Loch Ness Marathon 2008

I'm mad.

Back to Aberdeen!

Free airport internet!! Yay!!

I think Singapore is still the only place in the world where you don't have to pay for internet usage in the airport. That my friends, is one of the things that keep Singapore as MY country of choice. Sure, there are faults and things to gripe about. But! I wouldn't give up my red passport unless I actually didn't have a choice.

So yes, I am here in Changi Airport. Waiting to go onto the plane which was delayed for about 10 minutes. I suppose I should actually go into the boarding gate, but well.. I was bored and decided to watch the end bit of "Heroes" and have a kueh salat from Bengawan Solo. No such thing as nonya kueh in Aberdeen, OK...

Some crazy China woman has tried to bring the luggage trolley down the escalator... Obviously, it tipped over and down went her luggage. She has single-handedly managed to cease operations of the escalator. Well done.

KK... S'pose I'd really better be off. They will soon call for boarding. Will post again when I am back in the Deen!

"Osen" Opening Sequence

This has to be my favourite opening sequence for a drama to date. Watch this...



I love it!! It starts off looking all cool with it's freeze-frame movements and Aoi Yu wielding that giant flag... Then out of the blue you have Uchi Hiroki jumping out from behind her in true-blue (-_-''')- fashion. It's hilarious!!! Plus, Micro (formerly of Def Tech) sings the opening song, "Odore". I can never stop giggling when I watch this!!

A further plus is that the story itself is a really good one! Hooray!!

Off to Penang!!

Whee!!!

What Doesn't Kill You...

Only makes you braindead for a very, very, very long time.

I am FINALLY halfway through my exams for this term. 2 more to go, 1 of which I haven't started studying for. I can't believe I have to sit for 5 exams this term. 5!!! All because my course title says "Mechanical and Diploma of Management" instead of "Mechanical with Management"... Because of silly little semantics like that, I have to study like a pure mech student AND a mech-man student. Yes, yes.. I know that I'll come out of this with a much better degree. I'm just saying it's tough... Not that I'm complaining...

Ok. Who am I kidding. I'm complaining.

Aizzzzz~~~~

This morning's paper was "Economics, resources and safety management". Believe it or not, that course is actually part of my engineering degree, not my diploma. It was ok. I'll pass. I don't know what grade I'll get, but I'll pass. The plan was to come back to uni after a break to start revision for the last two papers. The paper ended at 12pm.

I got home at 1pm.

I've been in front of this university computer since 3.30pm.

It's now 5.21pm.

I've done nothing.

Except update this blog. And checked my e-mails. And facebooked. And lamented how fast I can forget how to speak a language when I don't practice it.

.........

I wanna go home...

Almost 24 Hours....

Guess where I am...

For the 20 hours, I have been in my classmate's flat in Hillhead Halls. I've been in his room, his kitchen... At some point I was even on his bed...

Doing our wretched project.

It should've been finished. Instead, we are still here, toiling over the final bits of it. We've been at the "final bits" of this project for at least the last week. And in the end we still couldn't get it done on time. The deadline was just less than an hour ago. It didn't help that in the middle of it all, we lost our only formatted version of the report. Don't ask me how. MS Word just decided to revert back to the original un-edited version. So we had to re-do the editting all over again. Or rather, my poor friend had to re-edit it all over again.

The thankful thing is, our supervisor agreed to give us an extension. Although we had still hoped to get it done before 4pm. Luck was just not on our side. Still, there is still a mild hope that we can get it done and printed out by tonight.

One other ray of light in my life though... I ordered an original Master FX Replica of Yoda's lightsabre!! It's been processed and delivered... And I should receive it by tomorrow or Monday!!! \(^o^)/

Sweden Post!

HALLO!!!

I'm in Stockholm!!! Woohoo! Been here since Saturday! Well, Monday actually, if you consider the fact that we spent a day in Turku, Finland.

It's been SOOOOOO cold! I swear my skin has never been dryer. My cuticles are splitting and it smarts trying to put on my gloves.

Came with PL, G, A and C and we've just been trying to cram everything into about 3, 4 days. It's been madness. Every night we come back to the hostel, I've been ABSOLUTELY destroyed. I close my eyes and in no time at all, I'm dead to the world. Tonight is no exception. I'm about to collapse. But I just COULD NOT resist using the free internet provided by this wonderful hostel, City Backpackers Stockholm, and making a post from Sweden!!!! Let this be a mark in my blogging history. *cue dramatic pause*

So many museums, so little time! I love the Vasamuseet!!! And the old Engineering Workshop in Skansen on Djurgarden. The Palace is next tomorrow. Woooooo!!!

