How ironic. I wish I had time to kill. Unfortunately it's killing me! All these stupid assignments keep cropping up whenever I think I've finished most of my work! First it was the IPRA report, then the DVPA script, then my econs tutorial...now the whole damn IDEA presentation!

The worst thing is my IDEA group, at the moment, only consists of 2 out of 4 active members. Like how are we bloody supposed to do it by ourselves...and we're supposed to present it on TUESDAY! The day we start school!!!

In fact I was so worked up about getting my stuff done on time, that I forgot it's New Year's Eve today! I received YQ's SMS when I arrived home and was all like, eh? Why are they counting down one day early?! Augh.

And today's meeting was so NOT productive. We were supposed to have the template done and go home and do our individual stuff. In the end we couldn't figure anything out on the stupid program so we delegated tasks and went home to do them, so that we could send it to one of the members to compile by Saturday (which is later). I had to do the links, which I have to admit was relatively easy...made even easier with the wonderful help of Funky Chickens, which ensured I got fancy-dandy hyperlinks which change colour and enlarge when you hover over them - with the most minimal of work! :) *clears throat* Anyway, so since I haven't received the template and no one wants to discuss IDEA, I don't have much to do except my DVPA script. But in the meantime I shall compensate for my lack of recent updates with a short list of REALLY FUN GAMES.

Sigh. Wish I had discovered them during my semester holidays...

1. The Seven Noble Kinsmen (7NK)

Brief Description: A Shakespearean murder mystery from BBC Drama's site. I thought it was set in Shakespearean times, but apparently it's modern. Apparently the story goes that this mad director wrote a play featuring 7 of Shakespeare's most famous characters, and it was touted to be a masterpiece. But after opening night, a critic slammed the play and caused it to close within a week. The play's flop ruined the careers of all the actors, some of whom were the most renowned in the theatre world at that time.

Well, five years later the actors and one other person are invited to a rundown theatre on a secluded, stormy island to watch a revamped version of the play. The other person was the critic who wrote that article............you.

So they arrive in the dark deserted theatre and the stupid director is nowhere to be found. You have to go round finding clues and solving puzzles related to Shakespeare's plays, which is easier than you think. The puzzles I mean. The hard thing is navigating the dark theatre 'cos I keep forgetting which door leads to where.

ANYWAY, after you solve one puzzle, the episode of the game ends...with somebody being murdered. The disturbing thing about this is that the bodies aren't moved, so you keep stumbling upon them as you explore the theatre. That's freaky, but not as freaky as what happens in the second episode: I was sitting in the dark at around 5 a.m. getting all dizzy exploring the place, when I solved the puzzle only for something to open and reveal a rotting, severed hand. The episode ends when you gain access to a VERY dark basement full of torture devices, where you have to find a light switch. Click on the switch and immediately you find out where the hand came from.

It's not a pretty sight, trust me. After that I gave up on the game. It's a good game and all but if I ever play it again, I'll make sure it's in broad daylight in the middle of the school library or something...

2. Death in Sakkara

After playing 7NK, I have to admit DiS isn't as compelling. But at least it doesn't freak me out.

Okay, the story goes that in 1920s England, journalist (ooooooooh) Charles Fox is sent by a Dr. Armstrong to look for his missing daughter Elizabeth (an archaeologist...double ooooooooh) in Egypt.

Erm, I think that's a nicely summarised description. :P This game only has four episodes but I have to warn you, the puzzles are a lot more challenging than 7NK's. The music is very nice and Egyptian-sounding. (I don't know about 7NK's music 'cos I was too chicken to turn it on...I've heard it's spooky)

The story ends with quite a lot of unsolved issues. There had better be a sequel!

So yeah, I'd rather play this in the middle of the night. Helps that the hero is a journalist and you get to learn some ancient history too...lalalalala.

3. Jamie Kane

This game is what they call an Alternate Reality Game (ARG). And ARGs are C-O-O-L, I tell you. Read on.

The story goes that Jamie Kane (a fictitious former boyband singer who went solo) died when his helicopter crashed into the North Sea en route to filming his latest music video. However, some of his diehard fans don't believe he really died...

