Peace and quiet are things which i need to blog effectively. that's why i passed on going to my cousin's place tonight in favour of completing my end-of-year post in the solitude of an empty house. better make good use of the remaining 2 hours or so of alone time that i have.

as usual, i'm starting with my theme. on my east coast walk 2 days ago, the word "awakening" came to mind, and it's been persistently stuck there ever since. while i'm sure that there are better ways to sum up my year, this isn't too bad. so...why awakening? to borrow an army phrase, i guess i kind of woke up my idea, and started working harder. the strongest piece of evidence for this is my CAP. i am extremely pleased that my screw-up from year 1 sem 2 is almost neutralized (though it took 3 semesters), and i still have a chance for second-upper.

minor digression to talk about my east coast walk — it was productive. managed to get a fair bit of thinking in, which is really the only objective i have. skipped rocks across the water surface, too. got a few rocks to skip about 5 times, so that was kind of a cheap thrill. in addition, i also took a short walk around the marine parade estate. in case i haven't mentioned it before, marine parade holds a special place in my heart as well, because i spent about 1/6 of my life so far there. if i ever had to move out of bishan, marine parade would be my first choice.

but anyway, walking around a small portion of marine parade (close to my cousin's place) was a nice, nostalgic experience. for some reason, marine parade gives me a sense of tranquillity. people seem more friendly and it's just generally more laid back. maybe it's because of the proximity to the beach? or just the different population composition of the residents there. or maybe it's the architecture. old shophouses still exist there, so it looks less modernized, i guess. whatever it may be, i'm happy that it's a place that allows me to relax. maybe i should move there for retirement.

back to the main story...looking back at my new year's resolutions, i have mixed feelings. while i have accomplished a majority of them, the ones that i didn't manage to fulfil are kind of bugging me. i guess it's a relative magnitude thing, but i'll come to that soon.

on the beach, i asked myself this question, "which events from this year will i remember in 5 years' time?" only 2 came to mind, and oddly (perhaps appropriately) enough, one is good and the other is bad. the good one is getting my black belt, which is memorable for obvious reasons. you should know what the bad thing is if you've been reading this for the past year or so. if you haven't been reading, or can't remember, it's the accident that i got into in february. even though the police only gave me a warning, there are still negative bits. while i can't erase that accident, i can prevent myself from causing future ones.

do i have any other regrets this year? sadly, yes. even though i've taken the ES module, my communication skills still leave much to be desired. that's largely due to my tendency to clam up when faced with awkward situations, especially if i am not obligated to give the other person an explanation. it's different if a professor or my UROPS boss asks me to account for something, because it's my responsibility to explain my actions to them. guess that's something that i have to improve on next year, and fix by the time i graduate. it's already cost me a friendship which i treasure(d), and i really don't want more casualties because of it.

all in all, this has been a pretty good year. there have been many learning experiences, both in and out of school. i'm grateful for the many opportunities to bond with the chem kids, as well as with old friends who still matter. think i'm going to stop rating years, because i suddenly don't see much point in it any more. i figure that if the year was good, that's good enough for me.

what you see above has taken me about 100 minutes to type, which means it's about 11:35pm now. guess i'll stay awake a little longer to welcome the new year. as is tradition, look out for the new year post, and i'll see you all again in 2012.

-random thought of the day: Must do questionnaire.-

Feels like i'm long overdue for a good, complete soul-searching session. not really surprising, since the year is drawing to a close, and i still haven't made my annual east coast pilgrimage. but anyway, one of my friends' facebook links led to to this site, which is basically a self-help website. there are a couple of questionnaires from there which i will do sometime in the future (probably one as the next post, and another longer one which will be kept for later).

from that site, i then linked to MMT, which follows the format of FML. only difference is that the stuff posted there is...how do i describe it? thought-provoking. yes; that's what i was looking for. so far i've came across love stories, acts of kindness, people overcoming the odds, reminiscing about deceased loved ones, role models, and more. reluctant as i am to admit it, i found myself tearing up at most of the stories. in fact, i'm quite sure i would have cried by now if i was living alone and nobody could witness my unmanliness. not sure why this is happening, though...could be because it's late and i'm tired, or there might be other underlying psychological reasons. ah whatever.

the other thing that i've found myself thinking is, 'i wish i could have a/an MMT moment'. like, experiencing the same kind of kindness from strangers, or having someone special to love in the same way. but this is singapore, after all, so i'm not going to get my hopes up too high. seriously think i'm too tired. normal me probably would probably not have spared a second thought for something like this.

anyway, the reason why i'm still awake at this ungodly hour is because i'm bidding for those earphones on ebay, and the auction closes at 6:12am. damned time zone differences. seems like i have a pretty good chance of getting the earphones, though i hope i'm not outbid at the last minute. in the event that i am outbid, there is a backup plan, which is to buy directly from another seller, avoiding the hassle of another auction. somehow, i don't really like ebay that much. the element of uncertainty in an auction may be thrilling to some, but it's just a bother to me. and now that i have had to put my maximum bid up, i guess i can go to sleep and wait for results in the morning. maybe some sleep will snap me out of this odd, needy mood.

-random thought of the day: Renamed all my UROPS reading material. Hey, it's a start!-

Writing and sending out all my christmas cards today made me feel accomplished/productive. this year, i sent 10, which is the same as last year. would have sent more, especially to the chem kids, but i didn't have their mailing addresses. anyway, writing christmas cards seems kind of irrelevant, really. i'm almost tempted to stop this tradition. well, we'll see how i feel next year, and if my address list shrinks any further.

while walking down to buy stamps and mail the cards, i stopped by the apple retailer at J8. turns out that they stock the earphones that i had my eye on, so i don't have to go down all the way to city hall. only issue is they cost $220. but thanks to some random internet browsing, i saw the same earphones going for USD88. including shipping, that's about USD124, which is still cheaper than what i'd pay if i bought it at the store. it's so tempting to just approve the order now! you know, that's what i think i shall do...to reward myself for this semester, and as a sort-of christmas present.

that aside, i've still got some errands to do...mainly east coast (probably this weekend or next week), and a bit more cleaning up. but no rush...all's good if i get those things done before the year ends. more urgent matters include reading papers and compiling a bibliography (for UROPS), and possibly a few meetings with friends who are back for the holidays. seems like the rest of 2011 will go by pretty quickly.

-random thought of the day: Paper toss is mildly annoying.-

*Minor update: one day later, 10:51pm*
turns out amazon doesn't ship those earphones to singapore...which is both good and bad. bad is obvious — i have to find alternative sources. good is a little counter-intuitive at first, but it's because between yesterday and today, the price went up by USD10 or so. if i had been able to ship them, i would have kicked myself because the one-day delay when i was making up my mind would have cost me more money.

so, i'm exploring 2 alternatives now. one is i buy them off ebay. problem is that i don't trust the people there 100%. but so far, all the sellers have 100% reputations, so i suppose that's a small measure of relief. the other alternative is to see if my cousin can get it in australia, then have him buy it first and bring it back when he comes back in mid-january, at which point i will pay him. oh! i just thought of another idea. one of my friends is in the US, studying music. i can get amazon to ship it to his place there (free shipping within the US), and he can then ship it to me, the costs of which i'll bear, of course. we'll see how things go. if my ebay auction doesn't work out, then i'll see what price my cousin can get it for. if he can't get it, or if it's too expensive, then i'll ask my friend when he goes back to the US in a couple of weeks.

nothing productive happened today...just bummed around reading comics. lucky i remembered to renew my outstanding loans, and avoided a fine. speaking of fines, i should probably pay mine off tomorrow, after tuition. which now leads me to wonder...what will i do with the kids? ahh...i'll figure something out tomorrow. better catch an early night so i'm up early enough tomorrow. with the trains going all screwy, i'd rather drive. hope the car's available.

NUS is seriously weird. the reason i say this is because of my results this past semester. after looking at my results SMS, i was quite literally gaping in disbelief. as stunning as it may be to you, my A- average mission succeeded. here's the breakdown:

CM3221 (A-)
this is the one i find the weirdest. i didn't do that well for the finals (didn't deduce a fused-ring system, and my synthesis part wasn't perfect, either), and yet, an A-!?? just imagine what my grade would be if i had deduced the fused-ring! there are 2 possible explanations for this grade: i had a really good CA score, or other people messed up the final more than i did. whatever it may be, i'm happy about this grade, because it's a plus point for organic synthesis.

CM3292 (A-)
once again, i'm betting that others screwed the final up more than me (though i must admit, that itself is a feat, considering i left 4 questions blank). guessed my lab report component saved me as well.

CM3242 (B+)
considering i skipped half (or more) of the lectures, this is pretty decent. now i'm kicking myself for making idiotic mistakes in the final, because an A- would not have been out of reach otherwise.

EC1301 (A-)
with such a large and varied cohort, there really was no way to predict results for this module. thank goodness my mid-term scored well, as that helped to tank some damage from the final. now, truly, no more econs, ever.

LAJ1201 (A+)
this is only my second A+ in NUS after 5 semesters. i'm grateful that the CA was worth 70% of the final grade. language modules definitely require consistent work.

overall CAP: 3.98

now do you see why i was so stunned? this is my best set of results in 5 semesters of study in NUS. it's good motivation, too, because i still have a fighting chance for second-upper. and thankfully, this somewhat lowers the bar next semester...though i would want to maintain the A- average mission to have some safety barrier/buffer in year 4.

going back to the first paragraph, NUS is weird in the sense that finals performance is usually not reflective of your grade. this semester alone, there have already been 2 exams which exemplify that. and thanks to that fact, i now owe some of the chem kids a meal. oh well...with this kind of results, i'm more than happy to pay.

there are only about 10 days left in 2011, which makes my schedule kind of tight. in those 10 days, i have to write my christmas cards, go to east coast, and possibly shop for a pair of earphones. originally, i had also wanted to just go for a walk along orchard road to look at the christmas lights, but with the MRT in its current state, i'm having second thoughts about that. still, i might go, if i can plan a route by bus or something like that. amidst all that, i have to set time aside for reading journal papers for my UROPS project. seems like i have to practise more time management. and to think it's still the holidays. bleh.

