Archive for October, 2009
October 31st, 2009
I still remember watching the pokemon cartoon when I was younger, where the “Ash” character would also have a pikachu running around with him like a pet. The pikachu would fight battles for him, act cute for him, look after him, bring apples for him and so for, and all Ash had to do was to ask the pikachu to train and fight for him, and claim all the credit and feel so happy about winning the battles.
When I look at the flood of proud and hao-lian looking parents with their kid coming to SMU to take some useless exam today, I couldn’t help noticing the similarities in relationship between an academically-inclined kid and his or her mother.
The kid would have to “train’ hard in exam papers, go for all kinds of enrichment pro grammes, bring tea for the mother, and fight all the major exam “battles” while all the mother do is to claim all the credit for bringing up such a “great” kid and stand around feeling happy.
I could almost see the smug look on their faces as they walk with their kids who had come to SMU to take some useless exam implying, “Look, this thing walking beside me is my proud pikachu. He can do maths very fast and will become businessman next time.”
To these parents, I gave them the finger. Mentally.
But then again, what is wrong with parents being proud of their kids?
Being too proud over small things.
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October 23rd, 2009
Finally it happened and it ended. Good to see students stopping by to watch, although not alot are interested to try.
Good that no damage done to my E-Firestorm today, which I was using as try-out car.
Went home, discover lots of female hair get caught in the TT01D (drift car)’s wheel axle. T-Junction is really filled with female hair!!!
More photos soon, as most taken by Chuen Full.
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October 20th, 2009
After hearing my friend from another class complain to me about his IS101 class classmates and teammates.. we arrived at the following conclusion:
There are some people who got into SMU School of Information System because they want to come into SMU, but have no interest at all in IT. They only got in because no other faculty wants them.
In other words, these people are fags who can’t even do well in A Level (something that took me 2 weeks to study the entire syllabus from sketch), yet want to act seh and think they are so zai.
Put them to task to give presentations on Information Technology, you can expect the most fun things in the world.
Phishing is computer attack caused by worms and viruses.
Cyberbullying is a result of Wireless technology.
RFID is wireless technology. (strictly, in the context of the presentation, it isn’t)
DBS iBanking device work via GPS to synchronize with DBS application server.
Even if you are totally hopeless at your knowledge of Information Technology, you are fucking in School of Information System. You are trained to be future IT project managers. You don’t make an effort to learn the facts, behave totally irresponsibility by presenting and teaching the class the wrong things…
WTF manz.
There are really too many fucktards running around in SMU School of Information System Management.
It is alright to not know anything about Information Technology before coming here. So many of my friends have no background yet they are putting in so much effort and now doing even better than those with background.
As a comparison, I know nothing about Econs, but I spend more than 10 hours on it every week just to make it right.
And I don’t think there is anyone with more external commitment than I have.
Yet these fucktards can’t even get their facts right. How long does a Google search take?
These people brings down the name of School of Information System manz.
I hope I won’t encounter these people in my future IS related projects.
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October 19th, 2009
I am organising a R/C Drift Event in SMU this friday!
Please come down and support!
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October 18th, 2009
How I wish the individual project report could write by itself…
…but it was not to be.
Instead I spent the whole day today designing the website for my SMU Links+ project and my team, TheEvilProject.org.
I may be blogging more over there instead of here, I’ve come to hate this wordpress theme but am too lazy to change it.
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October 15th, 2009
I couldn’t sleep well last night at all, constantly worrying and dreaming that we’ve gotten 6.5 for the presentation. Can I stop stressing myself out?
I really don’t reglect buying iPod touch. Blogging while sitting in the toilet.
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October 14th, 2009
During today’s IS101 presentation, I suddenly had a dizzy spell while presenting halfway and practically just hung there for quite awhile.
And with the conclusion of Economics Quiz today, it marks the first time in so long that I finally cleared all my mid-term exams.
Still, there is little to celebrate about. All the final presentations of the projects are coming up, and most important IS101 project, the Individual Project, is due next friday amidst all the other projects.
