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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Physics 2: Physical Science and Technology (640-132)
On:10:17 PM
Got up early this morning to the sound of...#41 I think. But yea. Had a tough time trying to sleep last night, but I'm glad I didn't get too grumpy over it haha.And then I went off to uni to drop my bag off in the locker, and then cycled down to REB with a lock and water bottle in hand.
I suppose it's nice of them to pick such a grand exam hall. It's a pretty awesome building haha.
And anyway I suppose I wasn't totally anxious. Which was great, I mean, I had a wee bit more confidence than I did last sem. And I found gwen and her friend by pure chance outside haha. And then it was time to enter.
The reading time was very useful, and I was glad to find that I knew most of the questions I had glanced through. There wasn't that one killer question that would make me panic and sweat an hour over.
I made full use of the three hours, and had only a bit of time at the end to make some minor amendments. I foresee that I may lose quite a bit of marks from careless mistakes and perhaps some confusion of concept, but generally I felt that I could answer everything. Except the significance of the (Z-1)^2 term. But oh well haha.
Left the exam hall feeling quite alright. The paper wasn't terrible, but it wasn't piss easy either. I can expect a score of hopefully, H2B, if nothing screws up. H1 maaaaaaayy be within grasps, but I like to keep my expectations low.
I then had lunch with egg, and then a nap in rowden white. A pity that it's so darn stuffy inside. Still, it was a fairly good nap, and then I went down to baillieu to tackle philo.
I suppose I had a few points thought through for the free will part. But progress is still slow. Spent a lot of time just stoning and playing cartoon wars and canabalt actually. Just didn't feel like studying very much eurgh.
I got back home, and adam had bought orange box. He's currently playing portal and seems to be very impressed. Hahaha, that's good to hear.
Alright man, I'm shagged. Time to sleep.
End:12:21 AM
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Night Before the Exams
On:10:38 PM
My first paper, Physics, will be starting in 10 hours plus.I feel somewhat prepared. But I don't feel unstoppable. Cuz, I don't know what I don't know, and that's a dangerous state to be in. At this point in time, the term stationary-states flashes across my mind. But anyway.
So, this morning egg and I went for some exercise. Sebastian from the climbing club (and also from Anderson JC) joined us too. We did cross training, 3 sets of two rounds under 3 mins 14secs and chinups, pushups and situps. My abs still ache a wee bit, and I didn't feel good enough to do more than 2 improper situps. So I didn't wanna risk it. Chinups and pushups still okay. The run was frigging shagged, but we managed to meet the timing, which is awesome.
I then did philo in the library, had lunch, collected my physics lab notebook where it seemed that they didn't go mark our last lab:P. Just got a "Yes" for the grade for that last lab hahaha. Oh well, that's awesome.
Then I chionged physics. All the way. I revised the thermal physics/fluids section, and then focussed on quantum after that. Perhaps should've done a brief run-through of electromag, but it's easier said than done. Spent more time than I expected doing a similar brief run-through for quantum physics, and overshot my initial planned time to leave the library by 50 mins. As in, I wanted to leave at 9, and I left at 9.50. And I really pushed the information saturation limit of my head, cuz Iw as starting to feel a little nauseous by the time I left. Whether it was the coffee (thanks, egg), the dinner (thanks, david), or physics crystals in my brain, I didn't think it was healthy if I stayed and forced it any longer. I've done as much as I think I can. Can always do more of course, but I feel like my limit's close.
But anyway, I've gained a fair amount of respect for all the great physicists out there while reading knight's textbook. I realised it's actually pretty well written. The End of Classical Physics part, especially.
And for some strange reason, I felt very energetic while cycling home just now. Perhaps physics crystals can dissolve into glucose or something. Uhm.
Well, I put in a fair amount of effort this time, esp knowing it may be the last time I'm doing physics EVER. I may still screw up the paper tmr. Dunno what to expect, because if I expect anything I'd be disappointed and rudely shocked to find something different. I worked hard, and all I can do now is give myself a good rest. So, 640-132, I say to you, give me your best shot. You may be big and tough, but I've got my guns loaded and ready to fire. You just watch out.
In the name of Einstein, Rutherford, Curie, Bohr, and the whole physics-collective.
End:11:06 PM
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
One more day.
On:10:14 PM
Alright. Physics exam is arriving.I tried the 2007 exam paper today, and kinda screwed it up. I'm getting worried, but just a little. Philosophy's also making me worried. I haven't gotten much done for it yet. Dayum.
I suppose tmr morning I shall just chiong physics and philo. Physics, philo, physics, philo. All the way. Must push, must push.
Ah, this morning I had a econs experiment. It was on a buyer or seller trying to trade this box of certain value, and it seemed a little less complex than the worker/employer one I had the last time. And I suspect it's really easier being the seller. Like, can potentially earn more. I was lucky enough to be a seller, and walked away with $68:)
Used that money for a much needed haircut this evening. Head feels much cooler now haha.
Wasn't all that productive today, I suppose. Hmm.
Stupidly left my fried rice out overnight and overday. When I got back, it had a slightly rancid smell, but I ate it anyway. So far, so good.
Alright, gonna get up early tmr. Didn't have much problem getting up at 8 this morning! Woopee.
End:10:20 PM
Feelin' good!
On:12:24 AM
Shit, physics exam is in 2 days:|Anyway, today (monday) was a pretty productive day! I got up early, went to library, and secured a computer while trying to work on philo. Alright, can't say philo was very productive at all. But...damn, that's one subject I'm getting quite worried about.
Oh btw, it took me like more than 3 hours to finally doze off last night. It was just SO DARN HOT. Or well, I felt damn hot. The actual temperature was maybe say, the average singapore temperature? And I wasn't sweating that much either. But I just couldn't sleep. Anyway, I refused to yield and pumped the fan to the max, took off my shirt, and tried to just, sleep. Yeeaa, worked eventually. Can't say I had the best night's sleep though.
Still, I managed to get up at 7!
And then yea, egg and I were thinking about running this morning but he canceled it. During lunch we were considering joining the Eureka Climb where we run up all 89 floors of the eureka tower. It's crazy, but sounded like fun. However, application fee's gonna be $60 for competitive climbers and $50 for non-competitive (and thus non-timed), and that's excluding a $55 mandatory pledge for charity. Now I know it's for charity, but darn I don't wanna spend over a hundred bucks just to run up 89 floors. The goodie bag didn't seem that great either:P
Oh yea and I realised that saigon noodle's laksa taste pretty much like Jurong Pri's laksa soup!! Wahahaha, it was quite nostalgic. It's nothing like laksa, but it's pretty good just like that, as a spicy soup. Ooohh yeaa.
I did the 2006 physics paper in the afternoon, and was quite proud of myself ahaha. Okay, perhaps it was an easy paper. I need to work on my integrating skills though. And mustn't neglect fluids and thermal physics.
The weather was pretty warm today, and the sun was quite intense. It started to shine through my window as evening came, and my right arm was feeling the burn. So I decided to find another spot, and met yisheng and joined him and david at their computers. Elizabeth was somewhere there too, and she kinda reminded that there was still data analysis to study for:S. Aarrgh. Though I'm honestly feeling quite laidback about that. Priorities! First physics, psych, then philo and then data analysis. Yeap. In the order of their dates too, heh.
I managed to tong until past dinnertime, partly cuz I was taking care of yisheng and david's things haha. But that's alright. I treated myself to some subway cookies after that, and also managed to get a fair bit of personality psych done. Now I just need to keep doing general reviews and memorising all the problematic parts. Then it'll hopefully be alright.
Okay, time to sleep. Gonna run tmr morning. And damn, I really wanna cut my hair soon. Getting too warm. Might be why it was hard to sleep last night hmm.
End:12:36 AM
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Nuah.
On:9:55 PM
Wah, I'm stuffed and tired now. Will be shiok to sleep. If can turn on air con even better, but no air con. Fan will have to do.Didn't get a lot of work done today tho. Attempted philo, but it's tough getting progress on it. Studied a bit of personality psych, and that's about it.
I'm getting slightly worried cuz I'm not as anxious as I thought I would be. I don't think I'm fantastically well-prepared, but I feel there's still some time left anyway. And that actually with physics, I feel strangely confident. Not there yet, but at the current stage I'm in I feel more so than I did last sem.
