...

Almost.There.


----
Edit:

The seconds tick by. The final paper looms: in 36 hours. But I can count the days left to 11th May; less than 2 weeks. My concentration wavers (well, whatever little that's of it). I know the paper's the most important thing now. But.its.so.hard.

Of the future.

It must be nice to be studying something you've always wanted and envisioned yourself studying, isn't it?

At least you won't end up crying and asking yourself why are you doing this and not having an answer for the whys when faced with notes to digest and feeling utterly miserable.

Zzz.

Too long a study break for 1 module isn't very good either.

The productivity today is terrible; then again, it could be also due to something else which I have been trying to do. Heh.

11 May: 2 weeks more!!

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2007 Pulitzer Prizes - Feature Photography
Got this off a friend's journal. Do take a look at it.

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Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

blast from the past: ny co pictures

Because I'm procrastinating like I always do, I thought I might put up some of my favourite images in my ny*co photo album, like I've always wanted to do. All these pictures... were originally taken in the era of film, so in order to upload them without a scanner I had to take pictures of the picture using my digital camera. ahem

ny dizi'01!! (without the sec1s whoops) This was taken outside VCH on the day of the finals heh. 5 sec4s, 4 sec2s. I miss the days of being a junior -sob- Back left to right: jiaxin, qiuchan, kerchoon, qingying
Front left to right: yunsu, karin, me, meixin, jiamin, laoshi. hahahaha


with the little sec1s of 2001 heh. The yellow stain on karin's blouse... is thanks to the little sec1s of 2002 who borrowed this picture of mine FOR A STUPID IT CLASS PROJECT. ahem.
back from left: meixin yunsu me karin
front from left: xiwen yingying sabrina zhixuan



This is the BEST performance I've ever taken part in. I will never forget the sound. I also remember jiamin trying to motivate us by asking us what award are we aiming for (after audi practice) and us sec2s deadpanned "certificate of participation." The expression on her face was priceless. =P



This picture taken in m401 after syf. I still have a copy of this in a photo frame on my table.



This was taken in 2003 when we were celebrating laoshi's birthday.
from back left: zhixuan me yunsu karin junhua jaime caina yinshan yingying xiwen sinyee juliana jinglin xiner
front left: laoshi, meixin, sabrina
How does it feel to know that even the "sec1s" in this picture are already in jc1? 老了...


------
First time I'm doing this:

laiweng: yea, the small intestine is this long. zzz. unless, of course, i memorised the numbers wrongly hehe
lileng: I WISH YOU SIGNED UP TOO =(
damian: yea. zzzzzzzzzz.

Biochemistry Talk.

While on the way home yesterday after the *&^%$#@$%^ biochemistry paper, I considered writing this entry in german. And after running through a few possible sentences, I concluded that I didn't have the vocabulary and proper sentence structures needed, so. If I have to describe the biochemistry paper using my very own systhesised polypeptide, here it is:

serine-cystine-arginine-glutamic acid-tryptophan-glutamic acid-aspartic acid.

Don't understand? Think of the one letter abbreviations for these amino acids.

Okay fine its S-C-R-E-W-E-D.

And I am terribly proline-isoleucine-serine-serine-glutamic acid-aspartic acid because I spent all my time mugging the stupid enzymes and products in the various metabolic cycles and pathways and doing pH calculation after pH calculation and enzyme kinetics calculation after enzyme kinetics calculations and NONE OF IT CAME OUT. Do I feel cystine-histidine-glutamic acid-alanine-theonine-glutamic acid-aspartic acid? YOU BET I DO.

ALANINE-ARGININE-ARGININE-ARGININE-ARGININE-GLYCINE-HISTIDINE!!!!!!!!!!!! (Translation: ARRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!!)

You may ask, ladies and gentlemen, so what exactly came out? Well, questions like "what is a Ramachandran Plot for?" - which completely caught me off guard because the only part of proteins that I mugged for was the damned pH calculations. And it was impossible to do by elimination. And OH I have a knack of predicting what will be tested, but unfortunately, they are always those stuff that I DIDN'T MUG INTENSIVELY FOR. Like how I once mentioned that perhaps we should look at the practicals too instead of just the notes because some stuff aren't in the notes, like the photospectrometry and the equation A = ε c l AND IT CAME OUT. I tell you, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that question. Thankfully I spent hours poring over it at the start of the semester because I didn't understand the theory behind it, so the equation stuck. That was the only answer that I wanted to confirm with my lab partner behind me (who's great with equations and calculations, like all guys are. zzz.). And that's it, I'm not interested in knowing the answers for the other questions.

