Just got an email from OSA.

Hey students,

Don’t miss out the first & only time where Quidam will be performed in Singapore!

Now playing in Singapore for a limited time until 15 Oct, the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil is pleased to present a special student discount to all NUS students.

Arrange a group of friends to watch Quidam and get 20% discount at the box office. The show times are from Tue-Fri 8pm; Sat 4pm/ 8pm and Sun 1pm/ 5pm. Simply arrive at Quidam box office 1 hour before the show, present your matriculation card and receive 20% off regular ticket prices!

For ticketing details and more categories of ticket prices, please refer to http://www.sistic.com.sg.

An external event broadcast by OSA

Ahhhhhhhh…… Why now then they decide to give discount to us?! Nobody want to go is it? Wah lao like that want to buy early to secure seats also bo hua.

Sigh… $38 leh… Enough to pay for Oi! Sleeping Beauty

…because the SoC PnP logon authentication service failed at about 10pm and only those which are already logged on could remain online.

…because the computer which I’m using for work timed-out and could not get online anymore.

…because having BitTorrent downloading files (legal ones!) perpetually on my laptop kept the connection alive, allowing me to download materials online to transfer them over to the terminal for work.

…because I teach a class on Tuesdays that’s why I brought my laptop down to school.

You know why I feel that SoC’s administration is the most competent administrative body in NUS?

Decided to report the network failure this morning at 9, after waking up and finding that the problem has not yet been resolved. Walked into the helpdesk office and Lay Hoon was on the phone. Overheard the conversation about “not being able to log in at SR1″.

I patiently waited for her and when she was done, she gestured for me to hold a moment while she called for “AV” over the intercom, before hearing me explain my problem.

“You’re the second one you know…” she mentions quizzically.
“It was down since last night. A few of my…”
“Since last night?!” she exclaimed, picked up the intercom and paged for “Network!”

Now that’s what I call good support.

It don’t take very much to deduce that two persons reporting a same problem in different locations is no longer an isolated problem with the equipment at SR1 (needing AV support) but one with the network, and it pleases me that our technical support crew are well trained and experienced to do that in an instant.

So many times have we been pissed at getting dumb support people *coughNUScarparkcough* to realise what the problem really is and what they have to do to solve it. And it doesn’t help that they are the only ones who have the power to fix it.

Now only if we can get the rest of the university as well-oiled as our school’s operations is.

Was on the train towards Jurong East from Bukit Batok, returning home from Diana’s place after the supposedly last gathering for the Worship Team last Sunday, when I heard this announcement for the first time. It goes somewhat like this: “*Ding Dong* The train will be switching over to the middle track. For your own safety, please grab on to a handrail.”

An amused me sat up, nudged a dozing Xiaohei to warn her, and braced myself for the expected tremors thinking how kind of SMRT to prepare such announcements. However the experience left me in much anger as the only indication of the crossing tracks was the slight rumble and thud, that oh so gently would rock a baby to sleep.

Why angry? Because I can identify two specific locations where the trains rock so badly you’d expect the fasten seatbelt sign to light up. Now these are not any random occurrences but are so regular that I use them to wake myself to prevent me from overshooting my stop.

The first would be from Commonwealth towards Bouna Vista. Just after the train passes the road into Holland Village, you’d expect 3 sudden lateral jerks spaced slightly over half a second apart, enough to make people take a step to steady themselves as the train takes a gentle left turn away from the road.

The second would be the entire stretch from Tanah Merah to Simei, where the the east bound train makes a 120° left bend and faces west. The way the train speeds crazily through the bumpy stretch, rocking side to side, make you wonder if the tracks are just straight sections bent at regular intervals.

And it’s so bad when it’s late at night and the train is light, that you get your head bumped against the train wall giving you a rude wake up call from your nap. Seriously it makes good balance practice for any Tony Hawks wannabe.

So what I find disturbing why such spots have no announcements while there is one for something so subtle that most people would not even realise.

Ok I must admit since the Bukit Batok to Jurong East route is not one I take often, what I experienced could be a rare event when usually the train rattles so hard the handrails rattle and the lights flicker. Anyone who frequents that stretch care to correct me?

Private posts are nice. They allow you to decide who gets to read what.

Talkin’ to myself and feelin’ old
Sometimes I’d like to quit
Nothing ever seems to fit
Hangin’ around
Nothing to do but frown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.

What I’ve got they used to call the blues
Nothin’ is really wrong
Feelin’ like I don’t belong
Walkin’ around
Some kind of lonely clown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.

Funny but it seems I always wind up here with you
Nice to know somebody loves me
Funny but it seems that it’s the only thing to do
Run and find the one who loves me.

What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it’s all about
Hangin’ around
Nothing to do but frown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.

Rainy days and Mondays are sad enough. What more not having someone to run to.

Mwahahaha. All his blog are belong to me, cause yk’s away for a retreat for a few days. It’s payback for when he declared on my blog that “all your blog are belong to me“.

She awakens

Meanwhile, I got the memo that Sleeping Beauty awakens on the 13 of December, in Sunny Singapore. Eh yk, remind me to collect the tix on monday at Bugis.

Was crazy enough to participate in the DBS NUS Heritage Run this morning.

Starting point was at the old Bukit Timah campus (now SMU) and we were to run 10 km back to the Kent Ridge Campus.

Original plan was to sprint 1km to Serene Centre, have breakfast at Macs then take 74 or 151 to the finish line. But somehow we all knew that was not to happen.

Everyone ended up running. Even those whose intention was to walk also ended up with not much of a choice.

Had to run on the pavements cos they didn’t block off a lane of traffic for us. Only got Cisco police to regulate traffic at uncontrolled crossings. Guess it’s just not big scale enough. Ended up having a difficult run with so many slow ppl blocking the way.

As usual, hit the 5km mark before my knee gave way, proving again I can only run as far. Limped the remaining 5km back to school, injured my other knee and got a blister cos of that.

Was really lame the rest of the day. heh

#!/bin/bash
# just can’t help myself
echo “$(($RANDOM % 60)) $(($RANDOM % 24)) * * * rand.sh” > cron.tab