This game starts with you signing up for a JK fan club. From there you can visit members' blogs, read their posts on the messageboard, read more about JK's life and death on the fansite, his "official" website and the BBC. Whatever it is, everything is made to look very realistic. For example, one of your first tasks is to chat with the fansite owner. Of course you're only chatting with a computer, but it is soooooooo realistic it's scary. For example, she asked me about my favourite singer, TV show and movie (National Treasure!) and she knew all of them! Although it's quite funny 'cos the site owner's name happens to be Jessica. Hahahaha.

But of course like why would you care what happened to this JK guy anyway. But the game is so realistic you forget about that. I've just finished the second task in which I had to enlarge and optimise this picture on a "photo enhancing software" to check if the guy in the pic (taken a day ago or so) is JK. FUN.

The thing that makes this game more like real life is that you can only attempt one task per day, sent through email. Which explains why I'm only at the second task. Anyway, the game is about 15 tasks long and the tasks won't take you more than 20min to do. So that's good too.

Though if you ask me it's worth playing just to check out the chat application!

4. Ciao Bella! La Bella Romanza

Okay, now we move onto happy bright games. This game reminds me of The Sims: you control this girl, Elena, who has to juggle work and family and exercise and shopping, etc. whilst solving everyone's problems and also leaving a good impression on her childhood sweetheart Elio.

You have to go about fulfilling all her needs (she gets hungry very often) whilst making sure there is time to solve each episode's problem and still being able to arrive on time for her date with Elio.

Like I said this game reminds me of The Sims...except you can't cheat. I can't even get past the first episode! :P But maybe you'll have better luck...

4. Finger Frenzy

And now, for the least time-consuming game of all...because you have to type the alphabet in the quickest possible time!

For such a short, simple game, it's strangely addictive. Haven't had time to improve on my score, but so far my best timing is

5. Two Things

And because you lovely readers have been so patient with this looooooooong post, I reward you with a game of my own. Nothing fancy or high-tech, but trust me...intriguing all the same. Spot two interesting things in the picture. Good luck. ;)

Jessica wrote home at 12:54 am

First up are results from the same tests Sam took (minus the Memory and Body image ones; haven't taken them):

Jessica, your true color is Black!

Your color is black. The color of night. Serene and mysterious, black conjures up images of elegant evening gowns, dashing tuxedos, and gleaming limousines. Traditionally a symbol of success, black also represents power and an uncompromising demand for perfection. Not surprisingly, you tend to set challenging goals for yourself and do whatever it takes to achieve them - your strength of character is second to none. This unfaltering determination, along with your natural elegance, impresses people. But keep in mind that your personality might be intimidating to some. Try to temper your demanding side with a little softness - trust us, it won't kill you. Overall, though, black is the color of professionalism and achievement, which means it's clearly the color for you.

Jessica, you are Left-brained (something is clearly wrong with the last sentence)

Most left-brained people like you feel at ease in situations requiring verbal ability, attention to detail, and linear, analytical ability. Whether you know it or not, you are a much stronger written communicator than many, able to get your ideas across better than others. It's also likely that you are methodical and efficient at many things that you do. You could also be good at math, particularly algebra, which is based on very strict rules that make sense to your logical mind.

Jessica, you answered 26 out of 30 questions correctly!

Congratulations! Your score is in the 96th percentile. This means that if one hundred people took the test with you, your score would rank higher than 95 of them on average.When we analyzed your test, we also discovered that when it comes to linguistic-mathematical ability, you measure in the 100th percentile. This score indicates you have unusually strong abilities when it comes to understanding numerical representation in words or "word problems." You're highly proficient at translating words into numbers. This can be very useful when solving a problem in real life. When people are discussing a vague problem that needs a specific solution, you're able to cut through the extraneous information to a clear answer.

Jessica, you are most afraid of moving forward

Have you ever noticed that you're more concerned about making the "right" decisions than many people around you when it comes to your future? Or do you sometimes worry more than you should about committing to your personal or professional goals or feel anxious that you'll never really be successful? If so, you're not alone. There are many people who share your fear of moving forward.

