thesis pieces

I passed the 1k word mark today and went on to hit 1.5k :)
Awesome.
I 'm now enjoying a hot cup of de-caf green tea and watching repeat episodes of criminal minds.
I LOVE Dr Reid.
hee.

I can't wait for the weekend!
It's gonna be AWESOME x AWESOME= AWESOME SQUARE.

7000

So today I've almost reached my target of 1000 words a day despite it only being almost 6.30pm.
I think I did quite well today :)
I'm just waiting for Leah to come online so I can make some sort of arrangement to meet online this Saturday :)
I really do want to finish this thesis ASAP.
It is being a pain in the butt.
But I really do want to do it well too..
5k more words to write..
should be down to 1k by this sat if I manage to keep up the pace :)
I can't wait for the weekend.
No pizza night today even though its Cheap Tuesday at Dominos.
I ate a whole lot today and Lyd just had a bowl of noodles...
I'm going to munch on randoms tonight for dinner.
I'm also gonna see if I can go past the 1k mark a little just because I'm feeling a greater sense of self efficacy today.
hohoho..
I've been really distracted today actually..
been watching alot of That 70s Show...
walked around the tiny apartment alot...
packed up my room...
reorganised the pile of papers on my table...
ate alot of food...
The 1000 words are truly Boomz. You know?

Photo Lotto

ok. Since Shing started this 'you need a photo of me on your wardrobe' thing (although I realise that I DO already have a photo of you, Shing! it's the one we took at the airport before I left),
This is what is going to happen.
I don't know who reads my blog though I suspect its a really small number considering I really don't give my blog add away much..
but the people who have access are mostly the more important people anyway,

IF YOU WANT A CERTAIN PICTURE OF YOU ON MY WARDROBE DOOR,

HERE IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO!

Email me a copy of the photo in its ACTUAL SIZE (i.e. fresh out of the camera)
It has to be in actual size because I'm going to print it out on ACTUAL PHOTO PAPER.
so if it comes out puny and I just wasted a piece of photo paper, you know you have to buy me a whole stack to replenish my already diminishing stack of photo paper.
Send your photos to diamanteskies@gmail.com
I have space for about 12 more pictures and would LOVE to cover my lock cock door with colourful and nice photos.
so SEND AWAY!

room complete:)

My room is finally complete! :)
Went to Ikea today and got my wardrobe....

and my 'door' :)

Also got a new throw which is colourfully wonderful.
Adds a bit of colour to my blank white room.
WHEEE! my room looks so much better now...
It's amazing what a wardrobe can do.
all ready for the ggp's visit next weekend!
I'm going to work really hard this week so that I can party a little next weekend just before school reopens again..
sisboombah!

me oh my there is joy in my heart

I'm done for presentations this sem :)
Today's presentation went pretty well.
No major hiccups and my plan of distracting people with cute and funny pictures worked :D

(Exhibit A)

So now I'm down to writing my thesis.
I have about 2 weeks to get it to perfection and I will.
I suddenly have this great sense of efficacy.
which is of course a good thing.
I just spent about 2 hours figuring out the stats and I think I managed to get closer to finding meaning in the random numbers.
I wish I had a template so that I know exactly how to format my results reporting..
but I'll figure it out soon enough.

I made 4 new friends at the Honor's conference today..
I like making new friends.
One of them is also from Singapore and we have already planned to meet up for prata when we get back.. hahaha..
to celebrate getting through this year!
I met Faye who is pretty good at stats and so I got to ask her about my analysis and she was really great help.
God somehow sends the right people into my life at the right times :)

The haze seems to be back...
It's much worse than what we ever experience in Spore..
you can actually SEE the haze.
it's like a huge smog.
even the darkness of the night doesn't blind us to how grey the air is.

deep deep down in my heart...

faster talk.

THE conference is tmw!!!
I have 15 minutes to speak but 32 slides to get through.
motor mouth I will be, tomorrow.
Milo is awesome.
I want new nail polish.
I'm pretty sad about not being able to go to the markets tmw.
I need to figure out how to continue my thesis.
I wasted alot of time today.
I shall be more efficient from now on.
no more time to waste.
should stop eating so much junk.

Dust Storm 2009

TODAY'S PRESENTATION WENT GRRRRREAT!
although half the pictures didn't turn up
and I went too fast for a while and didn't realise till my slide was one slide ahead of where I was talking...
BUT, at the end, there was only one pretty lame question asked...
and some girl put up her hand and said: I don't have a question. I just wanted to say that that was an awesome presentation.
:D :D :D :D
I would definitely never have been able to do it without God.
I'm terribly bad at presentations.

ANYWAY, DID YOU SEE THE NEWS??
HAZE IN AUSTRALIA!
I came out of the Lecture and stood at the doorway for a while.
The school looked SO dream like..
I wish I brought my camera :(
it was really pretty..
except that it isnt a good thing.
The Great Court was pretty empty for once.
I always though HAZE was such a S'porean word..
or indonesian...
but IT'S HERE IN BRISNEYLAND!
although they call it DUST haze.. not just haze.
Went to work today and I had to clean the tables outside cause they were covered in red soil!!!!!

Today was pretty exciting.
I'm pretty tired out.

rumble ramble preamble

I'm about to ramble.
SO, I found out today that when I do my assignments, I should plug into some music cause some how that reduces my anxiety levels.
hohoho.
Power Therapy at play.
ohma.
I'm becoming a nerd.
I have a presentation on power therapies tmw...
so I guess I'm suffering from some sort of a saliance effect thing now.

