This i gotta document... bits and pieces of undergraduate life to store and file away...

Am writing up my thesis now. Started 2 days agom still writing due ot distractions like Viwawa, erm... viwawa and more viwawa. (Check it out if you dunno what it is yet! www.viwawa.com )

Ya... and as I write, I have stacks of papers on both sides of the laptops. Most of them are journal articles... or hastily scribbled notes/outlines for particular sections... I would turn to a pile, flip through them, get some inspiration... and then continue writing... and I actually enjoy it... I like it when words flow.. but I've been stuck for the past 1 hour... I need to finish this section.. and another one... by tonight. How?

I know what to write, but not that sure how to write it. shows that I don't really read the discussion section of journal articles very carefully...

Moved house last Monday or Tuesday depending on how you look at it. The place still smells of newness... I have a prety unblocked view from my room. Neat! :) Now.. to finish the thesis so that I can unpack properly...

hmmm.. for some weird reason or other, i don't see my newest post when i visit my blog.. but I know you all have commented... so I guess as long as u all can see it, it's fine! :)

This week has gone by in a blink of an eye... Ok.. I felt that this week was so much mroe relaxing than my break week... Hurhurhur... had time to chill, do my own stuff... Maybe a normal school week is better...

The past few weeks have been busy with me running my study to collect data for my thesis, going for networking in week 8 and rushing my Wednesday presentations.

All not very good excuses for not blogging huh? What about just not feeling like? Since there is nothing very much interesting going on in my life except for school work... The job hunt is not moving very well and I don't really have the time nor mood to really start looking... and the one mega thinge... I'm moving in mid March!!!

Ok.. So I did spent a couple of days here and there packing my stuff into boxes. Well.. it's been certified. I'm a hoarder... Tons of stuff that I packed away into my cupboards, never really knowing they were there until I start digging them out.

Was supposed to go to school today.. but I decided to clear out a cupboard until I forgot the time. and then decided it was too late to go down... Heh... I found boxes of the letters we exchanges in secondary school (I have a shoe box and a test tube box full of them!) Christmas/Birthday/Festive/Just-to-say-Hi cards from beloved friends. Programme booklets of concerts I attended and the list goes on...

Packing also unearthed some of my grandmother's treasures. Scraps of clothes that she had cut into squares and triagles, so that she could painstakingly sew them into a patchwork blanket/quilt for us. Looking at old photos of me when I was a wee little tot... More photos of grandma. Miss her so much! :)

It's gonna be a somewhat hellish 3 weeks... Rush data, rush thesis, rush ethics presentation, rush packing. Best to enjoy my last sem as much as I can.

I am a psychology student. I'm writing a commentary on political leadership transitions.

The topic is interesting. A word limit of 600 doesn't get me very far even though I have different things to explore.

Busy busy busy. Preparing for thesis... running thesis, rushing presentation for Psych of reasoning... running studies. It's a vicious cycle I say.

Updates updates updates...

Well.. one week ago, I went for HIS concert!

Jay Chou!

Hahaha.. this is what seats at ROW 6 yielded! Hahaha... to be able to see him walk past you like barely one metre away and the chance to his sleeve... as that's what Yuanshan did... Yeah... just wanted to note that I was at Row 6!!!

Doesn't he look good playing the drums?

Ya... so I spent the past 1 week in lala Jay Chou land... but I'm glad to say I'm snapping out of it... After a mega Jay Chou ktv session with the gassy gals...

So... on the school front, I'm proud to say that the first draft of my Thesis study is up!!! Yep! managed to put the study on this computer programme... SO just need to troubleshoot it, make it more aesthetically pleasing and I'm ready to run my study!!! yeah!!!

Taking 3 mods makes me more slack... Or rather, it gives me the illusion that I have a lot of free time! But at least I make use of some of them to do my Ethics reading... I think Ethics is a rather 'crappable' subject... Give a company an ethical dilemma.... and then... who to consider? why should you consider this and why not that.... Principles and theories...

