Sem 5, Week 4: It Will Be Done

OK, the 4th week of the semester is just over. Because of the Chinese New Year holiday, there's no lecture this week.

I don't want to talk about my study progress this week, simply cos it's late and I want to go to sleep soon. Writing about it will take too much time. Plus, it's no fun talking about the same thing every week. I rather write anything that comes to mind.

The 4th week of the semester means the beginning of mid-sem, the point in time where I should start to worry - or even be scared. This is because all the presentations, report deadline and the (dreaded) mid-term tests are coming. There're a few things that makes me quite worried, but I'm quite sure I'm gonna manage to get through it. I know this from past experience. There were times when things looks worrying and I dunno how I am gonna to manage to get through it, somehow I did. So it's the same this time. I have no idea how I am gonna get things done, but they will be done. Eventually.

OK, it's late. Time to have a good rest before starting tomorrow to get the worrying stuff done. I still have no idea how I'm gonna do it, but I'm sure by the ned of next week, they will be done. Definitely.

And So It Begins (Again)....

This morning, I registered the modules I'm gonna take for this semester.

Yes, the new semester had began. My first lecture will be on this Wednesday.

More than just the beginning of the semester, this Wednesday will also marks the beginning of my final year (at least that's my plan...)

And this year, on top of the usual coursework, I am doing my MSc project (more details on that next time)....

So this year, it will be al a bout balancing work, study and project... on top of everything else.

From this Wednesday onwards, this year is gonna be so fun...

2010 - A Quick Review

So, with 6 more hours to the end of the year, there's still time to do a quick review. So here goes:

Looking back, 2010 for me was split into two halves. The first half is about me trying to save myself from being booted out of my MSc course (and I succeeded, phew!). The second half was more complicated as it is not only just about me keeping the momentum of the first half, but also about me handling a few other situations - some good, some bad, and all of them I will not mention it here (well, maybe not now, at least).

The first half of 2010 was like so far away that it feels like it happened last year in 2009; on the other hand, the second half seems like it's not about to end with the year, even though many things had already come to a conclusion. I guess that's just the way things are: a year usually begins by carrying forward whatever is left over from the previous year, and will only really starts after a couple of months into it (at least).

But well, I am not complaining. Overall, a lot of things had happened in 2010, and a lot of things had been achieved. There are simply too many to name here, but they are mostly good, and seldom bad. All of them come together to lay out a good 2011 ahead.

And I just can't wait for the new year to start.

Made It....

My exam results were released today. And yes, I made it. Better then I thought. So my MSc adventure lives on.

New semester will only begin in August. Now with one big worry off my chest, I can spend the next couple of months fully focus on:

Watching some movies;

Watching some dramas;

Reading some books;

Starting something;

Losing some weight;

Running some distance;

Blading an even longer distance;

and etc (which I have not thought of it, or I simply don't want to say).

Ah! I feel so relieved....

As The Dust Settle/ Slow Start

Ok, I think previously I mentioned that the exam results of this semester will determine my survival in the MSc. Well, the exam was just over and I do feel good about it... have to say its the semester I had so far.

But as for the results... I don't know. I really have no idea. I feel kinda 50/50 about it. So I'm not really worried at the moment, just had to wait for the end of the month to see whether I make the mark.

For the exam, I took two full weeks of leave from work. So just got back to work last Friday. One of the scientist remarked that I should take a few more days off just to relax, I replied "that's not like me". It's only partly true, cos the other parts are 1) I am running low on leave (need to save it for next sem's exam); 2) I am away for so long, if I don't get back asap, I might lose touch with my lab skill, lose touch with the lab in general, and might even lose my lab partner (those who knows, knows what I mean).

Anyway, when I left for exam, the team just started on a new project. Not much progress since then, still making the starting material (SM), so I am able to have a slow start upon my return, doing scale-up of the SM. Step 1 proceeded smoothly, step 2 I got stuck: it involves anhydrous condition at -78 degrees, a condition I never seem to master. So at the end of reaction, TLC indicated a big chunk of starting material not reacted, and a bit of product. Nevermind, worked it up and purified it. Got quite a sizable amount of the product, and it's a clear oil (always a good sign). Ran the LCMS and compared it to my partner's data: it doesn't match. Now I am a bit worried. Will run a NMR tomorrow and see what is this stuff I have. And I better be able to identify it.....

It's only Wednesday and already next Monday's meeting is not looking good.

New Year, New Hope?