It can be a real strength to recognize your fears. By being aware of the things that frighten you, you can assess whether fear is helping you or negatively impacting your life. For instance, a fear of moving forward may sometimes motivate you to take action in a positive way, like by experiencing a wider variety of things than others. However, fear's negative aspects can sometimes be more damaging than you realize. Living with fear not only prevents you from living life to the fullest; it can also have a significant negative impact on your energy, health, and your close relationships if not kept in check.

Jessica, your Emotional IQ is 110 (hahahahaha)

This number is the result of a formula based on how many questions you answered correctly on Tickle's Emotional IQ test. But your Emotional IQ score is much more than just a number: it's an indicator of success. Research has shown that people with high emotional intelligence scores - not necessarily those with the highest IQ scores - tend to be the most valued and productive employees and have the longest and happiest romantic relationships. So, where are you most emotionally smart? Your test results show that your strongest suit is empathy - your ability to see things from someone else's point of view.

Jessica, your handwriting reveals that you are Orderly (:P)

Your writing style reflects that you like things to be neat and orderly, and that you generally follow the rules necessary to keep things clear.

And some interesting ones...

Jessica, you're smartest when it comes to linguistic intelligence

Being linguistically intelligent means that you have a knack for using words and language. As a result, you've probably noticed that you have a greater gift for expressing yourself than most people around you. In fact, you might be known in your circle of friends as something of a wordsmith. Whether writing or speaking, you're the type to get your point across with both precision and flair. At times, this can make you a very persuasive communicator. By choosing the right words at the right time, you can clearly express your ideas, thoughts, and feelings to others. This can be a crucial skill in both your professional and personal life.

Jessica, your true talent is abstract reasoning

Your ability to look at information abstractly means you have a rich imagination. You're one of those rare people who can mix two unrelated ideas together to come up with a great new one. Most people aren't as skillful as you are at applying knowledge outside of its usual context.How do we know that's your true talent? While you were taking the test, we calculated your responses to each test question and rated your skills in 5 areas. You scored highest on abstract reasoning.Your combination of strategic thinking and creativity can be an incredible value in both business and social environments.

Jessica, your personality is shaped by your Reflective nature

You think through things on a much deeper level than most - whether they're issues particularly relevant to your life, or issues you're contemplating on a more philosophical level. You probably tend to be a private person and love being able to concentrate for long periods of time on things that are of particular interest to you.

Jessica, your most unique quality is that you're unusually Intense

You're wound up and have a lot going on. Others may have trouble understanding what you're going through, but they generally find your intensity very compelling and are drawn to you. This happens even without effort on your part. Compared to others who are also intense, you are unusually quick to react when someone tries to hurt you. Only 2.1% of all test takers have this unique combination of personality strengths.

Jessica, based on your responses, your top career area is Writing and Journalism (you can tell I like this...this is from the Career Interest Inventory btw)

Careers in this field often demand that you possess exceptional verbal and written communication skills. You have a natural talent for articulating a message in a way that resonates with other people. Writers and Journalists not only understand and appreciate the power of the written word, but are able to harness that power and use it in their own unique way. Most likely, you enjoy sharing your opinion and perspective with others.

And this is especially for Sam...

Jessica, you're a Savvy Shopper

Getting the best for the least is where it's at. And for you, it's your strength in the world of retail. As a savvy shopper, you know all the spots where you can get good deals. Maybe you show up early to be the first in line for the sale of the year. Knowing where and when to go is a huge part of bargain hunting and one you do well. You're probably no stranger to off-retail stores, factory outlets, warehouse sales, sample sales, and closeout sales. That's all par for the course when it comes to getting good deals. That doesn't mean that you'll skimp on the quality of the things you buy. That's what smart shopping is - factoring in the value of the product vs. the price and finding the best buy.Being a true bargain shopper is a real talent. It requires knowing the tricks of the trade and the right spots to shop. It also requires patience and determination. It's a sport and it's one that you seem to shine in sale after sale. Whether you've got a strict budget or a big bank account, you know how to get the most mileage out of your bucks. Way to go!

I've saved my favourite results for another day..........................

Jessica wrote home at 2:46 am

Secondly, I would like to say that I am finally snapping. Hello, I just spent one whole week sleeping no earlier than 5.30 a.m.! Someone needs to seriously catch up on lost sleep...

