Module reviews for AY20/21 Semester 1: The end is here

 After studying for 16-and-a-half years, I have finally got it.

The piece of paper that marks the end of the Singapore education journey: the degree.

My last semester ran from August to November 2020 and was held completely online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Keep that fact in mind as you read these module reviews.

NM4223: New Media and Organisations

MCs: 5 - priority for CNM Honours students, excess capacity may be granted to Year 3 CNM majors

Delivery:

Weekly 3-hour seminar

Assessment:

Individual thought leadership assignment, where you will write three articles on LinkedIn about empirical research related to the module and a reflection essay based on your experience doing this assignment = 30%

Group webinar presentation, where your group will deliver a webinar on a topic related to the module with interactive elements to engage the audience = 30%

Open-book midterm test on LumiNUS, consisting of four open-ended questions = 20%

Participation = 20%

Lecturer: Dr Suwichit (Sean) Chaidaroon - 11/10

By far the most student-centric, kind, and encouraging lecturer I had this semester, Dr Sean has a very nurturing character that makes him an excellent educator. He was always generous with his words of affirmation towards students' work, and gentle with his criticisms. I was also mightily impressed with the thought process behind how he designed the assessments for the module. He explained that he wanted the assessments to have practical value to us as we started on our career journey. For example, the individual thought leadership assignment was intended to boost our profile on LinkedIn, the platform which professionals like us use to network and improve their career prospects. The group webinar presentation was intended to give us hands-on experience in delivering webinars in the role of subject-matter experts, which we might eventually do as part of our jobs in the communications industry. Furthermore, he also wanted to give students with various strengths the chance to showcase their skills: the individual thought leadership assignment was where those who are good at writing could excel, while the group webinar presentation was where those who are good at speaking could shine. I felt this showed that Dr Sean really cares about designing his module in a way that all students would benefit from it, which earns him bonus marks and hence this high score.

Module: 9/10

The content of the module is very relevant to real life, which is always appreciated. Essentially, it deals with a wide range of issues regarding the use of technology in the corporate world. For example, it examines how technology can be used for nefarious deeds such as cyberbullying among employees, the pros and cons of telework, and even dealing with workplace romances. One area that could be improved is tying the weekly themes together into a coherent narrative. Currently, it seems like the topics that are discussed week-by-week are rather disparate and do not really fit into a sort of big picture framework. If they could be organised in such a fashion, it would be ideal. But this is just a suggestion and by no means a deal-breaker. I highly recommend this module to anyone who will eventually work in a corporate environment, which is basically all of us.

NM4228: Crisis Communication

MCs: 5 - priority for CNM Honours students, excess capacity may be granted to Year 3 CNM majors

Delivery:

Weekly 3-hour seminar

Assessment:

Concept assignments, which are relatively short tasks, with two done individually and one done as a group = 40%

Group project, which involves constructing a full crisis communication plan = 30%

Participation = 30%

Lecturer: Ms Bhavani Krishnasamy - 7/10

Ms Bhavani was teaching for the first time, so naturally it did not go as smoothly as it would have with a more experienced lecturer. She would sometimes change her mind about assignments and seemed to be making them up as she went along, and even wanted to allow up to ten students to do the group project together before eventually settling on a maximum of six. I also felt that she missed out on capitalising upon one of the key strengths of a practitioner-educator (as opposed to the usual academic researchers who teach most university modules), which is using their industry experience to illustrate their lessons and bring them to life through anecdotes. Perhaps she thought that university modules are supposed to conform to the standard "do your readings and discuss them" formula, but this is not the case, as other practitioner-educators like Mr Lim Wei Yi, Dr Tan Ee Lyn, and Mr Adrian Heng (more on him below) have shown.

Module: 7/10

The module turned out to be so much more theoretical than I expected. I had heard that it was a very industry-oriented, real-world module under the previous lecturer Mr Adrian Heng, which I had believed because I had taken another one of his modules and found that this was indeed the case. Unfortunately, he is no longer with the department. The reworked version of the module is now full of conceptual stuff but lacking in the nitty-gritty of how to go about communicating during a crisis. For example, I remember that Mr Heng dedicated a lecture during his other module that I took, which was actually about social media management, to crisis communications and he gave us very detailed information such as who should comprise the crisis communications team and the roles that each person should play, how to set up a media centre (and a pro tip: it should be as far away from the holding room for family and friends of victims as possible, because it is a bad idea to let the press take lots of photographs of grieving people or interview them as they will be emotionally unstable and may say some very damaging things against your company), and how to organise a press conference. I would have liked more of these practical pointers in this module instead of just more theories. I get more than my fill of those from other modules already.

NM4230: Communication for Social Change

MCs: 5 - priority for CNM Honours students, excess capacity may be granted to Year 3 CNM majors

Delivery:

Weekly 3-hour seminar

Assessment:

Individual paper, in which you reflect on your learning points from the module = 20%

Group project, in which your group will come up with a solution to a social issue = 55%: 20% strategic report, 15% tactic report, 10% presentation, 10% peer review

Leading group discussions, in which your group will deliver a presentation on the lecture topic for the week and start a discussion with the rest of the class = 10%

Participation and attendance = 15%

Lecturer: Dr Asha Rathina Pandi - 8/10

Dr Pandi is... well, enthusiastic to a fault. She shouts shrilly and excitedly into the microphone every single lesson. Her passion for the subject is never in question. But sometimes this passion causes her to ramble too much about one topic or veer off on a tangent, which is not an ideal thing to do in any lesson but especially a fully online one where attention is a precious commodity. To her credit though, her interactions with students were always nurturing and jovial, never toxic or negative. And she followed up regularly on the progress of the group projects to keep everyone on track, an effort which is much appreciated.

Module: 7/10

Too much "what" and not enough "how". That is the way I would describe the weakness of this module. I took away a lot of broad concepts like "participatory approach" and fancy terms like "epistemological", but I thought that at times, these simply served to overcomplicate matters. For example, "participatory approach" is actually a simple idea: when we want to help a certain group of people, we should consult them and work with them when coming up with interventions, rather than imposing on them a solution that we think is best. The module has a lot of big notions like this, but is fairly light on specific details. How do we go about working with target populations to design effective solutions to help meet their needs? In other words, the module suffers from the problem of leaving more questions than it answers. Which is fine if you like this sort of philosophical and reflective style, I suppose, but it is not something I personally enjoy.

NM4240 : Risk Perception and Communication

MCs: 5 - priority for CNM Honours students, excess capacity may be granted to Year 3 CNM majors

Delivery:

Weekly 3-hour seminar

Assessment:

2 x individual paper, the first evaluating a health risk from a scientific perspective and the second evaluating how the risk is portrayed in the media = 2 x 20% = 40%

Individual leading discussion, in which you are assigned a research paper to read and evaluate for its strengths and weaknesses = 10%

Group project, in which your group will analyse existing risk communication efforts around a topic of your choice and propose your own to address any shortcomings you identified = 30%

Participation and attendance = 20%

Lecturer: Dr Hong Soo Jung - 9/10

Dr Hong is very patient and encouraging, rarely having negative things to say to students. I like this because sometimes I feel like educators make use of their positions of power over students to bully students and make their lives difficult for no other reason than sadistic pleasure, so I always look favourably on educators who treat their students nicely instead. Dr Hong also does a fairly decent job of breaking down a dry, theoretical subject into nuggets that students are better able to process. But I did feel that at times, she would get carried away expounding at great length about some topic or other, and I would get lost and subsequently tune out. Keeping her lecture delivery concise and to-the-point would help greatly in this regard.

Module: 8/10

To be honest, this module is rather heavy-going as it is packed with plenty of models and theories, all attempting to explain how people view the concept of risk. If, like me, theories are not quite your cup of tea, you will struggle to keep your attention focused during lectures. But I gave this module more marks because the assessments are well-designed. The individual papers are scaffolded nicely, with plenty of guiding questions given to help you come up with content to write. The second paper also builds upon the first so you do not have to start it from scratch. Similarly, the group project consists of the abstract stage, the literature review stage, and the final report stage, with submissions required at each stage. This allows the lecturer to keep tabs on your progress and provide feedback to ensure you are on the right track. All this means that even if you have a hard time following the finer details of the lessons, you will probably still be able to survive the assessments.

