We love to hate it.

I met a girl here in Boston who studies in the famous Wellsley College, which is touted to be the "all-women's Harvard" and is infamous for breeding man-eating women. She comes from a wealthy family, and she studies and studies and studies. Starbucks doubleshots, RedBull (carb-free naturally), Monster Power, Adrenaline and SoBe energy drinks are neatly stacked in her fridge. In no manner of exaggeration, she would read a chapter once through, the second time to highlight and the third time to summarize on a notebook. She does not follow the schools timetable, she studies ahead of everyone, eventually summarizing the entire textbooks of various subjects. To aid her, are the energy drinks that ensure that shes wake at 4am, she sleeps with a schedule i suspect, squeezing in 2-3 hr catnaps. Shes a pretty girl, but the grueling schedule and poor diet is evident when you look at her.

I have guy friends who study in the elite Babson College of Business that simply buy their rhetoric papers, then again they buy everything that can be bought. Working hard and a job well done is simply having a passing grade. For them, further education is a rite of passage, a phase of life, the expected 4 year vacation. Heres a joke, Babson students wear a T-shirt that say "Babson students' average GPA is 2.5, (and at the back) but our average annual income is 2.5 million". Sure!!! Hell i could have an annual income of 2.5million upon graduating because my parents spoil the hell out of me (this is not true for ALL Babson students, to be fair).

My point is Cher (maybe not exactly the point, but its interesting haha). People have different reasons and combination of reasons for being in school. For some its choosing a concentration to appease their parents wishes, others really love what they are studying, and for the majority of us further education is our future! Your experience in college will be better satisfied maybe if you agree that the college experience is what you make of it. If the work is not challenging, perhaps you might want to consider transferring out to a harder course or another Uni? Believe it or not, the ball is in your court.

Revenge of the New Phantom Clone Siths

Ok nothing to do with star wars. Another work-induced bitchrabble.
......

Have gotten down to almost zero work today, will have to put in 3-4 solid hours of solid input into my 2 assignments so optimal time can be spared for a mid-term examinations in exactly a week.

4 days of holidays to go and I'm back to the sickening grind, what is there to do to not make me want to leave this forsaken location. I can only think of the support from my family, friends and my own lofty ambitions.

The facades I put up are tiring me out, the lack of life in the very foundations of this territory stifles my ash-lined lungs. The sky may be as blue as the Sunshine State, but it just feels so ... different. (stop rambling)

The work is beneath me, only teamwork with overzealous fools makes me sick. The faculty is fine, not impressive but well regarded internationally. Just the way I like the ride to be, quiet; unassuming but ending with a bang.

I think I'm one of those that consider the journey/experience insignificant, and desired results/endings to be all there is to live for. All my life was getting from A to B, then marking a new B to arrive at and so on. But I'm never satisfied with the results, let alone the work to acheive it. When can I get my Satisfaction?

Brisbane was great and then some...

Brisbane (9th April - 18th April)
Had the best time here ever over the last week or so, in the lovely Sunshine State (or the Smart State, how do they come up with these state slogans?).

1st Day
Landed around 945pm, met up with my good buddy Dominic who promptly got me back to his place to settle in and then to catch a late dinner at Three Monkeys @West End. Its one of the cafes highly recommended by locals and international students alike. Very quaint decor combined with a friendly and easy environment. Definitely must go to try out the super chocolate-y hot mochas, decent sandwiches and other drinks.

2nd Day
Went to Church. Every single church here trashes each and everyone of Canberra's in terms of architecture/granduer. Too bad the quality of sermons didn't impress me much.

Dropped by UQ, saw probably 3000 boys and girls participate in WeetBix's Try-athlon. It looked just like a professional event with massive areas for bike stands and cordoned areas for running, except the fans were all highly supportive parents and teachers. Very cool. Should've got more pictures of the setup. Camera ran out of power though. :(

Went back to get Dom's housemates, then skipped over to Chinatown (aka Fortitude Valley), for a massive plate of siew yoke, soy sauce chicken and roast duck. Arrrgh. why did my cam die on me.