Thirdly, I thought something Sam mentioned in her second-last SMS was rather amusing. Hmm. Are you sure? (Oh, and for that matter, you haven't realised we actually wear the same size? Not my fault you wait till so late to pop by a sale! :P)

Fourthly, GAH. Going to ignore YQ right after this. After reading her Space, I realised I can bend the rules a bit with the qualities-thing. (Anyway, haven't I discussed this topic before?) Here goes:

* Must be taller than me! 1.8's nice. So I like the number. :P

* Must be older than me! (Which means if he's the same age, he can only be born on the first 17 days of January. Mwahaha.)

* Must have the sense not to have long hair! (While we're on this, he should refer to a picture of Hakkai.)

* Must be loyal! (Like duh.)

* Must be thrifty! (Well, he can be thrifty with himself and spend everything on me instead. No, just kidding.)

* Must be patient! (Can't really have two people who lack the patience gene hanging around.)

* Must give me time to myself! (So what? I like people-free time.)

* And lastly...Must have an interest in history! (Which is vital because I have a secret agenda....)

And now, guys, please run far far away. :P

Fifthly, you can wait for my answers to the 5-weird-things.

Sixthly, that's 'cos I have WORK to do. Now excuse me.

Jessica wrote home at 3:02 am

Oh, it was a nice Christmas. I was up from 1 to 6.30 a.m. getting my flash animation to work. When it was finally done I was too tired to care.

Stupid PowerPoint slides did NOT help. If I hadn't searched for help online, I'd still be stuck now. :P

Anyway back to Christmas. Then I slept, woke up, was supposed to go out, but that didn't materialise. I napped twice before dinner arrived - home delivery from Thai Express. Made my ulcer hurt just staring at the boxes of spicy food.

Then TV all the way to...now.

OKAAAAAY.

I didn't do my report like I said I would. Was too sick of work so I went to play Death In Sakkara again. And I actually finished it, bravo. So I was finally at peace with myself and could face Flash the next day. :)

Except now it turns out I have to redo most of my NW. I suppose it's all right 'cos I can use my original first paragraph, so it's less work than if I had to redo the whole thing. BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTT...do you guys realise everytime I clear another item off my assignment list, a new one pops up?

First it was IPRA (what an UNpleasant surprise that one was), then it was DVPA (which, although I took my time doing, my lecturer actually emailed and said I was the second in the cohort to send it in, and that she was impressed! Well...probably not too impressed after seeing my stupid answers...)................

.............now this NW thingy. ARGH. And the stupid thing is, e-learning is officially over!

And my group didn't even do anything about our IVP blog.

Busybusybusy.

Off to do work. Sigh. No games till I get at least NW done.

And that means no answers for YQ's question. And btw, whenever I get around to asking it, don't expect me to nominate anyone else. 'Cos I obviously don't have anyone else to nominate!!! :P

Jessica wrote home at 1:06 am

So as I was saying, should go crap my report now.

Okay. Fine. Two more things.

1. BBC's History site is damn damn DAMN COOL!!! So many games...bah. I just don't have enough time to explore it. And as for games, since Sam so kindly didn't turn up just now, here's the link. I'm giving the link to the main games site so anyone who visits this blog (*looks suspiciously around*) can go try the other games too. But for Sam, just look under "Ancient" and click "Death in Sakkara: An Egyptian Adventure".

2. Erm. The 8 qualities you would like your other half to have thingy, thanks to YQ. Unfortunately I can't post NOW because I haven't had time to think. Sorry. A bit too bothered by that STUPID FLASH ANIMATION THAT IS BLOODY NOT WORKING!!!!!!!

*cough*

Check back soon for updates in this post regarding no. 2.

Jessica wrote home at 2:43 am

B L A H.

And while we're on the topic of work, can I just say this e-learning is becoming a total failure? Do you know how atrociously laggy the system is at every hour of the day? Do you know how many times I've tried to download the Macromedia program, until I gave up and went straight to the website to download it? And now that I've downloaded it, I find out it's yet another of those "only works with Windows 2000 and above" thingies!!!

#$%^&* Windows ME.

