To do, part two.

So I've been abandoning this blog for a few months. I didn't mean to. I got back to Tassie, and everything just... piled up. From MASCA to 'regular' uni things like assignments, fourth year uni is just mental. I'll admit, most of my time is occupied by MASCA stuff. Things have gotten a little intense and there's been friction from time to time - but what else would you expect from a whole lotta group work? And honestly, I feel like at the end of it all, I'll be happy that I got this involved. Things are especially hectic because MASA2014 is coming up. In a few weeks, come to think of it! It'll be a tough week in Melbourne, and I anticipate severe sleep deprivation, but I'm excited to meet the friends I made during DUC again and a few of my high school mates from SSI will be there, too!

Before MASA2014, though I'll be at Bruny Island next weekend for a geography field trip. The main thing I'm worried about is the weather! My previous experience with field trips and weather have not been great (eg hail and rain during the Fortescue Bay field trip, torrential downpour at Maria Island etc), so I really hope that this time, the weather will hold up. Though, realistically, now that autumn is finally sinking in, it'll probably be a very wet weekend on the beautiful island.

Glancing at my previous post, I haven't accomplished many of the things on the to do list. I haven't printed out photos for my room yet, now that I'm so busy with MASCA I can easily forget about getting a job, and I only just started exercising properly. BUT. The big but(t), ha. I haven't had Maccas since I've been back in Tassie, I've been dressing better (most days, anyway. I still have my occasional hobo day), I've been Tumblring less, and I've been spending most of my 'free' days (aka days without class) at uni. Yay me! Small achievements!

I'm so exhausted. I sat for a pretty bad test today and my brain feels rather mushy. Time for a hot shower, a few mugs of tea, and an early night, I think.

To do.

I have a few things in mind regarding things I'd like to do once I get back to Hobart.

1. Decorate my room in college nicely this year. Last year, I stuck a bunch of photos on my wall, and about two dozen postcards on my wardrobe. Both surfaces looked and stayed unfinished for the whole year... Yeah, it wasn't all that great. So, this year: more photos to cover my ugly wall, more postcards to cover my otherwise plain wardrobe, fresh flowers every now and then.
2. Look for a job? Ha ha... Ha. I'm serious.
3. Run more, at least 3 times a week.
4. Eat better - less Maccas (although this depends on stress levels etc), more cooking healthy/balanced food.
5. Dress better... Sometimes. Most of the time, I go to uni in a hoodie and jeans. Might switch that up a little bit. I'm still hopeless at makeup though, but I'm not terribly fussed about that.
6. Go on Tumblr less. It doesn't only eat up a lot of internet data, but it also wastes a lot of time.
7. Spend more time at the library - the sight of studious people will pressure me into getting work done. Plus, free wifi.

One more week...

... until my first paper. Holy cow. Where did that semester go? How did 13 weeks of slacking off and rushing to complete assignments fly by in the blink of an eye? I feel like I should have a giant sign on my head which reads "WHAT THE HECK?" because I honestly feel that way all the time. Always blur, always unaware - especially at the end of every semester. You'd think that I would have gotten used to this by now. That I would have fixed my ways. You know, study from the start, work on assignments as soon as I get them, be consistent, all that jazz. But the sad and truthful answer is that I haven't. I haven't fixed my lazy habits. I still slack off. I still have my priorities all over the place. And strangely enough, despite staying stagnant, I think I've been doing better this sem around. Internally, at least, I've been getting slightly luckier with DNs and HDs. It's weird. I'm not used to doing well. I'm not used to getting anything above a CR. I think a lot of it has to do with group work - I've had to do a fair amount of group work this semester, most of which was assessed. So in that sense, I've been slightly luckier. I'll be home in slightly over a month. I'll be in Seoul in two months. Time really is fleeting. Isn't that a scary thought? I'd like to spend summer in Tasmania someday. If everything turns out well, I will be able to, eventually. I don't know why I even started writing this post in the first place. Any excuse to procrastinate, really. I should get back to it, though.

