21.

"Finally 21, and legally able to do everything I've been doing since 15."

~ Anonymous

Iiiiiit'sss...

My.

Birthday!

Not just any ordinary birthday, but the day I officially turn 21.

You got that right, adults who think you can show me no respect but on the other hand expect me to respect you just because y'all older than me.

I am officially an adult, just like all of you, and regardless of age, I expect to be given the same respect as everyone else.

If you haven't noticed, society doesn't put much emphasis on age, as much as they do on capabilities and self-worth.

Whatever. At least now I get the chance to show no respect to lil' kids.


*Okay, okay. Kidding.*

Aaaaanddd...

My exam is finally OVER OVER OVER. I cannot reiterate enough on how awful the past few days were. Worst. Exam. Experience. Ever.

Probably (mostly) due to the fact that I didn't study at all, and did last minute cramming (which honestly, seldom works, unless you're a super genius) which was horrid coz then I got panic attacks (yes, literally) which made me unable to study. An experience so horrifying that I can find no suitable words to describe the trauma I've been through (okay, maybe being a lil too dramatic here but you get my point).

AAAAANNNDD...

Off I fly to the United States of Amewikka in about another 30 hours!

See you soon!

XOXO

Domus

Okaaayy so late last year, a few friends and I teamed up for a coffee shop design competition. Incentive? Best design wins an iPad.

Too bad we didn't win in the end.

So here's our design. Did we deserve not to win? You tell me . =/

delicious cash

"You just never give up and never get enough... too much."

-JacQ, Facebook-

For some reason, I find that I like this picture a lot.

I don't know why.

I had something else I wanted to blog about earlier, but it slipped my mind as soon as I clicked on the "New post" tab. =(

Exam is coming in 6 days, and I am so unprepared. Not the kind of unprepared-ness that geniuses moan about because they have finished eating up all their lecture notes but not their textbooks, but the kind where you have not attended lectures for over a month and still have no idea what the 2nd half of the course is about. This kind of unprepared-ness make all my previous exam woes seem like *nithing*.

For some reason, I have given up entirely on my passion for studying, and all I want is just to graduate as soon as possible and start making myself some delicious cash.

And to think just about a year ago, I thought to myself "4 years of uni life is too short! I wanna be a uni student forever!"

I wonder what changed me. 

15 X 20 = 300

"I wanna see your peacock."

- Lyrics from Peacock, Katy Perry -

My new lab project for the second half of this semester is awfully boring.

My prof is more concerned about the format of the report, rather then it's content. Trust me, it's worse than it sounds, I'm just too lazy to rant about it. 

Also probably because I already ranted about him to Kevin in the bus, so I managed to get it off my chest and not see the need of ranting here anymore. 

Anyway, my lab project is boring in the sense that, we have to wait 15 minutes for each reading to be taken.

Can you believe it??? Sitting in front of the machine, just waiting and waiting and waiting, and recording down some lame values every 15 minutes. We had approximately 20 values to record, which amounts to...

15 X 20 = 300 minutes = 5 hours of waiting time. 

The experiment had to be carried out over a span of 3 weeks, of which averagely 1.5 hours was spent each week sitting in front of the machine like idiots. 

Anyways. 

Today, one of my lab mates cleverly brought his laptop, went to Youtube, and we all crowded round the only source of entertainment to be found in the entire laboratory. 

I saw the stupidest video ever.

Like seriously. 

The lyrics.

Are stupid.

And lame. 

Nevertheless, we had a good laugh about it.

Watch it here:

If it doesn't load, here's the link. 

After we had enough idiocy from Ms Black, we decided gay videos might help lighten the mood:

SERIOUSLY, WATCH THIS!! If you don't think it's gay, THAT'S BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED TILL THE END YET

(See how I bolded, italicized, underlined, and colored the "watch this!!" part? Seriously. Watch it.)

Okay, okay. You got me. This is.

Random blog post in a half-hearted attempt to revive my half-dead blog.

Can't blame me.

The semester is more than half over, and I have no idea what my core course is all about, let alone starting Tutorial 1.

Betcha can't beat me at lagging behind in studies. =D

FIFTY PERCENT to your finals.

Teamwork means "I tim, you work." 

-Ai Fern from Ee Ping, Facebook-

I am so effing pissed off.

Lecturers should allow students to pick their own group mates. What is the rationale behind randomly dividing students into groups and forcing them to work with complete strangers?

That by itself would be fine by me, if not for the fact that my group mates are all NOOBS.