I hope we did well for today’s IS101, although we did went over the time limit, I thought it was less obvious as our presentation was really packed and we didn’t went over the time limit due to boring content. When we timed ourself in yesterday’s rehearsal, it was within the time limit. Perhaps my part was too long? The ATM slide was added while I was on the way to school today. So perhaps that was the culprit. Sau did interrupted me twice during my presentation to not play the 2 videos due to time, but I made the decision to play it anyway because without it some points would be lost, and my presentation would be “no head no tail”. And I thought it was really rude to interrupt your team mate when he or she was presenting. It looks really bad to the audiences as well, like there is not enough trust in the team for teammates to do the right thing.
Here are some feedbacks by classmates for memory’s sake. So that I can always look back at this and gain more confidence in my future presentations. My current approach at presentations is something I’ve never done before, and being a introvert-al JC student, my presentation skills used to leave much to be desired. With my poor English fluency, I hope I was really able to wrap it up with some refreshing ways to engage the class. To a certain extend, I think I’ve succeed today, although my dizzy spell really interrupted my “zone” when I was doing the presentation and I was not able to fully recover afterwards. All the feedbacks from my previous presentations really helped me alot, which is why I want to archive it here so that I can view them even after the Semester is over. Enough talk, here are the feedbacks.
- Generally the presentation was good, the pace was just nice and there are part and pieces of the presentation to spice things up.
- Slides were ‘audience friendly’, making it easy to follow.
- Closing was good! Extra and interesting side topics are correctly and interestingly used!
- Interesting video!
- Just a point to note, Some of the points discussed by speakers should have a header on the slides. For example, efficiency as one of the major benefit in the finance industry. It is a point being discussed first, showing its importance, and its being discussed under lower cost, which in turn is a much more narrow and sub-scope of efficiency.
- I do not agree fully that security is a disadvantage, shouldn’t it be an advantage and benefit for the finance industry? The last part of the presentation was conflicting to this too. Where the talk was about IT being secure, with an example of DBS i-banking. However, this is a very debatable topic.
- Is the case of mr bean relevant to the topic of IT in finance industry? You are talking more into detail of how insurance works, we are learning how to be an insurance agent…
- Shouldn’t emphasize on explaining how insurance works, maybe should have just briefly explain the complexity of obtaining a premium using manual work, and the advantage of obtaining quickly with IT, which is simply more productive and cost efficient. It’s is however interesting in showing the details in screenshot of the IT process in determining the premium.
- I feel that more focus should be put into the advantage and details of how IT works in the finance industry than explaining the normal everyday transactions like purchasing of goods by credit card. Benefits of usage credit card WHICH USES IT could have been discussed =).
- I feel that the presentation part of speaker 4 should be the introduction of the presentation as it explains why IT is needed in finance industry (particularly in Banking).
- Good presentation
- Managed to capture the class’ attention
- Very informative
- The demonstration of phishing was good
- It would be good if the time limit was adhered to
- At times the presentation seemed a little rushed
Good job overall..!
- Team did great today
- A lot of information relating to the topic were addressed in the presentation
- The visual aids enhanced the presentation which helps the class to understand the various points in the slides
- Presenters were able to elaborate on the points clearly that can be absorbed into mind easily
Eaint offered a good introduction to how finance industry really works.
Aisya had nice animations to illustrate her points (Mr Bean), with relevant examples to lay the background and humourous but realistic connection with other modules (IS200).
Saurabh had quite a bit of “eh…”s during his presentation which was a little distracting, but he demonstrated his ample knowledge in his area of research during his presentation.
Weikiat gave an interesting history of temples being safe. Because of Shaolin kungfu maybe? His description and explanation of the IS implementation was clear which was good. He gets a bit over-excited at times which might be a little unprofessional, but it was good overall.
To give some comments on the overall presentation, it felt more like a compilation of individual presenations. There seem to lack integration as it felt like each presenter did their own portion and then came together. Might have been better if there were some links drawn in between.