This is the last set of module reviews I will ever write! I never thought I would be saying that so soon but the years have just whizzed by so fast. I started doing these reviews when I started university in 2017 because I noticed it was a common practice among Singaporean university students who had blogs so I simply carried on the tradition. But I know that over the years, my reviews have helped many of my juniors because some have sent me messages to thank me for writing them. This was very encouraging so I was motivated to continue pushing these out after every semester.

Now my job is done and it is time for the next generation to take over. So if you are a junior and you are reading this, do write your own module reviews for future batches of students to benefit from!

And if you have been reading and enjoying my academics-related blog content through the years, thank you for your support! Such content was a major focus of this blog and now that I am no longer a student, I am not sure what the future of this blog is going to be. I will still post here every now and then, but it will probably have a slightly greater emphasis on my favourite computer game, RuneScape. But there will also be posts on rather whimsical and disparate topics, depending on what catches my fancy at a particular time. So I hope you will continue to find things you enjoy here!

The finish line: My last semester is here (AY2020/21 Semester 1)

This is it. After 16 years of studying, the endgame is in sight. The piece of paper I have been working towards my entire life is finally within reach.

I am half a year away from graduating with my degree.

And it could potentially be a higher class of degree than expected, thanks to the coronavirus. The requirement of an Honours Thesis has been waived for the award of Honours with Highest Distinction for this year, because many students who were writing their theses were encountering difficulties in gathering their research data due to social distancing measures.

Given that my cumulative average point is well within the range for Honours with Highest Distinction, I could end up benefitting from this waiver. Previously, I would not have been able to get an Honours with Highest Distinction because an Honours Thesis was mandatory. I would have had to settle for Honours with Distinction.

Now, as long as I don't start picking up C's and D's all of a sudden, I will be able to get Honours with Highest Distinction after all.

That's cool!

So what are the modules standing between me and my coveted piece of paper?

Note: All modules are worth 5MCs, graded with standard letter grades, and delivered through weekly three-hour seminars, held through Zoom this semester due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Regular students can acquire them on the ModReg system, with priority given to CNM majors in SOC4. I was preallocated my modules by the Dean's Office due to my status as a disabled student.

NM4223: New Media and Organizations

This module seems pretty cool because it's about working in corporations and how new media technologies have an impact on such companies. It appears to blend in some HR aspects as well, such as emotions and relationships at the workplace. Given that I'll be working in a large company when I graduate, and having interned in that company for quite a long time last year, I think this module will be interesting because it will contain useful observations and insights into everyday life at such workplaces.

NM4228: Crisis Communication

The lecturer for this module is Ms Bhavani Krishnasamy, one of the most famous communications practitioners in Singapore. She was involved in many of the most momentous occasions in Singapore's history like the terrorist takeover of flight SQ117, the mysterious crashing of SilkAir flight MI185, and the SARS and H1N1 pandemics. I also found this article from The Guardian which mentions her and the fact that her name made it from the little red dot all the way to the United Kingdom says it all. It's indeed very exciting to have the opportunity to hear from someone at the top of the field!

NM4230: Communication for Social Change

Pushing for change is an important human activity, in my opinion. Whether it's to overhaul an oppressive political system or get fair treatment for a group of underprivileged people, activism and lobbying are crucial in bringing about desirable changes to the world we live in. And having a concerted communication effort behind a social change campaign can be the difference between success and failure, since social change can only happen with enough public support. This module will draw on many examples of social change communications from various parts of the world to show how tools like social media and blogs can be used for activism.

NM4240: Risk Perception and Communication

So many people are out and about, heedless of the dangers posed by the coronavirus that is still lurking around. In other words, they are taking risks with their health and safety. When I was studying psychology in polytechnic, I was exposed to the works of Gerd Gigerenzer and enjoyed learning about his thoughts on how we perceive risk. I look forward to exploring this topic in greater depth because I believe we can easily see its effects in our lives, especially with the ongoing pandemic.

I'm happy to be wrapping up the educational phase of my life because it's getting a little stale and I want to go on to do other things already. There's a whole new world of experiences waiting for me out there!

 

That's all for now. Look out for my last set of module reviews ever  (!), out in January 2021.

 

Until then, stay at home as much as possible and wear a mask at all times when you're out of the house!

RuneScape and the hole in my stomach

"Technically challenging but uneventful."

Those were the words Nurse Lydia typed in a text message to my dad as I lay shivering under a pile of heated blankets in the recovery room in the bowels of Tan Tock Seng Hospital on 10 June 2020.

I had just undergone a successful medical procedure known as a percutaneous radiologically guided gastrostomy (PRG).

The PRG tube where it exits my abdomen.

It's a very fancy label for a very simple idea.

My radiologist Dr Sundeep looked at a live x-ray video feed of my abdomen. A tube was passed through my nostril, down my throat, and into my stomach (the technical term for this is nasogastric tube), and air was pumped into my stomach through the tube. This inflated my stomach like a balloon, so that it pushed away the surrounding organs such as the liver and colon, giving the radiologist a clearer field in which to operate.

The inflated stomach also came close to the abdominal wall. All the radiologist had to do was insert some sutures to tie the stomach lining to the abdominal wall to minimise the distance between them, then poke a hole from the outside of my abdomen to the inside, right through my stomach lining. He then threaded a feeding tube through the hole.

The feeding tube is kept in place by a tiny balloon inside my stomach, which is bigger than the size of the hole in my abdomen and therefore prevents the tube from falling out of me.

Why the procedure was technically challenging was because of my anatomy. My body is much smaller than that of a normal 22-year-old, but my organs are full-sized and have to cram into a much tinier space than they should. This had caused my liver to lie in front of my stomach during a pre-op computerised tomography scan, completely obstructing the approach from the front of my abdomen and making the radiologist unsure of the feasibility of the procedure.

If my liver didn't give way to my stomach, the radiologist would've been unable to reach my stomach to insert the feeding tube into it. They would've had to abort the procedure and done an open surgery instead, which would have involved heavy use of general anaesthesia and incurred lots of attendant risks to my safety.

The hope was that, when gas was pumped into my stomach, it would be able to push the liver away and expose itself clearly. There was a scary moment during the procedure when it looked like this wasn't going to happen. The medical team first pumped a tank of compressed carbon dioxide into my stomach through the nasogastric tube, but it didn't respond. My liver lay happily in the way still.

Then the medical team switched to "good old air", as the anaesthesiologist Dr Chan quipped, by connecting the external end of the nasogastric tube to a manual resuscitator (basically a rubber bag filled with atmospheric air) and getting someone to squeeze the resuscitator by hand. Poof! My stomach blew up nicely and my liver slid obligingly to the side, accompanied by running commentary from a relieved Dr Sundeep whose eyes were glued to the monitor showing the live stream from the x-ray machine.

Once this happened, the medical team went into action.

"Push 100mg of glucagon, STAT!" Dr Chan shouted. Disclaimer: I don't think he ordered 100mg. I made up that part because I can't remember exactly what he said, but 100mg looks quite impressive. Also disclaimer: I don't think he shouted, but in my favourite medical drama The Resident, the doctors are always shouting with great urgency and it's very exciting to watch, so I chose to describe Dr Chan as shouting to dramatise my account of the proceedings. In the same vein, I added "STAT" to the end of his dialogue to spice it up a bit. The doctors on television say "STAT" at the end of every sentence and it sounds so badass.

I felt the slight burn of medicine entering the intravenous plug in my right hand and before I knew it, my hearing had gone wonky. It was like I was listening to the medical team's chatter through a long, metal pipe. My eyes started to grow heavy and I struggled to remain conscious.

I observed with a detached sense of fascination a bedside monitor displaying my vital signs. "Damn," I thought. "My heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation are all really good and holding steady. Am I a tough little mo-fo or what!"

Someone said: "Ok Jonathan, I'm going to inject some local anaesthetic into your tummy area now. It's going to sting and burn. Ready? 1, 2, 3, ouch!"

I was so distracted wondering about the wisdom of a doctor saying "Ouch!" when injecting a patient that I hardly noticed the sting and burn. I mean, it did sting and burn, but it wasn't too bad.

At some point, Dr Chan shouted something about morphine and a bunch of other chemical names, and I started losing the battle to hold on to consciousness. "I'm feeling very drowsy," I complained to Nurse Lydia who was standing within my field of view (I was immobilised by a veritable forest of restraining straps so I couldn't see much). Earlier, she had told me that she would be there throughout the procedure, watching over me and making sure I was okay. She told me to just close my eyes. I did so with relief, and promptly went under.

