we are nerds. and obsoleted.

i attended law school.
i attended Computer science school.
just sounds different isn't it?

the smart bastards doing law got enough brains to make even boring things sound cool.

What do you think we are here? Nerds? I'll google you.

It wasn't too long ago that computer people were the darlings of the industry, front liners of the nation's economy. Companies worship us. the SCE was the flag-bearer for NTU. At family gatherings those days, upon hearing that so and so are in the computer line, eyes will gleam and mouths open, "wah, big money next time".

Back to the present age, post internet boom, post the-bubble-burst-boom, post whatever-that-has-got-to-do-with-IT, it's a changed scenario. BIE, MSE, MAE, SBS, HSS, CoE, EEE, NIE, BME.. and the list goes on. Nobody knows what they stands for, or what they actually do. Aren't we computer people the reigning champion of important sounding acronyms? got beaten flat on this.

"Hi, i'm from SCE." "Huh, what's that?" "School of Computer Engineering." "oh.. urmmm.." you hear the longest urmm her breath could hold. no interesting comments relating to SCE could possibly be thought of. awkward silence. she pretends to checks the handphone that refuses to ring. after 5 min, conversation rescuer me says: "yeah it sucks." I can't tell whether it was the look of bemusement or sympathy on their faces.

SCE seems to have slided to the backseat among the many new schools of NTU. Where we were once the star striker, we now slump sadly as the benchwarmer. Block N4 gets none of the impressed looks when freshies check out the entire school compound.

Vending machine that dispenses 20cents cuppucino. spanking new lifts that talks. state of the art photograhy lab with loanable professional cameras. new dedicated library. exclusive reading rooms and resource library for exclusive students. vending machines that perpetually dispenses hot water with creamer when u clearly pressed "COffee with sugar and coffeemate. 50cents". "Lift under repair". "Water-cooler under repair". "Programming Languages. New Edition. Published 1982". benches infested with termites. Creaky roller chairs with coffee stains and patched cushion.

dimmer students may not know for sure where each said item is located. but one can tell for sure where the 300 Herman Miller Aeron designer chairs worth $660,000 DID NOT end up.

Customizable timetables. 4 days week. 3 days week. Plenty of pick-whatever-you-want-just-have-fun GEs. THose bunch of slackers. We computer people are too hardworking for that. The ultimate insult is when people dun believe that SCE students have the heaviest workload and failure rate. Such audacity and ignorance. 4AUs for a subject doesn't equate to 4hrs of lessons here. Instead, it's 4AUs for 3 lects, 1 tutorial and a bonus 2hr lab that normally takes at least double of that time to be completed. Making every cents of our school fees count.

Wonderful life and recognition here.

Back at the recent family gathering. Typical formality goes as usual, "still studying ah?" "yeah, at NTU." "oh.. studying what?" "uh.. computer stuff" "Computer ahh??.. aiyah", the head shakes and eyebrow frowns, "Cannot already la.." The uncle prophetically announce. The one whose eyes once gleamed, years ago.