The only consolation I can derive from this paper is that a lot of people were moaning about it, so I sure do hope the bell curve doesn't make my results look too bad. Then again, it seems that people moan about a paper regardless of how well they do, so I just might be the only one with a truly screwed up paper while everyone else had turned in flawless scripts. I sure don't understand why people wouldn't be honest with how they found any examination. Unless of course, anything that doesn't look like its going to score an A+ is considered screwed up. And oh, for the record, I think I might just actually fail this paper.

Molecular Genetics next Wednesday. I must start mugging soon.

Ahhh/ More Random Anatomy Snippets.

I wonder if there's enough time to settle all the stuff I need/want to settle before flying off in 3 weeks' times for 2 months. There seems to be so many things to do/arrange.

Oh well, I'd think about that after the exams; no use reading stuff now and getting all excited about travelling when the only travelling I'd be doing in the next few hours would be to the examination halls and back. It won't do wonders to my mugging schedule and results too. Except that ONE comment from hs has been haunting me since last night arghhhhh. =(

By this time tomorrow I'd (almost) be done with human anat, and on Tuesday I'd (almost) be done with Biochemistry too. And then its the final push for next Wednesday's Molecular Genetics (which I haven't touched AT ALL in lieu of the looooong interval).

Lass mich nicht entmutigen!!!!!!

(If the german is wrong... blame Leo D-E Ergebnisse. Okay fine I changed the dich to mich since I'm referring to myself. Don't know if it works since somethings don't seem to be able to be translated directly.)

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Fun with numbers!!

The kidney measures 10x5.5x3cm and weighs roughly 150g. There are 6-18 renal pyramids in a kidney. The ureter measures 30cm. The spleen measures 12cm, weighs 60g and is the largest lymphoid organ in the body. The thymus is at its heaviest at 40g before puberty. The testis measures 5x2.5x2.5cm and weights 10-12g. There are 4 seminiferous tubules per lobule, and there are roughly 200 lobules in the testis. The ovary measures 5x2.5x1cm and weighs 6-8g. The pituitary gland weighs 1/2 ounce and is the size of a small grape. The thyroid gland is about 34g. The duodenum is 25cm long, the jejunum is 2.5m long and the ileum is 3.5m long. The large intestine is 1.5m long. There are 20 milk teeth and 32 adult teeth. The oesophagus is 25cm long. There are 4 general layers of tissue in the GIT. The parotid gland is largest salivary gland but only secretes 25% of saliva. The most saliva is by the submandibular gland, with 70% of saliva. The last 5% is from the sublingual gland. The rectum is 15cm long. The pancreas is made up of 99% exocrine and 1% endocrine cells.

Most importantly, medical students who read my blog (you know who you are) and actually read through the above paragraph, TAG ME IF I'M WRONG. But if its after 23 April 5p.m., then er, don't bother. Heh.

------------------

I am worried because all the past year papers have asked for autonomic nervous system and peripheral nervous system, but there's precious LITTLE of the ANS in the notes.

Exams are here!

Okay, the exam period has officially started. I already have reflections for them, but they can wait, like everything else.

I have a very bad itch to go shopping after I saw a nice blouse while walking to the MRT station yesterday. Maybe after my first 2 papers...

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OMG what a great start to my term in co -headdesk-


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The thing about anatomy, is that Latin names sound the same.

Like, plicae circulares, trabeculae carnae, rugae, muscularis pectinati ALL MEAN FOLDS, except that the first is in the small intestine, the 2nd is in the heart ventricle, the third is in the stomach and the fourth is in the heart atria.

And I just might write that the corpora cavernosa is an example of a commissural fibre in the brain which allows communication between 2 hemispheres. If that happens, I would have just discovered the reason why guys always have sex on their minds, because the said commissural fibre is supposed to be corpus callosum while corpora cavernosa is one of two kinds of erectile tissue found in the penis. (the other's corpus spongiosum, which I have already mentally referred to as corpus LUTEUM for nth number of times already. Which will be very wrong too, because corpus luteums can only be found in menstruating females.)

Its Friday. The exam is on Monday. Can you smell DOOM?

Life.

How did you feel when you read the stories of the Virginia shooting?



---------------

I hate pH calculations. If I could actually see what I'd be doing with this in future, fine, but since I'm not interested in research at all and this course prepares students for research... I don't know what I'm doing and I really don't feel like studying.

Its times like this when I fully understand why some people just hate studying. I always enjoyed going to school and all, until university life started and I live each day of the semester in anticipation of the weekends... then the mid sem break... then the end of sem break... I can't decide if I'm looking forward to graduation or not, because that's the end and I'd officially be doing something I hate for the rest of my life. Go me.

