I'm turning into a news junkie...

Yar, yar... with lotsa things to do, I developed a habit, of visiting news sites, and blogs and all. Not a very good time to do so. But, with midterm elections around the corner, there are just soooo much interesting news, biased and all out there poking my curiousity.

So, I faltered. So, i've been reading articles on TIME, then, Drudgereport, then CNN, NYTimes, LATimes, BBC, HotAir, TheStar (when i'm really really really got nothing else to do), Google News etc.

Another weekend, what should I do tonight? Start working on my homework + laundry + get things done? or go to the club and get wasted? or watch the World Series Game 4 (if the weather permits)?

Also, been thinking about where should I go for my Winter recess. I'm pretty positive about going to Sin City -> Las Vegas, NV. But!!! A big BUT, I need another place to go to really fill up my 14 days break. A can't stay in Las Vegas for 14 days. Some thoughts are to go to Las Vegas, than to a Michigan bowl game. Another is a road-trip somewhere. Yet another is __________. Any suggestions?

And then, I think I should really start on my homework and do some serious studying soon. With 2 midterms next week, and lotsa deadlines to meet, I really should do something about it.

Another home game this weekend, and then many parties too (halloween next Tuesday, go figure). Guess, i'll be sleeping less on the weekends as compared to my weekdays.

Currently listening to:
My Chemical Romance. The Black Parade

This is just too powerful for me to ignore

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

This is an article written by the brother of an NFL player who was killed in Afghanistan after quitting the team to join the U.S. Army Rangers.

Truth is that powerful. Great essay. Pass it on!

Fall Break... Fall and break!!!

alright, this post will be rather random, because I've nothing in mind to really talk about, and that's not the whole truth. It's just that I've so much in my mind that it's not big enough to be the title of the post, and yet, not too small to ignore them totally. So, please bear with me.

So, last week, it was pretty much the usual week, other than there's a long weekend to look forward to, as if my all other 4-day weekends are not long weekend. But, for the first time, (i think), i flunked my midterm bad enough for everybody else to consider that it's really flunking a test. I hate midterms with like few questions on it, once u got caught off guard by one of the questions, you will be well on your way to doing badly on it. It's unfair because I'm pretty sure I know a lot about the class, and I'm following the class well. Getting a below average grade it's not reflective of my understanding of the class. But, what's fair. Is there a better method other than exams? I would recommend an exam with some flexibilities, like open-book, or a couple of notecards, or say, 6 questions and choose 5 to answer kinda format. Yar, so, I got a 27/40 for the midterm, and I was upset about it for like 24 hours. After some drinking, some good baseballs, some talk to my friends about it, I'm all over it. All I need to do to regain my grade A is to score the remaining midterm and finals. It's just that 'easy'.

And I'm so critical on myself that I, and sadly, many others in today's highly competitive classes and all, for people to look at the points they loss, instead of the points they gain. Come on, when u look at your score, (for most of you who are regulars to this blog) you always see how many points you lose, instead of how many points you score. Why can't we look at our scores as they are scores on a bowling game, where we will be quite happy to break the hundred-point mark. I mean, a perfect game of bowling gives 300 points, but most of us will be so happy to reach 100 points (33.33%), definitely a failing grade in any classes.

And, see, I talked about how I was upset about my below mean in Math 523, and not mentioning my above average score for my other classes. See how things work for me?

Anyway, enough of grades and all, I think I'm getting a feel of not doing well in exam, and this experience shouldn't be new to college students. I think it's good to lose once in awhile, because you can never win all the time. Even though I tried to CONvince myself that University of Michigan is a big school, and there are many people who are smarter than me, I still felt upset about the fact that I was below the class mean. That's just unacceptable to me, up til last Friday. Oh well, so, I might not get my A for the class this semester, big deal (it actually is), so, my GPA will drop, oh, but does it really mean that I would learn more from getting an A, than any other grade? I don't think so, it's just that I didn't do well in my exam because I'm doing fine in my homeworks and all. I finally starting to understand how it felt. It was bad for me to think that everybody's the same and I was basing my opinions of others on myself.

WARNING: If you are still reading this, unless you have another good fifteen minutes, this'll be a really long post. Considering I'm bored, and I've nothing to do for the next 48 hours at least.

So, where was I? Oh yar, so, I was thinking that how people can fail that classes and all, I even said something about you need to put in effort(like to skip all the classes and fail to show up in midterms and exam and not handing in any assignments) to fail some easy classes. And I still pretty much believe in them, but, come to think about it, what's easy for me, might not be easy for others. So, I would like to apologize for making that generalizing statement.

