Mid-terms have officially started...we just had a paper today, and oddly enough, it seemed almost TOO easy. i saw people walking out of the exam hall half an hour into the hour-long paper. i finished in about that time as well, but i stayed to beautify my answers a little. the standard was a far cry from the tutorials and practice papers we've been receiving. not to sound overconfident, but i think i can get 80+% for this paper. as for the rest of my modules...my confidence is nowhere near this extent. i have maths consultation on wednesday morning; hopefully that'll iron out my doubts about fourier series. as for physical chem, i'll take it as it comes. hopefully tomorrow's tutorial (which i completely haven't prepared for) will help.

today's been one of my more productive days ever since starting school in NUS. managed to do quite a lot, probably because i had a 6-hour break in between my last lecture and the mid-term. finished up my molecular modelling, and got the data i needed faster than expected. i also used the time to check my grades for the most recent bio assignment. this is what i saw:

look at the comment for assignment 2. so primary school! still, i'd be lying if i said that i didn't feel a little sense of pride/accomplishment after reading it. there should be more TAs who are this encouraging. maybe i should do something similar for my tuition kids. now, if only they would give me work which was deserving of such comments...

anyways, it's getting late. i'd better head off to bed. something tells me i won't be getting as much sleep as usual for this entire week.

-random thought of the day: Must finish lab reports!-

Four hours of staring at the computer later, and i've finally done my lab reports as best as i can for the time being. notice i didn't say "four hours of work". do you seriously think anyone can sit at a computer for four hours and not goof off? when it comes down to actual working time, i'd give myself 2 hours and 30 minutes at best. managed to answer most of the questions for the molecular modelling thing (including drawing 2 pretty graphs on excel!). only issue is i forgot to save some pictures which i need to answer the remaining questions. so annoying. oh well. i'll probably end up making a trip to the computer centre to re-generate those pictures. hopefully the required software is still available for use. worst case is i get the files from one of the people who are doing the lab as well.

my so-called "study day" didn't really go as planned. the original idea was to wake up at 8:00am, and work/study through the day. that plan flopped, since my ez-link card decided to up and die on me halfway through a bus trip yesterday. the MRT service staff told me that my card got corrupted, and i have no idea how it could possibly have happened. my influence isn't that powerful...right? in the end, i had to go down to ang mo kio bus interchange to get a replacement. contrary to my initial expectations, the process wasn't slow at all, despite the need to customize the card with my details. in fact, i was (and still am) ridiculously impressed by how fast they gave me a new card...it took all of 5 minutes from the time i said "hi, good morning" to the nice lady at the counter to the time the new card was in my hands. only little issue is that the value in my old card (which comes up to about $17+) can't be immediately credited into my replacement card. i'll have to go to any ticket office in a week's time to settle that. not too troublesome, since i can do that at bishan MRT on my way to tuition this coming sunday. it was quite interesting, in a way, because that's never happened with any of my previous ez-link cards. there's a first time for everything, i guess.

speaking of tuition, my sec 4s have all sat for their prelims. as a tutor, i think they didn't do too badly (2 Bs and a C i think...one of the Bs may be an A. i can't really remember). they didn't meet my ideal expectation of all A1s, but i think i'm ok with that. somehow, i'm not too worried for them. my prediction is the worst grade that any one of them will score is a B3. they seem to be fine with that, so mission accomplished on my part, i guess.

i am now SERIOUSLY ANNOYED by my dad using my charger. it's more of a location issue more than anything, seeing as my charger is on my computer table. things get moved around, and that makes me extremely...displeased. i think i'll move my charger to a less private area, so i don't feel all that irritated.

ok...i think that's it for me at present. as a reminder to myself, i have 3 mid-term tests, on modern chemical principles on monday night, maths on wednesday night (yes, you read those last 2 right. tests at night.), and physical chem on friday afternoon/evening. not to forget my lab reports, which should be done by wednesday. meanwhile, i'm going to rot my brain in front of the TV for a bit, then (try to) get in some study for tomorrow's paper. don't think i'll need it, since it's just a little elaboration on a-level stuff, but one can never be too prepared, right?

