I see the light.....

I'm beginning to see the light, as 21st Oct draws nearer. Nope, not exams, if you are wondering, but the report. Haha, it's starting to disturb me quite a bit. You know, like an axe over the head? Come 21st, it'll be gone! Though I hope the report goes fine, and of course I'll continue to do my best for it, I shall be glad to see the back of it. Unfortunately, this won't be the end of reports. I foresee more coming in the semesters to come.

Oh well. I still feel a sense of achievement though, coz I finished compiling the different reports already! Yay! Still left with Pony's though, but that will soon be done come tomorrow. Right now, I wish I could greet my bed with enthusiasm, but I can't. I gotta do my HP101 tutorial. And I did promise Papa I'd try to study the Psych and other stuff another time, so... yah. I'll try my best. Really!

Ok, I'm done with the little break here. Going to carry on with my *groans* work.

The rest of you, I hope you are having fun! =)

GOOD LUCK!!

Today has been a tired but fruitful day. Slept at 4am this morning trying to do the HP102 report (yep, the one you all read of me whining on and on about it), then off to tutorials and especially the Basic Maths for Economists tutorials. Oh my god. I thought going for the tutorial would help ease my doubts about that chapt. BOY was I ever so wrong. I ended up as blur as I was last wk. -_-"

Anyway, I went for Project Bridge at 430pm. Project Bridge is a place and a programme set up for early school-leavers between the ages of 13-18. It aims to help the school-leavers in finding a job, or helping those who are still keen on getting an education get back into schools. They also target those students who are in dange of leaving school- these are the students that we are helping. We coach them in mainly Maths and Science. I think this is a worthwhile cause, and.. hmm, though I may not be joining rotaract next year, I still feel like going back there to volunteer. Haha. I was apprehensive about teaching there at first, maybe 'cos I was doubtful of my teaching abilities, and the students' behaviours, but after 2 sessions teaching there, I feel a lil more confident bout teaching them, though I think my teaching has to be improved on. *sheepish smile* Contrary to what some may think about these potential school-leavers, they are actually quite keen to learn and get good grades. They may be from the Normal stream, but they are quite smart you know. =)

I taught a guy called Yazid today. Tomorrow's his N-Levels Maths Paper 2, and I was coaching him. I hope he remembers what I taught him today man. There wasn't enough time to cover everything, and I think he started his revision very very late, so the most I could do was to help him refresh his memory on factorisation etc. Not enough time to do Trigo, though, which I think is quite dangerous, coz Trigo is an important topic, as we all know. =S He was quite encouraging too. Haha, when I said I can't draw for nuts, he said "You can do it!" in Malay (I can't remember what the words are in Malay, but there you have it). He was also quite willing to teach me Malay, like Dino. Haha... I think it was only towards the end that we started to feel comfortable in each other's presence. =) They are all very friendly, and were very open about their thoughts and their work, even explaining their art pieces to us. I hope they do well for their N-Levels and proceed on to Os and then to Poly and wherever it is that they wanna go to. =) It's amazing to know that just a few hours with them could make me feel like that, really. That's why I wouldn't mind going back there to teach. I think it's a worthwhile cause. =D

Ok, 'nuff said. I gtg back to do the Discussions section again. Haha, I'm sooo not gonna sleep at 4am today... gonna slp as soon as my hair is dry. ;)

Writer's Block

I hate writer's block. They always leave me with a sense of inadequacy and helplessness. Well, I sometimes find that the way around writer's block is to write about it. So here I am, trying to damndest to dissolve this meaningless wall that's standing between me and my sleep.

One thing that came to mind while thinking about writer's block: What do you do when you meet a wall? Do you
a) dig a hole under it, or
b) try to walk around it?

I think there have been many theories surrounding this question, especially theories surrounding the personalities of those who choose either one of the options. If my memory serves me right, walking around the wall seems to reflect a go-getter attitude, showing initiative blah blah blah, while the digging hole one seems to reflect a stubborn stick in the mud who insists on doing things the hard way. Well. Which are you? Personally, I don't think either one is good. What if the wall goes on forever? Is a person gonna walk the whole length of it forever? What if the underside of the wall is concrete? Is the person gonna try to dig up the concrete bit by bit? Oh well, maybe I'm just reading too much into it again. Or maybe I'm just in a bitchy mood these days.