-random thought of the day: Need to get out of the house more...-

Reflecting on things tends to make me unhappy, or at least pensive/brooding. with december being the month of reflections for me, i guess you can see why i'm not at my cheeriest at this time of the year. nevertheless, there have been several events happening over the past few days to keep my spirits up, which is a good thing.

previously, i told you all that i got an iphone 4s. after playing with it for about a week, i'm happy to say that (1) there have been no accidents so far, and (2) i really like it. calling and messaging are easy, and i have yet to be embarrassed by atuocorrect. internet is fast on both 3G and wi-fi connections, and apps exist to circumvent most of the problems i've faced so far. sad thing is that some of the apps i want aren't free, so i'll have to see when's a good time to get them. siri, surprisingly, has been quite (~80%) accurate in recognizing my speech. impressive, considering i don't have an ang moh accent. while it is smart, i'm a little annoyed that it can't do some things the way i would like. but that would be a bonus already. after all, i can manually do those things to my liking if there's an urgent need.

so far, the one thing i am mildly unhappy about is that the battery drains a little fast. a full charge lasts me less than 2 days. but considering i use email, facebook, games, siri, and some other random apps, i suppose it's reasonable. and i wish we could set snooze times, too. but it's a minor problem again. if there's no snooze, use multiple alarms!

yesterday, i met some of the chem kids for dinner at vivocity. we ate at modesto's, where there was a promotion. $9.95 for selected items if you have the discount card. i tried this spinach cannelloni thing (at least i think that's what it was called)...basically spinach wrapped/rolled up in pasta rectangles with white sauce. i'm so tempted to recreate it. only thing stopping me is my lack of an oven to finish the dish off. maybe i can use a different cooking method or something? only experimentation will tell.

before going to vivocity, i was in school to buy microsoft office. i had to make the purchase before 4:30pm, while dinner was scheduled for about 7:00pm. NUS is, at most, half an hour from vivocity by train. see the problem yet? if you don't, i got to vivocity about 2 hours early. so, i killed 2 hours by walking around. managed to cover the entire mall in that time. the pet shop, daiso, tangs, toys-r-us, and the sky park thing were among the more memorable locations.

at the pet shop, i stopped to look at the puppies for sale. every time i do that, it just makes the desire to get one so much stronger. but common sense still wins at the end of the day. at present, i can't give it a fulfilling, meaningful life. so no point getting one now. it has made me think about what kind of dog i'd want, though. at present, i know small dogs like chihuahuas are out. there was this medium-sized type of dog which i thought was pretty cute. too bad i can't remember its name, though i seem to recall a spaniel of some sort. in general, i favour wolf-like dogs. they just look so nice! but enough about that for now.

visiting daiso made me feel accomplished, because i managed to read the katakana for a great number of products. so now i'm a little less clueless, and can make slightly more intelligent guesses as to what weird-looking products' actual functions are. that one trip just highlighted the relevance of taking japanese 1.

walking around the open park thing on the mall's roof made me get all philosophical. maybe it was also because of the timing. the sun was setting and as i've said before, i tend to do most of my thinking at sunrise/sunset. i remember thinking of a great many things, most of which i have forgotten, and will only recall sometime into the future. the one thought i remember having was, 'i'd like to be immortal'. not necessarily with other strengths or vulnerabilities, but just to not die. resisting all illnesses, recovering from all wounds. kind of like the mummy in Anne Rice's book. i think it would be fun to watch the world evolve for a couple of centuries.

that leads me to another thought. in all the stories i've read, immortal characters (or characters with a long lifespan) seem to be much richer than the people with normal lifespans. i guess it's because the former have more years to accumulate their wealth, and even if they were poor, the poverty wouldn't kill them. just a random tangent.

coming back to the main story, my trip to tangs actually comprises of 2 locations. first was this little (relative to the main store) area selling christmas-y stuff, then the main store itself. at the christmas shop, i managed to buy this year's christmas cards. the front depicts a brightly-lit christmas tree in a dark, snowy landscape. it's a bit hard to explain, and i know i didn't get all of the details. well, you'll see for yourself if you receive one this year. P.S. for people i know in real life, you might want to consider emailing me your mailing address. just saying.

as for the main tangs store, i went to check their cooking supplies out. maybe it's because it's tangs, but prices were way too high! i can understand a knife set costing upwards of $200, because they have to be forged, hardened, and all that other labour/machinery-intensive stuff. but why should a whisk cost about $30? compare to a similar product from NTUC, which goes for about $5. i probably wouldn't buy a $30 whisk, unless it had a 120rpm motor attached. even then, i think i'd buy knives from tangs when i move out and live alone. they actually feel pretty comfortable. and i saw the coolest storage block for knives. you know how the normal ones just have small slots to fit the knives? the one i liked has large slots which are filled with many thin plastic rods. think it's not as bad for the knife edge. so cool!

my friend also passed me his japanese 2 textbooks at the dinner. so far, i've casually glanced through them. that casual glance was already enough to intimidate me. i wonder if i'm being a little crazy, taking level 2 language in the same semester as UROPS...whatever the case, i should survive.

today, i went to meet a couple of prospective tuition kids. it's the first time i've been asked to give group tuition, so it'll take some getting used to. the weird thing is that the kids are at different academic levels. one of them is sec 3 going on sec 4, while the other is sec 4 going on J1. based on first impressions, i think the younger kid will be ok. he just needs some pushing in the right direction. but the older kid is a bit more problematic. in our conversation, i found out that he has no interest in the subject, and may not even take it up when he goes to J1 next year. so, the tentative plan is for me to see if i can rekindle his interest over this holiday. if it was entirely up to me, though, i probably wouldn't take him. but we'll see how things go.

lastly, my to-do list. i've got the cards, so that's one thing down. still have to go to east coast, and do area cleaning. the latter will be done tomorrow, but i don't know when i'll do the former. depends on several variables, mood being one of them as well. in the near future, i have to finish reading my library books, and depending on when the UROPS starts, maybe go back to school. good that there are things to keep me busy, otherwise i end up thinking about (someone), thinking bout me; thinkin bout us (us), what we gonna be? too much and making myself sad. but right now, i suppose i should get some sleep. for some reason, i've been sleeping about 8 hours every night, and i still feel lethargic halfway into the day. odd.

-random thought of the day: Feeling mildly unsettled.-

UROPS next semester seems to be confirmed, after yesterday's meeting with my prospective supervisor. on first impressions, he has quite high expectations. to him, a B+ is "not very good". so...it may be challenging. other than that, i feel that he's a nice guy. and as a plus point, he cares about his students. not to mention that he seems approachable, and appears to be, in general, what i'd imagine the ideal supervisor to be. oddly enough, that actually worries me. you see, i've heard some graduate student friends say that some professors will promise you anything just so you join their lab. and after you sign on the line, things change...like those countless jokes about trying heaven and hell out before making a choice. the other scary thing is that the project is kind of intimidating. i get the idea behind it, but the implementation sounds tricky at the moment. maybe it's because i don't know the full details yet. anyway, should the project not work *touch wood*, i'm told that there are backups.

now that UROPS factors into my planning, this means that i can do 2 things...(1) take a core, a lab, UROPS, and 2 electives (normal workload), or (2) take 2 cores, a lab, UROPS, and 1 elective. the latter option is tempting, because i already know what my elective will be (japanese 2). so, i don't have to stress about filling in that last slot. but if i take four level 3 chem modules, i'll probably be swamped. and of course, i have to choose between my chem cores (which admittedly, is easier than choosing electives). right now, i'm set on organic reaction mechanisms, which leaves either transition metals or biomolecules for the other core. i'm more inclined towards transition metals, because i hear the professor's good. but this coming semester, biomolecules will be taught by a visiting professor instead of the regular lecturer, so the decision's tough. personally, i'm more inclined to transition metals, since i generally shy away from all things bio. but, one of my friends tells me that the content covered in biomolecules is important for an organic chemist. decisions, decisions. i'll worry about it in about 18 days' time when CORS bidding starts.

other than meeting with the professor, the other major thing which happened yesterday was that a few of us went to crash another JC classmate's chalet, which was this pretty ulu place in changi with a LOT of mosquitoes. the food was good for a barbeque! i was particularly impressed they they made their own otah, which were nice. played a bit of mahjong, too. no money involved, which is good, considering my current financial situation.

since my dad went to someplace in china for a business trip, i have had the car since yesterday, and will have it up till this sunday. so, i picked up a few of the people who were going, since it was on the way. i was shocked that one of my friends is quite a backseat driver! normally, i get along pretty well with him, but i was severely annoyed during the car ride. to draw an analogy, it's kind of like how you can work with some people but not like them, only opposite. i like him well enough, but i somehow don't foresee that we can put up with each other for extended periods of time, especially in a small enclosure like a car.

i also did some cleaning up...of my facebook account, that is. going through my friends list, i used a very simple selection rule: i deleted the people whose comments i wouldn't feel comfortable replying to. reason is that if i feel sufficiently alienated to not even be able to communicate through facebook comments, then we're too far gone. as a result, my friends list shrunk by about 20 friends (or ex-friends by now). my MSN contacts will probably undergo something similar soon.

when i was younger, my parents used to tell me, "nobody owes you a living". after some thought, i found it to be ironic. my revelation was that anyone can tell you that, EXCEPT your parents! simple reason being that they kind of forced you into the world, so if anyone owes you anything in your life, it's them. this has also made me resolve not to have kids of my own. i figure that i should practise what i preach and not give any future kids ammo with which to to shoot me back.

now more than ever, i've become disillusioned about the concept of marriage. but i think i'll elaborate on that later, when my thoughts on the subject are more organized. in addition to that, i also want to blog about google/gmail accounts, IVP and refereeing, as well as a bit on the iphone.

meanwhile, i have to sleep. i think i lazed in bed too long today, and am feeling lethargic as a result. hopefully i'll recharge in time to be fresh tomorrow morning. there's the 7th anniversary happening at turf city, and i have to be there.