Eaint spoke comfortably and showing pros and cons of using IT in financial industry appropriately. She should not look at her slides too often and it would be better if she spoke louder. Aisya is able to add some humour to her Mr bean analysis and highlighted how IT could allow automation underwriting process. She could have used the laser more appropriately, there are times she merely flashes it. Overall, she went at a comfortable pace. Saurabh spoke confidently about credit cards and how it works but focus on the transaction process. He clearly explains his point with the aid of pictures on slides that givs a very clear idea. It can be better if he were to not spoke errr too often. Wei Kiat has a very interesting approach with very good animation to synchronise his speech. I dont feel that it is appropriate to use Temple as an example, sensitive religious issue. Nevertheless, his analogy of the bank were put across and how it gives advantages to the banking industry. Interesting to have a internet banking phishing live demo which highlights the important part of phishing. Good video about the future of IT.
FIRST
Concise explanation of the following points:
- Benefits of IT in Financial industry
- Understand the workflow of Financial industry
- Disadvantages of IT (Security issues & HIGH budget)
- Types of businesses in Finance industry
SECOND
- Engages the audience well!
- GREEN LASER POINTER may not be the best color, at times could be irritating.
THIRD
- Well-prepared, confident speaker
- Good explanation of Credit card workflow
- How POS system works in Credit card transaction
FOURTH
-Engages the audience well, confident speaker
- Advantages of IT in Consumer banking
- Internet banking UI
- Good effort on the video for phishing scam – WELL DONE!
- Over emphasis on Disadvantages
OVERALL
- Need to take note of people on your right side (BLOCKED!)
- Too much text in the powerpoint, font size is quite small for people at the big to read!
First Speaker: The presentation is quite monotonous. There could be more impromptu than mere memorizing of speech.
Second Speaker: Good effort for trying to be livelier, more analogy. Nice humour.
Third Speaker: Clearer explanation, but inconsistent. A better speaker who managed to bring the idea out with a clear flow. Nice examples on the different sets of POS machines.
Forth Speaker: Energetic. Funny examples. Clear and focused. Knows his content well. Very good presentation mediums are utilised at this point.
Overall, lack of good visual aids. Some visuals are confusing. Almost every slide is text-based, which only contain the keyword. However, this is also a downside as the speakers didn’t bring out the ideas clearly; hence there is nothing to refer to when in doubt. Attempted to use flowchart, but didn’t really work. Could have used a video to better illustrate the idea.
Firstly i will like to comment the presentation team on a job well done. THe presentation slides were concise with minimal words, the explainations were clear with examples of DBS as a backing for the points they try to bring across. However, the presentation can be improved by explaining some of the key terms before diving into the explaination. For example some of the class would not be able to understand what they mean by transparency in the IT context and how IT can help improve transparency in financial sector. Overall, great presentation skills. No usage of cards or pieces of paper. That is what i called quality presentation where the team truly understands the topic they are presenting. Well done.
Good presentation overall. All of you are well prepared as you all do not rely on scripts. Good use of video and pictures as well. Keep up the good work!
Great effort could be seen put into this presentation with video clips, websites, animations and contents. Eaint and Aisya could make the presentation even better with more enthusiasm in their parts. Saurabh’s part was very detailed and informative but can be slowed down a little as it seemed he was rushing to finish the contents. Wei Kiat was good at grabbing the audience’s attention. Overall, it was a great presentation.
I beleive the team did not managed to convice the class in the use of IT support in the finance sector,they should have gone straigh to the part of DBS which make more sense. The video became very misleading because if the team did not elborate, i might see the video as part of microsoft’s introduction to multitouch.Although according to them, the security for most banks are done in house, they should have explain more. Sad to say i find the presentation today’s very lengthy.
I feel that today’s presentation went pretty well. I felt that the whole group was able to bring across the topic on IT on the financial sectors well. The use of visual aids are excellent with humourous cartoons and the presenters elaborated well. I think the presentation went on pretty smoothly. Great job guys!
I find the presentation today to be useful and informative. A service we use most of the time, and don’t really know what goes on behind it. I’ve always wondered actually, but never did bother to ‘google’ on it (yes, I am that lazy). So, I thought this presentation was really good. Also, the content was conveyed clearly. But the graphics towards the end was a bit childish. I understand your intention to make it fun and light. Nonetheless the approach of “once upon a time” is really not suitable at this level.