What is it that I'm doing that gave me a writer's block? Well, I'm trying to do my part of the HP102 report, since I was mostly playing a fool on Friday during our discussion. Ironically, or not, the part I volunteered to write on is the "Discussions" section, and now I'm trying to compile Merrilyn and Si Huan's contributions together to try to form a coherent essay. I hope the paragraphs I've done are Ok- I'm left with one important part, and I don't know how to put all of it together! It's something lurking at the back of my mind, and keeps sliding out of my grasp each time I try to put a finger (or a fist, depending on whether you wanna be literal) to (or around, again, depending on whether you wanna be literal) it. It has something to do with the inconsistency of the researchers (us) when briefing and debriefing the participants, and the timing of the timers, and the scoring of the scorers. And something about the stress given to the participants. They somehow seem to fit in as one point, but I can't seem to be able to come up with a suitable beginning sentence. Argh. I don't want to leave this till the week, though, cos it would be hanging over me until I finished, and goodness knows how behind I am in my work. I haven't completed my Maths homework yet, and I haven't even read the lecture notes of it yet. That aside, there is my readings to be done this week. This is a major thing, and I don't wanna give it less than my full attention. After all, 5 people's grades are on the line here, including my own. If I'm gonna try for the exchange prog in Year 3, I better make sure I do a good job of this. And also not let my groupmates down. And also not be a sleeping member in the group. It's not a nice feeling to be a sleeping member, I realise.......

OK. Going to drink chicken soup and going back to the grind! Wish me luck! =)

Deaths

It seems like there is always someone we know dying these days. Just on Thursday I received news from my father that my granduncle, who had been suffering from liver cancer, had passed away that afternoon. I was also told that Yi Lun's friend's father, who had also been suffering from Hepatitis B, had passed away that same afternoon, though 2 hours later. He had slipped into a coma 2 days before and passed away while still in one. Then last week (I think), I read on Alan's blog that his junior had passed away. He had died of heart cancer. Why are so many people dying now? I was expecting my granduncle to leave us anytime, but I was still sad upon receiving the news. Though I wasn't close to him, his departure just feels too close to home. Yi Lun's friend... I was feeling shocked and sad. I was hoping that he would recover gradually and live on a few more years. Alas, that was not to be. His death was rather sad for me coz I guess I could just imagine how I would feel if I were in Yi Lun's friend's shoes. Granted, his departure was expected by his family members and they were mentally prepared, but somehow, I believe that no matter how prepared one is for the demise of a family member, the event would still be equally heart-wrenching. After all, death is irreversible. No amount of calling or screaming will make the person come back to life. I think, if I were to be in Lun's friend's shoes, I'd be absolutely devastated. I can't bear to think how I would carry on with life. Just losing Peke last year made me cry at odd times. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose one of my family members. I don't think the pain can ever be assuaged. True, people have to go sometime, but I sometimes wish we could live forever. Perhaps I sound dramatic, but... well, today just made me think about how insignificant life is, particularly when I witnessed the cremation of my granduncle.

We went to the Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium to witness his cremation. As I walked around his coffin during his last rites, I was just wondering, we live for about 70 or so years, contributing in whatever way we can, or just simply surviving, only to end up as ashes in urns after that. Why do we even bother to waste time thinking about how to hurt others and do harm to them? Life's just too short to actually do them. I'm not trying to say that I'm perfect- cos I'm definitely not, nor am I trying to be philosophical and moralistic here, but don't you think it would be nice if everyone just made proper use of their time while living to make this a better place? An idealistic plan I guess... And perhaps I'm merely building impossible castles in the air, but I'd like to think at least I'm treasuring the people who matter to me the most and making a difference in THEIR lives- my family. Making the world a better place doesn't mean one has to great things. I just think as long as they make the world of their loved ones a better place, that is as good as anything can get.

