Tag Archives: School

Keeping the log book up to date is an infinitely recursive process

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I’m currently doing my mandatory internship period that is part of my course curriculum. During this period, I’ve to, ideally, keep a detailed account of the things I do daily in a log book. The problem is that, however, once I start writing my first entry, keeping the log book up to date turns into an infinitely recursive process that consumes the place of all other activities for every subsequent day after.

Day 1
Do something.

Day 2
Write about what I've done on day 1.

Day 3
I'm supposed to write about what I've done, but since what I did in day 2 is writing my log book entry for day 1, that's what I'll have to write if I want to be completely honest.

Day 4
Now I've done nothing but keeping my log book up to date for two days. I suppose I could actually do some real work, but if I didn't have an entry for yesterday, it'd seem like I was slacking off. Hmm, I'll write about what I did yesterday, which was writing the log entry for the day before.

Day n
I've now written n entries, with n - 1 of them being meta-entries. I've done one real day of honest work.

See the problem?

End of an era

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I'm not going to be able to see him go down


I’ve been playing MMORPGs since Secondary 3, and if my feeble memory still serves me, that was in 2003. It is 2012 now. So I’ve been playing MMORPGs for somewhere in the area of close to 10 years.

I’m no casual player. When I embark on a new game, I sink my hours into it, and strive to be the best at what I do. Perhaps I’ve not always achieved that, but I’ve tried at the very least, and I daresay I’ve been better than the average player.

At some point during my haze of virtual world activities, I must have grown up. I’m now a second year university student (also known as college, for you yanks and rebels). I realized that I haven’t done quite as well as I ought to have. I’ve internship coming up soon, which means I’ve to buck the hell up and get myself together. Neither have I achieved what I wanted to do in life.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m going to take a hiatus from MMORPGs, and to refocus on the more immediate stuff in life that I have to tend to. I’m not quitting gaming, and in fact, I’m going to play Alan Wake this weekend when it gets released for the PC. Gaming is a huge part of me, and that’s never going away. I’m just going to spend less time of it, and make it less of a priority. Unfortunately, that means strict raiding schedules are out.

In a sentence, I’m relegating myself to the seats of casuals.

I need a vacation

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Karagga, with a hat that was probably stolen from Otto von Bismarck.

It’s been a hectic week for me since the last weekend, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been able to get any gaming done. I did manage to log into SWTOR once and completed the Karagga’s Palace raid instance. I’ve mentioned before that BioWare loves puzzles, and KP is no exception. In one of the fights, you have to constantly solve a puzzle which fires an incinerator positioned above the boss, removing it’s damage reduction buff. Fellow computer science students would be pleased to know that the puzzle is a classic problem taught in class — it’s a three piece Tower of Hanoi problem.

Other than that one SWTOR raid, and my raid obligations in Rift, which I’ve ended up being late for on a number of occasions, I hadn’t had a chance to play anything on my own free will. Now is the time where I’m gravitating towards the middle of my semester and my workload is piling up. I find myself wanting to put Rift raiding on a hiatus, and just using the free time to relax, or play a game that isn’t an MMORPG. I’ve having no fun rushing from one thing to another, and raiding has become a chore in itself.

I need a vacation.

I need a vacation.

Rant: The above screenshot took way too much effort and too long to capture. Curse you Hollywood, and your draconian DRM on blu-ray discs.

It’s about to get busy

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Last night, I was made aware that I had to take part in the Imagine Cup as part of my Software Engineering coursework this semester. I’ve talked about wanting to cut back on gaming and refocusing my time in an earlier post, but rather than being an option, it looks like my hands are being forced to do just that. Not anticipating this, I had previously planned on taking more modules this semester to make up for my lackluster performance.

Looks like it’s going to be hell in here.

Engaging the collective knowledge of the masses

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Having started school again, the chore of writing term papers have followed. I have one huge gripe that I want to make. In these papers, one is cripplingly limited to using sources from academia. Online sources, such as blogs and Wikipedia articles, are explicitly forbidden.

