Secret War Journal[16 August 2014]
I originally wanted to publish this post last week but wow, school really takes up a great amount of time these days. (I am taking time off from my studies to write this. xD)
First off, I am saddened to note that summer vacation had ended. It had only been one week of school but I had missed my freedom solely. (Nevertheless, school had been fun thus far.) I would not say that I had wasted my time during my summer vacation. I learnt a lot during my short time in my part-time job, IRAS.
Link:
Summer Vacation Wishlist
Score: 7/8
This is probably my best performance ever. Wohoo! I guess this could mean that 1) I am better at setting goals; 2) I am better at accomplishing my goals.
Ironically, the only goal I could not fulfil was my very first goal I had set for myself - Learning Driving. I guess it shows how easily I derail from my goals. (Dang) The main reason why I did not start on this goal is due to the fact that I sort of spent the funds allocated for driving to learning a 3rd language - Japanese. While I did learn a lot of interesting things from that, I felt a bit of unachieved since I did not manage to start on driving. Of course, many would argue that the skill of driving is much more useful than a third language but that is, of course, debatable. To be frank, I felt a pang of regret. The reason being was that the summer vacation was not long enough for me to attend a full semester on the basics of Japanese. I was only able to complete two-thirds of the curriculum of basic Japanese. That did not qualify me to take the examinations for basic Japanese.
In short, it means, it can be said I wasted money for learning how to drive with an half-assed effort to learn Japanese. Go ahead, call me an idiot. Haiz.
--
Entering new grounds: NTU
It is now August 16. Most of the orientations have ended.
[Link:
SCE Orientation Camp]
Apart from SCE Orientation camp, I have also met my coursemates through the various orientations organised by the Schools.
What set these orientations apart from the others, especially the first, was that instead of remembering each other names, we ended up remembering everyone by their chosen alias.
Now, how did that happen? On the first orientation, since everyone was arriving in waves, the Orientation Group Leader (OGL) had decided to let us play a name game with a twist, using alias just like online avatars. Thus, we needed to remember each other's alias (Useless information but funny nevertheless) Some examples include "Table" & "Chair" and "Tampines".
As it turned out, since our cohort size for the course is quite small, all the other orientation groups for our course were largely the same. Hence, on the second orientation, we pretended to not know each other and played along with the name games with the OGLs. The introduction was especially interesting as we introduced ourselves as a student pursuing the course BCG in succession. This went on so well that the OGLs actually thought it was a prank. (Do note that normally, students in a orientation groups have similar courses but it is extremely rare to see a majority of students having the exact course in a orientation group.) It took a lot of effort to keep a straight face. Hahas.
Over time, we finally got to know each other's time. (It was no mean feat to me. So many names, dear Lord)
- Anirudh - Boundless. Hindi & Sanskrit Origin.
- Andy - Brave. Literal meaning of "man warrior". Etruscan origin.
- Bryant - Strong. Celtic meaning.
- Claudine - Lame. French and Latin Origin. (Wow, never knew a name could mean that. Same for Claude. Claudication means limping in Latin, it is a medical term. Now you know.)
- Jason - Healer. Greek origin.
- Jeffrey - Multiple origins and meaning, mostly similar. Teutonic & American - God's Peace. Anglo-saxon - Peaceful gift. French - Divine Peace. English and German - District, Traveller, peaceful pledge
- Pauline - Little. Latin Origin.
- Raymond - Wise Protector. Literal meaning of "Guards wisely" French Origin.
- Desmond - Gracious Defender.
- Joel - He that wills or commands. Hebrew origin.
Names with non-english names are exempted. As usual, I am not interested in those. There are some interesting one and some that really breaks what I thought was the norm for names. Let's see where we get to with this class. :)
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy
