Haitus Recap: End of Term

Around when I disappeared back in March finals were around the corner. Normally this would be a time of stress, panic, and chaos as I scramble to deal with assignments and papers while I struggle to fit in time to study.

Not this time. I mean, firstly I only have 2 classes. Secondly, these classes don't count towards my GPA because I need to have a minimum of 3 classes a term to qualify for a full course load. So as long as I passed, that's all that mattered.

More time for League of Legends.

For those unaware, last term I was taking the last few prerequisites in an attempt to get into a Business after-degree in the following Fall semester. Economics 101 and 102 were generally dry but I was passing all my assignments and doing above class average on all the exams.

It didn't help that the assignment answers could often be found via a quick Google search, in the exact same question and answer format. I mean seriously, some of these searches yielded results as far back as 2008.

And guess what, they were almost always correct.

Finals comes along and I'm not worried at all. Well, as is my nature, I start cramming half a week in advance because I'm an idiot. You'd think with all the schooling I've had at this point I'd learn to start studying a bit earlier instead of procastinating so much.

You thought wrong.

Still, the exams went fairly well. I was particularly worried about the Econ 102 exam because I only had enough time to check over 1/3rd of my answers. Then as I was getting up I saw the girl behind me scrambling to bubble in her answers.

The student in front of me put down B for the last 30 answers.

Why.

A few weeks pass, and without a doubt I pass. Not a problem. But what's the current problem I'm having?

I won't know if I got accepted into the Business program until August.

Why?

Because the administration is lazy.

Seriously, all my friends who got in didn't get notified until August. And because they make us send in applications in March, you'd think that it wouldn't take half a year to determine if we could get in. In the administration's defense though they were getting so many applicants that they had to raise the minimum GPA from 2.1 to an astounding (wait for it)

2.3.

My GPA is above a 3.0. I think I'll be safe.

End of Term

It's over. Another term done and gone. All my exams were pretty much meh. I feel indifferent to all of them. Not to say that I think I did poorly, I thought they were alright. But considering how much effort I put into studying these last few days was abysmal. Either I'm getting more efficient at studying or these courses were abnormal easy.

Or I'm just being really, really cocky right now.

But I don't care because I'm done.

So now that my summer has begun, what does this mean I'll be doing? Usually I'd be spending the first few days goofing off, relaxing and taking it easy. Video games, sleeping in, lazing about on the internet until my brain has gone numb.

Not anymore. I just can't do it anymore, at least, not for the same extended periods of time that I used to.

I want to blame it on feeling guilty on not finding a job, or school options not looking so great and thus I'm demoralized. But I have a fairly good idea of why. But before I begin, I want to say that I am in no way blaming or using this to demonize her. See, one of the last few conversations that I had with my ex before we broke up 4 months ago resulted in her saying the following line:

"Oh Damian, you're not stupid, you're just unambitious,".

Unambitious.

Un.

Am.

Bitious.

I don't think I've ever been so insulted in my life. I don't even remember the context of that conversation, but that line has stuck with me.

When someone in your life leaves you, you tend to feel hollow. Like a part of you is missing. Some people fill that hole with other people, alcohol, or even just leave the hole there and stay miserable. But I did something different. At first I left mine empty, wallowed in my misery. But in the process of moving on, I began to fill that emptiness with something else.

That something else turn out to be anger and bitterness.

In the last few months I have become noticeably more abrasive and cold. My temper has shortened and strangely I've become more eloquent in my speech. An odd but possibly the only positive side effect. I don't understand it myself. But in the process I also became more self-motivated, a metaphorical fire has been sparked inside me, and all I have to do is remember one word.

Unambitious.

And now the urge to goof off is gone.

Do I hate my ex for saying that to me? No! Do I resent her for it? Not at all! In fact, I should be thanking her, because with this my productivity has increased, and will continue to increase until something fruitful has surfaced.