------

Will I ever feel ready to do pH calculations correctly?
.
.
.
.
.
I guess not.

Mugging Chronicles #2

When you cannot remember the amino acid name, CREATE YOUR OWN.

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Is utterly miserable because I overate for dinner and now my abdomen hurts. =(

Mugging Chronicles #1 The Joys of Mugging Biochemistry.

Mugging for biochemistry is very tiresome. The notes say so little and the textbook says so much, I wonder where to draw the line for knowledge required to tackle the exam. And then, of course there's the difference between the itch to know everything, right down to the mechanism, and the actual limitation of my brain space and time available.

It is with some degree of amusement, frustration and horror that I conclude: I am actually looking forward to next semester, where we will be studying metabolism in greater detail. Great.

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While on the way home today, I realise life is basically about Sleeping and Snacking. However, to determine whether Life's Good or Really Bad, we have to factor in the 3rd S. If the 3rd S in your life is Studying, then we could say its Sehr Schlecht. If its Slacking, then perhaps life is Sehr Schön.


And why is there so much Shit in life sometimes? Too many (a)SS(e)S...


(And yes, I am fully aware that German Grammar Rules dictate that the first letter of any word should be in capital letters ONLY if its at the start of a sentence, a name, or a noun.)

Perhaps you could declare me insane...

Superlative at time wasting

I've had this itch to play the 笛子 for an entire week, and I finally scratched it properly today. After changing the 笛膜 and playing a bit of 五梆子 (which sucked, for obvious reasons), I realise it's been a long time since I last heard this 音色 from my darlings. Bright, clear and loud. omigosh I'm SO HAPPY =) =)

Tis' the end of the semester....

I don't know why I'm feeling worried because of the german semester test results. I know I'm not going to fail nor do fantastically, so why am I still so scared? Sheeeeeesh.

I really should find some way to stop coming online - It's doing wonders for my revision. Even if I'm appearing offline.

----------------

Mugging updates at 8.45am:

Because the Immune System is a pain in the ass, I shall start on round 1 of the Reproductive System first, and end the day with Glycolysis from biochemistry.


And 加油!! to you-know-who-you-are. =)

Biology and Physics.

Okie so the marks for the last 1326 ca is out, and I have improved from the previous ca. And the last ca had a heavier slant towards bio while this ca was more towards physics. HA.HA.MY.LIFE.IS.GREAT. Think I'd end up with B for this module, which is quite sad.

All the same, I can now kiss goodbye to physics forever and say hello to anatomy, biochemistry and genetics till 2 may. Unless I take the mcat in future, though. Also, doesn't my list of modules seem vaguely to resemble medical studies? Haaaaaaaaa but I can say its a poor substitute because at the end of 3-4 years I'd be qualified to wash test tubes. La. La.

I'm generally happy until I think about what I'm doing. On some days I can push that thought away immediately, on some days I can't. Evidently today is a whole new low for this year but its okay I'M HAPPY AND COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH MY ACADEMIC LIFE YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY =) =) =)


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Things to do after exams: (Stars indicate how important they are and must be achieved before 11 May)

1. Daydream about traveling and make sure nothing important is left out. How to meet up in germany etcetcetc **
2. Pre order HP7!!!! (May have to do this earlier though, maybe before my last paper)
3. Go shopping for shoes; don't want toes to freeze off in canada or germany. It won't be winter obviously, but apparently the temperatures can dip to 10 degrees or lower if I'm incredibly lucky.
4. Organise MSN contacts - yes constance, I finally see your point.
5. Blog template and links - about time, don't you think?
6. Watch hcco practices and syf - honours here we come!! =P *
7. Settle nus co issues before going off - this should be placed higher because this is absolutely essential but I am too lazy to retype this. (Includes coffee session with mr lum.) ***
8. Obtain medication to reduce discomfort during plane descent - the earache when returning from taipei was so terrible i was leaking tears. Am not interested in re-experiencing that anytime soon. **********************
9. Bum around shopping. And I want to borrow/buy Lolita.
10. Teach mummy how to sms ffth after delivery of bread. *
11. Clear nus email and documents in laptop.
12. Shine my nails and go for a haircut, maybe rebond it again. (Yes, I am fully aware that this line has completely, utterly revealed my vain side.)


Back to glycolysis.

$$$

Interesting, ministers' pay.

I think 33% (maximum) increase is too much. And the pegging is rubbishy.

Of results this semester...

Now that the very last test for Deutsch 2 has come and gone, I'd like to say that my grade for german this semester is going to be really bad. The test was doable, by all means, but as to where I stand relative to everyone else, ahhhh... Plus I got my scores for oral, and I'm torn between rejoicing that I didn't fail after the supremely screwed up individual component and weeping because the marks are a drastic drop from last semester.

