The End

This will be my last post for this blog. Exams are over, classes have ended and holidays have begun. There isn't really much to say except that this class ROCKS MAX and was most probably the only class I can attended without feeling pressurized and knowing that I will not doze off in the midst of lecture. But the best part is, I made friends. Unlike in other lectures where it's lonely and quiet for me, I could actually be myself in this class. I saw myself from my sec school/JC emerging again, making wisecracks, stupid comments and acting weird. Which was actually fun. Well, I guess that's it. Oh, and a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who made this class a great one (and one of the two reasons why I will survive my first sem at NUS and not screw up my CAP THAT badly XD). To Dr. Jessie, coursemates and friends, hope to see you guys around next sem.



Goodbye, until we meet again..... :]

And it's over.... Well, not quite!

Wow, I can't believe that it's already the end of Sem 1. Or at least it's going to be. My SUJA is done and submitted, my oral presentation is over and all that's left is the final exam. I'm not sure how I did for the OP but I think I might have confused my classmates XD On the other hand, I'm super pleased with my SUJA. 2800+ words! A new record in my writing streak! XD It might not be that well written, but I think it's the only assignment I am satisfied with out of ALL my 5 modules this sem.

It's the final countdown! Let the war begin! 8D

*marches on to impending doom of finals*



XD lolx...

Ants...

Ok, this is a totally unrelated post but I really want to share this short story told by my lecturer in the social work module I was taking. It's really thought provoking in it's own way but it's actually very sad too when you come to think about it.

Lecturer: I deal with children from abusive homes according to age group. I once posed this question to my 6-9 year old group, "if you could be any animal, what animal would you like to be?" Many responded "I want to be a tiger/lion/bear so I can eat my daddy up!" (the dad is the abusive figure in the family). But there was this 8 year old girl who took a really long time to think. When she was finally done she said:

8 yr old Girl: I want to be an ant.

Lecturer: *surprised as she has never heard before an answer like that* Why of all the animals that you can choose do you want to be an ant?

8 yr old girl: I want to be an ant so people will step on me and I can go to God......

I felt my heart just break right there and then.

A Good Day?

It's 10/10/10 =) and I submitted my completed SUJA! Finally! I actually finished it a few days earlier but I kept on trying to refine it cause the language seemed so informal (I think it still is =S). Anyway, I finally got it into TurnItIn and it garnered a plagiarism index of 19%, a drop from the previous 22% =D Oh goodie... I hit 3014 words (coulld have been nicely 3000 if certain citations, especially those involving no authors, weren't so long =.=). Anyway, pretty satisfied =D

P.S.: On a sidenote, I made it into my first Hall Committee =) This day is gooooood..... ^_^

Cheers max!! 8D

The Process Part VII.

11.50 p.m.: Ok, I am toast. I really can't take it anymore. I haven't slept since yesterday, I desperately need a bath, I'm heating up and my brain cells have reduced by 80%. I have just barely enough to type proper English. I just submitted my SUJA draft. 60% done with 1716 words and citation. As much as I want to submit a completed report, I just don't have enough material at the moment (I'm like using the same sources over and over again) and my brain just can hold on much longer. I'm gonna crash and burn now before my brain crashes and burns tomorrow. Good night people.

The Process Part VI.

11.11 p.m.: More than half way there. Not enough materials. I don't think I can submit a complete draft =( Like a zombie now. Haven't slept since yesterday. Need more info or at least, more time. I hate sourcing. =(

Oh, 11.11.. Make a wish *wishes fervently for faster sorting skills and MORE INFO! =.=*

Oh, and I actually submitted a half baked draft earlier because I thought that the deadline was 1200 hrs whenit's supposed to be 0000 hrs. I only found out when I realized that the deadline on the TurnItIn forlder was written 11.59 PM and not AM XD XD Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise that my article manage to generate a 21% originality after processing about 30% of the article or so. I expected it to be the epitome of plagiarism XD

Word count: 1716

The Process Part V.

11.20 p.m.: Gosh... Only 12 and a half hours to go.... =( Guess it's gonna be me, my cookies, muruku and the laptop ALL night again.

Thank God tomorrow is a no practical day. And lectures are canceled PLUS tutorials are through IVLE ^_^ (not like the last two will make a difference cause it'll be after the deadline anyway).

Word count: 286

The Process Part IV.

9.09 p.m.: The WAR is NOW!!! I will finish that report no matter what. It is super difficult to source for controversies in this fingerprinting issue. Everything seems so procedural and ethical rather than scientific. *sigh* If I were to switch to another topic I would be given an extension from tomorrow's 12 p.m. deadline. But I don't know why didn't I say yes. I mean, I would get a short extension PLUS a chance to switch to an easier topic. Maybe I just felt that if I had accepted, it would have meant that I had given up in face of a challenge. AND I DON'T LOSE. Oh well, time to get the stuff out again. SEEK. STRIVE. EXCEL. XD



Word count: 108

The Process Part III.

6.57 p.m.: Finally started on the introduction after sourcing for more materials. It's so FREAKING HARD to source for stuff on this topic! =.= Why, oh why did I chose to do this? =.=

Word count: 81

The Process Part II.

5.20 p.m.: OMG, I fished! Shoot! Ugh... =.= But at least I've started... with the cover page! XD

Am I doomed yet? Will I finish?

Word count: Still 0

The Process Part I.

3.30 p.m.: I just finished reading Week 6 Tutorial 2 handout which I thought was a rough guide on how to write my SUJA but was actually the guide on how to prepare the outline. And I didn't even look at it while I was actually preparing my outline. Epic fail to the max =.=" But it was very helpful nonetheless =)

3.32 p.m.: Now reading a sample SUJA report titled 'Telepathy - Do You Get The Message' by Lim Xinjie. Very interesting so far =)

Omaleganja, what a slow process. It's gonna be a super long day...

