Time management

After being stressed out with some ridiculous assignment and two tests, I finally get to de-stress and debrief a little here.

Studies studies. The way of studying in a university and college and high school is so so different.

I still remembered how I was studying for high school's public examination. All I did? Paid attention in the last few classes of the year, skipped class the last few weeks to hang out with friends, and start to flip through the books in the last 24 hours. Now you know why the shirt in the earlier post fitted me, right? I am hooked on laziness!

After that, I ended up in college. The first semester was a breeze, partly because the subjects were easy enough. I screwed up the second semester, since then I started to recover from the dramatic drop of CGPA. It wasn't until my 5th semester that I managed to get it to satisfactory level. After using that semester's result to apply for entry to university, I didn't care much to maintain the CGPA. The way I studied here varied. I paid more attention to some subjects, then there are some subjects which I just do last minute revision. Heck, I even skipped so many classes for breakfast one semester! It was fun though.

After college came the emotional departure from home in Malaysia to bring my arse all the way to the proud land of United States of America. It's only 1 month and 2 days here, with 3 weeks into classes, and I am starting to feel the heat. Well, the work load is way higher than college and high school. I think that's what everyone should expect, isn't it? Here, studying before class is expected, which till now I haven't even done it! If I did it, I wouldn't struggle before the test! To add salt to wound, I had two test on the same day, with an hour gap in between, after two other classes for the day, and an assignment to hand in. I was trying hard to study, finish the assignment, keeping my eyes open, and holding up my head from the headache I was suffering from. I couldn't stand the pressure, but luckily I don't go beserk. Ice cream and a poor guy became my victim. Thanks to him who spent time talking to me when he was quite busy as well.

In the end, the tests wasn't as tough as expected, though I ought to put in more effort. One more test coming up next Tuesday, 8 am in the morning! Ruining all my sleeping time! The question whether should I change my major kept running through my mind, keeping me unsure of what I am pursuing. My dreams seem so far away from reach! If only I have more time. Well, time management is important in university I must say. Maybe I have learnt my lesson this week; maybe I must arrange my time better; maybe I should cut down on my social activities, possibly make it to the least possible, or zero. Well, no sacrifice no victory, right?

Anyhow, I think the best thing that happened to me this week was I didn't break down and gave up right away. Luckily I still managed to stand up and face the challenge, and now learnt my lesson. A test next week, and my professional paper in 6 weeks time, I guess I should really manage my time more wisely and pay more attention to studies, shouldn't I?

A week has slipped by...

After a week in Drake University, I finally started my first class, BUS 003, which is Strategic Business Planning or something like that. For those people in INTI, if you think LAN class is a lot of people, you must join this class. It's a lecture hall, those huge lecture hall which I have always dreamt of entering, and there are easily a hundred people in the class. I must say, it was great.

Our lecturer was quite nice I must say. Well, yes, it's the first class only, but I think he will be good.

As Borgy told me, classes here are either 50 minutes class or 1 hour 15 minutes class, except if that's a night class. You can say that's insufficient time, but I would say that is efficient use of time. It may seem too short for a class, but human's concentration power ain't that powerful, is it? At least these sort of timing will keep us, or me, up in the class. Lol.

My second class was Statistics II, and my lecturer is Mr. Rahul Parsa. Yes, he's an Indian, from India I think. He has a thick accent. No, not American accent, but Indian accent. He's not too bad, or at least his first impression for me wasn't too bad. Sad to say, I think I must brush up on my Stats I, because I was a little lost in the class. There's a faint impression of those functions and equations, but somehow it's just a slight memory of it. I guess doing more home work will bring back those important but unwanted memories. =p

There are 4 classes tomorrow, which I think it will sap up a lot of concentration power. Lol. I hope it won't be too bad though. There are a few things in American education system, which Borgy always imply.

First, punctuality. They hate it when people come late into class. Really really hate it.

Next, attendance. If you miss a class here, you will be so lost after that. And if you do miss more than a week's classes, it's advisable to just drop the class, because it will either be a very bad grade or the lecturer will give you an 'F'.

Another thing, participation. Borgy never really imply this, but I learnt this through an English course I took a few years back, which was based on American education system. Here, lecturers expect you to participate in class. To them, asking question is the best flattery. (quoted from Mr. Randall Blum.)

Therefore, if you participate in class, be punctual, and get full attendance, the chances of you scoring in the class is very high I must say.

Buying text books here is a pain in the arse. The University Bookstore has all the books, EVERYTHING. But, yes, a big but, the book store is for rich people only. Books there are really expensive, whatmore if we convert it back to Ringgit!

As a result, we get our books online. All you need is a credit/debit card, and MONEY. Lolz. I must say it's pretty convenient. I have already bought 4 text books online, but they haven't reach me yet though. I hope it'll turn out as expected. Anyone interested in buying text books from me next semester? I will be selling books for IS 044, IS 101, and maybe FIN 101. =p (drop me a comment or email to reserve! lmao)

Basketball is a big sport in Drake I would say. And everyone who play basketball is very good. Yes, very good. Don't believe me? They only need half a second to take a shot, and field goal percentage for 2-pointers is around 80 to 90 percent! Give them a step's gap and they will score in your face! Another thing, they shoot 3-pointers for team, and we Malaysian only shoot free throws, which still take ages. Their 3-pointers are as sharp as those in NBA!! They only shoot? No no. They can dunk! Yes, DUNK! For the first time in my life, I have seen people slam dunk, live, right in front of me. It's a sight to behold, and there's more to come. I can't wait for a Drake basketball match! =D