Oh yeah, and I just realised I have IPRA e-learning work too. BLAHBLAHBLAH.

Anyway, as you can see I'm not exactly in a good mood. Getting very sick of using the computer to download and do research. One stupid pile of articles and still making no progress! GRR.

And to top it all off, whilst I was translating La chanson du cochon Percy et les amis, I went to check up the plural form of "jarret"....................

....................and found out "jarret" isn't French for "sheep" at all.

Nor lamb.

Nor goat.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Now how am I gonna get the song to rhyme??? So far it goes like this (and this is a proper, not literal translation!):

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Jessica wrote home at 10:16 pm

Well, I decided to blog since 1) my Web Publishing lecturer hasn't given us the link to download the Macromedia programs yet, so I can't do both my e-learning assignment and my upcoming project, 2) no one has given me access to post on our Issues & Viewpoints group blog yet, nor has anything been posted there anyway, 3) my media audit for News Writing is not going well, since I can't even find any articles to examine, and 4) I, always the good girl, have completed my econs quiz, participated actively in this week's discussion, and of course...finished my BIG LOAD of French work.

Okay, so French wasn't much compared to the good old days of A Math holiday assignments. But when you consider the fact that doing all that work doesn't help my actual grades in any way (since the module is enrichment)...well, BIG LOAD of French work is all I can say. :P

I don't have a boring description of my day or weekend or week to type here, luckily for you, but I do have four random mini-posts, starting with...

You know you've been waiting for this...

May I finally, formally present...

Complete with French and Chinese translations (although the French might be a bit off and I'm still working on translating the whole song) and cute little illustrations!

Many thanks to my lapses of concentration during genetics.

P.S. If it's too small to read, save the file, open it and zoom in. The original file was too big to fit in my post area.

What REALLY happened at Mango

Thursday, Thursday. Everyone was expecting News Writing to end slightly earlier than 1 p.m.

Just not 11.30 a.m.!

I mean, I had just reached school at 10 a.m. for the econs lecture...but not that I was complaining. I happily skipped out of school and went home first. Wanted badly to sleep but decided sleep could wait; shopping was better.

*blinks innocently*

I must say I forgot what I was supposed to buy, because whilst happily taking the escalator down from Esprit and thinking about the Mango shirt I wanted to buy, I saw Mango swarming with people.

My first reaction was: AUGH!!!!!!!! SALE!!!!!!!!! I SHOULD'VE JUST GONE STRAIGHT FROM SCHOOL!!!!! AUGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

But then I had to contend with squeezing my way through the crowd (and suffering serious lack of oxygen) and picking up any nice things I could find. I first found a 3/4-sleeved pale blue shirt, and didn't see anything else. Then I stumbled upon a cream-coloured and rose-coloured long-sleeved lacey-cotton-looking-thingy. (All right, I can't describe properly...) I had wanted to buy one of them but at $35 it used to be too pricey...now it was $19!

Whee! BUT BUT BUT there was a little problem...which one to get?

Jessica stands and stares at the two shirts, ignoring the frenzied crowd who look like they are going to stampede over her at any moment.

Jessica: The pink is sooooo nice! But the cream can match with more colours! But the pink is sooooooooo NICE! But the cream...AIYA! GET BOTH LAH!!!!

Jessica is immediately lost in the crowd.

Then I stumbled upon a table full of the shirt I wanted to get, in different colours. I picked a short-sleeved dark red one for my mother and a 3/4-sleeved dark red one for me. After searching and returning and searching the table for the next half hour or so, I had found the exact colour - also rose - that I wanted to buy, so I ditched the dark red one. :P Tried looking for more short-sleeved shirts but none were in M.

Finally I gave up and returned to a corner to ponder on which ones to buy.

Pondered and pondered and pondered and pondered...

...and finally decided I really couldn't choose one of the four shirts to NOT buy. So since the dressing room queue was far longer than the cashier queue, I went to pay.