-random thought of the day: Kind of upset right now.-

Marathon runners never fail to amaze me. i don't see the attraction in running excessively long distances. maybe once, for the experience, sure, but i know people who do it on a yearly (or even more frequent) basis! crazy, i call them. as for me, there are no plans to run a marathon in the foreseeable future, but i should think that i'd like to try it once in my lifetime.

anyway, compared to the last post, i am a happier, but poorer, person. since this post is going to be quite substantial (and given my dislike for typing on laptops), the inference is that i've got my desktop up and running again! well, more like bought new parts and rebuilt a computer. even though i only bought parts, they still ended up costing me close to $1100, which means that there's just barely enough money in my account to meet my absolute minimum. the main difference between this time and 3 years ago is that i've gone for something slightly higher-end, with more RAM, and faster processing speed. so far, it runs like a dream. here's hoping that this one'll last for longer than the previous one!

also, i jumped onto the apple bandwagon and got an iphone 4s. it's still charging, so i haven't really been playing around with it yet. so far, it's been easy enough to set up. the most bothersome thing about changing phones is that i'll have to key in the individual contacts manually since there's no feasible way to transfer everything without messing anything up. still, it's ok. i'm mentally prepared for it. finally can say goodbye to the omnia.

since i'm redoing my contacts, i thought that it would be a good time for me to do some cleaning up, like deleting people whom i don't really talk to any more, or whose numbers i would rather not see. guess it's just me trying to let go of things in a more tangible way.

an interesting dilemma has surfaced. in the past 2 weeks, a professor has sent out invitations to apply for a UROPS project, and i'm interested in doing one for the research experience. the issue is that if i do do a UROPS, my workload for next semester will probably be 4 level 3 modules and level 2 japanese, unless i find an elective to replace one of the cores. of course, i may not even be accepted into UROPS, like last semester. at least this time, the professor was nice enough to reply and set up a meeting. we'll see how things go, i guess.

tomorrow, i'll be going back to CJC training for the first time in...4 months or so. as an added bonus, i get to pick up my IJF 1st dan certificate! going to take things easy, especially since my left knee has been hurting for the past 2 weeks. don't know why, either. the most strenuous thing i've done in that period of time is to take a slow climb up the stairs. i suppose i'll ask my physiotherapist-in-training friend to take a look at it.

december break is a short one (oh, how things have changed from secondary school/JC), but there are still quite a lot of things i want to get done. like my annual east coast trip, buying a few iphone accessories, christmas cards, and tidying up my area. at least that's all i remember at the moment. oh! have to get rubber tubes too. keep forgetting. well, i'm off to start the process of copying all my contacts into the iphone. hopefully that won't keep me up too long, in view of training tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: So messy.-

Post-exam plans have been set into motion, and that's kind of exciting. the most immediate things that come to mind are getting a new phone and new computer. before that, though, i'll just mention IA to wrap up the exam series.

the exam was easy. too easy. i'm kind of upset with myself for making at least 3 careless mistakes, but i'm also happy that the help sheet i wrote did come in handy, after all. one thing for sure, though, the curve is going to be severely messed up. predictions: econs B+/A-, japanese A-/A, lab B+/A-, organic B/B+, IA B/B+.

now, i just went to nex today to do my research. it's about 99% certain that i'm getting the iphone 4s, with cheapest plan. i'll have to pay $200 to recontract, and my dad has enough points to redeem a $100 voucher. all in all, that means that i'm paying $598 upfront, plus $38 every month. just hope that they have stock when i go to confirm it.

as for computer, i'm expecting less damage since i managed to salvage a fair few parts from the old system. seems like i mainly need a new housing, processor, and motherboard, as well as maybe some miscellaneous parts. hoping that i can get everything for under $600, since it suddenly appears that i'm paying for the iphone by myself as well. whatever the case, i have to get it fixed up soon. one desktop-less day is one less day spent on gaming.

-random thought of the day: Sleepy.-

Today is probably the first or second time in my (soon-to-be) 5 semesters in NUS when i have felt like crying after coming out of the exam hall. reason being that the organic paper was relatively easy, but i still managed to mess it up. i didn't even feel this bad after analytical, because i knew that no matter how much extra time i had, i still wouldn't be able to do the questions. but if i had another half-hour for this paper, i'm sure that i would have been able to secure a few more marks.

what REALLY annoys me is that this time, the spectroscopy questions were easy compared to the synthesis questions! to be fair, i messed up because i was too dense to interpret the first set of spectra correctly. and the annoying thing is that the professor purposely set it easy, and we did a similar example in tutorial before. i just don't know why a fused-ring system didn't occur to me when i was reading the question. of course, now that i know the answer, it seems so blindingly obvious. all i can hope for is that the professor marks a bit more leniently, and (as bad as it sounds,) that others messed up the synthesis part more than i did. realistically, i think i'm at a B or even B- grade. optimistically (based on the fact that the final is worth only 60%), i'm hoping for a B+, and (somewhat unrealistically) maybe even an A-.

somehow, my intuition tells me that my second-upper dream is over. while i hope that isn't the case, i have a pretty good track record for sixth-sense predictions. fingers crossed.

well, at least it's over, have to look forward, to where IA is tomorrow. i don't know what to expect, really. as long as my help sheet comes in useful, i'll be happy that i didn't waste all my effort (and time, and ink) writing it. on the bright side, last paper tomorrow! then i can go to toa payoh popular to pick up my eragon book 4, as well as to get those file case thingies to store this semester's notes. yes, that's it. focus on the positives.

-random thought of the day: Funan tomorrow as well?-

Short update: japanese went...so-so. it was tough, but i saw people leaving like half an hour into the paper (damned pseudo-beginners. that's supposed to be illegal!). apart from that, the lecturer asked us to translate "clothes" into japanese. the annoying thing is that it was only VERY briefly touched upon in one tutorial. and of all the chapters that he could have tested, he tested on the one which i didn't pay attention to. trolling has taken place, but at least now i'll never forget that the word is "fuku". well, at least it's over. i'm hoping against hope for an A.

help sheet writing is coming along nicely. i finished HPLC and GC today, which actually puts me (slightly) ahead of schedule! that means i can focus on organic spectroscopy tomorrow. better use the time to watch the videos which the professor put up. hopefully i'll be enlightened.

last thing. tomorrow's also my last session with RJC girl, and my last session of the year. sucks that i won't earn any more money until next year, and that's if i manage to get new tuition kids! with my massive purchases (computer, iphone) approaching steadily, i just hope that i have enough money left over by year-end to meet my (already-lowered) savings target.

-random thought of the day: Typing on a Mac is seriously annoying me.-

Let me just put on record how much i detest writing help sheets. it's mainly because i have to squeeze my handwriting so that it fits into unbelievably small places. the interesting thing is that i can still read what i've written! i wouldn't be so stressed if there wasn't a space constraint, but then no space constraint = open-book. bleh. at least i can take comfort in the fact that this is only the second (and probably the last) help sheet i have to write in NUS. seriously, i have no idea how maths majors write like 1 or 2 help sheets per semester. i'd just die if i had to do that.

on the more positive side, writing the help sheet has helped somewhat in my revision. while i'd still be finished in the exam if i forgot it, i'd at least scrape a C now, thanks to the passive diffusion that's been taking place. at this point in time, i'm left with about 2/3 of HPLC, and all of GC and electro. suddenly, getting it done by the weekend seems possible! only thing worrying me is the possibility of running out of space before finishing. while there's plenty of time to finish the current help sheet, it's probably too late to start another one. so, fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong.

i've got a japanese paper tomorrow, and i'm feeling pretty neutral about it. i mean, the nervousness is there, but i know that i've done well enough for my CA to be able to afford a few mistakes. and of course, that's where overconfidence sets in. still, i think that i'm ok with most of the content, despite not really spending much time studying for it over reading week. figure that it's largely due to the quizzes and all that throughout the semester. guess it pays to be consistent when learning a language. will probably go through the vocabulary, particles and sentence patterns once more tomorrow before the exam. should be fine.

