Darn it, I had to wake up SO early today. And it's not only coz of my early morning class test today either. Mum had to go to a morning meeting today, so she had to set off earlier than usual to get to the city (via bus, over the NHB & all tt). When she usually goes off, it takes less time for her, just coz it's not peak hr. Now tho...
Well, anyway, she's hoping this to be the last day she has to be at work,,, since tmrw is "my big day". Tho she's a little miffed tt the forecast says it'd be raining tmrw. *sigh*

It was 8am when we reached campus. Fog & mist had settled over most of what I could see, & u could somewhat see our puffs of breath.
I am so not a morning person. I mean, going to bed @ 12am was pratically 'early' for me! It didn't help tt breakfast was accompanied by an occasional conspicuously sharp jab at the back of my head (more to the left) every time I took a bite. Tt can't be normal, since this is the 1st time I remember this happening (note the 'remembering' part, I seem to forget bouts of pain rather easily, which is a pain in & of itself), & also coz pain is a warning system of the body. Even after, I could feel the occasional twinge whenever I swallowed. *sigh*
It also doesn't help tt last night,,, or smthg, I felt a sharp pain in my right ear, like right in my ear~! >_< ...mou...

Anyway, I hung at the IIMS labs till 9am, then I filed into the room w/ the rest. The test went off without a hitch... tho there were a few quirks tt irked me somewhat but r unimpt. IsaW, me & another girl finished at about 11am. IsaW mostly coz he has a block course to get to. I think WeiC had to go to tt too, but he opted to start @ 8am, & came around @ 11am to hand in his paper. It was an open bk test, & apparently anythg & everythg was allowed entry. hRyu pretty much sat at the front where the computer was & typed away. I think EddZ & maybe tt other girl (there r only 4 girls in this paper...) also has to go to tt Mobile Computing block course, but... blah~ I dunno. It's their business.

After, I booked group study rms in the lib for Tue & Thu for 757 just in case. Those hrs seem to disappear like hotcakes :P
Then... I dumped my red&black sling bag holding tt huge folder used for 757 materials tt was useless coz I didn't even look at 'em for revision nor as b4/after class reading, in the car. Mum left the car at campus this time; took the bus from there to work.

The red&black bag... the one I got from tt Accy expo about 3wks ago. At first I thought it wouldn't be of much use. I mean, the shape in itself was kinda... useless looking. But then I unearthed it one day from all the other goodies I got at the expo... & used it the last time I had a 757group meeting, when I had to bring my laptop to campus. Usually when I bring my laptop, I won't bring my sch bag; I just put my folder in a plastic bag (usually the MUlib ones which totally suck in carrying heavy stuff). So anyway, w/ this red&black sling bag, I was better able to lug around my folder as well as my laptop w/o tiring my arms. As it is in everythg else, there were tradeoffs to this... my shoulders suffered the lament of soreness, tho it was more tolerable methinks.

However... I think I'll hafta reevaluate my opinion of it yet again. Although the shape has proven itself useful, & the fact tt it seems to be quite sturdy & unlikely to break at any given notice is good, & tt perhaps it isn't so hard on the eye & could almost be fashionable,,, the quality of the material it's made out of is rather questionable. Starchy maybe stuff tt has been building up lint or whatever, after the constant friction from being carried around. It's still sorta stuck to the rest of itself, but is generally annoying...
Anyway... back to today...

Then... I wandered around till I found myself at the café... decided to treat myself to a hot lunch - ordered a meal which consisted of 2 sausages, 1 egg & chips. (menu has changed much...). Watched wandering graduates doing more phototaking & stuff.
And now I'm at the labs... trying to do general stuff... Lessee,,, like: blogging, BSG website stuff, BSG photo search stuff (TarG & JanT had the great idea of making a scrap bk as HazH's retirement gift... She's officially retiring in May T_T ...it's great for her & all, but I dunno if the BSG can survive w/o her o_O), emailing, site stuff (almost... I dunno if I have time to do any resurrecting or designing anytime soon; besides, what the heck is with Yahoo? Specifically, Yahoo! Briefcase... won't let me share folders; won't let me edit settings for sharing folders... grr <_<), research stuff, & other paper stuff...
I'll hafta go work later today - mustn't (I forgot how to spell "mustn't"?!) forget to go to QB Lab 4 @ 5pm; since it's the last help tut b4 their test tmrw, I'm pretty sure it'd be very very full. TonL anticipated tt tho - there's gonna be 3 of us - LizX, ChrL & I.

Tuesday was a laugh, in the almost choke-&-die-laughing kinda way. I was pretty much fumbling around, it being the first day of the sem I've been tutoring. Actually... being the first time I've been tutoring Excel since they changed the syllabus to 2 tests in 2005 (S1 or 2...?). I didn't tutor Excel then; it just turned out tt way... I wasn't assigned to any of the wks preceding the Excel test. I remember I didn't even mark the Excel test,,, in the first sem, since I was away - my one wk back to my. Hmhmm...
Anyway, it was basically tough getting back into being a 'tutor', & trying to look all knowlegdeable & getting over being called "Miss"... oh, & not to mention, trying not to look too irritated when they ask mundane questions tt they shoulda been able to get answers from the book (I heard tt the new versions have it all binded together, unlike previous yrs where it was all separate).

b4 all tt, however, I came to campus about 11:30am, did a few thgs @ the computer labs, then, met up w/ MurH @ 12pm. He had to do a few thgs @ Fight Club first; then we dumped our stuff in his car b4 making our way to Burger King in the Mega Centre for lunch. Decided to take a walk :P
We went the long way round, over 3 fences & along the back road, to Bush Rd, b4 reaching one of the junctions tt head towards the AMCentre. I opted tt way coz it sounded like fun. On our way back, we took the easier way - going by the Warehouse underground parking. At campus, made a detour to MarW's office for a copy of the recent photos... said it was w/ HazH... she wasn't in her office. Decided I'd come back later. Went to MurH's car to collect our stuff b4 settling down on a couch @ the Games Room of the Atrium. I had requested seeing Casshern & Mai-HiME, but he forgot the subtitle files tt went w/ Casshern, so we left tt to another day (I wanna watch Casshern coz I think the OSTs r really interesting; from his comments, I've got a feeling I'd be pretty let down by the movie, but I don't think it's cause for worry. & as it turns out, it's not really an anime). He had Mai-HiMe eps 5-10 & he also brought along eps 55&56 of Yakitate!! Japan, which he just got. (I haven't even seen the first ep yet, even tho it's floating somewhere in storage :P). We saw the Y!!J eps in between Mai-HiME eps...

Y!!J ep55 was damn funny :P it was what I remember last seeing in the manga (speaking of which, I have got to check on updates for it...) where Kuroyanagi goes super *coughDBZripoffcough* lolz. ep56 was funny too, what w/ the poor thing losing his sense of taste but then gaining it back, but... becoming all stretchy too... *coughonepieceripoffcough* ;P
It wasn't until I saw the op a 2nd time did I realise those 2 ninja figures hopping around (in blue & pink?!) were candy girl & samurai boy o_O (sorry, can't recall their names @ the mo...). And Kanmuri's hair really is pink...
Mai-HiME had it's funny & sad moments too. We chatted abit about the diffcs the anime had w/ the manga. One of the funny bits was when Mai & Natsuki were out on a boat, & an unexpected guest popped in. There were a few things I found disconcerting too, like why didn't anyone question vice president Kanzaki suddenly standing on a pile of rubble of the building tt just got destroyed, holding onto cute little Mikoto. I guess it's the same as nobody questioning the increasing amt of "natural" disasters happening around town... what w/ Men in Black ripoffs First District lurking around. ep10's baking re-exam almost competition was kinda silly... & seemed to span more than one class level? I mean, even the president was there... Ok, so maybe it was labelled re-exam, but was really an attempt to get most of the main & supporting characters together... baking cake... or eating cake... or getting hospitalised from eating cake... lol ^__^;;;

Wed had to go to BSG meeting. HazH had to attend Prizegiving. LizS is supposed to take over her job as secretary when HazH retires. She gave me the CD full of pics (I forgot to on Tue, while watching anime w/ MurH :P & after, I had to rush off to work already).
1:15pm wandered around. Computer labs were full & didn't really wanna waste time just logging into a computer for 15+min till I'd hafta go again. So I just sat around, chitchatted w/ FeiZ abit, & MenW too. Then it was time to abandon my perch & head toward RosS' rm. This time, unlike last wk, we weren't crammed into her office, but had the meeting @ a seminar rm on the same floor. A few timesheets were signed (new policy). A few thgs were discussed; like any problems students may have had, etc. Then we adjourned. TonL needed help w/ the marking guide - just someone to go over them to see if it was clear, etc. Since I was the only person present who marked last yr 157.100 at all, it was automatically me...

So I stuck around for an extra hr whereby I did one of the tests & went thru the marking guides. I hope I was helpful. Then... it was like, quarter to 3pm, so I waited around QA level 2 foyer to sort out some stuff b4 heading to see dVie. He wasn't in his office. Note on his door said go to the lab a few doors down. He wasn't there either. I waited there anyway (logged in & all) since WeiM was there, & occassionally popping my head out. It wasn't until 3:40pm did I see him pass by...
Apparently he modified the note on his door while I was hanging @ the lab, but all was good. We went into the boardrm to discuss Doability & LitR Structure. Then I hung @ the labs till mum came to pick me up @ 5pm.

The graduation ceremonies have already finished for the College of Sciences, Creative Arts, Humanitites & stuff. Most of the ppl in my class are under tt category (since I/S is under the CoSciences), so I've seen a coupla of them wandering around in their robes yesterday. There are 6 + 1 graduations ceremonies in total. I'm in #6 - in the afternoon of Friday. Lol, the College of Biz has 3 ceremonies in total :P
One of my classmates MenW, a friend of FeiZ, was in yesterday's morning session I think. He didn't wear his graduate attire @ campus, tho he was carrying it around. I got a few handy tips like: u walk just holding the cap till the Chancellor puts some ceremonial cap onto ur head, then u put ur own one on. I also got to wear MenW's cap just to see what it felt like (shorter end at the front).
Lol, mum told me tt u're a "Graduand" till after u're capped; then u're a "Graduate"...
It was also somewhat bemusing seeing other graduates wandering around taking photos and stuff today & yesterday. It was mostly a study tho, so tt I could try & figure out how exactly all those layers of cloth is supposed to go on correctly... or at least get some sort of idea. Not to mention, I still haven't decided what I should wear underneath all tt...
It was somewhat funny seeing some trying to manoeuvre the road junction @ the front of the Quad building to take pics, where it's pretty much considered the front door I guess. They've even put up yellow & blue balloons.

What is with the insects these days? In the past 3 wks, I've had 4 encounters w/em; 3 of which were of the kind tt reminds you of fluffy lint floating in the air (or maybe floating ash). Those little swarms were pretty irritating when u think about them maybe getting into your mouth; makes a whole set of shudders go down ur spine, yaknow?
Yesterday morning however, there were 3 bees on the windshield of our car... or well, they were the ones I noticed after getting in & getting ready to set off. I think they were bees. Yellow & black almost fuzzy textured abdomens - not really separated from the thorax. Rather large, & for some reason attracted to the windshield... & these sent a whole different set of shudders running down my back...

I seem to have fallen for Yamane Ayano-sensei's works. The way she draws the face is very intrigueing, not to mention her use of shades & toning to make a really clear, clean, concise effect. And her stories generally have a plot included^^ the oneshots r pretty fluffy, but the stories that span more than one volume r somewhat jaded w/ a heaping of angst and sex tt leaves u wanting more =)~ I mean seriously, totally drool-worthy material.
Tho unfortunately, there r a few things tt I dislike about her works, tho I guess they're kinda minor. It's just the little inconsistencies here & there. Like with clothes or jewelry. (e.g: Hey, wasn't there a ring there? Oh, there it is again. No whoops, it's gone till the nxt panel) ...tt sorta thg. But I guess her sheer awesome-ness makes up for it^^;;

Fri, Sat, Sun I was pretty much caught up in another bout of ffics... this time mostly Viewfinder stuff. I harvested a pretty good find too. Not tt it's of much help to the hundred & one things I have on my to do list...