-random thought of the day: Should I make a library trip later?-

Lab reports aren't so bad...once you start writing them that is. so far, i've done around half of my chlorophyll one, and zero of my molecular modelling one. there's a big zip file sitting in my email inbox which contains all the data regarding the latter experiment. believe me, i'm VERY reluctant to download and open the file. molecular orbital theory is still new to me (it hasn't been covered in lectures yet), and while the "crash course" presentation helped a little, i have my reservations about tackling that report at present. i figure i'll put it off till sunday, where i have the whole day to agonize over it. jumping back briefly to talk about the chlorophyll experiment, i don't think i'll be able to do any more than what i have done so far, except to throw a few more smoke bombs and make everything look prettier. i'll probably end up referring to (not copying, mind you,) classmates' lab reports in school next week to give myself a better sense of direction.

normally, my sunday's taken up by tuition. for this coming sunday, i've gone out of my way to push all my tuition appointments forward. the main reason (as mentioned above,) is to settle my lab reports. the other reason is to give myself time to study for the mid-terms. i'll be the first to admit that i didn't study nearly as much (or as hard) as i should have this recess week. even then, i'm sort of under the impression that things will work themselves out. besides, given my last-minute skills, who knows what will happen?

of course, cancelling sunday tuition means getting it over and done with sooner, like today and tomorrow (well, yesterday and today, since it's past 12:00am). in fact, i just spent around 5 hours seeing both my SJI sec 4 kids for group tuition. i think it went pretty well...should consider doing more of this kind of stuff, especially since it saves effort on my part (they're doing the same practice papers, so i only have to explain stuff once when they're in a group as opposed to separately). only drawback for me is that i was stupid/crazy nice enough to tell them that the rates for that session would be the same as a normal 2-hour one. hello, 2.5 times reduced earnings! nice to meet you! what's worse is, they're SJI kids. i can't really justify the big discount, considering they're not from cat high or CJC. but it's not like i have to anyway; i'm my own boss here. ah well. remember, it's for the experience, not just the money. kind of hard to keep believing that when each successive driving lesson stabs yet another pointy object into my wallet...but i will anyway. they're words of advice from the great Mr Lee, after all.

currently, it's about 1:13am. there's no way i'm going to wake up in time for the alumni gathering tomorrow, and besides, i have tuition to give in the morning. figure i'll go off to sleep soon. heaven knows i need the rest, especially after 5 hours of tuition, and in anticipation of even more tuition to come in less that 12 hours' time.

-random thought of the day: Has it only been 25 days since my last haircut?-

Over the past few days, i've been questioning my decision on whether i've chosen the correct course of study, and whether NUS is really the place for me. should i have gone overseas for university, or indeed, gone to a university at all? a part of me has been entertaining the idea of quitting school and giving tuition for a living. i think that i would still make enough money to survive, since i would have time for more students. but then, there isn't any guarantee that i can get new students, and even if i do, my focus will be distributed, so i can't guarantee results. well, the logical conclusion is that even if i do plan on becoming a full-time tutor eventually, i'll still need a bachelor of science degree at minimum to increase my market value. so, i'm going to stick it through, no matter how much i dislike certain lecturers, or however chim the subject content may be.

you know, i think one of the reasons why i'm thinking along these lines is partially due to my army experience. earlier on in the year, or maybe even last year, i said that army has exposed me to all sorts of new things and new people. most of the people i met while serving were A-level kids, like myself. others were polytechnic graduates, while some dropped out somewhere along the line. most of the people i served with had university in their sights, but some of them had no intention to continue studying after NS, even though they qualified for a place in university. that was quite an eye-opener, since the idea of university after army was something that has been drilled into my head (and the thought of studying gave me something to look forward to while counting the days). also, army gave me the opportunity to earn my own money (as little as it was), which was another new experience at that time. and like i've said before, earning your own money's actually quite a liberating feeling. come to think of it, if i had a choice, i would have deferred my NS till after university (actually, i would have opted out of NS completely, but let's not get carried away here). while i am grateful to NS for all the life lessons, the fact that it disengaged my brain for 2 years means that it did more harm than good in my book. but enough about that. that's not the main topic of discussion now.

