Its Raining Birthday Babies

Hey ho people, am back again after 2 or so weeks of zero blogging.....i'm lazy so, sue me.
NTU is a sad sad place. We're roughly 45 minutes away from the nearest entertainment spot (Jurong Point DOES NOT count as one). Couple that with our timetables ranging from classes till 6.30pm (for the keng double major people) and piles of tutorials to complete by the end of the week....you could pretty much say that we're on a prison island....hence we shall from now on refer to NTU as Pulau NTU.

Ok, so i'm exaggerating a bit. NTU is a fun place (this is intended for the government chaps who might read this and might take it into their heads to outlaw this blog for defaming their national pride of a university, or to make things simple...just fine me).

We have televisions in our common rooms.......wow. We have fridges. And laundries. Potentially fun places for the imaginative ones........oh, and they screen Man Utd matches.....just to shut me up....errr...just to keep me mentally active (rephrase, rephrase,rephrase)

I'm stalling, so sue me......

Righto, we have birthday babies among us, so we decided to do a mass celebration over at VivoCity. We hit Swensens and it was good. I mean really good. Kinda diff from the Swensens in KL, more main courses than ice cream selections....but good anyway.

We ate, we cam-whored, we posed, we DID NOT pond the birthday babies nor POLE them (we're nice people) and were even able to act like hooligans on Vivo's rooftop (haihya...jus keep shouting "We are NUS!!!" and we're clear).

Pictures now......

stoning...and thinking about math tutorial

Group pic on Vivo's rooftop

Yeah, Vee and me hit it off

Mee Chien & Sheng Tao

More birthday babies...Zang Bin and Boon Chong

Lei, Newkiy & Chee Yang

One of the rare pictures in which i actually look good

Vee is very happy

Where we ate at

more pictures on Facebook.......

Cheers Mates!!

Research

I'm doing research.

No, seriously, it is scientific and in no way affiliated with the purpose of gleaning info about the opposite sex.

What i'm doing is a quite simply actually.

Microbubble Pumps:

At the micron level, it is possible to engineer a pump that is capable of pumping fluids merely by applying ultrasound waves to it. What happens is this:

Entrapped within the pump is a bubble of roughly 1 mm in size. Upon application of ultrasound waves, the bubble starts decreasing and increasing in size. Now, the bubble is entrapped in a small portion of the pump between two reservoirs (of about 5mm in diameter each). When the bubble contracts, it draws in water from one reservoirs and upon expansion, pushes the water into the other reservoir. Its seriously cool.

What my partner and i are doing is actually working with a professor to develop these pumps. We basically come up with designs for the pumps using a software similar to AutoCAD, upload the data onto a laser etching machine which will etch out the shape of the pump on a plastic microscope pump. We then inject a mixture of water and ethanol into the pump and test it out under a microscope. (Ethanol is to help draw the water into the 500 micron width channel in the pump. The bubble forms naturally).

If the rough pump works, we etch out the same design onto silicone wafers and then use that as a mold to engineer a more precise pump out of a material called PDMS.

A transducer is used to generate the ultrasound waves.

Righto, pics:

My lab partner: Suky

Injecting ethanol and water

Bill Maher on Feminism

The reason i love realists and realism, this guy is spot one..though of course i expect a whole lot of women out there have a vendetta against him now....even a fatwa?

Bill Maher

Spot on mate!!!!

The Bridging post

First things first,

MAN UTD THRASHED NEW CASTLE 6-0!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Sorry Vee-Liem (will be referred from now on as "Vee") and Jeremy but you know, quality does beat passion anyday (fanatical newcastle supporters).

and............

ARSENAL DREW!!!!!!!!! with Birmingham!!!. Couldn't the day not start any better? Ok, i have to admit that i only watched the first half after which the anti-histamine i took started to kick in, but thank god (or rather the uber-nerds over at silicone valley..those guys surpass the normal NQ levels (nerd quotient) posessed by nerd rip offs and wannabes (such as yours truly) and are permanently imbedded in the nerd halls of fame (currently the major exhibit is Stephen Hawking, Einstein did not make it, him being a bit of a philanderer which drastically reduces the NQ level).

Righto, on with the post proper.

This is going to be a little in-depth look at life here in Singapore, cos i happen to have the time to sit and type for a long period of time....without feeling too lazy to do it.

My adidas predators look a little worse for wear (its been twisted out of shape with creases everywhere) and i have no idea how the guys keep their nikes and lottos and umbros looking good. Its us predator lovers whom have this problem (plans to sue the germans). I've got a match in 2 hours by the way, out of which i'm fully expecting some injury.