I like the presentation that Group 7 did 
The slides were clear and organised and overally, the group did manage to capture the attention of the audience.
All of them spoke well and were confident. I like how they added humour and visual effects in as it definitely made the presentation more interesting
Content wise, I felt they focused a little too much on the customer’s side.. could have put more focus on the IT processes involved.
I felt Saurabh was quite professional in his delivery. His tone was crisp and clear so it was easy to understand him. His flow of thought was very smooth. Could relax more as his face looks rather strict when presenting. Haha.
Aisya and Wei Kiat did great too, they stood out as both confident and humorous speakers.
Keep it up!
I think that the presentation was quite well done, the last speaker had lots of cute pictures to make his slides interesting and the third speaker was quite clear in explaining the credit card part. The insurance part was not that clear to me.
I think that the presenting team did well in terms of explaining the basic structure of how some of the products are being sold in banks.The idea of how purchasing of goods from consumers flow from the front end to to the back end. They have also provided a balance view towards how technology can act as a double-edged sword and overall, I felt that it was a detailed presentation.
I think the group presentation of today’s Topic on IT and Financial Sector is quite detail. They managed to introduce to us different kind of technology available for credit card transactions. They goes down to definition on the basic stuff like credit and stuff, which is good but I think at an undergraduate level, most people would know what it mean. Therefore it is better for you guys to just focus on the main point like technology use. How transactions works, different means of technology and stuff. Another aspect you guy should include is the Real Time Trading System use but broker company. Overall it is a good presentation and I can see the effort being put in from you guys. Good Job.
I think the presentation team did a good job today. By focusing mainly on the IT involved in the financial sector, team 7 explained quite well about it. However, I feel like some contents in the presentation are repeated. Moreover, I think team 7 should try to keep track of time as when they went over the time limit, the audience would lose attention. I think team 7 could improve in that thing.
I will give them 85/100. they did a good job for summarize and present the IT functions in financial sectors. also they showed us very interesting videos.
It was a really interesting presentation. The weikiat demonstration of a phishing site is an innovative one. The other members speak with confidence without having the need to refer to script. They need to better manage their time. The presentation can be shortened and more straight to the point. all in all, it was a informative and fun presentation. GOOD JOB!
Presentation was good. Points were well brought forward and easy to understand. Probably one of the better ones amongst the rest.
Some parts of the presentation were of focus? The part of POS is a little too details and unnecessary. Good reference back to reality. Good use of anecdotes. Nice video to simplify the explanation. Presentation was easy to follow. Good job!
The Presentation team did pretty well today.
I liked their style, it was pretty different for some reason, though I cant put my finger on it but the video at the end really gave a sense of how much the finance industry has to grow in the sense of IT.
Saurabh did specially well I feel and the other members also matched the team’s zeal.
Good job.
The best presentation i have seen so far.
Great job.. I learnt a lot form you guys! There were so many things i dint know like how the credit card thing works and how phishing works. It was a really awesome insight. I learnt a lot from your presentation! keep up the good, i mean awesome, work.!
The first speaker seems to be a little nervous and lack eye contact with the audiences. The second speaker has a good sense of humour but still seem to be quite nervous when speaking. The third speaker includes a lot of “er..” in his presentation which might be quite annoying to the audiences. Despite that, he is rather confident and able to convey his ideas and thoughts to the peers. The last speaker would be the best among the four because of his precision in presentation and also confident, with slight humour. Overall, it was an average presentation.
The persentation was very well done. I benefited from understanding the use of IT in the financial sector.
