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Thursday, July 09, 2009 - 03:27 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Zero Point Zero Three Five Radians


Stand or hit?


Commencement Week, also known as Here-Are-The-Papers-You-Spent-Four-Years-For-Thank-You Week. It's also the week where one's employability surges, despite being no more competent than the week before. And also the week where one gets to wear a funny hat and shapeless gown, and parents and grandparents alike somehow think it makes their offspring more photogenic.

The story of how I got myself into two of the dang ceremonies began a few years ago, when I thought it was a nice idea to try the Special Programme in Computing modules, and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme. On hindsight I should have asked whether I could have them overlap, but I overlooked that and instead assumed that I would need six extra semesters.

Since I had been accelerating for my first three semesters, it meant that I could go it easy and perhaps take only three or four modules each semester for the final few semesters. That didn't appeal to me - six modules felt about right - and so I considered my options. Taking additional Unrestricted Electives for fun appeared dumb, and... what's that? Complete another degree? Let's see: It would take 4+3 = 7 years separately, and only 4.5 together, or from another perspective, the extra degree would take just half a year. Hard pressed to find better value, I was sold.

Economics was the right choice, and I enjoyed the modules (really), but a minor gripe here: The university conferred me a "Bachelor of Arts with Merit" degree for that, with no indication whether I had studied Economics, Philosophy, Chinese Literature, Theatre Studies or Underwater Basket Weaving [for Computing it was at least "Bachelor of Computing (Computer Science)"]. Indeed, the Commencement booklet doesn't specify the subject for all non-Honours degrees, which is rather uncalled for. On the bright side, if I someday desire a job requiring expertise in say, Norse Mythology (thanks tpk), I suppose I could present the degree and grunt at opportune moments during the interview.

Taking two degrees does have a side benefit, which is the four invitations in total (two each), saving a lot of grief between my grandma and my parents. My grandma and my sister ended up going to the Economics one, with my parents scheduled for the Computing repeat, which is more or less the same thing other than having a few more people whom I know, and a different coloured hood.

So it was that my dad drove us to the University Cultural Centre by two, my grandma and sis sat around, helped me with the gown, took some photos, I entered, found my seat, sat through invited speaker/alumni Edmund Shern's (of Imaginary Friends Studio) speech (advice: be dumb and don't realise you could possibly fail), clapped for the first few going on the stage before I realised it wasn't sustainable, got ushered round the hall, shook hands, got empty degree scroll tube, got off the stage, exchanged tube for actual degrees, sat down, waited, waited, waited, clapped a bit, listened to the valedictorians, clapped, saw confetti and balloons released from the roof (do they do that at every single commencement ceremony? how do they clear up?), got out, got some food, went home.



Mum got me one of those stuffed souvenir lions, complete with appropriate hood colour. Mr. Ham was initially apprehensive about the newcomer, but softened considerably when (Gender Unconfirmed) Lion explained that no, it doesn't eat and is not a competitor for food.



There have been a few queries about Mr. Ham's job status (because of the Ham & Fish series), and sad to say, despite his Master of Biting qualification through distance learning, his criminal record works against him. Mr. Ham feels that it's a case of presentation, though, and I figured a dapper necktie couldn't do his prospects any harm. Hamsters' body proportions are not the same as humans, and moreover the scale differs alot, so normal techniques won't do much good. Instead, I just cut a very long strip (many times Mr. Ham's body length) with double-sided tape both as interlining and stitching.

As for the previous days... tennis at the newly opened SAFRA Jurong (right by Jurong Point) with lwei in the rain. Not a particularly good condition to play in, but given our current development we won't be rallying much anyway - it seems far easier to hit good balls that become winners, than to retrieve them.

Not a shade on the Federer-Roddick Wimbledon final that we had watched the previous night, that had the two trade service games, until Federer finally got the better of his opponent to win the fifth set 16-14. In doing so, he got a historic fifteenth Grand Slam title, surpassing Sampras. Ferguson - always on the lookout for talent - was watching too; a new United signing, perhaps?

Not that I was wholly pleased, since Federer's one of the sporting champions I never could get behind, in contrast to Michael Schumacher, Michael Jordan, Efren Reyes and the like. Others such as Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong I'm mostly neutral towards, but for Federer I usually root for the underdog against him (the only exception being maybe last year's Wimbledon marathon against Nadal, and then only for a little while). Don't ask me why, but it would be boring if everybody liked the same personalities, right?

Big serves were again the order of the day, and it was noteworthy that Federer won only after he broke Roddick's serve for the first time in the entire match! Tennis serves seem almost like penalty kicks - if the taker gets it right, the guy on the other end can't do anything about it.

Watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with alvin, occ, tpk and special guest lewis before that. Giant robots, check. Big explosion in the background while characters leap towards the camera in dramatic slower-motion, check (it's a tradition now, no respectable action flick dares leave it out). Eye candy in Megan Fox and Isabel Lucas, check. Dogs humping, chec... wait, what? Good propaganda for the U.S. military as well, with the Decepticons looking just like bad guys would look (well, other than the fembot played by Lucas). They even obligingly knock down a U.S. flag to help stoke emotions. Would be easy if the world worked in such a straightforward way, all guns ablazin', problem solved, eh?

Was shocked when the film's Wikipedia article mentioned that the playful pair of twin Autobots were seen as racist. Heck, if one wants to see monkey business, one sees monkey business everywhere. What's next, banning primates from documentaries, or whitewashing them beforehand?

Also - tiny pet robots are cute. I'll have to see what I can do in this respect. Not so the prices at The Coffee Bean, though the Europe trip has mellowed me towards beverage prices somewhat.



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