First off, some background on the situation:

I'm taking this elective course, and for our project which counts 50% to our finals, students are randomly divided into groups of 3, and each group is supposed to work and research on a topic, and at the end of it, produce a presentation and a report not exceeding 100 pages. I, unfortunately, was grouped up with two other guys, both first year students: T from Kazakhstan (it's some Middle East country, I Googled it) and R from Indonesia.

Usually, I wouldn't discriminate people by their race or nationality; that's just low. However, I am NOT PLEASED with both my group mates.

Before I start my rant, you should know that I was appointed group leader. At first T was the group leader but 2 weeks later, he wanted out and asked me to take up the role of being the leader instead. I didn't want it, but seeing the (potential) incompetence of T (we had been communicating for 2 weeks now, so I had it in my guts he wasn't cut out for it), I decided it'd be best for the group if I took it. So as you read on, don't go thinking I'm being some meanie who bosses everyone around. I'm just doing my job as a leader.

Okay, back to rant.

For starters, T CANNOT. SPEAK. ENGLISH.

Like, seriously. He speaks like this: "Rachel, errrr... I am... errr... you want to... err... need the report... err... by this Saturday, yes? I... err... am quite... err... busy... err... can you... errrrrrrrrr... give me... errr... a few more days?"

Like WTF man, he takes half a minute to say one sentence I could spit out in 3 seconds.

Once again, I am NOT discriminating people who can't speak English well, but SERIOUSLY.

IF he was your GROUP MATE.

And he SPEAKS LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME.

And you're supposed to WORK WITH HIM FOR A PROJECT AND PRESENTATION.

And that project counts FIFTY PERCENT to your finals.

I assure you, you'd feel like killing yourself him too.


Half of the time, he does not understand what I am saying because I probably speak too fast or my English is too 'cheem'.

Trust me, I tried all ways. I tried talking slowly, I tried Singlish, I tried simple sentences, I tried broken English. It's like talking to a three year old kid.

Like, seriously man. No offense, but WHY THE FREAKING HELL DID YOU FREAKING COME TO A ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY IF YOU CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH.

For instance. I didn't go to China for my tertiary education for a reason. I CAN'T SPEAK CHINESE.

So anyway, I decided that since T obviously does not understand spoken English, I'd communicate with him via e-mail. I sent him an email telling him the topics that he had to research on, and I even gave him explicit instructions on how to go about it, and to give me a 5-page report on the topic. I gave him 5 days to complete it, till Saturday.

Guess what?

Saturday came and he did not reply my e-mail, and definitely DID NOT stick to the FREAKING DEADLINE. Come Sunday, I called him up and he gave me some excuse which probably meant he was busy. I can't be sure. More than half the time I didn't get what he was saying. So I gave him instructions to finish it by Tuesday.

Monday night, I received an e-mail from him with two attachments: a Word doc and a pdf.

*finally!*

Oh, how wrong I was.

I opened up the Word doc, and what did I see?

A page and a half of an article on the topic. The format and style written seemed oddly familiar. Not to mention there were hyperlinks EVERYWHERE.

HELLO, IF YOU WANTED TO COPY FROM WIKIPEDIA, COULDN'T YOU AT LEAST REMOVE THE HYPERLINKS AND REPHRASE THE SENTENCES SO THAT IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE YOU BLATANTLY PLUCKED THE ENTIRE CHUNK OUT AND NOT EVEN BE BOTHERED TO EDIT ANY PART OF IT?

Next, I looked at the pdf file. It was a 20-page full of math jargon, and the pdf file was obviously downloaded off the Internet. Did he really expect me to insert the entire chunk of 20-paged math equations into the report? I SAID FIVE PAGES, DUMBASS.

If I wanted information, couldn't I just have gone to Google Wiki and gotten the article myself? Would I still need YOU to do the research?

I don't believe it. Fucked up first year student who does not understand English, does not reply e-mails, does not adhere to deadlines, does not do his research, and apparently does not know that other people, namely me, can see through plagiarism and laziness as clear as glass. Especially when it is so obviously thrown into my face.

So I sent T yet another e-mail, telling him how his "report" was unacceptable and I told him to write me another one. Again, he did not reply my e-mail, and it wasn't until I sent him another one today that he replied. I gave him till Saturday. I hope he does not disappoint me this time.

I don't believe it. Even if he did send me his report this Saturday, he is still waaaay past the initial deadline by an entire week.

***

After much complain about T, it suddenly feels like R isn't so bad after all.

But still.