this sudden outpouring is mainly attributed to stress. even though it's recess week (aka. mid-semester break) now, it's hardly a break since i have to prepare for 3 mid-term tests, 1 physics group project, and 2 chem lab reports. not the lightest of workloads, but not mind-bogglingly heavy either. perhaps it's the sense of urgency/panic that's causing my recent moodiness. honestly, out of the 6 weeks of content which have been covered for all of my 5 modules, i'd say my mastery of everything ranges between 30 to 60%. not nearly as good as i would like. that's why i'm starting on some past-year papers which some modules' lecturers have kindly provided. in fact, i was in the middle of a maths tutorial when i decided to blog in order to clear my head to help my concentration. i'll return to the tutorials...soon.

writing about putting tutorials off just reminded me of a topic which i've been wanting to blog about: self-destructive behaviour. no, i'm not slicing my wrists up or anything like that (i'm too terrified of pain to even consider it. on that note, i have a hard time believing people who say that they engage in this sort of stuff to "feel that they're alive"). instead, the "self-destructive" i'm referring to is not physically life-threatening, but behaviour that inhibits potential. stuff like procrastination (which i'm notorious for), overconfidence/complacence...you get the idea. i'm working on curbing these bad habits, but i'm nowhere as successful in kicking them as i'd like to be. well, that gives me something to work towards. and i'll start that off by declaring that i won't sleep until i've at least looked at and attempted to do all the questions in my 3 maths tutorials...which i will start on again in another 30 minutes.

sometimes, i get too bored and resort to browsing random content on youtube. sometimes, i get lucky and find little gems...like a funny video, something meaningful, or even a nice song. sometimes (man, there are a lot of "sometimes" here, aren't there?), i get even luckier and find a funny video or a nice song which is really meaningful, like this one:

not often you find something like that. i've also started following links to listen to their other songs, some of which i've posted on facebook already. but...i'll save that for another time. my maths tutorials beckon.

-random thought of the day: Distractions make it difficult to concentrate.-

Unstable internet connection last night meant that i was unable to update. all i wanted to say at that time was that i've been having the urge to do this to some people recently:

must be the pre-midterm stress and long hours in school. i personally think stress is the larger contributing factor. paradoxically, i don't think i'm as stressed out as i should be. confused? so am i.

anyways, there's still quite a bit of stuff i want to blog about, like viewing a live (and still-moving) specimen through the microscope in bio lab, along with other interesting thing like driving and tuition. but i think that all of those will have to be put on hold for a while. after all, i have a physics test tomorrow and i sill haven't really studied for it. then again, how difficult can heat, energy, entropy and micro/macro be?

...you never know, actually. this is university after all.

-random thought of the day: Having writers' block now.-

Cool weather this afternoon has helped to balance out the previous two days' humidity. in fact, it's prefect sleeping weather! but sleep can wait for a while, at least until after this post.

let's recap what's been going on the past few days, starting with wednesday. had driving early in the morning. truth be told, it went better than i expected. stalled only once, and that was when we just started moving. the rest of the lesson was uneventful. as sad as that sounds, it's a good thing since this means that there were no near-misses or anything bad like that. after a 2-month hiatus, driving actually seems easier now. relaxing at the wheel seems to come more naturally. still could improve a little in the judgement department though. have to learn to use the side mirrors more effectively. now that university's started, my schedule is no longer as flexible as before. hopefully i can still get in my one lesson per week minimum, especially since my test is coming up in slightly less than a month's time.

