JIA YOU!!!

GAMBATE !!!!!

ECON111 tute questions & other stuff

ACST 101 test was done just now. What's next???

1. Econ tute exercises to be done before lecture
2. ACST 211 tute to be done before Friday

FINAL EXAM timetable:

15th Nov ECON111
17th Nov ACCG105
20th Nov ACST101
22th Nov ACST211
23th Nov MATH133


After which kemerdekaan is achieved. (laughing out loud)

A true scenario of pain before gain, suffering before happiness. It's even more evident in the Actuarial course.

Of neutrality and EXAM

few weeks before exam is a testing period of one's

resilience to stress
self-discipline -- STOP PLAYING
willingness to sacrifice leisure
ability to convince oneself to carry on loads of revision
prowess at speculating potential exam questions
consistency over the semester
friendship and independence
self-control and studying pace
time organisation
mental strengh aka psychological toughenness
ability to stamp out procrastination
ability to catch up with speeding uni work

and most importantly,

self-belief and the faith that as long as one tries his/her best, the rest is decided by God.

Less than a month before final exam......

is the period of recession of my blog. There wouldn't be much interesting events narrated because there isn't any to start with!!!(laughing out loud)

A friend of mine told me " Four more weeks.." and I continued exactly as how he wanted it to be " and our nightmare will be over" hahaha.....everyone is stressed out, no doubt.

I need to finish up my accounting assignment, study for math test and catching up with loads and loads of work with the limited time I have. I have already cut down on gym-going (just like last semester during the month before exam) so that I can concentrate more on my preparation.

After exam Justina will visit me and we shall have heaps of fun! And Joy agreed to hang out with us before she runs off to Singapore. I hope I will manage to learn some baking skills from her during the week before she goes back.

In the face of mounting stress and uni work.

ECON 111 assignment was due at 7.30pm just now. What's coming next???

1. Math133 assignment due on Wednesday.
2. I'm trying to finish Math tute and econ tute
3. I'll do my acst 101 assignment tomorrow morning
4. Maybe should catch up on techniques and elements last week
5. OMG i must also catch up on last week's accounting tute answer
6. Acst 211 tute to be done before Friday
7. Accounting generic assignment due next Wednesday, crap!
8. A Math test is awaiting on the same day

It's so true that consistency is the key to surviving Actuarial courses.
All the while I've been trying hard to catch up, but time is so so limited that I feel so breathless now. Maybe it's because Econ assignment had taken up too much time.

And my final exam starts lesss than a month from now.

I hope I can survive all this. Ah, back to math tute now......

A Random Post After ACCG Tutorial

I am really getting a headache because of Econs assignment. It sucks because i am still clueless with the question about why national income is always less than the true value of output. It must have something to do with the formula, somehow, and I need to figure out that.

Asha Sekar was talking about the need for lecturers to gain respect from students. I totally agree with her. Sometimes lectures are noisy because of the lack of effort on the lecturer's part in building up mutual respect with the students.

I hope my Friday lecture would be more quiet after the change of lecturer.

MY SPRING BREAK - RECAP

The past tw0 weeks fly pass and it's the last day of my mid sem break. I decided to do a bit of recall on what happened in the past 14 days.
HM.....what have I done???

1. Visit Canberra
2. Attend forum group that earned me $80 in 1.5 hour in Clarence Street (woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
3. Tutoring Tina -- and as usual, she paid me $45 for 3 hours
4. Celebrate Tang Long (or Mooncake) festival at unit 111 with my JPA and Malaysian gang. Yes, we had fun.
5. Empty talk with my housemate Harvin about her apparent 'wisdom and maturity' from dating a Bangladeshi for 6 months (so far)
6. Cook Bryiani and Curry chicken - they were yummy, thanks to Victor's Bryiani and Mummy's curry recipe
7. Catch up on my uni work
8. Assignments and Ants Pants Accounting Workbook --- lol

Now back to Econ worskshop exercise.............................and not to mention I have a test coming on Wednesday.

The really 'chim' (deep) philosophy behind the city of Canberra

THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE

The first hall we arrived at after going through the entrance was this made-of european-materials place. Apparently it is meant to recognise Australia collonial past (under British).

