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.-