You would never know

Grammar is slowly, but certainly, making its steady way up the list of my least favourite things. Needless to say, today's Grammar test did nothing to improve the situation.

Before I started degree, I have quite a few things that I wasn't expecting.

First of all, I didn't really expect my course to be, putting it frankly, something that I would spend quite some time convincing myself that I don't hate it. After all, I'm the one who chose to take this course. And well, after spending a lot of time, I have finally accepted that my course isn't going to, well, turn out the way that I want it to be. But still.... Grammar. Sigh. Next time if anyone critises that I'm taking a course that's not that challenging (read: suitable for people who are intellectually challenged, to put it nicely), I'm going to take my Grammar book and shove it up his/her stuck-up nose. Seriously.

Second, never judge a book by its cover. Who would have expect the girl I talked to during my first Phonetics class, who was pretty unresponsive during that time, could turn out to be quite bubbly. And that the Fantastic Four, could be very fun to be with, and came up with songs like "I'm gay, and I'm happy, but I'm still a gay"? Or the weird people in my class are actually not weird, in fact, it was those so called "normal" people that turned out to be a little unstable? All and all, I'm starting to love my class despite feeling under pressure once in a while. The fun we all have together, I really hope it continues all through three years.

Third, I didn't really expect to miss my dinner-table gang that much. Sometimes when I was eating dinner I would think about the time when we ate dinner together. The tom yam, spaghetti, and mushroom chicken rice. I missed the time when we would spent a few hours for dinner, just crapping. Now there's no more dinner-table gang. Sigh...

Lastly, I don't really expect myself to actually hang out with a smoker. It's not that I'm accepting or what, but for me who always can't stand smoke, it came as a surprise that I'm spending half of my time in uni with someone who smokes. Though luckily it's not a heavy smoker who is inconsiderate to blow smoke in people's face.

I guess, I'm changing a little and slowly accepting the new environment then.

The day after

I take things like friendship and promises seriously. Don't even kid with me when it comes to those two things.

I'm not an attention whore, seriously, but broken promises, to hell with you. If you can't make it, don't promise it! If you say so, mean it!

Anyways, to all my friends who remembered my birthday, and actually took a little time off their day to wish me, thank you very much. It's little gesture like this that makes me feel special and loved. It's little gesture like this that reminds me that there's so much more to life.

Thank you! With lots of hugs and love :)

An early bday celebration

An early celebration of my birthday by housemates made the whole day of enduring Phonetics totally worth it. After class today, went to SS2 with my housemates and another couple of friends to have dinner. Well, I have no idea they planned a surprise for me. I was stunned, really.

When we got back, and I was halfway through online-ing, Zaza came into the room and told me to try on a light blue top that her aunt bought her but with the size too small, or so she said. I was a little weird out at first, because it was kind of funny for her aunt to buy clothes for her but the wrong size, since her aunt always bought clothes for her, and should have known her size by now, but she insisted that I try it on. So feeling weird out, I tried it on and when I opened the door, I was ambushed by the one and only Lynda Leong, who almost robbed me off my first kiss. If she is a couple more inches taller, I would literally kiss my first kiss goodbye.

So when I stepped out into the hallway, I saw my housemates with a cake in their hands. So they started singing birthday song to me, and all the while I was stunned and thinking, "Hey, today isn't my birthday." And continued to stare at the cake while they sang.

Okay, after finished singing they handed me the cake. So I went "Er, my birthday isn't today." And they told me that they decided to celebrate it early for I might be going back for the weekend. Isn't that sweet of them? The cake was delicious, mocha cake. They made me think of a wish and also take the candle out using my mouth before cutting the cake. But I'm seriously touched that they even want to help me celebrate my birthday, even if it's three days earlier. And the top is pretty too. See, I have a new top now.

Thanks, guys, that's really sweet and thoughtful of you all. I really, really, really appreciated it.

Some place in this world...

Sometimes I think that we are all too self absorbed. Myself included.

And there's a reason why I don't like reading newspaper. Because the world doesn't offer any comfort, usually it will always be some horrible news, like a small girl gone missing after her mum left for like ten minutes, or some suicide bomber who caused the death of (insert number here) people. OR how the earth is slowly but surely declining, cause we are just selfish jerks who couldn't care less about the ozone layer or the forest.

Well... About two hours ago, I was on the bus, waiting for it to go at the traffic light when I noticed this bug buzzing outside the window. Call it extreme boredom, and I was like "Hey, the bug has really pretty wings!" And when I reached home, I started reading newspaper, and saw this news about bombs and the sorts. Depressing, I know, but I have to search for an article for my Mass Com assignment. I'm not sure what to do anyway, but supposedly I am supposed to compare a hard news that local newspaper reported on and also the same hard news but reported by a foreign newspaper. Weird... but I'm not the one who came up with the question.

So, feeling hardworking for once, I decided to go online to search for the same news. Except that what I found is, 100 plus people were killed in a case of suicide bomber. And it happened about the same time when I was going "Hey, the bug has really nice wings!" I don't know how accurate I'm being, but it leads me to thinking, most of us are actually so blessed that we don't realise that we are blessed.

