Harry Potter is no longer kiddie stuff

This is my 3rd time writing this post as my computer has officially gone kaput. Now i'm using my laptop.

Had my 2nd last paper today and it wasn't a very good experience doing it. No one expected the questions that came out and it was much tougher compared to previous semesters. There were 2 questions on derivations, 1 tough high weightage question involving a never seen before combination of phase diagrams plus resistivity, and some other questions requiring us to have a good knowledge of various equations. The previous semester paper was "chicken feet" compared to ours and i guess it must be due to the fact that the professors had a hard time grading students as everyone must have scored relatively well last semester. As a result, the professors decided to give us a hard time this time round. :(

Everyone was complaining after the exam and it is always a good sign as everyone else is also in the same shoes. :) (except for some geniuses and muggers in my course) For people who dunno, my course is at least 70% littered with either geniuses or people whose hobbies are studying, reading and revising. And i'm not from any of the 2 categories. Sometimes i really wonder where their motivation comes from.

Some of my aerospace friends and i decided to take a break after the paper today and decided to catch a movie at Jurong Point. We bought tickets to Harry Potter at 3.35 pm, which is more than 2 hours later as the earlier timeslots were already selling fast. We went to the arcade after having our lunch as some of my friends wanted to play some games. I don't really enjoy going to the arcade coz i basically suck at all the games other than Daytona, feel that arcade is a waste of time and money and that the noisy environment is a put-off. After about 1 hour of watching them play some games and playing photo hunt together, i got a mild throbbing headache from the constant electronic noise in there. I guess it could also be due to brain ache from the mentally exhaustive exams. I didn't help that i only slept 4 hours the day before also.

Luckily, i was able to concentrate during the movie and i actually enjoyed it tremendously. The Goblet of Fire is now my personal favourite among the series as it has matured quite a lot from its previous trio. The opening scenes which includes the Quidditch Grand Finals is eye-poppingly spectacular, not saving a penny on the visual effects. The threat of evil is again on the rise again, this time more real and dangerous than ever with Lord Voldermort slowly gaining his foothold on the realm of evil. Harry Potter confronts not only his infatuation woes, but also friendships that could easily strain, morality issues and his survival skills which is put to the ultimate test in the Triwizard Tournament.

Danger and evil lurks on all corners of this movie, making this episode the most violent in the series as Harry Potter duels with a ferocious dragon, merpeople and finally Lord Voldermort himself. The jokes are plenty as well to calm the tense atmosphere in parts of the movie. The supporting cast is a delight with some memorable performances, esp the nosey reporter. There is some emotional resonance in the movie as the children realise the imminent threat that could possibly cost them their lives and the strength within their friendships. At a duration of 2 hours 20 mins, i didn't feel its length from the movie but from my slightly strained neck. The Goblet of Fire is indeed hugely entertaining, a visual and cinematic achievement. Lets hope the next episode The Order Of The Phoenix will live up to the high expectations that The Goblet of Fire has set.

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Final 2 here i come

Had my 3rd last paper today and it was rather manageable. No more self declared break as my next paper is on monday. 1 more week and it'll come to an end.

Went to Funan for a Courts roadshow after my exam as they were allegedly giving offers of $99 for a new laptop with every Pentium 4 laptop traded in. The supposed $99 became $899 when my old laptop was evaluated for its trade in value. It was a disappointment but somehow i had expected that they will come up with a way to increase the selling price. My laptop had a Pentium 4 processor with 192 mb ram and 2 faulty keys on the keypad. Their price evaluation for the trade in value is about $600. The trick is that they used the original price of $1499 to minus the trade-in value that comes up to $899 and the $99 is just stated as the minimum price. Whatever...

Took a bus back home after waiting a long 25 minutes while carrying my heavy laptop. It is a Friday and the roads are really super duper conjested. The bus took around 30 minutes to move from city hall to orchard! It's so freaking long that i fell asleep for 45 minutes in the bus. Of all my trips taking 171, this trip is exceptionally long which took slightly over an hour. Too many cars in Singapore nowadays and the holiday season is making the congestion worse.

A picture of the 1 page self-compiled formula sheet that we are allowed to bring to exam today.

Almost needed a magnifying glass for some of the tiny words. :)

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Losing Momentum (-mv)

I'm definitely getting slacker by the days. A typical day when i'm at home will be spent watching tv, surfing internet, reading newspapers and finally studying (excluding eating and sleeping). Last 3 papers to go, hopefully i can force my increasingly lazy brain to store all the information.

My insatiable greed for gadgets has got to me again. Been checking the internet for reviews of some digital cameras i'm interested in since i had already unofficially given my Minolta Xt to my sis. Really like the Casio Exilim series especially S500. However, the colours for the digicam are only orange, white and gray. Would choose black, silver or blue over any of the 3 colours anytime. The price is also unattractively high. I just hope i don't get too extravagant after the exam period, although i predict i would.

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A movie right smack in the exam period

Went out with Derrick and Edwin today to watch The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I have to say that it's one of the better hollywood 'horror' movies, although the show is actually a combination of horror, religion and courtroom thriller and it is not only about demons and spirits. The courtroom drama is as intense as the exorcism itself with the fiery prosecutor and the determined defence lawyer. The story of Emily Rose is immersely engaging as well as we see the deteoriation of her mental and physical health after her unfortunate encounter with demons. Emily transforms from a pious and well-behaved girl to a bug-eating, body contorting, tongues-speaking, violent, possessed "thing". And it is based on a true story!