However, as we walked further we stepped into the parts of the building made of Australian authentic materials. It represents a transition from collonial past till the present independent nation. When Kai Xun told us this it's 4.45pm and the parliament was set to close at 5.00 pm. So it was kinda funny because Kai Xun sounded like a professional tour guide talking really fast and all of us were just awed by his sheer knowledge. LOL.

The great wall tapestry. Yeah, from memory (i read the explanation on the sign board) this was produced by three great artists. The forest like image serves as a reminder of .....something like Australia has vast areas of land and the parliament is a place to improve the land's welfare....something like that.

This is the hall for the House Representative. The seats are in green colour. The corresponding Senator hall (which we didn't have time to go) is filled with red seats.

Can you see a Kangaroo and an Emu???

Both animals couldn't move backward. Australia hopes to move forward forever, so to say.

This patch of grass is on top of the Parliament House. The architect who designed the Parliament House really put in alot of thoughts into it. The grass allows the ordinary people to 'step' on their leaders when the parliament meeting is going on.

The people are the King, not the leaders.

And by the way the pathways connecting other places to the Parliament House are just slopes (no stairs). Again the idea is that ordinary Australians are on the same level as their leaders. They can just walk to them. (deep philosophy huh???)

This is the old Parliament House who has already been converted into a gallery.

I remember the weather was so cold (close to -2 degree celcius) that all of us were shivering in cold. For this reason we didn't actually stay long here.

We passed the National Science and Technology Centre but didn't get to visit due to time constraint. Hm...I will certainly pay a visit here next time I go Canberra. We missed out the War Memorial and this one.

Tee Shern Ren -- The reincarnation of Albert Einstein.

FLORIADE -- THE AUSTRALIAN CELEBRATION FOR SPRING.

Jason and me.





























From left: Ru Xing, Pang Paing, Shi Shing and me















From left: Li Cheng, me and Sze Rhui












Tulips and me













We left Canberra at 3.00pm on 23 September 2007.

Thanks guys, I had lots of fun during the 45 hours we spent together. Yeah, we arrived at 6.00pm on Friday and left at 3.00pm on Sunday. Precisely 45 hours.


Special thanks to our couple of the trip: Kai Xun and Su Yin for organising our trip, Jason for being such a funny joker and co-tour guide.

My Spring trip to the city of CANBERRA

My Friday 21st September started with taking some pictures of the cherry blossom trees in front of my house. They were bold during winter but see how pretty they are in spring.

Our journey from Sydney started at 3.00pm and we reached the peaceful city of Canberra around 6.30pm. Waiting at the station were Jason, Jared, Darryl, Leonard etc.

It was nice to see all of them after so long

We had dinner at this famous restaurant (according to them). I personally didn't find the food too fascinating but it was the joy of eating together with my fellow taylorians and two Inti-college people that made the bill worthwhile.

We visited the Ursula hall. Li Cheng and Pang Ping were crashing here. This is the com lab with all APPLE PCs. Apparently the hall imposes some form of quota on every resident on internet usage.

Jared reminded us to bring our passports because he wanted to bring us to 'A FEW BARS'

And yes, he honoured his promise.

We went BAR CRAWLING - moving from one bar to another - in a big group. The ang moh looked like us as if we were some nerds, or perhaps a bunch of teens who had just turned 18 and were eager to try out things unreachable by underaged.

We played drinking game and I lost twice (Sze Rhui, and Su Yin also lost twice; Kai Xun lost thrice; Jared wanted to lose but luck wasn't at his side :)

I drank 2 x half glass = one huge glass of beer and got a bit high and dizzy. But later we went bar dancing to kill the sleeping worm. Haha, and I ended up very energetic.

THE SECOND DAY................

We woke up and got ready for the day trip. But surprisingly the usually sleepy us woke up really really early.Thanks to the bright sunlight of Canberra that shone on my face.

We went to Australia National University.

And this is the ANU equivalent of Macquarie Uni's The Grand Walk

On top of the Telstra tower.

The bird-eye view of Canberra from Telstra tower.

There are flowers all over Canberra during spring. These are just puny little flowers which are step-resistant.

I took this pic on my way down from the Black Mountain on which the Telstra tower is located.