Eaint was very clear in her presentation that effectively communicated across. Aisyatus attempted to be humorous, but when it came to the Q&A was over protective about her presentation. Sometimes it’s just a sharing process, so take it with an open mind =) Saurabh had great knowledge about the whole credit card sector, which was rather interesting, just have to cut down on the ‘er.. er’, i lost count at 50! Wei kiat rounded up the presentation with a good insight on the banking sector, and through the use of different style of presentation got his message through effectively
The presentation felt a little disjoined to me mainly because of the pace of the individual speakers. The structure of the preentation had flow though. The first and second speaker started slow and soft, first speaker being a little unclear and too soft in fact, the third speaker came in and started talking very fast and I had troubles catching up at times. The last speaker came in abruptly and it felt like you cut the third speaker short while he was passing to you. It is good to use visual aids in presentations, it does help alot in the understanding however, it can back fire too. Your visual aids either had contrasting colours or the font was not legible. Some slides were too confusing with too many words bouncing here and there. I thought the video on the phishing was good, however it could have been better if you incorporated everything about phising into the video. The last video was interesting to what the future can hold however a good video is one that would not require someone to guide the audiences along like what the last speaker did. I learnt alot through the presentation on the overall, work on the flow, slides and videos and it will be much better.
The presentation team did quite a good job on presenting a topic on the financial sector, which is typically a very dry topic. Dressing wise, the group could improve a little to better coordinate with its members to dress all in similar colours.
Generally all the presenters have made potential efforts to enable their content to be put through. I would like to applaud their efforts in doing so. However, slide details could be improve like the segments under the credit cards, where some slides the font size are very small, and it did made it quite hard for us to read. The sudden presentation of the video for phishing activities did caught me off-guard as I’m not very sure at that point of time what the presenter is trying to get through to me. More can be improve still. But great job done! =)
The presentation team was well prepared in terms of background, breaking down finance into those 4 major sectors. I thought they should give a wider view of the industry as a whole since those 4 sectors dooes not emcompass everything. I also felt that the insurance portion wasn’t very well explained as to how it integrates with financial institutions and how they benefit from such a sector. The phishing demo and banking video were good learning tools.
The presentation was good, covered in depth of IT in finance industry. good use of relevant video. The example of DBS was good and the fishing issue help to bring about awareness to those who do not know what a fishing site is. Could improve by not speaking too fast for the last two speakers as the information is hard to be absorbed
The presentation was interesting with the illustration of the monks and mr bean. It really lighten the mood of a 830 class. Apart from that the video at the end was pretty interesting as well. they were well verse with their whole presentation. However, i feel that there are more disadvantages of using IT apart from just secuirty issues. They should have touch more on that instead of focusing on the others.I believe that going through the various terminals is pretty unneccessary.Another point that was not really touched on or i didnt really understand was the increase in transparency.Other than that, good job.
The presentation was very informative without being too draggy or long. The presenters made jokes that kept the atmosphere lively. I loved the monks and the rat. That was really funny. It was a creative way of showing how IT is useful.
The scope covered by the presentation team is wide enough, and at the same time, provides sufficient depth to the different parts of the finance sector, in their use of IT.
Saurabh could speak slower during his presentation, as some concepts presented were new to me, and I had not fully absorbed the things being presented previously before moving on the next. Aisya and Wei Kiat spoke in a more animated manner, making the presentation more lively and engaging.
Today Presentation, all the presenters are active and good at clarifying “IT in financial sector”. The slides are also expressive with character of Mr. Bean and lots of examples. However, the part of the presentation emphasizes too much on how credit card works. If the presentation includes the balance of how these IT use in the financial sector and how these IT works, it will be better. Furthermore, the background color of the slides is a little bit dim. Apart from these points, the presentation is excellent. Good Job!
Today presentation topic is quite interesting. The group covers IT security in financial sector. All the speakers are clear enough to explain their parts. But I think they need more effort to summarize their contents. There are a lot of interesting contents. But they are good in their own. The first speaker is concise and clear enough for her part. The second speaker is telling about advantage and disadvantage of IT usage. She is quite communicative with the audience and she can explain her part well. The third speaker talks about the credit card and the last speaker about the IT in banking system. The visual tools they use are nice. I appreciate to learn about the IT system in credit and debate cards. IT security in financial sector is quite broad. However, the presentation group covers a lot of contents linked with this topic. I appreciate their efforts.