That's not to say I was totally out of it. I soon heard someone saying my name, and I came back to full alertness almost instantly. "We're putting in the stitches now," said a voice. I groggily acknowledged, then fell asleep again.

My respiration must have suffered at some point because I suddenly felt a hand clamp my ventilator mask over my face, somewhat inaccurately because the mask missed most of my nose and spewed air everywhere. I'm very proud to report that I had the wherewithal to instruct the owner of the hand to "move the mask down" because "my right nostril is not covered". I heard someone say thanks before I drifted off again, feeling much more comfortable with the respiratory support.

The next time I woke up was when I heard my name being called again. "It's done," said Dr Chan. I was transferred from the procedure table to a hospital bed, and wheeled a great distance. "You're a good patient. Very compliant and didn't struggle," said Dr Chan along the way. I didn't respond but I was quite pleased to hear this compliment.

Finally, I rolled into the recovery room. I passed many other post-op patients. All of them were ancient, like my parents' age. I felt a little weird at this observation.

All things considered, I wasn't feeling too bad. I was sleepy but mentally alert. The morphine and chemical cocktail Dr Chan had concocted for me had reduced my pain level to 0. The only thing was, I was freezing. My jaw chattered and I shivered a bit. Nurse Lydia was very observant. She noticed and promptly had me swathed in thermal blankets. Then she sent the text message to update my dad on the successful procedure.

Hospital

Many people fear staying in hospital, but I'm a veteran of hospital stays so I don't mind having to be warded. Hospital stays can result in some quite interesting and funny occurrences.

Take for example my admission. I checked into the hospital on 9 June 2020, the day before the procedure, so that the doctors could ensure I was fit.

One of the tests they wanted to run was an arterial blood gas measurement, which involves taking blood from the artery in your wrist that causes your pulse. The junior doctor that came to do the extraction managed to hit my artery on the very first try, which was great because it minimised the painful poking and prodding I needed to endure.

But he was kinda clumsy, and high-pressure blood sprayed out of me and spurted everywhere: into the collection vial, all over my hand, his hands, my hospital gown, my bedsheet, and the floor. I felt like a pig in a slaughterhouse, or a bad guy in a John Wick movie.

Within an hour of checking in to the hospital, my pristine new bedsheet had become stained with my crimson life-juice.

At least the doctor was apologetic about the mess he made.

After the successful PRG procedure, I stayed in the hospital for two more days to recuperate, and was discharged on 12 June 2020.

I may not mind being warded, but I'll always have problems sleeping in hospitals. The nights I had to spend in the ward were pretty miserable. There was a poor old man in the bed across from me who looked very ill, and in the dead of night, the nurses would draw the curtains around him and spend hours doing goodness-knows-what to him. His bloodcurdling screams would echo round the building, and amazingly, he had the stamina to keep this up constantly until the nurses left him alone. The night after my procedure was the only night I could tune him out and get a good sleep, thanks to the able assistance of Dr Chan's drugs.

Another patient, who looked like 猪八戒 from the Chinese legend 西游记, was the opposite of noisy. He was admitted in some sort of catatonic state. He slept and slept and slept. One morning, the nurses wanted to wake him up to clean him and give him his breakfast.

They called his name. No response.

They patted him lightly. Nothing.

They rubbed his left nipple vigorously, sending shockwaves undulating across the fats on his torso. Still no luck.

Eventually, some woman standing by his bedside in civilian attire, who seemed to be a girlfriend of some sort, managed to get him to sit up and eat the hospital-provided meal. He still looked quite dazed. His eyes were glassy and he didn't answer when anyone spoke to him.

But as he ate, he underwent a miraculous transformation. His eyes focused, and he was able to answer the nurses. Out of a plastic bag, the presumptive girlfriend produced, of all things, a braised pork trotter. The man, every trace of catatonia now extinguished from his demeanour, tore into the trotter voraciously.

He was never the same after that. He was still there when I was discharged, but he looked much healthier than he had been when he came in. He was fully alert, responsive, and was always either playing with his phone or talking to the presumptive girlfriend.

Truly a medical miracle!

My daily life

What's the practical effect of the PRG feeding tube?

Well, to put it simply, it has allowed me to leave behind the mortal burden known as eating. Yes, I no longer am bound by the need to have meals to stay alive.

You see, the muscles in my face and throat were getting weaker and weaker by the day. This meant that eating was becoming a dangerous pursuit, as I was under a constant threat of choking or inhaling food and drink and causing a lung infection. I was also taking an inordinate amount of time to finish my meals. My dinners stretched to about 2 hours every day. Such time expenditure wasn't very sustainable, and I was very upset to imagine what better things I could've been doing during that time.

Now, instead of slaving over solid food, I subsist on a milk diet: 800ml of Ensure Plus each day. I take 400ml in the mornings and 400ml in the evenings. The milk formula is poured straight through the tube into my stomach.

This amount of milk formula was calculated by the dietician to be adequate for my daily nutritional needs. The beauty is that the formula is manufactured with the intention that it should be able to function as someone's sole source of nutrients, so it's perfectly balanced and contains literally everything necessary for my body to survive healthily.

So I don't even have to eat anything. Of course, I won't totally stop putting stuff in my mouth, 'cuz that would be just pathetic. After coming home from the hospital, I've still been drinking a Pepsi a day, and that won't change until the day I die. The great thing about the tube is that it's made of plastic, which means it doesn't react with anything and I can eat and drink whatever I want without worrying about whether it will affect the tube. I've eaten chicken rice chilli with no problems.

One part of my body that has benefited immensely from the new diet is my bowels. Funnily enough, even though my diet is now almost completely milk-based and liquid, my faeces has become the best quality that it has been for years! It's hard, dry, and big. Really big. And consistent. I go every day, and every day it's the same.

My first love: RuneScape

Nowadays, my "meals" go as follows.

First, my caregiver uses a syringe to suck stuff out of the tube and stomach. Sometimes, there will be some residual curds from the previous load of milk. There might also be gastric fluids or other leftover detritus from whatever I ate or drank in the preceding few hours. This step is important because if a lot of stuff is left behind in the stomach and I try to take in the next load of formula, I could get bloated or regurgitate.

Next, my caregiver pours the 400ml of formula into the tube via the syringe. Finally, 50ml of water is poured into the tube to flush it.

The entire process takes about half an hour. This means I suddenly have so much more free time.

On 4 June 2020, I posted on my social media channels my intention to obtain Level 99 in Fishing in RuneScape and put on the Fishing skillcape while recovering in hospital using the RuneScape Mobile app. To prepare for that plan, I bought and redeemed a bond, which is an in-game item bought using virtual currency which gave me 14 days of access to the full version of the game known as membership.

My social media post on 4 June 2020:

RuneScape has been a pillar of my life since I was in primary school. I have dedicated hours every holiday season to improving my character. But I was always free-to-play. I never became a member because I never had enough money of my own. Besides, I was a good student who never had the time to play during the school terms, so buying a subscription would have been a waste.

This changed today. I bought a bond for 19m in-game coins a couple of days ago after receiving news that next week, I am scheduled to undergo a simple yet elegant medical procedure which, if successful, would dramatically improve my quality of life. It would be a momentous occasion. Being a sentimental soul, I wanted to have a similarly remarkable milestone to match in my parallel, virtual life on RuneScape.

Despite my account being more than a decade old, I have not reached the maximum level in any of the skills in the game. As I said, I usually play infrequently so I never had enough game time to train my skills fully. So I planned my remarkable in-game milestone to be: attaining the maximum level of 99 in my favourite skill, fishing, then buying and wearing the special members-only cape that this achievement unlocks.

Today, I laid the groundwork for this plan by redeeming the bond, becoming a member for the first time ever. This membership lasts for 14 days. With access to more powerful training methods at the Fishing Guild's Deep Sea Fishing Hub (pictured), I quickly increased my fishing level to 98. I will continue to accumulate experience points over the next few days until I am just short of the threshold to cross to level 99.

And if the doctors manage to pull off the life-changing procedure next week, I will fire up RuneScape Mobile while recovering in my hospital bed, cross the threshold, then acquire and put on that sweet, sweet fishing skill cape.