R is an Indonesian, also a first year student. His English is acceptable, so there's no problem there. However, being a first year, he apparently still does not understand the shortcuts and tricks of writing a report that compromises legality, but not quality. He insists on doing everything "right", even though he obviously has not been here long enough to know what "right" is. In other words, a perfectionist with zero knowledge.

He, similar to T, did not adhere to the deadline, but at least in the end, he gave me something of considerable quality. (By considerable quality, I meant horrible quality, but as compared to what T gave me, I think it was pretty impressive)

R also copied from Wiki (and also did not remove hyperlinks - seriously, what is it with people and not removing hyperlinks before submitting their works???) but at least he also got information from somewhere else, and at least he structured it in such a way that it looked like a legitimate report. Also, he gave me his references. Which is better than nothing, coz at least he credits other people for his work.

Of course, he made a grave mistake no university student should ever do (sadly, I also ignorantly made this same mistake for a period of time longer than I am proud of): Cite references from Wiki.

One. Should. Never. Ever. Ever. Cite. From. Wikipedia.

It's general knowledge.

Citing from Wiki is as good as saying "I know this because the wind whispered it to me." In the end, nobody believes you and you're just destroying your own credibility.

But whatever. At least he gave me something.

***

In the end, I'm the one compiling the entire report.

At least I worked my way around getting them to do most of the "research" part (pathetically), while I worked on the literature review.

Being a leader has it's benefits too, I guess.

Just not so much when your group mates are dumbasses.

The longer I stay in NTU, the more queer people I meet.

not intended for show

You give them a deadline, but you hint that it would be preferable if they complete it BEFORE the deadline is due. Nobody EVER gets the hint.

-Rae, Facebook-

Random meaningless update to make my blog less dead than it already is.

Assignments, projects, meetings, and studies are keeping me down and whatever spare time I have left is used watching Criminal Minds.

Hence, the half-dead blog.

This semester is gonna be a shitty one.

Unrelated note: I suck at managing my money. I spend waaaay too much.

I miss getting paid $1200 a month for sitting around in the office listening to my iPod. =(

***

Bought 4 new snails + 10 shrimps 2 weeks back. Total cost: $30. Of which all died in less than 48 hours. Only one survived: A tiny red snail that cost 50 cents.

.......

.............

....Whatev.

Some photos I took before they died (except for the red one, which is currently still alive and laying eggs all around):

cute!

shrimps

Before they died. =(

White stuff is bread. NOT dead shrimp, like some people thought. 

Tiny admission: Uploading photos of my new pet(s) is not intended for show, rather, to make my blog seem more interesting, more colorful, and less dead. 

P.S.: Kevin's birthday celebration's long over, updates about it is still in progress. You should know I'm not the kind who's hardworking enough to upload photos online. I'm lazy like that. Photos coming soon (hopefully in the next post). 

jobless and uneducated

Errr Straits Times your latest app version has the noisiest (and cheesiest) notification sound ever. Your sound designer must be fired.

-Terry Mun, Facebook-

I am aware this is only my 3rd entry of the entire month. Which means on average, I'm blogging only once a week.

Sorry peeps.

School has started and...

I'm just not in the mood anymore.

Of course, it has always been hard dragging my lazy ass out of my comfort zone in Penang after long periods of vacations and coming back to Singapore to face hardships all over again, but this time, it's just different.

This time, it's plain hard-core slothfulness and not just some inner-self childish bratty retaliation merely whining about school; it's this huge deep feeling that I just don't want to go back to school. Ever.

This feeling was so hard-core and dark that it scared even me. I think it's probably because of my 6-month internship with ExxonMobil that's making me feel awfully lazy to continue with my studies, not when I'm paid good money every month to sit around at the office all day from 8 to 5.

Soooo. First day of school.

I'ts finally the THIRD YEAR OF MY UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES!!

EVERYTHING went wrong.

I didn't get enough sleep, I looked fat in my jeans, my printer was broken and I couldn't print my notes, so I had to go to the library to print my notes - no coloured notes for me this semester!!! Can you imagine how horrible it is studying from B&W notes?? Ohhh, the horror!! - my jeans felt tight (gah), and library didn't open till 8.30a.m., which, coincidentally, is also the time my first lecture starts.

I was 30 minutes late for the first class of the first day of school. Nice way to start the semester.

4 hours of lecture plus 3 ten-minute breaks in between. It was hell. The lecture theatre was too cold (despite me wearing long pants and a jacket) and half way through, I got sleepy and fell asleep.

