To make up for the really stupid bank transaction thing which i did last week, i did something (which i thought was) really smart yesterday, which was to figure out why my computer kept dying. after some virus scans that showed that my system was clean, the likelihood of it being a hardware problem increased. so i did some cleaning of the fans, removed the heatsink, and saw the problem. turns out that the thermal compound which i applied sometime earlier this year had not spread across the processor chip as much as i would have hoped/expected. in fact, most of it was still on the centre of the chip. so, i cleaned it off, reapplied another layer (making sure to press down harder, but not hard enough to break the motherboard), and my system is back to normal. one thing bugs me, though. why did it take months for problems to manifest? if i was the more suspicious type, i'd say that someone went to do something funny to my computer. but nah. that would be paranoid. i'm not usually one to brag, but i felt like a genius after solving the problem. there's something quite satisfying about making a computer work. just hope that this will be the last time in a long while that i have computer issues.

got my road tax renewed this past friday, which was the last day before late charges kicked in. did the car insurance with my friend this time, and i'm with NTUC. there was some delay on the LTA side, which meant that my insurance information was not uploaded on time, which in turn meant that i had to go down to the NTUC income branch at AMK hub to get it done. it was quite fast and easy/convenient (they renewed it on the spot for me), and the customer service was excellent. not as convenient as doing it online, though, since i had to physically go down. so, this is my first road tax disc to have the second date cancelled. hopefully it's the last.

this weekend was one of the more restful ones in recent history. and by that, i mean that i didn't go to school on sunday. well, that was partially because i couldn't wake up on time (sleeping at 5:00am will do that to a person). so i missed my 11:00am NMR slot. what possessed me to book it in the first place!?? anyway. i went for judo for the first time in at least 2 months. did nage no kata with the BPS brothers again. i think i really need their coaches to be there when we're training, because the kids focus so much better. think they made pretty good progress today. my evaluation is they stand a 50-50 chance of passing black belt grading if they were to take it soon.

i'll probably have to cut this post here, since i have the second drugs test tomorrow. have to be in school early to study. covering the entire semester's worth of material in about 10 hours is not easy, but not impossible either. oh. i think i forgot to mention that i got 21 (or 22) out of 30 for the first test, which according to the professor, puts me around the B+/A- range. hopefully i can maintain that. i'd be more than happy with a B+ actually, since this is my last module, and i'm in pretty safe territory. doesn't mean i can go into the exam with no knowledge, though.

-random thought of the day: Computer processors can reach temperatures of up to 80°C while working.-