The next day, I updated the plan to merely buying and wearing the skillcape in hospital because I'd already obtained Level 99.

My social media post on 5 June 2020:

I never thought I would live to see this glorious day.

Yesterday, I posted about wanting to achieve level 99 in fishing in RuneScape while recovering from my medical procedure scheduled for next week. But I ended up achieving it today instead because of a sudden burst of experience points that was awarded to my character by the game for finding and handing in some "strange rocks" to the museum. No actual catching of fish involved! Pictured here is the server-wide broadcast announcing my milestone to everyone who was online then.

I still plan on having a special moment in the hospital, just that now it will be me buying and putting on the fishing skill cape immediately rather than having to finish getting level 99 first. The 99k coins I will need to pay the guildmaster for the outfit are already in my coin pouch.

So it is a double celebration: today, 5 June 2020, I got my first level 99 ever in RuneScape; if all goes well, virtual me will don the fishing skill mastery cape for the first time ever on the afternoon of 10 June 2020, after real me has undergone the procedure.

As it turns out, I couldn't log into RuneScape Mobile while in hospital because there was a very uncomfortable intravenous plug embedded in my hand which made tapping my phone screen quite unwieldy.

So I bought and put on the skillcape on 13 June 2020 instead, when I was back home from the hospital.

The cape which certifies that I have achieved mastery in the Fishing skill!

The skillcape comes with its own unique cosmetic animation, called an emote.

I then used the remainder of my 14-day membership to immerse myself in the real RuneScape, which I had never before experienced in all my decade-plus as a free player.

Walking through the servers reserved for paying members, I shed tears of joy at seeing actual fellow players running by. It took me back to the heyday of RuneScape, in the 2000s, when the servers were almost always brimming with players. I flashed back to the previous time I played RuneScape after being discharged from hospital. It was 2008 and I had just recovered from having a titanium rod fused to my spine to correct my severe scoliosis. I was so happy to be able to play again after a marathon two-week-plus hospitalisation that I literally peed myself because I didn't want to leave the computer.

The servers for the free players of RuneScape these days tend to be sparsely populated, which makes me sad. It might seem weird that there are so many more paid subscribers than free users, but data from the developer of RuneScape shows that more than 90% of players are members. This is due to the niche nature of the RuneScape community. It's not a game that appeals to a mass audience. The gameplay mechanics are repetitive and grindy and the pace is largely sedate. Those of us who've stuck around through the years have more or less become loyalists and staunch supporters, which means we're more likely to want to buy the proper gameplay experience.

The free version of RuneScape is more like a trial, but no one wants to try RuneScape nowadays. It's boring and doesn't give instant gratification, so modern consumers (you know, those with the attention span of a housefly) shun it for the flashy colours of Roblox or the heart-thumping excitement of Fortnite.

Anyway, have a look at this 8-minute-long video to take a break from all this reading.


Did you make it through the whole clip? You didn't, right? You housefly, you.

I think this video encapsulates two points very nicely.

1. This is what I mean when I say RuneScape isn't for everyone. Notice how I was running up and down the same stretch of forest repeatedly? Doing the same action over and over is a typical way of training skills in RuneScape.
2. But it also hints at why I love the game. Being disabled in real life, I literally can't do almost everything, not even basic things like jumping or cooking or catching animals. RuneScape allows me to do all these things and more. In this clip I'm practically doing jungle parkour! I can also cook, hunt, farm, and fish! Normal people play video games as a form of escapism where they kill enemies or monsters, because obviously you're not allowed to go around murdering stuff in real life. I'm just happy to be able to do mundane stuff that you probably take for granted, like climbing over fences and shovelling animal poop (yup, that's an activity in RuneScape).

Over the past few days, I've discovered that my nights have become rather long. Previously, I would struggle over my dinner until around 10pm, then be too exhausted to do much else. But now, I take my evening dose of formula at 6pm, then have the entire night free to do whatever I like.

It's an amazing feeling. It's like I've been liberated, a phoenix rising from the ashes of my past life. The PRG tube has given me my life back. The past couple of nights, I watched one-and-a-half-hour-long RuneScape videos on YouTube about the history of tutorials in the game. A senior content developer of RuneScape critically examined the design of the various iterations of the RuneScape tutorial through the years and from his analysis, I learned about concepts in user experience design like cognitive load and A/B testing, after which I was inspired to read up further about the topic and found this very insightful and timely article. So geeky, right? But such things do interest me, just that I never had the time to explore them before.

And having played RuneScape every night since coming home, I was loath to give it all up just because my 14-day bond had expired. I reasoned that now that I don't have to waste time on meals, I will have more time to work on my various personal and school projects during the day, and therefore more free time to play during the night.

So I checked out the pricing of the membership packages. It's S$13.99 per month, but there's a discount for buying more than a month at a go. A yearlong package costs S$128.99, which works out to S$10.75 a month. (In fact, membership gives me full access to RuneScape's retro counterpart Old School RuneScape as well. I have a character in that other version of the game under the same master account that I sometimes play to take a break from the main RuneScape. So I'm actually getting quite good value here!)

I checked my earnings for last month: I made well over S$500. I bought a one-year membership subscription so I don't have to worry about losing membership status for the next 12 months. I'm always buying nice things for others. It's high time I bought something nice for myself. And unlike food, which turns into poop immediately the next day only to get flushed into the sewers forever, this subscription guarantees me a year of fun anytime I want.

The user interface design of the process of buying stuff is really smooth. Looks like all that A/B testing was worth the effort.

I convinced myself that this purchase makes sense, and cross-checked my thinking with a trusted friend who concurred after doing some quick calculations (you know who you are *winks*).

Besides, what better way is there to celebrate coming through a "technically challenging" medical procedure unscathed and with a new lease of life?

Module reviews for AY19/20 Semester 2: I hope I still remember how to do this...

It has literally been a year since my last module review on this blog, barring the internship review I published in January, which was for only one special module.

But I'm back in school now, to finish my Honours degree! Having had such a good time at my internship worksite (you can read all about it at the link above), I was a little sad at the resumption of life as a student, mainly because I feared for my bank balance without the steady stream of income I had gotten used to over the preceding few months.

It's hard to justify buying a jumbo pack of trash bags that your family has totally no use for (I legit did this during my internship because Gobbler visited GIC and sold the trash bags dirt cheap) when your account has very few digits in its total.

Anyway, something happened just before the semester started that sweetened the deal and made me happier to return to the academic life. I covered it here, but in short, a research methods module which was previously a graduation requirement was made optional for those who don't write a thesis. That's great for me, because I hate research and wasn't going to write a thesis.

So I could take modules that were more interesting and appealing to me. Let's review what they were and how they turned out.

NM4238: Software Studies

MCs: 5 - priority for CNM Honours students, excess capacity may be granted to Year 3 CNM majors

Delivery:

Weekly 3-hour seminar, come prepared to discuss weekly assigned readings

Assessment:

One midterm essay and one final essay of roughly 3000 words each, broad topic will be defined but students are free to write anything within those boundaries = 55%
Weekly blog entries reflecting on the assigned readings + class participation = 45%

Lecturer: Associate Professor Lonce Wyse - 6/10

I think A/P Wyse knows his stuff. His fields of expertise are neural nets and artificial intelligence-generated art, and he can talk at length about them. He clearly loves them very much, which is kinda cute to be honest. Unfortunately, he's a real scatterbrain. I'm not sure if he even had a plan for the semester or was just making stuff up week by week. The assignments were quite free-and-easy, which was cool, but what was not cool was that the entire module felt so free-and-easy that it lacked structure and was just chaotic. His classroom management also left a lot to be desired. He aims for an open discussion-style of teaching, but instead lessons are filled with awkward pauses. Given that he's been in NUS like forever, he should know that we're not the most talkative bunch. We are far from those American chatterboxes you see on shows like High School Musical. It's up to our lecturers to manage our reticence and devise clever schemes to engage with us. That's why they're paid the big bucks. But he didn't do this.

Module: 6/10

I absolutely hated the first half of the module. It was full of philosophical mumbo-jumbo about software being a metaphor for the police and justice system, and programmers as being sexually deviant wizards (yes, the Harry Potter kind) who have fetishes for code instead of genitalia. I kid you not. Hand on heart, that's what I took away from the first few weeks of the semester, though I'll admit this is probably a big misunderstanding. The second half of the semester was much better, earning some marks from me and rescuing the module from a failing score. It was about ethical issues surrounding artificial intelligence as well as technological arts. At least those made sense to me. I mean, I can imagine why it's bad to let the government know your every movement through tracking your phone, and I can see how an artwork created by a machine learning algorithm is different from one that was created by a human.

