Stinky.

I please miss this fur-covered thing. He is the cutest Baeng forever and ever amen. Winner of the Smelliest Canine Award.

Okay. I may have failed Organic Chem midterm. I may have been over confident of my ability to dream up chemical theories on the spot. I may have thought that the smathering of studying i did was enough because i'm damn smart.

But you wait and see. I'll do well in the final. I will.

You just wait and see.

Also, i dont want to talk about it, please. Thanks.

hee.

I shall die content now. Bean Tey bought me Burberry London.

Say byebye to problem skin with Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel and Clarifying Lotion 2. Turn unhealthy hair into a crowning glory with Matrix Biolage Normalizing Shampoo.
Thank you Mr. Moneybags! Dont get too much of a shock. =)

I Hoot You Ah!

Daryl Wong, gardenias are a type of flowering plant! I did not buy a pot of bread!!!

Despite it's extrodinarily boring facade, my computer science textbook is actually quite easy to read, once youre in the mood for absorbing the weird notions of computer geeks. I was reading the chapter on Programming Functions, and there was an illustrative example that shows how computers convert Celcius to Fahrenheit. And then there was this:

That's it. We never have to think about how to convert Celcius to Fahrenheit again. This function will do it for us, saving our brainpower for more important stuff, like movies.

Haha I was pleasantly tickled.

I suppose i had better say the book title and the author. Fluency with Information Technology Skills, Concepts, & Capabilities by Lawrence Snyder. Later kena hoot.

The Dog on the Golden Street.

Today i met a dog while walking home from the Village. I always walk home from there along the much discussed pretty street with the pretty (expensive) houses because, you know, it's pretty. It's now a red-gold tunnel and it looks marvelous. The dog was just standing on the path in front of said expensive houses, staring in a mildly interested manner at some leaves. It was white and scruffy and had somewhat muddy paws. We spotted each other when we were about 10 metres apart, and he (assuming male) smiled a happy-shy doggy smile and made happy tail movements. So i stopped and said hello, and patted him for a bit, and he put his paw on my knee twice which probably is his version of patting humans. So so disgustingly cute. I would have rubbed my face on his head like i do with Baeng if he didnt look like he spent part of his morning rolling around in some mud. After some sniffing around and tail wagging, i waved byebye and picked up my new pot of gardenias and continued down the golden street.

New doggy friend!

Sleep Earlier la Bodoh!

These days, there are grey-brown shadows underneath my eyes, my eyes are reduced in size from having puffy eyelids till noon, and my skin is terrible and next to deathly pale. In the morning i hold my alarm clock in my hand and press the snooze button ten times over after it rings before i can bear to drag myself out of bed.

I think i need more sleep.

I have 4 midterms this week (one down). It's going to be rough.

Ay Caramba!

I had my Spanish midterm today. It was muy bien, gracias. Considering the only studying (or desperate cramming) i did for it was during the three hours before the midterm, because i was doing chem all weekend. I trotted to Buchanan Building 15mins before time muttering Spanish grammar under my breath as i trudged along the gravel path. "Tu tienes que leer un periodica de Espanol. Necesito trabajar porque no dinero. Yo, habla. Tu, hablas. El, habla. Nosotros, hablamos. Ello, hablan." Etc.

Vincent bought giant mug with my zodiac sign on it for my birthday. It's quite enlightening/entertaining, even though i dont believe in all that rubbish. It says i'm

Diplomatic
Idealistic
Romantic and charming
Sociable
Easygoing
Indecisive
Flirtatious

most of which are quite true. So interesting. haha.

Okay i am evidently too hungry to write anything more intelligent, so i shall wonder off to the cafeteria to partake of my refridgerated meal. byebye.

Enlightenment.

I got my ears flushed yesterday at the Student Health Centre in the UBC hospital. Let's just say... it's wondrous how i still could hear. I had no idea there was that much space in my head. Haha. It was an interesting experience. The nurse used this squirty thing to chase all the stuff out. It's actually quite shiok. It was a not-so-sad parting as the nurse washed everything down the sink. I believe some of that is as old as i am (not my fault. papa dig ears very pain one.) I was able to wish some of them happy birthday as they disappeared down the drain. And my head did feel considerably lighter after that.

The weather is quite crazy today. When i woke up at 1130am, the sun was shining between my blinds like golden bars. Then right at about noon, the wind started blowing black clouds into the clear blue and then it all got grey and gloomy for a while. And right now, fog has rolled in from goodness knows where so it looks like a giant cloud has decended. It's like having the haze back home! Except of course, without the smell, permanancy and lung infections.

