Times Have Changed

Heya folks!

Hope y'all are doing fine. I was bored and just surfing around.

Thought I'd write a blog post today too.

Basically, today's post is on how I think times has changed, whether it's in school, or just in general. This is a particularly relevant observation as I am graduating soon, so it's only a matter of time before I reflect on the 4 years I have spent here, and also how I think it has changed me. But today is not so much about me. It doesn't always have to be about me. Today I just wanna talk about stuff that I see and things I observe that are changing, be it for better or worse.

So what happened is, I was just scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed when I saw a video posted by the NUS School of Computing page. Thinking it was some sort of official video, I was curious and just clicked it to see what it was about. Turns out, it was just another propaganda video done by some amateur students trying to dispel some myths about SoC. The acting was pretty bad too, even if the actress looks decent. Whatever.

From there, I clicked through some of their other videos to see some of the more recent orientation stuff. Things are so much better now! So much better than back in my days, where the events were just dumb and like low-budget makeshift stuff. Now they actually have some proper stuff going on. In one of the videos, I see that they like actually booked a club for some of the finale celebrations or something. Not bad leh. I'm not gonna promote their video here though. I'm sure you can find it if you want.

In any case, what I'm saying is that the "situation" seems much better now. More balanced, if you will. I think ever since the implementation of the Business Analytics program AFTER I matriculated, things have started to liven up a bit. As usual, I always miss the good stuff. Born with bad luck. My timing has always been bad. Every since birth, where I missed the CNY by like 4 days. LOL. Many people dunno how hard I had to work to get to where I am today. When life presents you with shit and you wanna turn it to gold, let's just say it ain't easy. I digress.

Let's talk about performance though. How do the new batches of students stack up? Well, to be frank I haven't seen a whole lot of them. I only get to see some occasional Year 2s and Year 3s when I take those level 3 modules. I didn't really see that many even in IS1112. Basically, I can describe their overall performance as promising, but still underwhelming, relative to myself that is. Then again, I am only referring to presentations, since I don't read their reports. On the bright side, it seems many of them can at least start to get their design right. In SoC, I'm just all too used to seeing shitty powerpoint templates, crappy UI, and poorly designed presentations. It seems to be slowly improving now. Perhaps, due to the change in demographics.....

While I'm always cursed with missing good opportunities, there are some things I don't regret. Over the years, I have sharply honed my presentation skills, self-taught myself how to do great design, and self-learnt web and mobile apps programming. I did whatever I could to stay relevant where the school was sorely lacking. Academia is just too slow to keep up with times, you need to help yourself. I see some of the PRC students, walan eh, Year 1 they were presenting like this, Year 4 liao still the same. No improvement! As usual, there are always exceptions, but the bulk of them can't present for nuts.

If given the opportunity to go back in time and change stuff, would I? That is always a very thought provoking question I like to ask myself. For the longest period of time, up until end of Year 1 to be precise, my answer was a strict NO. See, when you think about such things, you need to consider carefully the Butterfly Effect, where a small change in one thing, may result in a drastic domino or ripple chain effect and alter everything. Basically, if you change one small thing about yourself, you cease to be YOU anymore! I am so ready for time-travel. lol.

So like I said, for the longest time, my answer had always been NO, regardless of how shitty my life had been, how much trauma and hardships I've been though. Matter of fact, is that I have already endured and in some cases conquered those things. I'm fine now. Why change? But if you ask me the same question today, my answer will have to be an unfortunate YES. It may sound emo, but truth is I hate myself, I hate my life, and I hate they way I think and do things. I am now willing to just completely override everything I am, in exchange for something better, something happier. It's a big decision that has numerous effects on the many people I have interacted with, but I have already identified the important tipping points in my life. From as early as 12 years old!

Now, I just need time travel to be discovered.

Whoa. Why all the ranting about time travel all of a sudden? What I want to say is, I have walked on many long roads throughout my journey. I have stepped into many wrong paths, and lost directions many times. If I had a junior that I know, I would certainly love to share my knowledge and experience with them. Problem is, I don't. And so, I shall take my knowledge with me as I graduate. Brain drain is a sad but inevitable phenomenon.

Now, I do have some school work to work on. I need write up some stuff for Gamification. Got a proposal due Friday. But I'm not sure what to write about for that yet. Think I'll just put it into some slides and go for consultation first. Need to see what the lecturer wants also. A little eccentric, gamer lady. I'm supposed to do some coding as well. FYP. Argh! I so totally don't want a programming job as full-time! But sadly, I can only get into technical jobs! WTF. Those consulting and business analyst roles, they don't want me leh. WHY?!! 

Too much meta-thinking about time travel. Shall clam down to some videos and music: