Freedom! That's the first thing I can think of when I sat down to write this post. The last two weeks have just been... hellish, to be honest. Last week, I had a 2,500 words assignment to write and for the first time ever, I actually had problem reaching the word limit whereas before, it was always "oh, okay" cut, "oh, again?" cut and "no, please don't make me do this" cut. Yesterday, I had a mid-semester exam that covered week 1 to 7 so that was a lot of cramming to do over the weekend. The exam seriously made me reconsider my study skills. If I could catch up an entire week worth of lectures (relistening to them while taking notes) in one day when I really tried (I even managed to do one lecture while on the train), how on earth did I fall behind? So I guess I'm now sort of determined not to fall behind. I'll let you know how this determination's working out.
I'm now loaded down with heaps of pracs, some of which are actually quite exciting. Tomorrow, for example, we'll get to actually dissect the cadavers (whereas before, we only got to see instructors do them) and since we're learing about NDM (Nutrition, Digestion, Metabolism) this semester, it's all about the abdoment and GIT (gastrointestinal tract). Not sure how it'll go but should be an interesting experience. A pity I have lunch right before it, huh.
Hm.. I can't remember if I told you guys already but my parents "permanently" (that's what they said about Brisbane AND Glasgow so hmm... I don't really believe them) relocated to Melbourne to look after me/overfeed me. Well, now that I've moved to an Eastern suburb, I catch the train every single day, which is surprisingly an amusing experience. As my friends already noted, I've compared my experience in the train as an emperor penguin, chicken and sardines. The first was because I noted how when passengers all get crammed in the train, we were like emperor penguins ruthlessly guarding our territory against invasion by other fellow penguins. The chicken was on those bad days when we all just cram in like chickens waiting to be slaughtered. On a really really really bad day, we were like sardines :D I know, I'm sad but seriously, when I have no moving or breathing space on the train with nothing to do for thirty minutes, my mind does wander quite far.
Another thing I've noticed is that I always always get picked on by the ticket inspectors in Melbourne Central. The first time kind of took my by surprise because I thought why on earth would they bother checking in the city, you kind of need a ticket to get out of the station. But an inspector asked to see my concession card. I was bewildered, how on earth did he know I even had a concession ticket?! Nevertheless, I faithfully produced my card and left. Next day, same thing happened. Out of the last two weeks, I've been picked 6 times all at ~7:40am. I've noticed that if I exited during peak hour (8:30am) they don't really bother but before 8, they always check. Maybe I'm paranoid or something, but they never bother asking all those other fellow passengers. I've got 3 theories going on right now. A) I dress like a poor uni student, b) I look immature or c) I have a guilty face on whenever I see them. Whatever it is, I am now carrying my concession card around like a shield against them. I've got 2 options right now. Hopefully, eventually ALL the inspectors would have picked on me and eventually recognises me so that they would stop or I will just have to resign myself to getting asked for the next five years. Fun.
Moving on to the US election, I feel America is doomed. Latest polls show McCain is actually in front. Yes, him, the old bald guy who should get adopted by the Bush family with his bear-killing teenager-pregnancy-promoting VP candidate are actually leading the polls (albeit only by a small margin). Why?! What could people possibly see in him and his foreign policies about wars not to mention those environmental policies about oil drilling. I still can't believe Palin refuses to acknowledge polar bears are an endangered species just so she can drill for oil in Alaskan reserves. As much as the argument about anti-abortion is valid, I think it's up to the woman herself. Not allowing abortion is pretty much telling those victims of rape and incest that it's all your fault so suck it up. And do we really need to promote teenager pregnancy in this world? As one guy on mX adequately said, leave those caribous alone and go shoot that bugger that knocked your daughter up. What on earth are they promoting anyway? Grrrr, if they end up winning, the world is going to be doomed.
What else? Oooh, watched the paralympics opening ceremony on the weekend and oh my goodness, it was so touching. Any of you guys see the lighting of the torch? All through it, I just sat there, absolutely astounded he could perform such a feat. It just goes to prove we are all equals and if you believed, you can achieve what you want.