-random thought of the day: This time next week, I'll be free!-

It still feels kind of surreal...apparently, exams have started already, and i've even sat for a paper. the problem is that it still feels like reading week. guess it's because my core modules' exams are still about a week away, so i don't feel that much of the pressure yet.

econs today was...i don't know. while i tried to reason everything out logically, i cannot guarantee that my logic was correct all the way through. one wrong deduction, and the whole thing goes boom. nevertheless, i am reassured by hearing people say that they guessed questions. since i didn't guess anything, but thought everything through instead, my score SHOULD be better, right? theory says so, but who knows what will happen in practice? in a desperate scenario, i have an s/u standing by...though i would rather keep all of them for higher-level japanese modules.

a few friends and i had lunch at u-town after the paper, and then we came back to science to study. it's been a pretty productive day today. finished up the minor topics for my IA help sheet, and i'm now left with electrochemistry, atomic spectroscopy, and chromatography...3 topics which span 8 sets of notes. oh joy. but on the bright side, today showed me that i can do about 1.5 sets of notes in about 3 to 4 hours (i saw that my end time was 3:45pm, but i forgot to note the start time). so...if i apply myself, 2 sets of notes per day actually seems possible. only thing i have to be careful about is not to let the frustration/impatience from restricting my font size get the better of me. and also to watch out for diminishing returns, of course.

with the exam and help sheet, i think i'm at my limit for heavy studying today. i'll probably use the 1 hour and a bit i have left in school to read some japanese and plan the sequence of topics for writing the remainder of my help sheet. there's dinner planned at some chinese restaurant later, so that's something to look forward to and keep the morale high.

-random thought of the day: Still can't believe it.-

Good thing i decided to work hard(er than normal) this reading week. the study plan which i put up is definitely going to need major edits. seems that the allocated timing for certain modules (particularly IA) is slightly off. i'm definitely going to need more time to finish my help sheet. assuming i do a topic a day, that'll take me...10 days. cutting it VERY fine, there. and let's not forget that i have other exams too. have to put more time into it every day, get more stuff covered in a shorter time...maybe 1.5 topics per day instead.

maybe it's for the best that my computer died. that way, there's totally no way for me to get distracted, meaning that i will now go to school on weekends to study. it's for the best, seeing as i need to squeeze time for my help sheet writing.

right now, econs is my #1 priority. the exam's in about 32 hours' time, and i am inadequately prepared. i'm counting on tomorrow's consultation session to save my macroecons. why did i take this module again? should have cut my losses and stopped after my B at A-levels. oh well. after this saturday, no more econs for life. promise.

-random thought of the day: Should people who don't try to improve their situations be allowed to complain?-

Uncle murphy strikes again! my computer (desktop) just died tonight...like, it's completely gone. can't boot or anything. luckily, i have everything i need printed out already. worst case is that i'll do my printing in school. so, it looks like i'll be getting myself a new computer this christmas, after all.

quick update today, because i'm tired and i don't really like typing on a mac. for the first time in my NUS life, i went back to school to study during reading week. it's actually quite good...i got a fair bit of work done today, and am pretty much still on schedule. could have done more if i'd remembered to bring my IA file. guess the environment does make a difference. somehow, you feel compelled to study when everyone around you is studying as well. and since today has been so successful, i'll probably be going back for all the remaining days.

meanwhile, sleep calls. a lot of studying naturally leads to me being more tired out than usual.

-random thought of the day: Blog about how well I know certain people.-

Kind of apt that it's raining on my last free day before reading week...creating a depressing mood and all that. this reading week, i'm going to try something different, which is to go back to school (almost) every day to get more work done as compared to staying at home.

as per tradition, here's the (idealized) study schedule:
monday (tomorrow) — start on IA helpsheet, macroecons
tuesday — annotate organic notes, finish up synthon list
wednesday — maybe take a break, or any module
thursday — econs
friday — microecons
saturday — econs exam, rest
sunday — minor IA, minor japanese, library visit
monday — japanese, organic spectroscopy
tuesday — japanese, finish IA helpsheet
wednesday — minor organic synthesis, japanese
thursday — japanese, japanese exam, organic
friday — organic, maybe cooking
saturday — IA final helpsheet check
sunday — organic
monday — organic, organic exam, IA
tuesday — IA, IA exam, freedom!

once again, this is the best-case scenario, so i'm definitely expecting deviation from the plan. if all goes well, i should be adequately prepared for the exams.

a thought occurred to me when i was in the library earlier. i am actually quite a bibliophile! as in, i like being around shelves of books. makes me...happy? relaxed? i don't know. let's just say i feel good around books. such a stereotypical ravenclaw. must be something left over from my days as a student librarian in primary school. but still, i think that making library visits a habit can't be all THAT bad for me, right?

speaking of libraries, i strongly feel that kids under the age of 6 should be banned from all public libraries, and kids between 7 and 18 should have their own soundproof floor(s). i mean, i'm all for introducing kids to the library at a young age, but can it be at an age when they've already learnt how to whisper? people seem to forget that the library is a place for QUIET reading. actually, teenagers aren't so bad...when they're alone. they only get noisy when they're in groups. i think it's some "strength in numbers" thing. if i could, i'd kick every single one of the noisy buggers out, regardless of how many there are.

you know, i sometimes think the world would be better if i had a say in how it was run. i don't mean politics or economy...those can go settle themselves. i mean like if the world had an international "social/order" body...i think that i'd do some good if i was its head. then again, given my rather extreme views on escalators, buses, driving, and lifts (to name only 4 things), it might not work out so well after all. luckily i have no aspirations for world domination...or any form of politics at all, really.

post-exam plans are already starting to form in my head! and this is a week before my exams start, mind you. not good. i guess going to school will be beneficial for me, after all. thank goodness for friends who will be there as well. with positive peer pressure, i'm sure i'll be able to get things done.

-random thought of the day: Next post prompt is tuition, money, computer.-

Only 10 days separate me from the first paper, which is econs next saturday. after that, there's japanese on the following friday, followed by organic and IA on moday and tuesday respectively. i'd rather have econs and japanese closer together, and have a larger time interval to study for the cores. but well, this isn't horrible...i'm sure i can make good use of the time i have.

like i said last post, this week is the last week of school. econs and japanese lectures have ended already, and the core modules' lectures will end tomorrow. it seems kind of fast, though i must admit that other semesters have been faster. at least i seem to recall most of the stuff that was taught for all modules (except IA, because i skipped too many lectures). for most of the modules, i think i'm pretty ok. can probably use reading week to cram enough econs in my head to pass. for japanese, i'm feeling pretty good about it...horrible listening test aside. quick digression: we had a listening test yesterday, and the difficulty was much worse than the previous listening quizzes. i couldn't even catch the dictation; the lecturer was speaking that fast. but anyway, i think i'm in a good place for japanese.

organic is challenging. with the introduction of 2D NMR, spectroscopy has just suddenly become about 5 times more challenging. not to mention there's still the synthesis part, which i have basically neglected for the last 7 weeks. lucky there's a revision lecture tomorrow, so i can get reacquainted with synthesis. while i'm concerned for organic, i am practically panicking myself silly for IA. for starters, there are like...11 or so sets of notes. those notes have to be compressed into a single piece of A4 paper. not easy, by any means. my friend, who's been more consistent in IA than me, has already filled up one side of the paper with content (excluding diagrams and equations) from 6 sets of notes. looks like i have a real task ahead of me, especially since my handwriting's not that small.

the last hurdle i have to cross during semester time is the oral interview on friday. i am grateful that my partner is one of the better ones in class, so i'm not terribly stressed about it. but i still have to do my part, by going through the sentence patterns, vocabulary, and conversations. not to mention practising a few scenarios with him before the actual interview. i just hope i don't panic, say something stupid, lose the plot, or have something bad happen. keeping my fingers crossed until after 5:30pm on friday.

umm...oh yes. phone update time! ok. update's over. in other words, nothing's happened...on the parents' end anyway. i've done some research, and found out that my phone contract expires in a year and 2 weeks' time. by then, i might be tempted to wait for yet another release. early cancellation of my contract currently costs about $300. consequently, i'm still mildly annoyed with my dad for recontracting my line without telling me. i figure i'll wait until after exams to make the change. then, i'll have time to transfer contacts, set up the preferences, wallpaper and all that other cosmetic stuff. patience.

meanwhile, it's bedtime for me. have to at least make an effort to attend the last IA lecture tomorrow. hopefully, the lecturer will drop something useful for the exam...preferably the questions.

-random thought of the day: Time to download and compile files.-

Deadlines have came and went, leaving me incredibly free. well... for this weekend, anyway. nice coincidence that it's a long weekend due to a public holiday on sunday/monday. the not-so-nice bit is that next week is week 13, which is the last week of school. lecturers will be wrapping things up, and leaving us to die study for our finals. but i'm not going to think about that just yet. the most pressing thing for me to do at this moment in time is to write a proper, insightful post.

over the past week, i've had many thoughts which i want to write down for future reference. hope i remember all of them...

first on my mind is about friends and maybe more. you know, no matter how close you get to some people, you will never see them as anything "special". they can become something like your second family/siblings, but you're probably not going to be attracted to, or fall in love with them. after spending some time thinking about it, i've come to the conclusion that relations with friends can run on 2 tracks: the platonic track, and romantic track. platonic friends, which in my case, includes the chem kids and JC classmates, will remain as just that. though sometimes, a platonic friend may cross tracks and become a romantic interest, something like what that person did. people can change tracks the reverse way, too...like someone who i used to like, but is a really good friend now. that's still somewhat easy to understand. the complicated bit is that the tracks run relative to each individual person, meaning that if person A perceives person B as a friend, the reverse may not be true. see what i meant by complicated? if the MRT system was anything like this, we'd have the worst train service in existence.

on the topic of interpersonal relationships, isn't it funny how there are things that you'd rather tell acquaintances than close friends? unlike the previous thought, i can't give examples here for the sake of my privacy. the difference between friends and acquaintances is especially apparent when comparing real life to the internet. like i feel comfortable revealing information about myself to some people i know on pottermore, but i would never write that information here. but that's all i want to say about that topic for now.

