ok, so in the end i didn't dress specially in black for halloween. it just slipped my mind. nevertheless it was interesting to see some people in school dress up in black capes, hats, stocking and shoes; accessorised with painted black fingernails, makeup, fake neon-coloured hair, chains and glitters.

my psychology professor didn't win the Prof-In-A-Box donation drive thingy, so he ended up dressing as something like a traditional englishman with the high stockings, long coat, hat and the lace at the end of his sleeves; with his wife to match him.. yea, he lectured in that.

no trick-or-treating, no dress-up. life's pretty miserable.
on this note.. BOO! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

"Can someone tell me why Count Dracula, Frankenstein, the Witch or the Werewolf didn't come visit us today?" I ask.

i got my chemistry mark. and.. just never say if a test or exam is easy or good; you will jinx it, like i did for chemistry. it is okay and good in general, but i thought i would do better, especially since i found the test easier than expected. oh well, will post it together with psychology and statistics, which i will get the latter maybe around end of this week or early next week.

in chemistry lab today, we synthesised a coordination compound. got green crystals from the whole experiment. cool. had to weigh and submit it. my crystal yield was kind of small, compared to some others. i knew some of my crystals didn't get filtrated properly, so i'm hoping it won't be too big a deal.

i never seem to be able to get chemistry right here. like i'm chemically jinxed for chemistry; in the many different terms chemistry holds..

when i left at 5pm, the sky was as dark as it would be at 9pm in singapore. this is thing, it darkens so early that you will feel the night is soooo long. i'm struggling to keep myself awake right now.

working on my biology lab report, and then have to at least read some biology which i'm so far behind the lectures. i need sleep..

today feels like an awfully LONG day. must be the extra hour, but i thought i slept that away. woke up at 10am feeling like it was noon. the afternoon passed so slowly; tried reading some school materials but i was just too unfocused and lethargic. the sun set at around 5pm and by 6pm it was all dark and depressing.

it's like i've been eternally awake..

scale 1: community

Halloween is on monday. and people in canada really DO celebrate Halloween with costumes, make-ups, house decorations, etc.. what should i do in spirit of spending my first Halloween in canada? dress up and go to school as a zombie? hhmmm..

it will be interesting to see people in school on monday. i predict black will be the main colour theme (like duh!). and there's this fundraiser activity by UNICEF where we donate to see the highest-grossing donation prof dressed in a big orange box, while the other profs who took part in it will dress in all kinds of weird costumes for our viewing pleasure as they carry on their lectures.

oh and the lobby of the apartment i live in has been transformed into a small creepsville with pumpkins, spiders and cobwebs, dried leaves strewn at the corners, slabstones of graves belonging to fearsome people and creatures. well it kind of had been this way since the last weekend.

i wonder if Count Dracula, Frankenstein, the Witch or the Werewolf would pay us a visit on Halloween to join in with the fun.. afterall that is their day.


scale 2: regional

Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends today at 2am. that means canada will be back to being 13 hours behind singapore, instead of 12 hours the past few months. blah. so now, i have to reset my handwatch, alarm clock, handphone time, computer time, living room clock.. you get what i mean.

but goodie. i get an extra hour worth of sleep! a much needed one.. thank you very much. maybe this is a blessing in disguise for such a good timing?


scale 3: earthly

Mars will have a close encounter with Earth this weekend. it will be the first time Mars orbits closest to our Mother Earth since 2003, which was the first time in 60000 years. the next time it does so would be around 2018, so it seems. and what a coincidence, a dust storm is brewing on Mars, making that lovely red planet even more noticeable with a telescope.

i think it just happened between saturday and sunday, which should be not too long ago. oh well, sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. and i just didn't get to see it with a telescope this time. maybe the next time round.. :(

YIPPY! finally done with midterms after today's statistics. today and tomorrow will be a rest day with some time for assignments, and then when the weekdays start it's the same old routine of study, assignments, blah blah..

statistics was easy overall. but as always, there is bound to be a careless mistake for me. i don't know why; it's like it's meant to be.. i remember reading and seeing it in my notes, but no, i had to write a different answer.. so close. just like in one of my recent statistics quiz, i mixed up my x and y values even though i got it the first time.. oh well, just hoping i would do really well for this.

off for a shower, food, entertainment.. i feel so relieved.

we had a change in professor from wednesday's lecture. a male this time, darcy gentleman (sounds so english 18th century, pride-&-prejudice-y). his lecture slides/notes suck; all graphics (waste of ink) with little information (notes?). and he can get kind of boring with his low voice. i kind of miss the previous perky, fast-speaker prof, chandrasekhar. but i guess he is alright, seeing how he's teaching the harder chapters..