Mum was in a fairly bad mood this morning. Coz of what transpired last night. & apparently this morning b4 I woke up.
See, really bad weather was forecasted on Sunday, like the lotsa heavy rain type of bad weather (which was to go on till Tue, but Sun was the first & worst day, apparently). So, Sat evening, mum parks the car in one of #5's lot; we've done it b4 when there's really bad weather coz it's not so close to the trees, so we figured it'd be alright. So Sat comes & goes, & Sun morn, my sleepy head was greeted w/ the sound of lots of rain. The day goes by fairly ok, us cooped up in the flat & all...
Then #6 comes by & asks mum to move her car. This offends her for a number or reasons. One of which is tt the spot we're parked in is so NOT his space. Another is, she feels he's an ungrateful prick who can't or won't remember all the help she's given (we once sent his daughter to sch when she missed her bus).

Somehow come morning, her anger found a target out of #5 as well,,, she probably thinks they're somehow involved. It didn't help matters when the lady of #6, wife of the guy who told us to move the car, came to say 'hi' when mum was tending to the bike this morning (b4 I woke up) while she was still in a bad mood... lol she was lucky to get off w/ a glare & a snub mereckons. I however, hafta tolerate mum stomping all over the place coz she feels there's no reason for her to try to be quiet when the whole world is against her. Guess how I woke up?
Other reasons mum's pissed is tt ppl seem very fond of our parking spot. Even if there r other very empty spots elsewhere, some ppl just have to pick ours for some reason or another <_<
#16's been having parties in the weekend... mum thinks it's stupid to have a party when ur father is in hospital. I suppose there could be other reasons, but hey~ oldies will believe what they'll believe as according to the evidence they find. Pfft~ so now, not only does she have a bad impression of the father, but the daughter too. As for the old man's condition, I know we should be understanding & all tt to those who suffer from mental illnesses, but unlucky for him, mum got to know his annoying side b4 she found out about it.

Me: t'was in a generally good mood this morning & afternoon; b4 & during both classes,,, tho tt went out the window after class when I went down to the labs & logged in... & noted tt I'm running out of space. Since the programs r still being upgraded, & since u need the software installed to write CDs, I can't burn anythg. Oh gosh~! I'm so glad I did the back ups for last yrs HUGE amt of stuff b4 all this.
However, @ the mo I was left w/ the dilemma of not being able to delete stuff I haven't backed up yet. My temp soln = place a few non-essential items into my iPod shuffle for the time being. Oh yeah, if I didn't mention it b4, I got round to seeing to the prize I got lucky in obtaining last yr. Good thg u can use it as a storage device. Hurrah for the invention of flash disks.
Can u believe the programs & stuff haven't finished upgrading?! It's so stupid! Not to mention inconvenient & downright annoying. If worse come to worse, I'd probably hafta load up stuff to burn & do it at home.

I had alot of thgs to do after class. It didn't help tt I was hungry... good thing mum insisted I buy smthg from Burger King. Got the usual; luv the BK Chicken burgers^^
...pity I didn't really have the time to enjoy it. Looked thru some stuff I had to (I think I forgot a few thgs... I'll hafta do it tmrw...), checked my email, printed some stuff out. And suddenly, it was 4:50pm already. How time flies. So I logged off & made my way to QB Lab 4 where the 225 test was to take place. Since it's a WebCT test, only 2 of us r needed to supervise. Good thing I replied early^^v

Heh, I was the first there, so I dumped my bag & went out to do the regs. Hehee, tt was fun. The other student helper was a girl I didn't really know & haven't talked to much b4 this. Still wasn't very talkative. IndS, AnuM, & JudLH were there to do the supervising too. There were 3 sessions in all, each test only 30min. Each of us were in charge of a row. I was put in charge of the first row, closest to the door, which happens to be the starting point of the machine numbers. We had to note down which session as well as the computer number the student uses. Heh, so most of the signatures I got had machine numbers in the single digits. The first session, I was only able to get 7 of the 9 in my row (wasn't quick enough). The second session, I was able to get all 7 of the 7 there. The 3rd session I got all 5 of the 5 computers occupied there, plus 4 from other rows. b4, I couldn't really help out w/ other rows coz I was instructed to finish my row & go do the regs for the nxt session. So in total, I got 23 sigs.

All 37 students who signed up for the first session turned up. Only 36 of the 38 who signed up for the second test showed up. In the third session, 24 of the 25 ppl who signed up appeared plus 1 person from the second session who came late. So, in total 98 of the 100 who signed up showed up. Heh, it was a bit difficult trying to find their names, since it wasn't in any particular order, only ordered in when they wrote down their names. Not to mention some of their handwriting wasn't very eligible. But most were helpful & were able to point out their name for me. Plus, I got to sit at a table & chair this time^^
The only person I knew personally was KenM who turned up for the third session. One of the lab supervisors I see around was also in the third session.
Both us student helpers got 2 Choc Fudge Muffin Bakes^^

*sigh* I have got to get my life back together. I suppose I should start by cleaning up my rm,,, or at least making it look presentable &/or organised. My folder has been overflowing; perpectual mngmt needed, nya...

Ah well, ja ne~ I wanna watch the Monday movie on tv: "28 Days Later". It's supposed to be a horror...

Slight case of bleeding nose last night. While I was watching Bones. This is the 2nd time I've watched this since the 1st ep when the season first started up. I remember it was a tad bit idealistic rather than realistic,,, my opinion hasn't changed. CSI:NY was b4 tt, but I was mostly preoccupied with Cold Case on the other channel. I hadn't realised it had started up already. I missed 9eps since this season started. Damn. Oh well.

After, I was silly enuf to stay up till like 3am reading ffics. Mostly coz there was a temporary respite from the busy schedule of UIDnE asgnmt2. The meeting on Tue left me w/ a lot of work, namely doing up Paper Prototype B + scanning tt in, & asgnmt write up. Which I pretty much finished doing as much as I could Tue night. Went to campus yesterday morning to convert the .ppt to .pdf, and then sending it to the rest for feedback. I clearly stated tt any feedback/ changes/ etc. will hafta get back to me Wed night or nothing of the ppB will be modified.

The Tue meeting was rather trying. We ended up being at campus for just over 5hrs, tho we had a half hr break to go see the first half of the PGSS at the study centre. We were late coz we didn't leave early enuf, considering how far the library is from the SC. I felt it somewhat rude to just arrive late & leave b4 it's over, but dVie on Mon recommended we at least see the 1st speaker. Anyway, we then went back to work at the library group study rooms. lol, there was some hassle in booking mainly coz we're only allowed 2hrs max per group, tho we needed more than tt. It was simply a matter of putting a diff name... but u gotta get past very receptive librarians, like the redhead on Fri.

Anyway, we were able to kickstart the asgnmt itself with the return of surveys tt we had 2+ days to get ppl to fill (total of 18; i was the only one w/ electronic copies :P). I had to bring Keira to campus so tt I could start on compiling all the results for later analysis. While I was doing tt, I left the others to do section 3: Task Analysis. They conversed in Chinese, but I wasn't really paying attention anyway. Inputing data is tedious work :P
And then I made a start on Q2, 4, & 5; plus typed in the TA tt the others finished for Q3. We also started discussion on Paper Prototype B. By the time the 5th hr came to pass, it was pretty hard to retain focus. So I debriefed them on what I'd done so far, what I will do at home, what they should expect in their emails the nxt day, & what I need them to do if they have any objections to the content. I also reminded them about Thu & then we were all dismissed.
u might be wondering if I'm in charge or smthg. Yes, in a way I am. They pretty much nominated me for the spot the first day we got stuck together as group2. I generally don't do much in terms of being a "leader" but I sorta direct the focus to such & such & keep track of what we've accomplished & decided upon. Tho smtimes, I feel I get saddled up w/ more of the work ¬__¬
GinH = 22; FraY = 25; EddZ = 26; IsaW = 28.
The meeting last Thu went ok too... we mostly discussed survey Qs to finalise. Then we discussed future plans to construct the paper prototype. FraY was to buy a soccer mag, while I'll bring some tracing paper - to represent the proposed semi-transparent background. Lol, I had to push EddZ out of his delusions of paper prototype grandeur; one of the examples hRyu showed the class of paper prototypes was of an ATM.
So for the Fri meeting, we constructed Paper Prototype A. GinH forgot about the meeting. FraY had bought a mag from Whitcoulls & we proceeded to mutilate it :P
I was mainly the one holding the scissors, seeing as it was mine & all, & EddZ mentioned tt I was "good at this" - 'this' referring to cutting & whatnot in general... I didn't know whether to feel offended or complimented... @_@

It was rather lucky tt a large pic had a smaller version of it at the beginning. We discussed & argued & mulled over scenarios to write up. However, we weren't able to finish ppA coz I forgot to bring my markers, even if I did have the tracing paper, black paper, scissors, glue, cellotape, etc...
But we settled on 3 scenarios & I was to go home & finish off the other 2 tt required the mising elements. Then we settled for a last min decision of holding a meeting on Sat. Of course, after finishing the prototypes, we'd hafta scan them into the computers,,, however, I discovered tt the AT labs r closed in the weekend. So I hurried home, did them up, & got mum to send me to the labs so tt I could use the scanning facilities.

What I didn't count on was for them not to work <_< Apparently it was working the day b4 (lucky me to be the exception). But I shoulda realised tt w/ the upgrading of the O.S. & programmes & software & whatnot, there was bound to be trouble (yes, they're still not done @_@). So when we got back after dinner (mum wanted to eat @ Satay House), I dug up my old scanner from under the bed, & searched thru a drawer for the accompanying installation software (lucky i thought to get it on my last last trip to my). So yeah, got the scanning done after all, tho it cost me a chunk of time I coulda spent sleeping; only got to bed about 3am tt nite. On Sat, I converted the pics I put into a .doc file into a .pdf file (Heh, at least there's one good thing about the software upgrades at campus; if I had to leave the files in their original state, it'd have been waaaay too big).

Then I went to the library a little earlier hoping the room we booked was free so tt I could set up. I brought my laptop & scanner just in case there were gonna be any changes. Sooner or later, the rest drifted in (tho IsaW couldn't make it coz he works all day Sat). & so we settled down to finalise the scenarios of ppA & work on the last section of the User Studies survey, the part tt relates to the prototype. Within the coupla hrs, we were able to come up w/ a number of satisfactory Qs. After we parted, I went back to the labs to send out a copy of the survey and the scenario PDFs (which I converted from .ppt this time.). & then had to somehow devise ways of getting ppl to do the survey...

Sat's meeting had been quite fun. It was the first time they've seen my laptop, & there were some comments about my current desktop theme (X/1999 from Anime Wallpapers #14: green & orange), & the fact tt I chose everythg to be so greeeeen (it went w/ the wallpaper, what can I say~? =P). We discussed a bit about manga, but more of anime. And the topic strayed to music too. There was alot of laughing^^
FraY had a few eps of Naruto subbed in Chinese tt GinH watched for a bit. EddZ was interested in my wallpaper collection for some reason & started sifting thru it. He also sorta offered some of his Chinese music :) tho the transfer wasn't made till the nxt meeting on Tue coz he forgot his USB cable thing.

The meeting today was quite productive, & not as long as Tue's, too. It was held after class as usual (It was GinH & FeiZ's turn to do their in-class presentations this wk). We kinda forgot to ask hRyu a coupla Qs regarding asgnmt2 after class; b4 the meeting, but we decided it was a lost cause & improvised :P
So, after much discussion, we finalised ppB, Q1, 2, 3, & 4. I had to work on Q5 a bit more, & we made a start on Q6 & 7. Sent EddZ to print out colour copies of ppB for Appendix D. Appendix C ppA was taken care of coz GinH had all 3 scenarios printed out in colour to get ppl to do the survey, & she's okay with it being used as an attachment to the asgnmt. Appendix B - a sample of the survey was already taken care of, but I sent out someone to print out the asgnmt2 .doc file itself & an updated version of the survey results compilation which was to be Appendix A. All the editing was pretty much done on Keira. FraY brought his laptop too, tho his is lighter :P I'm thinking his will be more needed later on as he has soccer clips & stuff. The only reason EddZ didn't bring his was coz he forgot his laptop charger the last time he went back to China. We realised later tt GinH forgot her 1pm class... :P sorry,,, guess we were so engrossed time just flew by~

Tt silly EddZ! A few minutes after the meeting started, he started laughing for no apparent reason. After this happened twice, I asked him what tickled him so, & he replied tt I looked "cute" when I smile & talk at the same time. ... wtf?! What the heck is tt supposed to mean? lolz, geez... males these days. Yaknow, about 2pm, IsaW started complaining about being hungry. Off & on, he wouldn't stop whining about it, the frequency of his complaints increasing as time went on. I happened to have a bar of Cadbury choc stashed in my laptop bag in case of snack emergencies, so I donated it for the worthy cause of shutting him up so tt everybody can concentrate better.