social consideration is still weighing on my mind. particularly, the issue of escalators and buses. normally, i'm tolerant enough to put up with slight delays, though there are 2 exceptions — when it's early in the morning, or when i'm in danger of being late. why won't people think about the greater good? even though singaporeans want more freedom,i sometimes think a bit of dictatorial enforcement is necessary. like if i had the money and power, i'd pay the MRT stations to broadcast "please keep left" messages in all possible languages and dialects, and have armed guards to shoot the people who still insist on standing still on the right side of the escalator. same with buses. i'd rig the "stop" button to shock those who pressed it after the bell rang once. if only i could do all that. you know, i think that's part of the reason why i prefer being alone...so that i don't have to deal with idiots. i'm not saying that i'm better than them, but i don't inconvenience others this way. i know, it's a minor thing, and i'm probably silly to get so worked up over it. but you just can't help some things, you know?

in about 2 weeks' time, my source of income will completely dry up for the year. RJC girl and CJC boy will be sitting for/will have sat for their exams by then. to be perfectly honest, i'm not very optimistic for either one of them. for RJC girl, it's because she forgets her basic concepts. the questions she asks are normally what i'd consider as easy, though i know it's not a fair comparison. still, i have to admit that she's improved, but not as much as i'd like. assuming she's careful and knows what the question wants, i think a B should be achievable, though i'd like to see an A. as for CJC boy, he hasn't forgotten his concepts. how can you forget something you never knew? i seriously cannot believe he was allowed to take H2 chem, when he either forgets or doesn't know things like typical transition metal compound colours. in his case, i'm optimistically looking at a B, if he reads the question correctly, keeps his answers concise, and doesn't have blank moments...which is actually quite a lot to ask for from him.

this drop in income isn't exactly good. remember how i wanted to upgrade my computer? well...assuming i use the same monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and graphics card, i'm estimating that i have to spend anywhere from $800 to $1200. coupled with my income at a standstill, that's quite a severe bomb. as usual, i ask myself, "is it necessary?" well...yes and no. strictly speaking, i can work on this computer, so there's no real NEED for an upgrade. but the danger is that if my computer dies (and i think it might happen in the next 6 months), all my university files will be inaccessible for some time until i can get a new system hooked up and the files recovered/transferred. not to mention doing lab reports and the like will be more troublesome. not totally impossible, but with a LOT more hassle. that's an inconvenience i simply cannot afford during semester time.

but on the flipside, this urge to upgrade is also partially driven by quality of life issues. right now, i'm running on 2gb RAM, and it makes the gaming experience kind of substandard, with issues such as severe lag, which i cannot afford in the middle of a fight. what's worse is that there are now 4 free MMOs on the market which i want to play! all in all, i think that an upgrade (partial at least, if not full) is needed. at any rate, i definitely have to replace my RAM, or maybe up the maximum to 8gb.

sidetrack to talk about MMOs. as you may know, i only have lifetime subscription for STO (it's paid off already, by the way. i'm essentially playing for free now). other than STO, DCUO ad CO offer lifetimes as well...or at least CO does. DCUO seems to have stopped that practice. to me, lifetime subscriptions are kind of risky. if it pays off after 16 months or whatever the case may be, that's fine and well. but there's this nagging fear that the game bombs, and that the $250 or so spent on it is wasted. of course, the risk is lessened by proper analysis and past records. like for instance, i'm still having second thoughts about getting lifetime for DCUO (if they still offer it), but if CoH launched lifetime at a similar price, i'd get it in a heartbeat. then, there are what i call questionable decisions. out of the 3 games that offer(ed) lifetimes, i would probably have gotten it for DCUO instead of STO if they came out at the same time. still, what's done is done. i suppose i could always sell my STO account or something, if i was really desperate.

don't know if i've mentioned this before, but my parents are (supposedly) getting me an iphone 4S for my birthday present. being motivated by it, i went to check out the prices on starhub. i've been thinking about several options, and my conclusion is that i'll probably go for the cheapest plan (100 minutes outgoing, unlimited SMS, 12gb data). while i pay more upfront for the phone ($498 for 16gb; my friend tells me that that amount of memory should be enough for my consumption pattern), i ultimately save in the long run (assuming i don't exceed the monthly limits). of course, there's that little issue about when my current line expires, so i'll have to look into that and factor in any additional costs, or take any constraints into account.

the next 1 day and a bit will be devoted to R&R. i figure that i can spare myself a break after a horrible week. have to start working a bit on monday (even though it's a holiday). need to get my japanese reading practice done, and start work on grammar patterns for the oral interview this coming friday. after this coming week, it's reading week before the first paper starts on the saturday after next. bleh.

-random thought of the day: Making a lot of typos...-

Watch this video. i challenge you not to crack up laughing at any point:

if you were successful, try this too:

sadly, the majority of this post will not be as humourous as the video. that's mainly because i just had my lab exam today. to use a popular internet phrase, we were severely trolled by the quiz and experiment. studying the past questions weren't really useful; we would have been better off studying the lab manual instead. but it's not so much the content that i'm annoyed about. what really bugged me was the time constraint. 1 hour for 100 marks' worth of questions is simply not enough time. there was a 10-minute extension, which kind of helped. not much, but helped nonetheless.

four hours sounds like a lot of time, doesn't it? kind of weird how it all evaporated during the practical exam. despite our predictions (it would be a physical experiment, somehow involving kinetics), we were still thrown for a loop, because the quantities we were supposed to find were...unusual, to say the least. i think that i would have managed to do everything decently, provided that my time management was better. probably shouldn't have wasted time redoing a few runs. you see, the main experiment involved waiting for the solution in the flask to turn blue, then immediately adding reagent. if you let the blue persist for more than 5 seconds, the run is practically wasted. long story short is i spent too much time on the experiment...3:15 out of 4 hours. 45 minutes to plot 3 graphs and answer about 10 questions simply isn't enough. i think i left about 4 questions blank or partially-answered. outlook for this module: not too good. and on a related note, today may have spelt the end of my A- average dream. i'm still keeping my fingers crossed, but i'm not too hopeful.

in a post which i started but didn't publish, i talked about distractions, mainly in the form of MMOs. CO, CoH, STO, and DCUO are either already free, or have plans to go free by the end of the year. even though the free accounts have a severely lower standard of living in-game, the temptation to play still exists. that's because the most significant barrier to entry (subscription fees) has been removed. it's like playing a little is better than not playing at all. and that's the problem. not playing at all is actually the best option for me right now, due to exams and similar stuff. luckily, i'm sufficiently busy such that playing on school nights is almost impossible. guess i have to practise self-control on my free days.

right now, i think that's all the blogging i can handle for one session. as always, the philosophical/heavy stuff is delayed. i think i'll post again tomorrow, and dedicate a post solely to questions which i wish i knew the answer to. but for now, a bit of CoH before bed.

-random thought of the day: I want to practise spoken Japanese!-

How on earth did i manage to pull a back muscle while sleeping? i swear, i amaze myself sometimes. now, there's kind of an aching line running down the right side of my back, close to the shoulder blade. this is one of those freak occurrences that i really can't explain. to think that i slept early last night, in the hopes of feeling well and rested today, too. so much for that idea.

the past week was really bad, mostly due to the organic test and lab. for the organic test, it wasn't as difficult as i'd imagined it to be. thank goodness for my last-minute brainwave to deduce that an aldehyde group was present in one of the structures! based on the answer videos that the professor uploaded, i've identified the exact correct structure for one question, but arranged the fragments wrongly for the other question's structure. i'm guessing a high 30s mark (out of 50) is achievable, though a 40+ would be welcome as well.

incidentally, i think i haven't mentioned my econs mid-term result. i got 36/40, which translates to 27% of my final grade. i'm still not too optimistic for the module, because now that we're doing the macro part, i am reminded of how badly i sucked at it in JC. apparently, that hasn't changed after 5 years.

labs are winding down already, which is a good thing. the last lab session for this semester will be the practical test next week. that, along with 2 more lab reports to be submitted, will wrap up lab for the semester. oh. the viva yesterday didn't go as well as i would have liked. the lecturer just HAD to ask me about surface excess, which i know next to nothing about (i'm not taking the solid state module where it's covered in detail). other than that, the rest of the questions were manageable, but i don't think my grade will be very high for this component. on the brighter side, though, my analytical lab reports are back. the 5 reports have grades ranging from B to A, with the average of the 5 being a B+/A-. not bad so far. hopefully the trend is observed in my physical reports as well, but leaning more towards the "A" side.

since week 10 is ending, i had a little peek at my exam timetable. this semester, my exams are nicely spread out over a period of 2 weeks and a day (from 14 to 29 november), except for instrumental and organic, the former being the very next day after the latter. i can't really complain though, as those are my last 2 papers. rather, i worry that i may slack off, in anticipation of the holidays. bleh.

next week is welcome relief from this week's stress. 1 session of econs is cancelled, and i don't have lab. that means that i only have 1 evening class each for tuesday and friday. not forgetting that my thursday japanese tutorial is cancelled due to wednesday being deepavali. i suppose i'd better use the freer-than-usual week to get a headstart on my lab report, as well as do some catch-up on organic synthesis, instrumental analysis, japanese, and econs...or in short, everything.

-random thought of the day: Some tuition kids aren't worth it. J2 CJC boy, that kind of means you.-

For the record: happy birthday to me!

-random thought of the day: This was a bo-liao post.-

Birthdays kind of stopped being a big deal a while ago. the last significant birthday that i can remember was my 20th, only because the first digit changed from 1 to 2. seems like the older i grow, the more reluctant i become to celebrate my birthday. maybe that will change in the future, when i'm much, much older, but that's they way it is for now at least.

of course, i'm mentioning this for a reason, namely that it's my 23rd birthday tomorrow. i'm not expecting any surprises, or for anyone to make a big deal about it. but it would be nice if a few important people remembered...just saying.

anyway, i'm going to be shameless and provide a list of things that i would like to receive. in no particular order of preference, they are:

— a new phone. word is that my parents are planning on getting me an iphone 4S, though the exact model of phone may change once prices and all that come out. not to mention the contracting issues. worst case is it'll come around december, or maybe next year. but it'll come eventually.

