week 10

it's week 10 already. school passed by so fast, my life too. 

• Finished my 4th presentation of this semester, 2 more to go. I really am so sick of presentations :( 
• 3 quizzes and 1 project for valuation so far, 1 quiz and 1 final to go
• 1 project and midterm for financial markets so far, 1 final to go
• 1 midterm and 1 project for MPC so far, 1 final to go
• 1 tutorial for corp gov so far, 1 project and 1 final to go
• 1 tutorial for corp law so far, 1 more tutorial and final to go

*

I would say it's a good kind of busy. I was reading through my archives, and saw my post in January about how I told myself I don't need Hall to make my last semester in NUS better. Look at how I did the opposite and went to apply for Hall and accepted the offer one day before the official first day of school. Moving in in the first week of school, cleaning up and making this space feel like home. Learning to adapt to this foreign community with new faces and to learn to fit in with informal rules and social norms. It's pretty refreshing and I really cherish this experience. I really have no regrets.

It also helped me cherish my family more, and it's became more apparent how much they love me too. Driving me to school and helping me with moving for the first few weekends. Bringing me food and tonics from home or from work even though it may not be the most convenient. Offering to fetch me home or send me back to school no matter what time. Always calling me home for the weekend because they want me to eat well and spend more time at home... Something happened on sunday and monday but i'm just all glad that everything is well and even better <3

If there's one thing I wish could be better... it's about my energy and productivity level. I thought that living in hall would help me be less stressed over schoolwork 'cause the time saved from travelling from school to home would have given me more time to study. But I still feel everything is just bam bam bam. Not too sure if it's 'cause this basket of modules that I'm taking is either the toughest, or the second toughest out of everything else. So I do feel a little sad over not being able to balance as much as I wanted. Had that tiny hope that my final semester can allow me to say: I finally conquered all these school stress and what a great lesson learnt.

Anyway I realised that I have many thoughts and revelations during my time here, and I wished I had recorded them more regularly on my blog. In those moments I told myself that when I have more time I will update and consolidate all of them all at one shot. But now I realised, that when some moments have passed, it had passed and maybe it should be left that way. I can try to recall, but part of me don't want to.

I really like having all these thoughts I had here. Conversations with my neighbours during late nights have gone much deeper than I expected, it was more than i can ask for and I just wanna be thankful for the friendships forged and people I've crossed paths with. One semester may not be enough for me to forge friendships as strong as I'd like, but I really am thankful for the people I've met. It's the little things that touches me.

Can't imagine not having lived this part of life.

:')

breathe

Received a text this morning from an old friend, QT, who told me that she just met up with Glen and I came up in their conversations. And then QT shared the above TED talk with me hoping that I can find enlightenment.  

:') I'm really very touched? Haven't talked to QT for so long but little things like this, having Glen mention about me and for them to care for me and sharing stuffs that can help, means so much to me. And it really reminded me what true friendship is... especially at a time when I'm pondering quite a bit over this topic.

What I love most about what this speaker said:

"Far from being sources of agony and dread, hard choices are precious opportunities for us to celebrate what is special about the human condition. That the reasons that govern our choices as correct or incorrect, sometimes run out. And it is here, in the space of hard choices, that we have the power to create reasons for ourselves, to become the distinctive people that we are."

*

After close to 3 weeks of hard work and late nights and lack of sleep... basically not in the best frame of health/mind... I feel like I can finally afford to take some god damn rest after 2 midterms, 2 presentations, 2 projects all in 3 weeks. It officially starts today after I submitted our Valuation project...

which honestly I am very proud of because for the past few days my groupmates and I have been working hard on. But today reinforced a lesson that sometimes what's meant to happen will happen so we shouldn't blame ourselves too much for anything that didn't go as planned. Today I rose up to a challenge and very assertively put behind the mistakes to not let it affect our focus on more important things.

So I came back to hall feeling happy that I finally have the rest of the day (a good 6 hours or so) all to myself to do some rejuvenating of my poor soul... until I realised I have a project meeting in like less than an hour....

That was such bummer!

But it was partly my fault for not reminding myself 'cause the meeting date was set during that busy weekend where I barely checked my phone. So what needs to be done has to be done. I really needed a break but it's good to start early and keep our engine going too anyway.

I am just thankful that this week I can afford to have a little breather.

So don't even try to take it away from me, please.

no wilderness, no revelations

Bergen, Norway 2014

Kinsarvik, Norway 2014 

Mt Ulriken, Norway 2014

Post title inspired from a Ted video I just watched. I find it quite coincidental that my wordpress tagline coincides with this phrase I'm trying to figure out 'cause of something.

What does it really mean to "just follow your heart as to what is more important to you"? My tagline happened to tell me to go with all my heart wherever I go. But what my heart wants and what my mind wants and what my conscience wants... are not really the same.

 Maybe I really need to go into some wilderness soon.