For Psych of Reasoning and Thinking, we have to read 1 journal article a week... and then prepare a presentation explaining the study conducted in the article. We would then be randomly picked to present the article. I was 'lucky' enough to be randomly chosen to present for the past 2 weeks liao...

Capstone has been stagnant cause we haven't had any talks yet... So now.. time to start doing some revision and what not...

Ok.. ending this post with yet another of the pics taken... I dunno whether I love my camera more or the seats I had. Hahahaha...

Ok... I need to snap out of this fangirling stage... At 23, it's a bit late no?

Been on a Jay Chou high after going for Jay Chou's concert on Friday night. And been prettty obsessed with it for the past two days. (try going on youtube to search for a million and one fanclips). It doesn't help that we discussed him when we met yesterday. Hahaha... Wild thoughts of getting to meet him or sth has been flitting in and out of my mind. (Never thought I could be so crazy over a celebrity.. hurhurhur...)

Need to shift my attention to some other stuff. Maybe I should go to town and return my library books (in the hope of being able to meet him! Wahahahhas...) Like Siyi said, I'm gone!

On another note, went to the career fair yesterday. Eh.. nothing much lor... I felt pretty much cheated. I might as well have applied for the jobs online. Other than that, week 3 of school is starting now. In the midst of getting my study up...

Heh.. realised I haven't posted much (or rather, anything) about my HK trip~!~ So here's a short short summary...

Highlight of the trip would be I guess.... HIM!!!

Yeah.. Went for a Jay Chou concert... which we decided in a spur of madness at 3am one night.

And I liked it so much... that I'll be going for his concert on the 18th! Can't WAIT!! IT"S NEXT WEEK!

hmmm.. so what else did we do with a 9 days, 8 nights trip in HK? Like the advert said... 买东西, 吃东西, 卖东西, 吃东西。。。and have loads and loads of fun...

Here's Siyi jumping into the picture at the Tung Chung factory outlets. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we only managed to get stuff from Esprit... Pretty nice tops there. Some of the things there are not rock-bottom cheap, but cheaper than what you get at the stores. So yeap.. after that, we headed to Disneyland!

Minnie at the entrance... and look!

Mickey and Minnie greeting us during the Christmas parade. And that sadly was the only shot I got of these 2 iconic Disney figures.

Mabel, Ade and Siyi... with our boarding passes for a ride...

And here's Sleeping Beauty's castle all lighted up. They set of fireworks at 8pm everynight.. Beautiful! S omagical.. but yeah.. you can just spend half a afternoon there. So I dun think the entrance ticket will be very much worth it. But then again, it is nice to go and see them... Some sort of a childhood thingee...

We also made a trip to Ocean Park! 2 themeparks!!!

Watched the seal and dolphin shows. I heart dolphins! And the good thing was that we did not have to queue very long for the rides. So yep... we took the roller coasters and what not...

Also went into the aquarium... WhootS! loads of nice and huge fishies... Makes me feel like going to pick up scuba diving. How I would love to dive into the sea and swim with the fishes. And it reminded me of the time I went to the Underwater World after my internship with Zhumei and Val. Hahaha...

And yep.. we saw the pandas. They were cute and very clumsy if I would say so...

And then Ocean Park was also where we got Bat Man and Schwein, seen on the left and right shoulder of gingerbread man respectively.

Ok... so much for the fun thingee... what about food? Heh... loads and loads of desserts.

But first.. the main course...From left to right on top, the first is a plate of sliced beef for steamboat. See the soup pot bubbling in the middle of the 2nd row. Yep.. it's from this place called 有骨气 and the soup base is damn good! Yummilicious!

And then how to forget dim sum... har gow and siew mai being served up next... And then we have egg tarts - you can get very good ones from practically everywhere! :)

The last picture is of a crepe we had at this revolving restaurant at Wan Chai. We went for high-tea (so tai tai right?). Hahaha.. good food aplenty! As for desserts...

