the sleep of the just
after working on 4 different drafts of my review of candidature within slightly less than a fortnight, i finally cracked. (actually, i cracked after the 2nd one) maybe 2 years of churning out reviews and reports and philosophical insights just ain't what i've made it out to be. darned if i know how those academics do it. for one, consistency is not one of my strong points - i get distracted too easily. bugger.
apparently, there are, on average, 6 days in may where you actually get to see the sun down here in victoria... and the past 5 days have been lover-ly weather. so. 1 more day of sun day left. out of 10 remaining may days. i'll survive. :) and with the rays of sun filtering into the fog that made up most of my struggles analysing my area of resesarch, came the much-needed approval from the supervisor. there are 2 most depressing things in life. 1 is when you put shitloads of effort into a research document, and your supervisor asks you what the hell it was about. and the 2nd is, running out of chocolate when it is the only thing helping you churn out ideas. and i've been through both in the past fortnight. go, me!
with the past 5 days of sun, the outdoors was beckoning, and it was such a temptation to take wilmot, my laptop, out to the park to work. probably the most contagious angmoh habit i've developed so far is to sit on a grass patch, or bench, or seat outside a cafe to soak up the sun. they have this way of worshipping the sun - and no wonder too, with some of the gray rainy weeks they get. i settled for taking an hour-long walk in the afternoons when i could afford the time. fresh air does so much for the appetite! and the lungs! and the spirit! even caught myself belting out living on a prayer while driving to the city. tsk.
speaking of which, i'm wondering if anyone remembers the local girl-band a decade ago, the lizard's convention. managed to unearth their album the last time i was back home, and have since been blasting if cows grew on trees and wooden heart with much gusto from itunes. i remember a time when wooden heart reigned on the airwaves back home, and i'd made my own bootleg of it on cassette. gah! those were the days. before alanis morissette and sheryl crow and the bloody spice girls.
and those were the days, too, of sweating for crits. in the my undergrad days, the semester was defined by critique sessions, or referred to with hatred/affection as crits. informal sessions, interims, work-in-progress, and formal crits mark the passing of time for a design student. there were lots of sweating over models, materials, UHU glue, cad drawings, time spent in the workshops and the occasional scare of accidents happening with the table saw. a classmate of mine once had about 3 fingers nearly severed by said table saw. brr. not an urban legend, these accidents.
these days, the kids seem much more confident. or perhaps they're angmohs who have always been encouraged to speak up, to have an opinion, and have a much better command of language and therefore able to express themselves better. but i must say, even the asians are improving by leaps and bounds in the department of presenting their projects. while on the panel for an informal session, i was impressed by the relative ease with which they breezed through their allocated 7-minute presentations, and questions were addressed unfalteringly too. my undergrad days almost pale in comparison.
but at the end of it all, for the people of crits, girl-bands and researchers, there is the sleep of the just.
apparently, there are, on average, 6 days in may where you actually get to see the sun down here in victoria... and the past 5 days have been lover-ly weather. so. 1 more day of sun day left. out of 10 remaining may days. i'll survive. :) and with the rays of sun filtering into the fog that made up most of my struggles analysing my area of resesarch, came the much-needed approval from the supervisor. there are 2 most depressing things in life. 1 is when you put shitloads of effort into a research document, and your supervisor asks you what the hell it was about. and the 2nd is, running out of chocolate when it is the only thing helping you churn out ideas. and i've been through both in the past fortnight. go, me!
with the past 5 days of sun, the outdoors was beckoning, and it was such a temptation to take wilmot, my laptop, out to the park to work. probably the most contagious angmoh habit i've developed so far is to sit on a grass patch, or bench, or seat outside a cafe to soak up the sun. they have this way of worshipping the sun - and no wonder too, with some of the gray rainy weeks they get. i settled for taking an hour-long walk in the afternoons when i could afford the time. fresh air does so much for the appetite! and the lungs! and the spirit! even caught myself belting out living on a prayer while driving to the city. tsk.
speaking of which, i'm wondering if anyone remembers the local girl-band a decade ago, the lizard's convention. managed to unearth their album the last time i was back home, and have since been blasting if cows grew on trees and wooden heart with much gusto from itunes. i remember a time when wooden heart reigned on the airwaves back home, and i'd made my own bootleg of it on cassette. gah! those were the days. before alanis morissette and sheryl crow and the bloody spice girls.
and those were the days, too, of sweating for crits. in the my undergrad days, the semester was defined by critique sessions, or referred to with hatred/affection as crits. informal sessions, interims, work-in-progress, and formal crits mark the passing of time for a design student. there were lots of sweating over models, materials, UHU glue, cad drawings, time spent in the workshops and the occasional scare of accidents happening with the table saw. a classmate of mine once had about 3 fingers nearly severed by said table saw. brr. not an urban legend, these accidents.
these days, the kids seem much more confident. or perhaps they're angmohs who have always been encouraged to speak up, to have an opinion, and have a much better command of language and therefore able to express themselves better. but i must say, even the asians are improving by leaps and bounds in the department of presenting their projects. while on the panel for an informal session, i was impressed by the relative ease with which they breezed through their allocated 7-minute presentations, and questions were addressed unfalteringly too. my undergrad days almost pale in comparison.
but at the end of it all, for the people of crits, girl-bands and researchers, there is the sleep of the just.
posted by limegreenspyda at 9:59:00 pm
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