It helps to know your size. ;)

Anyway. *cough* Just don't ask how much everything cost. But it was worth it. :P

Jessica gets a little busy

1. Right before our IPRA lecture on Monday, this lady came in and told us all about SB's upcoming study trip to Dubai. Well, it's really to learn more about the tourism industry there, but BLAH. I mean, you get to visit the Burj Al Arab, a giant shopping complex, a museum...aaaaaaaaaaaaahh. :P

Every class got a few application forms but I didn't manage to get one. So was pretty bummed out on Monday.

On Tuesday, however, I was waiting around the offices to get my discussion board topic vetted, and stumbled upon a box of the application forms!

Handed mine in to the main office the next day. At the moment not bothered that I don't have anyone to go with. Anyway I think too many people applied so they'll have to do a selection or something. I can just imagine some person asking me, "So, how much have you participated in campus life? How many CCA points do you have so far?"

A grand total of FOUR points.

Bleargh. Can always hope.

2. *sounding very mysterious* I might just be returning to the good old days of the now-defunct Pub Comm...

3. Since I have just made you curious and irritated, I shall satisfy your curiosity and irritation about something else. Remember that mysterious certificate I received? The truth is revealed: it had something to do with this...

And finally...

How about a nice new RED shirt for Sam?

*snicker*

Jessica wrote home at 11:14 pm

My 300th post!

...Well, obviously I knew I was hitting 300 a looooooong time ago; I just didn't have the time to blog - or find something happy to blog about for this special post, anyway.

Half an hour to genetics so I really doubt I can finish typing everything. Either way I can't be bothered to do anything else (read: study French), so whatever.

I realised I forgot to add another thing that was getting me annoyed last week, which was that a few people have been annoying me for the same reasons, which have somehow continued to this week. But let's not go there. Think...happy...thoughts.

In case I haven't told anyone, one of my first CAs next term is a live studio recording of a talkshow, with us taking turns being the director whilst other classmates help us with the rest of the equipment. ANYWAY, for the past two weeks we've been rotating roles in the recording studio and on the floor, to see which we're better at. Here's what happened to me...

Camera 1 (the shorter, lighter one): Jessica obediently pans and tilts the camera wherever the director requests. During the recording however, it gets very tiring holding the camera in the same position, so the shot became less and less steady...as commented by the lecturer over the headphones. And on her second time using the camera, the director kept telling her to "zoom" and she got so exasperated that she burst out, "Zoom in our out???" - completely forgetting she was in the middle of a recording and everyone was supposed to be silent.

Camera 2 (the taller, heavier one): No problem with unsteady shots because this camera doesn't need to be panned or tilted, so Jessica can just lock the whole thing during recording.........except that she didn't lock tightly enough, so that when filming ended, the top part of the camera fell forward and stayed in that position!

Sound Mixer (the person at the sound controls): One of the easiest jobs; just pushing up and down two controls simultaneously. Of course Jessica accidentally turned down the loudspeaker control so the lecturer couldn't communicate with the people on the floor (since the recording studio is sound-proof)...

Vision Mixer (the person who presses buttons to switch camera shots, so viewers see different shots of the people talking): Jessica took far too long learning what on earth to press. At the end of the recording, instead of a nice fading out effect, she pressed the "BLACK" button and the screen went black immediately...

Director (the person who sits in the main seat and oversees everyone's actions, giving out a series of commands, etc.): Up till Jessica's turn, her direction of the opening shots were actually the best (so the lecturer said). But of course, since the first part involved lots of shouting through the loudspeaker ("EXCUSE ME! WHO'S THE HOST?", "WILL THE HOST PLEASE GET BACK TO HIS SEAT???") and it's so fun bossing everyone around. :P But then the recording started and she had to give her own commands to the vision mixer to switch shots, and she got completely confused between cameras and shots and basically screwed it up till she could finally give the ending commands.

Talent (either the host or the guest): To her utmost horror, Jessica had to be the host for one recording. She had nothing to ask her guest, and they finally decided to talk about squash (his CCA) instead. Of course she knows nothing about squash, so questions were limited and there were far too many pauses. Conclusion: this Talent had no talent.

Floor Manager (the person who stands between the two cameras and signals to the talents when to begin speaking and which camera to look into): The starting went off without a hitch, amazingly. But then the talents kept talking and talking and talking whilst staring down at the table in front of them, so they couldn't see her signal to "wrap up" even though she was practically jumping up and down (in full view of everyone back in the studio)!