Today is September the eleventh and it still doesn't look the war on terror is going to end any time soon. The following is the chorus to the song "Pray" by Tina Cousins. I think it's very relevant to the current state of the world:
Pray for good and pray for love
Pray for peace and pray it's enough
Pray for salvation; Pray that we're right
Pray one day we'll open our eyes, and
Pray for them and Pray for us
Pray one day we can live as one
Pray for the children whose time is to come
Just pray they forgive us for the
Stupid things we've done
On that sad note, I'll say goodbye.
Until next time,
Yuan
Disclaimer: The lyrics do not belong to me so please don't sue.
Duh, I'm sure we're all starting to feel them. Assignments are due soon, some of us have or have done mid-semester exams and there's a cold going around just as the sun is ACTUALLY getting around to shining in the sky!
Yes, I'm sick, if you didn't pick up the sarcasm. Thee dreaded cold decided to manifest itself in my system last Friday and as a result I was left incapacitated all weekend shivering under a blanket having a flurry of sweaty naps with a series of some of my weirdest dreams to date (one I had last night was watching some old guy who looked like Billy Connolly play a violin but instead it came out with the sound of a cello). This week I've been struggling through my heavy 9/11-6:15pm days on 'energy conservation' mode and ended up at home worse for the better.
You honestly can't afford to get sick during Uni. That's definitely a given.
That aside, last week I decided to try staying up late a little more on Monday-Thursday nights because I have 11am starts Tuesday-Thursdays and Fridays off. I found that I couldn't concentrate on doing homework in the house whilst my brother and mum are awake, so it was a matter of staying up later than them to do homework. I was actually pleased with the results - I got more work done! Once these crunch weeks are over I'm going to give it another try.
I am definitely in need of a laptop, though. I've taken to NOT printing out my slides for my Psychology lectures in a bid to save paper and to save myself from ending up with 300 pages of social theory and human development by the end of the semester but as a result I don't actually have much to do when I'm not on a computer except pre-reading for lectures (which I get through pretty quickly anyway). Plus, it's free on-campus wireless internet (for University students, mind you), that's always something net geeks like I have to take advantage of!
I'm going to include a picture on this post because as one adage goes, pictures convey a thousand words (or something like that). Of course, this could just be my subtle way of saying that I'm too lazy/busy to be writing a 1000 words here.
This was the model I started with during week 1 in a subject called Virtual Environments. Being more of a 2D rather than a 3D-inclined person, it took me almost 10 hours instead of the recommended 7 hours to do this simple-looking model. It doesn't help that the sides of the base are all at an angle of 6 degrees - there's a requirement that the horizontal containers should be at an angle of 180 degrees (so that people going inside won't slide off; even so, it's hard to imagine this model being built in reality) and so we should used 'entrance plinths' to support them from below. Of course, these plinths should be at a correct angle so that they could do this purpose AND be flushed to the ground.
Anyways, I'm actually not graded on this model. I'm currently being driven mad by my new model because unlike this first model, the students are not provided with templates. I have a midnight deadline tomorrow in which I have to submit pictures of stuff I've worked on from Week 2 to Week 5. This would include working drawings (axonometric ones), a 'prototype' computer model, 2-4 version of the computer model, and a final cardboard model photographed in at least 2 sorts of artistic lighting. These pictures are supposedly submitted online, which is great; however, I didn't expect that the broadband at home would stop working at just this crucial time. So now, I'm aiming to finish the final model by tomorrow morning so that I could go to the university in the afternoon and upload the pictures, and if something goes wrong (this subject's website apparently crashed last semester due to the enormous sizes of the pictures submitted; for this reason, we are taught how to batch-resize photos in Photoshop by Week 1) I could run to my tutor and probably personally submit the stuff though my USB. Okkkk... hopefully this seemingly logical plan would help me prevent myself from going mad. *Deep breath*
nope.. umm - no extra news. Though I did say I'll keep you posted.. (is old news now anyway)
[Edit 4/9] : Did you guys know that festival of the nations was on yesterday and the day before? All I have to say was yuuum. For someone who would fly to Singapore just for the food - it did make it that much cheaper being on Nrth Court.