working on my statistics. final midterm tomorrow. can't wait for it to be over. i'm hoping for an easy, straight-to-the-point test. wish me luck.. (:

and i sense change- faded links and eroded foundations.. ):

donald trump fired 4 apprentice-wannabes at one shot! this is reality-tv's first: 4 eliminated. OMG! trying to imitate survivor and antm, but trump always makes it BIG. they deserved it though.. worst lose ever in apprentice history; instead of making profit, sales dropped by 34%. 4 squeezed into one NYC yellow cab, instead of the usual honour and privilege of one cab for the fired Loser. poor them. disgraced on tv.

crap. twice in a week. my brother overslept and didn't set the alarm. though i was not late for any classes, i was in a frantic mode, finishing my breakfast and leaving for school.. anyway, i got my psychology mark back. will post it along with chemistry which is expected next week. oh well.. off to working on statistics problems. data and graphs, here i come!

usually by this time on this day, i would be slouching in one of the red lecture hall chairs where i have my 2-hour long geography lecture. but today, i'm sitting in my little green chair, typing away as i have my pasta for breakfast.

yes, i overslept. more of my brother caused me to oversleep. he didn't set the alarm for me. i did come to my senses when it was still dark, so i didn't bother checking the time. and when i finally jerked and woke up, it was bright daylight (more of a dark, gloomy daylight).

so oh well, my say was to skip the remaining 10-11am hour of geography lecture and 11-12pm break to stay at home, hopefully study for statistics and catch up a little of other details. and i will.

arrived home at 7.45pm from my chemistry midterm. surprisingly, i found it easier than expected. or maybe i screwed myself up without even knowing.

i came out of the lecture hall realizing that the sky was dark. the school surroundings felt so fuzzy; with the dim orange light, the silence and tranquil in the building. and despite the cold (it's around 8 degrees celsius now), i feel warm and just right with where i am now.

it must be the right place, the right time and the right ambience that cheered me up.. i feel good now. but i will feel better once i be rid of at least my assignments and statistics midterm by the end of this week, and of course get some much-needed sleep.

i only found out from my mum yesterday after being on the phone with her that my grandma was admitted into hospital last week and was discharged on friday. it seems like her heart is weakening and had difficulties breathing. all is well now; it's the ageing process (she's in her 80s) and she is on medication. take care ah ma!

chemistry midterm is tomorrow at 5-7pm! last minute cramming now, and doing some online exercises. i hope all goes well..

i got my first test-mark in utsc for biology. 78%. 47/60. not bad, kind of surprising seeing how my nerves got to me before the test and how unsure i was. but then i started beating myself up for not getting at least 1 more question right. i would have gotten 80%, a much needed 2% to push me to an A-. boo. i could have done better. the class average was 68%.

psychology test took place from 3-5pm just now at the gym. it reminded me of the dreaded 'O's. the turnout was scary; around 500 people in the gym with several hundreds in other locations for section 1, and there was section 2 after us at the same few locations. so imagine the number of people taking the course. i don't want to comment about the paper. just hoping it would be good, and i would not face the same crappy situation like biology.

coming up: chemistry (mon 24/10), statistics (sat 29/10). chemistry online homework, biology lab report, geography assignment 2. wish me luck..

talking about chemistry online homework, technology sucks. so inflexible. the last assignment i did last friday, i got 0% for one part, resulting in me getting 71% overall for the particular online homework. it's not that i didn't get the right answer, it's just that i didn't add the oxygen molecules together but expressed them separately. so the whole mistake and errors went on till i used my last attempt. so now, my average for 6 online homework has decreased to 83% (i could have gotten 100+% if not for the messed-up one as i did specially well for the previous few, scoring bonuses for not taking hints or getting wrong answers). and this will affect my final grade for chemistry which ultimately means the all-important GPA! aarrggghh..

i'm stressing out. i have to. this is a cut-throat, dog-eat-dog world of university. marks are everything; life is forbidden. there's competition with every single person. it's even harder when i fall under the 'competitive' category.

as they say, "life's not a bed of roses". please, tell me something i don't know.

yet another successful, fun-filled lab today. cool, fun lab-mates to work and share lab sessions with; and i get to leave for home early with the quick, relatively simple experiments.

i love BGYA01 labs.

yesterday was the first day i actually skipped a class.
surprised? don't be. because i didn't.

well, in a way no. psychology started from 9-10am, and then statistics was 10-11am. after that, i was thinking to myself "cool, i have 2 hours worth of break that i can put to good use (when i say good use, i was hoping it would be studying and eating)".