I am aware of the argument that the web is an open bulletin board that anyone can publish on, and that information maybe at times, unreliable. However, I feel that institutions are living in the past and removed from the modern developments of the information age, refusing to acknowledge the changes that have been taking place. Knowledge and ideas are no longer distributed in the form of a pyramid, with the institutions at the top, and the people at the bottom, but rather, the pyramid has been flatted down to a plateau, where everyone, and anyone, can make an equally useful contribution. Ideas originate less from national research labs and more from the entrepreneur spirit of individuals in their basements, with the web acting as a platform for the exchange of these ideas. In 2006, Time magazine recognized this paradigm shift, acknowledging the contributions of the masses by naming the person of the year, “You”. Refusing to accept the open web as a source is tantamount to alienating a large source of information.

It is precisely the openness of the web itself that makes it such a valuable source. Ideas are published without being held back by funding, and are exposed to an even larger “peer review” process. If you ventured a look at the one of the ‘talk’ pages for a particular Wikipedia article, you’ll realize that there is a lot of meaningful discussion that goes on behind it.

There is nothing that makes Wikipedia less reliable than Encyclopedia Britannica, for example. On the contrary, Encyclopedia Britannica positions itself as an authoritative source on a subject, a bible of information which one has to accept as being ‘true’, when often, there’s room for debate.

As for the matter that only sources from academic papers are considered reliable and accepted, I have this to say. The very idea that knowledge has to come from a certain source, accessible through expensive publications and where opinions are limited only to an exclusive group of people, is repressive.

Then again, quoting Upton Sinclair, it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.

Week 6

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We started on our BCCT (Basic Close Combat Training) on Monday, which is basically unarmed combat, kung-fu fighting, martial arts, or whatever you want to call it. The primary distinction, which we were reminded again and again by the instruction, from traditional martial arts is that while the various forms of martial arts are usually governed by rules on where to or where not to hit, no rules apply for BCCT. The objective for us to fight to disable or kill, not to score points. It was one of the rare lessons that I enjoyed, because it’s something that would be beneficial too in civilian life. It never hurts to be able to defend one’s self.

The distance covered by the route march took a step up too, we’re now marching 6 km instead of the 4 km previously. The increase is rather minor though and I barely had any issues with it, with the exception of my arms going numb as per normal due the load of the field back crushing down on both my shoulders. Furthermore, we were rewarded with an unexpected break when the safety rover that was trailing us broke down at the 5 km mark and we had to wait for it to be fixed. Safety rules dictate that during the route march, a safety rover has to be present in the event that someone needs to be evacuated for medical attention.

Right after the route march, a huge cleaning campaign was launched. There has been a number of people falling ill, first due to water contamination issues, which although the problem was rectified, the number of sick kept rising. The upper echelon didn’t have a clue as to what was going on, so the blame fell on us for not keeping the barracks clean.

We were introduced to the SOC (Standard Obstacle Course) this week too. The SOC comprises of 11 items, but we were only taught 6 thus far. There’s a video here on YouTube if you’re wondering what it’s like. So far we’ve covered the low wall, parallel bars, stepping board, low rope, horizontal beam and the swinging bridge. The low rope is the only one I can’t clear so far.

We received two days off instead instead of the usual one this weekend because Monday is Deepavali, which is a public holiday here in Singapore. Hardly matters though, it’s equally lonely in or out of camp.

Enlistment Date

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enlistment

12 September 2008.

It seems that I’m going in much later than most of my friends who are in the June/July intake due to me failing my physical test. Maybe I’ll get to try Warhammer Online before I get sent of. I’m considering if I should heed my parent’s advise and take up a job meanwhile, but I don’t see too many options available and I’m not too keen on a “do you want fries along that?” job. If I’m to get employed, I’d want a skilled job that lets me apply the things that I’ve learnt in school.

Patches, patches, and the worst possible schedule

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Frostfell (EQ2′s version of Christmas) is finally here, when the servers go up that is. I’m really excited since this would be the first Frostfell season I’ll celebrate here on the AB server, and I can’t wait to get a hold of all the fancy clothing and house items – both old ones from Frostfell 2006 and the newly introduced ones this year. Finally, I’ll have something in EQ2 to do again. Oh, the best thing about GU41 – there’s going to be tableware furniture items! Dishes and cups!

