Lots of Updates

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY
Exams are over .......
so here are some updates of what has been going on since my last blog about Christmas dinner
Fleur came back on Friday Jan 2nd WITH A HAIRCUT lol her hair had grown and she waited till she went back home to have it cut
Sheena had her birthday party on Saturday Jan 3rd - I got her a neck key ring holder because she could never find her keys lol and also a cute pink bracelet ... I bought them off amazon before the Christmas vacation because I was afraid that they won't be delivered on time during the Christmas/New Year days off ... but I didn't have time (nor the wrapping paper) to wrap them properly :$ so I hand-made a wrapping package :D thank you Internet :P
Lindley left on Monday back to the US
I went back to uni on Monday 5th as well .... I wasn't that into going back because I had 3 weeks of vacation but also I had so much coursework to submit
Tuesday Jan 6th: I had a small quiz but it was worth 4% of a 20 credit module "Foundations of AI"- but it was about logic so it was easy and I got an A on it :)
Wednesday Jan 7th: I had to submit a program that is a 'medical expert'. It is worth 20% of a 10-credit module. We were supposed to acquire some medical knowledge and formulate it in rules and facts so that the program can deduce what disease a patient has given the symptoms. Of course I "elicited the knowledge" from my dad - which basically meant that I spent loads of money on International phone calls. I actually ran out of credit in the middle of a phone conversation so I emailed Tarek asking him to SMS dad and tell him to call me LOL. Also, every time I call home my dad asks about "his grade" and I keep telling that the grades are not out yet and that the knowledge is only worth 5% .....
Thursday Jan 8th: I had a group presentation which was worth also 4% of the Foundation of AI 20 credit course. We did better than the previous presentations but we still got a B ... Our group was so inefficient in all presentations, we were never able to produce any proper work and our meetings were very unproductive. Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes: "If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings”"
Friday Jan 9th: I had to submit a 2000 word essay on a topic I chose. It was worth 80% of a "Research Methods" module. I worked hard but kinda messed up the final part because I was sick of it. I chose Biometrics as a topic; something I was always interested in learning about but never had the time/bothered to actually do the reading. We had to use a 'professional' format so the final report was really cool, with an abstract, appendices, and a proper font! Made me feel like a true academic LOL :P
Monday Jan 11th: I had to submit a program and a report worth 25% of a 10 credit module. I worked on that a bit but the results produced were not as expected. I was very frustrated and sought the lecturer's help. We emailed each other a bit until he finally helped me sort things out and I was less frustrated. I submitted it but I wasn't very happy with it but I was glad it was over and done.
Tuesday Jan 12th (are you still reading? :P): I had to submit a report and a programming assignment worth 30% of the Foundation of AI 20-credit-module. That was the neglected coursework. I mean SERIOUSLY how can anyone cope to do all this. We had to do background research and write 1000 words about it then program something related to the research then do some reasoning about the topic. I worked on the background research and chose to code the simplest thing. But still, I didn't manage to finish it on Tuesday so I decided to submit it the next day even though I would be penalized 5%. I finished it and submitted it on Wednesday but I thought it wasn't that good. It is very clear that I rushed through it. Also, the 'reasoning' part was worth 35% of its grade and frankly I wasn't able to do any reasoning about the topic.

Oh well, done with the coursework ... on to the final examssssssssss

I had four final exams:
One on Wed Jan 21: was very long so there were some parts that I didn't manage to answer but was OK
One on Thurs Jan 22: was good, it was the easiest module so better results are obtained for less work :)
One on Tues Jan 28: was tricky, we were supposed to answer 2 out of 3 questions which I thought was soooo unfair given that we had to study 18 lectures!!!!! I was so pissed off the whole time I was studying it. Darko and I expected that we will get a Search question and a Probability question. I was 100% sure we will get a Search question and 90% sure we would get a Probability question. There were 5 lectures I decided not to study, two which I decided to read only, and the rest I studied but not that well. We did get Search but we DIDN'T get the Probability question!!! We got a Machine Learning question instead! But for me it was OK though it wasn't OK for Darko. He just told me that was the worst exam he ever sat for ... but I think he will survive :P.
The last final exam was on Wed Jan 29: That course was the hardest course. I was very very worried about that course since the first lecture. It was all about Maths. I was very good in Maths in high school but I kinda wasn't that interested in it in uni AND after four years of not taking any Math courses I had totally forgot EVERYTHING. So, I had to work double for that course, first refresh my high school Math knowledge and second try to understand the Chinese being spoken in class. But by the time I got to the exam most of the Chinese had turned into comprehensible English and there were only a few ideas which I didn't understand. I did OK on that exam. There were a few things which I didn't know. But, to my bad luck I noticed just about five minutes before the time was up that I copied a function from the test paper to my answer sheet incorrectly Oh NO! ... so instead of solving for a function I ended up solving for another function :( I hope not a lot of marks are deducted because of that !

What else?
Fleur's parents were here last week. They invited us over for dinner. Sheena and I couldn't stay long at Fleur's place because we had to study which was a shame because her parents are really nice and they are a great company. The food was good and the desert was GREAT :)
Speaking of desert, yours truly has gained A LOT of weight over Christmas and exam period :( :( :( All in all I have gained 5 kilos since I came to this country....SHSHSHSHS don't tell Mom and Dad!!! Dad would go crazy and Mom might end up crying. But, starting tomorrow NO MORE EXECUSES ... no exams and exam stress so no more binging on chocolate and loads of time to cook healthy and walk around for a bit ... keep your fingers crossed for me