Production Assistant (basically just watch the clock and tell the director when there's only one minute left): Jessica actually managed to mess this job up by telling the director, "3 minutes!" when she should've actually said, "1 minute left."

Okay, I am back. FINALLY.

Taking a break after all those e-learning quizzes and Blackboard discussions.

But really, I can't figure out why I'm so busy.

ANYWAY, because I've been so busy and unable to update, I seem to have forgotten a lot of what I had intended to post, so I'll just make this a little longer and put up a new post.

To add on to my TV studio experiences, I will say that I must be the only media student on earth (or something like that) who isn't fascinated by all this filming stuff. Sam can gladly take my place. And how on earth did she not know all media courses cover this sort of thing, is beyond me. Plus I had no idea she was even interested in it. Blah. Could've pestered her to join me in the first place. :P

Oh well, you still have time to quit JC! :)

Lalala.

Erm. Yes. And carrying on in the same vein, about my make-up class yesterday. So very odd going back to school on a Saturday. I can't remember when I last did that. Not that I miss it.

I was less than 5 minutes late and could barely finish my McDonald's breakfast, having sort-of had breakfast before I left too. Plus I wasn't looking forward to being the first director for the day.

I took a looooooooooong time getting started because the studio was under renovation and everything was pretty messy and we couldn't hear anything going on in the studio because the sound had been disconnected or something like that. Trying to get people to do stuff and ask your vision mixer to switch screens and whatnot is NOT easy when you don't know what the talents are speaking and whether they're done talking because all you see is their lips moving.

But overall it was okay. For such crappy conditions anyway.

I spent almost all of the next 2.5 hours on the floor operating the tall camera for most of the directors. Which meant I, unlike the people in the recording studio, could hear what the talents were talking about. Let me just say they took full advantage of the no-sound situation by bad-mouthing the lecturer (in jest) and the current director (not always in jest!). I know for a fact they didn't do the same when I was directing, because thankfully I chose different talents who were (I think) too busy smiling at the camera and playing with their phones. :P

Anyway, by the end of the session I was seriously looking dazed from staring at the camera screen too much. Plus I wanted to sit down somewhere and sleep but the stupid camera was too high to be operated whilst sitting down! My only break came when one of my classmates got me to be the sound mixer. As I lounged on the nice big chair in front of the sound controls before the recording started, my lecturer peered over the director's area, saw me and exclaimed, "Eh, Jessica's here? I so seldom see you here!"

Hahaha. So I was obviously very happy when I could finally leave the place. :P

Jessica wrote home at 12:28 pm

And it's not even over yet.

*bangs keyboard*

Printers jamming, card readers refusing to work, habitual oversleeping, finishing my work at 4.30 to 5 a.m. (or in this morning's case, 6.30 a.m.), finding my schoolwork drawer kindly messed up...that's for starters.

Monday I have to admit I thought the econs test was okay. I wasn't rushing to finish it or anything, like ICP and FOM last semester. My whole class went to Seoul Garden after that to celebrate birthdays - except for me, of course. It was a mixture of not wanting to go and not being allowed to go.

I overslept on Monday evening, so I only finished my plasticine models for our presentation at like 5 a.m. As you might expect, I was extremely tired so when our presentation ended one hour early (with the two hour break before my IPRA lecture), I took the chance to catch up on some sleep at home.

Apparently I set my alarm one hour too early and when I awoke, I was half an hour late. Decided one hour of lecture was not worth a $7 taxi ride, so I went to bathe and slept some more after that. My mother came home and the only thing that prevented her from scolding me more about missing my lecture, was that I finally brought home my certificate. ** I didn't have French so I didn't need to go back to school, but somehow I took a very long time starting on my genetics revision, and an EVEN longer time reading my notes. The first topic took forever. Before the match started I was flopping all over thinking that if I didn't need to study, then I wouldn't even care about the match (besides, guess who wasn't playing again!) and just go to sleep. I finally gave up at half-time (after only studying half of my notes).

