It's been so long since I've updated my LJ. So much has happened and I can't wait to fill this up with what's going on.

finally got off my lazy bum ass and did some exercise. but 4 hours was way too much. ended up in so much muscle ache i could hardly sleep. it even hurts when i breathe too deeply. and i had never heard such a long procession of bones cracking when i had forgotten and took in a long, deep breath. could i have FELT any older?

but i had so much fun. with my usual badminton partner gone, i hadn't played in almost a month and was dying to get back on the court. and much to my annoyance, my smashes had deteriorated a bit during the break. the racket felt heavier and i was much slower. more motivation to continue playing with my new badminton partners, whom i met while meandering around skibo gym one night. they're a friendly bunch. we ended up cooking up a feast and playing cards til midnight. hopefully i'll be joining them again soon this coming week, i can't wait to play again.

so this semester we were given our final IS project to mark the completion of our degree. my fears for this project had stemmed from horror stories my friends and classmates had told me about their IS project, their group members, their endless meetings that delivered little results and much confusion. and it was truly a miracle we ended up with 4 team members that complemented each other in such an amazing fashion. we had built long lasting relationships with each other and not only did we have a strict rule against long meetings, as the financial controller, i made sure we took full advantage of the budget provided ;) our project room was always filled with 'resources', of course for our client meetings.

but each week, we dreaded the 1-hour friday meetings with our policy-hungry advisor. and of course the project manager and financial controller had to meet with him for an extra hour for important administrative matters. we tried hard to keep as much as we could from him to avoid the questions and even though the meeting was just one hour long, his mindless droning seemed to go on forever. and i had been remarkably successful in hiding my strong feelings from him until the accident (or was it deliberate) occurred.

after our final presentation and dinner celebration with the client, we received our grade from the professor, along with 2 pages of comment on improvements, some of which were most irrelevant and plain stupid. made me wonder exactly how much he had understood. (this was after midnight, while sleep was lingering) of course, being the quick-to-temper soul that i am, i forwarded the email to my room mate along with my anger-filled comments, without realizing that i had hit the 'reply' button, sending the email right to the advisor's mailbox, which he promptly checked and replied within 1/2 hour.

i was horrified, stupified, and just FREAKING OUT! man, was i in some dip sheet. (oh yea, new year's resolution #1 - try to curse less?) now, hysterical and very wide awake, i dashed to my room mate and told her what had happened --- "OHHHH SHIIIIIIIT"...she joined me in my hysteria and we both started chanting 'OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD', actually, i continued the chanting, because otherwise, i was just speechless. thoughts of expulsion and denial of my degree had flashed through my mind, never in a million years had i thought this could ever happened. after working so hard getting screwed over at the last moment.

when we managed to calm our nerves to think of what to do next, we saw his response to my anger-ridden email. so of course, we proceeded to whip up a nice and short apology letter, which he then responded with another 2 pages of reasoning, grading policy, reasons for us to hate him more and teaching postulations. after another round of exchange, we managed to settle this by 1:28am.

this was surely something i can tell my grand children about! well, at least, as my room mate puts it, this has made a dull evening so much more exciting. you know who won't be making the same mistake twice!

so all in all, everything about the IS project was almost perfect. my only complaints were an utterly annoying advisor and an almost too simple project. even though our clients seemed extremely satisfied.

Date:	2003-12-09 02:45
Subject:	data mining
Security:	Public
Mood:	disappointed

i don't think i've ever felt this lost in a course before and by god, i think it was even worse than java. i can't believe i said it but i honestly believe it was worse than java. however i think this time i didn't really put up such a fight (against learning it) as i did with java. with java, i was just not willing to accept the fact that i need to learn it but this time, thanks to one of my good friends, i actually sat down and tried to understand it. with each class, i would go to my 'advisor' (a real genius) and discuss my questions. unfortunatley, in addition to the course being mind boggling, the project experience had literally made my life a living hell for the last few weeks. this was by far the hardest project i had to work on. i don't know what went wrong but i guess, even if outside the project it would have been a difficult experience. and as my friend had said, perhaps the personalities involved were just not meant to be put together. being someone who doesn't like to show knowledge, it was hard getting used to someone who did, who perhaps had underlying reasons for the need to prove oneself. initially, with signs of a possible friendship, this experience has left much to be desired.

sigh, and i thought this would have been a course where i could simply sit back and relax since i was just doing it pass/fail, didn't expect to learn much, but i did, had to. made me feel stronger though, even though there is still so much to learn about this topic. who knows, maybe it'll serve some purpose in the distant future. got a stunningly high grade on the project, which made me relax a bit when the finals came.

thank god it's over.

Haven't been posting for a while. Although with less courses, seems like there's a lot more to do, leisure-wise. Got to settle down, no more joking around, no more going out, no more having fun ... well, maybe some is ok. Got a lot to prepare for.