And by fruitful I'm referring to my various projects. I now have time to work on everything. Some projects actually managed to advance themselves without my work during finals month which was a welcome surprise. In fact, thanks to the hardware upgrade that CABAL (my computer formerly named EVA) received AND all the free time I'm about to get, I am now able to revive Project Pandering.

Wish me luck on this one. I'll give further details in a future post. But it's going to rely on me digging up old skills that I haven't used in years. Luckily, there are tutorials to help speed up the process.

In non-project related news. I still need to go for the various medical tests to figure out what's wrong with me. I have a ton of friends I need to meet up with (preferably with alcohol) and I need to keep hunting for jobs. I have a few leads and I need to type up a few things.

I do not intend to let these next 4 months go to waste. I'm far too disgruntled to let that happen. Am I holding a grudge? Am I being petty? Am I being motivated for the wrong reasons? Maybe. Do I care? Not particularly.

Let's do this.

End of Term

Today was the last day of classes. The winter term of 2013 has ended and I'm not sure how to feel. It's so odd to not have all this pressure and panic within the final week. Cramming to finish projects, assignments, or papers. It's surprisingly relaxing.

Even my exams are nicely spread apart and what not. Two next week, and the last one two weeks from now. I have plenty of time to study and be well rested for these things.

Yay.

I really don't have much to say. I have had more time to work on various projects with all this excess spare time and actually, I think Project Koi has reached it's time limit and I can safely call it a failure.

But we'll save that post for Monday. It's a mess, and with regards to parts of it, I'd like to quote Gob Bluth from Arrested Development:

Have a good weekend everyone.

Status Report

The last of my midterms are done. Round 2 is finished. I have maybe 2 papers left to do and then the term is done. Which is good, I can breathe easy for a little bit now, maybe try and relax. Work on some other things that aren't academically related for the time being.

You know, until finals rear their ugly head.

I was reading through comments and I think it was Dezzy who mentioned that I tend to have really negative and depressing posts. I really apologize for that, I assure you that writing those posts are just as painful as reading them.

And it's probably worse considering that Grumpster recently gave me a shout-out and anyone coming to my blog for the first time is just going to be overwhelmed by this mass of recent negativity from me.

Um, here's something more positive:

But yeah, I apologize again. I'd like to say everything is going fine right now, but it isn't. And I'm not about to delude myself into thinking so. That's even more unhealthy and kind of stupid.

Speaking of health, the appointment with the specialist is looming closer and closer. So it'll be time to confirm whether or not I have Marfan's. Also I'm really, really tired. Daylight saving's is still affecting me I think and the studying has not been helping.

Maybe I'll go to bed early, I'll see you guys on Friday.

Guest Post!

I've never been asked to do a guest post before. I guess no one wants to have a sleep-deprived Asian rambling on their blog. But Grumpster asked me to do a post for his students who are currently working through their finals.

I don't know what the thinks of it, and I don't know when it'll appear on his blog but the link to his blog is there so why not visit him in the meantime until my guest post goes up?

Final End of Term Update

One last exam and one last paper. Almost done here. I'm seriously running out of motivation to keep working though. Or maybe I'm running out of energy, especially considering how much sleep people get when they keep pulling all-nighters.

I also think I've completely ruined my sleep cycle now. Yep, I'm running on Hong Kong time or something because I'm sleepy and brain dead from 10AM to 6PM but after that I'm wide-awake and ready to take on the world.

And by world I mean my notes.

Can't wait to be done. I'll see you guys Thursday and I'll revert back to my usual schedule of posting every 3 days and visiting everyone nearly every day.

Also it's snowing and windy over here. Hope you guys have better weather.

End of Term Update 3

Looks like I unintentionally changed my posting schedule to every 4 days instead of 3. I've got two exams for tomorrow and hopefully they'll go alright. I've got plenty of time throughout the day to review so I should be fine.

Hopefully.

If you want to read something more interesting, my previous post about the GRE is up. Go read and comment on that post instead, it's better than anything I'm sharing today.