Of course that wasn't enough sleep for me. I had a headache at school after that and was so tired-looking my econs lecturer asked if I was all right. Oh, and she told us she had already marked our papers, and we all sucked. (No, obviously those weren't her exact words.) Really comforting news to receive at 8 a.m. in the morning. Since then I've been very bothered by that stupid paper.

I wasn't any better at my IPRA tutorial after that. Then there was the one hour break before my genetics test, and even though I was half-dead already, I managed to spend the whole hour studying in the library without falling asleep - a new record.

After my hour of studying was up, I waited outside the classroom. The lecturer was, as usual, late by 10 or 15 min. Was pretty worried because I wanted to go home and nap before returning for French, and the longer the test took the less time I had for that.

The one-hour MCQ test turned out to be only 50 min. I took the paper, opened it, and was quite amazed to see that it only had 20 questions.

So in the end I took hours and hours to study my notes...and took 5 min to finish the test!

I double-checked for a little while, although there was really no use because you either know the answer or you don't. Then I left at 1.30 p.m.

This time I managed to wake up on time and get to school on time. Walked to the fifth floor where the Wednesday class is, opened the door and saw my lecturer teaching a class inside. I stepped in, and a moment later someone near the front told me I was at the wrong class; this was the 3.30 to 5.30 Year 2 class. Well, that person only told me I was in the wrong class, so I was left to figure the rest out by myself. Finally the lecturer told me my class would start in 5 min, but his voice was mostly drowned out by a single unnecessarily loud laugh from the back of the class.

Really. I mean, the whole class was silent except for that idiotic #$%^& at the back of the class. The most irksome part was that he wasn't laughing normally or naturally (who pauses between each "ha"?) or anything, it was a very forced-sounding, mocking, "HA...HA...HA...HA...HA...HA...HA!" like he was making a special effort to laugh loudly at my expense. It was particularly forced-sounding when he paused about two seconds and continued his mocking laughter again.

I should've been embarrassed by the whole walking-into-the-wrong-class incident, but because of that I left the classroom boiling mad.

Think about it: surely you don't need a temper as bad as mine to want to go up to the guy and do drastic things to him, like fling your heavy French books at his head or bash his head in or just murder him?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. GRR.

So unsurprisingly, I was in a very bad mood when my class finally started. Didn't help that I couldn't seem to do anything right. Like when I was supposed to say the meaning of le sel, I said, "the salt" but the lecturer thought I had said it in French, so he had to turn to the class for the answer instead. Then when I was supposed to read out an answer in our exercise...ugh. I shall just stop there.

Got home in the same bad mood and overslept my nap, getting up only at 2 a.m. Was supposed to do my field trip journal, but by the time I was going to start, the match started. After half-time I couldn't be bothered with it, so I set about on the journal. Was only half done at 6.30 a.m., when I went to sleep till 8.15 a.m.

Overslept again and woke up at 8.45 a.m. Thankfully I managed to make up for lost time and got to school, making a mental note to finish the other half of my journal during my two-hour break.

As it turned out, I found out right before the break that I'd forgotten to bring my thumbdrive! I think in my hurry to sleep I must've forgotten to take it out after ejecting it.

ARGH. So fine. Maybe I'd TRY to remember what I had already typed and continue from there during the break. I mean, two hours. A whole lot of time right?

WRONG. After virtually my first proper lunch of the week, I went to the library and the bloody booking system kept telling me all the coms were booked! Plus on a few occasions when I got out of the queue to let the person behind use it, the system would assign the person to a free com! And that didn't happen only once. AND there were clearly a lot of unused coms in that place.

*takes deep breath*

I only managed to get a com at 2 p.m., so I only had one hour left to type. And that one hour's almost up.

** So what exactly happened to my meeting with my PTN? Let's just say I went to his office a total of four times on Monday. Twice the door was locked, twice he wasn't in but either one of his colleagues was. Tuesday morning before class started I went again; not at school yet. After my first class? Not in. At that point of time I was getting increasingly frustrated and sick of knocking on the door, as you might expect.

About one hour after my class ended, though, I was working on my PowerPoint slides with my group in the library, when I got a call. After having to jog my ex-FOM tutor's memory of who I was, I FINALLY went to the office.

All that work for one certificate. Huff.

Jessica wrote home at 2:00 pm