2 more papers to go!

Yep... 2 more exam papers to go! Material Science and Econs...

Material Science is on Monday, and since I'm quite confident in it, I went to watch "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on Saturday night with my 'ol study group gang back in TJ. I was on my way to meet Jeffrey and Cliffton at Orchard but they told me the only tickets left were for the screenings around midnight. So I went to Plaza Singapura to check out under Jeff's suggestion. There were empty places for 9.30pm and 9.50pm (it was 7-plus pm when I bought the tickets...). I wanted to buy the 9.30pm one but apparently I got the 9.50pm one. Haha... dunno how come this happened... maybe I said wrongly or something. Don't blame me, I've been stuck in NTU for ages.

Anyway, we had to sit in the first row... The movie... was a bit "rushed" I would say... Can't blame them as they have to squeeze a thick few-hundred pages book into a 2-1/2 hour movie. But one thing I can say is... Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) looks better than ever! Especially in that dress before she danced with Victor Krum. I think the movie was not really very good, a bit disappointed. But I agree with what the newspapers say that this is the "darkest" Harry Potter movie yet...

By the time we came out of the cinema it was 12-something am. I couldn't travel with the rest back because it was very inconvenient. So in the end, I opted to walk all the way to Orchard to find a night bus that would bring me as near to the West as possible and then take a taxi back. It was a bit time-consuming, but hey, it was an experience (and cheaper than taking a taxi directly back). I learn something new everyday!

Airbus A380 in Singapore!

There is a huge gap between 2 of my exam papers, and A380 was landing in Singapore. So some aero friends of mine decided to go see it, and hopefully take some shots of it.

It was purportedly going to land at 1000 hours, 11th Nov 2005. I didn't manage to eat breakfast because I woke up late. Rushed to Boon Lay MRT to meet Kok Vui and Yan Ru, then Hannah joined us at Jurong East interchange. Jonathan reached Changi earlier than us and "chopped" ("booked") a place for us at the viewing gallery at Changi Airport Terminal 2. He brought a really professional camera. Unfortunately (and surprisingly), the window panes were blurry (looked as if like they didn't wiped it...), so we didn't have a clear view.

My aero-mates (L-R): Jonathan, Hannah, Yan Ru, Kok Vui

We waited there for quite some time... when the Airbus A380 finally came, it landed very fast! I couldn't take a photo in time... But still, we were all in awe lah... It made some rounds elsewhere before it came back to our view and finally stopped. Fuiyoh... it was humongous... it was amazing to see the real thing after hearing about it for so long.

It was not a delivery though, even though Singapore Airlines will be the first to receive the A380. Airbus had already announced that the shipping of the first batch of planes will be delayed. It was here for promotional as well as testing purposes. The next stop for the A380 after Singapore is Brisbane, Australia for a Qantas Airline celebration, and after that KLIA in Malaysia.

Anyway, a picture says a thousand words rite? So here are some photos to share... my own photos weren't so good, so I'm using these photos Prof. Dr. Sutthiphong "Spot" Srigarom sent to all aero students.

Airbus A380 taxiing after landing

Airbus A380 showing who's the king of the freeway

Airbus A380 in Singapore skies

Anyway, after the whole thing we went to eat at the staff canteen in Changi (cheaper food!). Then took a trip on the skytrain that goes between Terminal 1 and 2 because Yan Ru wanted to... haha... anyway, we basically walked around the airport and went to the Terminal 2 viewing gallery to say bye-bye to the A380 before leaving.

Decided to watch a movie, so we went to Tampines Mall. I miss the East man... it is so much more fun than the West... hopefully next time can find a place in the East to stay. After dilly-dallying for some time, we decided to watch "Doom". Not a very good choice... it was definitely not worth the S$8. (urgh, don't remind me that I can watch in Malaysia for less than half of that; I used to be able to watch movies back in BP for RM4 on Wednesdays!)

OK... back to aerospace notes...

In the midst of the exam season

Well, I can't be studying all day right? So here I am blogging once more...

I took a breather from my revision on Radiation heat transfer under Thermodynamics to get some nice wallpaper for my desktop from National Geographic. Somehow my mind thought about the movie "Sepet" once again and I decided to read up Yasmin Ahmad's blog to read up on "Sepet" (slit-like eyes) and her newer yet-to-be-released movie "Gubra" (anxiety/panic). Looked at some photos she posted online as well. FYI Gubra is the sequel to Sepet...

I really admire her... She won the Best Women Director at the International Film Festival of Women Directors in France, and "Sepet" is also still winning awards after so long. Its most recent win, and in many ways the most significant one, is the Best Asian Film award at the 18th Tokyo International Film Festival. Woohoo! How cool is that? It's times like this I feel especially proud to be a Malaysian. (I'm quite happy and proud too that Malaysian-made "Sepet" beat Singapore's "Be With Me" at the film festival... can't help it lah; it's an inate feeling that arises in every Malaysian when we beat Singapore... Hey I'm being honest here! =P)

If such an achievement was made in Singapore, the government would probably be the first to dish out some kind of help/incentive/whatever to further promote and expand the movie industry; not likely to happen in Malaysia. In fact, the movie industry might go downhill again because of the silly Lembaga Penapis Filem ("Film Filtering Board", ie. Censorship Board) who will "potong sini, potong sana" ("Cut here, cut there") which might result in the lost of essence and flow in the movie.

There was a part in the movie where Jason, a Chinese guy, brought Orked, his Malay girlfriend, to take photos at a photo shop and a particular scene where the both of them were riding on an imaginery motorbike was cut. Dunno why... probably they were too close to each other?

There was also a scene where a husband tickles his wife affectionately in bed that was cut. Yasmin Ahmad, the movie's director had only this to say:"I don’t understand why this scene has to be cut. We are allowed to show husbands slapping their wives on terrestrial TV. But we can’t show husbands being affectionate to their wives.” How true in Malaysia. Violent shows mostly pass the censorship board easily while a kissing scene might be shortened to a few measly seconds or not shown at all.

Thanks to Diari Pemantau Media Malaysia for the above examples from the movie.

To end this blog entry, I shall show you a scene from "Gubra"...

Exam Report!

Had 2 exams liao... out of 6 I've got to take this semester.

Maths-- Past 2 semester papers for this subject was rather easy but sometimes deceptively tricky. The actual paper this semester was harder that those papers. I could've done the past 2 semester papers within 1 1/2~2 hours, but I took almost 2 1/2 hours to finish my actual exam paper.

Lesson learnt #1: Do not underestimate the standard of the exams.

Effective Communication-- Never taken such a subject before, but I more or less assumed it to be like General Paper. It was an open book test however, so I decided to bring a dictionary to the exam hall, and in the end they told us we were not allowed to use it and we had to put it on the floor. The worse thing for this paper was that I did the first question wrongly! They had asked for an article but I wrote a letter instead... Oh well... this question constitutes 40% of the paper, and the paper constitutes 50% of total marks, so effectively I'll lose 10% of total marks if I only get half the marks for that question. Hope I still get at least a "B"...

Lesson learnt #2: Read your exam questions properly!!!!