In my opinion, me & IsaW clash the most. Tho so far, the worst of it has been the heated argument (w/ a touch of yelling; tho mostly just raised voices) of survey participant numbers (21 Mar) right b4 the meeting w/ hRyu, & the 2nd worse was regarding the speed things were going where he asked why I didn't just split up the Qs & assign each to a task (23 Mar); well, he obviously didn't look close enough coz they pretty much follow after each other. The only thg tt I thought could be taken care of on it's own I assigned to FraY who volunteered to do the Task Analysis on 21 Mar - we just didn't have time to go thru it, what w/ the building of the prototype taking up so much space in our minds.

Anyway, EddZ volunteered to do the printing. FraY followed him out. They were gone for quite some time; having had to go to the labs coz there were no free computers at the library. We were running out of time b4 our time expired at the booked room. A girl from the nxt group had the gall to pop her head in b4 3:30pm! I shoo-ed her off exclaiming "four more minutes!!" (which earned laughs from the rest of my group... prats~ all of them!). After all, we still had a few minute details to go over, & we shouldn't be ejected from the rm b4 our time. Hmph~
The other group was simply waiting around for us to leave coz they, who had originally booked GSR3, still had discussions to do after 3pm when another group chased them off w/ proof of booking. So they were pretty much just lurking around in wait for half an hr...
Anyway, I wanted them to at least have a once over of what we'd be handing in to hRyu. I volunteered to hand it in to him. Then we split.

After leaving, I had a hard time finding a stapler that could handle the relatively thick pile tt was our asgnmt2. The library one couldn't handle it. The AT lab one was stuck. At least the QB Lab 1 one worked... even if it did turn out kinda crooked, it still looked steady & held everythg together. Then I handed it in to hRyu. He was happy. I enquired if he wanted an electronic copy. He said yes, so I went back to the labs, & hurried thru the process of emailing the file (sans the appendices) to him & CCing the others. Then I hurried out hoping I wasn't too late in catching the shuttle bus. Alas, I was... so I had to wait like 20min till it came again, thinking I shoulda just waited @ the labs & left on the 4:15 bus rather than worry about the 3:55 bus. It was a new lady - not the usual old dude tt I'm used to seeing (tho I saw him sitting passenger to her once when the bus passed by yesterday). Guess he's retiring. His replacement hasn't really gotten a hang of the bus tho...
Mum got flowers from her friends in the city yesterday evening. We placed them in the living room near the front door. These large white lilies have a rather strong scent. Still going strong when I returned from campus late this afternoon.

#5 dropped by with a gift of freshly made bread pudding in exchange for the green beans mum gave them. They must have seen me walk by on my way home, coz the lady & her eldest kid knocked on the door like 5min later.
#24 was for sale; think the new owner wants to rent it out. #6 is still around. Former #9 redheaded lady came to visit #1 with some others. I saw her kid running around w/ #5's kid. #18's kid was playing outside as well. In recent weeks, there's been a white chicken hanging around the compound. It seems particularly fond of #6 for some reason :P

Old man from #16 hasn't been around lately. Which was a good thing since he was really annoying, just sitting around doing nothing & being an all round nosy busybody. Last we heard, he was at the hospital for schizophrenia or smthg. However, this morning, we found their car parked in one of our spots. We have 2 parking slots tt happen to be nxt to each other, & mum likes to park right in the middle so there's more space. So not only was #16's car invading our territory, it was taking up quite a lot of it <_< mum was pissed tt ppl like to park their cars so close to ours.

The past coupla days there was this slimy thing at the stairs to our place. Dunno where it came from. I was unfortunate enough to have stepped on it once, it made a terrible squelchy sound & felt icky, even thru my shoe. Luckily there was a crack there; natural form from the direction of the planks, so it pretty much got wedged into tt & I didn't... make it burst or anythg. The storm might have blown it in. The last coupla days have been really sunny. I saw it on my way back today & it was pretty much shriveled up. I wonder if it was a slug of some sort. Was it even a living organism or just a man-made lump of... slimy ick...? *shudders*

Mon evening I went for the fortnightly Rotaract meeting (forgot all about the previous one, & had to send my apologies to the one b4 tt). It seems we've more or less got our own little venue at the YMCA. But on this meeting, we were at the Golf Club again coz we were joining the Rotary of ECB for their meeting & dinner (free food!! ^^;;;). It was mostly bcoz some of the executives were presenting what we've done so far. RoECB is one of our sponsoring Rotary Clubs. I got a ride from SarM smtime after 5pm; she picked me up at the usual place. During mingle time, I collected names of ppl who like watching soccer on tv, in hopes of getting them to fill out my survey. I got their emails to send the .doc file & a link to where the pics of the ppA scenarios were. Of the five I collected, only 2 were usable, but tt's ok^^;; at least it was smthg. (The other 2 surveys I was able to get, a BSG friend who saw my MSN temp screen name volunteered & another friend). Aside from tt, the dinner was great (potatoes, crab fritters, tofu fritters, salad, potatoes, slices of beef {i think} the kind tt was cooked so tt the middle was still pretty much still rare, & buttered bread. The sergeant session, jokes, talks & presentations went well too, & then it was time to go. I even got home earlier than mum, @ about 7:37pm maybe.

Tue had to wake up relatively early to make my 10:45am appointment at the H&C Centre for my flu jab. Mum set up the appointment when she heard the car is experiencing some sorta problems. Mechanic says it's the clutch; she thinks it can't be tt serious, since it's the power tt's being affected.
I think the injection itself stung more than the soreness in the aftermath. It wasn't as bad as the MenZB jab tt left the arm way more sore & had to be done 3 times. Nice nurse V administered the vaccine to the top bit of my left arm (where I'd hafta crane my neck to see), after the usual questions of allergies & stuff. She instructed me to stick around for 20min - std procedure to ensure there're no extreme allergic reactions. Had to pay , but it's a good rate compared to what's normally out there.

Yesterday, had BSG meeting to attend. Still trying to get over the writer's block tt appears w/o fail after an event, to write a blurb for the last event. We discussed nxt event & possible future events. Dunno what came over me, but I volunteered to help CarR w/ promotions for the nxt event. HazH announced her official retirement tt will take effect in one & a half mths; LizS will be taking over her job as the secretary of the group. She'll be sorely missed...
After tt, hung @ the labs some more b4 meeting MurH @ 2pm @ the Atrium. Handed him a copy of the itinerary for nxt Fri. He'll be helping us out for tt. Then had lunch at Hollywood Bakery. I looked around abit b4 he sent me home. Heh, he had a haircut appointment @ 3:30pm :P

Hmhmm... right... nxt Fri... mum was, for a moment pissed at the possibility she won't be able to attend coz of work, tho her mngr said a coupla mths ago it should be fine. However, last night, she came home ecstatic tt Fri is confirmed free, so she'll be able to attend the graduation ceremony.
Yeah, the Graduation Ceremony. My graduation ceremony. I'm graduating. It's been more or less confirmed for a while now, but... it still sorta feels... surreal. Even tho I'm already taking postgrad papers. Yeah... what else could I be studying, right?

The ceremony itself seems really complicated. Like, I got the booklet w/ instructions & stuff last wk... & there was like a whole bus load of stuff trying to ram itself into my head... mum's excited, of course. Even devised an itinerary for tt day. Me, I'll hafta worry about my number, & make sure the dangly thing on my hat stays to the left of my head or whatever, & worry about choosing what I'd hafta wear underneath the gown which will induce the least amt of fussing from mum.
I'm allowed to invite a maximum of 3 guests. Mum is obviously one of them. MurH was invited too, mostly coz he has a digital camera... & now, also coz he'd be our chauffeur for the day (he's so nice o_O u don't get guys like tt nemore). I was hoping guest #3 would be Mew-chan, but not only does she have a test on tt day, she has classes after tt too, so... yeah. Hmm,,, but I haven't really told her why I was asking...
So tt basically leaves us w/ one empty seat. Mum wanted to invite a friend from au, but I don't think he'll be coming. I can't think of anyone else to invite, so I guess I'll leave it at tt.

Remember the time I had trouble w/ my big toe, coz it got an infection & all tt. It was Sat tt I noticed one of my middle fingers having the same symptoms. Pus & swelling... possibly due to the fact tt I had to pull out some irritating loose skin at the sides of the nail...
I went & dug up the meds I used for my toe to use here. I probably wasn't supposed to, but oh well. Even tho I did it for Sat evening, I didn't have time to on Sun or Mon. I was able to do it Tue, but I forgot yesterday,,, & today as well. Unlike my toe, I'm not gonna use the meds twice daily. I mean, I've only used it twice in the past 6 days, but at least it seems to be getting better. Swelling has gone down; no sign of pus...
yeah~ hopefully it's getting better. (it's a pain keeping a bandaged finger hidden from mum. On occasion, it's like having to artfully position my hand so tt tt one finger isn't visible *rolls eyes* if mum found out, she'd just freak & add another item in her long list of worries. It's not tt bad, so she doesn't hafta know).

The weather is getting colder and the days are getting darker faster... it seemed to accelerate after Daylight Savings came & went. The weather on Sunday was terrible. Apparently, a cyclone parked itself off of the west coast of the North Island. We pretty much stayed indoors the whole day. The wind was playing merry havoc with the trees, the rain was having a fine time getting every exposed object drenched, & there were things & whatnot bouncing & thudding off the roofs at random intervals. I remember MurH was complaining (thru SMSs & MSN) tt the power in his area got cut till 5pm, but even after, the power wasn't exactly consistently sticking around. Poor him, it messed with the BitTorrents he was getting on his computer.

Yaknow, I haven't had time to go onto Dora for like what... 3mths now? Ouch... there must be tonnes of updates I haven't gotten yet >__<
Also, the past coupla mths, Keira's spacebar seems to be experiencing some sorta sticky syndrome. I was worried at first, but even if it's stuck down, it's only a hair's breadth away from actual activation. So I guess it isn't so bad... This was probably caused by overuse when reading manga w/ CDisplay :P

I seem to be a collector of lost items. Especially pens. I just pick up stuff of interest tt's been left lying around. This morning however, I picked up a blue whiteboard marker (which was working just fine btw) just lying around on a table. I once picked up a half used highlighter post-it thing. Another time, I came across a black pen tt had little red highlighter post-it thingies tt appears when u twist the pen. Those things r damn expensive. Gave it to mum. Even came across an item tt used to be part of a keyring - fancy coloured plastic depicting "LOVE" :P
My collection includes 1 orange highlighter, 1 pencil, black mechanical pencil, & 12 pens, 2 of which don't work, 1 of which a classmate left behind & said I could keep it, 6 of which can be covered/ hidden, 4 of which have their pointy nubs exposed. There's also an earring tt I think is supposed to represent the continent of Africa. There's also one of those black metal foldable clips, various hairties/ hair accessories, a couple of keys, a piece of broken bracelet, a USB cap, various assortments of keyrings or part of keyrings, etc...

