Saturday, March 31, 2007
4:18 PM

Hell Week Over

In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.
- John Churton Collins

Very apt indeed.

There went week 13 of Year 2 Term 2. This means that we're approaching exam week and the end of our Year 2 life in SMU. Week 13 was one of hell and haste. Within 1 week, I had 1 assignment, 2 presentations, 3 reports and 1 test. Not to mention intermittent tasks from Volar!

Much of the nights of this week were spent in school, rushing project reports and rehearsing for presentations. Having stayed in school till 4/5am for the past 2 days, I'm so glad all my projects are finally over. Well, I'm not actually complaining, cuz this sem has been quite a slack one for me, with only 4 modules, 5 presentations, 5 reports, 4 tests and 1 mid-term exam and 2 final exams. Much of the sem was preparing for Volar!, Volar! and Volar! Having put in so much effort into this event, of course I expect the turnout to be good, and hope that my friends can be there to support this event!

TWC
This can be said to be the c**ppiest module I've taken in SMU. But I'm really glad that I have a multi-talented group! Awesome!

kelly conscientiously vetted our report!

chongmin came up with the wonderful video, that was eventually copied by another group, and consolidated our report!

alvin was the technology authority in our team, and in fact the whole class! no one could possibly rival him in terms of technology knowledge! GRS, GPRS, VHF-wadeva, RFID, etc...

gavin was the project champion and photo whore, came up with the superb presentation slides and printed our report!

I was the "CFO" of the team, who came up with all the fictitious items in the budget sheet.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

that's my team!

MPW
Without any doubt, our team presentation was the best I had so far in my SMU life. It was not only informative and meaningful, it was also engaging till the very last second of the 25 min presentation. Highlights included videotaking in a cemetary at Upper Serangoon, visit of AMT's factory to conduct our OCA survey, struggling with SPSS for our report, late-night rushing of our two reports in the school library. Simply love the prof for his sui generis seminars, charisma and teatime buffets!

"Prof Herzberg and his soldiers at Dachau Camp"

Cast and Crew of the Reenactment Video

rehearsal through the night before the presentation day...

FIIM
First time working with Yujian, May and Daisy in a team. All preparations didn't start off too well for the team for it was apparent that May and Daisy were not too passionate about our topic - mutual funds. For me, regardless of what the topic is, there's certainly a way to make it interesting and possibly in-depth. I guess that's about the same for Yujian who tried his best to motivate the whole team.

The preparation process was slow, despite starting the process very early in the sem. We came to this topic mainly because they've never done anything to do with funds except perhaps TWRR and DWRR in financial actuarial math. However mutual funds seemed too easy to us on first look. Everytime we met up, we contemplated changing the topic to something else that could be more interesting like ETF, hedge funds or options, as Warren Buffett would say "Diversification is for the birds!" Nevertheless, all our worries were uncalled for because we managed to delve deeply into the topic and managed to engage the class with our presentation of this financial instrument, as adapted from my Prof's email to our team. :) hurray!

Company Law
Though not as interesting as Business Law, our prof has a likeable disposition, that made company law kind of boring and interesting at the same time. The time spent on readings was negligible, though I really should read up before every class to contribute during discussions and maintain my grade. My lack of hard work was reflected in my mid term grades, and now I worry for my final exam, which is my last chance to reverse the grade, as I don't think I'd do fantastically for my team assignment, presentation and class participation.

Plans for Summer
1) Pass Advanced Theory, start taking practical driving lessons
2) FAS-M&A Transaction Services Internship at Deloitte, save up
3) Advisory to SMUX Camp 2007
4) Organise trek to Ophir?
5) Exercise more... Reduce my flabs...
6) Kayak to Batam?
7) Cycle to Kukup?
8) Meet up old friends (4/9, 68, 29th, nessy too!)