— a car. yes, i've been talking about it for for-bloody-ever, and still, nothing in sight. but since the circle line's made travelling to school so much easier, the difference in convenience between having a car and taking public transport's been greatly reduced. come to think of it, i'll probably only need a car for tuition, or when i've got loads of stuff to carry. looks like i can almost forget how badly i want a car...though word is that a car may be coming my way if i go for honours, but we'll see how things work out then.

— a nice, large fish, like a whole salmon. stop laughing; i'm actually being serious here. my crazy cooking urges are responsible for this one. similar to avocados, i'm quite curious as to how working with an entire fish will be like...though i'm not as crazy as to want to slice up a whole tuna. if curiosity gets the better of me, i may get myself a fish as a christmas present.

— more tuition kids. my supply is running low. more on tuition later in the post.

— newer computer parts, or a new computer. this computer will be 3 years old this december, and while it's still performing sort-of satisfactorily (except for the RAM/motherboard issue), a change would not be unwelcome. but if i had to rank the items on this list, this would most probably come in last, unless my computer fails before the semester is over.

while i don't expect anyone to get me any of the things on this list, it would be a nice surprise if i did get some of them...though most of the items are kind of ridiculously expensive. but hey, never hurt to hope, right?

now, about tuition. please bear with me if i've mentioned this before. in about 2 or 3 weeks' time, all (except one) of my tuition kids will be sitting for their A-levels, which means that my income is going to be severely affected. hence, the need for more tuition kids. since there don't seem to be many interested people from the SJI/CJC side, i have to start searching for alternate sources. right now, there's a tentative recommendation from my friend, whose cousin will be going into sec 3 next year. other than that, nothing. makes me wonder if i should sign up with a tuition agency. i am quite reluctant to do that, but there may not be a choice soon. i'll probably save that for a last resort. meanwhile, i suppose i can check with my NUS friends if any of them have spare tuition kids.

but that's still some time away. my current priority is focusing on my 2 A-levels kids. RJC girl seems to be coping nicely. i'm extremely heartened that she's doing lots of assessments by herself (i've only ever given her homework twice in about a year and 3 months of tuition). the thing that scares me a little is that she seems to be shaky on the boring (but basic) J1 topics, like periodicity, atomic structure, redox, and to a certain extent, equilibria and kinetics. nevertheless, i believe that at the rate she's going, she'll be fine.

as for the CJC boy, my goodness. don't get me wrong...he's a nice kid. but sometimes, i just want to grab him and shake some sense into him. first off, he arranged for tuition yesterday, having only prepared 3 questions. and i don't mean 3 long questions with many parts. i mean 3 questions which could be answered in about a minute each. i spent less time actually giving tuition than i spent travelling to his house and back home! definitely not worth all the time and money wasted on travelling.

what's worse is, he's completely blanked out, content-wise, for chem. i asked him to do a pretty simple synthesis, converting an alkene into a ketone, and hydrolyzing an ester. his answer? nothing. i mean, i've known that he was blur from our interaction in judo, but this is seriously pushing it beyond believable limits. you know, i get the feeling that he wants tuition as a "painkiller"...to convince himself that he's really doing something. sadly, it doesn't work that way. not for tuition with me, at least. i just hope that something happens to snap him out of his daze. and looking ahead, i hope (for his sake,) it happens before A-levels (best case), or at least before he enlists into the army.

despite it being my birthday tomorrow, i am not really excited about the coming week at all. there are the standard japanese quizzes, an organic spectroscopy test on thursday, and physical lab viva on friday. not forgetting the lab report that's due as well. i should survive, provided that i focus on work and ignore distractions as much as possible.

-random thought of the day: What does freedom mean?-

Sheer panic isn't the best emotion to feel, especially when you don't know how to solve the problem which caused the panic. last night, my computer died before i finished my lab report. after the panic subsided, common sense and signaller training kicked in. in the army, i learnt how to troubleshoot for and identify faulty components. the basic idea is that if you replace components one-by-one with components which have been confirmed to work, the system will work once the faulty component has been switched out. turns out that my computer ran fine once i pulled one piece of RAM out. this leads me to 2 possible conclusions: (1) that bit of RAM's fried. (2) there's a problem with the RAM slot. i'm not too inclined to do any further troubleshooting, less i mess things up irreparably. this means that i'm running on 2gb instead of the usual 4. so far, everything's still working pretty smoothly, though i don't quite dare to play games or run any programs that might tax the computer more than necessary. i'm not hoping for much, but it would really be nice if the rest of my computer held up until my exams ended.

thanks to the circle line, going to school has become SO MUCH MORE convenient! the journey from home to science now takes about 40 minutes, compared to about 1.5 hours before. best thing is, i don't have to fight for a place on crowded 95s and 198s. though it is a little bit more expensive ($1.60 compared to $1.41 to alight at buona vista), the extra 19 cents is well worth the time saved.

with this new development in transport, i'm starting to do calculations for concession again. if i take the train between kent ridge and bishan twice a day, that's $3.20 a day, $12.80 a week (no school on wednesdays), and $51.20 a month. but, if i were to take BTC to botanic gardens MRT for the return trip (not going to school, as it's a little risky), the total would be $2.86, $11.44, and $45.76 respectively. assuming i decided to be hardworking and leave home early to catch BTC to school as well, the figures become $2.52, $10.08, and $40.32. the first 2 choices are more expensive than concession, and getting concession would be a good idea. the only thing i find kind of wasted is that train concession allows 4 free trips a day, while i'll only be making 2 most of the time. if only they could reduce the price and the number of trips...i'd get concession in a heartbeat. i think i'll give concession a try for a month, provided that it's priced less than $45.

i do have some complaints, as well as one negative experience about/on the circle line so far. so the story goes like this. on tuesday, the train was stuck at bishan for about 5 to 10 minutes. normally, i expect the train door to close within 20 to 30 seconds. so, there was a 600% to 3000% increase in waiting time, which sucked. to their credit, SMRT did try to do damage control, by telling us (repeatedly) that "the train service was delayed", and that "it would be running shortly/soon". i don't know about you, but i find that not knowing vital information in times like these REALLY annoys me. for instance, i would like to know the reason for the delay, just to satisfy my own curiosity. but i'm ok even if they don't tell me that. what i'm not ok with is not knowing the exact duration of the delay! "soon" is a very relative word. being done with my lab report "soon" could mean up to half an hour, or even more. if they had announced that the train would be delayed for x minutes, i would have some mental preparation to wait for at least that long, or else make alternative travel arrangements. i personally feel that the way SMRT handled the situation was unsatisfactory. and yet, we're being charged higher fares, a move which was approved by a panel of reviewers. what a joke.

also, i noticed that the circle line trains move slower than their counterparts on the red and green lines. i'm told that the reason for this is because circle line trains are driver-less. seems like technology is taking a step back, no? why not hire train drivers, and create jobs at the same time? i hear it's to cut costs. but should a government-linked firm providing essential public transport services really be looking to maximize profit? i'm not an econs pro, so i'll leave the question open.

one last minus about the circle line. it seems to me that the doors stay open for a longer time at each station, as compared to the red and green lines. or it might be an illusion, because fewer people go through the doors per unit time, thus giving the impression that the door's been open for longer when it actually hasn't. i'll have to time the door-open durations for trains on each of the lines one day. but for now, assuming that i'm right about door-opening lengths of time, i think it's because SMRT wants to get as many people as possible onto the train. hence, the trains stay at the station for a bit longer, in the hopes that people who would have missed a particular train get to jump on at the last minute.

despite all the negative stuff i've said, i'll still end up taking the circle line anyway. simply because the convenience is a major, major plus point. i don't think delays will happen all too often, and even if they do, what are the odds i'll be caught in one based on the times of the day which i go to school? it's a risk worth taking, i guess.

this week has been horrendous. well, not really, in retrospect. going through it felt worse than looking back upon it. on the bright/dark(?) side, next week will be worse. the standard japanese quizzes, an organic spectroscopy test, and viva during lab. not to forget writing lab reports as well. bleh.

-random thought of the day: If any chemists are reading, please visit this blog.-

2 pieces of news that i heard of this week are set to have a big impact on my daily life. but before i talk about them, there's one more piece of news i want to mention first.

steve jobs is dead. though it's not the first celebrity death i've heard of, i somehow have some trouble believing it. don't ask me why; i don't even know him that well, nor am i a huge apple supporter. but i have this weird feeling that there's some conspiracy theory or some stuff behind it. well, i don't think i'll ever know for sure, and it shouldn't really affect me in any way. well...just something for my brain to work on when it gets bored, i suppose.

the 2 main bits of news are quite balanced...one good, one not quite so. let's start with good first — the circle line opens tomorrow! that means a multitude of things, like decreasing the number of MRT stations between home and school by more than half, and shortening the travelling time by approximately two thirds. it's been a long time coming, and i'm ridiculously happy about it. i might even buy train concession; i think it might save me some money. hope this doesn't jinx anything, but i'm really hoping that my first journey on the circle line (to school, next monday) isn't delayed by any system malfunction or stuff like that.

the bad news is that apple announced the release of the new iphone...iphone 4S. brief sidetrack: bad as it may be to make jokes about this, some say the reason steve jobs passed on was because the iphone 4S was released instead of an iphone 5. now i'm stuck with making a difficult choice. i don't want to hang on to my samsung for much longer, but at the rate things are going, i don't know if that will be possible or not. they way i see it, there are 3 possible courses of action. (1) hang on to the samsung. (2) get either an iphone 4 or 4S. (3) get another model, probably something android-based. the iphone 4S is set to arrive in singapore by the end of the month, so i think i'll see how the prices match up before making any decisions.

about Ellen DeGeneres (from my prompt in the last post)...i really like her. i think she's kind of a model human being, being so nice, generous, friendly and funny all the time. as i watch her video clips on youtube, i sometimes think that she's a little too perfect. you never see her getting angry, losing her temper, or becoming upset in any way at all. while it's a little disconcerting, i suppose that she does have to look her best for the camera. not that i'm suggesting that she becomes mean and evil in her private time, just wondering how she behaves when she's not under public scrutiny.

well, so much for this post. e-learning week is all but over, and i haven't even touched instrumental analysis at all. apparently, we're supposed to read thermal analysis and hybrid techniques by ourselves. oops. oh well. i'll catch up with it sometime in school, probably when i'm having breaks between classes.