Today presentation was kind of dull at the beginning, but as it reached toward the iBanking part it gotten more lively as there were interesting animations and demo displayed. But personally I felt that WeeKiat had too much of the air-time for this presentation as compared to his other team members
i thought it was pretty good towards the end. I had a question though as to the ppt and did not have the chance to voice it due to the lack of time. How does IT lead to increase in transparency as stated by the first speaker? it should be done via auditing/ regulations, much less IT? oh and i felt that the first two speakers were not as engaging and kind of brought down the morale of the class. Saurabh’s explation on the debit card and his credit card shed much light for that sector. the last speaker really picked it up with his interesting additions of jokes through his presentation and yet managed to bring out the essential pointers. Anyway overall, not bad guys.
overall the presentation was pretty well done. good explanations were given on how it is being used in the financial industry. however, the initial content was less focused on how it was being used in the different sectors. not too much understanding gained there. the slides on the insurance sector and credit card systems did well to cover detail about how it was being used. giving a detailed process to illustrate the role it plays. the third speaker was talking a little quickly, making it hard to follow. the last speaker was engaging, and made good use of visual aids to facilitate learning. his points on phishing and security issues remain clear even after the presentation has ended.
presentation was rather cool! Team made use of pictorial representations and story telling styles to get their point across. It was an interesting concept, as it made the whole presentation less try and more entertaining. Weikiat, being the last presenter, took over with much enthusiasm and energy, hence, capturing attention from our fellow classmates. It was a nice closing of the presentation by him. Overall, informative and useful. Well done! =)
very engaging, creative and witty approach in presentation. i love the drawigs=D however i would like to add on to robert’s comment regarding underwriters and IT. I believe that his comment touches on the human to human relationship aspect that IT seems to have a void in. And hence this brings forward the question of Can technology understand the complex emotional burden faced by people in distress? Is objectivity in assuming that every individual is the same(refer to the checklist used to determine the amt of premium applicable to tt person) the only determining factor? hmm tts something to ponder =D
Thanks people!
(To some extend, from the feedback you can sort of guess who is paying attention and who is not:P )
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October 10th, 2009
Did things went smoothly? I absolutely have no idea.
I’m feeling really stressed.
Headaches from almost single-handedly organising the SMU Drift Event aside (proposal due tomorrow), there is the problem with LTB execution.
Despite everything we have planned and everything making logic sense, I was still panicking.
From my experiences with doing events, no single event will happen exactly the way you want it to. There will always be differences from the initiate plan.
My brain, pondering all the different permutations and combinations of things that could happen, and its refusal to be turned off, kept me awake all night.
The day came and went. I think we didn’t really make mistakes, but rather perhaps we are greenhorns at doing this, the unanticipated increase in participants, and how some of the participants really have nothing to sell which makes our role of teaching them how to make blog shops really really weird. We really need to work out the kinks before the next session.
And on top of that, there was the issue of my IS101 project. Working with a certain someone is a pain in the ass, and especially so when everyone has done his or her part of the power point except that one person. And he still dares to order us around? WTF? I really want to do well for this. I wonder how the actual presentation turn out?
So within these few days, I have the settle the following:
SMU Drift Event
SMU R/C Club
LTB Project
Forming Links+ CCA
IS 101 Presentation
IS 101 Individual Project
LTB Exam
AS Exam
Econs Quiz
Life rules. SMU was right in saying “Discover a different U”.
Discover how stress I can be before I just give up and bo chap everything.
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October 9th, 2009
There is often this craze about Mac and OSX in Singapore, largely by a bunch of badly informed people.
With the release of Windows 7, is OSX really that good?
Lets look at one of the most common task you do when using the computer. Switching between windows.
Mac OSX users claimed that the expose is really easy to use. Yes, but that is only true if you are under-utilizing the thousands you paid for your Mac computer and running only one or 2 programs. Seriously, you should get a pocket calculator instead.
If you are a real power user, making full use of what your computer has to offer to you, your expose would look like this.
This is OMGWTF. With Mac OSX and having this amount of windows open, expose is totally unusable. Its a test of eyesight.
But this is a normal amount of windows I keep open all the time! And real power users have even more windows open.
Yes, yes, there is Spaces that allows you to do virtual desktop thingy. Virtual desktop apps has been available for Windows since more than 10 years ago. But its completely useless. Why? Because you have to manually arrange and manage all your desktops, and any amount of time spent doing that is time wasted from productivity.