Too stuffed to move after, went for a run in evening with Bryan along the lovely Brisbane River. (Alex&Brandon: You'd totally love it.) We ran from Toowong to QUT and back, about 7 kilometres according to my guide.

3rd Day
Went down and spent a hella long time in the city with Daphne. The shopping arcade area spans 4-5 streets, with fringe areas crammed with niche clothing stores and fine dining along the river. Had Viet Beef Noodles for lunch and then preceded to blow about 190 on shirts. All on sale of course. 4 from a discount store ($10 each), 2 from Elio Moda along Elizabeth street ($100 and $50), the cool thing is the shirts were normally going for $545 and $125.

Got to St Stephens Cathedral for mass in the chapel. It finised in the record time of 15mins, fastest ever experienced in my life.

Headed over to Bryan's place and got him almost flat out drunk on beer, malibu, vodka and huge amounts of kahlua. The kahlua wasn't any of my doing. Better luck next time Mr. Tang.

4th Day
Got up a tad early and Dominic drove me down to Harbour Town, Gold Coast. about 60-70 kilometres from Brisbane. Its packed full of factory outlets (Nike, Fila etc), Surf Wear shops (Rip Curl, City Beach...) and a good mix of brands (Mambo, Morrisey, Polo RL, Esprit, moremore and more.) Discounts abound no matter what day of the year. Selection is enough to leave any shopper struggling to cover every inch in an afternoon. Got t-shirts from Nike/Mambo, another Mambo shirt and short cargoes from Esprit. Got the famed Yatala Pies along the way back. Had Steak, Bacon and Cheese pie for tea, and picking up a family sized one for the house.

Had another run with Bryan and Anurax. Had dinner at their place along with Dominic. Anurax really cooked up a storm, had trouble eating the apple pie we got for them from Yatala as well. After some more chatter and the other housemates wanting to do their own thing, Anurax and Dominic settled into what would be a 4 hour GT4 marathon on the PS2. (-tbc-)

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I got back to Canberra about 12 hours ago, only to find out my luggage decided to extend its stay in the Brisbane domestic terminals. Fxxk.

I have 2 assignments due next week, with an exam looming on the same deadlines. So I basically have to finish everything I need to do by this Friday. Wee.

School Blues? I beg to differ

I'm not sure about the other member, but rest assured I'm blue as the Blue Man Group. Its finals week for me here in Boston and I am 2 exams down with 2 more to go. I was lucky to have been let off from my final exam in my hardest class, psychobiology. After such a big weight was lifted from my shoulders, whatever motivation i had in stored for the final push in the exams went flying away too. However, I think the urgency and need to study will hit me tomorrow morning. When I wake up realizing that I have 2 more days (1 day, if you consider the fact that i will be attempting to run part of the famed Boston Marathon and spending the later part trying to actually trying to revive my legs).

Anyways I'll be back in SG on May 15th and will be spending the entire summer there. Its still not clear to me what I'll be doing with my time, but I have a few ideas;

a) losing some of that extra poundage i have put on
b) get a driving licence if possible
c) and tying up the loose ends in my application to transfer to another University.

Oh i forgot to tell you guys that I have been trying to transfer to Brandeis University, they have a superior Neuroscience department and was recommended to me by my Professor. You see my interest in Neuroscience has to do with motor functions and pain, which so happens to be my professor's mentors speciality. Also considered, was the fact that Brandeis University offered me a 1 year direct Masters in Neuroscience upon reaching my senior year as an undergrad. Perhaps this will better boost my chances when i apply to med school in Singapore.

Glad we're back online again with this blog.

TweekEnd AdVances!

Woah, the school blues hits just about anyone except the bloody members of this blog in America.