Scraping by

Week 10. Oh dear. A few more weeks until swotvac pops up and bam, exams. There really isn't enough time in a day. At this point in time, I feel attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis if I took the usual 4. Uni has reached that time of the semester where the library is packed at 9pm, unlike how it usually is at the start of the semester. People have started cramming and assignments are due either during the last week or during swotvac. Thanks a lot, lecturers! :\

In other news, the hermit crabs in my group are slowly dropping off, one by one, and nobody knows why. Our lecturer, Geoff, and supervisor, Ben, have told us that the crabs are very sensitive to environmental changes, so we shouldn't be too devastated if half of the original batch ends up dying during the experimental period. While that's all fine and dandy, it still saddens me whenever we come across a fallen soldier. Just the other day, I was holding a crab over the ethanol burner because that's how we've been getting them to crawl out of their shells, and after some time, it just stopped moving altogether and wasn't responsive to any pokes or gentle pulls on its legs. I was pretty devastated when that happened, because although I'd been present when the other crabs died, I wasn't the one directly responsible for their deaths. A couple of my groupmates carried out the last leg of our experiment today and apparently 7 crabbies were found dead in one of the main tubs. GAH. RIP, little ones. I wish we knew how to take better care of you (but we followed all the instructions from various websites!!!!!!!!!!!!!)... and thank you for giving us unexpected results from the experiment.

Anyway, after reading a friend's blog post and seeing my name following a few sentences on gratitude a while ago, I'm feeling quite happy. It's nice to know that I'm not as crappy a friend/person as I think I am. At least I'm doing something right. And it's nice to be acknowledged for it. Most days, I feel like I'm a terrible person, not of much use to my friends who need someone to talk to. I have drifted apart from a few friends due to my newish lack of interest in gossiping (it has taken a lot of effort but why waste time and energy talking about other people's lives?), and I see myself as a bad listener. I always expect my friends to be willing to listen to my rants but I feel like I never return the favour. I'm not sure if many other people feel the same way. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself.

I should've blogged about JOM! Festival but it was a while back and I feel like it's too late to blog about it. Other events that have happened recently include today's SOLS vs staff Ultimate match, which was fun to watch. The students won, obviously (hah)... And there was this film screening outside Lazenby's, which was quite interesting, I guess. The real reason I went was for the food, though, hahaha. That being said, I ate chicken for the first time in about a week and now I feel really ill. Hmm. At least I got pancakes, though. Pancakes make everything better. Anyway, I should probably get back to my assignments.

Blargh

My mind is a bit too fuzzy to actually do work at the moment. I'm not particularly upset over anything, nor am I feeling ecstatic. I just feel restless and unsure. But unsure of what? I wish I knew. Maybe it's because I had too much tea today but I'm not sure how that would influence my mood and thought processes. It doesn't help that there are concepts like "shared genetic architecture" and social selection that I have to digest, which, mind you, isn't actually happening because my brain is experiencing a short circuit. All I know is that I'm looking forward to the weekend (oops, slipped a bit of Rebecca Black in there), which is thankfully a day away. If all goes well, tomorrow will be a fairly decent day at uni, with my group and I carrying out a pilot study on our crabbies. Hopefully this weird mood will pass soon enough.

Anyway, CHERRY BLOSSOMS! (I'm not making much sense at this point so I'll stop)

MSS + TUU Night Market

Righto! Taking a break from catching up with lectures to finish off this post. The night market/pasar malam was held last Friday evening at the TUU carpark. Although the night market was originally supposed to be held on an earlier date, there was a change of plans due to a clash regarding tent hire (or something like that). I had class from 9am to 5pm, so I made my way to the carpark right after I was done. Stall owners were slowly pouring in, bringing their and other cooking equipment with them. Soon, students and uni staff started coming by in groups, walking from stall to stall, examining what each had to offer. Call me biased, but I think that there was a fairly wide variety of noms available!

Once the sun set, the night market looked like this. Minus the cold weather, it felt like I was back home.

And here's a photo of the MSS committee. :) It's not very organised, but it'll do!

I think this is the first photo of Mich and I in 2013. We stayed up late the night before, as we were cooking chicken curry and rice for our stall. Thankfully, we had a few buddies who helped us out in the kitchen.