Of course, I don't keep everythg I find. The CD-ROM tt was left behind at the scanner computer I found on Fri I left as it was. The pencil case I once found in QB level 1 I left to the Lost & Found office. The exercise bk tt was lying around after exams I left to a security guy.
Of course, not all the rubbish I keep is just stuff I've found lying around. Like the pieces of the zipper thing tt broke up from my fuzzy red jacket, or the piece of black hanger tt looked so strong & steady, but suddenly clean broke to pieces. And then there's tt piece of old barcode label tt used to be part of my black folder, but I haven't gotten round to throwing away yet...
Of course, not all the rubbish I keep is for fun. There's the piece of round plastic thing tt broke off of mum's plastic pink envelope when we were in sg, 2004. And there's tt blue keyring tt I got from the bird park in sg tt had a compass & magnifier lense. The ring tt attached it to my set of keys broke or whatever tt made it unusable. I lost the compass thing a few yrs back, but it's still not smthg I can just throw away. And then there's the plastic ring I've attached to my mass of keyrings tt I bring everywhere when I carry a bag, which was the seal of the prescription eyedrop tt mum got when her eye hurt so bad she had to get those thick black sunglasses.
Reminder of how fragile her life is...
Hmhmm... mum came home pissed coz someone took up OUR parking slot. Nearly both of them too! She had to park @ the slot nxt to us (hope they won't mind)...

Woke up bright & early this morning... Like really early this morning... like, it was still dark when I woke up this morning...
Wake up 6am, force in milo, set off 6:25am. Reach campus 6:30am. Find way in & dump bag+ @ locker. Find way to the new block on campus 6:35am. Started off with the set up. I was partly in charge of the regs, which mainly consisted of 2 tables (1 for bizs & staff, 1 for students - which I got stuck w/), & so, we had students look for their names on the sticky paper, & if it's not there/ they can't find it, use a marker pen to write it on blank sticky labels. Didn't help tt it wasn't arranged in any particular order. Nor did it help tt JanT who did the nametags on the computer was off wandering somewhere else. It was quite busy, hence I had virtually no time to mingle, tho I was able to grab some breakfast (consisted of fruits [grapes, green melon, some other melon, pineapple, kiwifruit, orange slices~] & stuffed croissants & mini tinee little muffins & danishes [which came late]).

Part of my job required tt after everyone had gone into the lecture theatre, we were supposed to cut up the names of those who had come so tt it can be included in the prize draw for National Bank merchandise. However, whoever was in charge of the biz table had disappeared. Thank goodness YinZ & MegT were there. It was still somewhat cumbersome w/ the fact tt we only had one scissors. I guess I didn't miss much of the speaker's speech, but I did miss JasL's opening, which everybody said was great. The speaker Niki Gunning from Clear Visions was quite interesting & rather encouraging to listen to, even if I was stuck standing at the back. Some of the committee members left their stuff outside (idiots! how insecure!) so I had to bring them into the room to have at least some semblance of security.

After the talk was over, we had to collect name badges of businesses (coz they used the fancy nametags). Some stuck around for the leftover breakfast (including me: uwah! so hungry! I didn't even realise it...). There were also our nametags & badges to sort out. A little more mingling was done & then eventually everyone trickled out. Leftover food was brought to the commerce dept (I squirreled away a coupla stuffed croissants for lunch :P). The fruit was quite fresh, tho the danishes were rather stale & suspiciously not made the night b4. I thought the stuffed croissants were nice, but I know at least JanT thought it wasn't good.

Nyah~ still can't believe I'm @ campus so early. I mean, we basically had to clear out of the lecture room by 9am, & afterward, I find myself at the labs... blogging^^
Still fresh; tiredness hasn't kicked in yet. No doubt it soon will. Of course, it would have helped if I'd gone to sleep earlier than 12am last night/ this morning. For today I decided to wear this white blouse w/ thin black & red stripes with pink cuffs & collar. Together w/ dark blue pants w/ black stockings & black high heels... the working/full cover kind... so yeah, it's been a little difficult to walk >_<
Ok, granted, it's not the high high heels sort of high heels, but it's not sneakers period.

Later, I wanna attend the Special General Meeting or smthg @ 12pm, then smthg else @ 1pm (tho I can't remember what it is...), then after a break/ lunch, I can go see dVie @ 3pm b4 setting off home. I don't actually know what happens @ the SGM, but it's advertised all over the place, so I'm assuming it's open to all students. I'm pretty sure it has to do w/ the ASA. Usually I can't make it to these sorta thgs coz it clashes w/ BSG meetings, but not today^^ Usually when we have an event, we don't have a meeting on tt wk.

Yesterday, I got up smtime after 10am. I had gone to bed about 11pm the night b4, tho I don't think I dozed off till 12am-ish... So I more or less got some restful sleep. First stop @ campus was Stdlnk - smthg went wrong w/ my SA application... but it should be fine now. Then I went down to the labs, tried to do a lil research on BBC iTV (the website is huge!!) b4 heading to the library to chat w/ the rest of my UIDnEgroup @ 1pm. Had to discuss asgnmt2: User studies... it's due next Fri!!! Unreasonable! Everybody but EddZ was present, coz he suddenly had to see his GP. Things more or less started out fine, if a little unsure & slow. FraY even brought his laptop to aid in typing thgs out if need be. Everythg was generally fine & dandy till I got into an argument w/ IsaW who thinks the numbers for surveys collected is more impt than the authenticity of surveys. It was more or less cut short (neither of us would back down), coz we were scheduled to see hRyu @ 2pm for the compulsory "see the course coordinator" thg. It was... enlightening, confusing, asgnmt-altering,,, plus plus... & it went for nearly an hr. We eventually settled for not asking the user what kinda layout they like, coz hRyu thinks it's "interesting" for the development of Picture in Picture thg, which I personally think is silly. If I wanna watch tv, I wanna see the whole img w/ no obstructions. The little almost transparent logos in the corners tt indicate which channel or program irk me enuf already~

One of the major reasons why our first projected choice of user interface idea was not feasible was coz we hafta develop a simulation of the scenario tt would serve to help w/ the evaluation of the design. *sigh* It all seems SOOO much more daunting now...
Remembered to ask hRyu about method of obtaining data & convinced IsaW tt survey numbers don't matter tt much. So... I got stuck w/ writing up a draft of the survey Qs into MS Word, & FraY volunteered to do a draft of the Task Analysis + given the task to explain the major changes to EddZ. We also set up the nxt meeting time as Thu after class & Fri afternoon.

After dropping off another "accept to study @ MU" slip tt came in the mail on Mon @ Contact, I went down to the labs & typed up the survey Qs we discussed about, so tt the rest can looksee & bring their comments, questions, ideas, add-ons or omissions in the nxt meeting. Right... & after tt, we hafta find soccer fans willing to do the surveys...
Then I caught the shuttle bus, went home, had lunner, didn't resist a coupla fanfics, watched TV (Charmed & House). The Apprentice season 4 I think was on @ the same time as Charmed so I didn't see it tt much, but I know the women (Capital Edge) lost by to the men (Excel)~ Bummer.
On the bright side, Obsession had an update of Loveless!!! 5chs X3~
Tho I wonder why Tokudane didn't display... I suppose it excludes shounen-ai...



---------- 1:53 p.m. ----------
Right... well, the SGM turned out to be mighty boring. Mostly admin stuff tt they hafta do. Saw MinQ there. They had a prize draw, & tho I didn't win anything, I was happy to get a raffle w/ a heart, the number 03 & the letter E. The raffles were split into genders - in the 1st two draws, the lucky winner got a to have dinner w/ an exec member of their choice. The 3rd draw was for some sort of survival kit hamper. The 4th draw was for an Easter pack. Then we were dismissed. By then it was about 10 past the hr,,, since I can't remember what I wanted to attend @ 1pm, & I couldn't find anythg for what, when, where or why, I simply decided to go back to the labs (after grabbing the leftover breakfast for lunch, of course). Then @ 3pm I'll hafta go see dVie... I hope I haven't messed up my ISRPch01 too badly... tho I can already predict the amt of extras & add ons I'd be getting to stick on top of the meagers bits I sent to him Mon morn... ah well~

I forgot to mention... some time when I wasn't looking, the Winter Olympics finished & the Commonwealth Games began... I heard my's been doing good^^
Yesterday, I happened to watch One Sport, & at the time, they featured the preliminary rounds of men's hockey: my VS sa. sa was leading 1 to nil when halftime came, but my got 2 goals in the 2nd half & r going on to the semifinals! Ooh~ I think there was at least one Chinese... no. 3's hairstyle reminded me of one of Beckham's.
I checked the medal score table this morning; heh, my & nz's not doing too bad^^ ...so far~

Wow... I didn't blog in a long while, ne? Well, the day was long & I'm not feeling very charitable right now, so the past 3 wks will be looked at with the occassional insertion of bitchiness, & with the usual fling of randomness here & there. The last time I blogged, it was right before semester started, so we'll start from there. (Much is amiss, but I'll fill them along as I remember them~)

Last weekend: Tried to get over post-exam stress. Still panicking over the results which have not yet come out.
T'was also worried about my health. On Sun, 1 side of an eyelid swelled up for no discernable reason. No redness, no wound marks, no bite marks, just plain on swelling. It did start aching a coupla nights b4, but... well... yeah... it was rather alarming. It healed sometime Mon night (i was hoping against hope nobody was looking too close at me when we were out on Mon).

Mon: went to campus to get txtbks. Only 1 subject tho, either coz it didn't have a prescribed txtbk or hadn't arrived yet. Ooh, did I mention? Bennetts moved over to the East Precinct & is currently residing in the new building (which I still can't get the name of... I think it's smthg silly like "Teaching Block"...). Seems it moved two & a half wks ago, on Tuesday, tho I only found out like last Friday (after blogging). This was the last time I was there, & tho the new building was really flashy & everythg, the rest of it wasn't open yet,,, some technicians were still tinkering about behind the bright orange tape.
We also checked up on my enrolmt progress... ran thru a lot of bumps... HelR & JenH had to be replaced since HelR moved to contact & JenH wanted to go into counselling. Apparently, their replacements were DebL & JoyL. Now when we went up, on DebL was there, & if u recall, she was the lady tt used to own #18 which gave us many headaches when we hit a thousand & one complications when we attempted to move in... such a terrible experience...
Mum wasn't too pleased w/ her lack of friendliness/helpfulness too... it was unfortunate HeaOC was on a lunch break. Michelle from the floor below (who is miraculously still part of the staff) was being bitchy as usual. There was alot of running around and tension, but she eventually agreed to put so&so into the pigeon hole of the relevant person for the signature of approval into the paper.

Tue: came to campus for the BSG meeting. First was the briefing for the orientation tt we'll be helping out at. JoyL turned out to be from my... could tell when she started speaking. GlyJ did most of the talking, tho DebL & another girl was also present. lol... a 45min briefing...
Wed: woke up bright & early, tho perhaps I set the alarm just a little too... Mum dropped me off @ campus, & I went to check my email b4 diving into work. Starting off was slow. HazH decided to enlist CarR & I to QB3 to work on the printouts. At first I thought I'd rather be out in the frontline, but I decided sitting around in front of a computer was way more fun. No wonder BriW hogged the job last yr :P It was made all the more fun since it's connected to the intranet, which is connected to the internet, so basically all I had to do was a few simple functions while relaxing the whole way... lolz especially since hardly anybody showed up compared to last yr...
Business was slow, apparently the CoB didn't send out letters this yr for some reason or another, so no many ppl were very informed...
Despite the day being mostly relaxing, I did come across a coupla hitches at first. Printing was a pain coz (in the compie I was at anyway) u gotta specify the printer everytime the confirmation window popped up... couldn't find a way to specify the printer I wanted to be default... what a drag.

Thu: pretty much the same routine, tho there were more ppl since orientation for new students was in full swing as well. I mostly helped out in QB3 again, but since I had an appointment @ 11am (wanted course advice from someone who flew in from PN), I spent sometime outside on the frontline. This time, the 2 compies were shared between me, CarR & MelD (one of the BSG newbies). There was lots of orientation stuff going on all around, but... well, I didn't feel like visiting them. I also didn't get an orientation pack (orange bag this yr), tho I did have a peek into a friend's. Although it contained the everpresent condom & lotsa pamphlets & discount vouchers & whatnot, there wasn't really anythg interesting. I remember last yr there was a little glow-in-the-dark frisbee w/ a hole in the middle (like a doughnut...!). Oh but there was a little tube on handcream thing, but I already got a couple from Women's Festival last yr, so it didn't matter much.
There was a sausage sizzle again, of course, = sausage on bread + drink. Tho of course, it was free for us. On Wed I had four! (one without bread coz we ran out). On Thu I had five, one of them was a vegetarian sausage, & another had a diff taste, beef or smthg. Overall, it was fun, but not as fun as last yr.