Yes, I know, the first month of the year is almost coming to an end, and it's a bit late to write something about looking forward to the new year, etc etc....

But then again, it's better to be late than never right? And considering that my previous post was more than two months ago, I think it's about time I write a new post already. It's still the beginning of a new year, so I can still write about what I think about this coming year.

So let's begin... of course, I will say this coming year will be exciting (as always). No two years are the same, so this coming year will be different from the rest. Will it be better? I believe so. Will it be tough? Yes, there are challenges ahead, but nothing I am too worried about. Already I am facing a challenge at the moment, but I should be ok (I will know for sure by mid year....). Most of all, will it be fun? Yes I am sure of that. I will be very busy, but I will be enjoying every moment of it. There are so many things I wish to do!

So what I plan to do for this new year? Well, I gave up on any resolutions, since I am never able to stick to them anyway. However, there are still a few things I still wanna achieve. Things like losing some weight (how I wish I can get back to 65kg...), running the StanChart marathon (but let's start with AHM first....), start a business (I wish to get rich you know...), be more proficient in my profession (I'm a chemist, time to know more Chemistry, damm it!)... and a few other things that if you know me well, you will know. Anyway, if I achieve anyone of the above, I would be very happy.

Then there are a few minor things that I will like to do - things that may or may not make any impact to my life, but I will feel better doing them anyway. Things like reorganizing my room, clearing my backlog at work (as soon as possible), saving more money, and all that.

And also, I will try to blog as often as possible. I only blogged 5 times last year, and there are still a few 'big pieces' I haven't get it out (i.e. the final piece of the Epic, and the Three weddings). I think it's about time I do something about that. No promise, but I will do the best I can. In fact, I think that shall be the theme for this coming year.

No promise, but I will do the best I can.

Here I Go Again....

All right, so once again, a new semester had begun, and it's time for me to hit the books again.

(For those of you not updated, I am currently taking a part time MSc course in NUS. Already I had gone through one semester, and.... well, you can contact me if you wanna know more...)

A new semester always brings about a feeling of a new beginning, a new hope, and an opportunity to start afresh. There is always this belief (at least for me) that with all the experience gained and lesson learned in the previous semester, this will be a better semester where finally one can catch up with what one missed the last time round. (I seriously need this sem to be better, and I have lotsa catching up to do...)

If only life is like that.

But life is not. Life is rather repetitive for me right now (mostly due to work I guess). In fact, it is so repetitive, it erodes away a bit of the excitement of the beginning of a new semester. It only hit me yesterday that the semester had already begun, and my first lecture is tomorrow, and I am supposed to be gearing up for it and getting ready for the challenge a new semester brings (at lest mentally, I should be getting ready...).

It's past 10pm now, and I am still so unready for tomorrow: I had not get my stuff ready, and I had not get myself readying. Instead, I am down here writing this blog. Hmmmm... so I should stop writing this blog and go pack my bag. At the same time, I will get myself into the mood for the new semester.

The new semester had begun, and here I go again....

Couldn't Get This Out of My Head......

Huey 'piano' Smith & The Clowns - Don't You Just Know It (Snatch OST)


Over the weekend, I was able to catch 'Snatch' on HBO (I seldom watch HBO....). I have to say, I really like the movie, for its' fast pace, good plot, and top of it all, its' bunch of interesting characters.

However, what really stuck in my head was the song that was played when the ending credits started to roll. The tune was so catchy, that I Google it, found it on Youtube, and played it over and over again until I lost count. It got so stuck in my head that it was still playing in my head when I started work this morning (especially the chorus), and must had took me a good half an hour to finally 'switch' it off.

So here it is, I putting it up here for all of you to enjoy. Hope you guys like it as much as I do.

I Run Again

Less than 30 minutes ago, I just completed my first run in two months. All I can say is, I am happy, and.... WEAK!!!!!

After more than two months of inactivity, I finally decided today that I will go for a run. I am so glad that I did, for I had almost forget how good a mood regulator that running is. Also I had also forgot how running form a part of my life/ daily routine.

Maybe that is what is missing for the past two months, which is why I find it so hard to get life back to 'normal' after the disruption that is ICT and examination.

Yes, I was kinda struggling to put life back in order after my exams. It's been a month since my exams and I find it rather surprising; I was only away from work for one and a half month, and I didn't expect it will take so long to get re-accustomed to work again. (My boss might played a part, but that's for another day...)

