I'm done with 2nd Midterms...

woohoo... sorry for not updating this blog for the last weekend... but, it was really a crazy weekend for me... really was...

I'm so happy that my midterms(2nd set of them) are finally over... They are history now... So, I'll recount my weekend, starting from Friday, where I had a midterm (Differential Equation) in the afternoon... then, worked at night, and then study a bit at night, and thennnn, went to my hallmate's place to hung out... I caught the last 15 minutes of a movie, a funny movie "Clerk", and thennnnn, watched a bit of football, and thennnnnnnn, my hallmate, Doug, playing Fable on some console, not sure which one since he got every single one of them... til about 2.30am... went back to my room to read some Econ notes, lecture slides and all, til about 3.30am where I couldn't kept my eyelids up... I succumbed to my sleepiness and went to bed, kept telling myself that I will wake up slightly earlier tomorrow to read a few more pages, before heading to THE GAME!!!

People heading for the game...

So, I woke up at 9+am the next day(actually the same day), and then, started on some reading again at about 10am... At about 11.45am, we (Quang, Putt and I) set off for lunch and THE GAME... We wore blue, because we were planning a BLUE-OUT at THE GAME... THE GAME (u should've noticed the capitals by now) is one of the most, if not the most, talked about college football rivalry ever... it's the football game between OSU and Michigan... The Fuckeyes, oops, I meant Buckeyes vs the Wolverines... So, I brought my camera along, since it is THE GAME... alright.. enough of mentioning THE GAME... reached there 15 minutes before kicked off... and the BIG HOUSE (nickname of the Michigan Stadium) was packed... on our way in, we were handed yellow towel, so that we will twirl(well, swing) it when we cheer and/or making noise... and it looked great on TV, since we(most of us) were wearing blue, and the yellow towel really stood out... before the start of the game, I chugged down 20Oz of water(approximately 600ml) because I needed the bottle to make my noisemaker...(I threw several nickels into it... and Voila...it's a really handy noisemaker... to cause the audible during opponents' play)...

I figured out that I need a paragraph here, just to keep these long piece of trashtalk interesting(that's why newspapers and articles normally have such short paragraphs...just to keep u guys with ADD to focus)... So, the game started bad... with the defense leaking like a broken levee... first downs and with much ease, Ohio State scored a touchdown... but somehow, I think the fans did their part in the cheering and all, and they missed their extra point(kick)...
0-6... and then, they scored another field goal... 0 - 9... they made several mistakes, and we played kinda alright... and the score was 21-12... (with us leading...) but, with 7+ minutes left, and we couldn't put the game away because our quarterback wasn't that good...well, that's an overstatement... and then, the downfall came... it should be surprising, but I wasn't surprized at all... I'm just disgusted... the defense just didn't came through... they allowed 2 touchdowns... and that's it... the end... the last drive really made me sick... to my stomach...

Pregame... where the Drum major, bend back and touches the ground with his head...

The great Michigan Marching Band...

The game atmosphere was great...

The stadium was packed with more than 111000 ppl... and I could have sold my ticket at a price easily... but I believe - that I would be better off attending the game; that I would be better off watching the game instead of studying; that I would be better off watching how we lose such a game when we could put it into our pocket easily...

As a result, we lost the title race, and dropped to a 4-way-tie... can't believe that Michigan Wolverines lost 4 games this season... can someone tell me when was the last time we dropped 4 games in a season...crap... we are the Michigan Wolverines football program, not any other football program... we are one of the best football program in history... this is totally unacceptable... I think our season ended up with 4 loses because,
1) we aren't playing aggressive enough...
2) our quarterback passing was inaccurate and he was just a 'robot'...not creative, and just not creating play...
3) our defense sucks, more like leaks...
4) and we tried to defense when we were leading... come on... offense is the best defense...
5) over confident...

Something to be happy about, was that Manchester United won their match that day... had pizza for dinner, did more reading, and then, went to Markley with Michael(my neighbor right across my room) for supper...had chicken strips and mozarella cheesesticks...

then, got back at about 10.00pm... called home... and chatted with Mom... and thennn, checked the score of nba... Pistons dropped their first match of the season... to Mavericks... by a whopping 37 points... ewwwk... after going 8 - 0(winning 8 opening matches), they dropped their first lost with such magnitude...

after a few more chapters of Econs and those relevant Review Questions... I started on my Stats homework... and that's about 11pm... the next thing I know, I'm done with my homework at about 3.45 am... and maybe because of the sugar I had, and also the caffeine...(those suppers, with 600ml of Mountain Dew... in case u don't know, Mountain Dew is the soda that contains the highest amount of caffeine... and I had a Frappuccino too... so... that's maybe kept me up til about 4.30am... (shhhh... don't tell my mom about it, she will freaked out)...

so... woke up the next morning at 8.30am... DAMN... i wanted to sleep but couldn't... just couldn't... the sun was so bright...and it was shining directly into my room... went back to bed, but just tossed in the bed for another 30 minutes... frustrated, I went to take a bath... and then, came back and started doing past year Econs paper.... and then, after completed one, I went to Northwood, Adham's place, to help out with cooking, (for the Deeparaya dinner) at 6.30pm... we were cooking Rendang Ayam and Rendang Daging, for about 80 people... so, that's a huge task... I started with blending the onions... wow... I 'loved' it as I can cry manly... it's funny that the whole house of us, all guys (Putt, Adham, Mukhriz and I) at that time were shedding tears... we peeled garlic and ginger too...

then, Safiyyah came... and both of us picked the Chilli Pedas (hot chilies...something like Cili Padi but slightly bigger and less intense...)... peeled some potatoes... cut them into bite size too

and then, Li Li came... and we started washing those cut chicken... quite a lot of them, we removed those fats and skins, and well, that's about it... had McD for lunch... (which is like my first McD in 5-6 months time)... then, I'm actually done with the cooking... all they needed was to really cook it (dried it up so that it was actually rendang)... and that's the stoves' job... none of ours... as I'm too lazy to take a 10 minutes bus ride back to my room, and then back up to North campus later in the evening for the Deeparaya dinner event, I stayed at Adham's place and did 2 more past year papers... and when I'm done, it's almost time...