Another thing that bothered me about death and funerals was the way the procedure was made so... mechanical, so commodified, so capitalistic, and so... cold. The undertakers were doing their job just as a means to an end- that is to be expected, I guess, since the only reason why they are undertakers is because there is a demand for their services. The body they were supposed to be taking care of was just that- just another body that had to be taken care of. The rites were conducted for their procedures rather than a feeling, I felt. Like it had to be done right. Instructions were called out by the assistant of the monk (yes, you heard right. Assistants) to us, and we were expected to follow it. The whole funeral procedure was just another assignment the undertakers had undertaken. Even before the rites had been completed (to transfer the coffin from the funeral parlour to the van), the assistant was already taking out the notice of my granduncle's death from the door of the funeral parlour. Slowly but surely, every trace of a funeral having been held there was erased. It was kind of symbolic, I guess, to symbolise the erasure of my granduncle's existence from the living world after he was cremated. But anyway, I digress. I was talking about the removal of the notice. It was like, "Oh, another funeral ended. Let's finish this off and go on to our next assignment". They couldn't wait for the rites to have finished? Would detaching the notice from the door take several impossible hours to accomplish? Furthermore, as I saw the coffin being pushed into the incinerator (is that what we call it?), it struck me how cold it was. The coffin was being pushed into the incinerator by rails and machines! An efficient and impressive way, no doubt, and a feather in humanity's cap, but.... throughly mechanised and cold.

Observing the funeral was a rather horrifying event to me. Not in the ghostly sense, but rather in a symbolic sense. Humans tend to have a teleological view of themselves, but I think at the end, we are no more significant than others. After all, all we turn into is ash in the end, not gold. In Gothic literature, we are always reading about characters who face the horror of losing their identity, but in the end, that is what happens to us. We become just another body that another profits from.

Perhaps I'm having these thoughts because of my age. Or perhaps I'm being overdramatic and thinking too much. Or perhaps I'm just getting too carried away by my thoughts and depression over the events. Perhaps I'll come to see death as a homecoming when I grow older. One thing's for sure though. The event I observed today made me realise that man is fallible, and my family's no exception to it either.

Schizophrenic

Look what we got up to yesterday morning when we were supposed to be doing our report for our project (By the way, the authors are Merrilyn, Pony, me, and a guest appearance by Si Huan):

Schizophrenic

SIHUAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am pony pony pony pony pony here… there was a time, wheb ppl said tt Singapore wun make it

BUT WE DIIIIID~~~~~

I found a note my grandma wrote. I was quite surprised as she hadn’t came to my house for a very long time. Sometimes I wonder if she’ll ever get here. Because the last time she was telling us about her encounter with the wolf that wanted to eat her up. Luckily I went there in time to get her out of the wolf’s stomach. It was a terribly difficult operation. I was distracted several times by sihuan and merrilyn and pony who refused to help me be productive. So in the end, a fast operation that only required 1 hour (because all I had to do was kill the wolf) I took 300 days. Seems like that was a very traumatic experience. All that I am saying is starting to make no sense. But at least I knew why my grandma is not coming back anymore. She had died iof starvation and was too disfigueed because of the HCl in the stupid wolf’s stomach. Sihuan started protests on the extermination of the wolf pack. But somehow we always have this feeling that sooner or later, she would be joining in this unethical operation. Guess what my grandma wrote? Let’s be good children and be industrious. But like the naughty children we are, we decided to have our own identity. To follow what grandma says would be conforming. We must have our individuality! YES! Grandma must have passed on as an unhappy, unlucky old maid. But we DON’T CARE. We have to be like all youngsters be, to be rebellious, be in the trend of our individualistic culture.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do you think of our story? Does it make sense? I'm afraid it doesn't, otherwise it wouldn't be titled as such. Yep, that's the reason.... Ok, go ahead and faint now, the story's over! =)

I'm a BLUE Person!

Based on your answers, it appears as though your primary color is Blue. Approximately 10% of the men, women and children on the planet share your sensitive, peace-loving disposition, so you're rather special.

As a Blue, you:
-- need to feel unique
-- look for symbolism
-- value close relationships
--encourage expression
-- desire quality time with loved ones
-- need opportunities to be creative
-- compromise and cooperate
-- nurture people,plants, and animals
-- look beyond the surface
-- share emotions
-- make decisions based on feelings
-- need harmony
-- are drawn to nurturing careers
--get involved in causes
-- bring unity to society

If you're like most Blues, you are perceptive, warm, humane, spiritual, patient, agreeable, poetic, genuine,devoted, compassionate, personal, sensitive, artistic, romantic, accepting,idealistic, insightful, peaceful, caring, and emotional.