Right. I'm dying. Will tell all about the trip when I get back, and when I've recovered. Ha!!!

G'night!!!

3rd Year Term 1: Exam Results

Oooh ooh.

I passed my exams.

Well, I've known for 2 weeks now, but I keep forgetting to blog about it. Anyhow, here are my scores (over 20)

Engineering Methods & Analysis - 20
Fluid Mechanics - 17
Stress Analysis - 19
Engineering Materials - 14
Engineering Design - 18

A CAS 14 for Materials! It's a bloody miracle. I really thought I screwed up that paper. It's pulled my average down but thank goodness it's still above 15. I can keep my MEng.. For now. 2nd term is the crunch. As long as I keep the average I'll be fine.

That said, 2nd term is proving to be a bitch. The 3rd year project is killing all of us. I really don't know how this term will go. 5 examinable courses. I will die.

Internet-less

I have been thrown into the spirals of the dark ages once again. D moved out you see, and with him went the TV and the internet.

Although it doesn't really bother me per se.. I have to admit that there are inconveniences. I cannot check my e-mails that regularly (read: every hour) and although I'm not too fussed about it, it does mean that there's a high chance of missing out on important e-mails that may have been sent last minute or something. Well, not that it's such a bad thing when you want to avoid people. Then not having the internet is a very valid excuse.

There is also the fact that I no longer have easy access into my WebCT page, which is something like a student folder. It's where the lecturers will dump stuff into relevant folders for the students to download, like lecture notes and things. NUS had a similar thing but I can't remember what it was called. So there went my brilliant idea of making a Singapore-relevant comparison. I have to find a computer inbetween classes to download them to be printed back home, because I have no money in my print budget at the moment.

And of course, probably the major part of my grief for the loss of internet (although it shouldn't be) is that I no longer have easy access to my Japanese language resources. I will have to go back to using the CDs that came with my textbook. Haiz. Reading the Daily Yomiuri and Sanspo Online and watching Kanajni8 was so much more fun though. Oh well.

Classes have started again. Immediately after exams. I still think it's cruel, not to give the students a mental break, especially after forcing us to study over Christmas. I'd really rather they start the term earlier, say at the end of August instead of the end of September and get the exams out of the way before the Christmas vacation.

How did the exams go? I don't know. I think I'll pass the first three... But I'm not too sure about the last one. It's a 50/50 chance. Well. I'm not going to find out until the end of February. So no point worrying about it now.

This term is going to be truly exciting... A real killer... (X_X)

Exams (T_T)

Stupid exams.

Turning Into A Sloth

Somebody save me from my sloth-y-ness..... (Z_Z)

Santas Rampage Cinema

BWHAHAHHAHA!!!

I was browsing on the BBC website and found this!

I love this video!! WHAHA!!

Merry Christmas!!

Mmm.. Yah. It's a bit late, about 1.5hrs late, but what the hell.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I just spent my FIRST ever Christmas away from home, in Aberdeen.

It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Mainly because I was invited to my friend's place for dinner. It was a small group, just four of us - 2 Japanese, 1 Australian and 1 Singaporean.

Random isn't it? And I've just realized that we're all from the Asia-Pacific region. Haha.. What a coincidence.

It was a simple dinner, but one of the nicest I've had this year. H-san made a vegetable quiche which she learnt in Malta. She's a really nice person! I'm glad I got to meet her. She and K-kun make a really nice couple I think. Hee~ (^_^)

I made a chocolate-coated strawberry & banana sandwich sponge cake for the dinner. I ran out of sugar so I had to split one portion of cake mix into 2 layers instead of making two portions. Then, I forgot to halve the cooking time since the layers were now thinner than they should've been. So.... The sponge layers turned out slightly... crispier... than I had hoped. It was still pretty tasty in the end, so it was only a demi-failure. (^_^''') Haha~ Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery, so I couldn't take a photo. I think H-san did though, so I'll see if I can get it off her or K-kun.

Boxing day tomorrow! All the sales start!! Heheheh~ Friends and I are going shopping.. I wonder what we'll find........ Woot woot!~~

Alone In My Flat

As the title says. My winter break started on Saturday. So that means that I'm 1 week into it.

......

OMG!! ONE WEEK OF MY BREAK IS ALREADY GONE!?!?!