so tick-tock-tick-tock, time went by. i ate, read a newspaper, and alternated between reading a chapter of chemistry (which unfortunately my mid-term is next monday) and taking short naps.

the time finally came for my chemistry lecture. and when i went to the main door and looked at the lecture hall schedule, imagine my surprise when i read '12-1pm: CHMA10 LEC01' and below it was '1-2pm: CHMA10 LEC02'.
i panicked. i was 101% sure that i was enrolled in lecture 1 of chemistry. i checked my personal timetable which confirmed my mix-up. but then again there was lecture 2 right after, so i stuck around.

the little screw up just meant i had to rush off to my chemistry lab immediately after my lecture ended. and so i did. oh, and chemistry lab just reminds me badly of amkss chemistry practicals where most of it were smooth-sailing and fun. i just hate chemistry labs here.

biology lab is on tomorrow. and i have yet to finish studying for psychology on friday. i want to scream like a madman.

school

slept late, woke up early for the final day of the week. and the day of my first MAJOR test in university. was feeling kind of prepared with a little of nerves for my BGYA01 mid-term test.

before the test i freaked out as aisha (a friend in the same bio lab bench) started asking me questions which i knew mentally but just couldn't pin it down with words. i could feel the heat starting to get to me. as i shaded the details into my scantron sheet, my ears started to get hot and i knew i was red (checked it the moment i got out of the room, and it was RED).

the first time i answered the questions i was in a daze. after going through the paper a second time, i found it much better. overall, i cannot say that the test was easy, neither was it hard. the word is TRICKY. there were so many possible answers (the test was 60 MCQs), yet we had to choose the best one.
i left around half an hour earlier. i know i have a few wrong answers already. but i'm hoping it won't be more than 18, so that i can at least score 70%.

oh yes, i'm loving school a little more. made some new friends, and i finally found someone interested in conservation biology! gosh, i thought i would be the only one doing it..


dinner

went straight home after the test, and in a while i went straight out the door again. headed to bathurst for dinner with my brother and kaleng at this place where they serve italian buffet at CA$9.99. the place is small and dark, the kind of place i wouldn't notice and just walk by. the variety of food was simple, but they sure know how to do a buffet business. lasagna, pasta, potatoes, chicken; all served with tomato gravy and cheese- the right stuffs that make you full. we ate till we were on the verge of Puking, packaged with tears and red eyes.

went for a rum & raisin milk shake at greg's ice cream as we walked a long distance through university of toronto downtown and along big nice buildings to our next destination. from far, the toronto skyline sucks. so i never realized that there are stylish architecture and tall buildings in toronto.


movie

went to paramount famous players cinema for a late-night movie. orchard cineleisure, move aside. paramount cinema is one of the best theatre i ever went to. it's HUGE and the exterior has large plasma screens where previews are shown. the screens and the bright lights illuminates the whole place. after purchasing tickets, we took this escalator that brought us very high up. and behold, snack paradise filled with hungry cinema snackers. once we passed this place, we entered the screening rooms. with one ticket, one could actually sneak to watch others as the entrance and exit are the same. but in a way, you can say that more people here are cultured and pay for only what they bought.

wallace and gromit: the curse of the were rabbit. the toronto star newspaper gave it 4 out of 4. i'm giving it 5 out of 5. what's the difference eh? the show is just OUTSTANDING. it's funny and well-made. it's like corpse bride but with clay-plasticine. and there's a little twist to it.. make sure you watch it; you will laugh your head off!

the movie started at 10.50pm and ended at 12.30pm. as we left, the streets along the cinema complex were only getting livelier. loud music emanated from the pubs filled with clubbers. it was the cool-and-older people's time of the day to emerge. and so, we scurried home (we can be cool, but not yet)..


so this was friday's activity log. saturday's and sunday's activity log would most probably be assignments, study, rest, and maybe relax.

i just came home from a long day, starting from waking up on a friday at 6.30am, and back on saturday 2am. i had few hours of sleep the previous night as i burnt the midnight oil for some last-minute biology mid-term test mugging. i'm tired, and this isn't the best time to blog.

i'm off to do some simple school work first. there will be more for me to do when the sun rises. missing details to come once i get my good night's day's sleep. i need more days in a week..

happy thanksgiving day!
i'm thankful for everything; for living, for my life, for my friends and family back in singapore. and for living in the city.