Laura Linney does a great job as the defence lawyer confronted with her morality although she had been harassed by forces of the unknown. It is a disturbing film that will make you rethink the existence of dark forces, unless you are already a believer.

Read this article for the real story of "Emily Rose" whose real name is Anneliese Michel. Click here for the real story! The movie doesn't deviate much from the true story other than the verdict.

After the movie, we had dinner at a food court before walking around window shopping. Hadn't been to orchard for some time and there are really lots of christmas decorations outside shopping centres and orchard road. Took a few pictures with the giant christmas tree outside Paragon before heading back home.

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Hectic Day (but worth it)

Went to NUS in the morning to study with Daryl and Ks. It was a bit hard to get into the study momentum as 3 people studying is quite a crowd. Couldn't stop chatting with Daryl as i haven't seen him for quite a long time. Nevertheless, we forced ourselves to study for about 2/3 of the time in the library. After the study session, i went for my grandfather's birthday celebration at a West Coast restaurant with my sis on her bf's van. I was sitting at the back and it was incredibly rocky. Was quite nauseous by the time i reached the restaurant.

After waiting for about 1 hour for all the latecomers including my parents, we finally started our seafood dinner. The food was quite good but it came at a high price as well. We then celebrated my grandfather's birthday after the dinner.

Next up was supper at Bukit Timah with Edwin and Gs. Coincidentally, i saw Sgt Tiko and Zong Wei having supper there as well. I was already very full and i just ordered a drink. We had a long chat until about 1 am as we were deprived of our regular jc outings since october when the exam fever kicked in.

I'll be taking a break tomorrow for a movie outing. Been a looong time since i've watched one (according to my standards). :)

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..........

I didn't do well for my physics exam at all. Every friend that i discussed the paper with, i discovered new mistakes each question. The questions that they set were not "exam-friendly" at all. Firstly, they told us to draw graphs that were not drawn during the tutorials. After that was an abstract question which relied more on maths technique than physics. Not only that, my carelessness cost me half of one whole question and a part of another. Some of the questions i anyhow "tikam" to fill in the blanks. It's really demoralising that after 5 days of studying, the numerous questions i had prepared did not come out and those that came out tested strong concepts and brains. I'll be darn glad if i just got a B for physics. I guess the effort that i put in for the preparation will not be rewarded with a good grade.

The perils of an open-book exam. Why can't they make it a closed book exam and set those normal questions? It's just not very fair to make us do a question that wasn't taught previously. A warning for people with open-book exams, BEWARE OF THE UNKNOWN. What to do? Anyway the exam is over and i'll just pray........

and pray....

but i still cannot get over it leh, maybe tomorrow i'll stop thinking about this heartache paper. Sigh.............

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NUS once again

Went back to NUS today to study with Ks and coincidentally met David who was also revising his stuff at Science Faculty Library. Been a long time since i saw him and we had a chat for some time before hitting the books. I can't wait for the exams to end so that i can meet up with some of my friends that i haven't seen for some time. We studied until 9.45 pm as the librarian had "chased" us out by broadcasting some loud oldie folkie kind of music after the announcement that the library will be closing in 15 minutes time. It's really effective as many people left either bothered by the loud music or unable to concentrate on revising anymore. Clever.

Ok, no more blogging the next 2 days. I'll have to concentrate on revising physics.

Countdown til end of exams: 18 days

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KAP is a study hotspot

Been studying outside the past 2 days, yesterday i was at NUS while today i was at King Albert Park MacDonalds. The study area in NUS is bigger compared to NTU which has only 1 big library and some smaller ones. Also, NUS libaries are not as packed as NTU, which has a big crowd at the entrance of Lee Wee Nam Library every morning when it opens. NUS libraries are thus more quiet in comparison. Combined with the fact that i woke up early, i dozed off more than 15 times throughout my whole studying period with Ks in science faculty library. Felt more awake from 3 pm onwards though. Both of us then met up with Jianyu later at night as he had stayed in hall to prepare for the exams.

My study destination today was closer to home with only around 5 bus stops away. Met up with Gs to study physics together. It was rather crowded inside as it's a weekend and we headed outside for alfresco studying. There were a few periods we had to endure some smoke from a few smokers beside our table. After studying until near evening time, the umbrella shades was proven ineffective due to the angle of the sunshine and we were back inside the fast food restaurant where almost every table had either textbooks, notes or other forms of paper. Didn't know so many people frequented KAP to study. The advertisements from the speakers plus some children having some kiddie activities at the children's corner were quite distracting though. Kept on hearing "Pa la pap pa la, i'm loving it" while i'm sick of hearing it. The Chicken Little tune also couldn't get out of my head as the infectious tune combines non-english words "noma noma nomayay, my la hee..." with a techno beat to it.

We then walked over to the stretch of restaurants/kopitiam opposite Beauty World to have our dinner before going back home. 3 more days left to study for my physics exam. I'll have to put more effort in it as it's my weaker subject. I'm ok with maths, econs and everything else except physics.

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