So I'm finally here , and it's going to be great. It was great when I was here on exchange but many things were inconvenient and emotionally draining.. but I have a good feeling about this time.
Am going to NUS on Tuesday to attend a psych talk, and to meet the professor and discuss details.
I'm probably leaving in about 2 months, or if I can get the extension, I might be able to leave in three months, which I would prefer.
I'm currently staying with Akshat, which is working out to be uncomplicated so far. We're both going to be busy with our own thing anyway so that's good, and if I'm not at NUS, we can get lunch together in the city. I can feel the difference in EVERYONE I've met so far - everyone's got a job and the whole chilling dynamic has changed completely.
Incidentally, Akshat's housemate seems to know a lot of people at York.. and his other housemate seems to know people at VVS. I didn't know these two from before, but it was enough of an icebreaker in general. The rest of Akshat's friends live one floor above us, and that's nice for evening/night chilling. Two close friends live within 1 MRT (metro/subway) stop, which also makes for good homely evening chilling :-)
I'm so happy that there are enough friends very close by.. it's difficult to really spend time with anyone when everyones busy and living far away from each other.
I have $1000 , which is fine for one month.. very hard for 2 months.. and impossible for 3 months... so let's see. (Please put 5$ in my fund?)
I've contacted the Autism Association and filled out their volunteering form, but they take ages to get back to you. That's fine I guess, since I can't commit to them till I know my data collection / lab schedule.
I'm back on Facebook... I find that the life in Singapore is not really conducive to keeping in touch with people outside Singapore.. like many places I guess.
SKYPE CALL FORWARDING: You can now call me anytime for free on my cellphone, using your Skype account. There should be a call forwarding symbol near my name even when I'm offline, and calling my Skype account will connect you to my cellphone. Don't call me at very weird times - while I usually have no problem with this, I'm sharing a room and don't want to be inconsiderate.
Also, if you try calling me and it says "calling" but nothing is happening, don't hang up, it takes much longer than usual.
Breakfast time !
Monday, 6 September 2010
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Short articles I want to share
The first one is an article by an Autistic university student about the little strange characteristics she notices in her neurotypical peers (non Autistic muggle folk), with Simon Barron Cohen's corresponding comments. Simon Barron Cohen is one of the world's leading Autism (and Developmental Psychopathology in general) researchers. If I had better grades, and there was more funding in the UK generally, I would have applied to study under him.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129379866
Random Update: As of last week, I'm looking at PhD programs that have a Developmental Psychopathology stream specifically. There aren't many.
The second one is an article about recent research being done on the fluidity of sexuality. Specifically, it's about women who discover that they're gay or bisexual later in life. (Well, I've always said it... )
Note: I don't at all agree with the title. You don't become a lesbian just because you are a woman who is dating a woman.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129050832
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129379866
Random Update: As of last week, I'm looking at PhD programs that have a Developmental Psychopathology stream specifically. There aren't many.
The second one is an article about recent research being done on the fluidity of sexuality. Specifically, it's about women who discover that they're gay or bisexual later in life. (Well, I've always said it... )
Note: I don't at all agree with the title. You don't become a lesbian just because you are a woman who is dating a woman.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129050832
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Visa F ups
So. Abundance of visa problems on Singapore side AND Canada side. Obviously. (By the way, read Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong, Bloch (1977), if you haven't already... )
Canada visa status is that I will have a lot of convincing to do if I want to get the visa.
Singapore visa status is that I will have a lot of convincing to do if I want to get the visa.
Stay tuned same time same channel.
Canada visa status is that I will have a lot of convincing to do if I want to get the visa.
Singapore visa status is that I will have a lot of convincing to do if I want to get the visa.
Stay tuned same time same channel.
Friday, 20 August 2010
Girl gets caught faking a York degree because of the weird 9 GPA system ;-)
Transcript of a very very interesting presentation given by a York University person, on the prevalence of fake degrees from Canadian (and American) universities
It's a bit long, but definitely try to at least read the 1st section! (Hit "Fullscreen")
fake degrees -
I've actually seen an absolute idiot, who knew nothing and tried to know nothing, come to a Philo class with an unofficial grade sheet that HAD to be fake. It was filled with A's and A+ ... and after a semester of having him in my class, and 2 years of slogging to get A and A+ and managing to do it, I know there's no way that was his real grade sheet. And I remember how proudly he was showing it to me - his argument was that he had gotten only A and A+ for 2 years and therefore he should be excused from this exam in which he wrote his name and walked out (presumably to go create this fake grade sheet in a panic)
I also remember how realistic it looked.. it was scary.
The prof figured the same thing, and refused his appeal to give him a retake, after which he rolled his grade sheet into a ball, smashed it into the wall, called her a stupid bitch under his breath and walked out..
Oh, York :-) How I don't miss you at all ...
