the usual exam post (sort of)

I just wanted to write this post, so that I will have at least one month where I was able to cross the 3 posts barrier. The number of posts seem so measly as compared to the early days of this blog. I'm not neglecting it. In fact I visit it everyday. But my conscience tells me that I shouldn't blog because I should be diligently studying for my exams instead of hanging around on cyberspace. But I just needed to write this post in order to say a great big thank you to my great honours classmates for the past 3 months for being such a fun, nonsensical bunch of people. And this is the first time I managed to enjoy in the midst of the exams! Crazy lot of us went to Vivo after Geog Thot B exam and we just hung around the rooftop, talking nonsense, eating and playing orientation games. And I nearly got dunked in the water yet again. Haix. My classmates are such spontaneous, crazy people, and this was such a stark contrast to the blank faces that we all were when we first attended the honours briefing. And now instead of studying, I keep thinking of how to plan for the hons class chalet. Haha. Well at least the booking has been made, so will finalise stuff after the exams, and that's after having to do my proposal for the PMB grant. So many things to do, and I'm damn scared for these last 3 papers. Although I love reading the stuff for the other 2 geog mods more, I feel that my mind keeps flying off to some far off land and not doing work. Ok. Time to head back to the books. And it's sad that this week has been a week of much chaos and sadness. Protests in Bangkok. Terrorist attacks in Mumbai. And a Singaporean casualty. Where is the world heading to...

go your own way

Another pretty song from Detective Conan. I'm slightly happier since there will be a lot of new subbed episodes coming soon! But now I still have to complete an essay before even embarking on studying for the exams. Sigh...

end of hell week part deux

I survived my second hell week this semester! Well barely...Had three presentations in a row and on top of that I had to complete my assignment for my GEM mod which I handed up close to an hour before the deadline. That assignment irritated the hell out of me. I was trying to input all the food that I had eaten during one week and in the end, I was logged out whilst completing the entries! Then I had to do it again, then I accidentally closed the window in the midst of keying in all the entries again! So sian and I almost memorised what was eaten liao. But well, after seeing the results being processed, I'm very very concerned over what I eat. Need to exercise more and cut down on all the fast food!

Yesterday was a crazy day. I only had around 4hrs of sleep the night before and had to wake up at 6am to be able to arrive at 8am for our project meeting. And brought another set of clothes to change out of after I attended the Public Service Networking thing in the 2nd year running. I wished I had much more time to talk to the people as this is really the time that I have to seriously think of my future. Attended the LTA talk which was actually 4 presentations in disguise! But nice seeing so many friends in one place. Then after doing a little networking, I rushed to the car, changed into another pair of shoes which looked so off from my working clothes, then changed in the toilet before rushing to rehearse the presentation which was going to happen in like 2 hrs time. I realised that I talk a lot of rubbish when I lack sleep. Maybe it's my version of being drunk...The presentation went well, and I even danced! And we all ended on a high note with tons of phototaking! Then proceeded to drive home in a semi comatose state and concussed for 12hrs after that!

But I take this time to thank all my wonderful group mates this sem. I have nothing but praise for all the great people I've managed to work with through the course of this sem. Thanks to my GE4101A group, for accepting me into their group when I had no group. Hope I didn't drive you all up the wall with all my critical comments. Thanks to my urban group for all the great fieldtrips we had at Golden Mile and Geylang, with lots of fun and food! Thanks to my GE4101B group for being so efficient and great to work with. And living so near each other so that we need not go all the way to school to meet. Hehehe. And finally, thank you to my spectacular cultural group, for all the laughs, hard work and intellectual discussions. I'm in awe of all of my group mates for their commitment, friendship and fun-lovingness, and I hope I have been a good group mate to you guys, as all of you have been to me. Thank you all!

(oh no!)vember

Trying to be postmodern here and add the parentheses in front in order to try to sound vaguely intellectual when obviously I'm not. I feel the most inadequate this semester. Grades are not that good, but well that's the challenge of Year 4. I just think because as the pool of students get smaller, the quality improves and then naturally it gets harder to do well.

But, I think the grades I've gotten allow me some time for self reflection. I can only blame myself for doing last minute work, which I don't really like, but I end up doing anyway because I'm lazy to begin writing in the first place. Hence, the subsequent fall in quality and critical thinking and consequently, the profs are astute enough to see that through. But if we always sigh about not doing well, resigning to the fact that I'm not as good as the person who got an A, then that defeats the purpose of learning in the first place. Perhaps it's expectations. You hope to do well, and yet in the end you fail your own expectations. It should instead be a sign, telling you that there are things that you still don't understand fully, or that the style has to change. It's a chance to try and improve yourself, push yourself to be a better person, instead of basking in your happy status quo.

What matters at the end of the day is not the grades you got in this particular assignment or that presentation. Nobody remembers after the initial comparison of results. What I want out of this honours year is a chance to show what I've got, even if it's not appreciated. There have been many disappointments in my life that I don't say, and this is my chance to redeem myself. So, this might seem like a complain-ey, whiny post, but it's just a little self reflection I needed to make to put things into perspective.