Helped stella make some tofu burgers for dinner. The patties were good stuff!! Mushrooms and tofu and tuna and eggs and oregano and other random stuff. Very nice. Tricky to fry properly tho. I screwed up the buns, however, cuz I left them in the oven too long and they came out like croutons. Well, they were croutons la. Whole croutons. Seriously. Luckily I hadn't toasted all the buns, and I still had 3 untoasted. We ate them all anyway hahaha. The crunchy buns would've been great with soup tho.
Okay. Tmr, I wake up early, study a bit, go library, study even more, then lunch, then study. I might have to prepare a meal early in the morning tmr, or I can go ahead and spend money during lunch. Although...actually I shouldn't. Spent quite a bit for groceries today already.
Okay, bedtime! Feeling shiok.
End:10:05 PM
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Warm Saturday
On:11:55 PM
It's been pretty hot today, but still very bearable. Strangely bearable in fact. I didn't feel particularly whiny about it.I got up feeling kinda sleepy too. Had about 9 hours plus of sleep though, so I found that a little strange.
I think I was fairly productive today, though. I got a wee bit of philosophy done in the morning, and quite abit of nuclear physics done in the afternoon in the baillieu library. No, wait, actually it was technically in the giblin commerce library, but they're connected so yea. And just so happened that yisheng was using the computer next to me hahaha.
I did physics all the way till about 7 ish and then moved on to personality psych. I'm a bit worried about that, cuz I dont have a good way of studying for it other than the notes. And I don't wanna listen to the lectures all over again. Hrm.
Got a free muffin too!
Uhm... time seems to be passing really fast now. I was just randomly browsing through facebook and other stuff and suddenly 10 mins gone. That happened before I went off to shower too, form like 11-11.45. Hmm. I really should get to work. Really.
Okay, some personality psych before I sleep.
End:12:11 AM
Friday, November 06, 2009
Early night tonight, please
On:11:18 PM
Man. I suppose today was midly productive.I had a look at the past year paper with david in rowden white library. There's this question 6 that required some incredibly difficult derivation and it's scaring me man. If that came out for the exam, I'm sure I'd be unable to answer it, regardless of the amount of preparation I have. I mean, I suppose that question won't be repeated this time, but if one of similar calibre comes out, I'm fscked.
However, that did motivate me to do more physics this afternoon. Other concepts felt so easy after that haha.
I lost a whole lot of momentum by 7pm, and by that I had moved to the baillieu library. Was initially planning to stay past dinnertime, but I felt quite sleepy and unfocused, so I went home.
Haven't studied since, mainly cuz nothing's going in. Shall get up earlier tmr to do stuff yep. Must, MUST!
And it's free slurpee day tmr:D
Ah, I slept later than I had expected last night cuz I got myself into one of those reminiscing moods again. I looked through the only set of OVL photos I had during NS, and then read a few old blog entries here and there. Yeeaa well. I used to feel always 16 years old, but then not so much anymore. I'm not totally disconnected from who I was, and I can always relate to how I was back then. But then since whenever, so much has changed and I feel in quite the privileged position now, despite occasional urges wishing I was back in secondary sch or something. Meh, rambles. Off to bed!
End:11:26 PM
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Philo feels screwed
On:11:14 PM
I spent the whole of today, since I got up ard 11.45, trying to work on philo. It's been terrible. I sorta decided on the questions, but that's about all I've done. Today was quite the unproductive day.Didn't go to the library. Though that I might just stay at home and see how much I can get done. I think it's just the room environment that's not good for studying. I used to believe in the power of self-discipline, but know I think it's a little more than that. It's just, not the right place. I mean, can la, but then it's really easy to drift off.
But hmm, I don't feel particularly anxious. Just....a little screwed. And knowing that if I don't buck up, things will get ugly.
Made some pork/cabbage/spinach soup for lunch and dinner.
I think I shall do some data analysis before I turn in. Oh maan.
End:11:19 PM
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Why feeling so awesome? Hmm!
On:11:54 PM
I dunno about the absolute level of productivity today, but I feel generally good about it.Well, this morning I got up ard 7.40 feeling quite good actually. I had only slept like 6 hours last night, and yet I felt more refreshed than I did yesterday morning after 8 hours of sleep. It's so strange. Really the quality of sleep meh? Then like that, how to ensure it will always happen? Hm.
Egg and I did some cross training this morning. It was somewhat similar to what we did last tuesday. Except this time, we attempted 1 round around the track, then chinups/pushups/situps, and then 2 rounds, then the exercises, and then 3 rounds, then more exercises. However, I found myself unable to complete any situps cuz of that training last tuesday haha. It still aches maan!! And when I do the chinups too. Seems like I've got to give it more time to rest and recover.
And unfortunately, though we ran pretty damn fast the first round, we were unable to complete that last round in the set of 3 rounds. Plain exhaustion, and perhaps a lack of willpower too. But ah well, we pushed ourselves today, and that's what matters I suppose.
And then I went down to the physics building to collect my test paper and see if I should hang around for the tutorial. But when I got there, all the seats were filled and so I just decided to take my test and zao. Thankfully, I didn't screw this test up, and my confidence in the test wasn't misplaced ahaha.
So I went to baillieu to do some physics.
After lunch, I went to do some psych QM with yisheng and david. QM's such a chore man. But really ah, data analysis REALLY helps in understanding it man. Had I not taken data analysis, I'd prob heck care QM and panic when I realise I know shit about it. I mean, concepts like hypothesis testing and stuff isn't immediately clear cuz it's like, you're kept wondering why you've to learn all this. Even if you know like, oh, it's to test hypothesis, it doesn't always click immediately yea.
David brought us around ormond college after that, and wow it's a pretty incredible place. Very harry potter-ish! Hogwarts-ish, rather. The dining hall especially. It's just smaller, and without the floating candles hahaha.
Food there is pretty good tho!
I stayed in the library after that to attempt more psych. Got to a point when lecture materials and textbook content started to diverge a bit (compton scattering and all), and so I moved on to social psych. Typing the notes did help somewhat, but there're still a number of crap questions with answers I really have trouble deciding on.
And I musn't neglect data analysis and philo. Still gotta decide on the essay, damn. almost exactly a week to my first paper now, time's running out, but I'm actually feeling quite alright about it ahahaha.
End:12:19 AM
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Reorganising tunes.
On:11:25 PM
Today's been..fairly productive I suppose. Did psych, physics, and started on philo. Initially planned to chiong in the library till the night, but I totally lost momentum by 6plus and so decided to go home.At least I'm done with the notes on social psych. That's the big accomplishment for today ahaha.
Exercise was canceled this morning due to apparent bad weather. But the weather didn't turn bad until I was cycling home, when it rained very slightly. Actually, it was pretty good rain. The temperature dropped like 10 degrees again tho.
Mmm...and I haven't been studying since I got back home. I played a very good half hour of halflife, where a headcrab in a vent gave me a shock. Still works after 11 years:)
And then I started on the epic task of organising the songs on my iphone, from scratch. Cuz there's really no more space to add anymore songs right, I decided to redo everything by hand-picking the songs I wanna go in, instead of just taking whole artist collections. Waste of precious studying time, and my arm now aches from all the clicking. But, it's gotta be done, somewhat.
Shall get back to it, and hopefully finish by 12.
End:11:30 PM
Monday, November 02, 2009
Shagged!
On:9:54 PM
Whew! I'm getting that very tired, but very shiok shagness.Woke up early this morning, ard 8, and decided not to sms egg to delay the meeting time by an hour. I pulled myself outta bed, packed some stuff and realised I wouldn't make it in time. So I sent a series of 2-3 smses each one adding 10-15mins to the initial timing haha. The main thing slowing me down was my indecision to bring my ibook. Decided against it in the end, cuz my bag really no space, and I didn't wanna lug another bag along.
I got to uni around 9.35, and egg and I decided to do this fartlek training where we run like 400m under 1min 37sec, and then the next round at a slow jog. Omg wait, I just realised that we used to do this in BMT too, right?! Was it called, 20/40 (30/60?) or soomething like that right. Like, sprint 20 secs then slow jog 40 secs. That one's based on time la, but yea, kinda similar! Hmm.