NM4239: Digital Propaganda and Public Opinion

MCs: 5 - priority for CNM Honours students, excess capacity may be granted to Year 3 CNM majors

Delivery:

Weekly 3-hour seminar, come prepared to discuss weekly assigned readings

Assessment:

Midterm take-home essay exam, questions are released on a specified date and students are given two days to submit a response = 20%
Propaganda in my life, individual assignment where you reflect on where you personally encounter propaganda, what kinds of propaganda you encounter, and how propaganda affects you = 15%
Leading discussion, pairs of students are assigned one of that week's readings to summarise and lead the class to discuss and engage with critically = 15%
Group project, a qualitative study using the in-depth interview method on how people perceive propaganda = 35%
Class attendance and participation = 15%

Lecturer: Assistant Professor Taberez Neyazi - 7/10

Dr Taberez could deliver his lessons smoothly and with little difficulty, though at times he would get a little too excited over what is clearly his pet topic and ramble on incoherently for longer than the average undergraduate's attention span at 9 o'clock in the morning. Re-read that sentence to get a feel of what I mean. His classroom management can also be improved. Specifically, if he would like students to have a lively discussion, he needs to figure out how to spark such a discussion into life beyond just begging people to say something or threatening to deduct participation marks. Otherwise there's just a lot of silence and shifty sidelong glances, followed by a reluctant throwaway point raised by one of the less apathetic members of the class.

Module: 8/10

The words "despair" and "hopeless" are what I would use to describe my feelings after learning about propaganda from this module. Propaganda is everywhere. It's an unstoppable force, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. Basically, it's not a problem that can be fixed. The reason we study it is so that we, as individuals, can try to inoculate ourselves against it as best we can so that we don't end up being that Boomer who forwards "drink disinfectant to cure coronavirus" to 200 people on WhatsApp. I dunno if that's the effect we're supposed to experience after learning about propaganda, and somehow I don't think it is, but that's what it did for me, making my innards roil with confusion and conflict. But don't misunderstand: this module is certainly enlightening as it will open your eyes to the many forms propaganda can take, both online and offline. And that's certainly knowledge worth arming yourself with, especially in this terribly complex world we find ourselves in.

NM4247: Creative Writing in the Marketplace

MCs: 5 - priority for CNM Honours students, excess capacity may be granted to Year 3 CNM majors

Delivery:

Weekly 3-hour seminar, broken down into about 1 hour of lecture and 2 hours of hands-on writing work and peer critique

Assessment:

Two micro-essays of around 500 words each, telling a personal story about a topic that will be given = 5% per micro-essay = 10%
Narrative arcs assignment, watch some videos and break the stories down into their essential components = 5%
Personal essay, telling a personal story of about 1000 words on any topic you want = 5% for a pitch, to be written like an email to an editor in which you try to convince them to publish your story + 20% for the story proper + 5% for three proposed Instagram posts telling the story in more social media-friendly form = 30%
Group project, write a script for a video advertisement = 30%
Class attendance and participation = 25%

Lecturer: Ms Jinny Koh - 8/10

As the published author of a full-length novel, Ms Koh has the right to teach this creative writing class. It's clear that she knows the nuts and bolts of a good story, and she was fairly capable of imparting that knowledge to us students, especially given that teaching isn't her real job and she was taking the class as a side gig. I felt she took the "workshopping" idea, where students were supposed to work on writing tasks in class and then comment on one another's products, a little too seriously at times. I much prefer the style where the instructor themself is the one to walk around the room and give personalised feedback to each individual student as they work on the writing tasks independently, as my NM2220 instructor did. Writing is a solo endeavour and doesn't quite lend itself to group activities, at least in my opinion.

Module: 8/10

I can see the value in having this module. Storytelling is an important part of the public relations toolbox. Indeed, it can be said that the entire act of public relations is telling a story. Certainly, a good story can be a powerful way to bring across a point. Just think of public awareness campaigns that have stuck with you: chances are, you remember them because they told you a story that resonated with you. This module succeeded in conveying the key lessons we need to know about storytelling, such as the structure of a narrative. We also had the chance to apply what we had learned through the video script assignment, which had us write a script for an advertisement promoting a brand or cause. This is a pretty good simulation of what storytelling will be used for in a real company. But a large chunk of time was spent on the personal essay assignment, which essentially got us to write a short story about an incident from our life. The relevance of this portion of the module to the industry wasn't clear enough.

NM4881A: Topics in Media Studies: Social Media

MCs: 5 - priority for CNM Honours students, excess capacity may be granted to Year 3 CNM majors

Delivery:

Weekly 3-hour seminar, read weekly readings for some discussion but lecturer also includes other ad-hoc activities too

Assessment:

Two in-class quizzes = 10% + 15% = 25%
Forum posting, make 3 original posts (students will sign up for the weeks they will post on to avoid bunching) and 2 replies on the LumiNUS discussion forum based on the assigned readings = 20%
Leading discussion, each student group will choose two research articles outside the assigned readings to present and lead a class discussion on = 20%
Social media audit, each student group will pick an organisation to conduct a social media audit on and prepare a slide deck as if to present their findings to the organisation itself = 15%
Final paper and presentation, each student group will write a paper and give a presentation on any topic of their choice that is related to social media = 20%

Lecturer: Dr Kokil Jaidka - 9/10

Dr Jaidka is a newly minted academic. This was the first class she had ever taught as a full-time faculty member. I believe in rewarding effort and attitude, which is why she has received such high marks from me. Her teaching was not perfect. For one, she was disorganised. Assessment components were changing throughout the semester, and even during her weekly lessons, there were times when she seemed to lose her train of thought or not have a clear idea of what she wanted to do or say. But her heart is in the right place, as the cliché goes. Her communication with students was always open and honest. Indeed, one of the reasons why assessment components were changed frequently was because she was responding to student feedback in real time. I think when she was planning the module, she got carried away and went overboard with the amount of work she wanted to assign because she lacked the experience to have a sense of what load students can handle. But full credit to her for remedying the situation mid-course by lightening some of the requirements and being flexible with deadlines. She was also caring towards all her students. When the coronavirus situation started to turn threatening, she promptly and proactively took her lessons online to be delivered through Zoom, weeks before the university mandated it. Decisiveness like this is what will win the war against the pandemic. Her enthusiasm is also admirable and a pleasant change from her jaded senior colleagues. I enjoyed her random emails which showcased a sense of humour that I had previously thought only I possessed.

Module: 8/10

Given how deeply embedded into our everyday life social media is, it's useful to know some of the concepts taught in this module. For example, one of my LinkedIn connections keeps talking about this thing called the "strength of weak ties" when explaining why he accepts connection requests quite freely, but I had no idea what the "strength of weak ties" was until I took this module. Sociologist Mark Granovetter coined the theory, which encapsulates the idea that when you have many weak ties, you can receive more valuable information that is not available to those in your immediate network of close relations. In other words, weak ties act like bridges between ourselves and the outside world. You can think of a weak tie as an acquaintance or an online "friend" you've never met in real life, and a strong tie as someone you know personally. Social media is essentially a giant network connecting users together. Studying the nature of these connections forms the bulk of what social media studies is all about. This isn't a purely academic exercise: useful insights do emerge. For example, research suggests that the tactic of using influencers in marketing is not optimal. It is very rare to see any one individual influence many other people, and in fact 70% of conversations are generated by non-influential users. Many of our decisions are made when influenced by the people we are emotionally close to. So marketing should move away from using influencers, and try to tap on people's personal connections instead. As you can see, there are little nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout this module. In-class hands-on exercises also have students play with tools such as sentiment analysis algorithms and keyword monitoring programmes. These are practical skills which communications practitioners should probably have some experience with, especially those who are working in social media marketing jobs in the future. Why didn't this module get more marks from me? I felt there were too many assessment components. Removing one and redistributing its weightage among the others would restore balance. I would suggest scrapping the final group paper and presentation, then allocating 5% more to the social media audit to make it worth 20%, 10% more to the leading discussion component to bring it up to 30%, and 5% more to the first quiz to make both equivalent to 15% for a total of 30%.

