (my group - by P)

after the lesson i met my friends in fal. i opened stars and guess wat... the index vacancy for my slot was initially 0, then i saw 1, and saw 2... all coming. might as well make it a 3. i gave that number 3 to the system. and so it draws to an end. i've just checked too... it stayed at 3. maybe ppl dropped. then ppl added it. so have fun, those who've added. and those who've dropped, welcome to the club.

to P: you are displaying an outright naviety towards the topic. the topic is generally a good discussion issue but you are showing your plain ignorance to the situation and context. you've deviated too far from the core issues: that is, why do we need a govt, NOT wat we can do to bring the govt down.

crap, i think everyone's suppressing their laughters. either you're still in the bloody secondary school mindset, or you're in the wrong place, or you're just trying to prove how limited your worldview is. you remind me of a classmate (but not friend) of mine. ppl would wan to slap you with a smile wide across their faces. pls stop being in your comfort zone and say, you're in uni alr rite? start behaving like you're an undergrad! i dunno if you've jus came in or it simply just being your own character, but apart from giving us a good (though silent) laugh it's really time, you know, to stop behaving like the sheltered child your parents have been treating you all along.

no wonder ppl say that undergrads nowadays suck. it's becos of ppl like you who show your stupidity and having no tact watsoever that ppl who are really good gets shadowed by you. but thankfully, as with that previous classmate, i shall not see you again. i feel... revolted by your sheer incompetence.

i mean, i would not mind if you take more time to understand material. i would not mind too if your foundations are not good. what i would mind is that kind of childish attitude you show.

and so, this entry draws to an end. wake up lar, P!