After that, I ate a banana and went to baillieu to study.
And whoa! I felt pretty good working there actually. In terms of actual productivity, maybe only slightly more than average. But I felt good. And I could strangely work with any type of music this afternoon hmm!
I did some quantum physics, mostly still on the electromagnetism side. Good la, I need lotsa revision on that anyway. Then I did some psych. Still stuck on social psych tho, but I got a few sections done.
And I barely got distracted! I allowed myself some short facebook and canabalt minutes, but that was about it.
Ah well, shall have an early night tonight. And then tmr morning exercise and study again! Yeesssss.
End:10:09 PM
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Soylent Green
On:11:55 PM
Argh! I am here to complain about my lack of productivity again.But it's always about the same old shit. So screw that.
I woke up pretty late today. Like, sleep until damn shiok, and could sleep longer, but then I didn't want my morning to totally disappear.
I then went down to safeway with stella to top up on groceries, and also to spend some money to get the 4cents off per litre of petrol from caltex petrol stations. Fried hokkien mee was on the menu for lunch too, and mitchell was coming over to join us.
Lunch was good! Stella made the noodles very nicely. And mitchel brought over KRISPY KREME donuts!!! WAHAHAHA. It was orgasmic, to say the least. Maybe I've a certain bias toward krispy kreme, and it isn't actually as good as j.co or donut factory (though I highly doubt it), but to me, these are the greatest donuts around. Don't have a chance to do a side by side comparison yet. But anyway, the last time I remember doing one with donut factory and j.co right, and donut factory won quite hands down. So there.
I actually started work around 4pm. Did some physics, worked mostly on magnetism and stuff. Die la, just barely got onto modern physics man.
I then did some psych. Still typing out the social psych notes. If yoshi expects us to read the textbook, it seems to be a shitload more than the other sections of psych man.
And then there's still philo and data analysis. Damn.
Anyway, I was just hanging around outside in the living room grabbing a pizza, and adam put on soylent green to watch. So I just stood there watching the first half of the show, telling myself that perhaps I oughta get back to work. But then I decided to sit down and finish the show. And it's pretty cool. So old-school, and so dystopian.
Alright, some psych, and I feel like sleeping on the floor tonight.
End:12:13 AM
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Happy Halloween
On:11:42 PM
Today, I went for my first ever halloween party.It was held at the place of Adam's friend, Jamie Blanks, who just so happens to be the horror film director that directed Urban Legend and Valentine. They apparently go back a long, long time haha. Anyway yea, it was awesome. There were so many kids and they all went trick or treating and the neighbours all seemed very nice hahaha. Makes me feel both old and young again. Mostly old, really. But yea.
It started to get cold during the night too. Dropped by about 10 degrees since the daytime, and I'm not exaggerating. It was like a 30degree afternoon earlier on.
The journey to jamie blanks' house was quite a ride. Stella was guiding me, and we had to go pick up jane at port melbourne first. On the way there, we horlanned a bit and I was trying to make this lane change right, and was quite close to this lorry on the right so I was moving quite a bit to the left, and ended up scraping the front left underside of my car against the curb. Damn, that was scary. I apologised to herbert sherbert (and stella too) and hope that he was okay, and was very relieved to find that there was almost no trace of that incident. Perhaps a little scraped hubcap was all, if it was even caused by that incident I dunno.
Also, it was my first time going on a highway in victoria, and reaching 80. Hahahaha.
I managed to get only some psych done in the day. Realised that I have quite a bit more to go actually. Damnmnweliwjelakjer.
Oh and also, yesterday I decided to empty my trashcan right. And then somehow, I got back like close to 80Gb worth of space. Crazy. Never knew I had THAT much junk in there. Where'd they all come from though?! I wonder if the time machine can yield any clues.
End:11:54 PM
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Friday Night Effect
On:11:11 PM
I have like, zero motivation to work right now. Tried forcing it, but well, here I am back again on the computer.It's friday night. My mood's good and not in sync with work.
I haven't been getting 8hrs of sleep the past few nights, but I actually feel pretty alright. I now think there is some hint of a truth to jianshen's statement that sleep's for fags. Well, maybe my level of cognition has actually been negatively affected, but I'm not feeling it very much. Hmm.
Ah, and it's the last day of school today. That's it man, this signals the end of first year. Well, other than the exams. But yea, there goes official school. Man. Damn fast la.
Psych tute was...kinda boring but it ended quick hahaha. We did a personality test on the Big 5, and I was quite average.
Gwen, suhel and I had lunch in union house and were joined by egg. I brought some cookies as a treat, and wished I knew how to make them better. Maan. Well, they weren't poorly received, but they could've been better. Somehow ahahaha.
We then adjourned to the library, studied a bit, and I went off to my final lecture of the year. Twas physics, and it was actually quite boring ahahaha. But okay la, I stayed awake, partly thanks to cartoon wars. And I FINALLY got past that damned stage where they tend to send the yellow flying dude so darn early in the stage, cuz I got lucky and they sent that dog-thing instead.
Btw it was raining this morning and I got quite drenched. Still okay la, thanks to the jacket. But it's been quite some time since I had experience warm rain (other than in hong kong). Today's weather was quite singapore-like. And it's like raining right now again haha. Glad I brought my clothes in.
I'm currently finding nice albums to...acquire as whole torrents. I would buy them if I had more cash:(
End:11:20 PM
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Distractions
On:11:56 PM
Distractions can come in various forms. I was planning to chiong physics all the way tonight, but then sweesin was asking me about life in melbourne and I just HAD to stop work! I mean, it's always awesome telling people how awesome life over here is!! Ahahaha.
And then I was also chatting with my brother over gmail. Things back home seem to be getting a bit better, but only a bit. In a way, I'm not looking forward to heading back to face reality, but then again, I want to see just how bad things are. It's been like 6 mths since, and it still feels somewhat surreal. Damn, man.
We had our last data analysis lecture and tutorial today. Sarah and justin went down to hug the lecturer and I joined in somewhat awkwardly haha. But yea, he's been a pretty awesome lecturer really. And it wasn't like he was trying to make the subject all interesting and everything. It was just that we could feel his passion in teaching us and his notes are excellent. Made a boring subject easier to learn, really.
I made some cookies cuz I told gwen that I'd bring some tmr for lunch. It's gonna be our last psych tute, and we oughta have a little treat yep. Unfortunately, my cookies are still kinda cakey and I dunno how to make it chewier. More sugar? Add honey? Less flour? Hm.
Ah well. Ought to get back to work now.
End:12:08 AM
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
There's a lot more work to do.
On:11:35 PM
Damnit, my rate of productivity is quite low. I mean, I try to focus, but it just seems that time passes so quickly when I'm tackling questions. I skipped the psych lecture today, but went for the philo lecture. I was thinking that since it was the last philo lecture, just go la yea.
Hmm. There's not much else worth mentioning today I think.
Ah, I tried frying some noodles with stella's new wok, but I think I might've turned the heat up too high cuz it started to blacken really quickly on the inside. So I spent a substantial amount of time trying to vinegarise the surface and remove the stains. I suppose they are 90% gone now, but can still see. Damn, sorry stella.
Meh. I shall either get back to work, or sleep and get up earlier. Hmm.
End:11:46 PM
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
No more physics, damnit.
On:11:55 PM
Damnit la. I don't think I can take physics at all anymore. Just got an email this morning saying that I can't take linear algebra in sem1 next year cuz I dont have the prerequisites for that. And if I really do wanna take that, then I gotta take calculus 1 first. But if I do, then I am pushing back my whole math-physics path by a semester. Judging by how they seem to only have a sem1 intake for physics in level 2, I won't be able to take anything physics during my undergrad time. Which sucks. And no way am I going to spend the next two years doing math man. No.So, I thought I might do something like, geology or rock-related. Gained some interest in that when I was taking LEU last sem. Cuz if not, I really dunno what else to take.
Well... there goes physics I suppose:S Twas fun doing it this year!
Would really like to eventually do astrophysics though. But I got on the wrong path since taking up LEU and data analysis this year. So, it's definitely a psych major now, and I'll seriously need to put in serous effort and aim for honours. Cuz if not, I really dunno what to do with my life. Bleah.