-random thought of the day: What is "my type"?-

This week is supposed to be science e-learning week, but it's turning out to be quite similar to other weeks. the only noticeable difference is that i can legitimately skip 2 modules' worth of lectures. that aside, it's pretty much the same. my other 3 modules are either non-science, or require me to be physically present (lab), so i'm actually still in school as much as compared to during a regular week. bleh.

the most significant event that's happened so far this week is my japanese mid-term. at the risk of sounding overconfident, i THINK i can score close to full marks. 45/50 (90%) seems to be within reach...assuming that i didn't forget any extended vowels and that my listening scored decently. after all, i know what to do for practically all of the questions. i've thought of a new strategy to help with those listening questions that give you a frame of reference, and ask you to deduce what day it is. now, i simply write out the days of the week in japanese in order, and count as necessary on the paper. so much easier than trying to do it mentally.

tomorrow, i may go do a little shopping. depends on my mood. i definitely have to do my lab report, and in case i haven't mentioned it yet, preliminary processing has shown that this set of data has the potential to be the worst data i've ever collected in my time in NUS. definitely dreading writing the report. well, as a small consolation, my friends may end up going down with me as well. but i guess i'll see how bad it is tomorrow, before i decide on whether to cal SOS or not.

-random thought of the day: Blog about Ellen DeGeneres.-

Waking up to a cramp is something i'd rather not experience. while it is a very good method to shake the sleepiness off, the pain (during) and muscle soreness (after) isn't quite worth it. prior to it happening this morning (which is why i'm blogging about it), the last time i got such a rude awakening was in either JC or army...i can't remember which. i've heard that cramps of this nature happen when the affected muscle is overused during the day. oddly enough, i only walked a maximum of 200m at a go yesterday. comparing that to the two 24km route marches in army (where no cramps occurred during or after), i'm starting to see a flaw in that theory. or maybe it's because of the cold weather this morning. with any luck, that'll be the last cramp of my life...though i know it won't.

thursday wasn't very remarkable, but friday was something else. i was the sickest on wednesday night, and all through thursday as well, actually. that's why it was unremarkable — because i didn't feel good enough to do anything noteworthy. apparently, i'm not the only sick one in school. seems like a mild bug is going around. thankfully, i got much better by friday, and here i am, hoping to shake it off completely in a couple more days if all goes well.

so...friday. after 2 weeks of no lab, going for a full-day lab session felt kind of weird. the fact that it was a physical chem lab didn't really help, either. yesterday just reaffirmed my extreme dislike for physical chem experiments. it's just so boring! what makes it worse is that you have to constantly be monitoring something, or taking readings every few minutes. it's not like organic, where you can leave the mixture to boil for a couple of hours, checking every half an hour or so. even analytical is better, because once the sample is sent into the machine, all we do is wait for results. of course, the worst thing is when you realize that the meter is faulty AFTER 40 MINUTES, when you get a full set of readings that don't follow any trend at all. seriously...what a waste of time! i'm not looking forward to writing the lab reports at all, nor am i eagerly anticipating the viva. bleh.

there was a japanese listening quiz and an econs mid-term on friday as well. we've done listening practice in japanese tutorials before, and i've been able to catch most of what's going on in the conversations. but for the quiz yesterday, i don't know if the lecturer was speaking too fast (the audio was like twice or thrice the normal speed), or if the audio quality was too bad, or if the volume was too soft. whatever it was, i simply couldn't get the answers down in time. of course, the insufficient thinking time between the different conversations was another major factor. well...the tutor said that that speaking speed was actually slow in japan, so i guess it's more of my limited processing power than anything else.

as for econs, it wasn't difficult. truth be told, i think that about 60% of the 40 questions could be done by a J2 kid. having said that, i'm hoping for a decent score...like above 35. however, i'm prone to being too optimistic, so i'll realistically say about...30? 75% seems like a pretty ok score, especially since i have an econs background.

being pessimistic can actually lead to happiness when your expectations are exceeded. like today, when i went to collect my referee salary/allowance/money. i was under the impression that we wouldn't be paid at our full rates. so, i was expecting something in the neighourhood of $100. imagine my surprise when i saw $240 next to my name on the list! i don't know how the federation calculated the remuneration...maybe some of the senior referees decided to work for free and give the juniors a bonus. somehow, i think that it was done this way as a bit of an incentive for us to come back to referee again. not that it's necessary...i mean, refereeing is kind of fun, even if it gets stressful when making important calls. but still, i would referee even if they paid me less, or even if there was no money attached. as i've said before, prior warning is always appreciated. just let me know the exact terms before the competition.

i also found out a bit about the upcoming judo NCAP technical course/olympic solidarity course. apparently, i have to have been a black belt for at least 2 years before obtaining NCAP level 1 certification. who knew? in this regard, i guess having a ranking system in the sport can be a drawback as well. i mean, anybody can apply to coach sports like soccer, basketball or swimming, since i don't think that they have prerequisites for prospective coaches. martial arts, on the other hand, apparently do. so, it looks like my coaching dreams will be put on hold for the time being. my black belt's second-year anniversary will be in march 2013, where i should be in my last semester at NUS (assuming honours year). seems like i might be club-less if the course is held late in the year...but we'll worry about that then, if there is a need to worry at all.

the coming week is e-learning, so i don't have core module lectures. still have japanese, though, there are quizzes on monday and thursday, not to mention a mid-term on tuesday. luckily, i should be able to get enough studying done. lab's on as well...can't really e-learn for a practical module, can we? only thing i'm not sure about is econs. it's an arts module in the science faculty. who knows? it could go either way. but there's still time, as the first lecture of the week is on tuesday.

i guess i'd better get some studying in. my lab report isn't going to write itself, not are the japanese vocabulary words going to magically diffuse into my brain. good thing my tuition load is lighter this weekend. gives me more time to study and get other things done.

-random thought of the day: I must find new tuition kids.-

Every time i read my house description on pottermore, i get this really strong sense of belonging. to be honest, it describes me quite well, smart? i'd like to think so. weird/eccentric? most definitely...though i'd only crack eggs for cooking. accepting of others' eccentricities? sure, why not. makes me wish that hogwarts was real, and that the owl carrying my acceptance letter is still horribly lost somewhere out there. i'll bet flying from scotland to singapore isn't easy. well...one can hope, right?

though i tried to update a couple of days ago, i ended up not finishing the post. guess the mental gears went out if alignment as i was writing or something. anyway, it's been a while since then, and even longer since the events occurred, so here's the more condensed version.

had coaching last friday. it's probably my last session of the year, since future fridays will be taken up by lab and japanese. it was pretty ordinary...drills and games. i'm heartened to see that quite a few kids have the potential to bowl well...though it doesn't really affect me. like i mentioned a while back, i've been thinking of stopping the bowling coaching. i do feel that the kids deserve better than me, because my knowledge is amateur-ish at beat, effective up till primary school only. i should mention this to my boss soon.

then, there was dinner with the NUS chem kids after coaching. nothing really special, just ate at the korean barbeque place at novena. you know, the one i went to sometime this past summer? that one. chatting over dinner was nice, but failing to find a hang-out spot after dinner wasn't. seeing them was...not really special, considering i see all of them (except the working ones) in school. nevertheless, bonding time's usually good, no?

2 weekend days seem to have negated any rest that i got over recess week. and they weren't even that physically taxing, either! must be the mental stress from tuition. that's probably it. after all, i have 2 kids sitting for A-levels, and 1 kid sitting for promos. not an easy burden to bear, since their exam time is also about when i have to go into intensive revision mode. bleh.

as i was driving around after tuition, i noticed that the multi-storey car park beside J8 no longer offers free parking on sundays. my question is, why? it's been free parking on sundays for as long as i can remember, so the sudden change is kind of weird. it's not like there's a shortage of lots there, so there's no need to reduce the demand by implementing parking charges. lucky for me, i live near enough, so instead of parking the car there after sunday tuition sessions, i'll just park the car at home and walk over. a bit more inconvenient, but it saves on costs.

so far this week, i've had 2 days of classes, did some cooking, and fallen sick. sicker than before, at any rate. classes are still manageable. slowly shaking off the recess week inertia, and getting back into the rhythm. of course, the facts that i'm sick, and that it's e-learning next week, makes me wonder if i should be bothering to work hard this week or not. and as luck would have it, i've got 2 small japanese quizzes on thursday and friday, and an econs mid-term after friday's japanese quiz. oh joy.

falling sick is what annoys me. my cough has evolved into a blocked/running nose, and the beginnings of a fever. the timing is both good and bad, actually. falling sick during the week before or the week after would have been ideal, since they would be recess week and e-learning week respectively. but having it happen this week has its benefits, too. for one, there are no lab reports due, so i can take things easier than usual. of course, the best scenario would be not falling sick, but since it happened already, i've got to make the best of it. on a slightly brighter note, the symptoms are somewhat subsiding after i took a couple of panadol. hopefully i'm even better tomorrow!

sickness is limiting my thought processes. i know there are a couple of important things that i want to talk about, but for now, i can only remember this one. sometime earlier this week, i received a very official letter. you know, those "on government service" ones? well, the traffic police sent me a letter, saying that after their investigation into the accident earlier this year, they decided to let me off with a warning. i think that they phrased it nicer than what i wrote, but that's the gist of it. thank goodness. at least there won't be anything troublesome, like court appearances and whatnot. really takes a load off my mind.

well, i suppose that does it for this post. if things work out, i'll blog about the stuff i've forgotten in the next post. for now, i'll call it an earlier-than-usual night and hope that at the rate which i'm radiating heat, all the bacteria/viruses will be exterminated by the time school starts tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: Squid ink is messy.-

Yes! super windy and rainy now...perfect for sleeping. it's been quite a while since i've heard the windows rattle like that...maybe 1 to 2 years ago? whatever the case, i know i'll sleep well tonight; which is also why i'm not blogging that much right now. look out for a long(er) update tomorrow!

