27 November 2014
It’s been quite a time, I’ve been studying and studying all day long, with procrastination, of course.
So, last week was revision week. Being left behind since I went to ACM ICPC Asia Bangkok Regional Contest 2014, I need to study hard to catch up with lessons and able to do the exam.
I started the week with bad health: I had diarrhea and fever on Sunday afternoon, right after I went back from Bangkok and had a nap in my room. Therefore, my exam preparation still can’t start since I feel dizzy whenever I do anything except sleeping. It was quite bad, I contacted my dad and through Facebook he assisted me overcoming the sickness by recommending me what to do. :)
Early on Monday, I went to NTU Medical Centre, visiting a doctor, as advised by my father. The doctor gave me medicine, which costs around 18 dollar in total, and advise, just like my father said, to not eat oily foods. Next, I went back and had a rest before trying to start my revision, but no, still can’t do much. Watching The Big Bang Theory was surely helpful now to help me pass my time.
After I recovered, I revised BU8301 Fundamentals of Business Law (it will be open-book exam, so I make my own summary of each chapter), CZ2003 Computer Graphics and Visualization (not bad, visualizing Computer Graphics and Visualization in mind map seems helping, since it was more like “Visual Mathematics”), and then CZ2005 Operating Systems (bad, I almost never did tutorials (even skipped once for ICPC-KL), I hardly focused during lectures (as it was early morning 2-hour lecture), and labs did not cover whole course, ergo, lot’s to be caught up and to be understood in very few time).
In procrastinating, I’ve caught up with the most recent episode of The Big Bang Theory (currently airing season 8). I started TBBT earlier this semester and now caught up already, so much time were spent on this -_- Then The Legend of Korra and Magic Kaito 1412 were one of the procrastinating factors too.
I’ve been using some software to block Facebook (HN, Twitter, emails) during certain hours. And uses some productivity tools (like “Focus Booster”: time for 25-minute work and 5-minute break), but they were all made me tired. Sometimes, I just did not want to do anything and lay down in my bed.
On the bright side, I’ve worked a lot that week: in total, I got 14-hour shift of CITS that week, in which I used them for studying, except Wednesday “ad hoc” duty, where I were tasked to do logistic stuffs for the whole shift. Besides that, I were just sitting at the counter, studying, and got paid.
On Friday night, along with the maincoms of NTUBS, we surprised Jefferson for his birthday which was on Thursday. It was fun going out of room, distressing myself, and listened for puns from Freddy.
On Sunday, I went to Ajahn Sujato’s talk on “Narcissism and Absence” at Buddhist Fellowship which was really crowded. Initially I went there alone but met Shienny along the way and 2 freshie there (I forget their name -_- ) The talk was quite abstract, but more focused on the concept of non-self in Buddhism and narcissism in general, where he explained the concept of self in general, non-self in Buddhism, narcissism, and relate it to absence.
And the week following exam week was exam weeks. On this first exam week, I only got one paper on Monday, and the rest of my exams were packed on the second week: daily exam, at 0900-1100, on Monday-Friday. It’s like the battle of Helm’s Deep where the castle were defended by tremendous attack by orcs (Uruk-Hai) for 5 days [in The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers].
I had my first exam this semester on Monday, 1700-1900, on BU8301 Fundamentals of Business Law. Basically the exam was open-book and all about analyzing cases which requires us to write the issue, discuss it, and then conclude it with own opinion. I did it quite smooth, and experienced the pain of writing non-stop for hours (like CZ0001 Engineers and Society). Having done the exam, I started to watch How I Met Your Mother, and because of it, now I’m at the middle of season 2. Whew, such a time-consuming TV series.
And now my writing pattern is broken, I no longer wrote my blog every Sunday. Sometimes I wrote post about 2 weeks at one post. Sometimes, I wrote long one, another time, just a short one. Thinking back, the life-pattern during my first year was just perfect: lunch at 12 pm, dinner at 6 pm, sleep around 11 pm (latest at 12 am), wake-up around 7 am (latest at 8 am), an apple (or juice) after lunch or dinner, NTUBS events every Friday, did laundry every Saturday, went to BF and wrote blog every Sunday. I like this, but it was broken since I think I moved to Hall 4, started new semester, and new heavier commitments. I still try doing those things, but now it was the end of semester and I’ve changed, I’m not that any more. I hope I can achieve that regular pattern next semester.