16. At least. Sixteen! That’s for academics!
It’s not a big building. There are only just 4 storeys (and one basement). It’s not a maze. It’s just a rather longish building. There are only two stairwells. But it seems, some academics need, or believe they need, 16 directional signs to locate a single room on the 4th storey of the building.
Not quite riches. But it’s amazing how in a little over a week, all this mess is going to turn into something that actually does look nice enough to be paraded around in a sort of competition. That is going to become a float for NUS Rag Day which, this year, is going to fall on the opening of the inaugural Youth Olympics Games.
The campus is bustling with orientation programmes right now. Week 0, which is the official freshmen orientation week, starts next week. But the noise, particularly when some student groups take their activities rowdy indoors, is starting to cause the peace to be disturbed.
One of my favourites in NUS is the Carbonara pasta at Megabites. It’s one of the foods that I will go back to if I’m in the mood for something more than mediocre for lunch. It’s actually not like their pasta is really that great, but it certainly is of “pass” standard, something I can’t say for many other foods in NUS. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been eating too much in NUS that I’m getting really bored, and it doesn’t help that the usual kakis have changed alliances and travel out of campus for lunch.
Verdict on the Laksa Yong Tau Foo: Pass. That means, will probably come again. (I don’t sprinkle stars so generously…)
It’s the new stall at The Terrace, the NUS canteen that is probably more commonly known as “Business Canteen” (although it is now at least half as much associated with “Computing” as well). The Laksa gravy is quite tasty, and hot (spicy) enough. There’s this interesting hae bee hiam in it… I’m not sure if it comes in the Laksa gravy or with the vegetables I ordered. But the hae bee hiam certainly made the Laksa Yong Tau Foo yummy. In fact, I think it now beats The Deck’s Yong Tau Foo stall. The latter’s standard has fallen significantly the last year.
When Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was launched last year, one of the things that caught my attention was its support for Exchange 2007. It would have meant better integration for Mac users with a corporate Microsoft Exchange-based calendar and directory service. But alas, when I finally got Snow Leopard installed and tried to get my Mail.app setup, I realized the nitty gritty details. It’s Exchange 2007, not any Exchange, and it turns out that the Microsoft Exchange I have at work isn’t 2007.
I figure that anyone who uses a smartphone like the Nexus One is going to have a 3G data plan, so being able to hook onto a wireless network isn’t going to be so important. But anyhow, I thought I’d just make a small little community contribution by sharing how to configure the Nexus One phone (I suppose just about any Android 2.0/2.1 phone will work the same) to connect to the NUS wireless network in, well, NUS. But first, credit goes to the information posted in Answers@Comp. The GUI isn’t enough to get the config done.
I recently visited the NUS Bukit Timah Campus. I was there for a whole day meeting. As I walked around in between breaks, I saw the beautiful internal courtyard. This one in the photo is what they call the Upper Quadrangle. It was a picture like it was somewhere else other than in Singapore. Big open space, surrounded by oldish buildings, with absolutely nothing else visible on the skyline. There aren’t many tall buildings in that area, so that isn’t anything else to see in the distant from where I stood.
I’ve been joking about this beer garden in NUS for some time, even before construction actually started. After many months of waiting, this timber deck overlooking the valley behind Kent Ridge was finally ready. When it was officially completed… surprise, surprise, a variety of beer was served in its opening event.
It really has quite a nice view of the trees on the slope of Kent Ridge. But knowing the weather in Singapore, and the general dislike of the hot humid outdoors of most Singaporeans, it won’t be surprising that there will be little use of this beer garden. At least not in the day anyway.
It’s funny that I should have something to post about the NUS Rag and Flag this year, because I was not actually involved in any way. But something prompted me to write about it. Behind all the glamourous front of Rag and Flag, there is something about student behaviour that comes to light. No, it is not something dark and sinister. It’s their recklessness, indifference, and lack of civic-mindedness that I feel is unbecoming of undergraduates.
This week is what’s known in NUS as Week 0. It’s freshmen orientation week. The week where everyone (students, that is) are still having fun. The campus, surprisingly, is not as crowded as I had anticipated it to be. We were able to find seats during lunch, even during the peak lunch hour. But there was one place that was unusually crowded, and that was one place that I had to visit.
I think we had 11 oysters each, from The Line restaurant at Shangri-la Hotel. It's a big buffet with plenty of food.
Lunch at Lerk Thai some weekends ago.