met my JC kid for tuition after that. i think he's going to be ok for his promos, just that he lacks confidence after screwing them up last year. too bad self-confidence is not something that can be taught easily. no matter how many times i say it's a brainless subject, it won't make any difference unless/until they believe it for themselves. well, at least i have around another 4 weeks to get him accustomed to the idea.

unfortunately, the above paragraph is more than i can say for one of my SJI kids. he's sitting for his o-levels this year, and yet, he's still taking it easy, cancelling tuition sessions because he hasn't done the work and wants to go out with his family. i'd be more understanding about it if he was a super genius at everything, but the simple fact that he needs tuition kind of rules that out. i've been resisting the temptation to call him and scream at him to wake up his bleeding idea, and that he's the one taking the exam, not me. i wonder how teachers in schools avoid getting so emotionally tied to their students' actions. probably because they've handled so many students that they've become used to it. at any rate, i've decided that if he cancels on me again before our next lesson 2 sundays later, i'm dropping him. sometimes, it's just not worth the stress. why should i be worried about someone's results when he doesn't care for them himself?

i guess that's the difference between a teacher and a tutor. a teacher is committed (either by passion or by lack of choice) to ensure all the students that were assigned to him/her do well, regardless of whether he/she likes them and regardless of the students' attitude towards the subject. tutors, on the other hand, are free to pick and choose the students that they want to tutor, and to discontinue tuition at their discretion (short of being unreasonable, of course). that's why i'd rather be a tutor than a teacher. it looks like the easy way out, and i'm actually inclined to agree. but look at it from this perspective - i can help those who really need and want the help.

since the boy cancelled on me, i was able to make it for training. whether i went or not probably wouldn't have made a difference either way. now that the sec 4s and CJC have stood down, there are too little people at training! on the bright side, i got to sweat a little (not that that wasn't easy enough already due to the weather...) and got a few pointers on some techniques. even though it wasn't the best way to spend 3 hours or so, it beat rotting at home.

yesterday was a pretty bad day. out of my 3 classes for the day, i left the notes for 2 of them at home. not having a good night's sleep before my "early class" day tends to make me a little moody and absent-minded. i definitely did not have a good night's sleep on wednesday, seeing as (1) i normally don't sleep well the night before morning classes, and (2) someone was brilliant enough to switch on the light at 3:30am. lucky my dad works near NUS, so he was able to drop my stuff off on his way to work.

during the bio lab session, i had a moment of revelation. i promise myself that from now on, i will stop questioning my choice of major. i may still question my choice of faculty, but so long as i'm in the science faculty, i will forever say that chem is the only major for me. maths is a no-no, physics is too boring, and life science is now even more out of the question than it was before. oddly enough, these little thoughts were brought about by microscopes. or more specifically, microscopy. the memories of my previous experience with microscopes are a little fuzzy, since the last time i briefly used them was way back in sec 2. at that time, the microscopes which i had access to were still using mirrors to catch sunlight for illuminating the sample...but i digress. these university-level microscopes are significantly less primitive than what i was exposed to 7 years ago, but the TA said that even the ones we were using weren't all that new.

anyways, we had to measure the thickness of hair and do some funny calibrations. the calculation part is fine with me (due to my physics background); the real killer is the tremendous eye strain from trying to focus everything into a nice sharp image and counting the lines on the stage micrometer accurately. given that my eyes are already not in the best shape, you can just imagine how badly i felt like punching through something. frustrating as it may have been, i still got my raw data at the end of the day. now all i need to do is process it and make it sound somewhat logical.

surprisingly, LT25 wasn't flooded with china students after my bio lecture this afternoon. i think some people recorded the tidal wave on their phones/cameras last week and posted it on youtube. maybe that deterred them. pity. i was hoping to put my phone camera and youtube account to good use. oh well. maybe this week was just an anomaly, and we'll see history repeat itself next week. that aside, today was pretty normal. i still can't make much sense of what the german professor is trying to say, and the lecture group is starting to have doubts about his teaching skills. looks like i have to rely on myself for that particular module.