Gah. If you guys didn't know better, I may just be mistaken for a freshman ranting about culture shock and whatnots.

I know I promised some photos and at least a short blog post on my previous trip to the Penang Botanical Gardens alongside with my "photography with nature", but I'm just not in the mood now.

I wished I was back in Penang, in my blissful jobless and uneducated state.

Abrupt ending accentuates the sad condition of this short blog post.

If on a Winter's Night A Traveller

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

 ~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

I know I haven't blogged for quite a long time now, my apologies for that, coz Kevin came back. =)

Also coz of the fact that living a life of work, sleep, work, sleep, work, and sleep again, evidently does not help in keeping the blogging spirit up. 

Anyways. Now that I'm back from work feeling pretty guilty about not updating my blog for the longest time ever, I have decided to drop by while waiting for Kevin to come back from work so we can have dinner together and continue episode 4 of Flashforward.

You should watch it. Seriously.

So.

I have recently finished another book - yay! *applause* - this time, it's about some dude (according to the book, that's supposed to be me, the Reader) who reads a book but finds a defect in it, goes back to the book store in exchange for a new one, but instead finds it to be a completely different story. As he tries harder and harder to track down the correct book, he instead finds himself in a confusing adventure of book hunting. On the way, he gets acquainted with the book store owner (which later on proves to be more than that when they have sex later on), who kinda helps him a little in his quest, but not quite. Anyways, she's also Me, the Other Reader.

Then again, I am neither, coz I'm supposed to be the one reading about them, or rather myself.

Confusing much? I suspect that's the whol point of the book.

Halfway through, I got so confused that I gave up trying to understand what the hell the Reader was doing or where he was going - trust me, he went places. Lots of them.

I pretty much just enjoyed the half-written stories he (as in, me, the Reader) read while reading through book after book to search for the correct one.

I think I must have read like over ten different stories with no endings. It wasn't that bad, except for the fact that every single time it gets interesting, the Reader gets cut off by some external event.

You'd think getting interrupted while reading a book in real life is annoying, it's more so even in the fictional world of literature. Especially when it occurs over and over again.

I did come across some interesting parts that I thought would be worth sharing, to feed the occasional reader's thirst for a good piece of fiction.

'...this elderly editor, whom at first glance you define as "a little man, shrunken and bent", not because h is more of a little man, more shrunken, more bent than so many others, or because the words "little man, shrunken and bent" are part of his way of expressing himself, but because he seems to have come from a world where they still - no: he seems to have emerged from a book where you still encounter - you've got it: he seems to have come from a world in which they still read books where you encounter "little men, shrunken and bent."'

-If on a Winter's Night A Traveller, Chapter 5-

*omg I didn't know this book was so famous; I typed the words "if on" and the auto-complete gave the complete book title on Google search.*

Here's another one:

'It is that time of day when droves of employees leave the overheated offices, button up their overcoats with their fake-fur collars, and pile into buses. I blink, and they have vanished: only some scattered passersby can be discerned, far off, in the deserted streets from which I have also scrupulously eliminated automobiles and trucks and buses. I like to see the surface of the street bare and smooth as a bowling alley.

Then I abolish barracks, guard houses, police stations: all people in uniform vanish as if they had never existed. Perhaps I've let things get out of hand; I realize that firemen have suffered the same fate, and postmen, municipal streetcleaners, and other categories that might deservedly have hoped for a different treatment; but what's done is done: no use splitting hairs. To avoid trouble, I quickly abolish fires, garbage, and also mail, which after all never brings anything but problems.

I check to make sure that hospitals, clinics, rest homes have not been left standing: to erase doctors, nurses, patients seems to me the only possible health. Then courts, with their complement of magistrates, lawyers, defendants and injured parties; prisons, with prisoners and guards inside. Then I erase the university with the entire faculty, the academy of sciences, letters, and arts, the museum, the library, monuments and curators, theaters, movies, televisions, newspapers. If they think respect for culture is going to stop me, they're wrong.

Then come the economic structures, which for too long a time have continued to enforce their outrageous claim to decide our lives. What do they think they are? One by one, I dissolve all shops, beginning with the ones selling prime necessities and ending with those selling superfluities, luxuries: first I clear the display windows of goods, then I erase the counters, shelves, salesgirls, cashiers, floorwalkers. The crowd of customers is momentarily bewildered, hands extended into the void, as shopping carts evaporate; then the customers themselves are also swallowed up by the vacuum. From consumer I work back to producer: I abolish all industry, light and heavy, I wipe out raw materials and sources of energy. What about agriculture? Away with that, too! And to keep anyone from saying I want to regress toward primitive societies, I also eliminate hunting and fishing.