Fri: ...I remember napping alot... Went to campus briefly, returned a few bks + work on the draft report...
Same story today (minus the naps unfortunately). I hadn't anticipated for the library to not be open yesterday (tho there was a Garden Party concert... band: Elemeno P I think it was). Went all out trying to find a bunch of articles...
Sorta beating myself up for being so lazy over the summer, & am now trying to rush thru a hundred pages plus worth of material to spew out smthg halfway decent tt doesn't scream "last minute work!" It's not tt I regret doing absolutely nothing productive (I don't do regrets), I simply hafta make up for a LOT of lost time right now.

...And, after taking ages to load, I can finally vent out my frustrations in this blog of mine. QB Lab 1 has finally been reopened,,, & every one of them computers has been converted to XP. Hmhmm... might as well get used to it~
Just had tt fricking biz fin FE. Didn't sleep too well last nite,,, I mean, morning. I only started revising cramming yesterday evening,,, not a very strategic move ;P
Woke up bleary eyed & exhausted for no conceivable reason this morning: dragged self outta bed & got my ass to campus; 83ppl in our class housed up @ AUD... supposedly. I got stuck in the 3rd row smackbang in the middle, tho I had a very direct & clear view of the clock, so I suppose tt's ok.
I left about 17min early just coz I had absolute nothing else to write, not to mention my I wasn't feeling up to just sitting around staring hopelessly at my answer sheet; even my stomach & bladder were complaining. So I left a coupla minutes shy of the mandatory "all candidates must stay behind at the last 15min of the exam".
*sigh* how terrible. I only have this itty bitty slim chance of passing the paper @ all; if u don't pass FE, u don't pass paper fullstop. *bawl* T__T I should have started cramming earlier...
gotta hate urself...
Oh well.

Oh yeah, happy belated Valentines Day.

Sculpture Symposium thing @ Kell Park (Feb4 - Mar15),,, so tt's what all them rocks were for... I think most of them r finished works now. Last wk, when I was walking by, they were still being worked on. Now, ppl seem to be just lounging around. I wonder if they're camping out there, since there's at least 1 trailer, not to mention tents & cars parked there...
I walked to campus coz I have to see dVie @ 3pm. Mum couldn't drop me off coz she had to leave early for a meeting (& I can't wake up so early) so yeah, took an almost leisurely stroll to the labs...
I have alot of writing to do *sigh* & this is on top of the biz fin FE on Fri. Morning!! T__T ~oh well... (Ack! Gotta study cram!)

On Monday nite I came to campus to do a few compie things for mum. Some of the PCs... wouldn't restart for some reason or another... Then somebody from "ALB-LAB1" struck up a conversation w/ me after I logged on & asked if I could restart the compies tt had problems... I wonder which lab s/he is from,,, IIMS Lab 1 perhaps? I didn't even know u could initiate a chat... tho I suppose tt's only limited to administrators etc.
Anyway, as the night went on, I encountered problems w/ the local network connection, & the H drive kept disconnecting on me. Fortunately, I mnged to do what was needed & left.

I come in today, & what do I find? QB Lab 1 closed. Asked RobM, who is supervisor today & he said it's going thru software maintenance, same as QB Lab 5. QB Lab 4 (which also has a handful of computers tt can't be logged onto)... er, as it turns out... All the student compies r having their OS converted from Windows 2000 Pro to Windows XP Pro...
I'm not particularly sure I like this change much. I mean, I am familiar w/ the XP OS, but I still prefer the classic appearance. Not to mention it's cool when everything is clustered by program on the taskbar no matter when/ which order u opened a file. However, there r a few things I dislike, like the folder window: won't tell u free space, nor size of highlighted items... when it feels like it (? - no idea why, mine does it fine, all the time - not whenever it feels like it...); & since I can't customise the headings @ the top, it kinda sucks. Besides, alot of programmes haven't been fully installed yet, so... yeah.
In brighter news, the 2006 student diary & planners have finally arrived^^ I got mine when I noticed them @ the SNDC/Printery.

Weather has been more or less okay, tho the temperature has been dropping somewhat. lol, autumn making it's appearance.
I'm slightly worried about my health. After I woke up this afternoon, & uh, had 'breakfast', I started coughing. Like, a really bad whooping cough, o_O out of nowhere too. I didn't think much of it at the time, just took a honey cough drop. And started off to campus (Nosy neighbour was smoking outside). Along the way, a few small coughs made their way out of my mouth. About half an hr after I settled into a computer, I started coughing again; the hacking kind... It didn't even last one minute, but I'm pretty sure I tasted blood at the back of my throat...
Nya~ it's probably nothing. gtg now. Ja ne~

He gave me a deadline. I really thought I'd be able to breakthrough this state of non-productiveness when an actual deadline was given. Instead, I fell even deeper into the throes of yaoi manga addiction... *sigh* how pathetic.
To make matters worse, I forgot to tell mum classes ended last week, so basically she woke up early for my sake for no apparent reason.
So then I fell back into dreamland,,, & when I finally roused myself back to the land of wakefulness at about quarter to eleven, my nose starts bleeding. So I stick around in bed for the nxt 45+min b4 getting up to go to the loo, crashing all over the place...
Mum wasn't around to laugh at or scold me thank goodness, coz she wanted to make a short stop at the Warehouse @ around 10am & still wasn't back yet. Since the bleeding seemed to have stopped, I settled down for breakfast.

Mum came home shortly after, a little in a huff over the new #16 who parked in our spot. Jeez... we haven't had much luck w/ the ppl who move into #16, huh? When we first came, they were always being downright rude, not to mention, taking our parking slots with such inconsideration. Then when they moved out, the couple who moved in had at least one cat, which made mum really angry coz, aside from the fact tt pets aren't allowed, they put it out whenever she wants to cook, so there's fur & the smell of anti-ticks or whatever all over the place. Now, they have moved out, & these new ppl r moving. Seems to be a father & his daughter, & maybe her b/f. According to mum, the old guy seems to be an attention seeker.

While she sorts out her stuff, I rest again, since my nose might have started up again. By 12:45pm, we were good to go. I reach campus & come across JanT, SheW & TarG... SheW was like, "where were you?" at my blank look...
As it turns out, the BSG meet was supposed to be at 11am today... Argh!! How could I have forgotten?! After chatting for a bit, I went up to HazH's office to apologize. LizS was there too; they were writing up the minutes together. I got some info, & signed up for the orientation help thing, said my goodbyes & came down to the labs. She was quite forgiving of my forgetfulness, surprisingly...

And at 3pm I hafta go see dVie... dammit, I hope I can face him after tt dismal 'report' I sent him to review...
Ja ne~

Today = Last day of lectures & workshop. The lesson started off w/ a SECAT, then LipZ came in to do an overview for revision + tips & weightings. Workshop was boring as ever,,, I think I stopped listening halfway thru...
We got test2 results & scripts back. Wowza... not bad, compared to how long it took for test1 to get back to us. As I thought, I didn't do too badly, considering...

Nya!! I've been slacking off waaaaaaay too much. I still hafta write up a frigging report for dVie to review (actually, it's not a report per se, just a bunch of stuff I hafta write out so I lumped them all under the name of "report"). It's like a mantra in my head: "Must write report... Must write tt darn report..."
But all I can think about is manga & anime T_T

In other news, Mew-chan is back from her trip! I missed her on MSN yesterday, but I hope to catch up w/ her soon... Argh... tho I don't think I'll be able to anytime soon what w/ the report & the FE...

Plus, the fact tt I'm still sick isn't helping much. The last 3 nights of sleep have been a little fitful since I couldn't go into a deep state of slumber. In fact, it's been like being somewhere in the middle of dreamland and reality...
Also, my tongue has been going numb from the cough drops tt I take throughout the night while I'm sleeping, so my mouth feels all funny when I hafta wake up....
Tue nite/ Wed morn: off to get a sweet...
Ah well, off I go then~

Happy (belated) CNY~! Bye bye Rooster, Hello Doggie. yaknow, bit of useless info 4ya: Christmas Day & New Years Day fell on a Sunday, same as CNY. Since Xmas day & New Years r 7 days apart, they always fall on the same day, but this is the first time I've noticed CNY falling on the same day too.

Anyway, I fell sick a coupla days ago. The day after tt fever, I felt fine, but then I became sick again on Sat, & it all went downhill from there, progressing gradually from fever to sore throats, & now coughing.
...On the bright side, I get the excuse of not seeing dVie today... >_< *sigh*

I guess I shouldn't really be attending class, but it's the last wk already (omg! FE coming up o.O) so yeah. Mum was gonna pick me up @ 12pm, but then she had some urgent business to attend, so I'll be making my way home later.
Pity the weather's so dreary. I wonder if tt's affecting the doors? I've seen a coupla cases where the doors aren't closing properly/all the way; due to summer heat?

Got sick last night. Felt the slow arrival of a fever, coupled w/ headache. Took Panadol Night, since it was nighttime & all tt. It wasn't even raining on my way back yesterday.
I figure it quite fortunate tt this happened after the day of the test, especially since one would usually get sick the same day one was caught in the rain. It's like, it held out for one day just so I won'd hafta stress out over the test & being sick.
I went to bed @ 11pm, a huge improvement, considering, no doubt caused by the medicine... yaknow, perhaps I should consider taking sleeping pills if it'd make me go to bed earlier...
Anyway, w/ 9hrs sleep, I feel much better (tho I still need more time to doze). In fact, I woke up feeling cold... way to go Panadol. I still have a bit of the sniffles, but it's not too bad.

I think there might have been some sorta orientation going on on Wed... didn't really stick around to check it out tho... prob had nothing to do w/ me neways. I think the brand new uni guides programme had a kickstart yesterday. In the morning, I saw a group being briefed on their itinerary for the day. I didn't stick around to see if there were others, since I wanted to have a last minute look at my cram notes.

Now, I seriously hafta focus on MobPmt stuff or dVie would have my head for not taking it seriously... *sigh*
Ja~

Thu: Saw library lady + usual lazing around...

Fri: Carpet maintenance (recarpeting) outside the lab I was in. There wasn't even any notice (grr!! *shakes fist at lab super*) ...seriously, tt guy justified his actions tt he was doing his 'job' even tho his 'job' also included prior notice to things tt would affect lab patrons <_< He just sorta told us we had 10min to get out! I had no idea what was going on, & I couldn't just up & leave in 10min since I just had already activated a programme tt couldn't be aborted & wouldn't finish for 30min yet! After asking around, I discovered the workmen weren't actually gonna be doing anything inside the lab, just outside, but since they were laying down new carpet, it couldn't be used for at least 2hrs or u'd be stuck by the super strong glue or smthg. So since I was given the option or staying inside, obviously, I decided to stick around since it's not like it's any diff from what I normally do at the labs... stick around for hrs on end...

Got word from OliB via MSN tt the 1st Rotaract meeting of the yr will be in a few days... woah~ I didn't even get an email yet. The execs decided tt the first 2 meetings will be social events. The plan was to meet @ Milford Reserve & hope tt the weather stays fine for a BBQ. Else, go bowling.
Walked home.

Weekend: Did nothing,,, as expected...

Mon: Generally lazed around. Got a call from MurH. Heh, he got chillis for my mum again :) ain't tt sweet. Since his mum was driving down, so he thought he'd might as well hop on & come along too. So we met at the usual place (Kell Park) & talked for a bit. I took the chance to return the Hellsing DVD he lent me. Somehow the topic of conversation turned to movies, & the fact tt I haven't seen HP4 yet even tho I've been meaning to, but it's too late now coz the only show avl was a very early morning one at Hoyts, & the only chance I'd ever get to see it was if I could wake up early on Tue (can't go on Wed since I have class) & if I had a car & if I could drive... So he sorta offered & I sorta asked, & we made tentative plans, all depending on mum's opinion.

After tt, had a lil smthg to eat b4 getting ready for Rotaract & going to Kell Park again. I asked SarM to give me a ride. We got there early & loitered around abit. It was very windy. Sand was blowing all over the place. & just when about 20ppl gathered around, it started raining. Right, plan B it was. Went to the Takapuna one. SarM is pretty much a regular there - has her own shoes, her own ball, her personal usual parking spot... lol^^ I paid for 1 game & shoe hire, teamed up w/ OliB & Dan smthg & had fun. Later, OliB offered his place as an alt venue for the BBQ, but I decided not to go (er, hello? overprotective mother) & SarM had an early morn the nxt day, so she opted not to go either & dropped me off. Heh, I actually got home b4 mum.
I asked her about the movie thing & she was okay w/ it, so I let MurH know.