Egg and I went for some speed/circuit training before lunch. We ran a round around the track, did some chinups, some sit-ups (wah, the situp bars near the uni oval are xiong man), and some dips, and repeated that 4 times. The rough plan was actually 6 reps, but haha it was fraking xiong man. Still, we managed to keep each round under 1min 37 secs, which is the golden timing for each round if we want to get a gold for IPPT.
Been only vaguely productive today. Tried typing some psych notes in the afternoon, and got a page or so done. A bit worried about social psych. And I haven't even gone onto personality psych yet, argh.
We got back 3 assignments during philo tute today - 2 of the 200 word assignments, and the mid-sem essay. And fwah, I am quite pleased with my grade for the mid-sem essay. I mean, I thought I knew what I was doing and I put in quite a bit of effort, and I was quite proud of it before handing it in, so I'm glad that hadn't all gone to waste. My 200 word assignments are shit compared to that tho. Need to work hard for the exam man, and make sure I secure a good grade. It doesn't affect any of my results later, but it's just that I wanna try and aim high.
And that was our last philo tute!! Ah man. Last sem's philo tute ended in the pub, but haha it's understandable that that couldn't happen this time.
I went for the psych lecture on clinical psych to see what it's abt. Clinical psych won't be examinable, and I suppose that helped in making me quite disinterested. Didn't pay much attention at all and tried to read a bit of philo.
Ah, and I forgot to bring my bicycle lock to uni today. I'm very grateful to vern for lending me his place to stash my bike. Hahaha oh man. If I'm not wrong, this is the second time this year I had ever forgotten to bring my lock. The other time was when meeting the trolley people (i think) for dinner sometime months ago. And I stashed it in vern's place too. Haha, thanks man.
Back home, stella alerted me that clem was looking for participants for her psych experiment. As a psych student myself I was more than happy to go help out ahaha. And I didn't know we were gonna be paid, woot! This one was simple enough, just had to watch some shapes and see if I liked or disliked them haha.
Made some japanese curry for dinner cuz I wanted to save time. Actual work done at home wasn't much tho, so far only 1 question for the data analysis assignment. Haha oh shit, I should go on.
Cyall.
End:12:23 AM
Monday, October 26, 2009
Subject Choices.
On:11:57 PM
Woke up this morning trying to decide which subjects to take for next year. Spent like 3.5 hrs slowly reviewing each potential subject and deciding what'd be the best. Well, psych-wise it's more or less determined. I'll have to be taking all the psych subs available next year, and that's 2 a semester. That leaves me with one more science slot, and another for breadth.I was actually looking forward to taking something related to eastern philosophy, but they don't seem to offer any of that at level 2. So I decided on this strange-sounding cybersociety subject for sem 1 , which sounds kinda interesting, and god and the natural sciences for sem 2. Both don't have exams:) But it just means I've to do damn well for the assignments.
My main issue while choosing the subjects was probably finding that one science subject to fill the gap. I can't take a level 2 physics sub cuz I don't have the math requirements. Made me wonder if I should've taken those subs instead of LEU or data analysis, but no haha, I'm pretty sure I'd have stuck to those. So, after quite a few hours of pondering, I decided to take those 2 prerequisite math subjs (linear algebra and calculus 2) for my two spare slots next year. Then perhaps work on a level 2 physics sub in year 3.
Did quite a shitload of data analysis today, but it never seems enough.
Attempted the first two questions of the assignment, and that took up a shitload of time. Damn man, I think I should revise a bit of psych before I sleep.
Today's been a pretty stressful day in its own right. Hrm.
End:12:36 AM
Party Success!
On:1:25 AM
Ahaha today was quite a busy day.I got up early in the morning to go for a run with egg along princes park. 3 rounds, around 9.48km, and we did it in about 48 mins. But damn, it was intense man!
We started out at a fairly reasonable pace, but then by the second round we started competing and speeding up significantly. The third round was like full-on and it was like the other time we were running around princes park, and we really pushed till the end hahaha. It was an awesome run.
We had lunch at subway, and then I went back to buy some stuff for stella's surprise party later.
I tried to do a bit of work, but ended up napping and cleaning the toilet. Tried to hide the ice cream in the freezer but it was like super packed. Work-wise, today has been super unproductive. Preparation for the party was done very well though, with adam using the cover that he and jane were preparing some food for her school.
And now, the party's over, and I must say it was a success! Adam had successfully kept it from stella until she saw us preparing the chicken and stuff in the kitchen, and even then stella didn't seem totally convinced. Then people started streaming in and oh yea, adam's shepard's pie was great. Along with this awesome-looking salted snapper. I just grilled some pre-marinated chicken pieces from safeway, which were pretty good by themselves aaha. And fried some gyoza.
Steven showed us photos from his recent US trip, and it's awesome. He had a helicopter ride through the grand canyon and all, wow. The slideshow was like 3 hrs, and still isn't finished haha. But we all got too tired and chased him home.
I was abt to go sleep when I was reminded by a dear tutorial-mate that it's time to think about what subs I wanna do next year. Well, damn. It seems I can't do any of the physics subjects, cuz I don't have the math requirements. So I dunno what I'm gonna plug in as that one more science. Hm.
Well I could just stress abt it tmr then. Off to bed now, it's late.
G'night.
Oh but wait, one more thing. Last night, before going off to bed, the then-ops-WO of my unit when I was in NS started a conversation with me through facebook. Haha it was nice talking to him again, really, despite some negative views that some people may have of him. I sometimes side both ways, sometimes with the men in how he can be really uptight in some decisions, and sometimes with him cuz some things he does are quite respectable. But well yea, it was nice seeing that my time in NS had left some sort of impact on the regulars there too. I might've come across as more garang than I actually was, and I do feel a bit of guilt over that deceit, but well, that's all been done and I tried my best to be a relatively good corporal. Sorta. Well now, bedtime.
End:2:40 AM
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Chrome.
On:11:48 PM
Hadn't realised that yoshi expected us to learn stuff outside the lecture for social psych. Stuff that can be found in the textbook, but I didn't buy one. I did photocopy some relevant pages tho, but damn it's going to be such a pain to read through everything. Gonna use a lot of time if I do too. Argh.Anyway, I only figured that out when attempting his review mcq questions, and was quite unpleasantly surprised to find a number of questions pertaining to content not found in the lectures. I'm also afraid of questions that ask you the results of this particular finding from whenever by whoever, cuz I mean, wth man you've got to REALLY know your stuff. Argh.
I've started using google chrome, and quite happy so far! No real reason to switch from safari other than the sake of it, I suppose.
I suppose I've only been fairly productive today, considering it was a whole day spent at home, with minimal time spent preparing meals too. I've reviewed some developmental psych questions, and gone onto the social psych section. I tried moving on to electric potential and fields in physics, but got a bit intimidated after awhile and went back to psych. And then that's about it.
Took a nice 45min nap in the late afternoon too.
We're planning a surprise party for a housemate, who shall remained unnamed for now just in case. We've invited quite a few people over and everything's more or less ready, except the food. No idea what to prepare tmr. Argh.
End:11:54 PM
Maelstrom
On:1:36 AM
Ahahaha it's been awhile since I last attended a school production, as in performance. Winson smsed us trolley troops this morning asking if we wanted to go watch this flare dance performance later tonight, and we all seemed happy to go. Friday night la, yea?
The dance itself was quite good. I dunno how to judge at all of course, but it was very entertaining watching them enjoy themselves and listening to the audience shout names of people we knew, like back in secondary school and all ahaha.
And then we went for dinner at claypot king, but I had already eaten dinner back home so I just drank water and ate the chilli. We sat there talking for a solid hour or so, before we decided to grab some ice cream at hungry jacks and then chabot.
Lunch this afternoon was also spent sitting down talking for quite some time, this time with gwen and suhel. Very interesting conversation, that.
Psych tutorial this morning could've been more interesting I suppose. It was on projective tests and the most interesting it got was only showing us one inkblot rorschach test, and we compared our answers and stuff. Then the rest was all just words on slides. Eck.
I stayed for physics lecture today, and it was on radiation. Pretty cool stuff.
And last night we celebrated sylvia's birthday. Ibrahim designed this elephant on the floor made outlined with candles, but we had trouble making the candles stay lit, so when sylvia arrived at carlton gardens where we were, we could only present her the trunk and the tail. It was the wind's fault, really.