It's a bit long, but definitely try to at least read the 1st section! (Hit "Fullscreen")
fake degrees -
I've actually seen an absolute idiot, who knew nothing and tried to know nothing, come to a Philo class with an unofficial grade sheet that HAD to be fake. It was filled with A's and A+ ... and after a semester of having him in my class, and 2 years of slogging to get A and A+ and managing to do it, I know there's no way that was his real grade sheet. And I remember how proudly he was showing it to me - his argument was that he had gotten only A and A+ for 2 years and therefore he should be excused from this exam in which he wrote his name and walked out (presumably to go create this fake grade sheet in a panic)
I also remember how realistic it looked.. it was scary.
The prof figured the same thing, and refused his appeal to give him a retake, after which he rolled his grade sheet into a ball, smashed it into the wall, called her a stupid bitch under his breath and walked out..
Oh, York :-) How I don't miss you at all ...
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Visa Troubles
Singapore:
The first step of my Singapore visa is done - it consisted of an online application to determine eligibility. I'm now waiting for them to get back to me about whether I'm eligible. The visa I'm applying for is actually pretty interesting, and not a common category of visas I don't think. It's a visa that lets "foreigners" with a tertiary degree stay in Singapore for a year and look for a job. I know a lot of countries have this sort of visa for students who've studied inside the country, but this one applies to people like me as well - who've studied anywhere pretty much.
Canada:
My Canada visa situation is a little more messed up. Most people apply for the Post Graduation Work Permit (no strings attached work permit valid for 3 years after you graduate) while they are still in Canada, as soon as they graduate. I'm realizing now that I'm a complete idiot for not having done the same - things were really hectic towards the end, and even after my last class ever at York was done, I was working up till the last 2 days in Canada and just figured that I would go home, take a break, and do the visa stuff later.
Well it turns out that you can't apply online for the visa unless you are in the country. Ok that's still manageable, but even the paper application seems to assume that you're in Canada. The only options for postal addresses, where they will send you your official permit, seem to be addresses in Canada. But if my permit is in Canada, then I won't be able to get an entry visa that's valid for at least 3 years, because I won't have any basis on which to get this.
Messed. Must call Canadian Immigration and find out about this :S
The first step of my Singapore visa is done - it consisted of an online application to determine eligibility. I'm now waiting for them to get back to me about whether I'm eligible. The visa I'm applying for is actually pretty interesting, and not a common category of visas I don't think. It's a visa that lets "foreigners" with a tertiary degree stay in Singapore for a year and look for a job. I know a lot of countries have this sort of visa for students who've studied inside the country, but this one applies to people like me as well - who've studied anywhere pretty much.
Canada:
My Canada visa situation is a little more messed up. Most people apply for the Post Graduation Work Permit (no strings attached work permit valid for 3 years after you graduate) while they are still in Canada, as soon as they graduate. I'm realizing now that I'm a complete idiot for not having done the same - things were really hectic towards the end, and even after my last class ever at York was done, I was working up till the last 2 days in Canada and just figured that I would go home, take a break, and do the visa stuff later.
Well it turns out that you can't apply online for the visa unless you are in the country. Ok that's still manageable, but even the paper application seems to assume that you're in Canada. The only options for postal addresses, where they will send you your official permit, seem to be addresses in Canada. But if my permit is in Canada, then I won't be able to get an entry visa that's valid for at least 3 years, because I won't have any basis on which to get this.
Messed. Must call Canadian Immigration and find out about this :S
Attitude with Fire Exit / GRE update/ Skype Out
The second gig with Fire Exit was last night, at Attitude, which is just a decent bar quite close to my house in Gurgaon. I frankly thought it was a much better performance destination than Hard Rock because it was smaller and rounder and therefore had much better acoustics. I think the show went off pretty well, there was some random annoying stuff in the middle, where certain things needed to be said and done for the sake of the sponsors, but apart from that we all had a lot of fun.
More people from school were there this time as well, so that was nice and quite chilled out. I also met someone who used to be very important in my life, but who I hadn't seen for 6 years and had completely lost touch with. That was almost the highlight of the evening!
I wish I had a picture from yesterday to put here, but I didn't have my camera, and the band's official photographer was missing yesterday so I don't know how that worked out. Pictures might have surfaced on Facebook by now, and I have half a mind to log on, quickly search for them, and deactivate my account again... on the other hand, I was wearing a top that's not mine, and looked very fat in it, so I'm kind of dreading the pictures anyway if there are any :S
In other news: GRE study passion is back! I'm finally registered for an actual test, and it's on the 1st of September. I was dreading having to fix my sleep cycle, but the exam is from 5pm - 9pm. I lucked out..
In more other news: Skype Worldwide Subscription is an amazing product that's totally worth the money. For a long time I never looked into it because I had pretty much stopped using phone calls as a primary way of communicating, so it wouldn't have been value for money at all, but now that there's no Facebook to stalk my friends on, I'm realizing I actually need to talk to them to figure out what's going on. For $15 (CAD) a month I can talk an unlimited amount to people in the US, Canada, Singapore, UK, and Australia which pretty much covers all the friends I'd want to talk to in any kind of regular capacity. That's a really sweet deal! In the last 48 hours, I've fully पैसा वसूलd by speaking to 3 people in Canada, and 1 person in the US for a total of many satisfying catchup hours. Also, once I'm in Singapore, people can call me Skype to Skype, and I can use Call Forwarding to have it call on my phone even when I'm not online, which is all the time. It works out to be free for them and for me in a way since I'm anyway using this subscription.