Tue: Woke up early, set off & met MurH @ Kell Park @ 9am. It was raining, & I got a little wet. Went into Hoyts & was surprised at the number of ppl. MurH was too, tho he figured there'd be more ppl, while I thought there'd be less. Got tickets. MurH got lollies from the pick & mix: gummy bears & strawberry-shaped gummies. Just as we were about to enter rm #10, there was a power glitch. It was like, the whole place experienced a hiccup~ I hoped it wouldn't happen while we were watching the movie. Tt would be so bothersome. Such terrible weather...Previews: Over the Hedge, (smthg...).
I guess the movie was okay. Tho I feel lots were cut from the bk. Like the involvement house elves & locations & stuff. A lot of focus on Harry & CGs. & I felt the dragon leaving the egg to go after after him is BS. A mother's instinct to protect it's offspring should not be taken lightly. It's not like the dragon was hungry. Tho, it wasn't actually explicitly said tt they were mothering dragons... I don't think. Hmhmm,,, did Hermione seem really whiny or is it just me? Pity about the Quidditch World Cup Finals - change of locations, no Leprechaun money, etc. There were no mention of Veelas, etc either. & I seriously thought Fleur would be prettier or be more stuck up or smthg... Oh well, tt's tt.
Then we had lunch at the Star Café since we were already there, b4 he dropped me off at Kell Park.
Tried to do a bit of studying tt night. Wasn't very successful.

Wed: Sleepy in class again, tho perhaps not as bad as last wk. Got drenched while walking home from campus. Such dreary weather. Wind kept up it's screaming, rain kept on pouring,,, mum was fairly lucky it let up for a while when she was on her way back.
Tried to do last minute cramming,,, didn't go very well. Tho I did take a nap.

Today: Woke up regretting I slept so late - had to drag self outta bed. 90min fin test2 came & went. I think I did pretty well, considering I hardly studied/revised at all...

I'm a little worried about mum; since her workload increased, so has her stress levels, & she's had to up her medication. Her 2nd wk is almost over, but she's already gotten a cold coz of the everchanging weather conditions.
Can she last another 10?.
Saa, gtg now. Hope it's not raining too hard. Don't wanna get wet again. My poor bag...

We were a tad bit overdressed for dinner on Fri. I felt isolated yet again, what with the teens & pre-teens on one side, & parents etc on the other. It's not tt there weren't ppl my age group there, I mean, the birthday boy is more or less in the same age range as me, but for some reason it simply felt... weird.
My back is feeling better; tho I'm still careful coz I feel the occassional twinge (imagination?) every now & then.
Mon morn woke up way too early for my tastes. It's not tt I wanted to wake up early, it's just tt mum forgot to note down smthg b4 setting off for work, so she called me up @ about 10:30am to ask me to look for it. However, I was able to retain a half-asleep state & it didn't take too long to doze off.
I actually went to sleep @ 6am earlier, so I suppose it's like, a punishment & a reminder tt I absolutely hafta kick my biological clock back on track.
I guess I could have been kinda pissed off at mum for waking me up so early, but as it turned out, it didn't matter anyway. Like, half an hr after going back to sleep, I was awoken by loud thumping sounds on the roof. Some time later, it was clear tt at least 2 ppl were up there doing some clearing & cleaning...
About an hr later, after breakfast etc, I made my way to campus. To return a library bk tt was called back. Figured it'd be good exercise. Walked to & from & tt was it. Was only away from home for just over an hr. Dozed a little b4 diving into the laptop... darn,,,

Carpet cleaners were around a coupla more days since my last entry. After tt, other cleaning companies have been making appearances. Like, today, I saw ppl armed w/ water super spray thingamajigs, equipped w/ generator & all!
Could hardly stay awake in class this morning, like seriously! If I hadn't had the desire to not mess up my hair, I might well have fallen asleep right then & there! & I did try to go to bed earlier. About 2am too... Guess it didn't help much, not w/ the accumulated fatigue..
Dismal progress report given to dVie despite a 1wk extn. Ah well...
Went to the library for inquiries, one of the librarians RaeG printed out some stuff for me. Made an appointment for tmrw to see her to have a more 1-on-1 session regarding the use of the library resources.
Then after tt, I went back to the labs trying to think about studying & the fin test2 coming up nxt wk (T_T) but er... I got distracted...
Is there some sort of technique out there to find & retain focus? If so, I really have to find it...

I'm not sure when, but I had this really weird dream one night in the past wk. Smthg about escape & espionage & running into hiding at some island. Running thru a forest. Finding my way thru slums of a once prosperous but ill-maintained bunch of apartment buildings (town?), trying to use stealth in manouvering thru the broken concrete jungle... Almost got found out by a little girl. In the end, the pursuers caught up to me (I was the last!?). I was backed up against a wall tt had seen better days trying to find my way around it or somewhere without being seen (I didn't even have a clear destination...). I realised the game was up when I felt eyes from my other side bore into me. The other person (gender?) walked slowly over to me & I relaxed my tense body, knowing I couldn't get out, since his/her? comrades were already moving in. Strangely enough, I didn't have a weapon on me, nor did the other point the big gun at me, just sorta held off to the side for some reason as he/she? approached me. I took my hand out of my pocket (when did it get in there?) & handed over this little device thing which was promptly taken & scanned b4 being declared safe...

Er... apparently I was careless enough to have brought along some device or other tt could be tracked to me, when I knew but apparently forgotten tt the original purpose of having it became void when the mission was blown (what mission?). Um... was it a drill of some sort? coz I wasn't arrested or whatever. Not even restrained. Maybe I was an undercover agent? but I was running w/ all my might. I heard compliments being thrown around about how they were able to evacuate the 'town' so quick (tho the counter arguement was coz there weren't tt many ppl living in the area - it looked to me like the making of a ghost town: deserted & rundown)... I kinda wondered if the place really was evacuated, since I recalled seeing civilians...

Weird dream, ne :P Anyways, I'll be on my way now. cya~

...so tired...

Recall when I said the dreaded feeling u get when u wake up & u look @ the time & think: I should be gone, like, NOW! Well yesterday, it happened. This time around, the alarm was insufficient in it's task. Mum had to coax me awake. I guess having less than 3hrs sleep the nite b4 + the fact tt I went to bed @ 2am had smthg to do w/ it. methinks it was also coz I'd forgotten I had set the mode to Silent, so it didn't vibrate like it usually does when the alarm went off. In the rush to get ready, I obviously didn't even consider trying to do the pigtail hairstyle. Instead, I clipped my hair back w/ one of a few I recently took to using now tt I have short hair again (these clips weren't meant for long or thick hair). I might have been on time if I hadn't forgotten the fact tt it was Thu & on Thu, our classes r in the AUD, not AT2! I accidentally walked in on a lady setting out papers for a test for whatever class was really supposed to be there... sheesh~ & I was actually wondering why ppl were loitering outside instead of going in. So anyway, it probably took me an extra 2min to do a U-turn toward the Study Centre.

Last night, I didn't have as much restraint & only went to sleep @ like... 4am... & tt lead to a repeat performance of yesterday (except this time, I did make sure the h/p alarm would vibrate & everythg as per the usual... I just,,, went right back to sleep :P), just... maybe 10min later... o.O
Surprisingly enough, I was in class w/ 5+min to spare. wowza~ will wonders never cease?
As for the reason... Wah! I couldn't help it! I finished getting all of Loveless (w/ the exception of the extras), so I just had to watch it! Wai!!! The art, the story, SUPER Wonderful!!! Kyaa~!! I was a little bummed at such an open-ended ending,,, but it was still cool nontheless! All titles ended w/ a -less ^^;; quite creative. It followed relatively closely to the manga, but there were a few deviations & omissions & add-ons. It was on the shounen-ai side, but it was so damn beautiful, the way the story unfolded, & how they occassionally used words to make a point instead of just saying it outloud. Not to mention both the op & ed looked so pretty & complicated & confusing & dreamy all at the same time ^__^ I didn't particularly like the vocals, but both songs are kewl.

I wanted to do some d/Ling, but my source of links & stuff is experiencing problems tt is causing the website to be rather unstable... I mnged to squeeze a few thgs out b4 it went down again, so I'll just hafta be content w/ tt...
Can't stay too long @ campus today coz there's a birthday party we hafta attend later. Mum's making me dress all girlie for it. Says we hafta be at least semi-formal or whatever. We got him a coupla gifts, which I had to wrap up last night...
Why does wrapping presents hafta take so long anyway? I guess it's partly coz of the nagging perfectionist part of my brain, but still,,, I was in the middle of watching Loveless... X3~

*sigh* biz fin test2 coming up in a coupla wks... T__T I havent't done any studying. Have cook smthg up b4 nxt Wed for dVie T__T I haven't even thought about it.
yaknow, it just sorta occured to me tt I do a LOT more whining these days... perhaps I should get a new hobby or smthg. Like exercising perhaps.
Well anyway, ja ne~

Floors & carpets being cleaned by some company called We Clean Carpets Ltd. Whole place stinks of some foul-smelling cleaning agent. Not to mention the noise of the cleaning machines were making such a racket... of course they just had to start cleaning the lab I'm in after class ended. I went out for lunch when the guy & the kid helping him reached my area. It was probably not a good idea to leave an open terminal logged in under my name in such insecure circumstances, but oh well. Came back about 8min later to find them done w/ my area, tho not yet done w/ the lab *sigh*

I only got a few hrs sleep last night early this morning, even tho I actually made the effort to turn in approx 2hrs earlier than usual... *cough* at 2am...
But no matter what, I couldn't doze off. Two hrs of uneventful tossing & turning later, I somehow found myself @ me laptop again... after which I went to bed @ like, half past 5am. And even then I'm pretty sure I tossed & turned some more b4 actually falling asleep... & then having to wake up a few hrs later. It's the first time I've used it in a long while, so I pretty much almost subconsciously forgot how to work it, not to mention identify the racket my h/p was making as an alarm. Took a few fumbles b4 I turned it off instead of just pressing snooze. Ultimately, what woke me up wasn't the alarm itself, but one of those internal things tt make u wake up, look at the clock, & realise u should be gone like NOW. Tho fortunately, in the case of this morning, 'NOW' was 30min away.
I had to get up & make sure I did my hair properly anyway,,, it's not easy to have 2 short pigtails be tied in perfect symmetry at the first shot. Bah, I guess I won't tie my hair at all tmrw~

Nya, well~ I guess my first class of 2006 wasn't so bad,,, other than me being dead tired, anyway. With mind constantly wandering to thoughts of yaoi *cough*...
LipZ posted our marks yesterday, so I was able to have a glimpse of what I got. Phew~ I didn't do as badly as I'd thought. I mean, at least I didn't fail! I went & got my script from the commerce reception after class. Nya... there's only the 2nd test & the final exam to think about then... (I'm being sarcastic btw).

I still hafta come up w/ smthg substantial for dVie nxt wk. I mnged to postpone today's meeting w/ him, mostly coz I've done absolutely nothing over the break,,, but I can't just leave it. *sigh* How the heck did I let myself get this far in my addiction to manga & anime & d/Ling anyway?!

*Ahem*... speaking of which,,, I've found a new source for d/Ling yaoi manga,,, so I've been rather... preoccupied :P
I even obtained & watched my first yaoi anime - Ai no Kusabi OVA was like, such a tragic love story... hmhmm, pity I won't be able to see the manga... unless some scanlation group decides to pick it up...
I'm also in the process of d/Ling Loveless the anime X3 And perhaps Sukisyo some time in the future... *sigh* my poor hard disks...

A guy from church: mum's friend's nephew who came from my to work a coupla yrs ago is having a birthday party @ a restaurant in Dominion Rd on Fri, even tho his birthday fell on the twelfth. Hmhmm... maybe it had smthg to do w/ the possible fact tt it's not difficult to get a booking on Fri the Thirteenth...