Now lets look at how we switch between windows (the same amount of windows are opened as the previous screenshot) in Windows 7.
Whee..
This new taskbar is ingenious.
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October 6th, 2009
This week is SMU’s mid-term break.
A break? Finally a break? Is that why I am finally blogging properly?
No. I am here to rant.
Lets examine the tasks to be completed this week:
-Prepare answers for LTB Individual Assignment
-Prepare slides and rehearse for IS101 Presentation on IT in Finance Sector
-Study for AS Exam
-Study for Econs Quiz
-As Homework
-CT Project
-LTB Course Materials
And lets examine my schedule this week:
Monday: LTB meeting from 12-4
Tuesday: Mug in school from 11-5
Wednesday: CT meeting from 8.30 to 11.30, LTB project from 12-5
Thursday: IS Project Presentation Meeting from 11 to 2
Friday: Meeting for my upcoming R/C Drift Meet event which I am organising for the school from 6.30pm to 9
Saturday: LTB Project Execution from 2pm to 5pm
Sunday: Prepare for the 2 exams on Monday.
Now, not to mention ongoing assignments that are due very very soon and affect a huge part of the grades
-IS101 Individual Assignment Part1+ Part 2(Proposal)
-LTB Learning Journal 2.
Break? what break? Don’t kid me.
Still, work aside, the lack of quality blog entries in recent weeks is disappointing. I love to blog, but I simply couldn’t find time to do it. I used to blog to exercise my writing skills which eventually lead to an A for A Level General Paper (without doing a single piece of General Paper homework in the 2 years I was in AJC). Now all my bottled up urge to write had been diluted on all my different assignments. What Individual Assignment la, learning journal la, observation journal la. This is the first time I’ve done more writing for school than for blog.
Still, I feel I owe readers and myself an update. Myself because I read my blog to remind myself of what had happened; my memory is terrible.
When I study I do alot of scribbling on foolscape paper. I seldom study, but when I study, its 100% concentration, and I block out every distraction around me. I would stay in the same position with only my writing hand moving frantically, and that could carry on without any pause for 2 or 3 hours at one stretch before I decided to take a quick break. Therefore, I’ve always been plague with the problem of hand fatigue. Because of the peculiar way in which I hold my pen, my hand get tired very quickly. Thus, I decided to such for a perfect writing tool which gives me lesser hand fatigue, and I purchased the Uniball Jetstream. Because of the angle I hold my pen, it skips like mad. The ink doesn’t come smoothly at all. I promptly gave the pen to my girlfriend.
Then I chance upon the merits of using a fountain pen online. People claim that unlike regular ballpoint/rollerball pens where you have to press the ball down on the paper in order to write, when using a fountain pen u just have to glide the nib over the surface of the paper. I promptly bought a Pilot V-Pen, a cheap disposable fountain pen that costs only $2.30 from my school’s bookshop. I was hooked. The mechanism is amazing. And it really gave me much lesser fatigue. Although Pilot V-Pen is a sad excuse of a fountain pen in the sense that the nib is rather badly made and writing with it is not as smooth as a “proper” fountain pen, from it I could appreciate the merits that a proper fountain pen could give me.
After much deliberation, I decided to spend $50+ on a Lamy Al-Star, which was voted the best pen under USD100 for its smoothness and durability. I completely love it. I scribbled almost non-stop for 4 hours while studying for econs today, using up 3/4 of the ink in my pen and nearly 20 pages of econs formulas, my hand didn’t feel tired at all. I don’t feel as if I have written anything at all. Normally, my hand would have developed sweaty palm after prolonged writing, but not with Lamy Al-Star. Ink is cheap as well, a bottle of Pelikan ink that could probably last me for months only costs around $3. The only 2 disadvantage with fountain pens for me is the fact that I am afraid I may run out of ink while using it during my studying sessions, and also because of the way I hold my pen, I keep staining my forth finger with ink.
Fountain pen is certainly for me. And I’ve poisoned 2 other schoolmates to get their own as well:)
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