Monday, April 13, 2009

Thoughts during a Mid-Monday Afternoon Mug Session

The sights before me are as captured in the following three photographs. The sounds... there is no sound lest the shuffling of papers as another set of notes are successfully copied, or the clicking of the mouse to open another webcast session to help reinforce the ever-so-forgetful mind. I, however can be taken as an anomaly in this sample of bobbing black heads (a feeble attempt at incorporating EC2303 into this blog article...). Idling around, Facebook surfing, shameless napping... these are what make up the bulk of my daily itinerary at YIH study room. Its about 3.20 in the afternoon now, Michelle seems to be throughly caught up in her law stuff and Qiu Rong, she frantically going through tons of what looks to be stats and maths note. JJ's off to "finish" his assignment and I am sitting here, near the entrance looking throughly lost. 

Table Top

To my left.

To my right.

The finals are in two and a half weeks time and its pretty obvious many are feeling the crunch of the up and coming examinations. Again, the story is so very different in my case. Having selected my modules based on what I thought would be important in time to come rather than what I would like to study, I am extremely unmotivated in pressing on the assault. Econometrics, Macro-Analysis, Micro... all have been reduced to a blur of roman symbols and random numerical equations before my oh-so-tired eyes. Two more weeks... till I get my one final chance to reset the course I want to embark on for the next 2-3 years. Its hard to imagine oneself in two years time, graduating, starting on one's careers... but then again it was hard to imagine sitting for the O' levels, A' levels and enlisting in the armed forces too. One moment, a hard to envision possibility in the future; a moment later, a mere reflection in the ever expanding list of "been there, done that". Oh well... I guess we all have to go through it at some point in time. 

Demonstrations in the streets of Bangkok

On a less personal note, the civil unrest in Thailand is getting worse all over again. I'll spare everyone the less thrilling details of what, why and how the mess in the "land of smiles" began, one can find the boring, all too familiar snippets of information in the papers and the daily news. Different Parties, Same People, Different Colored shirts, Same Crappy fight... Unless the government and the conflicting parties can come to some form of consensus, and solve the underlying issues responsible for the persistent unrest in Thailand... I'll never be able get the permission I need to resume my biannual shopping trips in กรุงเทพมหานคร :( My last scheduled trip was cancelled due to the Anti-Thaksin protests a couple of months back. For the sake of the Thai economy and my happiness:), let's all hope this storm blows over soon. 


Sunday's bike ride went terribly well. The ride was blissfully uneventful and many previously observed trends were broken. People woke up on time, the punctual ones were late and those many expected to run over a dog or get run over by a bus, survived the ride. :) 90 plus kilometers in mileage concluded by a sumptuous breakfast at Mac's, I really won't have my Sunday mornings any other way. 

This monday afternoon has been rather unproductive. Before I get back to the books, I really want to thank Kevin for helping me out with the bloody Maple quiz earlier. You're a lifesaver really :) And with that final statement, I am off to finish up one last set of notes before heading to the pool. Till the next entry!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Mad World - American Idol Contestant Adam Lambert

Beautiful rendition of an amazing amazing amazing song :)


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Mugging @ YIH

Togoparts; Bike Case; Facebook; Showdown; Dinner; Lightning; Stretch Cords; Subway; Mugging; Distractions; Noise; Toilet; Coffee; Vespa; Dumplings; Car Ride and most importantly friendship. 

Not taking the rather low productivity into account, I think the day went pretty well :)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Determination

I am going to finish Econometrics by tonight. Period. And before the night is over... I would have ran a couple of kilometers... and finished reading one of the most insightful blogs I have read in a long long time (excluding those that are already on the blog roll to the bottom left of this page...) 

Monday, April 6, 2009

The things I do on a Saturday Afternoon :)

I just thought that I should upload some of these photos before I settle down to get some work done. I kinda figured that some individuals out there might wanna know just how good I am with my hands and just how green my fingers... really are :) 

Washing the car...

Preparing the "Canvas"

My Advisor. Really needed his opinion on the progress of my work

My Advisor giving me pointers and tips on how to get the job done.

Masterpiece done:)

The Artists and the finished product.

Just thought the world needed a little bit more loving and peace haha :) Alrighty... Back to the books :)

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Sunday Morning Work-Out

The morning began at 6 am for me. Got up... lulled around a bit... downed a bowl of museli and nuts with that double shot expresso before dressing up and heading out. I am just going to stick with the point form narrative cause this is supposed to be a quick update (yes I am going to mug my arse off in about 10 minutes time...) and I don't want to delve too much into the gritty details. 

Most of the guys and girls arrived by 7.45 am and it wasn't long before we headed out for our Sunday ride... 

ok here's the ride brief:

I broke off and stuck with Nic and Norman for the remainder of the ride :)

Had lunch at Mac's 

Cycled home with JY

Heard the unfortunate news about Lemin's accident... 

OK... thats' about it... from me anyway... time to mug!!!


Friday, April 3, 2009

Game Theory

9.23 am... Well I think there was a significant improvement over 10.23 am yesterday. Anyway, I still went for a 3+ km run with my new pair of shoes :)

I am quite a noob at the technicalities of running but I do know that I have always been rather heavy heel striker when it comes to running (even walking...). With the new pair of shoes, there was a significant shift in the way my feet contacts the ground... I'll just stop here cause I am really sounding stupid trying to explain something I ain't too sure about. 

Pukka was good last night, with the three of us gorging on two waffle baskets worth of ice-cream. Nic proposed a boycott of Pukka for at least a week, because the prowess of its calorie booster is starting to take effect in a sure yet altogether subtle way. 

The hall accommodation arrangements have too been finalized. Things didn't go exactly according to plan but hey, all things happen for a reason right? I'll just take things as it is, be grateful that the 5 (or 6?) of us will be together for another academic year to come :)

My training program's pretty crapped up. I lack the discipline to get things going and to stay the course. I guess I'll be looking to Norman and JJ and the training bible for that extra strength. 

Alrighty... with that quick little update... its back to Vizzini and Wesley and their strategy profile of who's going to drink some bottle of poison on some random table... :(

 

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Almost...

I kinda figured that if only I stayed awake for two and a half more hours, I might have made it to the darn morning run... Sleep, more specifically the lack of it, does wonders... Anyway... Jason-0 and the rest of you morons-1 :S

Stupid Sleep Cycle... argh!!

I know its late... and I should really be sleeping soon if I wanna get up in time for tomorrow's run but... you really got to check this dude out... Beautiful covers... simply awesome!



Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Yawn!

Just got up... excellent sleep... all that's left now... carpe diem... (HAHA I hope thats the right way to use that oh-so-cool-I-sound-intelligent-term...)