regarding my NYAA dilemma, the professor has told me that if i miss the test with a legitimate excuse, the test weightage will be shifted to my final exam. at the same time, my NYAA coordinator replied my email saying that attending the award ceremony was optional if my university grades would be in jeopardy. so...this leaves me with yet another choice to make: to go for the award presentation ceremony and have my final exam count more, or to skip the ceremony and secure some marks first. i guess i'll let this decision stew for a while, depending on how prepared i feel in the days leading up to the test. my acceptance letter from the NYAA board hasn't come yet, so for all i know, the choice will be taken out of my hands.

with all the (sadly unavoidable) travelling to and from school, my transport costs have risen quite alarmingly. i still haven't done detailed calculations to help in my decision whether to apply for concession or not, so i might as well do it now:

without concession, i spend an average of $3.42 per school day, and $5.70 on a tuition day. in a typical week, i give tuition once and go to school for 4 days. that's $19.38 a week, which translates to $77.52 a month. adding $20 for other unexpected trips, like for training and stuff, that's $97.32, which is quite close to $100.

with bus concession, i get unlimited bus rides every day. this means that train fare will be $2.82 on a school day, and $1.40 on a tuition day. that means a total amount of $12.68 spent on trains per week, and $50.72 per month. add that to the cost of the bus concession (and another $10 for any additional train rides throughout the month), and we have a total monthly damage of $110.72. not worth it. but if i'm patient enough and have time to spare, i could use buses to substitute some of my train journeys, saving money but wasting time in the process.

now let's consider train concession (i think it won't be worth it, but let's try anyway in the interest of fairness). train concession gives 4 free rides per day, which is more than i think i'll need. bus fare for a school day should be $1.38, whereas tuition days' fares should be $5.41(!). again, using the same calculations (but adding $10 for other miscellaneous bus trips), total bus fare per month is $53.72. adding the cost of the concession pass and another $5 in case i make more than 4 train trips on some days, the total is $101.72, which is indeed higher than expected.

the last case of a hybrid pass (unlimited bus rides + 4 train rides) seems not-so out of the question now. considering that the pass alone already costs $93, and my assumptions require me to add another $5 to cover additional train rides, the total comes up to $98. odd as this may sound, my conclusion shows that not applying for concession is still the cheapest way to go, unless i make more effort to use buses instead of trains. well, i figure i'll give the hybrid one (and maybe the bus one too) a shot, and see which one is kinder to my wallet.

-random thought of the day: Okasaki fragment!-

According to wordinfo.com, my dislike of crowds and crowded places is called demophobia. while i don't think it's at phobia-level, that's the closest word i could find. i'm not scared of crowds or anything, but i do get urges that tell me to bash through the wall of people because they're moving SO SLOWLY. weird thing is that it doesn't just apply to people. it works for cars too. like today, when my dad gave me a lift home (yays btw.). all that starting and stopping was kind of annoying, especially when it was jerky. are my expectations of drivers too high, or are the drivers' standards just going down?

my driving instructor called me just now! nice coincidence, seeing as i would have called him myself anyway. we're scheduled for a lesson tomorrow morning, so there goes my plan of sleeping in. i was also planning on going for training at cjc later, but something tells me that that won't materialize either. well...it actually depends on one of my tuition kids and what time i finish with him. oh well. whatever the case, at least i'm confirmed for saturday.

something turned my mood upside-down this evening. the traffic jam probably had something to do with it, but i think there's another reason. too bad i can't identify what it could possibly be. i'm guessing that it's a mixture of fatigue from running around school today, frustration over my physical chem module, and fear of my physics module's homework. nice how they all start with the letter f. arrgh. you know what? i'm going to sleep it off. hopefully i'll be in prime condition for driving tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: I need to go clothes shopping soon.-

Weekends have become rather uneventful, partially due to other commitments (eg. NYAA interview) and partially due to laziness as well. in fact, it's been 3 weeks since i've attended the weekly turf city gatherings. should make an effort to go down this coming weekend to catch up with everyone.