So anyway, I came back home, immediately changed into my running gear and out I went running round the neighborhood. I didn't know how far I ran, but I ran for 45 min. I wasn't very fast, sometimes I was just jogging fast, but by the end of it, I was hot, sweaty, a bit light-headed and happy.

It feels so good to be running again after so long. I should do this more often. In fact, I will do it again tomorrow.

My Tail Hurts....

OK, so in my last post I said about wanting to run often. However since then, I had yet to go for another run.

Why? Cos during my previous run, I felt a sharp pain at my tail bone (wait, there must be a proper term to describe that segment of the spine, let me check.... ah, coccyx). The pain persisted into the next day and at its' worst, it hurts whenever I stood, sat and even when I sneezed.

So went to see the doc, who diagnosed that there might be a crack at the coccyx which was caused by the fall I sustained (landed on my bottom) while inline skating a couple of weeks ago. The doc prescribed some painkiller and advised rest, which means I shouldn't be running; other exercise are still ok, but "if it hurts. Stop."

Running certainly hurts, even if it means chasing after a bus 100m away. It aggravated the pain, so that means I didn't run for the past week. Just as a precaution, I didn't join my kakis for the weekly skating session over the weekend (in case I fall again).

OK, the pain is still around, though it's much subsided now. The positives I am getting out of this episode is that I now sit (and can only sit) with a proper sitting posture. It also make me realized how much strain and stress was placed on the coccyx whenever I stand or sit or in motion. But for now, with the weekend approaching, I only wish the pain will go away.

Once In A Blue Moon

OK, I had just gone for a run for a first time in quite a while (couple of weeks I guess...). All I can say is:

WEAK!!!!!

There used to be a time where I ran frequently. Even when I was in Basel, it's up and down the Rhein river (just behind the apartment where I stayed) 3 times a week. Now, for whatever reason, running had become something that I do once in a blue moon.

Of cos, I had been jogging with good buddy TH twice a week, but even that is a bit on and off. Also, it is just jogging; not quite the same as hard running.

There is really a need for me to run. Beside keeping me fit and healthy, there is the very pragmatic reason of getting in shape to pass IPPT. Talking about getting in shape, although round is a shape (yes, I had piled up quite some weight for the past year), I prefer to be in another shape that has more definition; so yes, that's another reason I very much need to run.

However, on top of it all, running is a very good and effective mood regulator. So running makes me happy, keeps my morale high and prevent depression from taking over (nope , I am not depression...). After all, sound body, sound mind right? So even if I don't become as fit as I like, I don't do well for my IPPT, or even I don't lost that much weight through running, I would still be running.

Of cos, now is the part where I would be saying something like "it's time to start running" or " I should have more discipline and less excuse", but talk it cheap, word is cheap. Thus, I would not say anything now. Only when I start running regularly again will I write about it.

Something I Saw On TV...

Was channel-hopping just now until I tuned to Discovery Channel Travel and Living, which was showing Anthony Bourdain No Reservation (I really like this show). Guess what? In this episode, he was in Berlin! (I really like that place).

So I watched the whole episode (luckily it just begun) and realized that I missed out quite a bit of stuff (mostly food) on my previous trip to Berlin: how come I didn't try the curry wurst? And why didn't I know about that eatery with all the local German food (oh... that blood sausage looks good... so is the schicken... and there's the ham in gelatin...)? Surely I should had went to Keuzberg, where the Turkish community are, and try those kebabs?

OK, so that's it - first, I'm going to find that episode and watch it again, then I must plan to go to Berlin again.

I must go to Berlin. I must go to Berlin.....

Resumed.....

Oh no! I hadn't wrote anything for more than a month!

What happened? Had life became so routine that I am too uninspired to write anything?

Well, actually, not really. It's more like I am too drained and low-energy to write anything. Yes, life had became routine, but there's always new challenges at work - from the occasional fire that needs to be fought to the pile-up of backlog that is crawling under my skin and needs to be cleared - there's always something to tackle at work. Never a quiet day..... and oh, my boss took in a honors student, and guess who's mentoring him?

Everyday I start the day fresh and full of thoughts and ideas. Then when I reached the lab, the up-hill climb that is work began and by the end of the day, all I can think of is: "Brain dead. Go home. Stoned."

So that's how I stopped updating the blog for so long. Just can't gather enough energy (or is it motivation?) to put anything down. But surely this can't go on.

Yes, I must refuse to be drown by work. So it's time to resume all the blogging, reading, running, blading, swimming, etc.... in short, time to resume living again, and I shall start by writing this blog.

