Updates

It’s been a month, and this post is long overdue. Exams are over, results are in, and summer school has started. So much has happened, but I’ve been so caught up in work for exams, and so tired after, that I just did not feel like blogging.

So, right where I left off then, the rest of my exams went by without incident, and I managed to pull through ok. I was told that in the Electrical Engineering programme in McGill you get to go through all the toughest courses on offer at McGill. The first proof of that was my introductory course to Java. Even after curving, the class average was a C+, and 25% of the class failed. Yes, that’s right. A quarter of the students got less than 50% overall. And for us engineering students, a pass isn’t sufficient – you need at least 55% or higher. I just can’t wait for what lies ahead.

But that’s over with, and I had 10 days before summer school started, so I spent most of my time packing up my room, and looking for a new apartment for next year. In all, I looked at almost 10 places, and I’ve managed to find one that I’m really happy with. I’ve decided to live alone because I’ve had enough of the community-living business, and also because I’ve never really had a room of my own, except for the 6 months after I completed NS. The lease begins in June, after summer school, and I’ll have to furnish the place on my own, which sounds like fun.

Right now, summer school takes up the first half of the day, four days a week. It’s effectively condensing 4 months of work into 4 weeks, but since I have only one course, it seems manageable so far. Midterms are next week, and finals are at the end of the month.

Back home, Singapore recently held it General Elections, and for the first time, overseas voting was allowed. There were a grand total of 8 overseas polling stations in 6 countries worldwide, and overseas votes were only counted AFTER election results were announced. While I understand that because of the number of votes and the margin of victory for the PAP, overseas votes wouldn’t affect the outcome of the elections, I believe that only including them in the total vote tally after the elections serves only to undermine their value. It’s more about the principle behind it than anything.

There’s been lots of election commentary available online, and I do believe that these elections have only served to highlight how slanted the ST’s coverage of local politics can be. An insider’s view is available here. Cherian George has some really good stuff on his blog, and so does Yawning Bread, Mr Wang and SG Rally, to name but a few. The elections seemed pretty exciting this time round, and I wish I was back in Singapore, just so that I could attend some rallies even though my GRC was not contested.

Meanwhile, there is quite a significant challenge in Canada regarding the independence and impartiality of our judicial system which could have significant ramifications. The issue is well covered at by Yawning Bread here, and by Mr Wang here. There is also an article in the IHT which I feel is pretty balanced here.

I have yet to get my ticket back home, which I should be doing in the next week. Looking forward to all the food when I get back, and to meeting up with my friends and seeing my family again. I guess I’ll end here, because I don’t really have much else to say, but I should be blogging more often now that I have the time.