Now, for MSS's stall, we sold all 30 tupperwares of chicken curry and rice in just over an hour, which was unexpected! BUT. We tried to make teh tarik, which proved to be an epic fail because somehow, we ended up burning the tea. It even smelled chao da (burnt)! However, we had cup corn, which we managed to sell despite it tasting somewhat funky (at least that's what I thought). It was a comical experience, to say the least.

Apart from tending to the MSS stall, I walked around a fair bit, checking out each stall and buying wayyyy too much food. One of my friends who was selling nasi lemak sold all her food - all 150 tupperwares! I'm glad I bought one serving before the crowd swarmed around her stall, and although I bought it for the next day's breakfast/lunch, I caved and ate my nasi lemak for supper. Um... Oops?

Other stalls sold things like chicken satay (which was quite tasty), tempura mushrooms, chicken rendang, Hainanese chicken rice, vegetarian and prawn spring rolls, nasi butter and ayam masak merah, roti jala, kaya balls, and chili crab. I wasn't able to sample everything, though. But I was able to see a few faces I haven't seen in a while, including Jan, Michael K, and Campbell! :D

Fizi, Faiz, Hayyani, Alyn, Farahin, Akif, Lidya, Farah, girl in purple whose name I don't know, and Shafiq :) 

Fahmi aka one of the best players for the Tassie rugby team during MASA 2013. He even played frisbee with us even though he was injured - what a trooper!

Atiqah and I, looking mighty fine. (thanks, Mich P for the photo)

The night market wound down at 8pm. Some stall owners were selling their remaining food for half the original price, and eventually, only empty tables and overflowing rubbish bins were left behind. The MSS crew and I were a little worn out, but mostly, we were just relieved. Thanks to the rest of the MSS committee and TUU for pulling this event off!

Week 1

It's Friday evening and classes are finally, mercifully, over. The day started with Environmental Management at 9am, and while the content we covered in class was interesting, one particular student decided to voice their opinion but in a... less than respectful manner. They raised their voice, causing a few other students in class to clap their hands over their gaping mouths, while our lecturer, Vishnu, remained calm and composed. I couldn't do much except for glare at the back of said student's head. Nothing like a bit of drama to get things going, hey? 2 hours of Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology ensued, and it was definitely one of the most interesting lectures I've ever attended. After an hour-long break spent at Lazenby's with Dahlia, Sandy, Yean, and Andre, lab class for the same unit kicked off with the class discussing our research projects and deciding on which animals to work on. My group, consisting of Andre, Yean, Sandy, Olivia, and Ellie, decided to carry out our research project on factors affecting shell selection in hermit crabs. To be honest, I'm SUPER DUPER MADLY EXCITED about this project! I mean, sure, we're not working with the fancy vertebrates like mice and lizards, but hermit crabs are so interesting! Before I go too crazy with the exclamation points, I am aware of the fact that in a few weeks' time, I'll be complaining about hermit crabs and their shells, but for now, let me bask in the excitement of hands-on work with those little crustaceans. Just for now.

(source)

I mean, seriously. Just look at it. It's freaking adorable!

So. This weekend, I have about 6 lectures to review and write notes for, one prac to work on, readings and TED talks to go over for Environmental Management, and research to do for the hermit crabs project. Fun times ahead, I'm sure. The coming weeks will be interesting if not stressful, but I'm trying to stay optimistic. For now, time to watch Sex and the City - I'm thoroughly enjoying the show, much to the delight of my sister and Michael, both of whom are big fans of the series.

Shallow Waters

Day 1 of semester 2 and I'm already feeling demotivated. Well, that didn't take long, did it? Honestly, I feel like shrugging off all responsibilities and taking a nice, long bubble bath with music playing in the background. Kinda like this, actually:

(who doesn't love JD?)

For now, I have Mondays free, but this may change depending on whether or not I decide to take another unit this semester. So classes officially start at 9am tomorrow for me. I'm afraid of screwing up this semester the way I did during the first half of the year. I'm afraid of once again, proving to be nothing but a failure to my loved ones. I'm afraid of losing passion for the things I'm studying. I'm so afraid. But I know that staying that way will only be detrimental and it will only make things worse. I can't dwell on my failures for too long, that much I know. What I can do, however, is to keep my chin up and trudge on.