Alright man, I'm off to bed. Shagged.
End:2:03 AM
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Mugging.
On:10:58 PM
Okay, I suppose today's been a fairly productive day. I managed to complete a few pages of philo readings while in uni, and I've tackled some physics questions on charges and stuff. I thought I had set aside too much mashed potatoes for dinner, but then I still could finish everything and have space for more. Something about mashed potatoes yea? Next time, I don't give face already.
Data analysis tutorial today was quite slack ahaha. Well, the lab was at least. 3 girls left the class early, and I suppose yea since we won't be having anymore lab tests, there isn't really anything keeping us there except to show some face, or pure interest, or just being hardworking even tho it wouldn't help anything grade-wise now. Not much, I suppose. Might help with understanding concepts and all la, but yah.
I stayed, but I stoned most of the hour away. Just felt so lazy man.
I also attended the psych lecture today. It was nick summing up his personality psych lectures, and it was quite a good lecture I think. Very succinct and easy to understand. Also mentioned that the last three lectures would be on clinical psych and wouldn't be examinable. Still, it sounds interesting and I might go.
There's gonna be a birthday surprise for sylvia later. Of course, we all know that it's not gonna be a surprise, but yea, it has since become tradition la.
Holy shit, second last week of uni ending soon. Oh maaan. Still somewhat feels like it just started. Alright, not really, but yea. Damn fast la.
Oh and I forgot to mention. Haha just as I was about to take out keys and enter the house on the first floor, there was this lady who went ahead of me and opened it first. So I thought she'd be nice and I brought bike up with a smile. But then she turned back and said "I haven't seen you around here, I can't let u in, sorry" and I just kinda stood there for awhile and looked at the keys in hand and back at her as she went into her unit on the left. Didn't have time to reply cuz she was like, so quick.
Now I was initially quite pissed, I mean, wth hey I frakin live here. But she has a point in that she's never seen me before, and I've never seen her before either, and she's doing her part in ensuring the security of the place. So yea, it's all abt self control man! Cannot every small thing also angry, right?:)
End:11:05 PM
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Times goes by too quickly man
On:11:50 PM
Agh! No time to study man!I skipped the last two lectures of the day today (philo and psych). I did pay attention during the physics lecture in the afternoon tho!
I was feeling quite ...lethargic the whole day for some reason. It wasn't like I hadn't slept enough anyway. It felt like I had slept too much, but I dont think I have. So I just decided to take a nap in rowden white to see what would happen. And wow, it worked like a charm man. An hour dozing off to music on the iphone refreshed my mind quite a bit.
I also decided I was sick of eating chicken every meal. But I think I was just sick of the way I usually stirfry my diced chicken drumstick meat la. So I decided to roast a whole chicken for dinner. Turned out alright, though it did take up some valuable studying time.
Waaahh tmr thursday already!!! 3 weeks to my first paper OH SHIIITTT.
End:12:01 AM
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
It's a hot day.
On:11:57 PM
I suppose today has been only...fairly productive. I didn't slack too much tho, so yea.Egg and I ended up not running today, cuz it was too hot hahaha. And that made us lazy la. And we probably need more time for our legs to rest too, yes:D? Yes.
I attempted some developmental psych mcqs in the library and found that I still don't quite understand it fully. Even if I do, I dunno if I can hold on to that until the exams. So I shall not stick to that for too long. I then moved on to reading philo readings till I almost dozed off. Then I ....think that was it? Huh. 2 hrs gone like that ah? Hm.
Philo tutorial was on sartre, and I didn't have much to say cuz I was struggling to understand everything going on. Tough stuff man. My excuse to myself was that I was feeling tired, too. And I was, but it's an excuse dammit!
I stayed for the psych lecture, but found it only a interesting as they usually are. Not that much. Okay, maybe this time it was marginally more interesting cuz nick touched a bit on mental disorders and stuff.
I made a random spinach-chicken stirfry with rice for dinner, and it's edible.
Then I did some work on data analysis. And I now know this is one subject that I might think I can score, but I actually can't because I get too careless. Have to really know what I'm doing man, tsk.
And it got really hot during the day today. Like david was saying 27 degrees? I dont think it got THAT hot la...though it might've in the sun, but yea, the wind was kinda warm too. A lot of people seemed to like it, but agh, I would've liked it a bit colder perhaps. But not for me to choose la yah? Aha.
And then once the sun went down, the wind's temperature plunged. Not too much, but it definitely got colder.
Ah well, full day tmr.
End:12:10 AM
Monday, October 19, 2009
A mildly productive monday.
On:11:55 PM
Well...I suppose I'm somewhat finished with the 200-word assignment. Not very well done tho, but I don't really know how else to answer the question. Oh damnit.I made some chicken rice today! Ahaha this time I made heaps of chicken oil from the stock of chicken skin and fat that I had frozen in the freezer. And then I fried the rice in it before boiling, and mmm it's ....only okay only leh. Not very fragrant as I expected. Perhaps the pandan leaves would really help? I think I might need to add more salt too. Unhealthy, but I'm going for taste here. The soya/sesame sauce mixture is a great addition tho. But must refrain from the temptation to add excessive amounts to the rice. Kinda spoils the taste.
And then I studied the whole section of developmental psych in the evening. It was fairly easy skimming through the notes, but I dunno how much I actually seriously need to know, which is a dangerous situation.
And, the recent jamming session with rey has inspired me to work on my bass. I've been trying to learn some new techniques that I spotted in random youtube videos, like victor wooten's multiple-finger-slap-technique thing. Sometimes I really forget how much there is to learn man! Slowly, slowly.
Hmm.
End:12:07 AM
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Shit, um.
On:11:52 PM
Damnit! I'm back into totally-unproductive mode! The weekdays have been productive, but definitely not the weekend.Well I suppose bass-wise, it was kinda.
This morning I went down to rey's place for our first ever jamming session. We were supposed to jam with jo-han since like, half a year ago, but could never really set a date till some days ago. Johan was too busy to join us this morning, however.
It was quite a good session I suppose! We tried 2 songs of RHCP mainly, californication and under the bridge, and a few random songs here and there.
We had lunch with sylvia at han guuk guan, and their spicy crispy chicken thing's great. Couldn't finish tho, had to leave one piece behind. But yea it was good. My first outside meal in a week, too.
And then I got back, took a nap, had dinner with housemates, and then stoned in front of the computer.
I did get a few crappy sentences out for the assignment, but...it's crap. And I haven't studied at all. Not good.
End:11:56 PM
Saturday, October 17, 2009
A slack saturday.
On:10:53 PM
Well, I suppose I could've been more productive today, but aiyah.I spent the morning actually working on my philo assignment. It's on sartre's existentialism thing and it's only 200 words so should be alright.
I strayed off during lunchtime, which was around 2 something, and decided to work on some bass lines for tmr's jamming session with rey. Dunno how it'd go, but we shall see.
That took up a good portion of the afternoon.
I went for a run around albert park around 6. Wasn't much of a run, cuz my calves ached after like 1.5km. I suppose my legs haven't totally recovered yet. But my thighs feel fine. Hmm.
I got back and ate the leftover fried noodles for dinner along with some pancakes cuz the noodles weren't enough. This batch of pancakes aren't as good as the previous one, not as light and fluffy. Hmm, wonder what made the difference.
And then.. I've been slacking ever since. Ah damnit.
End:10:57 PM
Awesome Friday.
On:1:51 AM
What the heck?! I haven't felt this good in a day in a long, LONG time. I don't know when was the last time I felt this good, really. I hope it isn't just weird mood swings or something.I mean, alright it's definitely got to do with the day being generally awesome. For one thing, psych tute this morning was on QM but not superbly boring. Quite boring, but not too much so. Ellen's back and although it was nice having that overly-high tutor last week, ellen's still good and normal. And she's good looking too. But anyway.
We went down to the computer lab today for an introduction to the SPSS program. Sorta like a minitab, I suppose.
And then we collected our essays. Now I put in quite a bit of effort for that essay, and I was glad that they paid off.
