Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Chapter 212 - Exams
So I've had 3 papers over the last 26 hours.

Worth noting was my Geology paper this morning. I forced myself out of bed this morning an hour earlier (my mother will testify to how hard this normally is), so that I could get a proper breakfast, a cup of coffee, and cram in some last minute revision. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere going into the exam hall.

When the examiner told us to begin, we flipped the question papers over, and almost immediately, 20 hands shot up into the air - mine included. It appears that they've given us the wrong paper! I had a shock when I saw essay questions on lithospheric stretching model in Section 1B, which is normally palaeontology. Thinking that I had forgotten to revise some topics, i read on only to find nothing about palaeontology! Good thing everyone realised that. So while we were all panicking over what was gonna happen while the examiner tried to sort things out, everyone was at ease. I found it rather amusing actually, the sight of hands shooting up into the air at the start...

And then we were told that it was the CORRECT paper and that was what we were to be expecting! Hmm. It appears that was something NONE OF US knew about. But what can we do, but to carry on with the paper. I must say I was slightly relieved, because I hadn't studied very hard for the paper (suitcase was exploding!), so to find that I was somewhat on equal footing with everyone else was kinda comforting. Also, I was fairly impressed with the amount of stuff I could remember from revision a week ago - so in the end, though none of us were prepared for the paper, it didn't turn out too bad for me I think.

At the end of the exam, the examiner tried to clarify things, saying that there was never a distinction on what was gonna come out in paper 1 or paper 2 - well, yeah right... then explain why in the last 5 years, all the paper 1 and paper 2 topics were the same? In that case, why do we even split the paper in 2?

Actually, news just arrived! (via email)

"Everyone is very concerned about what happened.

Dr. Galy is the senior examiner. The GSB booklet does not specify
division of material between papers. He was not aware that the GSA
booklet did specify a division. We are reviewing for the future.

Everyone is very sorry indeed about this morning, but the examiners will
take into account fully what happened.

I have talked to a number of students to reassure them.

We are checking that GSB is as stated in that booklet and I will confirm
tomorrow.

Please do not be anxious about this morning.

All good wishes,

Margaret


So amusing, i swear. And now I quote what was written in our "syllabus":

There are two theory papers, each of three hours duration. Each paper is divided into two sections of five questions. You have to do two questions from each section.

The sections approximately comprise: -

1A Hydrosphere, biogenic and chemical sediments
1B Palaeontology
2A Structure, tectonics
2B Clastics, basins


In any case, it's over now, and that's all that matters. I suppose if you look at the silver lining, that means I have to study less hard for my paper 2 this Saturday then.

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Woke up with a sore throat. Must have been the close proximity during exams to other sick students. So horrible. Afternoon paper sucked.
Posted by yellowlemonie at 5:37 PM | 1 comments
Monday, May 28, 2007
Chapter 211 - Studying....
Studying is like packing clothes into a suitcase - the more clothes you try to bring, the less space there is left. Eventually, the suitcase becomes full, and you have to choose what you need to bring. But what happens if you only have one suitcase, and have to go for three trips back-to-back? That's the situation I'm facing now...

What do you do when that happens? Do you pack enough for one trip or do you pack a little for each trip?

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 10:10 PM | 1 comments
Friday, May 25, 2007
Chapter 210 - Ramblings
Healthy Living
Dinner for the last few days has consisted of broccoli and carrots (not just that though)... My mother will be proud.... hehe...

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The Zimmers


The Zimmers is this "band" with a combined total age of some 40 members of the band = 3000.... Now, that works out to be ~75 years old per member... Check out their released track - My Generation!

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My college has great sense of humour in my opinion.

from my college nurse about studying for exams:
"proteins for working, carbs for relaxing - but not too many chips!"


Then my college Senior Tutor sent out an email informing people about how they can seek counselling. And in that same email was this note from Clare College asking people not to jump into the river cos 2 students have had "near death" experiences doing that (one was seriously injured, one contracted some water borne infection and was hospitalised for 6 months). It's a bit like "Don't jump into the river if you're stressed - seek counselling instead!"

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 8:23 PM | 0 comments
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Chapter 209 - Photoshop Magic
Was playing around with Photoshop to kill some time (and to procrastinate from studying of course).

Kinda like the effect.... feels kinda like communist Russian style...

