Friday, November 28, 2003
On a gloomy, rain-soaked evening
Ok, it's been nearly a month... again. I plead technical difficulties, procrastination, sister-hogging-computer problems and holiday anti-socialness. As I've said before, it's all too easy to find excuses for
not updating your blog.
On a much belated note, Bio O practical round was bewildering, as expected. There were 4 papers: gel electrophoresis (you know), ecology (counting beans... assuming that they represent organisms), cell biology (microscopy mostly) and organism biology (ant identification). I felt like a complete klutz during all 4. Lack of knowledge didn't bother me as much as my clumsiness did. When in doubt, guess, but woe betide you if you spill the beans.
Oh, but I found the ant identification interesting. Incredibly frustrating, yes, because delicate manipulation of preserved ants under the stereo microscope
just isn't my forte, but the diversity of exoskeletal structures is a wonder to behold. Nevertheless, it was a good thing they gave us nice, detailed diagrams describing what exactly to look out for.
/yawn. stretch./
I really need to end this spell of pleasant lethargy. While I'm only too happy to spend my days in idyllic relaxation, overdoing it tends to dull the mind. Furthermore, it makes time pass
too quickly. And I don't like that at all.
words were spilled on Friday, November 28, 2003
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Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Can anyone take pity on my plight and tell me how to catch a cockroach (without squishing or poisoning it) and keep it alive for a couple of days while fattening it up with rice? Please?
I've been messing around with a plastic container and penknife trying to construct a trap I know will never work. But I blanch at the thought of coming within a metre of those vile insects.
Of course catching the damned thing is not enough. I still have to dissect it. Which prospect is worse, I wonder?
The Bio mugging ain't over yet. Round 2 is next Wednesday at NIE. Yes, I made it. Farewell, post-exam indulgence.
words were spilled on Tuesday, November 04, 2003
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Sunday, November 02, 2003
From the ashes of Promos
After almost a month of silence, I'm baaaaaaacccccck...!!!
...
/meets with more silence/
...
/pokes around/
Hmmm... maybe everyone's given up on this blog, seeing that I've not updated it since Oct 7. I've found that it's easy to let the blogging habit lapse when you have plenty of other things to do and when your computer decides to go on strike. I thought I was addicted, but no. Not really.
In any case, I'm back online, having reformatted the hard disk
2 times, upgraded to Windows XP and replaced
both defunct scanner and printer with a spanking-new Canon MPC 190. The modem's working again with a new driver and all I need to do now is to, erm, install a few more programs, get an anti-virus software, troubleshoot the CPU. Maybe when the darned thing stops spontaneously shutting down at the most inconvenient moments, I can finally get some real work done.
SBO is over. Yay. Never mind the fact that I was guessing my way through, especially for the ecology (which I never bothered to study) and the biosystematics (which is just ...
impossible). What the hell is a 'sigma factor', and how many different transcription complexes are there?! The RJC people were scary: each and every one of them mugging Campbell or some other thick Bio text. No wonder they dominate SBO. Anyway, I'm just glad it's finished. The wonderful feeling of being liberated from Bio mugging... splendid.
Of course, Bio mugging had its advantages, namely, of being excused from classes, a good thing if you haven't done any tutorials and are not keen on doing them, with just 1 week left of school.
Straightened out the post-exam clutter in my room before sorting out the computer today. Exterminated 2 colonies of ants -- larvae and all -- on my
bookshelves (of all places) and reorganised everything to free up just that tiny bit of space (for incoming anime and books and magazines... yeah), so I'm inclined to feel accomplished for tonight. (Never mind the sadly-neglected PW.../gulp/) I'm running out of storage space... fast. Most of the available shelves are crammed with things and it doesn't help that I keep buying more.
To JY: Happy (very belated) Birthday [have to do it more properly this time]! All the best for CLAO and... hmmm, do you, by any chance, own the 'Fallen Angel' Angel Sanc artbook? Just asking :-)
<--- As a note: side picture from 'Sister Princess', an anime series so incredibly vacuous that I felt my brain putrefying halfway through the first episode. But I thought the picture was pretty ^^;;
words were spilled on Sunday, November 02, 2003
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