There's another thing I must mention here. The girls. Hahaa... Saw that coming didn't you? I have only been here for a week, and there are quite a number of chicks! =p Just take today for example. There's this girl who caught my eye during lunch. Well, I haven't got to know her yet, not sure if I will know her, but a few friends of mine said she's pretty as well! =p Well, no offence to Malaysian girls, and not that Malaysia have no chicks, but I must say there are more chicks here than in Malaysia. =p

After a week here, I must say I like this place. Yes, it's a whole new foreign land to me, and there are many sacrifices along the way to get here, but I wouldn't gain anything if I don't sacrifice anything, would I? Yes, I don't get to hug my family, a great distance is in between me and them; I don't get anymore mamak here, or Malaysian food; I don't get to see so many of my friends, though quite a number of them are here and I am slowly but surely expanding my network; but in turn I get a priceless experience of studying abroad; experience how to take control of my life, my spending, my time etc; experience doing a lot of stuffs on my own; expand my network of friends internationally (lol); and many other priceless experience. Let the fun begin, and hope my journey of life will be a journey that I am proud to share with everyone! Cheers!!

Shisha -- Good or bad?

I went through Wikipedia about shisha, and this is what I came up with.

.
..
...
....
.....
......
.....
....
...
..
.

Well, due to my laziness to type, I shall just paste the URL here. =p

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shisha

Go on, click on it and read it. It's not that long to read. =)

After reading that, I can conclude that there are two types of shisha, one with tobacco and one without tobacco. The one without tobacco is used for medicinal purposes, because it uses herbs. The one with tobacco, I assume, is used for recreational purposes. From what I gather, this shisha smoking is way more dangerous as compared to smoking cigarettes. So if next time someone offers you to smoke, shisha or cigarettes, I think you should answer 'NO', am I right? Never mind, it's your discretion to choose to smoke or not to smoke. As long as you don't blow smoke into my face!! Lolz

50th post: The Moon

Wow! I have hit my 50th post here! Lolz.

I just happened to read something about the moon. You know the phrase 'once in a blue moon'? Well, there is actually a real blue moon!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070525/sc_space/thetruthbehindthismonthsbluemoon

Check that out. It's something to do with two full moons in a month, therefore the second full moon is called blue moon. It's not something impossible, just that it's rare. And there are other facts about blue moon too! As in why the moon appears to be blue, how the phrase 'once in a blue moon' originated. I find it rather interesting.

After reading that article, I went on to click on the top 10 cool moon facts. To save trouble, let me list out the 10 facts here:

10. The moon was created when a rock the size of Mars slammed onto Earth. Ouch!

9. We always see the same face of the moon. Don't get what I meant? I mean, after so many thousand years, human have only seen the same side of the moon. The timing of the moon's rotation and Earth's rotation only allows us to see the very same side of the moon. Wonderful!

8. More than 400 trees were from the moon. They claim that some scientist carried some 400 seeds and were protecting those seeds. After that it was germinated and then someone planted all those seeds, therefore we got moon trees. Lolz

7. The moon has been slammed with thousands of asteroids. A punching bag!

6. Earth has another moon, a sister moon. Some scientist claims that Cruithne is another moon, and it takes 770 years to complete its horse shoe shaped orbit. I don't get to see it, do I?

5. The moon is not a sphere, it's an egg shaped... erh... thing?

4. There are moon quakes. And on some occasion there is gas coming out of the cracked surface.

3. The moon is a planet, as some scientist claim so. No more longer a planet, since Pluto has been demoted, am I right?

2. The tides are being controlled by the moon. When the Sun, moon and Earth are on the same line, spring tides (higher than normal tides) occurs. Because the moon's orbit is not a perfect circle, the moon is closer to Earth at some point. When this occurs, it's call perigee. The srping tides during this time is exceptionally high, and being called none other than the perigean spring tide. One more thing, all this pulling and tugging caused Earth to slow down 1.5 miliseconds every century. Gosh! Who's so free to count every second in a 100 years?! =p

1. Moon is a thief! Haha... The moon steals Earth's rotational energy to propel itself 3.8 centimeters higher in its orbit. Don't get the idea? Well, when the moon was formed, it was about 14000 miles from Earth; now, it's 280000 miles from Earth! Wow! Moon is a very very old grandpa, am I not right? 70000 years old grandpa! =p

Gosh, those are wonderful facts of moon, right? Well, the moon is more mysterious than you think it is. I got to know about this through my friend who was doing a thesis about the moon for ENL 102. Scientist still debate whether the moon is natural or it's being placed by some other intelligent beings from somewhere else, but it doesn't really matters to me as it still hang up in the sky. Wouldn't it be odd to see a sky without moon on the fifthteen day of the chinese lunar calendar (sap mmm)? Without the moon, we won't have the mooncake festival, don't you think so? Therefore, let us all bask in the moon's glory. =)

Forest fire

Probably you have heard of forest fire and how devastating it can be. But, do you know it does good as well? Pictures are worth a thousand words. So I shall let the pictures do the talking. =)

A lush green forest.

Along came the fire.

What it looks like after the fire.

Grass and short trees take advantage of the absence of the forest canopy.

Flowers grow and bloom under the clear blue sky, using burnt tree branches as fertilizer.

Trees starts to be bigger.

And the forest is back again once more.

Tadaa!! A blessing in disguise, isn't it? I got to know about the wonders of forest fire by reading Reader's Digest. =p