just realized something in school today. my NYAA presentation ceremony is on the afternoon of 2 october. conveniently, guess when's my physical chem quiz/mid-term? looks like i'll have to talk with the professor(s) to take the quiz a little earlier or later. hopefully they'll have a heart and make things easy for me. if they say no, however, that could be troublesome. i mean...it's a choice of 10% of my module grade vs. meeting the president and shaking his hand. worst case scenario is i could leave immediately after the presentation, catch a lift from my dad (who should be present at the presentation as well since parents are invited) and end up back in school by 4:00 for the quiz. but these are all hypothetical scenarios. whether i'll have to call upon any one of them, or think of new ones, depends on the outcome of the conversation with them after lecture tomorrow.

despite the fact that i'm supposed to be a full-time student, a lot of stuff on my to-do list doesn't really have to do with academics. like driving, for instance. as of tomorrow, there will only be one month separating me from my next test date. if that wasn't already bad enough, i haven't even got back in touch with my driving instructor to arrange for lessons again. oddly enough, i feel more confident about my driving skills after a 2-month break. maybe it's because i've forgotten the feeling of panic when steering the vehicle...i don't know. whatever the case, i'd better call him tomorrow. i've been putting it off for too long already.

today's modern chem lecture gave me a tremendous morale boost. turns out that sitting front and centre really does help to keep me awake. as if i'd dare to fall asleep when i was right under the professor's nose! aside from the change in seating position, today's lecture content also helped to stave off sleep. in fact, my sec 4 kids could have gone for the lecture and understood it. we were basically talking about ionic and covalent bonds, and how they form. kind of ironic that they taught all the chim-chim boxy particle stuff before teaching something this brainless. i was actually quite amused to see people go and ask questions after the lecture. could be that i'm complacent, but how difficult is it to understand something you've been seeing on a regular basis for about 5 years? i'll never understand some people...

every trip to and from school, i find myself inching closer to my limit of pissed-off-ness with some other inconsiderate commuters. take today's train ride back home, while changing trains at raffles place. the train had just come from marina bay, so odds of it being close to empty was comparatively higher. as such, i could tolerate it a little better when people started crowding the doors as soon as the beam from the train's headlights were in sight. but there was this bitch woman who ran into the train (literally ran, like the china students running into the LT after my friday bio lecture) and occupied an empty seat, looking around at everyone else with the most horrible smug expression on her face. i wish i could have just slapped it off. you know what? i think i'm going to put my phone's nice 5-megapixel camera to good use, by taking photos and videos of ungracious/idiotic behaviour on the platforms and trains. then, these idiots can have their x seconds of fame on youtube. heh.

i'm going to let that plan stew in my head for a while. right now, i could use some sleep to make up for not sleeping comparatively little (due to not being able to sleep well) last night. lucky tomorrow's class starts late. i'd just die if i had 8:00am classes for 2 consecutive days.

-random thought of the day: I'm looking forward to the mid-semester break already.-

Normally, i enjoy lab sessions. even though it's somewhat of a rush, and some experiments may require redoing, i at least have a general sense of direction about where the entire thing is headed. today's lab was...kind of disastrous, because i was basically a headless chicken. actually, it wasn't even a lab-lab. we did everything on computers in the computer centre (i got spectacularly lost in the maze of buildings again while trying to find it.). essentially, we were supposed to use a computer program to run some calculations on some molecule models to get some data about their molecular orbitals. that's all fine and well, except that i had no idea what the hell a molecular orbital was. come to think of it, my current idea isn't THAT much of an improvement over my old one. the fuzzy edges are a little more defined, but that's about it. i just hope that things will clear up when we formally learn about MOs in lecture/tutorial, because it's difficult to make sense of data when you don't know its significance.

horrible lab aside, today turned out pretty ok. finally overcame the z-monster's temptation this morning and got to my 8:00am lecture 10 minutes early. go me. now let's see if i can do that again next monday. you know, i realized something. the earlier i leave home, the shorter my travelling time to school will be. conversely, the later i leave, the longer i'll take to reach school. don't know why. probably has something to do with the proportion of people who are early, on time and running late.