Here are a few famous Blues you might recognize: Steve Allen, Emily Bronte, Pearl S. Buck, AlbertCamus, Emily Dickenson, Jane Fonda, Mohandas Gandhi, Mikhail Gorbachev, JamesJoyce, Vladimir Lenin, Shirley MacLaine, Thomas Paine, Carl Rogers, EleanorRoosevelt, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Schweitzer, Oliver Stone, and Leo Tolstoy. If you would like to learn more about the patented Insight Personality System,or complete a more thorough personality test, please return to www.insightlearning.com. You are now subscribed to the free Insightse-newsletter which will give you bits and pieces of information about humantemperament each week. However, if you want this valuable information deliveredto you more quickly, please visit our on-line store and purchase an affordablewebsite membership or one of our innovative educational products. Or feel freeto give us a toll-free call at 800-320-4788 and visit with one of our friendly personality experts.

Hey, to Psych students- Merrilyn and Pony: http://www.insightlearning.com this website provides a real-life example of Internet experiments. There's a briefing before the test, and a sort of debrief after the test- the results. They also allow for questions to be asked by providing contacts. I think it's a rather useful website. Go visit it when u are free! =)

Slappable, I am

I seriously ought to slap myself over and over for delaying the revision for the Cinematics Class. Now I have this horrid feeling I'm not going to do well for the test tmr. I've one more reading to do- Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure in Cinema or something like that, full of Freudian theories which I think I'm not in the mood to read about now. It needs a fresh brain to take it in. And GREAT. I can't remember the character names from From Hell. What a fabulous way to end the week. -_-"

Oh well. It's 1237am, and from the Psych textbook, they say there's no more point cramming the night before, coz all the info will be stored in the short term memory and there's limited space. So sayonara, and I'm going to sleep now. Hopefully the test will be ok, and I'll do reasonably ok in it... I have zilch confidence in the essay I handed in to Kenneth Chan, and there'll be another essay for the exams. CRAP.

Good night!

Yesterday Once More

Yesterday was rather a blast. Went to K-Box with Jieting, Jiun Pey, Jinghua and Jinghua's friend, Yi Ling ( is that how you spell it?), and we sang from 2-7. Well, at least I think Jieting and Jinghua did, coz Jiun Pey and I left at bout 530. Dunno bout Yi Ling though.. we were supposed to have left together, but she decided to stay on a lil longer. =) Anyway, we sang song after song, and well, I must say, I feel a tad ashamed to be singing with such company. They have great voices which so put me to shame I tell you. Haha, Jieting was singing "童话" in soprano coz... I think someone was singing it in a normal voice (can't really remember). Wow, Jieting, I take my hat off to you. She went REALLY high-pitched! AND it was still in tune OK! WOW! =) Need I say anything more about Jiun Pey and Yi Ling? Oh well. Suffice it to say that they have fantastic voices, all in their own unique sense. Jiun Pey's voice, though soft, has a kind of "magnetic" quality about it, as quoted from Jieting. It pulls at people, making them wanna listen more to it. Yi Ling, well... her voice is strong, and she has what we call "台风". When she sings, there's emotion, and gestures... Makes me wonder why she didn't take part in Superstar. I didn't ask her either.

Jieting and Yi Ling went rather high yesterday. They were singing some song- forgot the title, and they stood up on the sofa:


haha.. quite cool rite? Their voices match quite well I must say, and I suggested to Jieting that she and Yi Ling should actually sing a duet for Impresario. They should!

One blip on an otherwise great day: service at K-Box. Man! So rude! When it came time to pay, I just took out all the change... didn't wanna give them tips... I mean, for wat?! Yah, I know it sounds kinda bitchy of me to do so, but... well... they ruined an otherwise fun day. -_-"

Haha, now all i have to do is persuade evon and yi lun to go with me to k-box... hmm.. mebbe we can even ask the cousins to go... Alvin, Alan, Laura, what do u think? ;)

Yesterday

Hey, just a short note here first b4 i blog proper here....