*

18:22 PM

不忘初衷，就永远保持那个时候最单纯的心。

coffee and crackers

Now is definitely not the best time to blog but I realised that I have the most to write about when I'm studying and don't generally have the time to do what I want to do. I slept at 4am yesterday. Today was epic but good in a way because it forces things to get done. And oh, I now confirm that the trick to napping to last an all-nighter without affecting your concentration is to sleep in multiples of 1.5 hours. When I woke up at 8:30AM today, I'm so happy that I didn't feel like I didn't sleep much. I felt like I slept my normal hours.

I need to figure out a way to not overspend my time on one thing when it could, and should be completed within a much shorter time. I tend to use as much time as I'm allowed to work on something such that if you suddenly give me an immediate deadline in say 4 hours, I'd probably be able to complete everything I need in that 4 hours and still produce the same result if I spent that free-will 8 hours or something. It's so bad. 'Cause I kind of want to enjoy the process in getting all the facts right and understanding everything in details (which of course takes up time), but most of the time we don't have that luxury, do we?

Anyway, someone needs to advise me if drinking instant coffee every day is okay for my body, for the past say 2 weeks? I looked at the ingredients and the ranking in which anything coffee-related is placed at the LAST spot. Like woah, am I even drinking coffee.

Hate that my body and health is being sacrificed a little during this hell week but my break will be arriving pretty soon! Really can't wait for this weekend, and to be honest, being so busy makes me feel like I've completed a lot of things. In the meantime, I guess it revs up my studying engine already, all prepared to hit the goal for Finals already ey?

Grammar mistakes up there but forgive me. Too bz to care about grammar. Ciao!

P.S SO HAPPY I BOUGHT NEW HIGHLIGHTERS AND NOTEBOOKS. The motivation my new cleanser and shampoo give me is a-ma-zing.

P.P.S Okay my 2 midterms results are out (wew so efficient this sem yay) so good luck to me!

calm

this perfectly describes my mood and state now. 

opps, i'm supposed to be focusing but ah it's okay.

it's raining outside now and the rain is subsiding but i love how the gentle breezes come in now and then and i still have that natural sunlight in and the sun is not setting yet. It's currently 5.22PM which means dinner is gonna be soon :D Somehow in hall, dinner time is my favorite time of the day. I don't usually eat dinner so early but now I'd automatically feel hungry by then :/ Always have to force myself not to snack too much if not I'll have no room for dinner. 

yay i love my zen room, during my fav and longest time of the day. 

feeling pretty chill and happy too studying for financial markets midterms. 

somehow it motivates me. 

crunch time

Hello!

 

The past week was terrible, especially Friday. But I'm so thankful to have friends and family around me to remind me that certain obstacles are just there momentarily and I have got to stop worrying over something that's already done. Time is something I will never get back. So instead of using the present and future minutes of my life negatively, move on and sprint towards positivity already. I really needed a good break in times like these and I think I got a fairly reasonable one in between pockets of time during the weekends. My body clock is screwed sian. All the late nights plus coffee at random hours. The break is definitely not enough but I have to keep going. Thankful for the little bit of family time yesterday which really helped me take a step back at everything studies/midterms/projects related. It was such bliss to be at home, watching TV with my brothers and enjoying my meals and of course, my bed.

 I'm thankful for Hall Life :) Haven't really got the time and mood to talk about this new experience in my Uni life but I will one day. I like my little space in this part of school, I like that I have neighbours that I can visit and who will also visit me so often. Men are by nature social animals and the presence of supportive friends and schoolmates around you should not be underestimated! I really love my room in the day because that's when the natural sunlight shines through and I love studying with natural light. Somehow I can focus better and am more present in that moment under the sun. (I'm pretty sure this can be scientifically backed up. Something about the sun signalling something to our body and chemicals react etc heh). And of course I really am thankful for the friends I've made in my wing! Hall life has been most exciting during the IHG period and it wasn't just the games, but the whole atmosphere in hall was just sizzling. Nothing like the unity through sports. Nothing. Although IHG can be comparable to B'Division, I remember having a conversation with a friend and concluding that the peak of the competitive sports scene has to be B'Division. The other divisions are just different and less pure already.

lright, I'm really happy to be grocery shopping now and then too because I stay in Hall. I just did today and stocked up on snacks and my favorite meiji yoghurt. Woohoo, and I am also super happy with my FaceShop purchase! My love for anything Korean is coming back.

Daebak!

AY2015/2016 Week 7

• 别钻牛角尖
• 寻找内心的丰富
• Albert Einstein
• http://www.thedailytouch.com/sean/26-things-that-will-make-university-students-laugh-then-cry/

Life Lessons from Confucius

• Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.
• Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
• Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
• When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.
• I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. 
• If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
• It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
• When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
• Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

Concluding my Week 7 with some deep-thought self-reflection. If I could further my studies and study something completely differently, that would be Philosophy. I don't quite know what to blog about really even though I think a lot more offline, but I hope that while I get through these hell weeks, I will get back my drive to update more often!

I like that it's 1:13 am and I am still going strong.

I can get the hang of this, just wait. I can do this.

Actually maybe not. After my shower it always seems like a signal to my body to go sleep. oh dear hahaha. K I shall persevere for one more.