OK. Enough of that, so, the title says it's a Fall Break, which extended my long weekend by 2 more days, meaning a six-day weekend. For next week, I'll have to go to class on Thursday, and that's it. How amazing? Yar, I'm rubbing it in now. But, I'm not so sure how this classes on Tuesday and Thursday affected me. I think I'm lazier than previous semesters, and probably that's why of my below average grade for one of my Math classes. (damn, I'm not over it yet, obviously. What a hyprocrit!) Neh, I'll get over it as soon as I get over it.

So, this weekend, at first I was planning to go to Chicago for the break, but the train ticket was kinda pricey when I got to it, then, I was thinking about Mackinaw Island, but thinking that it would be too cold for a trip to the UP (Upper Peninsular), thanks to the arctic blast. So, in the end, as many well-'planned' (planned as in 'was thinking about going, but did nothing much about it') trips before, it failed. So, I will be staying in good ole' Ann Arbor, chilling, literally and figuratively. So, instead, I was planning to get more alcohol into my system over the long weekend, but nothing much had been going on. Ann Arbor was pretty quiet and all so far. Even though majority of my friends were around, we didn't really do much, not much partying had been going on. I was just drinking like 3-4 drinks watching a game or movie for the past 2 nights.
Fortunately, there had been great sports games going on, Friday and Saturday, I saw how the Detroit Tigers kicked the A's asses, and booked their ticket into the World Series for the first time in 22 years. They won the series with a 4-0 sweep. It couldn't have been better. Then, there's Manchester United coming back from 1 goal deficit to beat Wigan 3-1. Amazing!

Just to add to the list, the Michigan WOLVERINES came out on top against Penn State Nittany Lions, 17 - 10. It was a pretty good game, where the Michigan DEFENSE, top in the nation, contained the Penn State's rushing game, to a -14 yards, due to the 7 sacks recoreded. The Michigan Defense was just 'NASTY', they even injured the 1st and 2nd quarterbacks of the Penn State. Sorry dude! And with Florida Gators going down, and USC struggling, for the more-than-i-can-remember number of times, to beat a moderate team. Michigan will be ranked 2nd in the nation on most of the polls (i'm pretty confident about that).

Also, yesterday afternoon, I had Bak Kut Teh at Chye's place, thanks dude. It was amazing.

Oh yar, and also the Thursday night, eating up the mooncakes thing at Li Li's place. Hopefully, it wasn't too bad a mess.

Alright, that's about it. Sorry for the long ranting. Have a nice day!


Current listening to: The Decemberists - The Crane Wife, Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

Sneeze sneeze...

Alright, so it was first parch throat, then the cough, then finally the sneeze. I always got this full 'package' when my 'drowning' of dry throat remedy failed. Actually, this time, I added another step to my remedy, when the 'drowning' failed, I tried to fight fire with fire but shouting at the Michigan vs Michigan State game, and then, tried 'drunking' those germs by some alcohol. But, even with those new methods, those germs still won the battle of getting me sick. Bastards!

So, on Friday night, I went to a couple of parties, actually, in the afternoon, I went to BestBuy (R) with Dane, where I got the new Evanescense CD - Open Door, and also, bought Thank You For Smoking's DVD. Amazing comedy, must watch.
Also, another DVD which I will buy when it is out, Miss Little Sunshine.

So, got back at about 6pm. Went to North Campus to meet up with MSD officers and some members for buka puasa and all with Poh Yi.

Got back about 9pm. Went to library for awhile to get some emailing stuffs and all. Later that night, went to South Campus - Arbor St for the Arborfest, a block party, where the party pretty much ended when the cops came, and then, went to Mike's place, on Packard St. to party.

It was a pretty good night. Got back to my room about 3am, watched an episode of Survivor, and went to bed at about 4am.

