Ironic

It’s quite ironic isn’t it (for fellow bloggers anyway) that the last post here is titled “beware of scams”? Even more so probably if it were “beware of spams”.

It’s already O-week again next week. How time flies (I reckon I’ve said this a number of times already). Pretty soon, there will be new first years here in the blog. I’m looking forward to classes, to be honest, as I just found out that morethan 3 1/2 months of break is not really my cup of tea. It just drags on after December, and increasingly becomes boring once schools and other Unis start for the year. I’m not really looking foward to travelling to Uni, though. Having recently moved to a farther away suburb, it’ll take me at least 10 or 15 minutes more each way by train. On the positive side, I could actually walk to and from the station (about 3 kilometres way), so it’s possible to get rid of the bus interchange altogether. Just train and tram. Speaking of my suburb, it’s actually one of the places affected by bushfires. I was burning with fever that day so I was quite ignorant of what was happening outside. It was only when I found out that my parents were listening intently on the news on the radio (they never do this) and that the sky was a fiery orange (well more like smoky gray, with orange) that I discovered what was happening. Fortunately, my family’s newly-bought home was spared. If the wind was blowing towards us, who knows what would’ve happened.

Going back to Uni matters, I’ve just viewed my Uni timetable, and boy am I not happy. I’ve got two 9am starts, in one of which days I have a 6 hour break, such that the next class that follows is a 4pm tute. Hopefully I could change it. Would there be a better chance of changing it if I stayed up late until Alloc8 opens for editing? I seem to remember someone from this blog saying something about it being worth it. It’s not a totally new thing anyway (my staying up late, that is), as I’ve already gotten the habit of going to bed in the wee hours of morning. So I might as well have a worthy cause for doing it.

For students (especially first years) out there who are patient enough to have read the above paragraphs, here are a few tips for Uni which you might find useful someday (some are for Environments students only):

• – (Envs) If you value your sanity, don’t take up both Virtual Environments and Designing Environments in the same semester. Trust me on this. Also, don’t leave doing Virtual Environments projects to the last minute. Again, it’s for your own sanity.
• – (Envs) Wait until at least the first week of semester before buying all the stuff in the materials/equipment list for your studios. Some are not really that necessary. Also, your studio leaders will tell you what sort to buy (like glue, or a particular thickness of board). Sometimes, it’s also wiser to buy the materials as you need them, rather than all at once.
• – (Envs) Do make sure that your Environments subjects meet the prerequisites for your intended major. E.g. You have to take Designing Environments if you want to take studio subjects in 2nd year, and Urban Environments if you want to take ANY 2nd year Urban Design subjects. Same with Constructing Environments, and some Engineering subjects. Take up maths in first year as breadth if you want to take any of the more specialised Engineering subjects later on as electives or as part of you major.
• – (Envs) Don’t fill up every break or free day with casual or part-time work. You need time to meet up with group members out of class, and even go for a site visit, especially for Natural and Reshaping Environments. You’ll discover soon enough how hard it is to coordinate everyone’s schedule in a group, even if there’s just three of you. Oh, and do go for site visits instead of googling everything. Tutors are not idiots, you know.
• – Be wary of skipping lectures and over-relying on Lectopia. Sometimes lectures are not recorded because of technological issues, copyright reasons or having a panel of specialists instead of lecturers. Or even because the lecturers want the students to actually go to lectures. If any of these happen, the lecture, once over, will be lost forever.
• – Wait until the first week of semester before buying books. Even if some books are listed as ‘prescribed’ under a subject, you don’t necessarily have to buy these, as sometimes, only a few chapters are used. Make use of the copies available in the library.  If you really have to buy them, consider buying second-hand.
• – If you are interested in joing clubs and societies, go approach the members’ tents during O-week. Whilst some set up tables near the Union House during the first 2 weeks of semester, some don’t, and it’s a bit inconvenient (although possible) to hunt them down later on.
• – Join the clubs and societies’ activities. It’s a great way to meet other people and get a feel of a particular club. There are some activities that are open to both members and non-members, so you don’t have to out the membership fee just yet.
• – Do get the mobile number and/or email address/MSN of people you meet. It’s a big campus with thousands of people – it’ll be hard to locate them by sheer chance alone, even if you are taking the same subject/s. Do contact them to catch up during the start of the semester; otherwise, you’ll have useless numbers taking up precious memory in your phone.
• – Make friends with people in your tutes. The impersonal atmosphere of letures is one thing, the close-knit group of the tutes is another. Not only will this make going to tutes more pleasant, it will also be beneficial later on during group works or when you are absent.
• – Do be prepared when coming to tutes. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time. Go over the required readings, heck, even the recommended ones if you have time.

Well, that’s all for now. Pardon the massive post. I hope this won’t turn out like David’s Nanjing post in the 2nd year blog. Quite a pity that such a very long and enlightening post can’t be salvaged from the tentacles of evil spammers.