Happenings in UTP

I can't believe it that I actually took almost 20 minutes to load the page for me to write an entry. Oh well, the Internet connection here couldn't get any better, so there is no use for me to complain either.

I have been attending lectures in the New Academic Complex for quite some time now, and I find it quite nice, except when you have tutorials at night in the New Academic Complex. Believe me, going for tutorials at night in the New Academic Complex can be a ghostly experience! The reason behind this is that there is almost no lecture or tutorial at all at night in the New Academic Complex, therefore very, very few people go there. Subsequently, the place becomes extremely quiet and perilous. I was told that lights are automatically switched off at 10.00 p.m. That is exactly the time my tutorials end, if I have any at night. The surrounding in the New Academic Complex seems so unsafe that our tutors are very worried. Although our tutorials are scheduled to end at 10.00 p.m., they would dismiss us fifteen minutes earlier. Of course, they wouldn't want us to end up in the tutorial room without lights. God knows what might happen.

Apart from that, I have nothing to complain of except the long walks. Oh, by the way, all UTP students were required to collect their examination slip yesterday, today and tomorrow. The examination slips are required for us to sit for our exams. Without the exam slip, we will not be allowed in the examination room. Guess what happened to me? I went to collect my slip with some of my coursemates, and upon checking the details of my examination slip, I found an error that was not corrected for the past three months. My exam slip still says that I've signed up for Islamic Studies to be examined. I had clearly written in my course registration form that I signed up for Moral Studies, whose course code is GHF0022, not GHF0012 (that's Islamic Studies). I brought this matter up during the registration and they said that they will correct it. However, the error still persists, much to my annoyance. They took back the slip and told me to go to the Examination Unit to receive my new (and hopefully, corrected) Exam Slip, of which I can't do without.

Today, Jared Ee participated in the Public Speaking Competition which was held in conjunction with Communication and Culture Week (CCW). The theme of the Public Speaking competition was "Bridging Differences", which is quite an interesting one. The competition was held at Building 13 (Civil Engineering Block) which was a very far walk from the Multi Purpose Hall (we were there to take our exam slips). Nevertheless, Wei Ni (my coursemate) and I made it a point to watch the competition and give moral support to our friends.

All the participants of the Public Speaking competition had to deliver an impromptu speech. Their topic will not be given until one speaker has spoken for one minute. Then the following speaker will be given the topic and two minutes to prepare, of which after two minutes the previous speaker would have finished delivering his points. Then, the next speaker will be given three minutes to deliver whatever he has come up with within the two-minute time. I must admit, it wasn't easy for the participants at all. But, I laud them for their courage to stand and speak in front of the audience.

We stayed in Building 13 for about 45 minutes, which we left after Jared Ee and Billy Seah had delivered their speeches. I found both their speeches very interesting. Well, Jared informed me that both of them were selected for the finals. Well done!

Wei Ni and I left Building 13 and made our way to Pocket D for a briefing. The briefing is for all EduCamp facilitators. Yes, I have been chosen as a facilitator for the EduCamp. So for those out there who are selected for EduCamp, chances are that you will be seeing me around, overseeing things. The briefing was about the dates of the camps, the venues of the activities held and how things are going to be organised. Later on today (it's already past midnight now) there will be again another briefing in Pocket D. I'm not sure what is it going to be about though. I'll know later.

It's a bit annoying to know that I won't be able to return to Ipoh this week. I have Basic Dance and Movement class this Saturday and a replacement class this Sunday. Oh well, I guess I won't be able to go back either because of EduCamp. So, I think I shouldn't fret so much about not being able to go home.

Oh, previously my laptop had only 256 MB of DDR2 SDRAM, which made my laptop operated very, very sluggishly. I soon got fed-up with the slow speed and decided to upgrade the RAM, so I bought a 512 MB Kingston DDR2 SDRAM from Jusco (RedCom) for only RM210. It was really a good buy, and it really has exactly 512 MB of RAM. Not a byte less! Then, I also ordered another DDR2 SDRAM from Jared's father. I wanted another 512 MB of RAM so that my laptop would have 1 GB of RAM. His father got me one, for RM200 but as expected, there was only 502 MB of RAM. That made the total capacity of my RAM 0.99 GB. Well, it's just a short of the big dime. I didn't mind it anyway, as long as the performance of my computer improves greatly.

More assignments are being given to us now. We have hardly any time to do our things, and our lives are getting a bit messy now. We can't afford to sleep at 11.00 p.m. now because we simply have a lot to do! Sleeping at 1.00 or 2.00 a.m. is considered normal now. Some sleep at 3.00 or 4.00 a.m.! For me, I can sleep for an average of seven to eight hours only per day. Of course, I shall treasure my sleep during weekends and Thursdays, when lectures start at 12.00 noon.

Well, that accounts for my latest entry. This is undoubtedly longer than my previous ones because so many things have occured in just two days. Well, that proves that university life is certainly full of happenings. You don't need to go out of campus to see what's happening outside. Most can be felt and seen from within the campus. However, that doesn't mean that we can be oblivious to any current issues that are happening in the world. Newspapers are often pored over, and I read the news from TheStar Online every day. Well, you just have to go online to read the news if you're too lazy to get up early in the morning to fight for the newspapers at the Information Resource Centre!