for some odd reason, there's one lecture in which i'll never fail to fall asleep. that happens to be my general chem lecture. i'm guessing that it's due to a combination of factors, like the time of the day (12:00pm - 2:00pm), the dim lighting conditions, and the professor's (slightly) droning voice. arrgh. i think i'll drop him an email requesting that the back rows' lights all be left on. that should help. worst case scenario is i'll review the lectures on webcast. seems like an awful waste of time and replication of effort, but what to do? have to make myself understand it. doesn't help that mid-terms are coming up at the end of the month. that's just another 3 WEEKS! 21 days to study about 4 weeks of content. not too difficult, as long as i can wrap my head around some of the more incredulous ideas. which reminds me. i need to come up with a handy formula list for physical chem. but that can wait for tomorrow. i'm feeling too tired to do it now.

-random thought of the day: Should I go to school early tomorrow?-

Things work in unexpected ways sometimes. like today, for instance. after my previous failed attempts to get my hair cut, i decided to try again today since i got home relatively early (because my dad was able to give me a lift home...yays). finally managed to catch the barber while he was open, and my head is a few grams lighter. more importantly, the shorter hair doesn't trap as much heat as before.

linking this back to my opening statement, the reason i say things work in unexpected ways is because today's weather happens to be nice and cool. this helps me avoid sweating while walking to and from the barber shop, which in turn prevents all the little bits of cut-off hair from sticking to my neck and other uncomfortable areas. waiting a couple of days for a comfortable post-haircut stroll...seems worth the wait for me. it turned out for the best i guess.

speaking of the weather, today (well, the afternoon and evening parts, at least) was nice and cool. in fact, i'd say it was perfect sleeping weather. too bad i had school. managed to stay awake through my lectures and tutorials, which is a good thing. actually, i think i could have slept through one of my classes today, since another module covers part of its syllabus as well. who knew thermodynamics was such a popular topic?

my left calf muscle felt very tight throughout the day. probably a residual effect of yesterday's cramp. funny story about that cramp, actually. i went to kaypoh around an NUS judo training session, and offered to be practice partner for this japanese exchange student. he pulled me a little too far off-balance, and i felt the muscle stretch, then cramp up. i even made sure i was properly hydrated and warmed up, and yet, it still happened. so idiotic. lucky it was a minor one, and the worst of it passed quickly. i just find it a little weird that i still get aches when going up and down stairs. normally for me, cramps would be a distant memory after half a day maximum. this one's been bugging me for 24 hours already. it's probably due to the weather...cold preventing the muscle from relaxing, stretching out properly and all that. maybe i'll deep heat it later.

as for the training session itself, it was pretty fun. definitely got a good workout and learnt some new interesting stuff which i can now try out on the juniors this coming saturday. my current plan is to only go for monday training sessions, and i don't see that changing all that soon. not for this semester, anyway. i'm not about to sacrifice my wednesdays off just yet. besides, i have tuition to give on my day off from school.

even though today was teachers' day, none of my tuition kids called or even dropped an SMS. in fact, the only SMS of that nature which i got was from a friend, who's a piano teacher. guess it takes one to know one - he knows that teachers (well, tutors in my case) appreciate some form of recognition. it's kind of saddening that i didn't hear from my kids at all, but oh well. i'm not actively looking for appreciation, but i'd be lying if i said i objected to receiving it. human nature again. so, i made sure to SMS or facebook my teachers' day wishes to the teachers whom i still keep in touch with. don't want to not practise what i preach, right?

ok...that should do it for now. time for me to go some sleep. if everything goes according to plan, i'll be able to finish up my maths and chem tutorials, and print out my chem lab manual before i go off to give tuition in the afternoon. that's a really big "if", but we'll see how it goes.

-random thought of the day: Disney bought Marvel!!?-