One of my favourite dessert to have in HK is 杨支金露. It's mango puree with mango cubes together with pomelo. and i declare the one sold at Lucky Desserts (发记) the best simply because they are very generous with their mango! another one would be the Almond paste dessert. And so... I think we went for desserts like at least 5 times during our trip.

Hahaha. by some stroke of luck, the top row of pics are all from Lucky Desserts. We have the Durian Pancake which is pretty good as the durian is rather fragrant. Following that, Almond Paste and finally, 杨支金露.

Next, we have steamed milk which is oh-so-delicious! I had the ginger one and it's just so soothing. 杨支金露 from 许溜山. and then almond paste dessert again from another rather good dessert place called 满记. And finally, there's some red bean paste(?), Mango sago dessert and Walnut paste.

Yep.. shall blog till here... we also went up to the Peak where it was brrrr cold... went into the wax museum there, walked the Avenue of Stars at Tsim Sha Tsui and visited Mabel's uni. heh.. more pictures the next time! :)

Week one of my final sem in uni came and went. Although only doing 3 mods this sem, but deadlines seem to be pretty tight with my thesis, commentaries and papers all due very close to each other. But must cherish this last semester...

What else have I been busy with? Nothing much actually. I got a new phone! Wahahahhas.. it's a Motorola v9. Pretty ok.. and I like it cause its slick and I like the rather unique mahagony colour.

I finally got approval to run my thesis study! Whoots!!! Haven't been that excited at receiving an email for some time liao. Cause I have been worried that they would reject the proposal and stuff. But all's well in the end!

A whole new sem ahead.. looking forward to meet some people whom I haven't seen in a while. Yeah.. that means you Val! Hahaha.. taking modules with many friends I've made over the past 3.5 years, every class is like a gathering. Here's to a funfilled sem!

Happy New Year!!! Ok.. my new year greetings always comes a bit later than the 1st Jan.

I was just looking through my archives... I've been blogging for 4 and a half years. That's quite a lot of things to say. From the 2nd half of my JC years to now, when I'm entering my last sem at Uni.

Well.. wishes for the new year...

• I guess to be more focussed - work on my thesis and the last 3 modules of my undergrad life
• To find a job - hoping, wishing, maybe an overseas posting? More importantly though, I hope it is work that I enjoy and in a company where I will be given opportunities to grow.
• To better appreciate and love the people around me - family, friends.
• Try not to procrastinate too much...

And now... looking back at 2007 so that I can draw a close to the year...

Having spent almost 5 months out of Singapore, I guess the highlight of the year would be my exchange to Switzerland... Looking at these pics of gorgeous scenary never fails to make me smile... :)

Bellinzona - in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.

Rheinfalls

Interlaken, Switzerland

And then, there's the thrill of working on my senior thesis albeit all the hard work. Getting approval, working out the kinks and details... another sem to slog it out...

My recent trip to Hongkong with Siyi and Ade, meeting Mabel there and meeting up with Sea and Charlotte, friends I met on exchange. Heh... Watching Jay Chou which set me off on a mini Jay Chou craze...

And I think more importantly, having quite a bit of 'me-time' for December. So apologies if I seem anti-social and stuff. First, I got a handphone that loses my smses and can't msg very well. But I had time to recharge and slack... A wonderful Christmas and New Year.

And now.. onward to a New Year! I just have to settle that dratted IRB application... heh...

Hi! My name is 八万 (or bat man in Cantonese. Note: It is 'bat man' not batman!). In case you can't guess, I'm a reindeer! hurhurhur... I was born in Ocean Park and was 'adopted' on 17th December. Ya... here are my owner and her friends...

Siyi, Adelene and yep.. there's my owner.. savouring and enjoying their egg tarts!