Word count: 0

Did You Know?

Fingerprints are INHERITED! Yes! I didn't know that too! O_o

But if fingerprints are inherited, and thus identical twins inherit the same DNA fingerprint, then why are fingerprints of twins different?

Hmmm, this should be interesting =)

But if that's the case, which side should I stand on now? =(

This Is Bad...

... cause the current word count for my draft to be submitted is still 0. Yes, a big fat 0. I'm so dead =( On the bright side, I got this really cool book titled 'Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition' to help me with my SUJA. Thanks to my awesome friend for going through all the trouble to get it for me =) Another friend of mine, before leaving, recently wrote me a card which says:


~Paul Valery

I feel as if he's indirectly poking fun at me by implying that if I fished less often, my dream of getting the SUJA done would ACTUALLY materialize XD

I will get it done... somehow...

I Just Outrunned A Time Bomb.

Finally! It's done! My outline! And it's 5.11a.m. =.=

Basically, my (kinda) sloppy outline looks like this:

Introduction:
• What is forensic science?
• Presentment of the controversy within forensic science – Is fingerprinting a reliable source of evidence?
• Brief history of fingerprinting.
• Why it is under siege:
o Basic assumption that all fingerprints are different has never been completely proven.
o Despite the sheer odds, there’s still room for error as there is no concrete scientific proof.
• Why is it so widely accepted and practiced:
o The odds of 2 people sharing the same ridge patterns are minute/practically impossible.
o There has never been a match even after comparison of a few million fingerprints.
• Stance: Reliable as source of evidence.

Body:
• Basis of fingerprinting:
o Permanence.
o Individuality.
• Against stance:
o Disparities among existing forensic science operations.
o Subjective interpretation by experts (who sometimes are not really experts).
o Uniqueness does not guarantee that two individuals’ prints are sufficiently different that they could not be confused.
o Low probability of match does not mean certainty of no match.
• Support for stance:
o Because since this method started a 120 years ago, a match has never been found even after comparison between 200 million fingerprint cards in the USA done by AFIS (Automated Fingerprints Identification Systems).
o Sir Francis Galton demonstrated in 1892 that the odds of 2 people having the same fingerprints were 64 billion to 1.
o Prints only change when the body decomposes at death. Burns, acid corrosions and such do not scar prints in any way.
o It varies between identical twins, making it more reliable than DNA fingerprinting when it comes to distinguishing twins (phenotype vs. genotype).

Conclusion:
• Overcome disparities.
• More stringent conditions for experts.
• All other tests when reviewed by humans are subjective to their opinions.
• Should not discount the possibilities of fingerprinting in identification due to some discrepancies.

So the question now is, will I get up in time for Chem lecture tomorrow? XD XD XD

Gonna go fish now. Cheers!

Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock Boom!

That was supposed to evoke an image of a time bomb ticking away and finally exploding. Which is basically what I'm feeling right now =( My SUJA outline is due by 10a.m. tomorrow and word count is currently still 0. Not to mention I don't even have the materials as I am still unsure of the perspective of which I am going to view my topic from. On top of that, I have IHG volleyball trials from 8p.m. to 12a.m. today AND 2 sketches for hall prod interview tomorrow (after being informed this morning =.=")

Why didn't I just pick an easier topic like stem cell research or cloning? Do I enjoy abusing myself or is it just my passion for forensics?


But the main concern now is... can I run fast enough to save myself?

An Introduction to 'Writing An Introduction'.

Pardon and forgiveness is asked. May the light of Syawal this time around bring to you a thousand meanings and fortunes from Him. Amen.

It's 4.30a.m. on Hari Raya (Selamat Hari Raya to all the muslimin and muslimat out there =]) and I'm staring at the laptop thinking 'Hallelujah! Another assignment (or homework) completed!' XD which is actually pretty elevating considering that I've been sleeping at 4.30a.m. for the past 2 weeks due to a backlog of assignments, reports and tutorials caused by me slacking too much. So the fact that I actually managed to finish something is pretty miraculous =P

The sad part is that I spent, let's see, 5 hours editing a 150 word introduction. That's like at a rate of 2 minutes per word! O_o Basically, it was supposed to be a paired homework whereby a pair of us will read two texts presenting different views on organic foods and then using the texts, we were supposed to discuss, draft and edit out an introduction which will then be submitted to another pair for 'peer reviewing'. After that, the introduction will be revised and then submitted.

You would believe how grateful I am that it was paired work. Sarah S., my partner, was super helpful and not to mention super efficient. Without her, I think I'll be downing Red Bull and pulling an all-nighter again. She had the edited version of the draft up on her blog in no time and even completed the review for Jun Zhi and Jung Hiong's introduction. Anyway, the fact that she had posted the first intro earlier made it so much easier for me to take time and read through it and revise it without having to rush like crazy as most of my Thursday had been taken up by capoeira and archery. Thanks Sarah S. ^^

So, if all seems well, then why am I still up so late? Well, it's mostly due to the fact that I suck at introductions and conclusions. I never seem to know how to start off without sounding cheesy and to end off without sounding cliche. Basically, I think I spent 80% of the 5 hours trying to figure out what to write for the first line. The rest was just plain copy pasting from Sarah S.'s draft and editing the sentence structure and vocab XD

Ugh.... I seriously need to go fish right now. So much for a long weekend when the backlog of my work is longer than the weekend... =.="

Cheers!

Under construction

Developer has gone fishing. Will be back tomorrow.