Let's hope it will last....

I Need To Write Something, I Need To Write Something...

Woke up in the morning feeling like today is still a holiday.

But no.... the cold, hard fact is today is a working day, so I had to drag myself out of the bed, go through the usual routine and off I am on a MRT train to work.

As the train approached the workplace, the working mood started to kick in. Ya, I am ready to work through the day ahead. I don't dread going to work. The work is interesting. I get to create things and I get to learn stuff. There is this sense of satisfaction and achievement when a compound is being made; there is also another sense of satisfaction when new knowledge is being acquired, understood and - sometime - mastered. It all feel so real.

Yes, it is real. What I do in my job is real, what I learned from my job is real, what I achieved in my job is real. I do have my own view about what is real, but I am not in the mood to elaborate on it now. Maybe I will devote another entry for that.

So Unhappy...

Today marks the end of a far-from-good week at work.

I am so unhappy, and everything can be trace to this great pile-up of reactions that started more than two weeks ago.

I called it a pile-up when I'm running so many reactions in such a short time that I'm lagging behind in everything and things just starts to fall apart.

It's a long story how I even came to this state, but the end-situation is that the backlog of work includes lagging 20-reactions behind in lab notebook recording, at least 5 reactions on hold (some for more than 2 weeks, which is an eternity by lab-time) and, most important of all, the huge amount of glassware laying around inside my fumehood due to the all the uncompleted reactions.

All the above are already making me crawl under my skin. But then, my boss, Z, had to come and comment on how messy my fumehood is and how it reflects one's personality.

Yes, my boss, the one who gave me so much reactions and the one who knows why I am piling up so much stuff in my fumehood at the moment, decided that this week, when my fumehood is so unusually messy, is the perfect time to judge my personality based on my fumehood. If there is anything I hate more about people judging people, it is people wrongly judging people based on unfair situation. This is totally unfair.

Then couple with some other frustrating situation, a rush of blood shot through my head and I decided to let off a bit of steam in a very public way. There wasn't any screaming, shouting and nobody was hurt (physically, at least). It wasn't over-the-top, but it's enough to upset quite a few of the colleagues. So now I am paying the price for it. I deserve it, so it's ok. It's never a good thing to show anger. I should had known better.

Then you all might ask, why don't I confront Z instead? Well, I could. He's not even a quarter as scary as K (my boss in Basel) and I stared back at him before. I'm quite sure I can chew off his head if I really want to. But it serve no purpose. He's the boss anyway, and more importantly, he's knowledgeable and I am ignorance. There is still a lot I can learn from him. There is also a better time and/or a better way to get back at him. There always is.

So anyway, before I get anymore dark and evil, the reactions are coming in slower (partly due to Z now believing that it's better to slow down a bit), and so there'll be some time next week for me to clear the backlog, although it might take a few extra hours at work. But it's fine, as long as I get them off my back, I'm happy.

The Thing I Cooked In Basel

OK, this bowl of unappetizing pasta (yes, it's pasta, in case you guys can't figure out what it is) was a re-creation of what I used to cooked for myself in when I was in Basel - beside all of my everything-in-oven dishes, of course.

And yes, this is a faithful re-creation. It is not made any better, nor any worse.

A friend of mine once remarked that single guys left alone will only eat thrash. That's kinda true considering that I am cooking up food like this. Well, at least it is edible, and doesn't really taste that bad either. So, coming from someone who doesn't have much cooking skill like me, I think I did ok slapping together something like this.

I bought the ingredient last weekend. Dun really like to complain, but still I wanna say that it's hard to find those big, ripe, attractively red tomatoes I find easily in Basel or across the German border. The mushrooms here are also very small. I really miss those big mushroom. The pesto sauce here are lacking in variety and are expensive. I rather make them myself. Maybe I will do that.....

Luckily, I brought a bottle of mix herbs back from Basel. So sprinkle a bit on the pasta, and the familiar taste was back. There is this saying/theory about taste and smell evoking memory of the past, so it was kinda the case when I was eating this bowl of pasta just now. Oh, my Basel adventure... nice, unique.... bittersweet maybe. Part of my life experience, where I learned thing in and outside the lab. Made me a better person maybe? I hope....

Anyway, it's not very difficult to see that I cooked too much pasta this time. It's one of the few things that always happen. The portion will be just nice for two persons. Best buddy TH almost came close to sampling this creation of mine when he came visit last week, but decided we should eat out instead cos it'll be too much work. Oh well, next time then...