To Jieting, Jiun Pey, Jinghua and Yi Ling (not me!! another Yi Ling) if u want the photos! They have been uploaded into my Yahoo! photo album! go there and get em if u wanna see them or upload them into ur comp k? I'll be posting some up later...

Haha, but for now, i gtg do my work... so overdue.....

Hmm... Gender Difference?

Haha, Merrilyn found this article during our stats class yesterday. It's called Women like Women more than Men like Men

This article is courtesy of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Read it and tell me what you think!

Laura: for more information on Psych, you can visit this website k? =)

WEEKEND!!

Haha, it's the weekend again!! And I'm back at home again! =)

This week has passed ok lah, and.. well, its amusing actually, coz remember in my last post I said I had made a few mistakes for my maths paper? Well, as luck would have it, the mistake I had apparently thought I had made was not a mistake at all. It was correct due to my carelessness you see... I had missed out the word "false" in the statement, so I anyhow chose the odd one out. Haha... Si Huan's method worked! =)

I'm gonna try to enjoy the weekend! =)

YIPPEE!!!

YAY!! FREEDOM!! For the moment, at least. Today was the last paper. Not say it was done well (I made a few mistakes), but at least tests are over. I just hope not too many mistakes were made, coz the lecturer said that the final paper's gonna be hard. And Hard's just so NOT what I need for "Basic Maths for Economists".

It's such a nice feeling u know, of not having to mug so hard for once in the past 10 or so days. It's like the lid has finally been taken off. Oh, and not to mention the worry of not being able to finish revising. Argh. Don't even get me started.

Si Huan found more ppl from SADM!! Yay! So tomorrow we will be collecting like 10 more data from them, then we can submit our results to Mario and he'll analyse our results for us. That is, if Si Huan manages to get her friend to do so by tomorrow... coz i informed her rather late u see.... hee... Oooh and here's something exciting: Mario says that our experiment is worth exploring, and after we have finished with this project, maybe we should improve further on our experiment- creating a software for our experiment, then rewriting the research or something, then maybe we can try submitting it to one of the smaller Psychology Journals to be published. COOL RIGHT?! I'm so excited just thinking about it. Of course, this idea would not have been possible if not for Merrilyn. Haha... =) And, yah,though it's not one of those more prestigious journals like APA's one (that's natural... the prestigious journals have a rejection rate of up to 90% a year!), I think it's a great exposure and it's kinda flattering to know that you have the kind of research that is interesting enough to be published. =) So, Laura, isn't Psych fun?

Hehe... i'm waiting for my hair to dry, which explains this ungodly hour at which I'm still up. Supposed to sleep early tonight though.. Ooops... =X

3 Loads off my shoulders and one moreto go!! YAY!! FINALLY can breathe a small sigh of relief. But there's another test tomorrow- Basic Maths for Economists, and MAN! I so haven't prepared for it!! Disgusting. But I just couldn resist letting out my sigh of relief just for this short moment... =)

Last week was a real horror. I barely had time enough to catch my breath or even catch up with family. One week seemed a long time to me before the hols, but once it started did I realise HOW WRONG I WAS. NOW i know that 1 week is NOT enough to study 6 chapts, much less 5 modules of work. OK, so I'm gonna make plans, plans which I hope I can keep.... *keeping my fingers and toes crossed*

Though tomorrow is a hectic day for me, I'm still looking forward to it!! Coz it's the last paper!! YAY!! Then I have a short break. Before it's back to the grind. Have to complete a report and carry out somemore experiments, coz Mario says we dun have enough SADM students. CRAP. Hopefully our group can finish it faster and then can fully concentrate on exams!! ARGH

Today's paper was ok, got 34/45... I know... it's not very great... but considering the fact that I had rushed thru its revision and I thought I was gonna fail it, I think its ok lar. I could have done worse, BUT I certainly could have done better. Today's test just made me realise how unfamiliar I am with research designs. CRAP I actually forgot what was the independent groups design, matched groups design etc. I was mentally kicking myself. OK. This tells me I should make notes for that already.

