Still feels like last year
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My timetable is finalized and it looks pretty spacious, with a lot of empty spaces that I had reserved for labs or additional modules. As far as I can see, only two of my modules have mandatory lab sessions, which means that I will be attending fewer labs this year. I had initially wanted to take a 2 MC Music module or a GEM but my low General Account balance put an abrupt end to that plan. So I shall wait until next semester when I can hopefully take Intro to Urban Planning. It looks so exciting! I will exhaust all my points though, and still have 3 UEMS to clear after that. Gakk. Maybe I will just overdose on EE modules if I'm too poor.
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First impression of my modules so far. The first I attended was EE3001, the project module which doesn't have a proper name. I still don't know what it entails, but my team of 8 will be working on a feasibility report for a hypothetical engineering product. We're meeting the supervisor tomorrow evening to pin down our topic. There are no lectures or tutorials, so this is my first all-project module. Sounds intimidating, but we'll pull through somehow.
EE3103, Communications was next. Jon and I were a little late for the first lecture and so we had to squeeze into LT3 which was packed. It seems like quite an interesting module so far; we've covered amplitude modulation so far. I first heard about it from Kavan who took it last year. At the time I wasn't really interested in the module - it sounded pretty dull to me. Well... at the time, I was feeling pretty dismal about choosing EE as my major, so that's not a surprise then. Now Comms is going to be my specialization. Wahoo! Big turnaround.
The lecturer for Part 1, has been teaching this for over 20 years in some form or another, so it's no wonder that he sticks to the old transparency style. His delivery reminds me of Bernard Tan who lectured Science of Music. Enough said there. Mm, perhaps I can add that I attended less than half of those lectures. No serious consequences though.
EE2007, Microprocessor Systems was next. This one looks pretty important and I shall be putting a lot of effort into it because I know nuts about microprocessors and my programming skills leave a lot to be desired. Lots of familiar faces here, as all the EE students in Group B are taking it.
EE3408, Integrated Analog Design was not on my list at first, but it quickly became my best option for 5th module to take after I discovered that EE2007 clashes with a lot of modules. :(( It's a continuation of EE2005 with emphasis on using CMOS transistors to make circuits. There are no practicals, only simulations which we can do on our laptops. (There is a follow-up module where students can design chips and actually have them manufactured - sounds cool but I'm not really interested in that area.) It's a Design module so it satisfies one of the EE elective rules.
Last one is EG2401, Engineering Professionalism and a 3 MC module. It seems quite interesting so far, the material on ethics and real-life engineering situations is a welcome breather from the deluge of technical stuff that I weathered last year. There will also be a group project. Wonder how that will be like.
So there you have it, my 5 modules and 19 MCs this semester.
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Concert this year is really suffering, as it's traditionally a freshmen-powered event. Music is having its own problems too, which I shall say nothing about, except that I will probably have more work coming my way soon. Aargh how!? I have a mental block for melodies and my recent improvisations were pretty crappy.
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Joined Electronic Music Lab last week... it's a campus group under CFA so there are CCA points, maybe. But I wasn't thinking about the points when I joined, to be frank. I've been wanting to expand my compositional skills beyond the usual piano-based ramblings, and EML seems to provide that opportunity . It's a composing-focused group, unlike the others like Choir , Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band where performance is their main activity. Went for a first lesson in Saturday, and hopefully the rest will be of use to me. And hopefully I can contribute to the group in some way too. It's really really small, and quite low-profile too though it's been around since the 1980s.
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Suppertime now. Uncle Vincent has resumed supper now that Tasty Aunty has closed shop for good. Can't say that her food was uniformly good, but she's a household name in hall and seeing old-timers go is always sad.