Nature... Aha! Don't think I haven't caught on. This nature business is another fine fraud: kill it! A layer of the earth's crust is all that has to remain, solid enough underfoot, and everywhere else, nothingness.'

-If on a Winter's Night A Traveller, What story down there awaits its end?-

And another:

'There, at the end of that strip of nothing I continue to call the Prospect, I see a slender form advancing, in a pale fur jacket: it's Franziska! I recognize her stride in her high boots, and the way she keeps her arms hidden in her muff, and the long striped scarf flapping after her. The cold air and the cleared terrain guarantee good visibility, but I wave my arms in vain, trying to attract her attention: she can't recognize me, we're still too far apart. I advance, hastening my steps; at least I think I'm advancing, but I lack any reference points. Now, on the line between me and Franziska, some shadows can be discerned: they are men, men in overcoats and hats. They are waiting for me. Who can they be?'

 -If on a Winter's Night A Traveller, What story down there awaits its end?-

Right. I must stop myself here, lest I  continue with this foolishness of copying passages off a book until I have unknowingly copied the entire book here - which of course, as unlikely as it may seem, there always exists a possibility, however small it may be; analogous to the fact that as unlikely as I may die tomorrow, I am still unable to guarantee that I may still live -  and I may then bore the reader (in this context, I am referring to you, dear Reader, the one reading my blog) to the brink of death. Not that anyone in their right minds would read this far - I believe most of my acquaintances would much rather read about my real life than to read about me rambling on and on about some boring book. 


Unless, of course, you're an avid fan of exploring the different concepts of literature - sometimes to even believe that there may be a paralel universe within the pages that we flip - and if you are, I am pleased to be of your acquaintance as well. 

Last but not least, I do realise that I have been so much into the mood of literature and such that even my flair of transcribing thoughts into words have flourished beyond my expectations. Never mind that, I'll soon be back to normal.


Kevin is back. Flashforward + dinner time! =)

EID Open Day!

I know EID Open Day 2010 is long over, sorry for the late update. 

Anyways.

Welcome to E^3Mobin Ltd!

Promoting our product... (We designed and drew our company T-shirts ourselves. ^^)

In the end, we didn't win but the effort was worth it coz we really had lots of fun, plus the satisfaction of being able to create, reinvent, and promote our product.


Plus, we got a B+ for it.


An acceptable grade, I should think.

A little description about our product - it's actually a robotic trashbin (hence the name RoBBin) with rotating blades to collect rubbish. Here's a video demo of how our product works:


E^3Mobin and RoBBin rulez!

so it's pretty much is screwed up, isn't it?

I always say "Right, I don't care if I'm going to bed at 4 a.m. today, I sure as hell am going to force my sleepy self out of bed by 7 a.m., even if it costs my life," and then the next morning I'll just go "Ah, screw it."

-Rae-

Okay, so life's been pretty mundane lately (that is, besides the fact that I'm still pretty excited over my new phone) - how much more mundane can it get when all you do is procrastinate all day?

I decided I'd upload post-related pictures every once in a while - I realized that it actually helps keeping people stay on track, especially when reading long posts of boring updates in my life.

Lately I've been sleeping at 3/4 in the morning every single day (don't ask me what I do every night - I honestly don't have a clue); even though I tell myself this is the final time I'm going to sleep at such an ungodly hour and oversleep the next day and miss morning lectures - I go and do it the next day anyway. Then, I manage to convince myself every 'morning' before I go to bed that i have to wake up at 8 a.m. the latest but then I sleep in till like 12 p.m. or so and then just think "ah, screw it, I'll be good tomorrow, let's enjoy the life of a lazy ass student for just one more day - at least I'll finish up my tutorials tonight," which of course, is another blunt lie.

Speaking of tutorials, I have been spending days on ends just to finish three questions - yep, three questions took me 5 whole days to do coz, well, I was, you know, procrastinating too much.

Pet Society kills, people.

Yep, that's my pet. It says it wants to kill me.

Ah. Had an epiphany of how I could make myself famous. Was letting my fingers run free on the piano today, when I realized that my fingers could actually create impromptu music out of thin air, all while my brain was zombie-dead. I should write them down the next time my fingers act up, and then maybe I'd be a great composer. *lolrofl* But still. I think it might just give me something else to work on other than lame ol' school stuff.