OK, I'm going back to study... Wish me luck!! =)

Been feeling a vague sense of panic lately, think it's stemming from the coming onslaught of tests descending upon me like.... like.... like a flock of vultures!! Bursting at the seams here man, and I thought 1 week was long?! who the heck was I kidding? After 2 days, all I've accomplished is finished compiling my subcomm list, send an email to my lecturer bout the essay I'm supposed to do (which I of course haven't done yet, but I've watched the movie to refresh my memory), finished part of my stats assignment (the other half hasn't been done yet because yours truly had overlooked the fact that I had an assignment to do and thus forgot to bring home the book from hall), and.... that's about it. I still have 13 chapters of Psych stuff to read, an essay to write (I'm hoping to start on it soon!!), bout 6 chapts of Basic Maths for Economists to read for the test, and... *GASP* a freaking project to complete by this hols. Oh man... and I thought I would have time to volunteer to do the slides for our presentation... It's like, I'm losing control of everything! I've never been so unprepared for tests before man... It's so many chapters and scaring the hell out of me. And thing is, quizzes are supposed to help us pull up our overall GPA. Well, how am I gonna do that? By cheating?!

Was so stressed just now I quarrelled with Lun. Argh. I hate that... Hate quarrelling, esp when I'm seldom at home, and we seldom see each other. Waste time, energy, emotions... and thing is, the burst of anger didn't even help to dispel some of the helplessness and frustration inside me.

Haha, how true are the results of the tests below? Gimme ur comments! =)

Slow and Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment. They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How'>http://www.blogthings.com/howdopeopleseeyouquiz/">How Do People See You?

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when your partner is patient and never willing to give up on you. You'd like to your lover to think you are loyal and faithful... that you'll never change. You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is low. Even if you're tempted, you'd try hard not to do it. You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as something you don't need. You just feel like flirting around and playing right now.

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/keystoyourheartquiz/">What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!

And I'm sooo ecstatic about it. Not that this break is gonna be a breeze though, coz it's not. There are projects to be done, reports and essays to be written, and.. *GASP* surprise of urprises! tests to study for! -_-" Oh well, on the bright side, at least it's one GLORIOUS week of no lessons and staying at home and being with family, even though their term will start again this week, and von is having her prelims. Argh. I shudder to think of the horror of prelims.

After a week of mad rush, the hols are a thankful reprieve i tell u. For the whole week, I've had 6 1/2 hours of sleep practically everyday. All thanks to the variation of the stroop project that we had to carry out. The project's not finished yet, though. There's still a report to be done and a presentation to prepare for. Thank goodness I've got wonderful groupmates. Haha, they are a wonderful bunch- lame, good-natured, responsible. I hope we end up in the same tutorial group again next sem and the subsequent years. Though everyday is a race with time to get our project in shape, there're always laughs to share, which makes the whole process much more bearable and enjoyable. Love it. =)

I wanna watch the netball finals of Singapore vs Malaysia. Netball's quite fun to watch- fast-paced action. Whoever said netball's for sissies is a dumb duck.

I'm still trying to bully my heart into starting on my holiday homework, but it's bullying me back by forcing my brain to send messages to my fingers to start blogging and talking (basically doing anything that doesn't involve studying), and so far, my brain has been succumbing. Not that it doesn't know that it's succumbing. It just enjoys the pleasures of doing nothing. Well, no sirreee! Not anymore! Going out with Jinghua today, so I guess if I wanna have a guilt-free and happy time out, I better get started. Looking forward to the high tea tomorrow too!! YAY!!!

It's 2340 hours, and I'm not asleep yet. Not that I dunno why, but it's coz I'm so fed up with the stupid software that I'm supposed to download to carry out my group's experiments. Yah. And darling Yi Lun is helping me design the logo and the biz card for DAC. Really grateful to her for that.

I know I should be sleeping, but I keep having this feeling like there's something I haven't done yet. It's getting on my nerves. I know there are alot of things I haven't done yet, but this nagging feeling feels important. Can't put my finger to it though. Projects are pouring in like nobody's business already, and I'm swimming in them now. Not to mention the extra readings that I've gotta do. Finally caught up with HP101 (Intro to Psych), and slightly ahead in HP200 (Stats in Psych Research), but behind in HP102 (Research Methods in Psych - *yawn*). Yah, and how bout my electives?! And the activities that I joined. Is this just a teething problem, or is this a bad omen of things to come?

