I waited longer than usual for the bus to come today, around 20 minutes or more? While waiting for 74 to come, I saw 3 bus 154s, 2 bus 151s and 2 bus 52s stopping at my bus stop. And that whole time 74 was nowhere to be seen! When the bus finally came, it was rather packed, with just enough space for everyone at my bus stop to get on.

I’ve been complaining about bus service 74 since my secondary school days, which was more than 5 years ago. Back then, I would leave the house 45 minutes before I had to be in school, even though the actual bus ride only took around 15 minutes. Anything later and I would end up being late if the bus didn’t come on time. So much for staying near school.

On days when the bus takes very long to come, when I spot the bus finally arriving, I would usually see more 74s following behind as well. As expected, the first bus would be pretty crowded, while the ones behind are practically empty. Why are the bus arrival times so irregular? There’s no point in having so many buses if they’re just going to arrive at almost the same time at a particular bus stop. You know, its been 9 years from the time I was in sec 1, and this is still happening!

Sometimes I think that I’m better off taking the MRT, unless I’m not being bound to get somewhere by a particular time. Even though it takes a 10 minute walk from my house to the station, at least MRT timings are more regular and I can estimate my travelling time more accurately.

The lectures have been completed and the course contents covered. The lab sessions have long since ended, and all the lab reports and projects have been handed up. Yup, it’s the end of the semester once again.

This semester seemed to pass by like a blur. For the first few weeks, I was enjoying the feeling of being more free as compared to the same period of time during the past few semesters. Having a four day school week is a nice feeling! Then the projects started coming in. When the recess week came, I spent 4 days on project meetings, and those meetings continued until this week. And then the next thing I know, the dreaded exams are here again!

I have 3 papers this week, 2 the next, and 1 on the very last week of the exams. Right now my greatest concern is for the first 2 papers, which happen on consecutive days. There’s a whole ton of content to understand for Drug Discovery, and the worst thing is that even the most minute details have been asked in the previous exams. It’s so difficult to remember all those details! The next one is HRM (Human Resource Management), and it’s one of those things I just don’t get. Anything business or management related is just not my sort of thing! My brain just doesn’t think in the way required in these areas.

This week was project week for me, and out of the 4 days I spent doing projects, 2 of those days were spent in the library. And on both occasions, we were told by the security guard that we had to carry out our discussion somewhere else.

I was at the main library in Bugis on wednesday, and we sat in the garden area on the fifth floor. Since it was a garden area, there were no tables or chairs, but only a few benches. We chose to sit on one of the platforms there, since there were power points there. The discussion went pretty smoothly, but after a few hours of sitting on the floor, most of us felt uncomfortable. Looking down at the laptop screen made my neck hurt as well. So we decided to shift the laptop to the only bench that was near a power point. Alas, that power point wasn’t working, so we had to look for somewhere else to continue our project. We looked at the cafe as well as the other garden on the tenth floor, but there were no power points at the cafe, and the power points at the other garden were not working as well. Not wanting to waste more time searching for another spot, we decided to just sit down on the floor at the indoor area near the garden. While that place was considered part of the corridor, the tenth floor was a place few people headed to. There were only a few offices there, and the office staff didn’t say anything when they saw us sitting there as they headed off to lunch. So the discussion continued… until the security guard came. She nicely told us that where we were sitting at was considered a public area, and if we wanted to carry out our discussion, we should go to the study room or the central lending library at the basement instead. The thing is, the study room was full when we came, and everyone in there was doing their quiet studying. How could be possibly discuss our project in there then? We would just end up disturbing and annoying everyone else in the study room. In any case, we happened to be finishing our discussion then, so we just wrapped up quickly and headed home.

The second time, which was yesterday, I was at the Jurong East library with another group of friends. We were having our discussion at McDonalds initially, but due to problems with their wireless network, we decided to head to the library instead. There were a few empty benches around, but we only saw one that was near a power point. Placing the laptop on the bench, we set down on the floor and started searching for some information that we needed for the project. It didn’t go too smoothly because we couldn’t find much information pertaining to our topic online, and we needed more information to be able to do the project. As we were searching through different online databases, the security guard came and said that we couldn’t use the benches as they were for people using library materials. And apparently, searching through online databases provided by the library is not considered as library materials. (Why not?) Since there was no where else we could go, we went back to McDonalds again. Sigh. There were other people sitting around, doing their work without using library materials as well, why weren’t they asked to go somewhere else as well?