Happy Birthday.

How now?

I'm so tired. There's just so many things to do now. And it's not like it's because i didnt care enough to do them when i had the chance. I do care. But i have so many things to care about, that it's all i can think of. I cant sleep, cant play, cant eat without thinking about unfinished business or what i have to get done. It's just too hard. I dont know what to do now. Really.

Ni Neng Jiang Hua Yu Ma?

I met a man from china in the lift in my residence.

Man (heavy chinese accent): Where are you from?

Vera: Singapore.

Man: Oh Singapore. Are you... Chine-sze?

Vera (smiles and looks proud): Yes, i'm Chinese.

Man: Oh! Can you speak chinese? Ni neng jiang hua yu ma?

Vera: Yah. Neng!

Man: o! (garbles something in heavily accented Chinese)

Vera (looks blank): Er...

Man (laughs): Bu hui ba!

And then he walks out of the lift when the door opens on his floor. I bury my head under the tiling in the lift floor.

How disheartening.

I used to think being a 'banana' was fun and kind of cool, you know, being at the bottom of chinese class and all. But oh man... what happened in the lift was just not. It's just sad that someone who calls herself Chinese cannot speak the language properly, or all her life, never thought it was important enough to bother about learning her mother tongue. It's just... what's that word? Pathetic.

I will never be scornful of Mandarin ever again. After all, it's one of the only things i have that distinguishes me from most people here; and if i despise that, what else do i have? I'm sorry for being a grievious failure case to all my Chinese teachers. Please forgive me.

OHO. Maybe the university wont find out that i took O level Chinese, and let me take Chinese 101. HAHA! *sneaky devious plan...*

Sweet Relief

comes in the form of Advil: Cold and Sinus. I now can semi-breathe! I now feel well enough to sing a duet with Michael Buble. Now excuse me while i try and make tuneful noises.

Thank you God, for the brains of man.

Green-yellow phlegm is seriously... not cool at all.

Invasion of the Evil Germ-anoids.

Okay i give up on spectrin and actin filaments. They, together with their gang members band3, band4.1, ankyrin and glycophorin are trying to pull an attack on my brain by forcing me to understand stuff. The sneaky little buggers. The brain's out fighting wars. The flu germ-anoids have attaked again, killing and pillaging indiscriminately.

Timely timing.

It's right smack in the middle of midterms, and homework is pouring in like mad. There are old shops to be shopped at, and new ones to be discovered. The cold is coming and the sun doesnt shine much. Now, would be an immaculate time to get sick.

And sick is what i've gotten. You know, being immaculate and all.

At this moment something invisible is trying to force a blunt object into my skull through my right temporal fossa. Paain!

I shall go wash the free sample enzymatic peel off my face now.

You found me!

Huh. How come the air smells like haze? I bet it floated all the way from M'sia to meet me because it couldnt find me in Singapore.

Yes. Probably.

Smelly liquor.

What a decadent Friday. I did nothing. Nothing! Well, except take a 3hour nap after class and then go to Bean's place to drink a bit before watching The Break Up. Bean was hammered after three shots and promptly crawled into bed feeling terrible 20 minutes into the movie. My 3/4 shot turned me a shockingly bright pink in weird places (and thats why i dont drink. much. because i dont look pretty). But i watched the entire movie and discovered that it wasnt very good, and that jennifer aniston looked quite pretty in a white dress, and that vince vaughn is really very ugly and rather fat. Okay there is no purpose for this post, so i'm going to sleep now.

Ooh. I also rediscovered that tequila is very smelly. And sucking a slice of lime after a shot does nothing whatsoever to improve taste/smell/burning sensation in mucous membranes that comes with consuming the stuff.

What to do?

It's bad enough to realise with the widening of eyes and a sharp intake of breath, that it's 1230am and you have to wake up at 7 the following morning, especially when you need at least 8hours of sound sleep in order to wake up reasonably concious. It's worse when, after tossing around like a sick horse for what seems like a year, you fall alseep at last at no less than 2am after taking two of papa's insomnia pills. It is the worst when, you finally wake up at 8am to the reality that you are a lazy slacker-ponner, and that you've missed a huge lot of very important stuff about cells.

So what do you do when you've reached said rock-bottom situation?

