Taking Charge

Attended the first BuskerFest Committee meeting today, and found out that I am to lead a team on the committee even though I am a relatively new member on board. This should prove to be rather interesting, given my various trips in the middle of summer.. and I guess this is a good way to develop my organizational and interpersonal skills.

Hopefully, through this, I can also develop some professional contacts that may be beneficial in the future.

Post-School Syndrome

Now that I'm officially finished my undergraduate degree (yes, I checked my marks that matter, and looks like I should be graduating this coming June), I am suffering from this post-school syndrome. The feeling that everyday is a waste of time, and that I haven't been productive, or I should be doing something other than sitting at home or going out to eat.

Meanwhile, I have been getting myself involved with more to do back home. I signed up for audition in the new talent search hosted by the local television station, knowing full well that my singing would lead to suicidal behaviours (no, I'm serious, many of my friends can testify). Furthermore, I am getting involved in planning for the BuskerFest that is happening in August of this year, when I don't even know if I'll still be in the country for the actual festival. On top of this, I'm planning a small trip with a group of old (both in physical age and number of years we have known each other) friends over the weekend. Oh and not to forget the grand graduation trip starting next week.

Looks like I have successfully replaced my stressful school life with another stressful life of planning, organizing, and partying. Perhaps that is what I meant to do all along.. to kill myself from stress..

Ugh.. why does it have to rain?

Just got home after chilling with some friends and watched Kill Bill Vol. 1 again. It's still an amazing movie, even watching it for the second time. Can you believe I actually woke up and went to church, and it's not even a Catholic church! I had to go see for myself what the appeal is for different churches, and different religions. My conclusion? It's all the same. Faith is something that you intrinsically possess - either you have it, or you don't. Regardless of the religion, it should only lead to self-improvement and self-consciousness. At least, that's what I got out of it today.

Bored a friend to death by dragging her to shop with me for my upcoming vacation. She must have been thinking, "What the heck was I thinking when I said I would go with him?" I would like to formally apologize for the boredom that she experienced today. In my defense, I seriously thought it would have been enlightening to be outside of her 'usual comfort zone' and experience different places! Next time I owe her a drink.

Moral of the day is never to impose your own ideas of 'fun' on other people.

Quiet Day

Today was quite a quiet day.. most of my friends were busy doing their own things (they had to pick the weekend that I come back to be busy.. argh), but fortunately a friend was also free so we spent most of the day together. At least I had company! Would have been nice if more people could join us though..

Was going to see a movie tonight, but didn't want to be a third wheel so I decided against it. I know how much I disliked it, so naturally I wouldn't make the mistake of being one.

I am the trivia master

After a grueling 7 hour battle on Trivia Pursuit last night, I outwitted Priscilla, Tim, Kate, and Janette and crowned (self-proclaimed) myself the king of trivia. The game taught me that (a) I can only answer science questions with absolute confidence and (b) I have a lack of general knowledge.

Finished!!

That had to be the hardest exam I have ever written. Not only was it difficult, it was fair, to the point, and tested every ounce of knowledge in the course. Excellent examination on the professor's part, not so good for me though.

But.. the important thing is.. I'M DONE! I'm outta here.. moving out tonight, and then coming back tomorrow to hang out with Priscilla, Lisa, Tim, Kate, and Janette. Should be a fun night.. then I'm moving out Friday for good.

The Finale

Tonight is the last time I'm studying on campus. Over the past five years, I have changed my studying location several times. From the Davis Centre library to Dana Porter library, or the department study room to an empty classroom, where I am sitting right now. Tomorrow, I will be writing my final undergraduate exam in the same room.. then it will be all over. Bring it on! This is the final showdown.

Oh yeah, I'm borrowing Prish's laptop to write this. Thanks Prish! (life of a person without a laptop is to borrow other people's laptop.. how sad)

Lack of Update

My laptop died last night while I was studying.. well, this morning to be exact. It wouldn't boot up anymore, and I think I fried the hard drive. Hopefully I will be able to retrieve the data. Until my exams are over, my only way to have any connection to the outside world is through my phone or school lab computers. Don't expect too much updates from me for the next little while..

As for psychology, well, let's just say that all my study notes were ON the laptop and now I have to start from scratch.

Intensive Studying

Been studying for my psychology exam this coming Saturday.. even went to the library today to photocopy some readings that I didn't have. I am starting to doubt that I'll finish reading all the required readings.. but hey, at least I tried.

Perception of Time

Time certainly runs faster when you don't pay attention.. it's much like the cliche saying that a watched pot never boils. I feel that staring at my psychology textbook has the same effect.. a watched book does not absorb well into your brain. I have spent a good number of hours staring at my lecture notes and my textbook, and none of it is going into my head..

Length of Time vs. Studying Motivation

I find that when I have a lot of time to study, I end up not studying half as much as if I only had very little time to study. I always feel that I have plenty of time, of course, until I hit the point of no return. Then I panic, and I resume my regular course of action of cramming, writing, forgetting. (I call it the exam memory mechanism - cram, write, flush)

Somehow I need to break the trend. My next examination is not until this Saturday, but I should really get my act together if I want to do well. Then the next one is the following Wednesday. Need to pick up the pace - afterall, this is going to mark the end of an era!

Colours.. lots of colours..