came back from mississauga, a small city/town west of toronto as one of my brother's friend invited us there. the place is boring.. especially with the public holiday today, it was close to becoming a ghost-town. i'm so glad i live in the bustling city of toronto. at least there are more cars on the road at night.
spent most of the day at the friend's place, a cosy basement equipped with 2 rooms, a toilet, kitchen and living room. the ceiling was kind of low though. watched crash, a relatively new film about racism in los angeles where most of the characters' lives in that 2 days are interwoven in each others, as we ate chicken with this nice gravy made by our host with tomatoes, onions and others.. a little thanksgiving meal. yummy.

so yes. i'm pressed for time to mug with my first mid-term test coming this friday. i'm cutting down on time used for blogging. i hope i'll succeed.

weee! i surprisingly managed to finish my psychology RTCP (reading, thinking and communicating portal) assignments in a few hours. it's due 11.59pm on 10 october, monday. so till then, i'll be checking and editing. i'm still surprised at my so-called efficiency?

my stand is that i support the use of social and activity reinforcers in early childhood classrooms, but not tangible reinforcers, depending on the situation. but as the opposed view stated, reinforcers do not get to the root of the problem. so patience in understanding a child's developmental needs is required, before attempting to uproot the cause.

so you can say i'm the middle-man? erm...
who cares? i'm efficient. *wide smile*

i'm sad. i lost 1/2 a pair of cathay pacific socks while doing a huge load of laundry once i returned home. huge as in taking the lift a total of 10 times, up and down; and using 4 washing machines and 4 driers. and ALL BY MYSELF.

the thing that makes me feel bad is that i contemplated on washing it, however decided to. thus leading to the loss of the sock. i know it's just a free cathay pacific sock, but it's warm to wear at night during winter, which i like. with the cold coming, and 1/2-sockless (ok i've other non-cathay-pacific pairs, but i always use this as it's soft and comfy).. it's self-guilt and regret.

i played detective. went down to search for the sock through the laundry bin, around the floor, in the washing machine.. felt the pierce of stinging eyes staring at me. couldn't find it, so i hope it got caught in between one of the clothes washed along with it. ok now thinking, make it 12 for the lift-count for heading down and back to play PI. a failed one that is. boo..

well, off to 'bicker' for my psychology assignment due monday. critical thinking and argument over the usage of reinforcement for better child development; stuffs like these all psyched-style. lame. thanksgiving is on monday. yea! a holiday... for studying... i guess.

based on a true story..


time: 2.30pm
characters: woman #1 (canadian old lady), woman #2 (filipino middle-aged woman), bus commuters, i.
setting: bus 190 arrives late at scarborough town centre. the bus is pack full, including 3 baby prams. people are finding for any available seats and space. woman #1 is holding 2-3 big shopping bags and is sitting at the outer-seat near the door. woman #2 enters with a dolly.

('conversation' is not word for word)

woman #2: can you move into the inner-seat?
woman #1: i like to sit here.
woman #2: but madam, i've a dolly and it's easier if i sit outside.
woman #1: you want me to move just for you to sit next to your dolly. well, i've my own bags too. if you want to sit, take the empty one.
(woman #2 continues to plead her case, despite woman #1's refusal)

woman #2 (irritated): fine, then make way for me so i can put my dolly.
(woman #1 moves slightly, and woman #2 moves in tugging her dolly)

woman #1 (angrily and loudly): why did you kick me?
woman #2: i didn't.
woman #1: yes, you did.
woman #2: no, i didn't.
woman #1: you kicked me just because i don't want to move in.
(bus commuters start to smile and giggle silently; i pull a straight face)

woman #2: no, i didn't kick you. the bus is moving.
woman #1: you kicked me. how can you do that?
woman #2 (really irritated): no i didn't. the bus is moving. keep quiet now.
woman #1 (really angry): you keep quiet.
woman #2: you keep quiet.
woman #1: no you keep quiet. you kicked me.
woman #2: no i didn't. keep quiet.
woman #1: who are you to call me to keep quiet?
woman #2 (pissed): OK SHUT UP!
(bus commuters show their amusement by laughing obviously; i smile widely)

woman #1: you shut up.
woman #2: shut up already.
woman #1: no you shut up.
woman #2: ...
woman #1: you're the one who keeps on talking.
(i give a weird facial expression, rolls eyes; woman #2 remains silent and keeps her cool)

(end of 'conversation'; woman#1 and woman #2 gets off at different stops, hoping never to see each other again)

interesting huh.. woman #1 must be pms-ing (if she still does) for woman #2 to get to her nerves so easily. in my point, it started from woman #1's selfish and immature behaviour. then, it got worse when woman #2 actually retaliated (good for her!). either she really did purposely kick woman #1, or it was pure accident. the really funny thing was how they bickered like little children, pushing the blame to each other. and then woman #1 had to continue shutting woman #2 up, when she herself is the one always talking.. how childish can 2 elderly women get when they bitch at each other?

