3 things that pissed me off today.

If it doesn't cost more than $45, I am going to photocopy the ENTIRE Organic Chemistry: A Biological Approach by McMurry. I'm sorry, but I just have to break my own promise to myself not to violate copyright laws and make my own reproduction of an entire (text)book. If I don't, I am bound to fail this module this semester. It's like asking a medical student to understand and sit for an anatomy examination at the end based on whatever he/she has learnt in lectures only. I exaggerate, but if the lecturer doesn't want to provide notes, bans copying during the lecture on the premise that everything is in the textbook AND the textbook is sold out, I see no other option. And buying the book after I pay for photocopying is ridiculous, because since I already have the information on paper, why should I get another copy of it?

I just received an email stating that there will be an essay to be written immediately after the field trip to Kent Ridge tomorrow. Wtf. There goes my hope of a short lab session. And I don't know where I put the indenmity form. Think I'd just print it out tomorrow in the library and forge a signature or something. I don't see the point of the form, really, since they already made us sign an indenmity form during matriculation anyway.

Third thing has been removed due to er, complains. Hehe.

Of water coolers and STDs

Nice title, don't you think?

The other day, I walked past the water cooler and I got the shock of my life. The guy standing there with his back towards me looked like he was peeing into the source of our water. In the canteen, in public, in full view, for all to see.

So i doubled back, just to make sure.

Chey.

Guys: next time, when you refill your bottle, stand further away from the water cooler and try not to look like you're peeing into it, okay?

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Biodiversity lecture today was yet another Bacteria Appreciation Session. So, as expected, I drifted off. Until the lecturer started showing pictures of various gram negative bacteria (causes the most diseases...) and occasionally with accompanying pictures of the havoc it wrecks on the human body.

The funniest one (at least to me) was when the lecturer showed a picture of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and then a picture of... how an infected penis looks like. (with the funny discharge, though it originally looked like some sort of wart.) The best part was when you could hear people asking "What's that body part?" Well, I don't profess to know that hanging male part intimately (and for good reason: I'm female. -_-") but I would say that if the lecturer said "Gonorrhoea" and we all know that its an STD, then we would expect to see pictures of genitals with weird stuff on it, no? The guys would recognise it straight away, and the girls, well, by virtue that it doesn't look familiar...?

And of course, being very interested about the human body and the many diseases =) here's the wikipedia article on gonorrhea. There are pictures. You have been warned.

Other diseases include leprosy, and you could hear the "EEEEEEEEW"s that went across the lecture hall when the different pictures were taken. Maybe its just me, but I actually find them quite interesting. This is what happens when bacteria gains the upper hand. Facts of life, people. The victims in those pictures could very well be us, had we been born in a place devoid of basic sanitation and nutrition.

Of going back to school.

The class went back to hc yesterday. I didn't.

I spent my time playing solitaire at home.

Why?




1. I didn't want to go at 1pm, then leave at 3pm to get to university for a tutorial at 4pm.

2. I didn't want to field another few rounds of "What are you studying now?", "How's life?", "Any reply from Australia?", "What are you going to do?" and so on. I don't like my answers, and I'm sure others don't, either.

3. I originally planned to go out.





and maybe...?

4. I feel like a failure with AABB A2 in a school where half of the population gets AAAA. Best forgotten...



Tutorial in 15 mins.
Sian.

It's 11.15am and I'm supposed to meet wai at the nearest MRT station to home at noon. And I can't find the CD containing the photos taken in Taipei to give her. That should give an idea of how messy my room actually is now.
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Okay I've found it. -phew-


Yesterday was interesting, though I felt a bit out of place because practically everyone there were from the same orchestra save for me. But no, to put to rest the many enquiries, I did NOT suffer from, uh, "culture shock". I'm just being my usual silent self in a new group.

I think I've been eating too much recently. Friday night was dinner at 翡翠拉面小笼包 , Saturday night was BBQ and tonight? Out again.


Showering just now was... challenging. I had this >10cm long house lizard staring at me for the entire time and it constantly made moves in my direction. Now, I actually find lizards cute, but I have no wish to be confined in the same room as a huge one, especially when I cannot make a quick escape if it falls near me.

