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.
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.-
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