Lake Berley Griffin of Camberra. Canberra being a planned city has got no water - front. For the sake of feng-shui the Aussie dug a man-made lake, named after the architect of Canberra Berley Griffin

Australian History lesson thus began.

The museum's strange symbol. It looked like a roler coaster rail from far.

In front of the new parliament house with my fellow Canberran ex-Taylorians.

By the way Shern Ren (in yellow jumper) why you looked so ............... interestingly away from the camera??

Here goes the story that Kai Xun told us:

to be continue.....

Bathroom repair -- I DON'T LIKE !!!!

I received a notice few days ago from MUV, telling me that I can't use my bathroom for 5 days due to a 'maintenance procedure'.

And this morning I was greeted by the repair person. He said he was about to make a lot of noice....










Look at the mess I'm in.

No wonder I can't use my bathroom....

Besides the noice, clearly the repair work has screwed up my room. There's dusk everywhere, on my clothes, my cabinet, and the laptop I'm using now.

Perhaps it's a good time to clean up my room after this.

I DON'T WANT ANYMORE REPAIRS!!!!!

Last day of first term!!!

I hope the change of template has made my blog look less dead

Today is the last day of term 1 of my second semester. To look at it in a better way, it's the start of our two-week holiday.

I'm going Camberra in about a week time. It's gonna be enjoyable and I'll get to meet some of my old Taylor's college friends. Really look forward to that.

However, thanks to all the assignments, a significant part of my hols will be spent on uni work. Sigh.... (like as usual)

Today's actually the birthday of Macquarie Uni (they call it "Conception Day"). Too bad I forgot to get myself a ticket yesterday so I don't get to enter their party. Doesn't matter anyway I don't think I'll enjoy all the noices and parties and unlimited beers.

Me like peace and silence and the friendly chat I had with two fellow actuarial students just now. It's always nice to get to know people.

Holiday is coming again!!!!!

But sadly we have math assignment to worry about. The due date has been postponed to the first Wednesday of our holiday due to some technical breakdown of the uni website.

Anyway, we are going Camberra which is something to look forward to.

Econs test is on Thursday so I need to study, study, study again.

Oh I'm having a mental block now.What shall I write???

By the way my Tesl housemate Harvin has got 2 more months in Australia. Recently I talked frequently with her about her plans for her future. Apparently she has a considerable savings here which can be converted into a large pool of Malaysian Ringgit, if she wants to. That day I was telling her about investing her money in term deposit, how to spread the risk etc.

That is the good thing about earning in Aussie dollar. You take back a small amount but after visitng the money changer the amount will triple out of a sudden. Hahaha

STUDY STUDY STUDY

MATH 133 test tomorrow...........

It's week 6 already....this implies that half a semester has gone. Time goes and passes it's a new month again. September 2007.

We are all being tied up with uni work. No one is silly enough nowadays to suggest a hang-out at the city (something that we did often early this year).

I've just taken up tutoring - not because of the money but rather to gain some experience to boost my chance of getting a high-pay tutoring position next year or so.

I've decided to stay put at MUV although they have increased the rent again next year (it sucks, but what to do). I prefer to stay on-campus to save time. Imagine those people staying few kilometres away from campus. I'm sure they spend at least 5 dollars everyday on transport. I'd rather stick to MUV.

(such a boring post, rite?)

Am strangled by assignments

The usual whining here. I have 5 assignments due next week and a test on Wednesday. Life is just 'great'.

I read some of my taiping friends' blog this afternoon, and was surprised to find them more mature after starting on their uni lives. Great to know. I feel that I miss them very much, especially those funny people like Jong Woei, Choy Yin , Lay Chin and many many more. Guess they are doing well in their respective path.

I went swimming this afternoonm, and had completed by usual training of 20 * 50m with all four strokes. My backcrawl has really improved since I started swimming every week.

Time to study for ACST101 test. I didn't go for Malaysian fest today as I feel that "the opportunity cost is just too high" - to use the economic way of explaining. Too much to sacrifice (assignments, test etc) and I'm 1000 times not willing to do so.

Another challenging week to come!

The importance of MATHS in life

As opposed to what I usually write here (which are mostly boring routines of an actuarial student), let me try to enlighten you why you should do your maths homework at school and pay attention to what your maths teacher is talking in class.