Lineage 2′s expansion, The 1st Throne, goes live today. One thing I love about L2 is that expansions are absolutely free. I’m not sure if my account is active, I’ll have to check it later. I’m excited too, but between this and Frostfell, I’ll have to say I’m more enthusiastic about Frostfell sadly. I really don’t see myself playing L2 full time again. I really do want to be on the moment it goes up however, as there’s almost guarantees that fights will occur the new err… whatever, clan hall or fortress I think it was, haven’t quite been following the patch notes.

But oh, before I get myself even more hyped up, remember my post about having to miss the MMIS raid due to midterms? Probabilty couldn’t be more against me than to place both the MMIS raid and L2′s expansion launch on the same day where I can’t attend either. I’m pretty upset over it.

Anyway, Office 2007 SP1 is being released also, so grab it here if you’re running Office 2007. I really should be studying, but I can hardly concentrate at all. I love my course, I love what I’m studying, but studying for a test, which is based on nothing but pure memory work really kills any enjoyment I would otherwise have.

This ain’t my life’s schedule

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I’m getting annoyed by some of my lecturers calling me up after referencing my school timetable, and then demanding that I meet them during a lot which I don’t have class. They make the assumption that I’ve nothing else outside of the allocated class hours. I do have a life outside of school.

Anyway, I’ve finally recovered from my throat infection, which caused all kinds of other trouble such as flu and random fevers, and I now seems to have been bestowed with a huge appetite after barely eating but porridge and salt eggs for the past week. Back to all that junk food! You must think that I weigh 500 pounds after that last statement, but you can’t be more mistaken, I’m only 183 138 pounds (oops for the typo, thanks to Richie for spotting it), and I often dip below the underweight line.

My EQ2 character, Calreth, finally hit 70 Provisioner and can now make his own drinks, saving quite a substantial sum on overhead costs. It’s one of the nice things of a having a tradeskill class that directly supports the character. 3 gold per 5 hour drink might not sound much, but it adds up. One of the other nice tradeskill classes I would like to have would be an alchemist too, but I’m not too huge a fan of crafting and would probably never get down to it.

School is starting to pickup into the ‘rushing for next deadline’ phrase, which means I’ll have to moderate my play time. I’ve been so engrossed with EQ2 lately that I totally missed something else I’ve been waiting for – the expansion to Neverwinter Nights 2, Mask of the Betrayer. The local online store here doesn’t seem to stock it, so I would have to head down to the island’s geek complex, aka Sim Lim Square, to grab it. However, with EQ2′s own expansion right around the corner, it’s doubtful that I’ll actually play much of it.

Other than that, life has been rather uneventful.

A Week of Harry Potter

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It’s impossible to walk down the street without observing individuals fanatically reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The atmosphere has been more or less similar in my school lab, and I’m a contributer to it.

I picked my copy up on the official date of the launch, along with the previous 2 that I didn’t own, The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince. All the major bookshops were still well stocked by late afternoon, which makes you wonder why anyone pre-ordered to begin with.

Anyway, I couldn’t quite remember the plot in The Half-Blood Prince, since I’ve only read it once previously, along with The Order of the Phoenix. The latter however, had a theatrical release not long ago which I caught, and hence, was adequately familiar with it. Therefore, to ensure I would be able to grasp and fully comprehend whatever awaits me in the final installment, I had to reread the 2nd last.

An in-house internship is in many ways, relaxed, as long as you are able to meet deadlines, or provide an excuse for not doing so. What I’ve learnt so far is that those administrative apparatchiks are more interested in paperwork than the actual project itself, which allows for plenty of senseless excuses as long as it’s lengthly documented.

For the past 3 days, I’ve been allocating about an hour’s work of work per day and zealously reading the famed book for the rest. Now that I’ve finally caught up the 7th book, it seems that tomorrow and the day after next will be hardly any different.