This semester hasn't been a highlight of my university life, but it wasn't bad either. Amid the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, I'd say that all things considered, this semester went as decently as could reasonably be expected: just average, not outstanding for the right or wrong reasons. In the end, I utilised 5 out of the 10 modular credits of the special Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory allowance given by the university to cushion students against the psychological impact of the pandemic, by erasing the A- grade I got for NM4881A. As all my other module grades for the semester were either A's or A+'s, my cumulative average point inched up by 0.02 and now sits at 4.85, well above my graduation target of 4.00 upon 5 for an Honours with Distinction.

And there goes my second-last set of module reviews ever! Next semester will be my final one before I venture into the working world for good, which means the next set of module reviews, which should be up on this blog in the new year, will also be the last of their kind.

Food Review: 704 五炒 Bedok Reservoir Hokkien Mee

Tech-savvy hawkers are increasingly using Facebook to reach out to customers. It's certainly very effective in attracting my attention! I tend to be more susceptible to online promotions than I should...

Recently, I've started getting posts from 704 五炒 Bedok Reservoir in my news feed. Based on some previous photos and videos on the page, the fried goods stall, which sells Hokkien mee, char kway teow, oyster omelette, carrot cake, and taugeh cockles, seems to be run by a young man. I like this, because we need a new generation of hawkers to grow if our hawker culture is going to be sustained. So I was keen to support the stall by giving it a try.

Of course, I was also excited by the overwhelmingly positive reviews I saw on the page, as well as the tantalising pictures posted by the hawker multiple times a day showing behind-the-scenes glimpses at the preparation process of his pork lard and prawn stock, both of which he makes from scratch, visually appealing raw ingredients like fat, juicy oysters, as well as the finished products.

Early this week, the hawker posted about a special item he was offering: oyster Hokkien mee. This dish is totally right up my alley. I love oysters, which is why I love oyster omelette. But I also love Hokkien mee, especially the wetter version with lots of sauce. And I reckon a serving of Hokkien mee makes for a fuller meal than a serving of oyster omelette, because it's got more ingredients and a better mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

So oyster Hokkien mee sounded like the perfect deal to me, having the delicacy that I like as well as balanced nutrition. Truly the best of both worlds!

Like many hawkers in this Covid-19 era, this stall has its own delivery service. Third-party delivery platforms charge high commissions that price many hawkers out of that market, so if you want hawker fare you have to shop around and discover standalone options like this yourself.

To enquire, I sent a WhatsApp message to the number provided on the Facebook page. Within half an hour, someone from the stall replied with the menu and confirmed that yes, they could deliver dinner to my area that evening.

Ordering was as simple as typing into a WhatsApp message my address, what time I wanted the food to arrive, and the list of items I was buying. The stall then replied with the amount to pay and a PayNow number. After transferring the required sum and sending a screenshot of the transaction confirmation, I received word that my order was successfully placed.

The food actually appeared about 15 minutes later than I requested, but to me this is an acceptable margin because the delivery service isn't run by one of the big companies so it should be held to a more lenient standard. Nonetheless, the stall is quite responsive and when I WhatsApped to ask about my order when it hadn't arrived at the specified time, the person on the other end promptly apologised and explained that there was only one driver on duty that day. I enjoy having this open and direct communication channel with the stallholder.

Most important to me, of course, is the quality of the food. And I am pleased to report that my oyster Hokkien mee ($6.50) was absolutely delicious.

My photography skills really cannot make it. Trust me, it tastes better than it looks.

As I mentioned earlier, I prefer the wet style of Hokkien mee, which emphasises the flavour of the prawn broth that soaks into the noodles rather than the dry style that focuses more on wok hei. So I was very happy to see my heap of yellow noodles and chor bee hoon sitting in a pool of gravy.

That gravy tasted strongly of crustaceans and was delightfully savoury. It was thick, luscious, and coated everything throughout the dish. Normally, I fuss about picking out all the taugeh and chives in my Hokkien mee, but I didn't this time because the gravy had made them the same taste and texture as the noodles that I had no reason to complain about them. Score another win for this stall's rendition of Hokkien mee, then: it got me to eat my vegetables.

No less than five oysters were hidden amongst the noodles. They were plump, creamy, briny, and a little metallic, exactly what good oysters should be. Importantly, they had no foul odours, which meant they were fresh.

There were also two medium prawns. I could tell that they, too, were fresh because they were crunchy and smelled clean. Other ingredients included some squid pieces and chunks of beaten egg.

The dish was rounded out by the generous amount of fried pork lard cubes scattered around, bringing the flavours exploding in my mouth to even greater heights. I like hawkers who know what they're selling and commit wholeheartedly to giving their customers the full experience. Nowadays, too many fried noodle sellers do away with pork lard to cater to the health-conscious. Hello, the health-conscious can jolly well go and eat their atas salad, ok? Leave the original recipes for fried dishes alone for those of us who still know how to appreciate them, please. Kudos to this hawker for doing so.

In fact, kudos to this hawker for the overall quality of his cooking! My oyster Hokkien mee was so yummy that I finished the entire portion with little difficulty. There's a perception that Hokkien mee has to be fried by a grizzled veteran if it's to be nice, and to be fair this tends to be anecdotally true, but this young man proves that it is also possible for those with less experience to produce a mean plate of noodles, as long as they put in the heart and are passionate about what they are doing.

Very reassuring indeed for the future of the hawker trade. Let's support these deserving local businesses!

My order
1 x oyster hokkien mee = $6.50
1 x medium black and white carrot cake = $7
1 x large char kway teow = $5.50
Delivery fee = $8
The delivery fee looks steep, but you can order more items or bigger servings to make it worthwhile. If you live outside the east zone, the delivery fee is higher.

TL;DR: Keep an eye on this dark horse. Although it is a relatively unknown newcomer for now, I daresay it will soon be a rising star in the Hokkien mee scene. You should definitely give this a shot!

On handsome swarthy artillerymen, Kleenex, and cultural awareness

A very attractive Dubai army officer stands at attention next to his gun. This unit seems to be in charge of parading every evening as part of some Muslim prayer ritual.

Mediacorp can go fuck themselves.

I mean the television side of the company, not the news side. I don't bite the hand that feeds me, and the news side of Mediacorp has been a great help to me professionally.

But the TV side just irks me no end.

Call me selfish or entitled. I don't care. I'm a Millennial, and aren't all of us supposed to be selfish and entitled?

A few months ago I wrote about Silvana Sin Lana, a Spanish telenovela that I had fallen in love with.

I wrote that after watching just a few episodes of the show. Everything I wrote back then still applies, except the part where I complained about the ear-raping quality of the dubbing. I've since gotten used to it and decided it's really not that bad.

Additionally, I've also realised that the show cleverly takes on two social issues from fresh angles.

The first is the class divide. The Villasenor family is from the upper class, at least until patriarch Antonio Jose gets disgraced and flees the country, forcing his wife Silvana, mother-in-law, and three daughters to move to a middle-class area.

As usual, there's plenty of condescension and snobbery from certain members of the Villasenor family, particularly the mother-in-law Trini and eldest daughter Maria Jose, towards their neighbours.

But the interesting thing is that the Villasenors are also subjected to discrimination by the middle-class. This is what I call reverse classism. Patent pending. :)

It seems to me that it has become fashionable nowadays to hate those who are better-off than us.

This was apparent in the backlash against a letter published in the Straits Times recently calling for more Covid-19 financial support for people living in private housing, perceived as a status symbol in Singapore where the majority of the population lives in public flats.

Many netizens, including influencer Mr Brown, dismissed the letter, taking the view that people in positions of such financial privilege don't have the right to ask for help.

A dangerous, sweepingly uncritical blanket approach, in my opinion, probably fuelled more by emotion than reason.

Silvana Sin Lana portrays reverse classism through, for example, key antagonists Margerita and Stella, who each embark on separate smear campaigns against second daughter Angie and Silvana herself over insecurities that their boyfriends George and Manuel are falling for the Villasenors.

A key pillar of their attack strategy is to engage in Othering, a legit sociological concept not created by me this time, painting the Villasenors as outsiders who don't belong in the neighbourhood.

The second social issue that Silvana Sin Lana takes on is female empowerment.

