Best viewed in Mozilla Firefox, looks fine in Safari and Internet Explorer.
Click the tabs above to navigate; it's as easy as 1 2 3. :)
date/time Tuesday, December 02, 2008,10:03 PM
...It's Over!!!
And so the adventure begins... then again, maybe not. Heh. Post exam enjoyment to me is just revelling in the simple things we don't get to do when we're buried in loads of work. I sort of take those things for granted when I'm not busy, then when exam period rolls around, every single moment spent doing something I like/something relaxing is cherished like no other. Simple things like taking the time to read newspapers from front to back, heh.
Apart from all the minor errands to run to make the exchange to Sweden a reality and apart from helping out with the preparations leading up to my sister's wedding, I really wanna...
Read my books! I still have Sophie's World and Veronika Decides to Die (just purchased today!) to finish.
Watch more movies. I keep meaning to watch them but end up missing them 'cos of school
Start exercising. Not to lose weight, but to stay healthy. I feel breathless nowadays just climbing 2 flights of stairs. Tsk. Unbecoming!
Do a local-food-only sabbatical thing before I fly off. I may not feel it now, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss the local food! Laksa, Chicken Rice, Char Kway Teow, Fried Oyster Omelette, aghhhh I'm going to miss you guys!
Shop. But within boundaries. Haha, I don't want to blow my pocket on unneccessary things; but I still have some things I want to get but didn't have the time to.
------------------------------------
Went out with Zhu, Mabs and XT finally, after what seemed like the longest time since we last met. Even the food vouchers we received the last time we met had expired by the time we got together to hang out again. We went to catch Cape No. 7 in the cinemas.
I sort of went in with no expectations, as I usually do for movies I don't especially anticipate. I'm lazy to talk about all of it, but I'm just going to say that it was a pretty good movie; maybe not blow-your-socks-off good but it was enjoyable, and that's all that matters really whenever you're tired out from the exams and you just want to be entertained after all that inane mugging. It was very disjointed in the beginning, because basically the movie was interspersing one storyline with another, and it was hard to reconcile both storylines and figure out how they related to each other (and why the scriptwriters chose to intertwine this story with that etc), and maybe my brain was a little bit too tired to figure out why by then.
The 2 hours of sleep yesterday night, coupled with a total near panic attack when my helpsheet MSword document for the Econs paper I had the next day totally failed on me at the last minute was obviously taking effect on me. I swear my blood almost curdled when I tried to paste something in the MS doc and the whole of my 2nd page disappeared. I was trying frantically to retrieve it but all it showed when re-opened was sequences of the same row, all over and over again. Scary. It wasn't funny 'cos it was 4a.m. by then, about 5 hours to the start of the exam!? But good ol' Google spat out some help when I searched for the solutions to a corrupt MSword document. Turns out, it's a very, very easy process. If you guys corrupt your file inadvertently, don't despair and don't trash it out of frustration just yet! Just save it -yes, save the corrupt file (click save as)- in a .rtf format (rich text format), close, reopen the rtf file you just saved, and click save as, then save it in .doc format again. VOILA! Your corrupt file recovered =)
I'm sorry I'm rambling, I'm just going on and on in streams of consciousness and I'm just rattling the things off the top off my head now.
All right, time to sleep. At least 8 hours this time around. I'm gonna sleep like a baby.
The last one is always the hardest! Especially when its many many days apart from your 2nd last paper. Instead of feeling motivated 'cos it's the last paper to temporal freedom, I'm feeling sluggish and lethargic because that day is 'so near yet so far'. It's like trying to grab at a carrot that's being dangled in front of you and failing every single time.
To make matters worse, it's ECONOMICS. I've always been biased against it because one of my teachers made me drop it back in my JC days. She was like, 'OH drop drop drop lah drop!'. Way to encourage your students. Anyway, I'm trying to get over all the graphs and equations. They're all over the place, both literally and metaphorically in my brain, as well as scrawled all over randomly on blank pieces of crumpled paper. My table is a battlefield right now. Gah, enough of all these numbers. I better not be dealing with any next sem.
I can't wait for post-exams. I'm going to shop and sleep and eat and watch movies and just chill at home and read my books and basically just NOT STUDY. Oh 2 Dec where art thou!
I'm feeling so exhausted from all the mental acrobatics I've been doing over the weeks, struggling with finance (only to seriously bomb the paper today, and I mean 'stare at paper blankly' kinda serious), and forcing new information about information systems into my head.