Plus the results of another CA's on ivle and I have done really poorly in comparison to the cohort. I think I hate the bell curve. There doesn't seem to be any way of getting a good CAP unless one tops the cohort for every single damned blasted module unless one is a mugger and/or a genius. And since I'm neither... you draw the conclusions.

It doesn't take the end of this semester to conclude that my CAP is going to fall: so much for my CAP 4.5 wish hur.hur.

Now if you'd excuse me, I'd go take a nap (the time of the month makes me REALLY drowsy) and then attempt to learn parts of A/O level physics. My performance for the test tomorrow... it doesn't take much to realise that I am not likely to scrape through it given my sec2 knowledge of physics. Damn you nus for making it a requirement for life science students to take at least one physical sciences module, damn you.

Teletubbies gag'd.

Notice I'm blogging a lot more now that I have work to do.

Anyway, if anyone needs proof that we're mad (or rather, that I am MAD), behold the conversation gag'd had last night.

(we were talking about the times alex and gladys kept pulling off my scrunchie, gladys saying the scrunchie stinks and me defending the smell of my scrunchie which resulted in a period of silence and me saying that alex has been keeping silent..)

bold and italics are my own emphasis.

Schmetterling: La la.
shinigami: alex is concentrating on trying not to scratch
geraldineeeeeeee: Po
Schmetterling: HS probably said something like "it stinks"
geraldineeeeeeee: telly tubby
shinigami: and watching the conversation unfold
geraldineeeeeeee: telly tubbies
geraldineeeeeeee: say helloooooo
[lamb to the slaughter]: OMG.
geraldineeeeeeee: no he didnt
geraldineeeeeeee: but nvm
geraldineeeeeeee: eh oh!
[lamb to the slaughter]: I gave up renal physiology for teletubbies

Learning German...

Listening to Chinese songs and Mugging for German is mutually exclusive.

Zzz.

I don't know why I am so lethargic this few days. This is smelling like a recipe for disaster because I have 2 tests next week.

Because I'm bored when I really should be studying for german...

What Your Hands Say About You

You are artistic, intuitive, and inspired. You have good people skills. Idealistic and dreamy, you tend toward the impractical. You have a knack for getting yourself in sticky situations. Consistent and reliable, you like to count on structure and routine in your life. Your emotions tend to be nervous and potent. Your energy - both positive and negative - deeply impacts your life.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

When not doing work, I'm either wasting time online or dreaming about what happens after exams. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP.

One last comment - it seems like inter school relations have reached an all time high. after i told z-x yesterday that his juniors didn't get honours and mine did, he said that they must be sore at losing to ny this time round. i was like, er, no i don't think they are... in fact, my juniors seem to be defending them from various malicious comments. Hmm.

LAST POST ON SYF I SWEAR!!!

Just a very quick one: I can't help myself. =P

One of the joys about having a little cousin still in nyco is that I get to bug her very often about nyco stuff. However, it doesn't help that cherie is exceedingly blur and loves to give me vague answers like "I think got 小/大组 ah.. I THINK." or "Er I THINK syf is in April..." YOU THINK HUH. BUT BUT BUT at least I can just keep asking without feeling paiseh, which is very good for someone with a leaky memory for dates unless its written down. And I've also managed to obtain recordings of their syf performance too Muahaha.

And I'm going to blog about the recordings. Lala. (Tis an attempt to not start mugging yet. I'm terrible.)

Well, the quality of the recordings sure don't do much justice to what we heard on Tuesday. So I'd just shoot off from memory what some of us old farts thought while listening. The school before was surprisingly soft, I think much of the sound was for some reason trapped on stage. And then as the juniors went on stage and ms chek waited for them, kellie and I just started waving frantically. (KELLIE MY BELOVED DESK PARTNERRRR yes as you can tell, we make each other do stupid things.) After a while they were off! The first note came out well and after a while kellie asked whether she was hearing things, because they were a LOT louder than the previous orchestra. Oh and since I'm on volume of orchestra I might as well go on to MY DIZI JUNIORS WERE GOOD.

I was quite worried about dizi yinse and phrasing for the set piece and xindi yinzhun for molihua (I'm lazy to type chinese la) and at that point I wanted so much to be able to, help them or something but aiyah, life as a science student doesn't leave much free time for other interests... so could only comment a bit here and there and hope that they manage to get what I was trying to point out. Which they did =) Whether it was due to what I said is of course highly unlikely and debatable, but overall yinse was good, lifern's solo was good and so was elise's, everyone sounded together, and xindi (sorry ah I don't know the names of the little juniors playing) with sheng for the part at the start of molihua WAS PITCH PERFECT. -sheds a tear- and suona improved tremendously! sure, there were little bloopers here and there, but the overall performance was still damn good.