You say a little prayer and repent of being such a lousy student, make a timed plan of the day, scheduling time to go to the pretty little shop in the village to look-see to make yourself feel better, get coffee and start mugging.

And the day went pretty well after all. It got very much better after i bought new (expensive) shampoo, a Tintin metal pencil case, a new Wall Talk thing: Imagine (the last one i bought was LAUGH), and a sachet of lavendar from Provence to put in my clothes drawer (Haha! i have smelly French flowers!). After i spend money on nice, although admittedly useless things, i generally feel better. Spending three hours in chem lab breathing ether also helps.

Special mention: Bean Tey. For doing the right thing even when she so wanted it another way. God is most pleased, and so am i.

Mudpuppy! Mudpuppy!

I dissected a mudpuppy today in bio lab today! I was so excited. It was cold and hard and very smelly. I got to play with various dangerous cutty, poky things. In case youre thinking i dissected a puppy and i should go drown myself, i should inform you that mudpuppy = salamander. (I can hear the little voices in your head go 'Chey! Thought what'. You biased persona.) I skinned it so that we could look at the muscles under it. The muscles were yellow... i wonder why. I think its the formaldahyde.

Learning point no 1:
Skin is actually extremely tough, even for something so delicate as an amphibian, considering how i was ripping the skin off the poor dead salamander carcass. Haha.

Learning point no 2:
Salamanders are quite cute.

Anyway, midway though skinning the head and trying not to tear its eyeball out with the skin, the dead salamander shot a small piece of skin at me together with some eyejuice. It landed on my mouth. HAHA. I was very amused. One really should not eat before a dissection lab.

I think i should be a surgeon. Yes. I think so.

Talking to Oneself is a Sign of Shingles.

All alone in her room studying for bio midterm,

Vera: *ATCHOOO!* Excuse me.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ahhhh HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA i have Shingles! Thank God it's not on my face. Or worse, on my eye. (eee)

So exciting. Together, we can start an epidemic during midterm time! Together Each Achieves More (TEAM).

Scratchyscratch.

I have a tremendously sick, itchy-painful, red patch of rash slashing down the side of my body. It's somewhat like Harry Potter's scar. You know... dramatic slashy appearance, searing pain when provoked (only in Harry Potter it's when Voldermort is provoked. But shh. Dont care.) It also starts throbbing with a burning pain when scratched/poked/looked at/etc. This is somewhat of a new experience. Vera Yang never gets rashes! Never! Just like she never gets ulcers (i think ruth has my share. She has an abundance.). Or sore throats and lost voices from eating chips and chocolate, despite fervent attempts to create the sexy throaty sound of one afflicted. I've got a doctor's apptment on Tuesday at 10am to seek consultation on my current condition. And my my, what rip-offs these people are. If i dont have insurance, it's $53 per visit. WHY? WHY? TELL ME WHY SO EXPENSIVE!? It costs $53 to peer at my ribs, form 5 neural connections and say, "I say, what a jolly good rash! Some anti-histamines will clear it up in no time, dont fret. Now run along! Pip-pip! (sucker.)" I'm going to make sure i ask the doctor questions about it. Suck some of his knowledge and make up for some of the $53.

Stupid people. I protest.

Dear God,

Please let me be accepted into the exchange program to NUS. Please please? I really want to study there and see what it's like. And besides, i want to
a) check out the biology scene in singapore
b) be with my family and friends
c) be thankful that for most of my study career, i dont have to mug like i would have to in singapore
d) eat char kway teow
Please?
I know it's supposed to be an affair where you experience other cultures etcetc, but my reasons are just as legitimate! (esp char kway teow) I'll get my 75% and all! And write the horrible essays for the application. Just please let me go!
You know how important this is to me, and how deeply i feel about it. But okay, let Your will be done.

Yours sincerely,
Vera Yang

STUPIDSTUPIDSTUPIDSTUPID CHEMISTRY.
I HATE YOU!!!!

Ogres.

Midterms loom like an ugly, warty ogre in my bluebelled and cockle-shelled path. Please prays for mes, thanks.

Midterms
Vertebrate Bio 11 October
Cell Bio 17 October
Organic Chem 26 October
Com Science 27 October
Spanish ???

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

-Psalm 62:1-2

This verse has been living on a post-it on my notice board for sometime. It shall move house and be forever immortalized on my blog, to create room for the Definitions of Acids/Bases post-it. Besides it really is quite apt to the situation.