Okay, so it's now 2 a.m., and I don't plan on continuing my bad habit of going to bed late - so I promise myself that I'll go to bed in 30 more minutes; I just hope I won't give myself another 30 more minutes after that, and another 30 more minutes after that... You get my drift.

I guess that's just one of my many bad habits - giving myself more 'at night' time, paying 'em back the next morning.

So well, that brings us back to what happened today - I actually woke up at 7.30 a.m., despite the fact that I went to bed at 3 the night before. Not that I actually wanted to, but I guess I was kinda forced to, coz I had a quiz today at 9.30 a.m.

Guess what?

I didn't study for it.

Not one bit.

Okay, you could call it studying if browsing through the first 5 pages of the 50-odd pages of lecture notes counted.

I wouldn't been half that scared if I knew the quiz was open-book, which of course, as it always happens, I didn't.

That's right, I sat for a open-book quiz without studying for it, and without knowing it was open-book.

You can guess what happened.

The quiz was relatively easy, but I couldn't recall the formulas - yes, I know I could have referred to my lecture notes, but that's just the problem, isn't it? I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS A OPEN-BOOK QUIZ.

*I couldn't drill more on the unfortunate fact, if I wanted to*

I knew the steps, I just couldn't remember the formula, and that being said, I guess the situation was kinda on my side, considering the fact that I still would have been able to answer all questions correctly with zero revision - if only I knew THE QUIZ WAS OPEN-BOOK.

*Okay, I guess I could drill more on the fact...*

But that'd just make myself feel worse.

On the whole, it was okay; I could answer 3 out of 4 questions correctly - guess why I couldn't solve the 4th one?

Yep, you got it.

*cue reader's chorus: "if only you knew it was an open-book quiz."*

I would have gotten a perfect score. With ZERO revision. If only...
Nevermind.

Oh, oh, did I mention that I want the new Vaio Z series laptop?

Here it is:My dream laptop. VPCZ117GG.

Cut the crap, here's the specs:

SCREEN 13.1 inches; full HD
WEIGHT 1.41kg
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
PROCESSOR Intel Core i7-620M 2.66GHz (with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GHz) (omg i7 and 2.66GHz!!!)
STORAGE 256GB
MEMORY 8GB RAM
CONNECTIVITY WiFi (802.11a/b/g/*), Bluetooth
GRAPHICS Nvidia GeForce GT330M with dedicated 1GB RAM (ONE. GB. RAM. JUST FOR GRAPHICS. PERIOD.)

There is only one reason why I'm not buying it.

It costs SGD 4499.

wtf.

Out.

Huff.

WAHAHA EXAM IS OVER!!!

Thermo was easier than expected... Is that good news or bad news?

the new craze

The more studying you did for the exam, the less sure you are as to which answer they want.

-Second Law of Applied Terror-

Here's another video production by Little Grass.

Killing time while waiting for the library to open:




Now that exam period has begun, yes it's understandable that the library has become a hot spot, but does it have to be like this??

Why are all the students standing outside the library?

They're waiting for it to open.

The library opens only at 8.30 a.m., and they want to arrive there early to get seats.

Which explains why when I arrive at the library at 10 a.m., there is not even one vacant seat left, and lets not get to the fact that the library is 5 storey high.

The fact that this video footage was taken by Little Grass shows that we are no exception to this new library craze.

Gya~~

I give up.

I'd rather study in my own room.

This proves it. i AM smart.

“You should have to pass an IQ test before you breed. You have to take a driving test to operate vehicles and an SAT test to get into college. So why dont you have to take some sort of test before you give birth to children? When I am President, thats the first rule I will institute.”

-Marilyn Mason-

I don't usually agree with Marilyn Mason in terms of fashion and philosophy, but damn, is he right this time round.

Here's an interesting IQ question I received in a forwarded e-mail:

v	v	v	b	11
b	F	b	N	?
N	F	N	N	11
b	b	b	v	9
8	21	8	7

What's the character/number that should replace the quesetion mark?

The e-mail also mentioned that:

* If you're an engineer, you should be able to solve it in (under) three minutes,
* if you're an architect, in three hours;
* if you're a doctor, in six hours;
* if you're an accountant, in three months and
* If you're a lawyer, probably never.

I solved it in about a minute or so.

I'm now officially allowed to give birth to babies. Whoopdeedoo.

***

Mechanics of Materials was fairly doable. More on the easy side, if you asked me.

I guess that's good news.

CHIONG AHH!

The more studying you did for the exam, the less sure you are as to which answer they want.

