Part A - Introduction + The Project HousePart B - My Random Group Project Visuals (part 1, part 2, part 3 tba)
Part C - My Random Presentation Slides (tba)
Part D - My Bo Liao Guide to Forming a Good Project Group in School (tba)
Hello to everyone reading this. This post is the first post of my “End of School Life Special”. This is a four part series which may expand to six parts if I dig out too much stuff for part B and C. Read on to find out what this parts are about.
Let’s begin this four part (or six) series now! =)
Introduction
As you can see from the presentation slide above, there are four parts. Part A will consist of this introduction you are reading now and “The Project Room”, which is the place where most of my groups discuss and do our projects at. Part B will be about the amateurish visuals which I have done for my projects accompanied by some description. Part C will be like Part B but about my presentation slides. Last but not least, Part D will be my bo liao guide to forming a good school project group based on my past experience. As mentioned above, Part B and part C might expand into 2 posts each if there are too many stuff to post.
I love doing projects and will definitely miss the times I spent with all my different sets of group mates, rushing to meet the deadlines of the various projects we had. Let’s treat this special series as a closure to my school project life, and a chance to upload some of the stuff we did online for keepsake, in case my hard disk fails me and everything is gone. Before you get too excited, no reports will be uploaded ha ha. How to sia? So many pages for each report …
The Project House aka My House
I have had project discussions at places like the school’s project room, canteen, libraries, fast food restaurants, clubs and a few other places I can’t recall, but whenever possible, I would try to persuade my group mates to have a group meeting at my house ha ha. As my house was really near my poly, it was easy to get them to come over. In uni, it’s a little harder as it’s much further away. I do have some groups in uni that come over to my house for group meeting though heh (after using up all my power of persuasion).
I love having group meetings at my house because it has most of the facilities available which most places don’t provide. The school’s project room may have air conditioning, wifi, and is enclosed for maximum concentration, but we can’t eat inside. We can eat in canteens and fast food restaurants, but its noisy etc etc etc ….. Although not perfect, I feel that my house is the best place to have a school group project meeting ha ha, simply because it’s more convenient for me as I do not have to go out of the house. Ooops sorry sorry, ahem, I mean it’s the best because it has most of the facilities available and usually nobody is at home except Kimi and me.
So why do I like doing projects at my house besides the fact that it is more convenient for me? Let me go through the reasons right now …
1) The discussion/dining table
Every project discussion needs a big table and chairs for everyone so that everyone in the group can be involved in the discussion. My home’s dining table can fulfill this requirement. Think it might be too small for larger groups or for placing many laptops, books and notes?
Yes, this dining table can transform into a much longer table within a minute! With this longer table and extra chairs hidden in the store room, all members of a large group can actively participate in group discussions. Notes, laptops and even food can be placed on the table. Yes, we can all eat and discuss on this table at the same time! Just order some food delivery like pizza or sushi from Sakae Sushi or buy some snacks from the ma ma shop downstairs, and we can enjoy ourselves in the midst of a stressful discussion. Many brilliant reports were prepared here =P
2) The relac one corner living room
This is the place for us to relax after a strenuous session of discussion, disagreement, staring silently at each other hoping for someone to answer everything, scratching heads, acting like we understand and scolding each other in our heads etc etc ….
In the Relac One Corner living room, we have a very comfortable L-shaped sofa which is magical. It puts people lying on it to sleep within 10 mins. I have lost count of the number of male and female group mates who fell asleep on that sofa. Maybe they are faking it so that they do not have to participate in the discussion heh (In case one of group mates who slept there before reads this – I’m just joking lah ha ha).
There is a TV and a PS3 for watching cable programmes and playing games. There is also the guitar hero set that Shawn left in my house in still there after around 6 months. I think he has forgotten about it and it’s mine now!
Although rarely used, there is a fax machine and a pc with wireless keyboard and mouse connected to the tv. I don’t remember using the fax machine before but we did use the pc to prepare for our presentations in my poly days.
I think we usually spend the most time here lol.
3) The concentration/my room
My extremely small room becomes my personal office when we are doing projects. Because my laptop sucks, and I can concentrate better when I’m alone, I usually hide in my room when we typing out our parts of the report or when I’m doing the visuals and compiling.
If my group mates want to monitor me while I’m at work, they can sit on the comfortable sofa bed while watching. Although the sofa bed does not have as much sleeping magic as the L-shaped sofa, some group mates have fell asleep there before.
There are 2 monitors in the room, one widescreen 24 inch one, which makes it very easy to multitask and a small one (my old monitor) which actually has been converted into a tv.
Wireless connection is available for all group mates with laptops which allows them to connect to the internet to do some research if the books we own and loaned do not have the information we need. However, it seems like more time is spent on Facebook and MSN …
A 3 in 1 colour printer, scanner and photocopier is available to print out the notes and final reports. It has served me well for more than 5 years and it is still working at the moment. Because my house is also my father’s office, we do not need to worry about the lack of printer ink and paper. I wonder how many reports have been printed on this printer.
4) The place to cook and relief yourself (aka kitchen & toilet)
A kitchen for you to cook and a toilet to pee and shit is within crawling distance. You don’t need to go around looking for the toilet when you have your group meetings here. Super delicious legendary instant noodles have been prepared in the kitchen over the years. In the past, I used my poly group mates as guinea pigs for my latest instant noodle mix. I have a few maggie inventions which I may feature in future posts =)
The picture above explains everything …
5) The Group Mascot - Kimi the Dog
There used to be 2 mascots during my poly days but Jackie passed away last year =( … now we are left with the smaller, naughtier, noisier and smellier Kimi!
She takes her own sweet time to eat and sometimes demands that you feed her. She scares the shit out of my group mates when she barks. She dresses up to impress (okay I dress her up) and cover her rashes and she plays ball with anyone who kicks it. She always acts cute to make you forget about the bad things she has done.
She is the one and only Kimi, the friendly dog who is comfortable with every of my group mates. She loves lying beside people’s feet and getting massaged by their feet, which explains why she is so smelly. I could smell a combination of different Hong Kong feet odour after group meetings at my house ….. just joking, only mine lah.
6) Other stuff worth mentioning …
- Air con is usually switched on as my house is always hot. Fan will be used to increase coolness if it’s still hot or when the air con is not working.
- Cosy romantic lights are available which creates a relaxing atmosphere.
- Newspaper and stationery are provided if needed.
- For vain guys and girls, there is one mirror in the toilet outside, one in my room and another in my sis’s room to fix your hair and touch up your make up. Best mirror to use is the one at my sis’s room.
- For smokers, just step out of the house and there is a nice corridor for you to smoke at. My group usually has more than 1 smoker so the corridor is very important. Smoke breaks are the best way to take a breather and refresh the mind.
- Stay over is allowed when rushing projects.
I love projects and my Project House!
Next time on my End of School Life Special – My Random Group Project Visuals. Stay tuned!!
(Images Taken From: My digital camera)