They visited Mabel... and look! there's my good friend, Schwein in Mabel's arms. Yep.. Schwein is a pink pig.. also born in Ocean Park. Oh... There's also Jellyfish... with a pretty pink blush... but no pics... hahaha...

Anyway, in HK, my owner went for Jay Chou's concert! *squeals...* It was superbly good.. but all the photos are in Mabel's computer.. so till she gets back...

In Hongkong, my owner visited Disneyland and watched the pretty fireworks, went Ocean Park, ate loads of mango desserts (esp 杨支甘露... see pic below), hotpot (ie: steamboat) and well.. shopped.

Yep yep... so that's for HK... So before I leave you all.. let me show you my multiple images...

Hi... I'm 'Zorro' bat man, or I can be a demure lady, or an assasin, or well... Maybe it's just to protect my poor nose and lungs from all the polluted air....

Behold... General Bat Man! Don't I just look grand and regal???

Oh.. and on a final note, my owner wishes everyone a Merry Christmas (abeit belated) and a aHappy New Year. May all wishes come true for the next year... Oh... and hopes that you all will forgive her for not updating for so long. She is just enjoying herself nua-ing at home and not wanting to do anything. Another couple of weeks to nua away!!!!!!!!!

And so I have neglected my blog... Do you see the cobwebs growing yet?

A quick recap... Exams ended on Wed, 28th Nov... Was rushing a report and slides for a presentation for Friday morning. Had to finish up my IRB application as well... Not enough sleep even after exams.

Presentation came and went. Seems quite ok. Filed for IRB approval before the Dec deadline. Yay! And then, it was mega-nua-ing time...

Love spending days just curled up in bed, reading. I could even be computer-less.

Going to HK in 3 days time. Excited!!! :) yet unprepared... hahaha... Time to pack...

I don't think I've ever felt so disgusted studying for any modules in my whole 3.5 years of uni life. I just feel like crying whenever I flip the developmental psych textbook.

What's in the finals? Everything from text, slides and presentations.

Some things in the slides are not in the textbook. A LOT of things in the textbook are not in the slides.

I don't see a central theme or concept that I can organize my thoughts with. For example, in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in early adulthood, I get stuff on:

• Emerging adulthood (people in bwtween adolescence and early adulthood),
• Creativity (with tips on how to be creative)
• Sexuality which includes STDs, rape, homosexuality debate
• Work - how to choose a job, what kind of outloook, how losing job would increase stress

How are the latter 2 related to either cognitive or physical development?

There's just so much to read and memorise and I can't do it. I have no idea how she is going to test them. I've been whining ever since I started studying. How come it never seems to be better?

It's Thursday! Ack! Where has the week gone???

Trying to mug... mug... mug... Squeeze in a couple of meetings on some outstanding projects, some time spent slacking and having a long lunch. Yup, I have 4 days more to exams. Jiayou!

On a happier note, I'm hooked onto jay Chou's new album. Happy Happy songs! I like almost all the songs except maybe for 无双 which is still ok, just not one that I can listen to it on repeat. Current favs include 彩虹, 蒲公英的约定, 青花瓷, 阳光宅男. Soundalicious!!!

救命啊!!!

Ok... I'll either need to
a) lock up my laptop, or
b) not turn it on, or
c) ditch it, or
d) let it rot at home while i'm in school and vice versa. or
e) what other ways are there to not use a laptop?

I'm just doing a million and one thing besides studying. Try... visiting blogs multiple times a day, reading news...

I study. Just too little.

Just went to collect my new passport... Waiting 2 hours to get it.

Annoying neighbours who are doing some reno work... prevented me from sleeping with the incessant and annoying drilling this morning.

Mugging in school... books, papers strewn all over. Developmental psych...

Reports and data analysis due.. soon...

Hooked onto playing computer games. What is new? Control.

This sem has been trying
and i'm not winning.
No matter how well I do,
I'll still lose.