There was this moment when we were walking toward union house for lunch, and this guy behind us was asking "so do you know who got H1 for this?" and I happened to be walking beside gwen and we both turned and looked at each other and suppressed this little laugh. I mean, I wasn't sure whether to let the guy behind know my grade, cuz I mean, wth it was going to be uncalled for. And I suppose the same thing was going through gwen's head and so I gathered that she got a H1 too. We hadn't known each other's grades then, but that non-verbal communication (which was reminded me quite a bit of EAP during trinity) was such a comical moment.
Physics test this afternoon was actually, pretty alright! We actually had ample time to complete the paper, and the questions weren't too difficult. It was a very atypical physics test, I must say. Usually we'd be chionging through the paper and either just finish in time or not at all. But this time, we could even re-check our answers and stuff. It was great.
The lecture itself was going through stuff I vaguely rmbed in chem in trinity tho. Stuff like electron spin and quantum states. Um...
I got back home and planned to practise some bass and perhaps do a bit of my philo 200-word assignment. Ah, and I went down to cato to buy some groceries too. And then winson called for a trolley dinner sometime around 7.30pm, but I couldn't make it by then and I was ready to make my own dinner. Fried some noodles randomly, and they're alright.
But I did join the trolley people later tonight! Their dinner plan was pushed forward by like 2 hours too haha. And anyway yea, so I went over to vern's place where they all were and we watched trolley videos and analysed our progress since night market way back in april. It was pretty cool. Also, I hadn't realised I was so thin back then man. Still thin now, but less so I think! I need to gain more weight, yes:)
It was a good chilling session. A friday night well spent. Ah wooppee, this is the life:)
Y'know, maybe it's cuz I've been kinda productive the past few days too, studying for the test and all, that adds to the good mood. Hmmm.
End:2:05 AM
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Oh dear physics. And econs experiment!
On:11:57 PM
Well, I've tried studying. I haven't really reached my limit yet, but I really dont feel like continuing. I've more or less grasped the basic concepts I suppose, but I haven't nearly had enough practice yet I'm sure.I ought to reflect on how I'd feel if I get back shit results. But then there's only so much more I can chiong. Maybe I can wake up earlier tmr and study...hm!
It has been a strangely grey yet pleasant day today. I got back my data analysis assignment, and got shit marks for that. Screwed up somewhere, have yet to see what went wrong where. There was also the lab test, which went okaay I suppose.
Ah, and I missed data analysis lecture this morning, cuz of this econs experiment! Alright, this time things went well, and it was actually pretty fun. Each of us would be assigned the role of either a worker, employer, or observer for each round right, and the decisions we make (for example, if you're the employer you've to set the wages and the cost of effort for the worker) will determine how much money we will earn. REAL money! And it's damn funny how at one point it became a race for workers to see how fast they can accept a satisfactory contract (cuz the employer can make one with damn low wages or damn high cost, and it's up to the workers to decide whether they want to accept or not) and 0 (wages) - 40 (cost) became like the magic number. Cuz if the worker accepts a contract, they will confirm be an employer the next round, so they get to recoup their losses. Ah, that is, if the dice roll doesnt roll 6. If it's a 6, then all roles are randomly assigned the next round.
But it was fun la. I managed to walk away with $50+, which was alright I suppose. Could've earned more!! But I could've earned less too! Played safe la haha. In some ways, it was like playing poker! Like, knowing when to take risks or not. Yea. But anyway yea, getting money is good. Managed to add that to my huge personal debt (as in, money I owe myself).
Skipped psych tute this evening, but had that planned since yesterday. Haven't caught up with it yet, but probably shall on my ride to sch tmr or sth.
Had prawn mee soup for dinner!! Haha stella and I prepared it with ready-made paste, and it's friggin awesome for paste. I opted for no prawns thanks to my general dislike for prawns and my sorta-allergy to it. But the soup base was good la. I screwed up the noodles, but oh well, can eat la haha.
Wow, is it friday already?!
End:12:08 AM
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
A less productive day, but still alright I suppose.
On:11:54 PM
Today was supposed to be my packed day, but I skipped the last two lectures.I spent my afternoon break listening to the afternoon's physics lecture, except it was the one given by roger. And I understood that one quite a bit better than the one by dr gibson (i think his name is?). That convinced me that somehow, lectures in first person just kinda make me inattentive somehow.
I listened to the psych lecture awhile ago, and figured that I might've gotten just about or less info if I had been there at the lecture. I haven't been finding psych all that interesting at all this sem, sadly. The tutes are alright, but the actual content and stuff's just kinda...well....I dunno.
Been trying to do some work on physics. I think I gotta move on and get onto the thermal stuff. Time's running out.
There's a data analysis lab test tmr and I sorta think I know what to do with minitab. But anyway yea, physics is my current priority la.
And there's a econs exp early tmr morning, so gotta get up early and go. Gonna miss the data analysis lecture as a result, but oh well.
Pomodoro technique's been working fairly well so far, until I decide to not work at all which was like the past hour. Hrm. Gotta get back now.
End:12:00 AM
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Pomodoro technique
On:11:00 PM
2 mins to blog, gotta be quick.Currently on the pomodoro technique. Saw it from one of my brother's tweets.
Trying to work on thermal physics and fluids now in physics in preparation for friday's test. Good time for me to start studying in general too.
Uni today was alright. I was kinda productive during the long afternoon break cuz I spent it reading up on sartre.
I didn't get much during the psych lecture tho. Oh well.
40 secs left.
Hmm..not much I can pull off my head now.
Oh, except that I made some strange chepalang pasta dinner. With mushrooms and cauliflower. Not bad actually.
3,2 ,1. Riing.
End:11:03 PM
Being productive
On:12:03 AM
Mmm, I haven't been totally productive today.This morning I got up ard 10.30, feeling quite lazy. Still, I suppose I should be grateful I didn't have to get up at 8 to go for lab, cuz last week's lab was the last one wahahaha.
Ah, and last night some of us met up to give fery his surprise birthday greeting! Ahaha. And we watched louis demonstrate his guitar godliness.
My legs still ache, as expected. Still, it isn't really thaaat bad. Can still walk, though squatting's quite a pain.
I decided to skip the lectures in the afternoon today. Didn't think too much abt it until I was talking to stella before lunch. And then I was listening to the previous lecture I had missed on friday, and realised that I might actually pay more attention to Roger's lectures than the lectures by the lecturer whose name I don't know. And listening to it on LMS isn't really that bad. With the notes in front of me, and with the screencapture version of the recording, I pretty much get most of the lecture. Except the demonstrations, sadly.
I couldn't really decide until the last minute, and I just decided to stay home. I got to save more than an hour on transport too.
I drove down to coles/safeway/cato to do some major grocery shopping. I had run out of most of my supplies such as meat, milk, yoghurt, eggs and almost all my muesli.
I've been trying to work on the 200-word philo exercise but found it quite difficult. It was on hard determinism and agh, I just wasn't sure what to write.
Sometime this evening after dinner I sat myself down and tried to motivate myself into doing some solid work. I tried to imagine the very likely situation of me getting lousy results and telling myself that I could've always worked harder and EARLIER. And so now, it's exactly a month to my first paper, and I won't say I have ample time to study, but perhaps enough for me to score something. So I should really do some work. Scribblenauts and HL can wait. They won't get me the grades. I can enjoy them during breaks, but then until my exams are over, I need to rmb what my priorities are.
Quoting vern, "it's crunch time".
End:12:19 AM
Sunday, October 11, 2009
St. George Melbourne Marathon 2009
On:6:38 PM
Today is the first time I have ever gone so far!! My first full marathon, MAN!!I can't say I'm 100% satisfied tho, cuz I was aiming to at least try jogging all the way. Unfortunately, around the last 4km my slacker side took over and I walked most of the distance back. Next time, that won't happen. I'll need to train even harder, of course.
Still, I feel extremely awesome being able to complete it! The finishing round around the MCG had such an epic atmosphere, and I managed to ignore most complaints from my legs and just pia all the way to the finish line. It was great, man. And, my legs, though they felt ultra weak after that, didn't ache as much as they did when I did that 32km a few weeks ago. Not my calves at least, but my thighs do feel worse.
So I got up at 5 this morning, and noticed that it was a similar feeling to getting up early in singapore. And then I ate an orange, a mini-twix bar, and a gummy snake, along with some green tea. And then I made m way to the MCG.