If we haven't spoken for a while, and you're in any of those countries I mentioned, please send me your phone number, and I will call you one of these days :-). Email: schrod@gmail.com
More people from school were there this time as well, so that was nice and quite chilled out. I also met someone who used to be very important in my life, but who I hadn't seen for 6 years and had completely lost touch with. That was almost the highlight of the evening!
I wish I had a picture from yesterday to put here, but I didn't have my camera, and the band's official photographer was missing yesterday so I don't know how that worked out. Pictures might have surfaced on Facebook by now, and I have half a mind to log on, quickly search for them, and deactivate my account again... on the other hand, I was wearing a top that's not mine, and looked very fat in it, so I'm kind of dreading the pictures anyway if there are any :S
In other news: GRE study passion is back! I'm finally registered for an actual test, and it's on the 1st of September. I was dreading having to fix my sleep cycle, but the exam is from 5pm - 9pm. I lucked out..
In more other news: Skype Worldwide Subscription is an amazing product that's totally worth the money. For a long time I never looked into it because I had pretty much stopped using phone calls as a primary way of communicating, so it wouldn't have been value for money at all, but now that there's no Facebook to stalk my friends on, I'm realizing I actually need to talk to them to figure out what's going on. For $15 (CAD) a month I can talk an unlimited amount to people in the US, Canada, Singapore, UK, and Australia which pretty much covers all the friends I'd want to talk to in any kind of regular capacity. That's a really sweet deal! In the last 48 hours, I've fully पैसा वसूलd by speaking to 3 people in Canada, and 1 person in the US for a total of many satisfying catchup hours. Also, once I'm in Singapore, people can call me Skype to Skype, and I can use Call Forwarding to have it call on my phone even when I'm not online, which is all the time. It works out to be free for them and for me in a way since I'm anyway using this subscription.
If we haven't spoken for a while, and you're in any of those countries I mentioned, please send me your phone number, and I will call you one of these days :-). Email: schrod@gmail.com
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
I've heard people bash facebook for all kinds of things, and have had long discussions about it with everyone from the average techie guy who thinks he's too cool for it, to PhD students studying social media. Overall, I think facbebook is fantastic, and I mean really - if you're going to add every drunk fuck you met at every party at which you were drunk, AND be careless about your list settings... you kind of deserve to feel 'unsafe' and 'violated'.
One thing I do see as a big negative about facebook is the fact that if you HAVE a facebook account, and you aren't regularly using it, it can massively screw up your relationships and your reputation/image.
There's all the stuff that the South Park episode talked about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SgkfghupFE
But also stuff like, getting tagged in dangerous or embarassing pictures (when, for example, you have family on facebook, or ex teachers, or judgemental people with a big mouth or whatever), and having people say stuff on your wall that they don't realise you wanted to keep private. All in all it's very hectic.. and you have to find the right balance between not being flooded with facebook emails about activity you don't care about, and making sure that you find out when something potentially damaging is going on.
Most people with a life, in my experience, neither manage their lists properly, since it is quite tedious to do that, nor do they manage the emails they get so that they know to run back and detag pictures and delete comments.
And then there's me.
Since I've been back to Delhi, I've spent about all day on facebook, actively or passively... and have become almost addicted to the red notification thingy. It's my only socializing when I'm sitting at home, which has been TOO much of the time - but obviously it's driven me quite batty. Last night I got really fed up so I decided to just deactivate my account. Good Riddance. I'll get back on it when I'm normal and when I can say I have a life and some real relationships!
One thing I do see as a big negative about facebook is the fact that if you HAVE a facebook account, and you aren't regularly using it, it can massively screw up your relationships and your reputation/image.
There's all the stuff that the South Park episode talked about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SgkfghupFE
 |
| You've got zero friends |
But also stuff like, getting tagged in dangerous or embarassing pictures (when, for example, you have family on facebook, or ex teachers, or judgemental people with a big mouth or whatever), and having people say stuff on your wall that they don't realise you wanted to keep private. All in all it's very hectic.. and you have to find the right balance between not being flooded with facebook emails about activity you don't care about, and making sure that you find out when something potentially damaging is going on.
Most people with a life, in my experience, neither manage their lists properly, since it is quite tedious to do that, nor do they manage the emails they get so that they know to run back and detag pictures and delete comments.
And then there's me.
Since I've been back to Delhi, I've spent about all day on facebook, actively or passively... and have become almost addicted to the red notification thingy. It's my only socializing when I'm sitting at home, which has been TOO much of the time - but obviously it's driven me quite batty. Last night I got really fed up so I decided to just deactivate my account. Good Riddance. I'll get back on it when I'm normal and when I can say I have a life and some real relationships!
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