I spent less time laughing this sem
I spent more time fretting this sem.
Sometimes, I don't know myself anymore.
What I want. Why i do certain things. How I escape.

I run when things don't go well
I disappear.
At the end of the day,
does it matter so much?

Thanks to those who have been by me
I've been a pretty whiney bitch all sem I know.
Just too caught up with things,
I wish I could change.

Would I exchange all that I achieve,
for times better spent?
Maybe if I could,
I would spend more time with you, you and you.

It's not too late. I hope.

So today went ok... after rushing the paper, mugging for my term-end test... Did decently ok for the MCQ test... A couple of careless mistakes and not rusting myself got to me... but i am over it...

Tired from lack of sleep. Running pilot study now...

I have 2 more days of class... But I officially have met all deadlines for school related work now. Yay! 1 more report for the consulting project due though... But yeah.. working on it.

I need sleep.

I'm frankly on the verge of hysteria now... I have a 20% MCQ/True-False test tomorrow at 830... I am still halfway through my stuff.. and I'm editing and touching up my Apple report. Due tomorrow as well.

The test is important to me cause I think it makes or breaks my grade for this mod.. and I need to MAKE IT...

It sucks. My groupmates are probably studying... and mugging or sleeping after mugging. Makes me think I'm being the stupid one. But.. the report is 40%. What do you want me to do? Throw in a half-baked work? I hate it when they don't offer comments... I bet there are grammatical errors and stuff they didn't catch. Makes me wonder if they read the report. Might as well it be an individual report in that case?

Maybe I shall just not sleep tonight. pia!

=== Start of Rant ===

iPISSED!!!

I sent out a report at 1 am on Sunday night. I did up most of the report. I just needed people to look through , edit and email me to tell me that it is ok.

It was 9.45pm. Only 1 member replied me. They had Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to look through. At 10pm. I received another email telling me she just checked her mail. Don't kid me. Never check mail from Sunday to Tuesday???

I asked a question as to whether we should analyze this part in the report. No one replied to that question, telling me everything is fine and there is nothing to add. Errr... ok? So do I am not supposed to add anything to my question?

I had to CALL to get an answer.

iPissed.

=== End of Rant ===

Ok.. so in the last 6 days since I blogged, I finished... 2 presentations with 2 group papers... The presentation for cogpsych was pretty bad I would say... but then other things happened to make up for it.. Like me suddenly realising how to write my OCD paper on Apple (Thanks Fran!) and the getting my approval to start on my pilot study for my thesis.

And then, it was pia-ing for my dev psych paper and presentation... Paper and presentation up in just 2 and a half meetings? Thanks to Baoqin, Chiching and Yen Ee who made me realise the importance of having wonderful wonderful groupmates! :) Stayed back in school on Thursday night to rush the report and slides when the presentaiton was Fri. But i would say we managed to pull off a pretty decent job trying to convince people of the merits of cohabitation.

And then... it was the mad rush for the important proposal report for my thesis... I started at 10am on Sat... and then worked on it all the way until 2am that very night. I had breaks.. but they were minimal k! I have never poured so much sweat and blood. Of course, the first draft was not very pretty... and I had some editing to do the next day... but it's the first time I actually finished a paper like way before it's due...

For the past few papers, I usually rush it through the night.. and hand them in just barely before the deadlines.. So yep.. quite happy with this. Used up so much of my brain on Saturday that I slacked a bit on Sunday.. before putting the finishing touches in.

Am pretty satisfied with my work.. now hoping that my prof thinks the same way too...

The week ahead... Another paper to churn out.. The apple one this time. Nothing to my project mates.. but I seem to be doing up the full report. It's like I'm doing it up from scratch and just incorporating the points in. It's getting tough... and I feel like bitching about my groupmates. But I also know it's not their fault. Did I take on too much then? is it a case of mistrust? or do I think too highly of myself? I feel my brain being squeezed.. but ya... as usual.. everything will be fine. :)