Dammit.... Let me tell you how I've been passing my time... I set up this LiveJournal account right, so that I could use it for my translation practice (and also so I could join a certain fandom community... *ahem*). Then last Friday, I decided, "What the heck! I'll try translating an entire video instead of just short articles!"

So I started translating a 55-minute Japanese video into English.

I have been absolutely obsessed with it. Within 3 days, I had finished translating the first 3 sections of it (roughly the first 16 minutes). 1 section a day. Not that it's easy translating mind you, nor does it mean that my Japanese has somehow improved by leaps and bounds over the last year. Noooooooo.... I stayed up until unearthly hours (the 2nd day I stayed up until 4-something) doing each section, simply because I was.. well... Obsessed!!! I don't know why, but I had to prove something! That I could do it!! That I WILL do it!!

Of course, then my classmates called me on Monday and reminded me of the fact that exams are in January. I needed to start studying NOW. So we made plans to study. Which we have! But it hasn't curbed my translational-obsession... Its slowed it down, definitely, but more than anything, its fired my obsession up! Because, now I need to get this out of my system before I can concentrate 100% on revision! That's a LOUSY excuse, I know. But I need to do this!

So, the last 2 sections of the video took me about 2 days each to finish. There are 3 sections left... Can I get them done by this weekend I wonder? I must, if I want to give full attention to studying by Monday.

Oh, and... I'm now officially alone in my flat. Alone for Christmas... N went home last Thursday (T_T) and D flew off to France on Friday (not that it made a difference... it hardly feels like D's been a part of the flat this year, and he's moving out with his gf in January anyhow).. And today... R left for home as well. (T_T)

It was fun the last week though. R and I finally managed to have time to hang out together, something we both missed doing since the new school term started. At least, I know I missed it. We had our usual banter, in between serious discussions or seriously random discussions. We made dinner together for the first time in a long, long time. We lived off leftovers for a week, and hey! We actually managed to whip up some pretty good meals with those leftovers! ♡

Hahaha.... I make it sound like we're a couple or something. But we're not. We do make that a running joke though, simply because we're so similar, we get along the best in the flat (in my own opinion anyway) and we work well together (I chop, he cooks. I clean, he makes tea). If anything, we're like brother and sister here, despite the fact that he's a guy from Chorley and I'm from Singapore. Anyway, I doubt R's girlfriend would appreciate the joke... (^^''')

Well. There's just me now. And my classmates. And my translation project.

.......

I should go to bed.

10 Minutes to 3a.m.

And I have more or less just finished my last laboratory logbook entry for the Winter term of 2007. Ok, there's still a huge chunk of it missing but I can no longer be bothered about it at 3a.m. in the morning and the fact that I'm already in holiday mode doesn't help.

It is now officially 3a.m.

My brain has switched off. Screw the logbook. I'm going to bed.

47! Christmas Present for Myself???

I WANT!

(T_T)

But am I desperate enough??

This... (*_*)

Hoshiiiiiiiiiiiii~~~

Then the question comes: Do I want the regular version or the limited edition more. Well... Although the behind-the-scene clips looked VERY interesting, I kinda want to see their Neoki Dokkiri clips more. Saw some previews posted on youtube... Yoko's was ADORABLE!!! And Hina... That man's brain is one fast processor.

But... $$$.

Haiz. Oh well. Maybe if I ignore it long enough, I'll forget how badly I want it right now.

2 more days to the start of the Winter Break!!! AAH! I'm already in holiday mode!

The Geek In Me Says...

I officially love HJSplit.

It's a freeware program that allows you to split or join files that are too big to send through e-mails, or to upload onto the numerous online storage spaces you have nowadays. It's particularly good for say... homemade videos that you may want to send to a friend through e-mail. Now we all know that e-mails have some attachment size limit. Just split your video up into little bits, and send to your friend as separate attachments. The downside is that this only works if your friend has HJSplit (or it's smaller cousin, HJJoin) as well, since he or she will need it to patch the video up again. But once it's done, the video just plays as it should! Magic!!!

Plus, it doesn't actually need any installation. It functions just by running the .exe file! And it doesn't take that much space either!

Oh man... I sound like a paid advertisment... Haha.. Didn't mean to. But it really is such a convenient little piece of programming.

Can't Breathe Now That I Can Breathe

I am sick.

I have been sick since the Saturday before. Actually it may have started on Friday but in any case, that's more than a week now. BOTH my ears are now blocked and yesterday I developed a cough for some reason. I was still coughing this morning, although it seems to have disappeared right now.