Woke up the next morning by a call, it was 8ish in the morning, AM, where it's time for me to play badminton, gosh! With about 4hrs of sleep, then badminton, and was coughing, really drained me. Had lunch, and got back to my room about 1pm. Wanted to sleep, but couldn't, because of a stupid event at the Palmer Field, with loud speakers, playing lousy music, and with horrible emcee. I tried to drown it by playing loud music on my own (Evanescence), and somehow, managed to doze off for about 30 minutes between 2+pm til 3pm. Woke up all groggy, and changed into my maize football season tee. And went to meet up with Dane, Alex, Doug and Alicia to go to the GAME.
This is my ticket. face value, $21. Or, it comes free with a $100 pencil.
The weather was amazing! Sunny, at 60-70Degrees Fahrenheit, 15-20 Celcius.
Alex, Alicia and Dane at The Rock!
Doug and Alicia on the way to Michigan Stadium, aka the BIG HOUSE
People lining up to get into the stadium. It's hard to get 111000+ fans into the stadium.
Someone wore a Banana Suit (try spotting it, partly covered by the white cap).
That's Alex.
And that's me, and Alex.
Sea of Maize fans! It's a Maize Out game. Fans are encouraged to wear Maize, and it looks really good on TV and all.
And the so-so cheerleading squad.
The not-bad-at-all DRUMLINE.
I think this is the 4th-down claw with 'You-Suck chant', or izzit the 3rd-down key-play... watever, it's sea of fans doing something.
Quang with his healthy-white-teeth smile, and Alex looking 'concerned'...
After scoring, fans(normally not-too-heavy-girls) are thrown (actaully, 'lifted') into the air, one lift for every point.An excited Dane getting all 'horny'.
The flag girls and the cheerleaders... look at the 'blow-up' dick, with 'State Sucks' written on it.
Quang, was helping out with lifting a girl, even though his casted left hand. That's the spirit!!!
Total attendance of the day, 111,349...
An in-game photo.
This was a pretty late game, started at 4.30pm. It's getting a little bit chilly, and it's getting dark too. Those lights are provided by some huge-ass temporary stadium light specially set up for the game.

Final score , MICHIGAN WOLVERINES 31 Michigan State Spartans 13.

Had Buffalo Wild Wings with Quang later on. Two of us had 1 order of appetizer each and had a total of 36 wings. That's a lot of food.

Got back to my room at about 11+, was so freaking tired that I went to bed at 11+, one of the earliest night for the semester. Well, it had been a great long day.

Sunday, woke up this morning, worked, then, did some work, did a lot of emailing for tomorrow's CNA's on-campus event.

Need to start on my accounting homework soon. Overall, a great weekend despite the stupid cold. would have been greater if not because of it.

GO BLUE!!!

oh yar... newly added to my mp3 collections : 'Wierd Al' Yankovic's Straight Outta Lynwood and Evanescense's The Open Door.

Recommended: Weird Al's Unreleased You're Pitiful, , available for download on his myspace. Also, Weird Al's White & Nerdy from his latest album... Evanescense's entire new album.

Cough cough...

OK, so i'm not feeling well yesterday, and damn, it worsened over the night and i was feeling like crap this morning in the exam and then in the class. So, i toughened it out and still went to the job fair, where there were hell lot of companies hiring and all. And in the afternoon, I skipped my lunch(I had breakfast though), but, i still did popped 2 paracetamol (acetaminophen) hoping that it will do miracles. And because I needed sugar in my body, I grabbed a bottle of Coke before heading out to North Campus for my IOE class. I started drinking it, and after down half a bottle of it, in the middle of the class, I started feeling 'happy', some tingling feeling, and that was when I remembered I took the 2 pills before drinking the Coke. I was like, woah, that's my first time doing something of such extreme, crazy huh. I stopped drinking the Coke, and luckily enough, I had a bottle of water with me, and I started drinking that to 'dilute' any chemical or whatever reactions happening to me.

That was interesting. Anyway, the exam this morning went well, hopefully, and even if didn't, I can blame on the sickness. I'm not sure if that's just my mental weakness or what, but I tend to get sick more during exam season. Or probably I just needed more sleep.

And probably more regular eating habits too. I tend to skip lunch more during busy weeks. Whatever it is, I don't usually fall sick often, just the minor running nose->parch throat->cough package. It's great to see how those virus mutate and affect the entire ENT system.

So, it's Thursday, and I'm done with my classes today, meaning, I'm done with classes for the week! SWEET! But, I'm working like 6 hours tomorrow. And then, come FRIDAY! Really looking forward to the weekend. I think this week was probably one of the worst week for the semester so far. I don't recall being so longing forward to the weekend that badly before in this semester. Partly, because of the exams, the sickness, and maybe the running around with the Career Center stuffs, but mainly, because of the crazy Michigan vs Michigan State game this Sat, and also all the crazy parties, before, during and after the game.

Whatever it is, it will be an interesting weekend. Definitely!

Tired and looking forward to sleep early tonight, early as in 1-2am.

Oh yar, forgot to mention, Evanescense's new album is pretty good.

That's about it for this week. Oh yar, I still need to watch the new season premiere of Lost.