I was pretty glad I signed up for the melb uni team, to escape the massive crowd at the MCG at least. Cuz each team has their own tent where we can place our stuff instead of dumping it with the event organiser people.
The race started quite accurately at 7am, along batman avenue, and egg and I went at a very slow pace. We noticed the crowd generally moving faster than us, and I tried to fight the temptation to go faster cuz I really wanted to conserve energy. Ah, and the atmosphere was just excellent. In the direction we started off we could see the half-moon up in the dark-blue sky, and it made it feel like we were on some off-world colony or something. Quite surreal.
Sometime past the 10km mark, egg decided to chiong ahead and I stayed back to maintain my pace, confident that I could catch up to him later. However, I never did, cuz I never really went much faster than I did when I was at about, 15-20km. I couldn't feel that power in my legs and I was hoping to find some goo to eat on, maybe that'd help, but the stations all ran outta goo.
And this got worse progressively. By the 25km mark I was starting to feel weakness in legs, and they were beginning to complain. Oh and before that right, I had this incredible urge to pee man. It's so dumb getting it then, cuz I don't ever remember such an extreme urge to pee during a run. I thought I could tahan initially, sometime around the 15km mark, but then it got so bad that I started to consider using a nearby tree, which would be really bad. Thankfully, one of the drink stations along the 25km mark (I think? can't be sure) had toilets and I was so relieved. It was also during that point that the 4hr 15min pacer overtook me, and I was unable to catch up. From then, my pace started to really slow down.
By the 30+km, I was practically jogging at a fast-march pace. It seemed like more people were overtaking me than I did others, and I really tried to boost my speed here and there, but it kept reverting back to that slow jog. My legs were complaining louder than before. And then I was struck with the most intense feeling of hunger I had ever felt. Every cafe, restaurant, or subway I passed was pure torture. I kept wishing there'd be goo at the next station, just so I could get some sugar into my body, but there weren't any left. All they had was water and powerade, and so I took a lot of both. I had never thought I'd drink so much in a marathon, and it kept my mind alert, though it didn't help my legs. And I was so very thankful for this guy running around with a bag of gummy candies to offer some to me, cuz it really boosted my morale and added something sweet to my tongue and stomach. It was a lifesaver.
By that time, my breathing was pretty slow and I wasn't really panting at all. It was just my legs wanting to slow down. In a sense, that was the wall I had hit. It wasn't so much shagness like wanna-faint kinda shag, but just aching, powerless legs.
I rmb the japanese author Haruki Murakami recalling his experience with a 100km ultramarathon in an article somewhere, where he mentioned his legs complaining really badly after some point in the race. Then after enduring that for awhile, his legs stopped aching, and he just kept on running. So, I was wondering if I could ever reach that stage, tho I suspect it'd require an iron will to keep on running and ignoring the legs.
Like I mentioned earlier, the side of me that was advising me to just chill and walk succeeded around the 37-38km mark, and I felt slightly disappointed at that. Although, I really don't know if I would be able to keep jogging the whole way with my current condition. Perhaps if I just did it murakami style and just went on and on, it might've gone away. I tried to get back to jogging at various points along the last 4km, but each burst got me only like the next 100m or so. I thought I could pia the last 1.195km, but I couldn't. Or rather, I THOUGHT I couldn't. Maybe I could've pushed even harder, but I didn't. Still, I think I might've pushed hard enough.
But well, I'm glad to have pia-ed the round around the MCG. It wasn't a sprint or anything, cuz I don't think my legs could've permitted anything like that, but it was a run. And I tried to pose for the pictures and hoped I didn't look too obnoxious. When I passed the black mat, I felt pretty incredible, but it hadn't all sunk it yet. Only as I walked down and got the medal and stuff and out of the MCG toward the uni tent did I really realise that hey, damn, I just ran a full bleedin' MARATHON.
And thus, here are my official results:
Egg was ahead of me by about 14 minutes, which was an excellent timing. He also shared his experience of walking toward the end and all. And he also apparently saw jolyn and rodney there after their 5km run, but failed to tell me while we were still there. Agh!
After the race, we got our massage at the tent, and oh yea I had a mouthful of some of the best jelly beans ever, if only cuz I was still feeling so darn starved. I ate an apple, drank some V, and stopped cuz I was starting to feel a bit bloated haha.
We had lunch at misty's, and I found myself quite able to cycle after some rest. Our meal took like an hour to arrive tho, cuz business there was really good, and maybe they oughta hire more good chefs. Egg had a big meat platter, and I had this cali chunga. We also shared this very interesting-looking The quality of food is still way excellent, though the XXX was not nearly as spicy as I would've liked. The spiciest might've been that last time I went with egg and they gave us a erronously-concoted dish of XXX sauce, or perhaps that time with my brother and freddy when they asked misty directly and she seemed to know them. Next time, I shall try to ask misty directly haha.
Alright, now I've set my mind on completing at least one marathon every year. And at least until I'm 30, I should hope to get better at it. And, by the next marathon I'm aiming to not walk at all, and hopefully beat the 4hr barrier. Gotta try la.
Also, I've managed to get scribblenauts to work! Seems like dslinker only works with windows, and I virtualbox didn't help with that. Only bootcamp's windows could do it properly. And hahaha omg it's such an incredible game! I spent most of the hour just in the title screen generating monsters and watching them fight. Seems like the goo creature is the most powerful so far. It even beats god. It fights on par with a vampire and a ghost, tho. Also, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that a mirror instantly transforms a medusa into stone, and silver scares a werewolf. If the werewolf touches the silver, he becomes a man. Incredible, right!!
The ds is back in action man:D
End:7:31 PM
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Holy crap the marathon's tmr.
On:9:13 PM
Ah sheat, I should be sleeping by now. I'm gonna get up at 5, so sleeping now would gimme a full 8 hrs of sleep. But nvm, I need to stock up on some carbs first.This morning I missed the alarm clock at 8.30 and got up at 9.30 instead. I apologised to egg and delayed our meeting by half an hour.
Cycling down to the MCG was easier than I thought. Went down chapel/church st and onto the yarra trail and out onto swan st, I think. And there's this nice long bridge that stretches over the train tracks.
We collected our showbags, which I found quite cheapskate (cuz it only had like, a powerade, some salonpas, a can of tuna (?!), and a gift that depends on the event you're running, in this case I got a st george bank towel, which isn't too bad actually). And they dont have free t-shirts! I'm gonna sign up for standard chartered next year maaan.
We had lunch at sofia's again haha. Gotta carbo-load man! In fact I'm kinda trying to carbo-load now with leftover pasta for dinner and the wheat biscuits I had around for a long time.
And then I got back, and then played a bit of half life and read a bit of Sartre before leaving the house in the car to collect my bass and the amp from kevin's place. I parked in a loading zone and was glad to avoid a fine when this guy came up to me and said I couldn't park there. Dunno who he was exactly, but he looked like he was someone who could've given me a fine. But anyway, I got back feeling quite tired and was ready to nap but decided to hang on until 9pm (and i'm 20 mins overdue) so I can ensure that I sleep on time.
Alright, few more biscuits and then it's time to kun.
Btw, I've been playing half life right, and I'm pretty amazed at the graphics. I mean, it isn't TERRIBLE. And the atmosphere is just excellent, even by today's standards I believe.
And I've been trying to get scribblenauts to work on the ds. It's been the first time I turned on the ds in about half a year or more I suppose, and wow yea, I'd forgotten how it felt. Awesome little thing, it is.
End:9:24 PM
ICSS Ball
On:1:59 AM
FWAH!!"This has got to be our most comfortable gig ever!" I quote my tweet 2 hours ago. And it really is, I think!
Well let's start with the mundane details of the day first.
Uni was alright. Only attended one class (out of two), and that was the psych tutorial. Ellen wasn't around and was relieved by this ultra high tutor whose name I've learnt was kelly. She was like jumping around and telling us how she might have ADHD but just hasn't been diagnosed yet and how she's still hungover from the previous night but has coffee in her system and stuff like that. She did make the tutorial on QM more interesting la.
I then went to the library after lunch to listen to the psych lecture I missed. Learned about freud and his theories and stuff. Didn't have time to complete it tho, cuz it was soon time to go jam!