Younes from Morocco at the match in the Louis Armstrong stadium


The crowd at Louis Armstrong stadium



Younes at the interview session after the match


Outside Arthur Ashe Stadium


Inside the Arthur Ashe on our 'Behind the Scenes tour'


The Arthur Ashe court


The Arthur Ashe court


The Arthur Ashe court


Group pic - Byron, Ada, Nick, Karene and Lawrence


The president's suite of Arthur Ashe stadium


Karene






Nick


Byron & Lawrence (and we do not know that guy on the right)


Players practising

like the flame from the candle
about to go down
like a soldier
standing on duty alone

like a lost soul
searching for direction
like a lazy bum
without motivation

what is this feeling deep down inside
this urge to create and establish my pride
to hold on and believe eventually i can make it
but the roads are so twisted without a clear exit

feelings of a tired scholar...

Date:	2003-08-05 11:02
Subject:	last couple days ...
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm

wrapping up things in these last couple days of the internship ...

> contract db
> sec db
> inventory db
> charges db
> hipaa docs

Date:	2003-07-29 15:17
Subject:	A name
Security:	Public
Mood:	satisfied

张可欣 (pronounced Jeung Ho Yan [cantonese] or Zhang Ke Xin [mandarin]

The meaning of Ada

Emil Chow

Friends
No. 2
No. 3

Daniel Bedingfield - If you're not the one
(click icon)

Viva forever - Spice Girls

Eden - Sarah Brightman

Sona - Secret Garden

Date:	2003-07-13 20:11
Subject:	canoeing at indian waters !!!
Security:	Public
Mood:	exhausted

went to indian waters, a river in Warren County Northwest Pennsylvania, and canoed for almost 5 hours, 10 miles, ... it was incredible but at the same time, my arms took a beating ... i was in soo much pain i could hardly sleep. i'm almost motivated to work out on a regular basis... NAHHHHH!

here are some pics i got from Keyur ... THANKS !!

here i am chasing after the giant ball ... the water was way too cold and rocky, not to mention that the rocks were soooo slippery... it was like a walking disaster ...



here these guys (not in picture) are making a ruckus, splashing all of us with their paddles...of course, i'm trying to hide behind rico, who's being no help at all !!!

Date:	2003-07-11 13:20
Subject:	smash bros
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited

didn't wanna be in the apartment last night ... thought i was going to be really tired and would just hit the sack because i was so tired/sleepy earlier but as soon as i got home i was alive again ... hmm ... lol

and when rico told me that they were going to order kfc and be at wean hall ... i figure why not ... i couldn't resist kfc ... that would be a sin!

i even turned down my roomie's invitation to union grill ... hehe ... nothing compares to my beloved, oil dripping, fat filled, KFC! (ok, that sounds so unhealthy but you get how much i love KFC)...

course ... in 4 hours, all we did was smash brothers!!!!

so bad! but so good!

almost done with one of my projects and started another one, which should be pretty interesting.

not sure if i'm doing a good job at my internship but i guess i'll find out soon. i'm gonna try to talk to my supervisor to see where there is room for improvement.

have been pretty diligent in terms of work. trying to balance between the internship and part time job on campus. spent the entire day on wednesday here at wean hall - reviewing and editing lectures - wanna get as much done as possible.

Date:	2003-07-09 13:00
Subject:	the new place
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful

ahh ... at the new place - we had help from our friends - Abhijeet, Derek, Emanuel, Manu, Mike, Rico, William. it was all good, we managed to finish in about 3 hours ... i guess we didn't have too much stuff and there were so many of us.

well - the new place is pretty good and the most important thing is, we have our own rooms.

we had our first get together on 4th july. i didn't feel like going anywhere and it was a good thing we didn't go cuz my friend only managed to see 2 minutes of the fireworks because there was so much traffic to get to the point state park which was where the display was.

so we stayed home, invited a couple people, ate, chatted, and played some video games and almost 5 hours of cards (bridge, poker and jennifer's wacky version of heart wrenching, nerve wracking UNO - but it was soooo good!). my friends didn't leave until after 3am, we were making so much noise! at one point i was so nervous that the tenants downstairs might start banging on our floor!

but this was all good and we all had loads of fun.

http://www.tvbusa.com/home_ns.asp

Date:	2003-06-30 00:06
Subject:	Moving apartments...
Security:	Public
Mood:	nostalgic

Gonna be moving on Tuesday and I'm in the final stages of packing. Spent the whole day packing today and now I'm totally exhausted. I look back now at the partially empty apartment, and ... well, I'm not sure if I'm actually happy that I'm moving to a new apartment, but right now, I can't help but feel a little sad that we're leaving this one. I guess it's because I know that either way, I will be getting the new apartment but at the same time, I will be losing this one. I guess it's human nature to miss what you don't have and be oblivious to what you do. Looking back, this was a very nice apartment, of course except for the traffic and the miserable neighbor whose only source of entertainment is to knock on our wall because we whisper too loudly. But overall it's been a really great place and I would actually consider coming back here to live, if needs be. Very nice and well kept place, which leads me to worry about how well maintained our new apartment will be. Well, I just hope for the best. Tuesday, the big day! Hope it goes well!

My friend decides to send me a picture of him and his 'footy' team. Footy team?? That's what they call football in the UK??? What the??? Maybe I'm wrong but doesn't that sound kinda...GAY?!

Anyway, I won't call any names now. But I was quite surprised that's he's on the FOOOOOTY team! In shorts! Knock-knees and all! Hmm, maybe that's why he's standing behind everyone! OOOOPS!
(hahaha)