80% of the final exam will be based on the one lecture you missed and the one book you didn’t read.

Every instructor assumes that you have nothing else to do except study for that instructor’s course.

-Unknown-

Okay, I think by now you should know why I haven't been updating my blog on a more regulated basis.

Tomorrow is the day of my first exam paper: Introduction to Magical Realism.

Ahah.

I'm aiming for an A for this, because this is probably gonna be the only subject I'm ever going to get an A for this semester (except for Lab, but that doesn't count; EVERYONE gets an A for Lab).

Today is my final day of period (you know, the menstrual cycle thingy), which is a good sign, coz it'd be REALLY BAD if I were to have menstrual cramps during exams. You wouldn;t want to know how awful my cramps can be. (Heck, there was once my cramps were so bad I emitted sex-like noises for a full 30 minutes.)

At least that's something to be relieved about.

つかれたです。

わたしわ　まいにち　べんきょうします。

いま　thermodynamicsで　べんきょうします。

ほんとに　たいへんです！！

ああああ！！！！！

SIEN.

いま　ごぜんさんじに　でも　わたしわ　ねませんでした。

つかれたです！！！！！！！！！

おやすみなさい。

じゃ。

top 0.1% and this is what i get

"Saying nothing... sometimes says the most."

-Emily Dickinson-

FARK FARK FARK.

Fark exams, fark tutorials, fark the common bathroom without a water heater.

Farking bad mood now.

Urrgh.

On an unrelated note...

HAHAHAHA RIDICULOUS what???? Lame.



***

You know how hard it is to survive when you're in one of the top 100 universities in the world (which is actually the top 0.1% of universities world wide)? Yeah, we're all struggling. So I'm writing a guide on it to help freshmen orient themselves into this new hectic and stressful life. Hopefully It'll get published some time around next year or so.

I was just going to add "though some of you may NEVER have the chance to experience being in the top 100 universities because back when you had the chance, you weren't mature enough to think that studies are actually GOOD FOR YOUR OWN FUTURE" but decided against it because I didn't want to discriminate. Apparently I've again changed my mind. I happen to be one of those people who don't really take pity on others if they acted like they wanted to destroy their own future by not putting importance in education in the first place.

Don't get pissed off because you'd be wasting your own energy hating me when I don't even know it.

Back to the point - I'm aiming to publish my very own book soon! Stay tuned!!

P.S.: Just in case you were wondering - yes, I do have the credibility to write that book because I myself am in the world's top 100 universities. Ahah. I'm such a show off. I think I should have my rights for that, especially when I'm stressing my ass off over here.

Holy... Whatever.

That's what I'm in right now.

I procrastinated today.

Completed half of Jap homework and ONE tutorial question from Mechanics of Materials. Watched 12 episodes of Elfen Lied (it's a really nice anime; you HAVE to watch it); just finished the series.

Whoopdeedo.

P.S.: Now you know my super-duper-ultimate bad habit: not being able to limit myself to watching ONE episode of anime per day. Sue me.

Writer alert.

"OMG WTH!!!! WHICH IDIOT TOOK THIS PIC!!!"

-Rae on Facebook-

Remember Ryan?

Yup, that story with the tag line:

Is it the fate of the female species to have to live in a loveless marriage for the rest of their lives, where their only responsibility is to uphold the honor of their husbands and provide them with heirs?

I had forgotten how the story went, and I decided to read it again.

Oh, how is it that my language seemed to flourish much more back then? I didn't realize I had such writing potential.

*scoffs*

*Spoiler: For those of you who still don't understand the ending - yes, she did it on purpose. Note 'crocodile tears' at the last sentence.*

Remember What Is Cinema?

I know you guys might have read it from my Associated Content web page, but I have decided that AC doesn't earn me much (heck, I only earned 25 cents so far, after 3 whole years of publishing my stuff there!), so I decided to post it on Raedarling Chimera too. I know it isn't fiction, but what the heck. It's my blog, so I get to give myself exceptions. So there.

Remember I also said I'd written a paper on Metamorphosis and how I didn't want to post it online just in case I got caught for plagiarizing myself?

Well, I got my paper back today, and I got a B+ for it. I guess that's okay, though I was aiming for at least an A-.

Here it is.


***

Some smart-alec decided to post this picture up on Facebook:


See how I look like I'm desperately flapping my arms in the back?

I remember very well I was supposed to be playing badminton. Don't ask me what happened back there.

At least this is one of those rare pictures of me where friends actually 'like' it.