just came home from a surprising day out to the movies to catch tim burton's corpse bride. it's a thursday, a school day, and i still have work to do. but i forced in time for a movie, especially since my last time at the cinema was around 2 months back for bewitched.

the show was quite good. the puppets were neat; it's not animated, but sculpted and moved inch by inch to get the desired effect of a film. i found it draggy at the start, but it picked up. cool sounds, and the colours are mainly black, blue and grey. it reminded me of james and the giant peach.
conclusion: catch it. worth the money and time.

off to dinner. and then work, as i watch tv.
i multi-task.. sort of.

finally i'm able to post. blogger was undergoing maintenance..

biology lab today was fun and gross. to study genetics and inheritance, we got to experiment with Drosophila melanogaster, or simply, fruit flies. had to etherize the different categories of flies (wild-type, mutant, wild-type and mutant cross) to knock them unconscious. eeeewwk. the microscope magnified the red eyes, shiny wings and abdomen, moving legs and feelers.
we ran the risk of passing out if sniffing ether directly in hard, and of fruit fly escapees buzzing around our ears.

i received another 'uniquely singapore' postcard from good ole' pamy! once again, love it. it's the arts and aesthetics of singapore. the merlion and the esplanade, which leads me to think of durians! gosh. thanks pamy!


with celebrations all year round,
no other city is so dazzling.
chatted with karthi and he's in chicago! just a border away in the states. he'll be coming to toronto on friday, and hopefully we'll meet over the weekends.

i now REALLY have to mug and rush my assignments!!!

can i see reality in this shrouded world?
the fog is in, blanketing the city with this translucent, blurry image everywhere. kind of creepy in the wee hours of the day and late in the night. and toronto is on a smog alert. besides, this week is a warmer-than-usual one, with highs of 27 degrees celsius in fall. but over the weekend, it will apparently cool down dramatically. so i'm prepping myself for the worst.

assignments are piling up. i can feel the pressure. i'm falling back in my reading. mid-terms are coming. i'm in deep shit.

today's chemistry lab reinforced my dislike for chemistry labs here. sorry mdm tong (i still love yours!). but things are different in a way here. everything is a mess; the equipments are everywhere and not exactly similar to those i'm used to, sinks are minimal, etc etc. and one can get so selfish in the lab even though she got help from the people sitting around her.. bitch. where's the fun, the joy, the support? everything is competition now.

i'm pissed and in a total wreck.

desperate housewives rocks my socks! i'm hooked on every sunday night. housewives bree and lynette crack me up. we sort of missed 10 minutes worth of content when ctv jumbled the commercials causing confusion.

i've to pull up my socks too. i'm getting lazy and mid-terms are coming!

instead of the usual nearby supermart for groceries, i chose to take the subway to loblaws, which is further and nicer with a wider range of varieties.

i tried to limit the items so that i would have an easier time carrying it home myself. but i just couldn't help but fill my trolley. the reason being i won't always be going to loblaws especially with school and studying. one thing i like about loblaws is that there's alot of asian stuffs. instead of going to those smelly asian marts, being able to find asian food stuffs in a somewhat high-class supermarket puts a smile to my face.. and a strain to my hands with all the carrying and tugging.

i ended up buying a whole load of stuffs. among them, vegetables, chicken, bread, ham, cheese, oyster sauce, seafood packets, scallops, mussels, and noodles. which includes 13 different noodle packets, 8 nissin cup noodles, and a box (containing 30 packets) of nissin 'chu qian yi ding' chicken-flavoured instant noodles (i always have this favourite brand in singapore).

i know, i'm mad. and the whole lot of people who met me in the subway on my way home, felt the same way too. those strange eye-stares gave them away. i looked down, embarrassed, and saw one hand clutching to 3 bags, another hand lifting the box of noodles, and one shoulder and my back supporting a heavy bag (the big black nike sling bag that i always bring to camps in singapore) of food that i squeezed and compressed in.

i know there's alot of MSG in instant noodles, and my parents will kill me if they hear about this. but this is for long-term use. i'm never going to finish it within a month or blah.. it get's very tiring having to cook full meals with dishes, especially when i come back late from school, or run out of ideas for dishes.

at the end of the day of grocery shopping, i look at the stuffs i bought and i'm proud of being able to bring them home, despite those stares. hooray for me! so now, the little storage area in my room is stacked with noodles. chinese mee, korean kimchi noodles, italian pasta.. oooo i love noodles.