Anyway, off on my merry way then, ne? Ja matta~

Merry belated Christmas. Happy New Year. It's 2006 already. How time flies. Wondering why I haven't blogged for over a mth? I was too lazy. All was time was pretty much spent on useless things tt r unproductive to everyone & only served to feed my addiction. Which, from an objective standpoint, probably isn't a good thing.
However, I'll just make a recap of the past 34 days...
There was tt fin test1 on Wed, 14th Dec which I got kinda nauseous over after it ended. Studying & revision was left to last minute cramming the day b4, u see. I still haven't heard any word of the results. Since there's nothing on WebCT, & since I doubt they'd put it up anywhere else, I'm assuming they're simply short staffed &/or lazy. Or both.
Oh, b4 tt, on Mon 12th Dec was the Rotaract last meeting of the year slash BBQ party, which was held @ KylB's place. Tt was fun.

Was invited to visit MurH's place on Thu, 22nd Dec. He lives way up north in a farm w/ 7-10 acres of land. He showed me around the place, plus the plots where he's been planting stuff. Like chilis & pumpkins & herbs & raspberries & more^^
Also got a glimpse of horses, a sheep, guinea pigs, a bird (a yellow ring necked smthg), 2 cats, 2 dogs,,, not to mention the neighbouring kids who were playing w/ his little bro & his mom. We also got to see some more anime & stuff.

Fri, 23rd Dec found out I couldn't get into campus @ all since I later found out everythg would be shut down from 23/12-03/01. Bummer tt. T'was a day late. Since my mum already left after dropping me off, I set off to PakNSave to find her. Made my merry way to the Mega Centre, crossing many roads & various other obstacles. The wind played merry havoc w/ my hat & hair. Finally, I found myself @ the PnS carpark where my eyes slowly raked the rows & rows of vehicles wondering if mum was lucky enuf to find a spot in this crowd. Fortunately, I was able to spot the ever-so-familiar white rump of our lil Toyota & proceeded to dump my bag into it. Then I went up & started my search, racking my brain to remember what she was wearing tt day. Luckily I was able to find her. And we spent the rest of the day doing the shopping together. I later discovered I lost a hairclip in my haste. Bugger...
Tt day, there happened to be like, a Up-To-50% or smthg like that sale @ Michael Hill Jewellers. Mum dragged me along to check it out & even bought me a garnet ring set in silver. There was debate between tt & the blue topaz set in silver, but mum likes red, & besides, even if topaz is a my birth stone, I'd prefer a dark, rich blue colour.

Thu, 05 Jan mum drove us to St Lukes where we both got a haircut from our fav hairstylist (Didn't go into Westfield, tho). We both got a straight cut, slightly rounded. Losing tt chunk of hair wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been,,, compared to previous experiences. For one thing, I was kinda glad to see it go, since it is quite difficult to maintain long hair (especially for a careless person like me), so even tho having long hair was nice, I'm welcoming the change. Hmhmm... I guess without being able to do the braided pigtails, it's back to the cute pigtails again. It took about a day to get used to not having to worry about my hair getting caught when I lean back. And my head feels so much lighter with the sudden lost of weight.

Mum took me out for L2D lessons on Christmas Day & New Years Day since theoretically, they'd be less cars around (tho she mentioned there seemed to be more cars about than last year). Mostly tried my hand @ parking; at the deserted The Warehouse underground parking area. I need lotsa practice...
Within the past wk, both the lightbulbs of the overhead lights in my room went "kaput". The replacement bulbs tt mnged to fit & work give me the feeling of spotlights, coz most of the light is centered to whatever's directly under it... *sigh* whatever~

Other than tt, there was the usual stay-up-till-really-really-late routine what w/ all the d/Ling & reading to do... How the heck am I supposed to get out of the I-am-SO-nocturnal system when classes start in a couple of days?
I did get to add a coupla more manga to my favs list. Aishiteruze Baby is funny & so touching^^ I wonder what the anime is like. Plus, I didn't expect Mekakushi no Kuni to touch me like it did. Like, woah~
I also got to catching up w/ a bunch of stuff,,, like +Anima X3
Not to mention, I really got into the world of yaoi somewhat. d/Led tt movie Bishounen,,, it was alright. Of course there was the abundance of yaoi/shounen-ai stuff to obtain from... >_<
I also got kinda attached to Neopets over December. I mean, it's like, why not play a few games seeing as I'm already there to get the freebies, sorta thg :P

I found Megaupload a tad bit annoying, especially when I wanna d/L @ campus... after all, all computers here would share the same IP address & u can't have more than 1 non-premium d/L @ a time, so it's just my luck if someone else on campus is d/Ling smthg off of it... :P
...Ack!!! Hard disk space is hard to come by...

I have been also ocassionally watched a few games of the Heineken Open held in NZ. What w/ tt bout of PoT I went thru last wk, tennis just seemed a little bit more interesting. The women's singles finished a coupla days ago I think, but I didn't get to see the Finals. Today saw the first set of the 1st or 2nd of the men's singles. It was kinda hard differentiating between those two since both were wearing mostly white & almost identical: shorts, shirt, shoes & caps... lol, I think the female selection of tennis clothes is much more stylish & colorful. To top it off, both players were of about the same build,,, but I think I more or less got to point out which was which since one of them had a black pattern on his left shoulder... ... .....

I'm actually @ campus at the mo. I was intending to kinda try to keep catch up & maybe/hopefully kick myself out of holiday mode. After all, I haven't checked my email in ages...
er... ended up doing some d/Ling & stuff ¬__¬

Haven't seen a movie in ages. Wanna see HP4 & Chronicles of Narnia. & maybe King Kong too. My room is total chaos. Have been growing fat lazing around @ home. Brain has been rotting since I became overly attached to the holiday mode mindset since... sem2 last yr probably.
Believe it or not I hurt my back on Sat carrying smthg not tt light but not tt heavy either, which I practically do twice a day. I haven't seen a doc yet, nor have I told my mother. I mean, it's so embarassing for a twenty-yr-old having back problems out of carelessness. It doesn't hurt so bad now, so I can hope it'll blow over. (Although there's a possibility tt the reduction in pain is wishful thinking or the simple fact tt I've already gotten used to it...)

Best be going now... Ja ne~

Tried to do some studying. Failed miserably. My future marks will reflect tt very soon no doubt.
Managed to watch 4 more eps of KoBJ yesterday. Heheh~ I so wanna see the manga. The character design is a little... ok, more than a little diff, but he seemed so cool, if the teasers from the ED r of any indication :P
I'm a little worried
The weekend was quite eventful.
First off, I found the manga I've been looking for ages now. I didn't know the title of it. I didn't know who it was about. I didn't know what it was about. But I really really wanted it. Why? coz the pic I saw was SOOO beautiful. I saw it last yr± on a layout of the BL website Loveless (so it was safe to assume it was at the very least shounen-ai). However, since I didn't know anythg about it, & since tt scanlation group didn't actually scanlate it, I didn't really have a starting point, so my search didn't actually take off. But I loved the pic nontheless. It was kinda dreamy, a tad flowery, but it spoke volumes of being loved LOVED. Yeah... that's how it was =D
coz since last nite
My first clue came in the form of a yaoi doujinshi by Neutral a few weeks ago. (do u remember me speaking of d/Ling FMA DJs by idea & dying from dissatisfaction if I didn't get the 4th installment which wasn't up for direct d/L?) Well, I was able to see the conclusion of tt, and since there were other stuff up for dd, how could I resist?
When I got tt dConan DJ Love Star Festival by Kawai Hideki, I was enraptured. The art was really pretty. I don't think it actually clicked for some time tt the style was the same as tt which I've been looking for. Okay! so I knew the artist. Google wasn't being very helpful, but I was confident I'd be able to find what I wanted eventually. In the meantime, I d/L all the other beautiful works... wowza~ *dreamy sigh*
i've been getting
Then came the day I actually looked further than I usually do, in search for more yaoi in general. My explorations led me to Yasca Tranlations, which was where I happened upon the image burned into my memory. The artist wasn't stated, but it was unmistakably what I was looking for. I mnged to get it on Sat, & boy was I happy ecstatic ^__^
Finally, I'm able to attach a title & story to it. Pink Motel is a PoT DJ, tho nothing actually happens,,, in a motel... lol ^^
The artist isn't just a doujinka. Original works have been/ r being done too~ X3
some sort of weird discharge
Fri nite had CSI Top Ten as voted by the viewers. #10 turned out to be the 1st ep of the last season I saw. The one which had four cases running simultaneously.
it's definitely not my period
I'm at campus today coz there was a BSG meeting @ 11am. Discussion of the 1st event of nxt yr. Some pics were taken too. I went to the labs to update the website. Discovered I was supposed to reactivate my access card b4 yesterday. YiyT was on duty tho, so he put me down for reactivation (3days...) & let me in^^

And Nov went by 'whooosh~' just like that.
Lately, I've been wondering why it's been getting easier to get lost into fanfics/fics/manga/anime/etc. when there r so many other pressing matters to attend to (e.g. sleep). I mean, look at the lists on the left where I keep track of what I've seen/read! The list of manga is being flooded w/ yaoi! (tho u'd probably not notice if u don't recognise em...). The list of anime has increased by quite a few too,,, not to mention my hard drive's been filling up waaaay too fast...
and then it occured to me...

I must still be in holiday mode.

which isn't that much of a surprise, considering it is the holiday season & all tt. The point is, I'm not supposed to be, since I'm doing summer sch & should be focused on studying.

Hmhmm, as for the blog bug, I got a suggestion from MurH to set bordersize to 0. It was helpful, but it didn't work. I recently discovered tt it works perfectly fine in Mozilla Firefox, so I guess tt's some consolation. Damn u IE! *shakes fist* Why didja hafta put space between my pics!?

Recap of last week: Sat-Tue = did nothing (productive). Wed-Fri = 2nd wk of class. Wed after class = sneaked over to Mew-chan's place.
That was prob the most exciting event this past wk. Me. Sneaking off into the city. w/o letting mum know. w/ the help of a friend. muwaHahahaha~
Mum thinks Mew-chan is a bad influence. Simple as tt. But mainly coz she got a b/f. Tt's apparently in the list tt makes a friend become a 'bad influence',,, among other things...
Geez, no wonder I don't have a social life. Much as I would like to oppose all this oppression, I rather not waste energy & can't be tt bothered about it. Besides, she's kinda sick @ the moment w/ thoughts of inevitable death, etc. She reckons it's coz of the weather.

Like, last Thu & Fri, it was SO damn cold!! After taking a trip to the bathrm & dressing up ready for breakfast, I couldn't resist snuggling back under the covers to suck in any residual warmth. Not to mention there was a heavy rain warning one of those days tt got mum so paranoid about the trees in the carpark area toppling onto the car (they're not tt flimsy, nor tt big!), so much so tt she moved it to another spot (in a slot allocated to a flat tt's currently empty). Hmhmm,,, today was kinda cold too,,, like snuggle-under-covers-again-for-residual-warmth sorta cold. I think I almost fell sick >_< can't have tt now can we?

Anyway, Wed @ Mew-chan's place was fun. We exchanged gifts (kyaa~!! thx Mew-chan!!!) & had fun hanging around. Watched the rest of Berserk (5eps). Was stumped when the last ep (#25) just sorta left us dry, sitting at a cliff edge w/ no explanations whatsoever... Nya~ oh well
After tt watched Grave of the Fireflies. It was sO SAd Y_Y *sob* humans have potential for so much cruelty...