Many of us were quite touched by the juniors' performance and after they went off stage we were asking each other if we all felt the music. But I was quite worried that we only "felt" the music because we were all rooting for them. After listening to a few more orchestras, we realised that the juniors also had something else that the others didn't: a very polished, refined sound. When the melody was loud, the volume was there, but it wasn't abrasive. When it was soft, the melody didn't collapse into notes. There was this elasticity and fluidity throughout the music. The phrasings were all very careful and the music just flowed very naturally. The last part of wind cresenti built up very well and it still gives me goosebumps. and molihua is dance inducing too. =) And of course, because nyco has an unique and wonderful alumnus as conductor. We all fondly remember the times we get scolded very badly for zillions of things. Juniors, if you think ms chek is fierce, you should interview your seniors, especially those who were around when she first started conducting nyco. hehe.. when us old farts went back a few weeks ago, we were all astounded when she didn't chew up the various sections for so many things when it was so near syf. (yea while it was damn scary when we got chewed up last time, we look back fondly and laugh now.. hahahaha)

Oh well. Tuesday was also memorable for me because I was criticising this particular performance of this particular song which I have played before, only to realise later that the seniors of that particular orchestra were seated on my left. Good job geraldine.

And when the results were announced, us seniors in the 2 rows seem to have screamed louder and applauded longer than the juniors. Mad, we are.

And I think they should not do away with paper. It just devalues all the other awards.

This ends my last post on syf. well done, nyco!

Post-syf

So apparently things are getting ugly as usual. But kids will be kids, especially if they are XY. Part of me is actually quite pleased that apparently ___ and the juniors are better than _____ (about time!!) but another part of me is quite disgusted at some of the comments by certain people from/previously from ___.

Oh well, nothing is transient, and all the mean words uttered now will taste like dust 2 years later if their juniors cannot replicate history. I think feeling happy that you achieved a certain set of results is natural and saying that your organisation is the best and the greatest and everything is perfectly normal but when one starts to put others who may or may not have done as well down... Then there's a problem somewhere.






Can't believe tchsco didn't achieve honours =( Even though I didn't listen, but I expected and hoped that they would do well too.

[edit] after listening to their recording, i'm quite disappointed actually. hope they will buck up for next syf. especially the suonas!!!!


Why am I still bothered by things which I have left behind a long time ago? Hahaha...

Next up: jc syf!! hcco - honours!! =P

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My earhole is half infected and my left cheek's sore and possibly bleeding because I have been accidentally chewing on it for the last few days. I think its the wisdom tooth DAMNIT.

syf

The juniors did it!! From silver to gold to honours in 2-3 weeks!! =) So proud of them all...

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the 2nd best thing abt 3rd april is that I NOW HAVE TWO PACKETS OF 笛膜!!! TWO TWO TWO~~~

I had the urge to pee even before the juniors performed but i know i'd kick myself if i begged to be let off for german and skipped anat only to spend the precious 8 minutes in the toilet/outside the concert hall so i held it in until they moved off stage. once outside we (karin n i) saw the entire bunch of them and suddenly karin said "ehh 老师" and i turned and yelled "老师!!!!!!!!" he looks the same from what i remember in sec2 (well, maybe a bit older, and he did er, undergo a few hairstyle changes... -snicker- there was this one disaster cut where he was complaining abt for a while.) i wonder if he remember our names but he sure did remember our faces. (even if he didnt after the way i yelled 老师!!!! he couldnt have possibly asked us who we were...)

and after various comments abt the juniors' performance and syf in general,
老师: "下个月就轮到你们了"
us: "er... 我们早就毕业了... 现在在大学" (yes i know 2 years isn't very long, but still...)

and i remembered that we didnt have any more 笛膜 (it's beyond pathetic i tell you, the way we would stare at the 膜孔 of the 笛子 we were using during nusco practices and go "shit la my 笛膜破了 you got 笛膜 not...?" knowing full well that neither of us actually has any more of the 笛膜 we favour because neither of us seen 老师 in 2 years. and we'd end up either using some 笛膜 we previously "condemned" or some other common brand one, all the while bitching about how lousy the 笛膜 is and how we so need to look for 老师 to get 笛膜 one day...) so i asked if he actually had any with him and he did!! so we made a trip to the (male) locker room and him saying we were quite privileged because no girls have ever been in there -_-" and the number of doors in the staff areas is stupid and crazy. but we now have 笛膜!!!!!!!