Steph's Friend

Sunday, February 24, 2008

NTU A Level Admission Talks 2008

It happened yesterday. I wanted to find out more on the new programs offered by the school to applicants this year. I knew a bit already as I heard of it in NTU but I wanted to find out out more. For example, there was this double honours degree in engineering and economics. There's also another double honours degree in accountancy and business. Whoa...it seems that this year's applicants are really fortunate.

Anyway, I took a bus from Jurong Polyclinic (bus 502) and since there wasn't any seats, I stood at the empty space located at the side of the bus. Beside me was this man talking over his hand phone. I didn't really notice him as he didn't seem important. So the bus went along its way picking up people. Then it reached this particular stop where there was this lady dressed in black and high heels (the high heels part is important) who tapped her card and walked in my direction. I didn't pay any attention to her at first as she's just like your average passenger. She stood between me and the man. Then she started to talk to the man beside me. I think they are a couple. Then it happened...

The bus after picking up people started to move. After some distance, the bus suddenly braked. What happened? People standing inside the bus had trouble balancing themselves. Remember the lady? Well apparently, she almost fell and stepped on my left feet. And what was she wearing? High heels! Also understand that I wasn't wearing any shoes but instead sandals. Can you imagine the pressure on my feet? Let's calculate.

Let's say her heels has a surface area of 0.02 m x 0.02 m = 0.0004 m2. Now let's assume she has a weight of 48 kg (thankfully she doesn't weigh a lot). So what's the pressure? Well pressure is just force divide by area. So that gives...1.2 MN/m2 or 1200000 N/m2. Is that a lot? You decide.

Anyway, she lost her balanced and stepped on my leg! Then she grabbed my left hand at the same time as she lost her balance. Then after realizing that she had stepped on my feet, she was like saying "Sorry" continuously. I smiled at her and told her that it was okay and I was fine. Then she was like talking to her boyfriend, explaining why she had to say sorry as I guess the guy didn't know that his girlfriend stepped on me. Seriously...what a way to start the day. From time to time, the lady would look at my feet to see how it was.

As the journey continued, some people alighted and I took an empty seat. From my seat, I could see that she was still looking at me (or maybe my feet). Haiya...I took out my FE1008 book and read.

So was it painful? Surprisingly, it wasn't! Make a guess why. No it's not a made-up story. The above actually happened.

Anyway, the bus reached Suntec and I alighted. I took the escalator to the second floor and I saw my school! Ah...it reminded me of those days where I was still a A Level student. How nostalgic...

The first talk I went to was the Materials Engineering one. Hey, must support right? Haha...as the speaker talked through the slides, I felt proud that I made a decision that I have no regrets in. After the talk, I looked around the booths.

The next talk I went to was the one by EEE (Electrical and Electronic Engineering). The lecturer presenting was the famous YouTube NTU lecturer. Haha...at last I get to see the real person! Anyway, he talked about the school and its programs. Later on, he talked about the two new programs. The first is the Bachelor of Engineering (Information Engineering and Media) which is a blend of engineering and art. Pretty interesting. Next is the NTU-Georgia Tech Integrated Bachelor and Master program which has IDA's National Infocomm Scholarship to assist students taking this course! Awesome! He made a comment that the students applying for EEE has been declining which is a sad thing as (according to him) the economy of a developed country is dependent on the electronics industry. So if you have few EEE graduate students, the electronics industry may not have enough manpower to help them. Pretty logical.

Next talk I went to was the one by ADM (Art, Design and Media). I wanted to see what the school was like. The talk was quite interesting as the presenter showed some videos of what some of their students did. There was one video which was like...erm...gory and another one had some *ahem*. I guess you must have an open mind in the school. Anyway, they do interesting stuff like product design, visual communication...etc.

The next talk I went to was the one by (NBS) Nanyang Business School. Guess what? The room I went to was sooo packed that you could find people standing behind and along the aisle as the presenter talked! They have two rooms for this and I am not sure if the other room was equally packed. The lecturer made a few points that impressed me. NBS is the only business school in Singapore that has 2 accreditations. The ranking of NBS was also pretty impressive. If I remember correctly, it was 1st in Singapore, 3rd in Asia, and 4th in Asia Pacific. Cool huh? Then they have this double degree program in Accounting and Business. It's like buy one get one free. The normal course lasts for 3 years. For the double degree, it's 4 years. Pretty decent if you asked me as normal engineering degrees take 4 years. The school ranking is good, the pay of graduates from NBS is good and they have a very attractive double degree program too! So I guess it's a pretty good choice to take NBS if you are interested in business and the like. He also mentioned something like accounting isn't like maths. As long as you can do plus, minus, times and divide you should be able to do accounting.

After the talks are over, I went over to the Material Science Engineering (MSE) booth and saw my secondary school friend Shu Fen who is also in her third year in MSE. I also saw Prof Hng who teaches Chemistry for year 1. She recognized me! Haha...I guess it's because I have been going for all these events through the past few years. We talked for awhile before I went back home.

Thankfully as I took 502 back home, there wasn't any lady dressed in black and high heels that took the bus. As a safety measure, I sat down on one of the seats.

To all prospective students: You have a lot of interesting and cool programs for your batch. So in a way, you are more fortunate than me. Think carefully of what you are interested in before you make the correct choice. Here's the link for new double degree programs offered and guess what...you are the first batch eligible for it.

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Geeky Windows Music

Did you know that you can use those sounds you hear while using Windows XP and create a song? It's pretty cool actually and surprisingly, they sound nice. Here are two videos from YouTube that made use of Windows XP sounds and mix them all into a song.

Music using ONLY sounds from Windows XP and 98!


Windows XP Rhapsody

Cool huh? Personally, I like the second one.

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Monday, February 11, 2008

It's V-Day

Friend A: Any plans for V-day?
Me: Yeah...
Friend B: Cool! What are your plans? Share leh.
Me: Huh? I thought it's the same for all of us?
Friend A and B: Huh?
Me: Yeah...as the day approaches, we all stay at home or go to library and mug. That's normal right? I mean everyone does that.
Friend B: I don't know about you but NORMAL people don't go to library and mug on Valentine's Day.
Me: Orh...V-day. Haiya...I heard D-day.
Friend A and B: -_-'''

(D-day means exam day)

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