Nausicaä was a nice show. Took some getting used to, but it was nice nontheless since it had a relatively happy ending. Lasbel (was tt his name?) was kinda cute. Pity his sister (Lastel?) died. However, we were a little thrown off when her borrowed dress suddenly became blue when it was originally red... it was like, huh? wth? Perhaps it had smthg to do w/ the properties of Acid Lake which permanently makes red cloth turn blue. Or perhaps coz she came into contact w/ tt baby Ohmu. Or maybe it had smthg to do w/ the fact tt she's the Princess of the Valley of the Lily, whose garments are required to be blue, hence after an hr or 2, anythg she wears tt isn't mainly blue will be made blue...
yara yara, I can practically hear u thinking "what sorta messed up theory is that?" Heheh~

Then since we only had about an hr & a half to kill (had to leave early so tt my driver could guarantee I'll be back @ campus b4 7:30pm.), we watched a few eps of King of Bandits Jing. Mew-chan said it was funny, but I didn't really expect to start laughing even b4 it started! I have the full version of the op, see, so I recognised the electric guitar going jajajaJANgJANG-jajajaJANGJANG when the DVD main menu came on. Of course, the settings of the language had to be changed... going into tt menu, the music restarted again, then after selecting & changing the option, the same music started off again~ ...For some reason, it brought me to the point of laughing my head off. Hahahz^^;;

Then of course, the real opening came on *giggle* The first bit of ep1 was already rather funny, what w/ some guy getting kicked out coz he didn't have anythg to do w/ the story. The perverted talking bird cracked me up. Not to mention the random silliness like tt guy w/ the big head & the yellow gold coin road. Then there's tt motorbike guy tt drops in every ep to deliver some supposedly enlightening phrase b4 driving off, usually into the sunset, lol^^ He made such a big entrance in ep1, I thought a new impt char was being introduced :P
After the 3rd ep, it was time for me to go. She lent me the KoBJ box set so I can see the rest of it (tho I haven't, not yet) We said our goodbyes & I wished her bon voyage b4 heading home. The traffic was kinda heavy, but we made it in about 30min w/ time to spare. Phew~
It kinda felt thrilling to be a rebel ;P

I haven't even been to the movies. I remember thinking about going to see Corpse Bride. But I guess it's gone & finished already. Plus there's still HP4 to see, which hopefully isn't blockbuster pricing anymore. I was also considering a few scary movies like The Exorcism... hmhmm, but I'm still so busy... & I still need sleep... *sigh*

As for biz fin, well... it isn't going so well. I have done no revision whatsoever which I know I should & probably won't ever get around it. I still can't seem to kick myself to bed early despite nagging to myself tt I had to wake up early the nxt day... perhaps I'm trying to delude myself again, finding the excuse of 'still in holiday mode' in the name of explanation, but... I'm just so tired -_-
As it turns out, LipZ isn't such a bad lecturer after all... However, I'm having 2nd thoughts of ever having to take this paper when she showed us a question from last, last yr which she considered "The Easiest" T__T

Ugh... my headphones r in a state of serious disrepair... not only does is look terrible (foam thingeys ripping up all over the place), but the sounds messed up too. Heheh... I suppose I could think of it as unique randomly changing acoustic sound effects...

Life has been terrible waking up so early... & this is just day3! *sigh* Tho for the record, it was mainly my fault, for not having enuf self-discipline to kick myself to bed earlier. *coughmanga&fficscough*
Um... I guess the subject isn't so bad... for now. I was able to recall a few thgs about fin. & I was able to dig up my calculator which I haven't used for over a semester... My room is... very untidy. Backlog of letters still waiting to be filed... hmhmm,,, will I ever get around to it?

The lecturer isn't tt bad. Although, I feel tt perhaps she puts just a little too much emphasis on fin calculators (wk1L2). I mean, it's great & all, but not everybody has them.
My first memory of her was during my 1st semester doing my 1st accg paper sitting the mid-sem test - she was one of the invigilators/ supervisors. I remember her coz she told me off for looking at the front pg of the test paper... & I remember vaguely thinking wth? After all, it's not like there r any Qs on the first pg, just instructions & stuff <_<
After tt, when she once relieved our macroecons tutor in my 2nd semester. And then occassional glimpses of her & smtimes her daughter, since her office is like, right nxt to HazH's. Ah, she also came to one of the BSG events this yr.
We were introduced to the tutor today... an incredibly boring guy... or perhaps just my brain tt was just too tired to keep up.

The new building on campus is still under construction. Er... saw deposited soil - some plants will be coming up for decoration I suppose. I think they might have finished w/ the ventilation ducts & stuff; the other day, it was exposed for the world to see, but tt part in the middle is all closed up now. Also, narrow wooden seats have popped up in the bus shelters, plus bus timetables, etc. kewl...

Neighbourhood gossip: #4 moved out. #4 owners did some modifications (lotsa banging & thumping were heard for a few days...). #2 now moving into #4 - apparently prearranged, since it seems tt current #2 owners wanna sell the property.
DusD got married to #9, & they both moved out, tho prob not too far since #9 occassionally comes by to chitchat w/ #1, much to Mum's dismay (she doesn't like her much). I guess other rmmate in #22 moved out as well since the flat is now up for sale.
#13 has been sold for smtime now, but it seems the new owners wanna do some renovations or smthg since a resource consent application had been made out & probably still being processed.
#6 will eventually be moving out.

Yesterday, I fell. My knee got skinned. Or is it scrapped? Perhaps it's better termed as bruised? I haven't fallen in a long time now, so I don't really know... not tt I could identify them b4 anyway. It was kinda silly really, a messed up jump tt ended up w/ injury. It was so hilarious I actually laughed when I landed. Treasure life's little pains~

Um... I suppose tt's about it... my memory is so fuzzy...

Summer sch officially started this week. I'm taking one paper... finance. Ugh. Tho it's probably not too bad considering I nearly might have taken commercial law, which would have been a double whammer seeing as law & finance r both not my thg, not to mention the law paper is only avl extramurally over summer. Tt brings back waaay too many unpleasant memories.
My classes for biz fin go for 2hrs, 3days per wk; starting today. Of course, it had to be early morning classes. Lecturer & course coordinator: LipZ. There's a teaching assistant for workshops, but he wasn't introduced today.

As for the weekend, it was fun ^__^
Summary of what we watched:

Saturday, 19 Nov 2005
Anime watched	Description
Onegai Teacher ep1-9;11-13	Heheh... finally got to see it. Dub tho, but tt's ok. Problems w/ ep9&10, so we saw tt the nxt day. One of the really funny thgs tt MurH pointed out to me was the block where they lived in; the yard (where tt dog hangs out) there didn't seem to have a gate of any sort tt we could see... hahahz ^^;;
Blood† ep1-3	Hmhmm... blood & gore, huh? Not sure what she is, but smthg about only her blood can kill them monsters dubbed as "Mouse". Pity they had to cut her loooong hair. Wonder who the guy w/ the viola(?) is. Those others don't seem to know of him... only implications tho. MurH only got these eps from tt generally unreliable guy (he will be known as GUG, since I can't remember his name). The title of this anime was slightly confusing, as it just had a cross sign... so we initially thought it might have been "blood cross" or smthg, tho we later heard intermission say "blood plus" :P
Vampire Hunter D Movie	Interesting...
Samurai Champloo ep23	MurH thought it'd be a way to lighten the mood. Hahahz, it definitely did^^ I couldn't stop laughing. Baseball hadn't even been invented yet, not to mention tt patriotic music & all them swear words too ^^;;;
Naruto Movie & ep151	ep151 was so we could see Hinata doing her thing. She's so much cooler^^ MurH explained to me tt Naruto was sorta being loaned out to other groups to do missions, & so was having all these, ah... adventures... w/ the ultimate goal of finding Sasuke in mind. We don't see this in the manga... The movie was kewl. Kinda cute too.
Maburaho ep3	A sorta recap for me, b4 we had to leave the rm for the day.
Sunday, 20 Nov 2005
Anime watched	Description
Naruto ep146	MurH wanted to show me Hinata dancing at the waterfall. She was actually having fun while taking a bath...
Maburaho ep4-24	Hahahz... it's kinda funny. Poor guy actually did finish up all his magic uses & turned to dust. But was able to become human again, albeit w/ a few side effects... well, at least he didn't lose his memory. But w/ this Shikimori-tachi, there'd be like... too many diff memory versions of the same time, ne? Wonder how his magic usage will be like now... It's kinda silly since so many misunderstandings happen, & his classmates r so uncooperative... And Yuuna is just too possessive... The unexpected twist in his past made my jaw hit the ground. I totally didn't notice!
Onegai Teacher ep9-10	T'was able to see the missing gap...
Bleach ep1-2	Heheh, op is kinda cool. Flavour of ops, titles & intermissions inherited from the manga no doubt. Some of the stuff deviates from the manga tho... but it was still cool^^
Last Exile ep1-7	Kyaa~!! I luv this story, can't wait till I see the rest of it~! One of the few anime tt GUG gave a complete set of. I was initially attracted coz I totally adore the full version of the op. But, I luv the setting in the clouds. The story seems ok too. The main char is SO cute ^__^

FMA: gist of the story, chars, etc r generally alike in the manga & anime, but the plot/storyline go off diff tangents.
Other than tt, I was pretty much an addict drooling for more (yaoi) manga... *sigh* I really hafta get it under control. I was only able to kick myself to bed @ 1am this morn, & the day b4: 4am, & the day b4 tt: 3am...

Not a very good record, yaknow? Ack... behind in everythg T_T

Early morning @ campus coz MurH arranged the MU anime club's post-exam celebrations go for 12hrs for 2 days. Obviously I just absolutely had to be here the whole way thru. Got MurH to pick me up @ 8:30am so tt he can prep for 9am. Turnout isn't expected to be tt great, but tt's ok.

Campus was mainly deserted, but the construction of the new building is still underway. It's coming along nicely, like, the structure & the roof is up already, so I suppose there's now the interior & piping & stuff. I'm not too sure of what the purpose of it might be, but it seems to be kinda small for classrms... (but tt's just me)... or perhaps there's gonna be underground surprises. Who knows? All will be revealed when it's completed. It's located nxt to the (now not so) new recreation centre; while the IIMS building & the library are further off on the other side. Wonder what the patch in between will become. At the moment it's all dirt. The new structure is currently standing on what used to be a temporary carpark (which used to be refered to as the craters of the moon).
Bus shelters have also been built off of the Atrium. 8 was built on 2 concrete slabs. But I don't see any seats... yet?
Lots of sign posts have been erected too... tho I feel some things shouldn't be pointed at unless they're on the same side of campus...

Last few days have seen me doing nothing but bumming around w/ laptop; manga; mostly yaoi...
I remember on Wed, I felt really restless & called mum to pick me up ahead of schedule. On the way back, going by the Lucas Creek bridge, there was traffic congestion coz the police & ambulance were there... talking on walkie talkies & stuff. There may have been an accident, but I think it may have been smthg to do w/ the stream... or under bridge... perhaps there was a discovery? ...hmhmm, mystery~

Anyway, I better get back to AT5 :)

Woke up 9am to be @ campus by 10am. BSG Planning meet. A coupla new students & a new ex-officio officer. Pity quite a number didn't turn up. The food was good tho.
Worked on the BSG website... needed a few revisions here & there. Phew~ finally, tt's over & done w/... for now anyway. I will most likely hafta modify the committee pg again once HazH gets around to taking pics of the newer members.

The arrival of today meant the departure of me being a teenager. How depressing, I'm getting old...
Of course, that also means a brand new layout. I went for a bubbly bathtub theme, apparently. Seeing as this was about serenity, having a nice long soak in a bubbly bath is considered relaxing enough, right? And what's a bathtub without the yellow ducky! My thoughts of the seclusion bit was along the lines of losing urself in the midst of all them bubbles~
Previous layout went for 5mths w/ a total of 53 entries (Tho tt might not be accurate coz I forgot to check the number b4 archiving it).

Yellow ducky & bubble bg pic from the internet. I was originally thinking of having a light, maybe bright, uniform bubbly bg, but I was too lazy, & besides I came upon this one. It's like taboo to have a colourful pic for a bg, but oh well. I did edit it somewhat, tho, just so the words could be clearer. The bubble profile for the blue pic on the left & the border is actually from my Jde txtbk which I scanned & editted. The left bit was originally supposed to be black, but since the blue pic turned out more on the dark side, & since I can't be bothered changing it, I decided on using white for the text. It's still quite clear... kinda. Well, more or less. I'm lazy, so it'll most likely stick.

Had problems with layout design. It's basically the same as the last one (Hah! See how lazy I am?), but I can't for the life of me figure out why the top banner & the side bg pic won't join up. I've tried a number of different combinations - fiddling with cellspacing & cellpadding & borders & whatnot,,, but it still won't work!! Argh~!! Won't someone enlighten me as to the reason why & how I can fix it?! >__<
Hopefully I can resolve this irritating bug soon...