Think of it this way...

When you are complaining and bitching about your study, like when I am about my Phonetics and Grammar, some place in this world, there are kids hoping and praying that they have the chance to study.

When you are fighting off the craving for chocolate and ice-cream, have you ever wondered how many people out there actually wish they have something to eat, whatever it is?

When you are bored out of your mind, wanting to do something but too lazy to do something, what about the people at some other place in this world, struggling on with life?

When you are thinking whether you should spend your hundred bucks on CD and new top, what about some other people trying hard to make the end meets?

I don't know.... I just suddenly thought that most of us don't realised how blessed we are actually. Myself included, I guess.

The music addict

I figured I might never excel in Phonetics. It's not that I'm stupid, I believe that by practicing, of course I will improve in my Phonetics. But the thing is, I realised, is that I'm too much of a music addict to actually put aside some time to practice my Phonetics. And if you are thinking what kind of excuse is that, let me elaborate.

All this while, I study with my music on. I have always been the kind to be able to multitask, in this case, listening to music and studying at the same time. Music won't bother me or break my concentration when I'm studying, and in fact, I use music to help me concentrate better. Seriously. So do you realise the problem now? I'm so used to having music when studying that I have no idea what to do when I need to study without music. Cause for Phonetics, I can't really just start practicing without my Phonetics CD. But the thought of studying without my music is just so depressing. And I can't really focus.

So which leads me to.... I'm doomed. I realised this after I sorta made a promise to myself that I will practice my Phonetics since I was dozing off in tutorial today. And we have sorta mini test thingy starting next week. It's going to contribute to my coursework marks, and though I said that since I have no scholarship already, I don't have to feel the pressure to score good grades, but then again I couldn't possibly just let my grades drop down to six feet under, can I?

Sigh... I guess I will just have to bear with it. Even if I absolutely hate sacrificing my music time for Phonetics. Soon. Soon! I will practice my Phonetics. Hopefully it's sooner than later.

The reading room

So there's a quiz later, and my friends and I got bored of the canteen because of the delicious aroma of oil (gag me), heat, and also noise. We proceeded to the reading room after eating, as my friend said, cause it was too noisy to study in canteen, and I bit down a sarcastic remark that probably reading room is going to be as noisy too.

And lo behold! Hey, I'm not sarcastic, I'm just being truthful. I remembered there's this one time when I went cruising in the car with my mum and my bro. So we passed by this road, where there are a few petrol stations along the road, and for odd reasons, birds stay there for the night. Everyday without fail. And you wouldn't believe the noise they made. For tiny creatures, those black birds can really make a big noise. They put those loud speakers to shame with their noisy chirpings, and they aren't even using any technology to enhance their chirps.

If you are asking what has those birds got to do with the reading room, yeah well, while I was pathetically trying to focus on the notes, I kinda made a connection between the noise the people in the reading room made with the birds. And you were like, "What?!" Yeah, that's how I feel. I don't know. I'm not blaming them because I really was too lazy to study anyway, or else I wouldn't be rambling on and on about birds and noise here, but what I find fascinating is that the room is called a reading room, instead, people seem to go there for a chat. A loud, noisy one, nevertheless.

So sue me, cause I might be too chatty and noisy for my own good once in a while. But really, maybe the room should be called chatting room, or room of noise instead of reading room. Cause it's so obvious people who went in there are for a chat, and also to escape the heat outside. Possible some place with air con, but since the library isn't meant for talking, the reading room it is then.

Attention span... short

I have short attention span... on second thought, make it very, very, VERY short. It's not the first time I came to this conclusion, rest assured. Even back then in high school, with Mr. Anba, who happened to be my favourite, favourite teacher, teaching my favourite, favourite subject, I didn't pay 100% attention to him. And that just proves how well I can concentrate.

Which isn't as funny as it sounds because when you realised that your assignments are almost due, and there are a few midterms around the corner, and you know nothing on everything, well, you will start wishing that you have longer attention span. Maybe with that I can do better in class. I don't know.

Oh well... like I said, I have an assignment due tomorrow. Me and my gang are trying hard to make it reach 2000 words, but unfortunately, my brain is going on strike now. Good job, brain, ya know I always love you. And not to mention that I have a quiz on Tuesday, and surprise surprise, I have no clue what I'm supposed to be quizzed on. Oh well....

And also the other assignments, which I don't really have any idea of. Well... maybe the littlest idea, but I really should get going on getting some idea on them. Oh yeah, what did I say about attention span? I was supposed to be telling about yesterday's seminar, which I promptly started to doze off like five minutes after it started, due to sleepiness and also the coolness of the room. But then again, since I dozed off, I guess I don't really have anything much to talk about other than to complain about how we were made to go at 8 o'clock in the morning.

By the way, there's this story about my disastrous Friday in teddiesbooz. Go have a look and laugh yourself silly. I'm too lazy to post the same thing here.