I don’t quite understand why the security guards are so particular about things like these. The library counter staff didn’t tell us that we couldn’t sit there, even though the place we were sitting at was really near the counter. Why is it that the security guards are the ones asking people to leave? I can understand why they have to do that if there are people blocking the corridors or depriving others of a place to sit when the library is crowded. But in our case we weren’t causing any obstruction. And it was because we had nowhere else to sit that we ended up at those places. Isn’t the library supposed to be a place where people can come to read and study?

I guess some people will say, just book the discussion rooms instead! And then no one will come and disturb you or chase you away, and you can have the tables and chairs you need to do your work comfortably. But the charges for booking the discussion rooms are way too high! The cheapest one I saw online was around S$6 an hour, which I’m sure almost no student will want to pay just to use the room. The one at Bugis was S$20 per hour, as quoted by the counter staff. It’s no wonder that the discussion rooms always seem to be empty. (Or is it that I don’t go to the library often enough, so I don’t see the rooms being used?) At the kind of rates that are being charged to book the rooms, I think only the corporate people are the ones who might use these facilities. But how many people would choose to have their discussions in the library when they can book other places outside instead? Having those rooms empty is such a waste of space, especially when it can be converted into study rooms or just a space to place more benches for people to sit. At least reduce the charges of booking these rooms, such that people (especially students in need of a place to do their projects) will actually book it.

After the experiences I had this week, I really think that the national libraries are not the place you should go to if you need to do group projects. While places like McDonalds and the like are noisier and there are always people moving around, you can do your discussion in peace without people telling you to leave. Ultimately, at least in my opinion, the best places to do group discussions are still school and someone else’s house. Now if only NTU wasn’t right at the west end of the country…

I think I left my thumbdrive in school. I only realised that my thumbdrive wasn’t in my bad when I wanted to print a file that was saved in it. I last used it in school on Wednesday, and I remember taking it out from the computer and leaving it on the table. I know I wanted to put it in my bag before I left the room, and I was always under the impression that I had done so. But seems like I either left it on my table, or I somehow didn’t keep it properly and it dropped out from my bag. I don’t remember taking it out after coming home on Wednesday, but I still searched the room and my bag multiple times just in case. No thumbdrive to be seen.

It’s really frustrating to lose my thumbdrive because I’m someone who always takes care of my possessions. I’ll almost always check to make sure that I’ve taken all my belongings before I leave a particular place, and I’ve never really lost something before. What makes it worse is that my photos and lab reports are in that new thumbdrive. The only consolation is that even though I haven’t transferred the contents to my laptop, I’ve handed in the lab reports already and I’ve sent a copy of the gel photo to be handed in on Monday to the rest of my group members. If not we’ll have a big problem. Sigh.

I’m still quite pissed that I actually lost the thumbdrive, but there’s nothing I can do now except to see if it’s still at the place where I left it on Monday. If not, hopefully some kind soul picked it up and handed it to the office. I want my files back!

I’m kind of upset right now because my mum stained my white shirt pink when she washed her pink shirt together with it. She was rather pissed when she found out because she had to try to bleach it, but seriously, if it’s because of her shirt that caused my brother’s and my shirts to be stained, I think she shouldn’t be complaining.

I’m not pissed at her about it, but just upset about the incident because it’s a new top which I’ve worn for the first time today. And it took 3 months to arrive from Taiwan! I’m really not counting on the bleach to remove the stain, because the last time one of my tops had a small pink stain the bleach couldn’t remove it. It’s not too bad because that top is light pink and my hair covers that area, but if you look carefully enough it’s noticeable. And with the current white top, it’s almost the whole top that’s been stained. If it’s an older top I’ll be less upset, but this is new! The only consolation is that it’s cheap, so even if I can’t wear it any more it’s not as bad as if the same thing happened to a $50 top (not that I have tops that are so expensive).

If anyone knows of effective ways to get rid of stains other than bleaching, please tell me!