LTB Meeting

Alright, just had our group's first online meeting via skype. Total waste of time, not efficient at all.

First, its always hard to conduct an efficient online meeting without much discipline within the group. What i mean is, its difficult to control when and what people wanna say something, and thus, we ended up talking about several topics (plus a few random topics) at the same time, or that there will be people talking about 2 separate ideas together.

Next, the issue of wanting to make decision together as a group and yet not being able to have a complete group meeting. They see making decision as a group as wanting everybody's vote when considering simple things such as team name. Of cos, team name can be important. Of cos, getting everyone's views and votes is important, but how can be possibly do that when we never had a complete meeting with everyone present for the whole duration of the meeting? Then we'll just end up postpone-ing all decision-making to subsequent meetings. And sad to say, these decisions will never be made since we don't have the commitment of everybody. Seriously, after writing the previous post and realizing the different commitments that you guys might have, I felt bad feeling that way or having certain thoughts, but once again, I still feel that the commitment level isn't there.

Next, it's so hard to work in a group when they are people who are so insistent on their ideas. Seriously, its ok if the idea is good, but it's not if the idea does not has a strong backing. It gives me the feeling that you saying every thought you have without thinking through if they are relevant. And thereafter try to defend your ideas. Worse, you feel that we are shooting your ideas down when we may not be.

And lastly, I can stand people rushing through work to produce some low quality work to submit. Why rush through a sponsorship proposal when you (should) know that we only have ONE chance to seek sponsorship from each company, and that if we fail to get anything with the first letter, thats it.

I keep having the feeling that we just keep having the "ideal thought" that we can get at least 1 sponsor, which i honestly feel is quite difficult. And frankly speaking, having this feeling during/after every meeting can be scary..

First Project Group Meeting

I dont understand my group. Seriously.

First, you dont read through the requirements/guildlines beforehand even when you have been told to do so. Next, you don brainstorm for ideas before meetings. Then you start thinking of all these wonderful ideas without considering the limitations that we have.

Worse of all, you guys keep having the impression that seeking sponsorship is something that comes easily. Hey! Please wake up from your dreams!

Week 1 of school...

Its 3.26am now, on a sunday night, or rather monday morning, and i should be sleeping. Yet, I decided that no matter what, i should get this post up before going to bed. And so, here i am, trying to write down my thoughts and experiences for the past one week plus.

BOSS bidding session:

How and where do i start? Its not something I look forward to, neither is it something which i hate. I think perhaps its just that I haven gotten the tricks with bidding. Nevertheless, after one big round of "drama", I've finally gotta the ideal 4.5CUs for this sem, without having to take a particular mod with a slightly demanding prof. Really glad that things turned out well for me in the second window. I've got a friend who is still bidding for her mods when it has been 1 week into school. Thats one of the few faults that i find in the whole bidding system. Apart from that, i think bidding is all about beating the system and working smart to get your mods, yet remain "wealthy".

School:

My experience with school thus far has been good. Have been busy searching for textbooks (which i ended up buying first-hand), going for meet-ups for camp friends, attending lessons and making new friends in class out of just a simple conversation. I cant say that there will not be any changes to my current views, but i think i like the way SMU "forces" students to volunteer to step out of their comfort zone and talk to others and make friends. Somehow, i like the way it works.

School work hasn't been too demanding to be honest, but i kept having the feeling that there wasn't enough time to complete whatever that has to be done for class, on top of having a "life/lifestyle" and handling CCAs. Adjustments take time perhaps.

Random thoughts:

I've always view entering uni as a totally new chapter in life, and its a time when you take bold steps to achieve whatever you set out to achieve. There are so many things that I hope to achieve by the end of the 4 years. Its really a time for one to do as much things as possible within these 4 years, because once you enter workforce, you'll seldom get the time and/or freedom to do certain crazy stuff. And so far, there are certain things which I've set out to do.

1. Obtain my double degree in 4 years.

2. Go for OCSP

3. Be part of the organising committee for a OCSP

4. Overseas exchange

5. Overseas internship (Haven really considered the possibility)

6. NYAA Gold (something which i thought of today, which i thought would be one of the great ways to sum up my uni non-academic experiences.

7. Committing myself to a long-term CIP. (Have an idea in mind, but have yet to take any actions. Afraid of not being able to commit fully too.)

The list is definitely long, but if I get to accomplish all, I can say that i have not wasted 4 years and that my uni experience was indeed all-rounded! =)

Random thoughts 2:

With new people being added as friends on fb, I feel that somehow, fb has no longer been as "private" as it used to be. And so, I'm kind of reluctant to post much things of fb nowadays.

Virgin attempt at bidding

Well, Round 1 for window 1's bidding has ended and round 2 is ongoing.. Bidded 2.5CUs worth of courses in round 1 but only managed to get 1.5CU. Missed STATS151 by e$0.01. Should have followed my instinct and put e$13.02. =(

Anyway, this year's bidding really inflated the prices of the courses. Seriously. I just can't believe that I bidded e$14-15 for basic modules and was still near the minimum price for the course group. Others seems to be bidding high prices for their courses too. Which makes me wonder if they are either just looking at the current bids without having the thought of saving up for future bids for senior courses, or that they are just being kaisu.

I'm very desperate to clear STATS151 for 2 reasons. Firstly, STATS151 is a pre-requisite to some courses, clearing it in term 1 would open up my choices for term 2. Secondly, not taking STATS151 will leave me with nothing to bid for, which will mean that i'll just be clearing 4CUs in term 1. Which will most likely mean that i will have to clear more mods in subsequent terms so as to graduate in 4 years. With that said, I'm still unwilling to spend much of my e$ on clearing that. There's still 3 classes for term2, and seriously, i think demand for term 2 will not be that high since only a small portion of econs student plus another group of students taking econs as 2nd degree will be bidding for the course. And so, I've learnt not to take things too seriously. At the very most, I fall behind the main group of people by a small step, but in the process accumulate more e$ to bid for my future finance major courses.

I just can't understand why would people want to bid so highly and spoil market when that would result in a lose lose situation for all freshmen, and the next batch of freshmen too. It's also hard for an individual to place a bid that is acceptable when all the rest have the mentality that "we have to bid higher than last year's minimum bid".

There's still many more rounds of bidding sessions for me to master the art of bidding. I'm still staying optimistic at the moment. Not trying to be too crazy following the crowd in taking the same course and bidding crazily high.