I blame the weather most of all. If it wasn't cold and damp all the time now, I probably would have recovered by now, without any of this irritating deafness.

But what brought it on was a combination of stress and inactivity. Yes, I haven't actually done very much exercise for about a month. I have grown fat and soft once again. The stress part was the start of the Design Week that all Level 3 engineering students have to go through. That started 2 weeks ago on the 19th. The point of the exercise was that we were all assigned a topic relating to engineering design and a group to work with. For an entire week, we would have no scheduled classes, but instead would meet up in various labs in FN to work on the design of whatever it is we got. What made it worse for my group is that at first we were told our report was due in on the Friday that week, with a presentation by the MEng students (me included (T.T)). 1 week to design and write a report on the preliminary design of a hydropower scheme is pretty fierce, let me tell you that. So as we all stressed and stayed in the engineering building til late at night to produce individual reports, we suddenly got word from our supervisor that she was extending the deadline to the following Friday.

On Thursday evening.

And there was no e-mail. No, no. She only told people she happened to bump into, and asked us to pass the word around.

$*#&^&*#*^$!!! Don't get me wrong. It WAS a good thing that she extended the deadline. BUT, the last minute notification and the mode of communication was just... lame, for a lack of better words. Plus, we learnt that the later Friday was supposed to have been the deadline in the first place, just that she got it wrong. Of all the #*$&#*%*.

Sigh.

The result was a horrendous onset of the flu. Of course, it didn't help that we had yet ANOTHER piece of work due in the same Friday. 1 formal report and 2 written logbooks. All due in the same day, at the same time. For 2 whole weeks, I was sleeping at 3am and waking up at 9am to be in for 10am. On the last Thursday I slept at 4.30am tidying up my work before submission.

But, at least everything's done now. I only have one last report due in 2 weeks. So I can breathe easier now. Except that I can't actually breathe without a tonne of drugs and nasal decongestants... (-_-''')

Yes, I know. I'm a terrible blogger. I have all these blogs, and I just never update them. I never update my friendster, facebook or bebo either. And omg, let's not even mention my flickr.


But here I am in the engineering building, in one of the tutorial rooms. Supposed to be here doing my Matlab assignments but I just can't figure out how to properly define the trapezium rule for approximation in Matlab. The solution I'm getting is about 13 times more than the actual answer (supposed to be 1).


I do apologise for never updating my blog, or my photos. The thing is that I have now accumulated such a huge backlog of photos, that I just don't know where to start (read: I am too lazy to properly organize my files and folders. That is why my 30GB IBM is now only left with 4GB of space left).

*****************

And now I am back in my flat. For the first time this year since I came back, I have the whole flat to myself. N decided on a whim to go home on Thursday, D is off to Liverpool for a sailing competition and R is somewhere climbing a mountain. So I have set up camp in the kitchen. Pulled out the sofa bed and have just been living in the kitchen since yesterday. Everything's here!! Food, the tv, radio/cd player; I'm even surrounded by 4 electrical sockets that allow me to plug in my laptop and a reading lamp! The kitchen's coffee table has just become my "bedside" table.

I love having the flat to myself. (^_^) It's such a cheap thrill.

Chinese = Don't Know Anything About Other Races/Religions?

After this morning's lecture, I decided to make an effort to speak with SF, since I more or less avoided her the whole of last year, although she was one of the first people I met in Aberdeen.

Me: Heya!
SF: Hi.
Me: How long more does your fast last?
SF: (funny look) 12 more days.
Me: 12! Not too long more then.
SF: Yeah, it lasts for 30 days.
Me: Yeah, I know.
SF: How come you know about..?
Me: Well, we have it in Singapore too.
SF: (Still the funny look)
Me: Well... you'd have it anywhere you have a Muslim community right?
SF: Yeah but you're not Muslim so I didn't think you would know about it.
Me: ...

I really had nothing to say after that. Is there any surprise I slowly stopped talking to her altogether after first year?? So, since I'm not Muslim or from Dubai, I wouldn't know about Eid Il Fitri (otherwise known as Hari Raya Puasa in Malaysia and Singapore)?? Maybe I'm overreacting, but I do hate being treated like an idiot. One time in first year she asked me if Singapore had "a/c". I didn't hear her clearly at first and asked her to repeat herself so she decided to clearly and slowly explain that "a/c" meant air-conditioning.

I really, really don't want to come off as racist or anything, because I'm not. I have nothing against different races or religions but this girl is just... ARGH! Eff it. I'm just not going to bother with her anymore.