I like how the show takes the trope of the spoilt, rich housewife who can't do anything and turns it on its head. Silvana starts out as a spoilt, rich housewife who can't do anything, but quickly marshals the inner strength to learn everything from scratch, becoming a fiercely independent woman.

Yes she has the support of her sexy neighbour Manuel, but his impact on her everyday troubles is limited and she solves most of her problems herself.

Famous Latino singer Carlos Ponce is super hot, isn't he! He plays Manuel Gallardo, Silvana's neighbour and love interest. He also sings the show's theme song, which is very nice. Listen to it here.

I admire scriptwriting that's brave enough to subvert stereotypes, in this case gender roles and norms, and dares to be different and explore the question "What if?"

Another way in which Silvana Sin Lana's scriptwriting departs from convention in a tongue-in-cheek fashion: in one episode, a character runs into the middle of a busy road.

Tires screech, metal clashes against metal, and the camera zooms in on another character standing on the pavement making a horrified face.

But then the view changes to reveal that the character who charged onto the street is climbing over a bunch of wrecked cars that crashed into one another while missing her completely!

This is likely in reference to the traffic accident plot crutch that screenwriters of soap dramas often rely on.

If you've watched enough of the genre, you'll know what I mean. Even the Korean and Chinese drama serials, including those that Mediacorp makes for Channel 8, are guilty of this practice.

Vanishing act

Things were going so well. I was happily enjoying my Silvana Sin Lana on Mondays and Tuesdays at 11pm on Mediacorp Channel 5.

Opening screen of Silvana Sin Lana, showing the Telemundo logo. Telemundo is a Spanish-language production house.

Then the shit hit the fan.

For no rhyme or reason, Mediacorp canned the Monday screening and replaced it with a rerun of some trashy legal drama produced locally a decade ago. I mean, it's got Adrian Pang making his trademark constipated face. Obviously it can't be good to watch.

But this was just the foot in the door. Next, Mediacorp stuck its dirty fingers into my Tuesday slot as well. They pushed Silvana Sin Lana to 11.30pm, because they wanted to screen horror movies before it. They were creeping closer to their ultimate goal...

The endgame of which was finally revealed when they got rid of Silvana Sin Lana entirely. What. The. Hell!

I felt betrayed. I've always been a proponent of #supportlocal and faithfully follow local television productions like family soap drama Kin and police drama Code of Law.

Just when I'd decided to follow an imported show, they pull this stunt!? How can dis b allow?

It's such a dick move to start showing a series, then abruptly cut it off without a care for viewers who are now left dangling.

Thoroughly pissed off, I powered up my special Singaporean skill: I complained long and loud.

I wrote to Mediacorp Channel 5 on Facebook, Twitter, and email. They ignored me.

I tweeted to the various official accounts of Universal, the media conglomerate that owns the rights to the show.

I even wrote directly to the specific public relations officer in charge of Silvana Sin Lana at Telemundo, the studio that produced it. I received no reply; the woman probably thought I was loco.

She's probably right. I tend to develop unhealthy obsessions and when I do, I'm like a dog with a bone.

I embarked on the Kubler-Ross grief process. I started with denial: surely there was some mistake! I kept checking the schedule to see if miraculously, Silvana Sin Lana would reappear on the listing.

Then anger. To some extent I'm still angry. Bloody Mediacorp! What a disgraceful excuse for a television station. Run by a bunch of headless morons!

Next came bargaining. I couldn't accept that I could no longer watch Silvana Sin Lana. The last episode Mediacorp aired before brutally tearing it away from me ended with Manuel confessing to Silvana that he loved her. I desperately had to know how the story continued!

If I couldn't watch it on Mediacorp, maybe I could watch it somewhere else?

My hunt began on YouTube, where I discovered the Telemundo official channel. There was a playlist for Silvana Sin Lana! But each episode was only about 20 minutes long. The version on television has episodes that are around 40 minutes long. I think the ones on YouTube are abridged.

Anyway they were in Spanish, so they were of no use to me.

But in the comments section, I saw some people mention that the show is on Netflix with English subtitles. I was temporarily enthused by this revelation, but my optimism was short-lived after a quick check with an online Netflix database showed that Netflix Singapore doesn't carry the show.

Damn it, why must I be stuck on this godforsaken island!

The final nail in the coffin came when I found full episodes of Silvana Sin Lana on the Telemundo website. The video player options bar even had a setting for English closed captions. But I just couldn't get the videos to play.

I suspect they, too, were geographically restricted. When I used the built-in virtual private network on the Opera browser to spoof my location as the United States, I could get the video player to play... advertisements. :( Not the episodes proper.

Feeling deflated, I began the final two Kubler-Ross stages: depression and acceptance. To express my undying love for the series even though I could no longer watch it, I made a meme.

In my Instagram caption, I hashtagged #silvanasinlana, and my finger idly tapped onto it because I was curious to see how many other fans of the show there are around the world. I found an unexpectedly active community!

A little excited now, I hopped over to Twitter and searched the same hashtag. One post in particular would change my life.

Arabian Nights

It was by a @LaBonteLisa, who appears to be a hotshot business person. She had shared a tweet by Dubai One promoting Silvana Sin Lana. Further investigations revealed that Dubai One is a television channel in Dubai.

Darn u DubaiOne! #SilvanaSinLana (English dubbing grated --then grew on me) Now I'm hooked on a #novela and I found on demand 120 episodes in #Spanish w subtitles! Just realized clean cut Manuel #CarlosPonce @CP_FansdelMundo was the yoga stud! Salvadore in #movie Couples Retreat! https://t.co/WI397WEusp

— Lisa La Bonté (@LaBonteLisa) April 30, 2019

Lisa La Bonte's tweet had mentioned the irritating English voiceover too, so I knew that the version being screened by Dubai One was the same as the one screened by Mediacorp.

A rush of hope. Maybe there's a chance Dubai One has something like Mediacorp's MeWatch, where there's streaming video on demand. And maybe, just maybe, they would have Silvana Sin Lana accessible to me.

What the heck. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by going down this rabbit hole.

Heart pounding. Fingers flying. I searched the Dubai One website from top to bottom, clicking everything in sight and breaking every piece of cybersecurity advice in existence.

How was I to know what each button did when they were all plastered in squiggly Arabic script? I didn't care. I clicked them anyway.

If my cyberwellness teachers in school were dead, they'd be rolling over in their graves so vigorously that they'd resemble electrical turbines.

Somehow, I stumbled my way onto an affiliated site called Awaan, which I surmise to be the holding entity of Dubai One and several other channels. That would make it analogous to Mediacorp.

And I hit paydirt.

I fumbled and floundered blindly until I hit upon a switch to turn the entire site into English. Then, in a section labelled "Catch Up", I saw the magic words Silvana Sin Lana.

Silvana Sin Lana title screen.

My hand trembled as I clicked play. After fending off an aggressive Arabic female voice trying to, as far as I could ascertain, get me to buy a car, I was rewarded by the sight of Manuel...

Confessing his love to Silvana...

In English!

My luck has never been good. I still haven't got Bubbles the fishing skill pet in RuneScape despite having more than 5,000,000 experience points, which peeves me because I've seen noobs with under a million experience flaunting him.

Bubbles is a rare pet in RuneScape. Players stand a chance to obtain Bubbles each time they fish. At my fishing level of 90, I have a 0.00072% probability to get Bubbles every 2.4 seconds as long as my avatar is training the fishing skill. This probability is higher for players with higher levels in the corresponding skill. Credits: probability calculator here, picture taken from here.

But it appears that, in the case of Silvana Sin Lana, the stars had aligned for me.

Not only had Dubai One given me the opportunity to access Silvana Sin Lana for free, the episode they had shown the day before I found their site had been the last one I had seen on Mediacorp!

In other words, I could pick up the story seamlessly from where I had been!

Later, I also found the Awaan app on Google Play and installed it on my phone. Besides catch-up, I discovered I can also stream the channel live, so it's as if I'm sitting in Dubai watching it on my television set.

I already know how to screencast, so nowadays, I use my phone to stream Dubai One and cast it onto my television. I almost feel like wearing flowy white robes and buying myself a pet camel, whom I shall name Malika.

Unlike (cough, cough) Mediacorp, Dubai One has vastly superior primetime programming. Actually it's my primetime I'm referring to: 9pm to 12mn Singapore time, which is 5pm to 8pm Dubai time.