PS: if you click on the photo and look closely between the left most row and the middle row, there's this guy crouched on the ground trying to take pictures... now that's what i'd call hardcore... ;p

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 9:37 PM | 0 comments
Chapter 208 - Churchill Ducklings
The last of this year's duckings have finally hatched - late bloomers you might call them. This new family of ducks/ducklings currently reside in the pond just outside my college... Gave them some break after a run, which was a good break from mugging (which i've come to realise how little time there is now)

In any case, I also took some pictures of them....
Ducklings following the mother duck...

Pretty reflections...

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 8:02 PM | 0 comments
Friday, May 18, 2007
Chapter 207 - The Purpose of Ferris Wheels

"Ferris wheels are for slowly cutting across the sky with the person you like"
-Honey & Clover

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 1:44 PM | 0 comments
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Chapter 206 - Time out
During Geology lecture yesterday, our lecturer told us a story about the naming of oilfields in the North Sea owned by Shell.

Apparently, when Shell first started drilling for oil in the North Sea, they named the first oilfield "Oilfield A-UK" - not a very creative name one might say. ;p Then for some reason, some genius asked, "what happens when we get to F?" And this caused general panic and hysteria in the company, until genius 2 decides, "Why not name them after sea birds?" That was greeted with rousing applause and celebration and tada, the oilfields are now named after birds, Auk, ...Cormorant, Dunlin... Kittiwake, etc.

My lecturer also joked about how they probably named it after the birds they killed in the area, drilling for oil...

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My college has now got a new plasma TV for showing events and updates of the college. It's updated every day and is located at the entrance of college. And on it has some really funny quotes.

On the 4th of May when it first came up, it said "May the 4th be with you!"

Yesterday, it said "Still not panicking yet?" - so true... i should be panicking and running around like a headless chicken now...

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 11:49 AM | 0 comments
Monday, May 14, 2007
Chapter 206 - Boatie-ness
In the last 24 hours, I've practically spent most of my waking moments doing something rowing/coxing related. We were loading up our boats onto the trailer last night (not before unloading the boats which were on the trailer first), and then this morning, we left at 8am to head to London for the Poplar Regatta. We were racing in the Women's Novice (Novice cos none of us had any points) 8+ category, which sadly only received 3 entries, of which one scratched before the race, so we were only racing Southampton University.

It was a race in pretty windy conditions, although on a very straight bit of the river - it had to be straight since it was right next to the London City Airport's runway. For some reason, I don't think I know how to steer a straight line, given that the River Cam is infinitely sinuous - which resulted me almost steering into Southampton right off the start as they pulled away (also due to the wind, we were both being blown in). In any case, we were neck to neck for about 20 strokes after that, before we pulled away seat by seat. The feeling of pulling away from another crew, even if it was just one other, was awesome. We finished first in our category, and hence we all got a little trophy, or "pots" as they call it.

The crew after the race, all changed into dry clothes...

Thereafter, I got back to college, and went straight for a nap, which I had so much trouble getting up from. I think I was just so drained from the race - trust me, it requires intense concentration during the race. Got up and did A LITTLE BIT of work, and then it was time to go for a coxing seminar - a talk organised by THE 2 coxes of the uni.. I was slightly disappointed by the talk to be honest, cos I went with slightly different expectations. The talk was kinda like a "how-to-cox" session for beginners, and I hardly found it insightful. But I suppose given that the standards of coxes at the talk was quite varied, it was hard to find a compromise.

Then at the end of the day, which was around 10pm, i finally have my dinner, reply to emails and sit down for a quick dose of anime, before catching up on work and now blogging... Gosh.. Can they postpone the exams please?

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 12:30 AM | 0 comments
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Chapter 205 - Asparagus Pee
Since it's the English Asparagus season, I thought it might be wise to educate everyone on some asparagus eating ethics... ;p For those of you who are wondering what I am talking about, I suggest you try this - Go buy a bunch of asparagus, cook it and eat it, and the next time you visit the loo (to pee that is), just be a little conscious of the "fragance"....

For some scientific explanation, check out this article. Which I quote, "It is said that in a venerable British men's club there is a sign reading "DURING THE ASPARAGUS SEASON MEMBERS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO RELIEVE THEMSELVES IN THE HATSTAND." "

Or you can also check this other article.

