the HKUST entries: air-con inspired ALL-NIGHTER

Jóu sàhn South China,

First things first, I loved Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke in White Collar. Despite re-reading what happens in the last episode of Season 3 in Wikipedia, I confess, I had no heart for the actual ending. Peter asks Neal to run away as he confronts the Department of Justice Committee which was deciding on granting Neal full freedom. He does this for Agent Kramer, his mentor, plans to break up the amazing partnership between Neal and Peter and steal Neal with him to Washington D.C. Not willing to work for Kramer, Neal embarks on his long-planned escape with Mozzie and the Jeff Easton spends the last 1.5 minutes of the episode focusing on Neal's face, revealing disappointment on being separated from the one person who meant the world to him(after Kate Moreau of course), Special Agent Peter Burke. While it was heart-wrenching to see the dream team come to an end, I do particularly relish throwing some choicest expletives at the Kramer character. You are a first-rate !@#$%^&, Kramer, I give you that.

As the first rays of sunlight penetrate the glass windows of my five day old room, I sit uncomfortably on the matted floor listening to One Thing, awaiting the blessed moment when my clock displays "07:00 AM". I call 7 AM a blessed moment for a reason. This is the precise team when the shutters go up on McDonalds. On a regular Semester day, this would mean the end of my nightly academic workout, but why would I wait all night simply to have breakfast on a holiday? Smart question indeed.

Here's the dumb answer. Earlier tonight, or more accurately, today morning, I take this long walk to Seafront Cafetaria in the hope that I would top up my Student Card and thereby get the Aircon working. Usually, Seafront buzzes with a lot of student activity but today clearly wasn't going to be an usual day. I go up to the damn Add Value Machine, push in my card and cajole it to accept my 20 dollar-bill. The HKUST Add Value Machine is a "stubborn mistress", as any experience UST student can tell you. It is extremely volatile and PMSes a lot. However, today, it obediently gobbled up my 20 dollars. I wait for the machine to do its arithmetic and update my card and bingo! what do I get? A Card Error. Okay, I intelligently look up to the Cash Insertion Slot and wait for my 20 dollars to reappear but no such thing happens. The HKUST AVM is a grand display of brawn overpowering brain and for the immense volume the stupid thing occupies, it achieves almost nothing. Soon, realization strikes my head that the AVM was probably a COMP101 course project and exception handling is not taught until COMP2012H which the designer most probably never reached. Anyway, I try my luck with yet another 20-dollar bill but I seemed to have offended the Lady. She resists my advances, and I walk back dejected to UG Hall V. I don't pass a soul on my way back and everyone seems to be sleeping. So, I grab a bottle of Coca Cola, update my sob story on Facebook and embark on my back-to-back White Collar watching session.

I somehow, manage to pass 2.5 hours watching Neal and Peter and here I'm dressing up for my McDonalds' No.4 meal(no meat...relax Tamil Brahmin Association fellas) with Orange Juice(L) and yet another try at breaching the defenses of another "stubborn mistress" at LG7. With some luck, I might have 

my way and some comfortable sleep courtesy a functional air-conditioner. 

Joyful sunrise yet again.

Until next time, good night, sweet dreams, and screw you, Kramer and AVM.

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