Couple of us got bored today and decided to colour our hair. Actually, it all started with colouring one girl's hair because she's feeling adventurous. In order to get her to highlight her hair, another friend said that he would if she would. Now he is the type that has always been against colouring hairs (citing that it is a shameful act to our own ancestry?), but his willingness to put aside his differences made the girl more willing to try it out.

What started out to be an innocent session with two people evolved into all four of us getting some parts of our hair highlighted. There were still a bit of colouring dye left in the bottle, when I decided to 'lighten' up my hair, and 'repair' the look of another friend that had her hair coloured previously but the colour is fading..

Now my hair is lighter than before!

As for my friends.. well, the girl who originally started this session off is pleased with her results. The guy was shocked (and then pleased) with his new look. As for the other girl, well, she was freaking out that her hair is too light and I swear would kill me if it looked bad. I guess everything turned out okay at the end.

Ouch (part 2)

After a crappy day with my first final exam, I found out that my friend got into a car accident. Misery loves company? I was glad to hear that nobody got hurt.. and let's just hope that nobody picks up on my bad luck.

Ouch..

What's worst than walking out of an exam feeling that you've just been stabbed to death with the professor's sharp questions?

Have half the room leave by the 2 hour mark, and your friends that stayed the full 3 hours to tell you that they stayed to 'triple check their answers'.

Satisfaction

The feeling of satisfaction when you see your labour of "blood, sweat, and tears" is actually making a difference is almost indescribable. As I was rambling on last week, my fourth year project was finally launched into a community project, spear-headed by the regional police force. Today, was the first time the project went to a school for demonstration. I was invited (okay, asked by the police very nicely) to attend the demonstration.

My fellow readers, I suppose you guessed the true reason for the police to invite me along. That's right, they don't want to lose face if the simulator fails. I was there as the.. ahem.. technical consultant, in case anything went wrong.

I obliged to attend, not only because I do feel (in some parts) that I am responsible for the functionality of the project, but to actually see the fruits of my labour at work. It was very satisfying to watch these high school students, climbing onto the driver's seat, and using the system that *I* helped to build. It hurts equally as much when they were saying how the "steering sucked" and "the brake is too stiff".. but I suppose I have to take the good with the bad.

Not to mention that now I only have half a day left to study for my final exam tomorrow..

Library.. library..

I'm back again.. for the last little while, I hope. After a weekend of 'relaxing' (to most people, it's 'slacking'), I have to buckle down and start studying for final exams. This is supposedly the last semester that the library will look this way - they are closing it down for the summer and doing renovation, building an "Information Common" of some sort, and wiring the entire library up for laptop access at each study carrel.

Great, as if the chilling/talking on mobile phones/visiting from table to table/having a party in the library is not enough, now we will have more people hanging out at the library to leech bandwidth from the school to download their favourite (not to mention illegal) movies and music.

Still sick.. bleh..

I'm still sick. What's wrong with me? Is it the stress? Or just the fact I don't want to study for final exams?

Yesterday I went to see the doctor. The doctor gave me some Advil Sinus & Cold and some Dimetapp for my cough. I frantically looked for a cheaper flight for my graduation trip, which ended up to be a little more expensive than the one we already have reserved. Bummed around First Markham Place for a while.. then Future Shop.. then Best Buy. It must be nice to have a lot of money, so that you can do the whole impulsive buying thing.

Hung out with some friends last night and today.. then I went studying (can you believe this?) with a friend at the local Second Cup. While I made quite a bit of progress in studying, a certain someone was stealing all my MP3s from my laptop..

Insomnia

Every time I'm in Toronto, I experience a certain level of insomnia. Today it's much worse than before.. I'm physically exhausted but I cannot sleep..

Publicity

Woke up at 8:30am this morning - perhaps the one of the earliest days I have woken up this semester. I was invited to attend the launch of the "Impaired Driving Simulator", hosted by the Waterloo Regional Police. Yes, this was the fourth year design project I was involved with throughout most of the last year and a half. Although the symposium was back in January, this is the official launch of the project into the public. Everything was done to perfection - the vehicle was sitting in the background with the simulator running (part of the reason I was there.. well, to make sure that it's working), catered food in the back with coffee, and chairs piled to the front, big projector screen, and a podium.

I was to give a brief 2-3 minute speech. This reminded me of my impromptu sessions in my public speaking class. I quickly scrambled a few words onto my cue card (which was my grocery receipt that I happen to put in my wallet), and spoke in front of a dozen of people, representatives from the media, the president of Toyota Canada, MPs, head of the regional police, etc. Interesting how these 'skills' I have learned actually came into use today!

Afterwards I gave some demonstration of the simulator to the president of Toyota Canada, talked to him about his vision of the future vehicles and how he is committed to making it even safer than it is today. He also talked about positions and openings in his plants, and asked me what my future plans were after I graduate...

I was caught on a few shots by the CKCO CTV news camera (supposedly I was on the 6 o'clock news?) and I was interviewed by The Record and The Mirror.. could this be my fifteen minutes of fame? (nah, I already had that back in high school)

Done, done, and done..

Today I attended my last undergraduate lecture. It was surreal. It was the most anti-climatic moment when I walked out of the Modern Languages building. I was happy that it was my last lecture, but I don't feel any more special than before.

It's sorta like the birthday problem, where one day I'm n years old and then the next day I'm n+1 years old.