-random thought of the day: Mid-terms approaching.-

My heart hurts.

metaphorically speaking, that is. trust me, i wouldn't be this calm if i felt physical discomfort in my heart. one thing that does physically hurt, though, is my throat...but we'll get to that later.

so, why does my heart hurt? well, i can't be entirely sure, but i'm more than willing to bet that it's because i've been thinking too much this recess week. the "could be"s, "what if"s, "if only"s...all of them are coming back to haunt me. as if that wasn't enough, my brain has conjured up a few new impossible scenarios as well. it kind of sucks. i suppose i'll be all right, as long as i don't get too emo while convincing myself that those situations are practically impossible.

as for my throat, my cough has slightly worsened over the past 3 days. even my usual remedy of drinking twice my normal daily water intake isn't working. it's slightly annoying, but this level of sickness is nothing i can't work through. i just hope it doesn't get any worse when school starts again.

the last 3 days were mostly spent slacking, with occasional bouts of work thrown in. my lab report is almost done, and i've got bits and pieces of japanese reading in here and there. not much progress on econs and instrumental analysis, but i figure i can make that up. did a little bit of organic synthesis, which was helped by a lecture on monday. all in all, i could have studied a little bit more, but i'm kind of satisfied with the amount of work done.

one event of note was the NUS judo function this past tuesday. university-level barbeques are on a different level...or maybe it's just us. well, having a vice-captain who knows his food (and who has friends that know their food as well) does have benefits. i must say, we ate ridiculously well, both in quantity and quality. going for the function has also given me even more crazy cooking ideas. quick sidetrack: buying a whole salmon didn't happen in the end for a couple of reasons. (1)the fish weighs about 4kg, which is too much for me to get through in the remaining time before school resumes. (2)the weight of the fish means that they cost about $70 each, which is kind of over budget. oh well. maybe in december. anyway, i got the inspiration to try to make this potato salad which they did...only that mine turned out more like mashed potato. either way, i'm not complaining, since my stuff tastes good. i'm almost tempted to make a large batch every sunday, then let it last me throughout the week. only thing is, i don't know how long it'll last before it goes bad. well, guess i can try it out...

looking at the next couple of days, i think i'll still be reasonably free. have to finish up my japanese homework, as well as sort out the references for my lab report. not forgetting i've got dinner with some chem kids tomorrow. right now, i think i need sleep...or at least a break. staring at the computer for about 11 hours can't be good for health.

-random thought of the day: My head's starting to (physically) hurt.-

Green is a colour that's not normally associated with good health. since i've been coughing up green stuff recently, that's an indication that i'm falling sick, or sick already. more like falling sick, actually...my symptoms aren't that bad so far. just a slightly sore throat and a cough that's more persistent than usual. if it did have to happen eventually, i suppose recess week is the best time to fall sick...provided i get better before school starts, that is.

my weekend was spent slacking, which kind of helps to reduce my fatigue levels. not eliminate yet, mind you, but it should be better by wednesday. anyway, i gave more tuition over the weekend. CJC boy is coping well, though i really have to find new ways to hold his attention. his promos are in about 2 weeks, so i still have enough time to ensure that he passes, if not better. shouldn't be too hard. as for RJC girl, she just had her prelim today. i'm just hoping that she scores a C or higher. that sounds reasonable enough, doesn't it?

back in my own life, things have kind of taken a turn for the worse. well...maybe saying it like that is over-dramatic. the real issue is that i'm feeling demotivated. based on my performance so far this semester, i'd say that an A- average is still within reach, but only barely. it's got me thinking...is honours really that important? no matter how i look at it, the answer's yes. so graduating after this year is not an option. but here's the other side of that dilemma — if i get second-upper honours, it's ok. if i end up with second-lower honours, would spending that extra year have been worth it? i honestly don't know. what i do know is that second-lower honours will add a few more years to "plan phd", as compared to second-upper.

i suppose i could ask whether a phd is really necessary in the first place. while the answer is "no", i would really like one. i guess it's the academic equivalent of a black belt. come to think of it, i suppose it's more of a pride thing.

on the way home, i started thinking about what i would do if i couldn't go for direct phd in nus. well, i'd probably got for the JET programme, or find work, and do it somewhere overseas. though i may not look it, i actually do bear grudges for quite a while. of course, the other party would have to do something that leaves a deep impression on me. like even today, i feel somewhat negative towards VJC. but that's digressing. i don't know what i'll think of NUS if plans don't work out, especially if i end up making significant discoveries in future.

but anyway, pessimism is unbecoming of me. while i don't think it's a good idea to dwell on negative things, i also have to admit that nobody can remain happy/optimistic 100% of the time. remembering the negatives helps to keep things real, i think. now that my emo fit is more or less over, i should focus on getting a firmer grasp on that second-upper.

-random thought of the day: How's my mental health?-

Procrastination is the thief of time. even though i know that, i still put most things (lab reports, sleeping, waking up, to name a few) off until the last minute. while my last-minute skills help me get the job done, they also leave me very little time to study additional stuff, which is causing me some suffering right now.

over the past few days, school has caused me to feel pretty disheartened. for starters, i got 28/40 for my organic test. while it's a decent grade (70%), i'm still kind of bummed. if you remember posts from about 2 weeks ago, i was hoping for a high 30s score. who knew there were so many problems with my forward syntheses? at least 3 out of my 4 retrosyntheses were perfect, so that's something to feel somewhat happy about. looks like i'm learning stuff, after all.

while still on test-related things, i made another idiotic error during my instrumental analysis test, as i misinterpreted a set of peaks in a mass spectrum. while it'll cost me only 2.5 marks (or 1 to 2 marks in the grand scheme), i'm unhappy because i need every mark i can get from that module. worse is that the final is closed-book, so it's not going to get easier.

i'd thought that oral exams were a secondary school (or in the case of chinese, a JC) thing. apparently, that's not true. i just had viva (say "vie-vah") for my chem lab module. rewind about 13 years ago, and viva (i said it "vee-vah back then, though i'm not sure that it's correct now) was a yoghurt drink which came in peach, strawberry and mixed fruit flavours. i remember liking it back in primary school. now, viva's a term which means "short oral quiz with the lecturer". to be honest, the analytical lab lecturer asked fairly easy questions, to which i would have known the answer under normal circumstances. but somehow, panic set in when i was one-on-one with her. while i'm mostly happy with my performance, i feel extremely annoyed for misinterpreting one of her questions about electrophoresis. i honestly think she was asking easy questions to give us a chance, and yet, i had to mess up. so, so annoying!

japanese is slowly becoming a source of stress. it's not that i don't like it, but the language patterns are becoming increasingly confusing. based on this week's not-good experiences in tutorial classes, i guess i should stop trying to correlate japanese to english. the thing that bugs me now are all the particles. a quick wiki search reveals that there are about 20 commonly used particles in english. but having used them all my life, i don't even think of them as particles! so far in japanese, we've seen は, の, か, に, と, で, へ, and を in class, and i hear that even more are on the way. definitely have to brush up over recess week.

which brings me to a major plus point...recess week is here! goodness knows i need the time to recharge. this week has left me feeling drained. i think NUS should give us a recess fortnight and a reading month. that would probably ease the tension significantly. on the bright side, i'm (surprisingly) not really that behind for most of my modules this semester. probably have to spend more time reading up on econs and instrumental analysis, as well as practising the japanese sentence forms. not to mention that i'm thinking of buying a whole salmon for cooking over the week. last time i did my calculations, it's actually more economical than buying individual portions whenever you need them. of course, the drawback in buying an entire fish is that you have to use it all up quickly, which is good when you're feeding many people...not so much when you're cooking for one. but i'll worry about that in the near future.

a more immediate worry is my phone. since the last post, more buttons have decided to die, to the extent that only the power button and the touchscreen are working now. it's still possible to work around the current hardware failures, though i can't hang up a call, take pictures, or handle interactive calls...you know, those calls where you listen to a machine that goes, "for english, press 1". maybe i should go phone-shopping during recess week, too.

catching (relatively for me) very little sleep over the past 2 days will probably cause me to sleep pretty early tonight. the fact that i'm drinking half a mug of red wine (for lack of a decent wineglass around the house) isn't helping to prolong my wakefulness either. guess i'll call it a night, then!

-random thought of the day: Pottermore went down while my potion was brewing.-