There's always a movie from 9pm to 11pm. And not some garbage like Fast and Furious or Kung Fu Panda for the bazillionth time like Mediacorp does. It's usually a lesser-known show, a little old but a goodie nonetheless.

For example, there was Legally Blonde and Failure to Launch. These are not B-grade movies! They have well-known leads. There was also Robot and Frank, which I'd never heard of but greatly enjoyed because of its intriguing and unusual premise.

I don't mind a broadcaster making this kind of film choices. I really don't care if a movie is a blockbuster or has famous people in it. As long as it makes me happy.

Stupid Mediacorp either goes for A-list movies from ten years ago or total B-grade nonsense that prominently feature supersized creatures animated by primary schoolers so that they look like bathtub toys.

A few weeks ago, they showed one such film, titled Big Ass Spider. But because we're a prudishly conservative society, they censored the title to Giant Spider instead.

Such a sad indictment of how dumb this country is.

Must be PAP's fault. ;)

Anyway, back to Dubai One. From 11pm to 12mn is Silvana Sin Lana. Yup, that's the same time as Mediacorp's original screening, except that now I get new episodes from Sunday to Thursday every week instead of only Monday and Tuesday. Screw you Mediacorp, the Arabs are better.

Between the movie and Silvana Sin Lana though, there are about 15 minutes of Muslim rituals. I'm atheist and always will be, but I still find it fascinating to watch how religions are practiced.

In Dubai, they seem to have a sunset gun salute and parade ceremony every day. A small squad of five soldiers spends about five minutes marching and waving their antique-looking rifles around, after which one of them fires a howitzer into the air.

Then some sort of prayer song is played. It's haunting, melodious, and utterly beautiful, even though I have no idea what it is saying.

The television station broadcasts daily evening prayers. I've seen similar things on Malaysian channels like RTM TV1, but this seems somehow more awe-inspiring. Maybe because Arabia is really close to the actual birthplace of Islam so its brand of the religion comes across more purely? Or perhaps it's simply because Arabia is further away from me so the whole experience benefits from feeling more exotic.

Dubai seems to be a very devout place. They have public service advertisements about Covid-19 telling people to stay safe at home, suggesting that they use their free time to "read Quran from cover to cover to stay close to Allah".

A bit extreme, maybe? When I was a Christian child I could never get past Genesis chapter 1 because that book was boring AF. Reading the whole thing might be worse than pulling teeth.

But nevertheless, such overt displays of religiosity are eye-opening for me and certainly something I'll never get to see in my sheltered Singaporean life.

Their subtle anti-Western propaganda is quite funny too. In an advertisement to discourage panic-buying, a man is shown wearing a t-shirt and pants and charging around the supermarket grabbing handfuls of stuff, with a heavy metal soundtrack playing in the background.

Abruptly cut to another man, this time wearing the traditional Arab attire of white robes. Piano music tinkles softly in the background as he paces sedately among the shelves, picking out one or two items at a time.

So it seems even the Arabs experience panic-buying. The coronavirus truly does bring the world together.

In fact most of the advertisements on Dubai One are related to Covid-19. But I don't mind watching them. Seeing foreign advertisements always gives me a thrill because it feels like I'm watching cable television.

Plus, the advertisement breaks on Dubai One are mercifully short so they don't compromise my viewing experience.

Emotional rollercoaster

And so this is the story of how it came to be, that I was sat in front of my television set, my phone lying next to it, crying my eyes out at Manuel and Silvana's forbidden love one moment, and laughing heartily at Trini and Benito's awkward antics the next, as the seasonal greeting "Ramadan Kareem" flashed across the screen every few minutes and spaghetti-like words appeared everywhere.

I enjoy watching Silvana Sin Lana because each episode takes me on an emotional rollercoaster ride. I feel like there's a chain around my throat, and the screenwriters are yanking me one way, then the other. But never did I imagine that I would have to go through an emotional rollercoaster in real life, as I journeyed across the internet to earn the right to go on the emotional rollercoaster in the show.

Doing the Honours: Returning to school to start my Honours Year in AY2019/20 Semester 2

I'm into my final year of formal education now. On 13 January 2020, I will begin my second-last semester as an NUS FASS student.

My ex-boss, who is also my boss-to-be come 2021 when I join the sovereign wealth fund GIC after graduation, has this advice for picking modules: learn how the world works.

Don't go learn how to write. Go learn about the world, do interesting things, read hard subjects, and then communicate about the world through your writing. Stop wasting time on Journalism School and Communications School, but if you're already knee-deep in it, then learn all the other hard and weird stuff on the side that will animate your writing.

~ Jason Leow, former journalist at The Straits Times and current managing director of communications at GIC and chairman of the Speak Good English Movement. For the record, he did not study journalism at university. He majored in literature at NUS.

So with this in mind, I set about picking modules for the new semester that are more conceptual and worldly rather than vocational and specific. At the same time, I don't like modules that deal with topics that are too abstract. I like to be able to see the relevance of what I am learning in class to reality. I think I managed to strike a good balance with this selection of modules.

Note: All modules are worth 5MCs, graded with standard letter grades, and delivered through weekly three-hour seminars. Regular students can acquire them on the ModReg system, with priority given to CNM majors in SOC4. I was preallocated my modules by the Dean's Office due to my status as a disabled student.

NM4239: Digital Propaganda and Public Opinion
This is one of the "conceptual and worldly" modules. Others were available too, such as one about racial representation in the media and another about sex in the media. But those are not really interesting to me, being confined to niche activists' areas of concern. This module is more interesting because it deals with social and political affairs, which are current, particularly with the General Election around the corner, and affect all of us. Informed citizens should have some understanding of how external parties, especially in this day and age of social media, influence our decisions on hot-button issues and maybe even change our minds without us knowing.

NM4247: Creative Writing in the Marketplace
According to the description on LumiNUS, this module teaches students "the importance of narratives and the techniques of crafting them through personal essays" as well as how to "apply what they have learnt to a narrative video script for a brand or cause". In other words, it's about storytelling, not for the sake of spinning fairytales but for strategic brand-building. This is my indulgence as it is not quite the "conceptual and worldly" module that I should be taking if I follow Jason's advice strictly, but I chose it because I think I will like it and have fun with it.

NM4881A: Topics in Media Studies: Social Media
Another "conceptual and worldly" module I picked for this semester is what I would call the "dark" (or Darth, if you're a Star Wars fan) NM2203. Where NM2203 is all about how you can use social media effectively to build your brand, NM4881A is stuffed with weighty, and at times depressing, observations about how social media impacts, and is in turn impacted by, us as individuals and, on a larger scale, the world around us. In other words, it is about the effects of social media on people and society. With social media being part of our everyday lives, I can see why this knowledge is important and relevant.

NM4238: Software Studies
This is a "conceptual and worldly" module from the realm of computational social science. Rather than looking at software from a technological perspective, such as analysing how a programme or application is coded, it examines the impact of technological developments and computerisation, such as remote working, Bitcoin, and the increasingly powerful devices we carry in our pockets, on people and society through the lens of the humanities and social sciences. Ultimately, human beings are the consumers and end-users of technology, so it is vital to be aware of the possible implications of such technology on human health, happiness, and relationships.

My CAP stands at 4.82. The highest Honours class I can obtain is Distinction (formerly known as Second Upper Class), because I decided against writing a thesis and as a result am barred from obtaining Highest Distinction (formerly known as First Class). It was a trade-off I made willingly because I abhor research and couldn't fathom spending a year of my short life slaving away over some inconsequential manuscript whose only destiny is to lie in a corner somewhere collecting dust. What sweetened the deal was the recent announcement that effective from my cohort (Cohort 2017) onwards, NM4102: Advanced Communications & New Media Research is no longer a graduation requirement for all CNM Honours students. It is now compulsory only for those writing an Honours thesis or, restated in formal terms, NM4102 is a pre- and co-requisite for NM4401 Honours Thesis. What that means for me is that I can escape from doing research completely and still get my Honours! Several senior colleagues at my internship worksite assured me that there's not much difference to employers between a Highest Distinction and a Distinction, so I went ahead and threw out both NM4401 and NM4102 from my considerations.

As I was on internship for the past half-year, I haven't had to do academic work for quite a while now. Strangely, I kind of miss it because it has been a constant feature in my life and I am the type of person who prefers the familiar. I look forward to the new semester and all the interesting modules I'll be taking with great excitement!