My housemate Harvin was isolated from the world of maths lesson and homework for many years. Why? She is from art-stream, so obviously she didn't have any idea about additional maths and what more to say SAM Specialist Mathematics.

Few hours ago she knocked on my door and asked me to help her calculate her pay for this week. She looked so so confused that I agreed to help with the maths of this.

She worked for 12 hours and 45 minutes for this week. Her pay is $16.50 per hour. How much should she be receiving? Easy question???

You might be asking, is this even a problem? Any primary school kid (especially those from chinese school who are trained everyday with lots and lots of maths practice) would come out with an answer in at most few minutes. Well, I can do it in less than 5 seconds with a calculator!!

Her boss calculated and argued that she should be getting 12.45 x 16.50 !!!!!
Such a joke rite?

But Harvin was unsured whether her boss was right because the maths seemed convincing to her. See how you may be exploited outside without maths knowledge.

I just told her: Look at your watch, 1 hour has got 60 minutes, not 100 minutes

And guess what, she was enlightened.

In an effort to survive 5 units

ACCG105
ACST 101
ECON 111
ACST 211
MATH133


OH MY GOD!!!!

These 5 subjects are gonna make my life like hell!!! Imagine going uni everyday from Monday to Friday with a very packed timetable. Plus, out of these 5 days 3 involve a 9.00am morning class, which means waking up as early as 7.30am is a necessity rather than an act of 'craziness' as in the case of last sem. My lecturers this sem are more serious (and therefore uninteresting) compared to the likes in ECON110, ACST 151, STAT171 last semester. They speak proper and gramatically flawless formal English during lectures, with all the slides that would make you feel inferior. Sigh....I hope I'll cope well.

By the way I was given a super casual research position by a local teacher who is a part time Macquarie Uni student. I'm allowed to work on articles at my own pace, meaning I can choose not to do them if I think there are better ways to spend my time. Hm....the best job in the world. But definitely I'll half my workload in September and stop it by October (to study for final exam in Novermber). I'm hoping that the first few good work has convinced him to keep me even if I choose to stop for some time before finals. Yeah, when I first spoke to him he said he'll pay me $60 for 6 articles, but after seeing my work he increased it to $70 per 6 articles.

I have so many assignments and tutes to work on this weekend. Oh, and I caught a little flu this morning; nevertheless I tried guggling with salt water and it worked and I'm feeling good right now. Lucky me.

Hello again!!

It's been a while since I posted my last entry. Had been really lazy to come here these few days thanks to my hectic uni life. Uni has gained back all the momentum it ought to have during semester, and that means lectures, tutes and all sorts of assignments, quizzes have all started. Life.....

I'll write more tomorrow. Today's tiring and my brain just isn't working now. Can't think of interesting stuff to write now (although there isn't actually much interesting stuff to write, but I assure you i will find some to crap about tomorrow). Just watch out!

New semester new experience new resolution

Today is 23rd July. I have exactly one more week to go before the next semester starts. You might be asking," Why thinking of it now when I still have one more week to go?". The reason being my brain's been rotting throughout the month of July for lazying around with only drama and online and shopping and exercising on my everyday to-do-list. I gave myself a true rest from all the stress, hastle, and commitments of a university student (in particular, an actuarial student).

Well, it is time to start tuning back my life. I can't leave it till 30rd July because I know one day is certainly insufficient to bring a spoiled soul back to a set of structured lifestyle with innumerable lectures, tutorials and tests. I need time, and what I'm planning is a one-week effort to start my brain working. My conversation with Joy did help me to realise this -- in fact--I 've got to thank her for complaining to me about the formidable amount of texts waiting for her to read. It reminds me, again, that holiday is indeed coming to the end.

There are things to be done:

1. I've set aside $100 to spend on clothing, socks and printer catridge. (what the heck, you may ask)

My clothing so far are all brought from Malaysia (with a few exception). To add some new element to my life in second semester I guess I should put on some local fashion. Yup, the way I dress is still pretty much the old Malaysian way of a T-shirt plus jeans. My printer catridge finished long time before my last sem final exam, and me being busy with uni work didn't bother to get a new one. It's alright now coz I just bought it today, at last.

2. I'm thankful for the confidence boost from my performance so far, and I wish to continue to cope well.

Second sem will be tougher than the first, definitely. At first I was planning to try working in-semester, and was really trying to get a job. But after the release of my result I gave a serious thought about this.