The four of us spent the afternoon running through songs and chilling a bit before it was about time to head down to Hilton on park to do a sound check, around 5.45pm. Only winson dressed up cuz he was actually going for the ball, but the rest of us would only be dressing up after dinner.
The venue was kinda smaller than we expected, but it made me feel very comfortable ahaha. There was no sound technician, but there was a sound interface thingy and so we got to adjust the audio ourselves.
The sound check took longer than we thought cuz we got quite picky over our volumes and stuff and took awhile to get everything satisfied. Winson joined the dinner and the rest of us headed for our own dinner at rose garden.
I had black bean chicken rice which was aaaaahhh so good ahahahaha.
And then we realised there wasn't much time left to go back and dress up, so we got a bit panicky. The whole time we were quite relaxed. So we all changed up in record time (prob abt 20 mins) and I put on my contacts in record time too, thanks to kevin! And I decided to wear the black shirt and the hat and we were all up and ready to go. We were worried about being late, so were quite glad to hear from winson that there was gonna be some delay ahaha.
We got there just in time to plug in, make some last checks, tune up and play! Ahahaha the crowd was eating dinner and stuff and it was all pretty relaxed la, so we were pretty relaxed too.
I think this was one gig that we generally actually felt good about afterward. So far, we've always had something to complain about our performance, but this time we just laughed off the mistakes and all, much thanks to the relaxed atmosphere. I was satisfied with my bass, and anyway the songs were pretty simple la. Still made mistakes, but none too obvious I think. And we all looked like we enjoyed ourselves too, and the crowd, though only responsive to a certain extent as they had their dinners in front of them, still did so positively. It was great.
Winson went off to Seven after that, and I felt quite bad to not go cuz if I did go I'd have to pay the cover charges. And I was also feeling like just reviewing our videos ahaha. So kevin, vern and I went back to kev's place to change back and then to vern's place to watch the videos ahahaha. And it was great! I mean, we really had fun, and ahaha it all felt good. Yeea.
I left around 1plus cuz I didn't wanna miss the last tram. And so here I am now, and I gotta get up early tmr argh but oh well haha.
Btw, obama won the nobel peace prize?? Seriously?? Wow.
End:2:50 AM
Friday, October 09, 2009
Thursday.
On:2:00 AM
Well friday's here, and I've got a lot on my mind.For one thing, there's the ICSS ball gig tmr, and I dunno what I should wear man. Hmm. And if I should bring all the clothing down in the morning first or what.
But anyway yea, this evening's jamming session was quite productive. We're pretty much ready to go give a good show, though we can of course always use more practise. But yea, can la.
School today was alright. I decided to skip the psych lecture in the evening due to certain reasons. I did compensate by listening to the physics lecture I missed tho, while reading a few pages of Sartre's reading. Ahaha. Wasn't totally productive of course, but I felt I did gain something from the physics lecture.
Ah man, I'm tired. Shall go sleep.
End:2:11 AM
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Wah wah packed days coming up!
On:2:11 AM
Okay, looks like I'll be somewhat sleep deprived for the next couple of days! But that's alright, cuz it's all gonna be spent jamming ahahha. Only thing is, I am somewhat forced to buy my meals outside, cuz there really isn't much time to prepare them at home. So oh well, gotta spend a bit of money.
School today was okay. But agh, I might've been able to pay more attention during the lectures la. I stayed awake thanks to fieldrunners on the iphone, and tried to listen, but well, I don't feel like I'm really following. Shit, so much for starting to study man. But I am, I suppose. It's just, currently my priorities are to get the gig on friday well done and over. Oh but then again, I did listen quite attentively during the philo lecture. Must be the uncomfortable seats.
Oh btw, our time has been extended to 20 mins, so that's awesome ahaha!
Egg and I were considering when to go donate blood, and decided to do it just after lunch la. Cuz, it might be best to keep it as far away from the marathon as possible. And then I also don't really feel like waking up too early tmr to go for it, cuz I expect to sleep late tonight.
And it looks like I am. Ah well.
So blood donation went well! It hurt, definitely, though the nurse lady was saying that it'd only be a sting that should stop after awhile. But it didn't, and she kept trying to loosen the thing around my arm, and asking if it still hurt. And it did. I thought it might just be my fear of needles, but I could really feel the pain anyway. And so today I learned that it's actually not supposed to hurt for that long, but ah..hmm oh well. Not gonna stop me anyway MUAHAHA. But anyway yea, it's not so much the pain than the needle it self la walao!! Still scared of it, though I must say I was slightly less scared than earlier this year!! Ahahaha. The thing ate into my physics lecture tho, and so I decided to skip it.
Anyway, yea so after school, I got a bit worried abt my iphone cuz I tried to restart it to refresh the ram right, but then it got stuck at the apple screen for like, half an hour. I found out a way to force shut-down the phone by pressing the top and home buttons, and it came back to life after a few tries. But then my 3rd party apps refused to work. Must've been an app screwing things up. When I got back home awhile ago, I got rid of my latest app, this plane-flying one, and yea, things work fine now ahaha.
The jamming session tonight was not bad. Vern and kevin joined winson and I later cuz of assignments and shit. Winson and I managed to secure most of the songs, tho I must say that decode's probably our riskiest one out of the lot. The rest are pretty standard and easy la, shouldn't be too much problem, I hope. But yea, decode demanded quite a bit of coordination and playing together, so it was a bit tricky.
Vern had only gotten back from malaysia this morning, but he seemed pretty well rested ahaha. And he's gonna be our awesome play-everything guy this time - guitars for some, second voices for others, and percussion for the rest.
We left around 11.30pm to meet up with jianshen and the others to go for yarga's birthday surprise haha. Yarga was sleeping when we came in, which was quite surprising for us I mean, he ought to be waiting for us at the door or something man. This midnight tradition has been going on for awhile. But yea, we were all being happy and wishing him a happy 22nd birthday and haha, it was good.
End:2:26 AM
The Links Page
I'm sorry to disappoint you but you probably won't be finding any links here. I kinda just put the "links" tab there to fill up space heh. And anyway yaaahhh I'm toolazy to go compile a reealll set of links and so...yeea. Maybe one day, but not now. And besides I nvr kept links since the diary-x days cuz that time it was supposed to be low profile and although there is no need for this one to remain low profile, I still don't feel like keeping links haha. Oh well. Have fun:D.
The Profile Page
Woo! a profile page! How cool's that!!
Okay so where shall I start. Hmm.
Basically I'm a 19 year old serving my country as an NSman. As a Combat Engineer. In 30SCE. Which well, isn't exactly the best place on earth. And there aren't many places worse than here that I've been to so, yea. Can't wait for ORD.
Anyway previously I was studying in Trinity College in Melbourne. Life there's pretty much alright and I reaaallly missed the food and people and air back in Singapore. Not that it's really bad over there or anything, but it's just that it doesnt feel so homely see.
Yea anyway I studied in SJI (THE best sec sch) for 4 years (THE best years) and graduated in 2005 from class 403 (THE best class). Then I studied in CJC (THE best jc) as part of 1T25(THE best cj class) for the month of jan(THE best month). Before SJI I spent 6 years in JPS (THE best primary sch) and in THE best class of 6A 2001 (man sounds kinda long ago already..haha).
So there! That's my whole education history. Oh unless u include kindergarten, which started in SIS in hongkong (THE best kindergarten/pri sch there) where I spent 1.5 years and the remaining .5 years in the downstairs PAP education centre (not really THE best this time).
Anyway all those which I've said were THE best were indeed THE best because I'd nvr ever give up those experiences for anything else haha. For better or for worse man. I mean hey, I know it's kinda common sense la, cuz it's not really possible to 'give up experiences' but you get my point right. Right? No? Ah well too bad then.
I see this is more like some weird self-testimony as opposed to a profile. But heck it's my page so I do it the way I like:P.
Lemme see what else.
I'd put my birthday down but YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER IT so not much pt for me to put it here right! Haha. Okay la heck, my birthday's on the 30th of feb 1989.
What, you think I'm lying? No of course I'm not lying! Why should I lie? Because I'm too bored?? Good point, I am bored. Which is why I bothered making this profile page in the first place.
Ah well. I guess I shall stop here for now. Getting late and I want to see how this template would look like on my blog.
Cya, take care, have fun, and don't stress out too much:D.