Anyway I finished only 4 out of 7 parts in Java, should pass, since 2 of 3 parts i missed were for distinction or higher grades.

The IT study was so fucked up with tonnes of grammatical errors and the overall irrevelance I feared. I gave up proofreading it because my section was perfect imho. lol.

Too tired to consider it'll be the same grade for the team. Anyway got like 90% in the first part hopefully a high distinction wouldn't be too far off after this mess up.

Flying off to brisbane this weekend on a sly from the parents. And they like found out cuz I used my DBS Mastercard. D'oh.

Gonna chase the dragon (or buddha) and knock up some asian surfer chick if I get the chance. Will finally get hold of my Canon ixus 40 and iPod shuffle after 2 whole months of it sitting in Singapore/Brisbane. YaY. erm. I'll like see you guys around then...

L8r.

I am checking in to say that we are having trouble being motivated. I've just finished a 2000 word film essay, and it took longer than it should have, and it wasn't as good as it should have been. I haven't handed it in yet, but I have no energy to resurrect the patient. Which really shouldn't be the case. Housemate Dave hasn't even reached the halfway point yet.

Easter break ends this weekend, then it's back to work. You know that feeling you get after the June holidays, and you have to go back to school, and it's bloody depressing, and you wish you could just stay home. Well in University I finally have the freedom to not go, and I feel like exercising it. The next 4 weeks is going to be pretty harsh, I'm hoping to get all my work done by early May, instead of late May where the deadlines are. There are several reasons for this.

1) I love being ahead.
2) I've done it before, end of last term, and it was hell, but I got good grades, and I love being ahead.
3) I love being guailan to other people who are not as ahead as I am.
4) I'm a worst-case scenario kinda guy. I always fear falling ill before a deadline, where the work hasn't been done yet. Then I'd be fucked. And so not ahead.
5) I want time to spend with someone when she's in the neighborhood around May.

Reasons not to do it:
1) Tired.
2) Nintendo DS.
3) Not feasible.

About the last one... I have more work to do this time than I did last term, which makes it really scary. I think it would take 2 weeks of intensive everyday writing to get it all done. And I'm not even half-ready to start one of the big essays yet, which means reading time. Which means I'd have to start like now. Sigh.

Hit me Baby One more Time

Blogpost titles don't really work for this particular rant.

I just spent a whole hour going through my iPod's library and renaming/rating and creating random playlists like Melancholic Mandarin.

Anyway it hit me that I used to listen to so many mandarin songs with limited understanding, and now hearing them again, after all this time, brings back a whole flush of familiarity/memories of late night 阿明-like activities, the minor but all to often encounters with the law, friends of old, secondery school life, and how little I knew about the world ...

Summarised: Everything was so much simpler back then.

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Back to Current Day musings

I have like a tonne of work and have been turning in less than 12 hours of sleep this week so far. On one end I have an ITechnically-intensive report, which takes up way too much time because of a team member that overestimates the content required (eg. 10 times what is needed for a justification, its not a fricking ethics paper for crying out loud) Well I do suck up all the shit I get from him because I'm such a sweet and understanding person, well not really. He'd probably get stabbed by yours truly after he's past his sell-by date (when he graduates).

Next I have a humongous Java program - an XML to Text/HTML converter, that's supposed to impart the knowledge of an important aspect of object-oriented programming. What infuriates me is that there is an inbuilt functionality to handle the intricacies of XML. But NOooOoo, we have to use a stripped down version of the lecturer's PhD project and build on that. I've done like half of it in the last 3 days alone, am quite proud of it except for the fact it was released to us 3 weeks ago. It took me that long to understand the jargon and complexities.

I'm just rambling on things you guys wouldn't understand, let alone want to. I just had to blog this as a motivation/realisation tool, To spur me towards greater heights of success and affirmation of my pursuit of IT knowledge.

Oh yeah, and I have to like hand them both in tomorrow, like in 8 hours. Wish me like luck or something. Like Totally.