work ends... 'work' begins.

So my stint at ajc has finally ended. In retrospect, while it seemed a bad choice to go back to somewhere which I've been around for so long (last year), overall, it was still a good learning (and earning) experience. But now that my time there adds up to almost one year, its perhaps a good idea to move out to another school, perhaps a secondary school. Hmmmm. Then again, I was advised to "go out to do something else". sigh. it's so tiring at times to face choices and 'plan for the future' all the time. No wonder Peter Pan refused (?) to grow up (never quite read that book). (No wonder people shrink away from the word 'planning' every time. hmmm)

In any case, while the internship has ended, readings have started to be uploaded. Since I'm toying with the idea of six modules this sem, perhaps its good to start (slowly) on the readings. hmmmm. (anyway the Library seems to have screwed up - now its so frustrating having to convert every file to a .pdf file. zZz). For the sake of a slack Year 4!

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Some meet-ups are in order. My (rather) long talk with my BMT buddy made me realise that we haven't really been in contact last AY. hmmmm. another realisation was the planned-meetup with the 2G/4C peeps. It seems weird now that we can't meet on wkday afternoons or during the 'holidays' - people have started working. Wow. All of us are growing old. Of course there's also the Batam trip this Fri-Sat. I have no idea what I'm doing there. But oh well.

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The prospect of school restarting is both exhilarating and scary. Exhilarating because all the stuff I choose are usually quite interesting topics of study (bless the FASS!), but it's back to the days of bitching about classmates/lecturers, moaning about the (relatively) bad grades, pulling hair over assignments, so on and so forth. hmmmm. The propsect of a five-day work week (yes, go ahead and laugh loudly at me) does not make things better. Oh well...

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Week Eight & Nine

These two weeks have been absolutely crazy. For one, I have been churning out and refining lesson plans. Now I really start to realise that there is always a great difference in the quality of mediocre, average, good, and excellent lessons. They are always received differently! And frankly. it's really not difficult to deliver the latter; problem is whether one has the time to think and improve on the original conception. hmmmm.

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My Project UN is still underway. I'm working through it over the weekend so that it'll be ready and freshly printed on Monday morning. Its always good to get your stuff vetted when your supervisors are relatively freer; they tend to be kinder.

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Since our stint is coming to an end, we thought we should get something for our respective depts/units, as well as everyone else. So, we got some cookies from The Cookie Museum. Imagine exotic flavours like Laksa and Nasi Lemak, and pretty nice ones like Wine & Roses, Strawberry Yogurt and Dark Chocolate with Ginger & Orange bits. Exciting, right? Thankfully, it was well-received (thus $ well-spent).

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That's all I can think for now. Back to work! Looking forward to dept lunch tmr and maybe some chilling~

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being emo is good?1

This is an interesting article in The Economist (27/6 - 3/7, 2009). Excerpts:

"Clinical depression is a serious ailment, but almost everyone gets mildy depressed from time to time... [The] relationship between mild and clinical depression to the one between normal and chronic pain. [Randolph Nesse (pyschologist and researcher)] sees both pain and low mood as warning mechanisms... [he hypothesise that] as pain stops you from doing damaging physical things, so low moods stops you [from] doing damaging mental ones - in particular, pursuing unreacheable goals. Pursuing such goals is a waste of energy and resources.

...

Mild depressive symptoms can therefore be seen as a natural part of dealing with failure in young adulthood. They set in when a goal is identified as unreacheable and lead to a decline in motivation. In this period of low motivation, energy is saved and new goals can be found. If this mechanism does not function properly, though, severe depression can be the consequence.

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[Dr Carsten Wrosch (researcher)] thus concludes that it is healthy to give up overly ambitous goals. Persistence, though neccessary for sucess and considered a virtue by many, can also have a negative impact on health."

(emphases mine)

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Hmmmmm... all these are interesting. My question, though, is how do we draw the line between achievable goals and being "overly ambitious"? hmmmm

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Week Seven

This week was mainly about invigilation, and for me, following up on all my projects. Yes, I think my long weekend (its Youth Day holiday next Monday!) is going to be burnt. I need to churn out four lesson plans and five answer schemes. The challenge is upped since, ironically, I've done all this before. Maybe I'll be less stressed or uptight about it if I was in another school. Oh well. I must better my own 'personal best', I suppose!

And that's only to deal with the next week. My last two weeks would, I foresee, be used to finish up all the projects on hand (that's THREE of them).

Not that I am a workaholic (sigh, I am one, I suppose), but I really hate leaving my projects undone. 'Coz that'll mean that it'll probably never see the light of day ever again, since no one would ever have the time to look at it. And since I've put o much effort into them, it shouldn't just be consigned to the dustbin of history (how apt) without ever been seen by any other human being.

Come on, you can do it!

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I bought a few toys today. The OTO powertap thing (good for adults of all ages) which comes free with this eye massage thing (the other free gifts are really crappy). I think they'll come in useful as I work through my loooonnnnggg weekend :S

City Chain had some discount watches. For once, some of the watches looked really good. But having just spent $298.00, all these indulgent excesses shall have to wait. I must save up for my SEP fund!

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side note to all my HY friends:

It's Module Preference Exercise next friday (10 July)! I'll be opting for these modules first, but obviously I need to drop two of them (it's only ONE point, right?). Will decide when lecturer list and SE modules' list comes out:

1. HY2237 (The US: From Settlement to Superpower)
2. HY2251 (From Wheel to Web)
3. HY3204 (SEA: Decolonization and after)
4. HY3225 (Minorities in SEA)
5. HY3245 (Engendering History / Historicising Gender)

That's all for now!

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