Is it just me, or did anyone think that the weather is getting particularly nice? I walked into uni today and just, *sigh* oh, I love it! Yes, hard work, yes stressed, blah blah - but we have beautiful lawns and the trees and flowers and the old buildings and wonderful libraries. Decided that time would be better spent lying on the grass for an hour reading than holed up in the library. I know so many people personally who would do anything to be where I am right now! So privileged.
Have to admit, this week has been a little hard, I'm going to a international careers thingy conference on Fri (yay!) and so will be missing out on all my classes for that day, but more to the point - I'm working about 25hrs this week! (NB: Gianina, try not to do that!) Which when combined with uni 5 times a week and an average of 15hrs spent on trains... it is making the days long and sleep not happening (or was that study? or social?)
However, antics of prosh week (no I do not know what/how/why/when/where) do lighten up the days - was lucky enough *ahem* to be present for two lecture stunts, one being a zombie thriller dance, and the other - the infamous streakers - (15 naked people run around the lecture theatre) while walking into the finals for a boat race, only to witness projectile vomit. After that, didn't think my chai latte tasted so good. I'll try and keep you guys posted for what's the go with prosh week.
Ciao! Found the colour setting!!
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
I'm alive!
Sorry for that over-the-top statement, but that summarises how I feel right now. By the end of last week, I thought surely I would have a nervous breakdown by week 5(this week) since I didn't expect I would have so much presentations and deadlines across all subjects this week. But of course, that would probably reflect on my current time management strategy (or the lack of which).
I had about an average of 6 hours of sleep this last week, staying up until morning (anytime between midnight and 3:30am) then waking up early morning too to do stuff in uni (like group work). I hate group works. Someone mentioned this too in the second year blogs, if I remember correctly. Why do I hate group works? Maybe it has something to do with how I work - that is, I work better when I'm alone. There's only my own schedule to consider, my own work methodologies to follow, and my own stress levels to cope with. Also, when working in a group, I would just feel satisfied if I have done at least 50% of the work (regardless of how many people are there in the group). I want to have a bit of control of everything, but that's not to say I am a control freak. No siree, not a control freak. Anyways, I have met my match in one of my subjects, and I am not the least bit pleased to say the least. **big breath** Anyways, at least that group thing is over. For now.
On a different note, I'm excited to be going back to my volunteer tutoring this week. I have skipped it for 3 consecutive weeks for 3 different reasons, and I just feel so irresponsible because of that even though 1 of the above reasons happens to be a health-related one. I'll also be starting my first ever job in a few days - I have to say I am really not that excited about it as I am pressed for time as it is already. However, I might feel differently later on, especially when I receive my first ever hard-earned paycheck. I just hope I'll have shifts during the weekends instead of during the week. If I work during weekdays, I reckon I might go mad. It amazes me how other students cope with the whole work-life-study balance. This brings me to the state of my social life at the moment - which is a big fat zero. Well, that's probably not accurate. I don't even have lunch with friends anymore because our schedules are so different; sometimes my only break during the day (which serves as my lunch time) is around mid afternoon already. That's the price I pay for choosing classes that start late. *Sigh* What's the solution for this situation? Make friends with people who have the same schedule as I do? Aargh.. or maybe I should wallow in my near-loner state of life (then later jump from the atrium staircase of Architecture building coz I can't take it anymore)? I'm making less and less sense here, so I better stop. It's weird that I only do a blog post when I have something negative to say. I'll try to be a bit more optimistic next time (yeah right, it would be probably be easier for me to pull my teeth out with pliers than to be positive).
Auf wiedersen. for now.
p.s. I used a mac to type this post, and when I published it(the post, that is), WordPress came up with this massive chunk of text and completely ignored how I separated stuff into paragraphs so I had to edit the post again later on during the afternoon. Does anybody know whether that's the fault of the mac computer or WordPress?
Life has been... okay. Semester 2 is sort of starting to pan out the same way semester 1 has. I'm slowly drowning in the pile of lecture notes, feeling more stupid each time I turn up to lectures and oh, there's still that assignment I have yet to start planning for. So yes, life is as it always have been. Plus or minus a few small changes.
The first change this semester is that us med students are now permanently located in the medical building. So not only are we socially isolated because we have a structured course but we're now physically isolated too. At least last semester, we were in the Copland Theatre and occassionally, adventurous enough to venture over to the Asia Centre on the other side of the campus. Now, we are always in the Sunderland Theatre. The only good thing I can say about this arrangement is that Sunderland Theatre has the best tables (yes, we actually have proper desks instead of arm rests). Other than that, it's okay.