Why am I in Australia?? A quick answer is to get an Actuarial degree. With the amount of workload in 2nd sem I've got to choose between academic excellence and working experience. I figure I can't have both. When such is the situation my choice will certainly be the former -- that's why I'm here for. However I shall see how the semester actually goes, and am not 100% sure if I will stay with this notion.

3. I hope to be a better friend to everyone I know here. Our Malaysian cohort here consists of people from different pre-U college and some seemed not so 'ngam' with us Taylorians at first impression. But as time goes I start to see the good part of each of them and I should really get to know them better. We are all smart people, however I do hope the inherent kiasuness would hinder the opportunity to nurture true friendship.

An early call for myself -- BE PREPARED!!

OMG i can't believe my result

How shall I describe how I feel now?? Happy or surprised? I guess it should be both. Happy because I get good results and will definitely hope to maintain it throughout my degree. Surprised because I can't believe that it is an HD even for MATH132 in which I know I did quite badly. Surprisingly it is 96 marks...How can that be? I left 2 questions unanswered!!!How can there be such a dramatic scalling? The two questions can easily cost be at least 15 marks. There is only one explanation for this -- Nobody or only very very few people could handle those two questions.

There is one thing here that I should bear in mind in the midst of all the excitement that fills my head now: I have set a standard for myself. Yes, this is me. I've always been setting standards for myself. In Sec School I set the standard to be a strong candidate for the prestigious JPA scholarship -- and through hard work, I did it. In SAM, I set the standard since the first day to be the top student of Taylor's College -- and through hard work, I did it. Now, I gave myself a great start by scoring 4 HD's for first sem, that's good, but not yet GREAT. What I need to do now is to maintain this standard throughout my degree. According to my seniors, HD 's in second, third and Honours years will be tougher than first year. I shall keep this in mind and not let this small success blurr myself from the real goal of securring a place in the Honours programme.

A good start in Australia gives me more confidence now. I can do it if I try!!!

I still remember screwing up my ACST151 first and second tests, but I put in the effort to correct my mistakes and did well for the finals.

Special thanks to:
Brian Chu, my ACST151 tutor/lecturer, for the guidance on insurance theories
Mr. Alex Blair, my ECON110 lecturer, for the encouragement and help with my LA progress
Mr. Craig MacMillan, ECON110 lecturer, for helping me during consultation with questions
Dr.Bon Clarke, my Math132 lecturer, for setting such tough assigment questions (and finals too)
Prof Xuan Duong, my Math132 lecturer, for being nice to us all.

Melbourne -- Phillip Island

As promised, I'm here to write more about my Melbourne trip. I've just come to realise that staying here - in Macquarie - for almost half a year makes me start to think of my Unit 31, room 4, as my home. I feel warm and safe here (often with heater on nowadays), no matter how bad the weather is outside. Even that time when there was this 'most severe storm in 30 years' few months ago, I was outdoor, with my groceries when the storm hit Marsfield. I remember the courtesy bus didn't stop for me at the international office. I dragged my drenched self, with all the heavy stuff, to cross the road to the next bus stop, and was fortunate to still catch it. I didn't feel safe, until I reached my house. After bathing and having dinner, I realised that I've got to learn to call this home.

Ok Ok, enough of all these crap.

THE PHILLIP ISLAND

This is the second day trip we went. This time we had a whole bus of Malaysian (with 98% JPA scholars). Desmond joked that if something bad were to happen to this bus, Malaysian government will never ever send scholars here again. All of us were like, choi choi choi touch wood.

Prior to entering the island area we had an experience with taking what they called 'ancient train'. The train itself wasn't too thrilling but it was my funny friends who made it great fun!

It is us!!

Look at the way people sit.

This is at an animal park.

Kangaroos are cute. We get to feed them with our hands. EW!!!! The saliva was disgusting but still, they are wonderful creatures.

Ducks. They are everywhere in Macquarie but I seldom bother them. It's only when I was pon holiday that they managed to catch my eyes.

The laziest thing in the world -Koala bear. They sleep 20 hours a day.

I wanted to upload more pictures but the connection just didn't want to co-operate with me. Sigh, got to stop here for this time.