Presenting the Clustarack!

This is what engineers do in their free time.



Cool huh? Anyway, it takes the whole team a lot of hard work. Just to get the video you just saw, they had to tape 90+ tries! It's like going through your final exams for 90+ times! Imagine the horror! Furthermore, such contraptions are insanely hardly to predict. A truck that whooshed past may trigger some unnecessary parts to trigger. Here's another video that documents the process. You gotta admire these people at Clustarack.



What would happen if my friends and I decided to try...hm...

Me: Friend_A, is the printer cartridge ready?
Friend_A: Yeah. But you must aim properly and throw it such that it hits that stack of 2B pencils.
Me: Friend_B you heard that? Our experiment lies in your hands.
Friend_B: Ya lah...I know.
Me: Okay I have the camera ready. At the count of three yeah?
Friend_A: One...Two...Three!

Yes...yes...everything's going on fine. Cartridge hits stack of pencils and the stack of pencils fall onto the floor! Success!

Everyone: Yay!
Me: You think we should put this on YouTube?
Friend_A: Yeah! I think we should.
Friend_B: If we did that, it will be pretty retarded.
Me: Somehow...I agree with Friend_B.

Would you like to try?

Exams Are Over!!

Finally...exams are over! I can't believe I have not been blogging for almost a month! Wow...that's a record! Anyway, exams are over and now I can relax for awhile.

A few thoughts came to my mind during the exam period...

1. Exam preparation
How much preparation is enough? I think that's a question many will ask and, more importantly, want to know the answer. I have a friend whom I feel really studied very hard. He had exams almost everyday and there was once he did not sleep! He literally studied through the night! It was my first time hearing such a thing! If you ask me to do that, I may not be able to concentrate the next day. I think studying through one night is really an extreme case. Hopefully my friend will get a good grade, else it will be disappointing.

2. The new canteen
There's a new canteen near Canteen A. I don't know what's the name of that place but we call it "The Canteen besides Canteen A". If you noticed, the Subway stall seems to have more business than MacD. Whoever's behind that franchise must really be earning a lot of money.

3. A touching scene
I was walking back home when I saw a grandfather and his grandchild playing badminton at the playground near my place. The game was simple. The shuttle went through at most 3 exchanges before dropping. They weren't professional players but that did not bother them. They played for another motive. The grandfather was smiling as he was playing while the grandchild was trying hard to win. What goes through their mind? I can only imagine...

Grandfather: Ah...how nice it is to play with my grandchild.
Grandson: Shucks! How come I cannot serve properly one?
Grandfather: He's so cute trying to give a proper serve.
Grandson: Must be my racket...it's lousy.

Both people have different mindsets in a simple activity. But it's really heartwarming to see them play.

To end my post, I wish everyone the best when their results come out. By the way, anyone knows when the results will be out?

Do You Need Help?

This just happened. And when I say just, I meant 5 minutes ago. So what happened?

I was at Lee Wee Name. (It's funny how most of my stories happened at LWN). I went to the 2nd level to print my notes. After clicking the "Print" button, I went to the printing kiosk below. I placed my EZ-Link card and selected Printer A. The student beside me used his EZ-Link card also. He doesn't look local, he is an ang moh. My guess is that he's from America. I went to Printer A and waited for the notes. The notes came out and I went to this corner for stapling your stuff. Now this is where the story starts...

As I was stapling my notes, the ang moh (let's call him John as ang moh doesn't sound nice) stood beside me and stapled his notes. From the corner of my eyes (yes, my eyes have corners) I could see that he had difficulty stapling. I took the stapler in front of me and saw that there wasn't any "bullets" (sheesh, can you imagine that as a University student I am still using Primary school English like "bullets"...lol). So I went to place a whole new line of staples in the stapler. I stapled my notes and went off. As I walked away, I could see that John was still having difficulty. I wanted to help him, but wasn't sure of how he would react. Would he like dao me or something? So I walked out of the shop.

As I left the shop, I felt that I had to help him, so I walked back to the kiosk and pretend to staple some imaginary notes. Hey! I need to do that, else John may suspect something...lol. Then the conversation started.

Me: Do you need help?

There was no reply. Aiyo...how paiseh it was, it seemed that I was talking to myself. I waited...

John: Yeah, this thing doesn't seem to work.
Me: Do you want to use this stapler? (I pointed to the one I used.)

He was still busy looking at his stapler. Maybe I should help him with his stapler.

John: I can't seem to insert this here. (He was trying to refill the stapler).
Me: Ah...let me show you.

I pulled the spring-thing backwards.

Me: First you have to pull this backwards and then you insert the staples here and let it slide to the front.
John: Ah...yes yes. Thank you.
Me: Welcome. Why don't you try again? It should work now.

I looked at him as he stapled his notes. It was a success.

Me: Yeah.
John: Thanks.

And so I walked out of the kiosk, went to the 2nd level and blogged about it. It feels nice helping another person.