***

P.S.: I'm gonna delete my AC account soon; it doesn't earn me as much as Nuffnang does anyway.

P.P.S.: I'm not showing off; I'm merely sharing my works with you guys so my writing efforts don't go to waste. Also hoping that some random book publisher might stumble upon my blog and actually appreciate my works and ask me to write for him or something.

*pfft. Fat chance.*

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!! LEFT 2 MORE DAYS!!! CLICK HERE TO VOTE! http://apps.facebook.com/promotionshq/contests/6864/voteable_entries/1188808

Amelie

"The fool looks at a finger that points at the sky."

-The Sacré-Coeur Boy, Amelie-

So I've just finished watching Amelie, a movie I quite "forced" myself to finish, because on some parts, it really didn't interest me much.



On the other hand, I'm glad I finished it. Though it's ending isn't as romantic as some people might claim, it's still worth a watch.

A kinda different genre from the movies you'd usually catch on theaters. I love how Amelie's life is portrayed so meaningfully despite the fact that she's just a waitress in a small cafe, and you'll have to admit, there's not much of a future in that.

I guess this just goes to show that the quality of your life isn't all about how much money you earn, or what you work as.

When I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor.

Then, I changed my mind and decided to be a singer.

Then a scientist.

Now, I just want to be happy.

I don't do movie reviews (though I pride myself to say that I do critic movies quite well, ever since I completed my course on 'What Is Cinema?' in my last semester); already evident from the fact that I've always mentioned about the movies I've watched, but never did bother to put much thought on... uh... reviewing it?

Or whatever you call those "descriptions-about-movies" and stuff.

If you had really wanted those, you'd be at IMBd, not here.

Of course, having already "What Is Cinema?" and currently studying "Introduction to Magical Realism (in films and books)", you'd expect me to be able to critic/review books and movies pretty well.

It's just that, I don't do these stuff. It's too academical.

I mean, yes, I do love doing these courses, on giving your own original thoughts and opinions and stuff on literature and art (what can I say? I love flaunting my language and my eccentric thoughts), but not here.

'Aight, it's late. Shit, I've got a 8.30 a.m. lecture tomorrow. Arrgh. I hate Wednesday nights.

P.S.: VOTE FOR ME BY CLICKING: http://apps.facebook.com/promotionshq/contests/6864/voteable_entries/1188808, Thanks much!!!

Magix.

“The trouble with crying over an onion is that once the chopping gets you started and the tears begin to well up, the next thing you know you just can’t stop!”

-Like Water For Chocolate, page 3-

So there's this website called Cursor Mania, which apparently allows you to change your computer cursor to any design you wish, other than your boring old arrow pointer.

Which I think is cool.

Lookit all the cutesy cursors!!!

Now, look. Isn't this cool?

My cursor is currently a cute flower with orange petals and blinking eyes.

Sorry for the lack of updates again; exams are coming in precisely 34 more days and I've not started on stocking up my brain with useless information just yet.

Last night was hectic. Bad mood. Don't ask.

Here's my art piece:

Can you guess what it is?

Guess!!

Here's 10 seconds for you.

...

.....

It's a lion. Duh.

If you're wondering how I did it, it's fairly simple. First, I drew the black outline using a black marker, then I scanned it onto my computer, cleaned it up a little, and then added color to it using Adobe Photoshop.

Haha. I am so talented, no?

Am currently reading Like Water For Chocolate; it's a book about Tita, a girl who is forbidden to love and marry, because of her unfortunate fate of being the youngest daughter, hence, having to take care of her mother until the day she dies.

As all love stories are, Tita then goes against the family tradition and falls in love with Pedro. With the two of them so in love with each other but not being able to get married, Pedro then decides to instead marry Tita's sister just to be able to get close to her.

Genre of book?

Magical realism.

Chickens forming tornadoes, body heat setting bathrooms on fire, teardrops making people puke, love making so intense it emits fireworks.

All happening in "reality". Or so it happens oh-so-apparently in the book.

You guessed it. I'm reading this book for my Introduction to Magical Realism course, alongside with other books like Metamorphosis and Of Love and Other Demons.

Remember that Metamorphosis 1000-word assignment I mentioned a few blog entries back?

I'll post it up here once I get that assignment back. I can't do it now coz if I do and the professor hasn't gone through my assignment just yet, when he does, he might think I plagiarized from some smart scholar, a.k.a. "Raedarling".

Here's for laughs:


I'm still not getting used to having a round animated object as my cursor; I keep pointing and clicking at the wrong places.

Never mind. At least it's still cute.