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For some humour now, check this out: (it's one of the NEW mac/pc clips... never fails to amuse me... ;p)

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 9:40 PM | 0 comments
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Chapter 204 - Late Night Entertainment
While surfing the forums at Clubsnap, I stumbled upon this thread which has some really hilarious shots sia........ Like:

Click on the shots to view a bigger image (trust me, you'd want to see it big

#1:


#2:


As a photography hobbyist, this really made me burst out laughing! #3:
You have to pay attention to each photographer in the picture... like the cockster on the left, or the guy in the camouflage suit on the right with the mother of a lens, or the guy on the right holding the reflector thingy who has such a flat expression, or the guy trying to shoot "upskirt" of the model.... PENGz....
Posted by yellowlemonie at 12:59 AM | 4 comments
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Chapter 203 - Eastern Europe (continued)
So I (finally) continue my pictorial on Eastern Europe... All the photos shown now are shot on film and scanned in.. and of course, only the better shots are shown... haha... ;p

Salzburg
Some nice horses at the town square in Salzburg

Many thanks to my "wonderful" navigation skill, we walked up a wrong street while heading for the Fortress Hohensalzburg, we stumbled upon this (what I thought was) pretty nice arty stuff (i don't what you call them... ;p)

A shot from inside the Fortress Hohensalzburg...

Golling
A nice shot of the supposedly forbidden waterfall.. A pity I only had a polariser to diffuse the light and increase exposure time (i needed a neutral diffuser)

Vienna
The State Hall in Vienna - quite a waste of money I thought... although it was nice, but there really wasn't very much to see, except the frescoes on the ceiling, which I thought were really fascinating...

inside the Stephansdom, Vienna

A street pianist busker - I was quite impressed considering most buskers busk with "portable" equipment - I don't consider an upright piano to be portable in ANY sense.... ;p

A night shot of the library at the Habsburg, Vienna with the moon as the backdrop

A furry-eared squirrel at the Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna - it kinda looks like a rabbit right?

Horse-drawn carriages at the park of the Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna - it was certainly a beautiful day

UNO-city, Vienna. One of the four/five UN headquarters in the world. Home to the IAEA, etc etc.

At the main reception of the UNO-city. Try and find the Singapore flag!

Some Gaudi inspired place or something like that. I can't quite remember the name of it though.... ;p

Bratislava, Slovakia

The once-upon-a-time Castle at Bratislava. It is now a museum, although not a very good one I must say. (and for that matter, I think the whole of Bratislava isn't very much of a visit either... Not for food at least)

St Martin's Cathedral.. It was closed by the time we got there so we didn't get to see the interior...

The Blue (Orthodox) Church, which I thought was quite modern-ly beautiful. "I'm Blue, da ba dee da...."

Prague, Czech Republic
The most beautiful of the few cities I visited on this trip. And also where the best (& cheapest) beer is found. :)

The old town square - which had a nice Easter fair going on. So beautifully set against all the historic churches and buildings

The old town side of the tower on Charles Bridge, which is the bridge of statues

St John of Nepomuk statue on Charles Bridge - the most famous one of all...

The changing of guards parade at the Prague Castle - very entertaining indeed. I quote the AA spiral guide, "After Habsburg formality and the grey ritual of the Communists, President Havel gave the show some humour and life: the sentries' blue uniforms tailed by the Oscar-winning costume designer for Amadeus, and a new fanfare for the big noon parade composed by rock musician Michal Kocab"

The big noon parade... (I went a little shutter crazy... ;p)

Watching the parade made me miss the Commissioning Parade training at OCS somehow... hmm... i never would have thought there would be such a day... haha..

Marching home...

Inside St Vitus Cathedral. The steeples on the outside as well as the architecture is supposed to be a mix of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles...

Another shot of the interior. I loved the intensity and colours of the light shining through the stained glass, giving such a pretty picture... ;p

So this is the end of my recount of Eastern Europe. I'm afraid there weren't any stories to share - cos the trip went smoothly, which I supposed was a good thing.... ;p

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Posted by yellowlemonie at 11:41 PM | 0 comments
i will blog tonight
because kenny said so, it must be true....
Posted by yellowlemonie at 1:10 PM | 0 comments
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Chapter 202 - How am I to?
How am I to find time to study,
if lectures and practicals go on as usual?
if workload is the same as in previous terms?
if i'm too tired at the end of the day?

hmm. everyday's a tiring long day. my first break today was at 3.30pm and that was not the end of my day yet. With rowing outings being 5 days a week this term, it's looking like time's gonna pass by a lot quicker, hence explains the hiatus in blogging.

In any case, a lot has happened over the past week (I think). Lester was here to visit over the weekend, and one of his friends tagged along too. We even cycled to Grantchester on Sunday. Then this week was busy settling funding application deadlines for my mapping project in summer - it's a little bit like sponsorship proposals all over again. ;p

For now, Kenny will unwind a little before heading off to bed. :)
Posted by yellowlemonie at 12:21 AM | 0 comments
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