Oh cripes. I haven't come up with a criteria and questions to ask the interviewees. SHeesh!! I gotta think about it tmr after my lecture. Oh, one bright spot for tmr. Watching From Hell, a movie with Johnny Depp inside. Yay! Love his acting. I hope I understand the deeper insinuations of the movie. As advised by Dr Chan my lecturer, DON'T TRUST WHAT THE DIRECTOR SHOWS YOU. That's what he says to think whenever we watch movies *shrugs*. That way, he says, we'll get more from the movie.

Oh before I go, THANK YOU Xue Fang, for giving me ideas for the variable ratio schedule!! =)

My week

Alot of things have happened this week-

Mon: went for NTU's 50th anniversary, but we didn stay to watch FIR's performance. Pity, that, cos I heard they performed 6 songs. Nonetheless, I don't really regret it lar. We had to stand for so long, and the ppl kept asking us to stay at the side. One moment they told us to move to the left, the next they told us to move to the right. Well done. Who do we listen to then?

Tues: first Deli Aprecio Club (DAC) meeting. Interesting. We have to come up with designs for the club logo, come up with the Club's slogan, vision, mission and values. And subcomm recruitment is on Tues, 730 pm. Anyone interested in joining publications? Just come find me. Which brings me to another point: the criteria regarding the members for my subcomm, and I gotta figure out how often to hold the meetings. Oh, and questions to ask the interviewees. Oh man. I've never done this before. Can someone advise me pls?!?!?!

Wed: Nothing much, just the usual weekly torturous Wednesday, with 3 consecutive lectures dragging over a space of 6 hours. And when I say consecutive, I do mean CONSECUTIVE. Seriously, the only thing that I look forward to at the end of Wednesday is its end and dinner with Jieting and her rommate Shijia. Haha, it's great to dine with them. Can talk to them and unwind and gossip. I feel relaxed in their company. Oh, and if Dr Kenneth Chan is screening movies, yep, then that's another thing that I look forward to, just that I find that I seem to be unable to understand the movies more and more. Is it because I'm pressurizing myself to see things? Or issit that I just can't grasp what Dr Chan is trying to teach us? Or is it that what I watch is entirely beyond my schema of knowledge- gayism, the male gaze, or the cinematic gaze?

Thurs: Watched Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (or La Belle et La Bete). Wonderful movie, though there was a constant tendency to compare it to Disney's version. This version seems more magical, more realistic than Disney's and much darker. Oh, and rather hilarious too. The actions of Belle (Josette Day) was so over the top. The perfect swoon- fainting but not causing pain or bruise to any part of her body, AKA gently falling down while fainting- the classic female putting her hands to her forehead... well, u get the idea. Her face always seemed to be glowing too. Haha. Just learnt the term today. Her face looks like it just came straight out of a vermeer painting. An example of that is the picture below, done by Johannes Vermeer, a Dutch painter. This painting should be familiar. It's The Girl With the Pearl Earring. I meant to watch the movie, but I was in hall. Argh. OK, here's the picture:


Credits to Johannes Vermeer and http://www.about-vermeer-art.com/vermeer/vermeer-posters/poster.html?id=1

Cool movie.

Fri: Need I say more? I can come home!! Today was an unusually long Friday though. Had to do 2 project discussions for Psychology. Luckily one of them was quickly done, which is a load off the shoulders- nonetheless, I'm getting worried. Info seems to be processing in my head at an unusually slow pace. I can't really catch up with what the tutor is saying when she teaches the SPSS file. Darn. I keep forgetting the steps, and I don't even know what the split file is for. Crap. I don't know what to use what for. Argh. I hope my friend can get hold of the SPSS prog and I can borrow to practise. The other... I have to ponder the project again. Seems like I didn't contribute much to the project this time. I hate not being able to contribute to project. Shall see what ideas or what I can do for the project tomorrow. Hopefully I can come up with something.

I have to sleep early tonight... My new plan is to sleep early on weekends and HOPEFULLY wake up early the next morning so I can get an early start on the day. Let's hope my new resolution stays.....