My parents have flown down from Glasgow to look after/control me. We moved to a bigger house last Friday (the night of the Olympics) so there was a lot of packing, panicking, unpacking and more panicking. Of course, the first thing we unpacked was the big heavy TV so that we could watch the opening ceremony, which was awesome by the way. It was by far the best opening ceremony I've ever seen and I love the way they lit the torch. It's currently equal first with the Sydney torch (which unfortunately got marks deducted due to the 10 minutes technical delay).
Studies have been interesting to say the least. This semester, we're focusing on Nutrition, Digestion and Metabolism, which means we've all become extremely aware of how much junk we're shoving down our own throats. After reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, I lost all appetite for ground beef and just beef in general (though I mistakenly chowed down a sausage sizzle a couple of weeks ago - minor error in judgment). Normally, for tutorials, we would bring chips, cookies and everybody would be happy. Now, the staple is fruits and often, the chip packets are left untouched. Tomorrow, we're doing a Glucose Tolerance Test to see whether our body are handling everything okay. Of course, there is the hours of fasting to look forward to (nothing to eat from 10am to 4pm) not to mention taking our own blood samples. Should be interesting, that is, unless you found out you had diabetes.
While on the topic of food, has anybody else noticed the prices at Union House has gone up? I didn't notice it at first but then I saw all these little signs apologizing for the increase "due to economic conditions out of our control" or "new management". While some people may point out that all the asian shops haven't increased in price, but have you seen the servings they've been handing out these days? They're just giving us less for the same price. So haha, we're getting ripped off either way.
Also, I don't think I'm the only person who has noticed the ridiculous line outside Sagon Noodles every day. It sure is popular these days. I blame that solely on the weather. It's so cold these days. I'm having trouble getting up in the mornings at 6am. Even though I'm getting decent hours of sleep, it feels as though the second after I lie down, I have to get up again. It makes day such as today, where I have an 8am lecture and then nothing for the rest of the day, seem frustratingly pointless. Especially since now that I've moved to the east, every morning being squeezed into a carriage like sardines in a tin can is not pleasant.
Anyway, back on the topic of Olympics, I have to say I am absolutely disgusted over the opening song fiasco. So what if Lin Miaoke was cuter than Yang Peiying, this type of thing just should not happen. We are pretty much saying to the future generation, all you need to do to be successful is to be pretty. Doesn't matter if you can't sing, as long as you're pretty, you get to be on the cover of that CD or perform the song. Doesn't matter if you can't do maths or science, you're pretty so we'll give you a degree anyway. Doesn't matter if you can't actually do surgery, we just need you there to be pretty. Okay, maybe I'm going over the top, but you get my point. And the worst thing is, I don't get how, in a country with over 1 billion people, they couldn't find a little girl who is both cute and can sing. It's not about the time restraints or the pressure of having to project the perfect image, they just didn't look hard enough. So save your excuses.
Now that I've got myself all worked up, I think I'll wander off and do some studying.
Cheers,
Yuan�
Welcome back.
I am quite excited here - you see I've quit physics and am now doing psychology (hehe.. the word looks really squiggly) of which I know nothing about. Soo.. anyone out there who knows about psychology - got a heads up? There are new uncharted waters up ahead, although the Science vs Commerce debate is currently a known raging storm. (indecisiveness. grr) Hmm.. what's new? well - apart from consuming far far too many chai lattes (and now making it a personal goal to find the best one in melbourne... oOo watch out)
This semester I do happen to have a school friend of mine doing the same subject as me - which was a wonderful surprise. She was so good at doing Chemistry 1st year that they asked her to come back and do it again the following year.