3 down, 2 more to go. This sem has passed me by (almost!) faster than I'd noticed; I can't wait for the next semester. Hopefully by then I'd be blogging from elsewhere other than here =)
One more day, one more day, one more day, one more day to liberation!!!! (OK its 2 more technically, but really, who cares about technicality huh huh huh!)
I know, exam period. I know, I shouldn't be here. But seriously, everyone's feeling like a pile of crap thanks to the exams. I do too (feel like crap), of course. But I came across this song, courtesy of Cheryl, and gosh it just put a smile on my face and made me feel like dancing in my room. So I hope this will cheer all of you up. Bad audio quality, but it was the only official video of the song I could find :)
Have fun dancing, peeps. This period will be over soon. And after that, don't look back. Go paint the town crimson.
Spinning: Love is No Big Truth - Kings of Convenience
When Results Day for any major examination in Singapore approaches, rumours ALWAYS fly about. Some are as ludicrous as - get this - receiving a certain letter inviting you to sign up for a certain course means you have failed your 'O' Levels badly. Myth, of course, as I have found out. It caused a great deal of worry, and I was so gullible that I would dash to the mailbox every morning, leafing through the wad of envelopes and praying that there wasn't any letter addressed to me. Most of the rumours turned out to be untrue, of course, as most rumours always turn out to be.
So then I have every reason to pooh-pooh every rumour regarding the 'A' Levels that manages to reach my ears. But I worry, and I always think, "What if?" Of course I'm not going to fall for the old "receive a letter and you're doomed" rumour. I just hope, and pray, that the results will only be released AFTER the Chinese New Year period. For a very simple reason, of course. Most of my friends would know I come from an extended family which evaluates a young person based on his/her academic success. Typical. It happens almost everywhere here.
So if the results are going to be released before CNY, and the nosy relatives get wind of it, imagine the barrage of torturous questions that I will be obliged to answer. Sure, there is the part about asking because they care; some genuinely do and I know who they are, but for others, I know bad news is merely fodder for their toxic gossip, letting them speculate and blind-guess why and how it happened. I just have to sit down, and listen very carefully to what they always talk about when they think no one's listening in. Everyone seems to love a twisted fairytale now. Give them a happy ending and they dismiss it as boring. Give them a warped conclusion, and they jump at it like eager beavers. Semi-hyperbolic, but you get the idea.
If I was the sort who stayed at home all day for CNY, I wouldn't give a damn. Thing is, I go visiting every New Year, which means I'd have to talk to people whom I don't really feel like talking to, about things I don't want to mention. Not even the red packets can make up for this. You would point out, hey, what if it's good news? I still wouldn't want to talk about it. What for? It'll only give them a chance to compare my poor cousins/nieces/nephews to the preconceived idea of a brilliant student. I had a taste of that. I didn't like it at all.
So to keep things simple, those results had better come in after CNY. Time to start crossing both my fingers and toes.
Master Evil Genius's Idiot-Proof Guide to Surviving any Soul-Sucking Examination
OK, so this won't guarantee you your A's, but at least it'll keep you sane until you manage to get your As!
01.Friends, OR, simply having a fellow human being around you when you're mugging. Trust me on this one. What a difference it makes to have a living, breathing person around you! I remember I almost slid into a dark, dark period during the Secondary 4 Prelims. I was constantly stressed out and it was partly because I was studying alone all the time. So I grabbed every single opportunity to study where there were people around. Somehow, it made me feel better. Fast forward to 2006, I had 2 really great pals come over to my place almost every day to study with me. No, we didn't waste time. We really studied, and the perk? When you're stressed, you get to strangle someone. No. Scrap that. Actually, you get to destress by just talking for awhile.
Who needn't apply: Those who are allergic to noise, and those who have really annoying siblings. You're better off studying on your own.
02. Food This is such a 'doh!' suggestion, but since it IS an idiot-proof guide, I've thrown it in. Surround yourself with delicious/addictive snacks which require copious amounts of chewing/biting, but preferably not those 'heaty' ones which cause you to fall sick. Suggestions: Some chocolate, biscuits from Marks and Spencer's, Ice Cream, and you're all set. No crackers allowed. Heh heh. And, the extra fat can be worked off after the exams, so don't be too paranoid.
Who needn't apply: Those who are genuinely afraid that the fat they gain can't be worked off. Or those who focus more on the food than their work.
03. Coffee/Tea Ah. My fuel. Unless you're the type who started revision eons ago, it's highly likely you won't be able to meet the deadlines you've set for yourself. So that's when those caffeinated drinks come in handy! I relied on the latter more though; I don't like the sour aftertaste of coffee.