Ok, our grading system is a carbon copy of the US system. Every grade is determined by THE GRAPH (its the normal distribution curve, go figure) for every specific subject.

The subjects themselves are divided in 3 categories. Core subjects, general prescribed subjects (subjects we have to choose from a selection of three schools which you don't attend, and one unrestricted elective (more on this later on).

The core is the usual stuff. Computing, Materials, Calculus, Fluid Mechanics, etc etc etc, you get the picture. Depending on your degree, you're given a certain number of core modules to cover.

General Electives (GE) are subjects you HAVE to take from other schools. Lets say you happen to be in the College of Engineering, you have to take one module each from the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and from Business over the 4 years of univ.

Unrestricted electives are subjects you are free to take from ANYWHERE. You have to clear a minimum of 1 , and could opt to take more if you have time to kill or want to complete a minor (more on this later on). Hence, the popularity amongst the student body for subjects like "Imagining Imprisonment", "Mind Over Stress", "Are you OK?" (no joke, such a subject actually exists) and so on.

A minor is something like a mini degree. It means you have some acceptable level of knowledge in a certain field to be useful. Lets say you do s minor in Economics. You do not complete all the required subjects, just around 4 or 5 and you're given the minor.

I've registered for the follwing subjects this sem:

1) Multivariable Calculus
2) Physics 1B - Electromagnetism and Relativity
3) Materials Science
4) Computing
5) Effective Communication (i have no idea why they make u take this crap)
6) Physics 1Q (Research and Project work)
7) Principles of Economics (my GE)

The beauty of the system is such that you have an S/U option. It basically means if you're not confident in a certain subject, you could opt to simply pass or fail it and the grade won't be calculated into you're Grade point average (GPA). You're allocated a maximum number of academic units you could S/U.

Now for introductions:

My research partner for Physics 1Q: Suky.




Think of her as the female version of Ting Feng (albeit a bit more energetic and a bit more of a talker).

My Roomie, Abdul Kader (chap on the extreme right)

Newkiy, counter-terrorist camp

Anil, counter-striking late into the night


The terrorist camp (counter striking at 1am)

Hall 3...today's footy opponents

Vee

I Love Scary Places......no questions please.

Ok, lets not get the wrong idea here. Yes, i do have some sort of emotional core. Yes, i do have feelings despite not being easily hurt (emotionally) by what others say. But that does not mean i have absolutely NO, ZIL, ZIP, NANA feelings.

I do however do not get scared easily. It wasn't always the case. Among my cousins and siblings, i am called "Chicken" cos as a kid i used to be frightened of the dark......A LOT. I would never wonder upstairs into the dark if noone was there, i would never sleep without some small light on, and so on and so forth. I got over all that around 11, and funnily, since then, i have become a bit cold in the fear department. I mean fear of the supernatural( if it does exist)....i do get anxious when mom says the cheesecake did not turn out well or the gulab jamun did not set properly.

Ok, i have this weird hobby. I simply love exploring so-called haunted places. An i feel i have not yet done any proper exploring to really find a place that creeps me out to the max. Most of the time i just get this tingling sensation down my spine, but nothing strong enough to get me out of that place. I'm not bragging or anything, but hell yeah, i like to be scared by scary places and they are hard to come by.

My old school was a haven for hauntings, but i've been bloody disappointed that i have not experienced anything despite actually venturing into the haunted spots after hours to get photos for a post i did along time back.

The old chapel, the haunted back stage, the form 6 block, the top floor of that block, the library after hours (alone)..............NOTHING.

Ok..

So, finally i decided to try out one spot in my old PRIMARY school which was supposed to creep the hell out of the school staff and students. The backstage. I am not aware of any linkage between ghouls and backstages, so just humor me.

It is said this place is haunted by a white apparition (quite cliched, but there you go). Unseen forces apparently move doors, throw chairs and stack them backstage for no reason. So, yeah, i decided to explore about a week ago. Mom went to do her banking work and i tagged along and photographed the place while she was away. The pics:

The spiral stairway leading to the lighting area. I didn't dare venture up there cos the whole thing was rusted.

The second stairway

The staircase leading to the basement of the stage. This place was mega cramped. I had to crawl beneath the damn stage though the small gates placed beneath the stage. There is only about 3 or 4 feet of standing space, and since i hate using flash, yeah, i had to crawl and open the windows.

Ok, despite moving around and taking my own sweet time opening windows and doors for more natural lighting, NOTHING happened. So, yeah, disappointment again. Or maybe the ghost loves camera men.