I thought, why is it that humans are so afraid of little insects when we are so many times larger than them? Besides the fact that many of them carry pathogens and so we are build to instinctively avoid them, is it because we do not understand them; we cannot guess its next move?

In any case, isn't a lack of understanding and hence communication the catalyst for the many breakdowns in all kinds of relationships? I cannot understand the cockroach, as such I seek to move away from it or destroy it. Similarly, when we cannot understand a fellow human being's intentions, we seek to distance ourselves, or resort to violence. We see that played out both on the micro and macro scale.

I know this isn't a new thought and my expression isn't very good. And such topics make tiresome reading.

wednesday 23 aug 2006, 5.06pm

and i'm blogging while sitting in lecture! bwahahahahahahaahaha

some stuff to say, will continue when i get back. i hope.

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will not continue with thoughts from lecture, but must state that everytime i open the university tracking page i get a mini-heart attack. what if the status has changed? what will it change to? assessed --> ? approved? rejected? what if its the former? what if its the latter?

mid september. 3 weeks to go. very near, yet very far.

mugging... or lack thereof.

Hmm, it is just me, or is there really that much to mug already?

I can't help but feel jittery when I hear of people who have buckled down and moved to the World of Hard Mugging, yet I'm still slacking away.

Perhaps my internal clock is wired such that the "work" part of school doesn't kick in until tutorials and laboratory sessions start. Which would translate to... next week. (With the blessed exception of ONE module)

Perhaps its the course I'm taking. Maybe there are more things to ruminate on when you're a year1 medicine/engineering student. As for me, most of the things I'm hearing during lectures are mostly a repetition of the A level syllabus. (Or rather, HC's version of the A level syllabus) Apart from some changes to chemistry, things are almost the same thus far.

Or. Perhaps (and I fervently hope so) I unconsiously know that I'd be gone before the finals kick in, and hence there is no need to start working hard.

In any case, I guess it all sums up to: I better start mugging. Soon.


In other news, I am currently quite fed up with CORS, which is nothing new and hence I will not pollute this place with my frustrations.

home of the URTI viruses.

since mingyan complains that she updates ALL THE TIME to keep me entertained (yea right.) and i never do reciprocrate, here's an update.

as the title suggests, yes, people, i'm sick again. and most conveniently on a day where i have ZERO lectures. (aka my off day) i felt extremely tired ytd, which saw me sleeping through 2 lectures. apparently it was quite obvious, since i was using a bright green shawl. ah well. -snort-

let's backpedal a bit. on sat i went for nusco dazu and all i can say is that it was very screwed up, at least on my part. i just cannot understand why i managed to screw up 红旗渠 when it is so sight-readable! on 曲笛！sigh. maybe my sight reading skills have rusted really terribly. it could be because i havent touched my dizi for more than 6 hrs in this entire year. but then again, i easily got all the notes out at correct speed last night while battling a blocked nose. -shrug-

went for piakchu's birthday/farewell party at changi in the evening with hs and z-x. we, er, got lost. and i was the only girl there among the co pple -_-" but anyway, happy birthday piakchu!

met up with mingyan on sun and we just pigged out for the entire duration. first came lunch at new york new york, then coffee at some cafe in city hall, then yami yoghurt from suntec and finally mos burger for a drink. very nice. (and very pig.) lovely day.

sorry my brain feels greenish-yellow snot-filled and so i shall end here.

the return.

i'm BACKKKKKKKKKKKK.

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okay loads of things have happened since i went on hiatus. the most obvious one would be

1. that term has started and i am officially a science student.

others include
2. offered interview by uwa. bound by a document not to reveal anything about the questions, so all i shall say is i dont know if i did well: didnt have the "screwed-up-la" feeling, nor the "well done!" feeling. then again, my internal meter is quite gone because i had the die-la feeling for math, yay for chem and both got an A. so, we'd see.
3. meeting up with mingyan who's back from beijing
4. ndp 2006
5. meeting up with s71 pple
6. sandcity - fun!
7. PQA - screwed up. bleh.
8. signed up for science orientation week but the cohort was too big to cater for all. didnt make the ballot either.
9. new laptop =)
10. hs got a dog that resembles him. <-- okie strictly this has nothing to do with ME but i thought i'd put it down.

that's all i can think of for now, will add to the list when i do remember.