Who needn't apply: Those who are immune to the effects of coffee.
04. Lots and Lots and Lots of water. I don't think I need to emphasize this more.
Who needn't apply: No one. Everyone should apply.
05. Instant noodles This is separate from food because.. erm, it isn't exactly food proper. It's an unhealthy option, yes, but a quick and convenient one. Stay off it though, after the exams.
Who needn't apply: The Health-Conscious.
After 12 years of going through examinations, that's what I've come up with... I'm sure those reading this have more; add in whatever secrets you have. You don't need them anymore; muahahaha... until University, of course.
Yeah I was a hermit during the exams, but I did pen down my thoughts (yes, write, the old fashioned way!) on a little notebook by my side when I got tired of studying. So below is a transcript of what I wrote in that little temporary diary.
In between all that cramming and mugging, there ARE actually interesting things to talk about. Well, considering this is my last major government exam I have to sit through (Yippee!), I might as well chronicle it. Actually, I'll skip the nitty gritty. You really wouldn't be interested.
It is with great amusement that I realize that I become a person full of quirks and weird habits before and during examinations. And no, I'm not the only one, as I've found out via various study sessions. Here are a list of things I MUST do before sitting down proper to study:
Read the Newspaper: I do read the newspaper, occasionally, when the exams are not around the corner... it's just that come the exam period, I'd be doubly diligent, poring over every word... I never used to be so hardworking...
Whip up a sumptuous breakfast myself: Inclusive of melt-in-your-mouth omelettes, toast with butter/jam, and tea
Drink tea. Lots of Lots of Tea, throughout the entire day.
I surmise these are really because of that escapist in me. All the above done in the name of breaking away from the dreary monotony of mugging every minute. Of course there are the plain weird things I do for breaks - like playing the piano - things I haven't done for a long long time. Embarrassingly, composing songs using the guitar is also one of the quirks I adopt during the exam period. I'll have mercy on all of you and not share them, because they are ridiculously bad. Anyway, it amazes me and even more, tickles me, that I resort to things like these to destress. Maybe all that energy lost needs to be channelled somewhere...
Sorry. Just needed to let that virtual scream out.
Meanwhile, just a random remark: The word that has been lurking around in my head recently - Unbridled. I don't really know why. There's no specific reason. It's just, well, there. Don't you get those words popping up in your heads every now and then too? Or have I already become mental from too much Geography?
Just one more day, and I'm free from the chains of the examinations. Hang on, you guys. We'll finish this race together.
Been reading Literature late into the night. Tea was my poison of choice yesterday as I attempted to stay awake until 3.30 a.m. (and succeeded!) Never had I felt so alert in the dead of the night before. I was acutely aware of the weird sounds in the night, and the 'mmmmm' of the air-con as I studied away into the night. I'd just seen the trailer for Korean horror movie "The Wig", so I was ultra-paranoid. The silence was chilling, so I plugged my ears with some music... I guess desperation drives you to desperate measures. I've broken my record. I've not stayed up so late just to study before! But I've discovered the effectiveness of, well, studying at night. A word of warning though, it'll DRAIN you the next morning. So don't do it on the night before your examination unless you want to wake up in a pool of drool during your exam. (Think English Compre. I ALWAYS SLEEP DURING ENGLISH COMPRE!)
Was blog surfing a few weeks earlier and I found some articles relevant to me. Now what's relevant to me would be relevant to my classmates, especially so in this case :
It's the epic battle between the Arts and the Sciences! Nah, there's no explicit battle. But most definitely, they clash in some areas. I wouldn't say they are polar opposites, but you've got to admit that they don't fuse that well. (Only in a few cases they do)
Anyway, those taking the Arts like me, read the article and be enlightened! It will probably be a cure for your sleeplessness and your languidness over whether your choice was right (read: Mabel!) and it is indeed one thought provoking article, which I'd like to shove in the face of some people.
are really names of funny andesitic volcanoes which are found somewhere within the Andes Mountains. Can you bloody believe it - I have to memorize these strange names! It's like learning a whole new language - I think it's really either African or South American.
I am so pissed off! My short-term memory is severely damaged - I can't seem to remember anything I tried to memorise in the last 10 minutes. I seriously feel like i'm sinking in quicksand.
Pah. Anyway prior to posting this I visited a forum (that same forum where I took out that quote about Singapore being clean) and I read a series of posts from this idiot of a guy who was really full of himself. He is, apparently, very highly educated. And he seems to be too proud of it. Far too proud. More on these species later.