End of Term Update 2

Hey, for once I have something worth talking about. Unfortunately I have about half a dozen things due this week (half on Tuesday, the other half on Thursday) so the time it takes to write up about whats been going on is being spent working.

Yeah, more all nighters. I haven't even had time to publish comments yet (thanks to everyone who's been dropping by!) but I should be safe by Wednesday.

See everyone then.

End of Term Update 1

Again, apologies for not visiting everyone. This week has been hectic but I hope I have everything under control. At least, I've done enough of everything to maintain some semblance of control.

Honestly though, I can't afford to slack off or I'm going to die before the end of the weekend. Everyday is a daily struggle just to be on track.

Or I can just stay up all night to try and catch up. That's always fun.

Man I love Corgis.

Almost every project I have is half/almost done so I have an idea of how much work I need to shove into it to complete it on time. The exception is studying for the GRE. Does anyone remember my crazed friend Yu? I managed to grab a few study guides off of him and I'm trying to cram as much as I can for the GRE exam on Sunday.

Over 4 hours in front of a computer answering poorly worded questions to determine if I qualified to enter graduate school. Fun stuff.

Well, back to work. Never ends does it.

I'm Not Enjoying the New Blogger Format

In my tired stupor I managed to post and publish something but now Blogger has gone and deleted it.

This is just great. I'm not going to bother retyping it, I'm going to bed and I'll figure out something later. I guess this counts as a post that I didn't make on time but it's Blogger's fault so I'm ok with that.

Yeah, I'm still tinkering with the new format. Not fun to come back to your blog and find everyone asking "Where's the video?" on your last post.

In better news, all my finals are done and I just have papers left so I'll finally be able to do my rounds in the Blogosphere again. I'm excited to see what everyone else has been up to lately.

Now if you'll excuse me, sleep time.

EDIT: Great, now Blogger is claiming I have comments to publish but when I go to moderate them the screen is blank. Hopefully this issue resolves itself soon.

The Final Final

Yeah, I've been fairly bad for commenting back to everyone and I apologize for that. The last of my finals and papers will be finished by Tuesday so expect a proper post and visiting schedule after that.

In the meantime, I leave you with this video of a crazy guy who likes knives a lot.

Apparently this guy is a proponent of the "21 foot rule". Basically, it's a hypothetical situation where you have two people in a fight and one guy has a knife and the other with a gun. Provided that the knife guy is within 21 feet of the gun guy, he should be able to run and stab the gun guy before he can draw and fire the gun.

I personally think the guy is crazy. Also, this isn't the only video he's uploaded so if you're in the mood for more crazy have fun watching more of his stuff.

I have no right to judge him though.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have more work to do. I'll see you guys on Tuesday.

(Sidenote, Blogger's format finally updated for me. Bear with me as I try and work out the kinks and "improved" features".)

Final Papers Post

Yeah, normally around the end of April I start to panic because of finals. This is normal, fairly standard student behavior.

This year is different. This year, I get to start panicking at the beginning of April and not because of exams but because of papers.

Tons upon tons upon tons of papers.

And they're all due soon.

The sad thing is that this is probably pretty close to how much I have to read and write combined.

I know I've mentioned the paper Hell that I've been in but I've never gone into too much depth as to what I'm writing. Well, I actually have papers due for all of my courses. They are as follows:

Research paper for my research project.
Research paper for a small study we did in another class.
Paper about theories on memory.
Paper about what I did for a research class.
3 bonus mark research papers.

The worst part is searching up things to talk about and discuss.

The two big ones are due next week and the rest are due at the end of the term. But those two papers are both really big ones that I have to write, probably at least 10 pages of dense numbers, charts, graphs and data analysis. And that's not including looking up other research papers to quote and back up what I'm saying. I'm really not looking forward to writing these especially since I've barely started.

And just because the others are due later shouldn't be reason for me to relax. Those are due roughly when I have my final exams. So the sooner I get those out of the way, the better. You know, so I have more time to study.