Apart from seeing familiar faces at uni, it's exciting to get into the routine of things and actually knowing where your lectures are and where to find answers to questions, rather than wandering aimlessly around the campus. Stumbled across the law buildings the other day, as I was meeting a friend for lunch, so that is where they are. I felt smart just by walking past it. Perhaps if I go there more often something will transfer via osmosis. (oh! before I forget.. i'm a science guidy thingy at open day. dream large people... dream large)
Onto another subject, this weekend was probably one of the best ones that I've ever had - went on camp with my church, so there was about 70 of us uni people who spent the weekend learning about 'Succesful living' - how most people spend the first half of their lives trying to be successful, and the second half trying to be significant. What a waste of time - wouldn't you rather leave a significant impact on the world rather then be personally successful?
On that note, I'll leave you with that ;)
Ciao!
P.S: oh. BIG NEWS. I joined the gym! I've only been once in the past week. so um. tomorrow... I'll go tomorrow...
With already 2 weeks gone, I am finding that even with the best of intentions, it's getting harder and harder to manage my schedule. Sure, I have a "day off" during Fridays; even so, I have to do something uni-related so that I won't be stuck with all that work from my subjects come weekends. I'm just wondering now what on earth I'm going to do if I get a job on top of my studies and volunteer work (and slowly diminishing social life).
Here's the 411 on my current schedule: I've got 2 half day of classes (after one of which, I do my volunteer work in the suburbs) and 2 full-on days in which I'll just be home at almost 8pm(that is, if I go straight home after uni). All this for a total of 15 contact hours. Not so bad, eh? The catch is, if I actually follow university recommendations, I have to do 25 hours of study out of contact hours. Hmm.. let's do the maths shall we? I have 3 days (72 hours) off during the week. Supposed I sleep for 9 hours during these days. That would leave me with 45 hours. As I am still living at home, I actually have to do household chores during (but not limited to) Saturday mornings, which would take up to at least 4 hours off my time. So I'm left with 41 hours. If I finally get to work, I'll be willing to do up to 10 hours a week. That leaves me with 31 hours. Let's say I spend 2 hours of each day for meals and snack breaks. I'm left with 25 hours. Let's now take away the 25 recommended hours of study. That leaves me with zero hours. So what happened to the social life part? Gone. When I start working, that is. As I remain unemployed, I still have 10 hours to spare on actually having life. Anyways, it's probably not as bleak as I make it seem. I actually have so much time in my hands that I ended up wasting the last weekend on non-uni stuff (er.. like watching the Olympics and Inspector Rex)
On a different note, I've always wondered what it's like to get around uni/city with crutches. No, I don't have crutches myself, but I sorta come close. I've gotten another body malfunction, this time it's my right ankle, so I'm basically limping most of the time. So far, the building that has the best disabled access for me would be the law building. I mean, the lifts are almost just outside the lecture theatres! Less walking, no climbing the stairs (unlike some other buildings, I reckon the lifts actually go to all floor levels). However, since the said building is outside the 'main' uni complex, I still have to do a fair bit of walking to all my other classes.
To end with a positive note, I'll be in the Open Day this Sunday as a student guide! It'll be pretty cool leading people to places around campus even though I've just been in the uni for a semester myself. not anymore :( darn ankle
Keep dreaming large people :)
One thing I immediately noticed that was different about having a 9am start as opposed to a 10/11am start was simply, the overcrowding on trains.
Part of me is kicking itself that I hadn't realised that sooner, since I had already known that with the introduction of the Early Bird ticket for our public transport services, car spaces were filling up much earlier, meaning that more people would be taking the train earlier anyway. Another part is just saying, 'Oh well, big deal, it's not like you'll be late anyway' and the last part is going, 'Dude, have you forgotten what typical office work hours are like?'.
The kicker was that I'd prepared to do some pre-tutorial reading to do on the train, but obviously it's pretty impossible to do when your carriage is crowded to the last inch meaning I couldn't take out that semi-thick textbook to read. It wasn't all in vain, though, I'd managed to wire up my iShuffle and put on Mozart's Violin Concerto in G Major which kept me in a light and happy mood.
At least I know not to do such a thing anymore ;)
I find that I need to maintain some form of balance of listening to music throughout the day, too much and I get a headache or a feeling of lethargy, too little and my head just feels dry. Luckily the free lunchtime concerts and my Concert Class on Thursdays help make some of that easier, as well as listening to my iShuffle on the train. The main problem with such a thing is usually picking out the appropriate music for the appropriate situation - I need to get a new mp3 player so I can have playlists =P.
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