Li Li and I walked to Thieme house lounge for the event, and there, after delayed of 45 minutes, the actual event started... and after some short speeches, the feasting started... We(several committee members) served the lines so that people got access to the food sooner and at an reasonable amount such that everybody got a fair shot to all the food....

The food wasn't too bad...
Freshmen prepared kuah kacang (peanut gravy... which is slightly spicy, the way I like it) and nasi himpit (pressed rice...kinda weird as the rice was... let me put it this way, weird... as it was sticky, but kinda not well-pressed... and not cut... which made my task of serving much tougher...)

Sophomores (that's my batch) prepared nasi minyak (oiled rice) and chicken and beef rendang(not spicy enough, for me).... which were the bomb... the main dish of the event...

Juniors prepared satay... chicken satay... 1 thousand of sticks of them... which was great...

Seniors cheated... they supposedly prepared, but instead, bought desserts...(Mrs. Fields cookies, Dunkin Donuts ice cream cakes...) and made some jello with some stuffs in it...

after the feast, there were some entertainments... people making a fool of themselves while others enjoying the shows...

Got back to my room at about 9.40pm... and did more readings and preparation on the exam... I too decided to skip my differential equation lecture the next day because I think I will have better use of the hour preparing and cramming more info into my poor little brain... slept at about 2am...

woke up at about 6.30am... well, to work... I went to the Cultural Anthropology lecture though, where we watch a documentary - Barbie Nation... which features how Barbie(R) dolls kinda symbolizes SEX/Gender in the US... and the world... some of the things shown in the documentary were kinda disturbing... sickening... but well, it's hard to say what's sickening and what's not in our ever-changing world... who knows what's sickening or disturbing before are OK in our society now... So, had lunch, and prepared for the Econs midterm later (by reviewing the past year papers again) and then, some of the keywords and other stuffs... those acronyms... like ERM - Exchange rate mechanism, ECU - European Currency Unit, EMU - Economic and Monetary Union, EMS - European Monetary System, DFI - Direct Foreign Investment, TNC - Transnational Corporation, MNE - Multinational Enterprise... and what's dollarization, what's odios debt, what's spot market, what's.... well, u get the idea...

Met with Shi Ting to check the Stats hw, and handed in at 3.30pm... went to the library and used my last 25 minutes prior to the midterm to clear my mind over some concepts... just to make sure that I didn't screw up my basics... so, the midterm was not too bad... I think I did better than the first midterm... mainly because I was better prepared for this one... and I'm one caffeine too...thanks Mountain Dew(R)... speaking of which, I think I need to stockpile some... either that or Classic Coca-cola (R)...

got back from the midterm, went dinner,(skipped the presentation of a company which I RSVPed for...) well, I had a quiz and another midterm the next day...(today)... so, I should be forgiven if this decision happens to come and bite me later in time... so, I studied a bit of Anthropology... was too tired to function anymore... had an hour of power nap... woke up at about 9.15pm... and continued with my anthro reading til about 11pm... had a shower, and then, started preparing for my Stats midterm... did it til about 12.30am... where I received an email from my Anthro GSI, telling which chapter the quiz will be on... looked through the summaries of those chapters... and hope that those will help me answering those quiz questions tomorrow... did Stats til about 2am... went to bed...

woke up this morning at 7am... so freaking tired as I've been sleeping 5 hours day for the past 3 days... and I've been reading a lot... the quiz wasn't too bad... the Midterm too...
done with midterm at 2.30pm... wanted to collect my Differential Equation midterm but the professor wasn't around... went to have a cup of coffee with Shi Ting... and chatted til about 5pm(thanks for ur company...)... had to attend a meeting....Putt came at about 4.50pm, and we went to the meeting together... SEA Network meeting... til about 7pm... Jane (co-chair of Thai Student Assoc.) gave us a ride to our hostel... we had dinner at Markley... and then, I got back to my room at about 7.45pm... saw a message on my doorboard, where my hallmate Melanie left me a msg, saying that she went home for the weekend, and told me to call her and let her know about whether I'm accepting her invitation to her home for Thanksgiving dinner...(well, she invited long ago, but, I just don't know why, I couldn't gave her an answer...) I called her and told her that I would be glad to had Thanksgiving dinner with her family... headed out at 8.45pm again for Alternative Spring Break(ASB) group meeting, where we had some ice-breaking... and then, talked about fundraising... got to know a great deal of people with common interest...

so... got back at about 10pm... and started writing this blog at about 10.39pm... and halfway through... not really halfway... after figuring out the title... i called home....dad... and chatted about 30minutes... and then continued with this post... and it's about 1am now... wow... this is a long one... have fun reading....