Seriously, that might be the only good thing. If I can get these papers out of the way quickly, my workload is significantly reduced at the end. I only have 2 finals this term, everything else is papers.

Sort of a silver lining I guess.

So that's how I'll be spending my Easter weekend. Not relaxing but doing papers. I'm already spending half of it on campus working on my research projects. It sucks, it really does. Having to wake up early to do more work.

There better be a ton of discount Easter chocolate after this chaos is over. I might be male, but that doesn't mean I don't like gorging myself on sugar and fat.

I could go for a box of these right now...

Finals Week Post 2

Ok, this is coming a bit late. Posting is kind of odd for some reason so I'm doing this live. I'M DOING IT LIVE LIKE BILL O'REILLY.

I really need to get back to studying Developmental Psychology.

So to start today's videos, Yorkies are trained killers:

Derpiest assassins ever.

And now something for the sports fans:

Such grace.

And this last video is long. This is easily the longest video I've ever shared and I doubt I'll ever share anything this long again. It explains what SOPA and PIPA are and if you aren't informed I beg you to watch it because it affects you no matter where in the world you live.

It pertains to internet censorship in the most insane proportions. If either of those acts pass it would give giant companies the ability to shut down any site they want if they feel like it. An example would be if a user on a site such a Youtube has a video they don't like, all of Youtube can be shut off immediately. Or if a blog on Blogger has a picture they don't like all of Blogger is now offline.

This isn't crazy, things like this have already happened but with other sites such as Megaupload. And it will only get worse unless people stop these insane bills that Congress is pushing for. The guy in this video explains things in greater depth than I can though so listen to him.

EA supports SOPA, another reason to hate EA.

I'm Canadian, I can't do anything about this. But I like my internet freedom as much as the next guy. To all my American followers, I ask that you help the rest of us out, and help to stop either of these insane things from going through.

I'll see you guys Wednesday.

Finals Week Post 1

Finals are consuming all my time meaning I haven't been able to visit as many blogs as I'd like OR make quality posts. Which means it's time for more Youtube videos. Yay! Don't worry, I try and keep these videos around a minute to 2 minutes, I know you're all busy and who watches 10 minute long videos anyways?

Exception are made for Bersercules however...

Animals are always popular so let's start with one of those:

Adorable.

And now something painful:

You can hear it...

Is this child abuse or animal abuse? I can't tell:

Let's see how many Soviet Russia jokes I get in the comments...

Who's still with me? This last video is only NSFW is you have a dirty mind. Do you have a dirty mind? I know I do:

Is there anything he can't do?

That's it for now. I think I have this post set to publish on Monday meaning I'm writing my Abnormal Psychology midterm soon. Wish me luck, and I'll see you guys on Thursday.

End of Term!

It's a bit hard to believe but the end of the Fall semester is finally coming to an end as of tomorrow. Are you excited? I'm excited. Remember when I said I could be a massive waste of space? Well what better way to accomplish that then during the Christmas break.

Video games forever!

But we still have a few obstacles to overcome before that can happen. First, we have research related things. I've got two papers to finish up. One is simply a review of everything that I've done this term. Nothing too difficult. It's half typed up, just needs some cleaning and I think I'll be good.

The other paper is much more important. My prof believes that we have enough data and believable results so we can publish. My name will be on that paper and that would go a long ways in impressing people in the future I think. Not something a lot of undergrads can say they have.

And now she won't be the only one!

I also need to finalize some details on the next experiment that we'll be running next term. Unfortunately I've been running into a lot of technical problems so wish me luck as I work on that.

And then we have the finals for my Psychology courses. They're spread pretty far apart so I think I'll be ok. It'll give me plenty of time to study and review. And best of all, I don't have multiple exams on the same day.

I'm going to keep this post short, I really should get started with studying. I don't know what to think of this video. It's not animal abuse but I'm not sure why the cat likes it so much.