My brain has been seriously overworked lately.
Even when I sleep, I dream about my assignments.
Over the past few days I've been trying to psych everything out..
like read into every small thing
like the trend with christians now adays..
how their 'testimonies' always involve some sort of a 'lost and now found' element..
How we humans always need to look for that 'miracle'..
How we always wait till we are about to die and then look for God to cling on to Him.
How we never seem so 'christian' when everything id fine and dandy.

seriously, too much thinking.

oh. the other day I was talking to my boss.
Our conversations are pretty random.
this is how it went.

Joanne: Amelia, what do you think about Australians and the way they touch and kiss each other everywhere?
me: erm... ok I guess. doesn't really concern me.
J: some of them can be quite obscene don't you think?
me: yeah. I guess.. I haven't seen much of it.. but once or twice you do see a few that seem like they want to suck the whole head off their partner.
J: hahaha... This christian guy I know says he doesn't kiss his girlfriend. Christians cannot kiss right?
me: erm. no. they can..
J: oh. do you kiss?
me: erm.. no. (in my head I'm thinking: WHAT?!?)
J: I thought christians were not allowed to kiss.
me: no such thing...
J: oh. Do you have gangsters in Singapore?
me: yep. (why the sudden change in topic.)
J: huh? have ah! so where do they stay?
me: erm.. in homes?
J: Isn't there a place where gangsters are most rampant?
me: I really don't know.. I'm not well informed in that area..
J: oh. So are they chinese or malays or what?
me: I think there are both chinese and malay gangsters... Indian too. The chinese ones are called ah beng and ah lian I think..
J: huh? what?
me: I think the chinese male gangsters are called ah beng and the female ones are calles ah lian.
J: oh my. my chinese name is ah lian.
me: ?!? HAHAHAHAHAHA!

ok. that was freaking long.
back to self injury and alcohol abuse.
oh wait.
IT'S TIME FOR DINNER!
PIZZA NIGHT! :D

ANOVA ANCOVA ANACONDA

So after that nervous breakdown last night I went to bed.
woke up and re-started my assignment.
I managed to finish like half of it today.
I'm going to put it aside and work on my thesis from now on.
I have less than 3 weeks to churn out a thesis worthy of a high distinction if I want to get anywhere.
tmw I have to spend the night rehearsing my presentation
and then on wednesday, I'll have my last day of work for two weeks.
I'm going to take a long break from work because I doubt I can handle having to work AND write my thesis all at once.
PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!!
I really feel that it is possible for me to go crazy at this point of time.
ok. back to work.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

I cannot begin to express how stressed out I am at this point of time.
I wish there was some way to release all the pressure I am feeling at the moment.
I spent the whole day trying to complete my scientist-practitioner essay but I haven't made much progress.
This assignment is proving to be more confusing than I thought.
I must have read the assignment requirements like 50 times already
But I am no where near understanding it.

This afternoon I just rambled off about random things to choobs and couldn't seem to stop talking.
I just feel like a pressure cooker..
like there is so much pressure waiting to be released but it has no way of doing so.
I keep feeling like I'm about to puke or explode like a balloon.
I keep praying that God will give me insight....

there I go again...
emokid.

Last week, PTSD.
This week, Depression
Next week, Teenage pregnancy.
all 3000+ words per essay.
Kill me now.

Superpowers for the day

I awoke at 7.30am this morning for no reason at all.
I decided that instead of rolling about in bed till the normal time of 9 plus, I will rise and begin my conquest of the pile of work before me.
I'm glad I did cause I managed to get through my thesis analysis and do up my slides for the presentation next Saturday AND send my supervisor 2 emails regarding my thesis.
And until I get a reply, I'm pretty much stuck with the thesis...
this is the horrid part: the waiting for his reply.
Also, its not even 2pm and I've done the laundry, vacuumed the place (I can't say house cause it doesn't seem big enough to fall under that category), washed the toilet, reorganized the kitchen, and now I'm starting on my next assignment.
Sometimes I really amaze myself at my efficiency in getting things done.
And after I become amazed, the efficiency drops cause I get complacent.
pfft.
BUT today I shall endeavor to work to my maximum ability...
for I am Superwoman for today.

The View

I thought I'd let you see what the view from my balcony looks like.
As I said, the sound of staying in a hotel is much more glam than it actually is.
It kinda looks like a dodgy area right?? hahaha..
actually, Gambaro's is an awesome seafood place..
they have two outlets..
the other outlet serves the BEST sticky date cake...
Somewhere next to Gambaro's is Parmalat..
if you remember, that's where Nestle products come from...
we are situated just next to these factories..
but that's on this side.
On the other side, we have the William Jolly bridge and the river..
which is a nicer view..
but people walking/driving across the bridge will be able to see you..
so you pretty much get no privacy and you have to keep your curtains closed.
I prefer to be able to open my curtains and light the room with natural sunlight.
saves electricity :D
Despite the blah view,
I still LOVE my place to bits.
It has got to be the most convenient place around..
and I love the space I get in my room.
I love the privacy we get...
back in chapel hill, too many people pop up to visit.
And its quiet most of the time so I can get work done.
The only blah thing is that the kitchen is TOO nearby.
easily accessible kitchen = more food into my piehole.
But I still love my place :)

Had a proposal interview today.
I was like 15 minutes late I think..
but it went pretty well :)
at least that's what I think....
have to wait for my grades to come back before I actually know.
but anyway, that's over and done with..
I'm going to finish my slides for one of my presentations tonight..
and tmw, I'm going to work on my thesis.
I will get through this hectic week in one piece.

I love you all! :D

PIZZA NIGHT!

I'm taking a bit of time to relax on pizza night..
because the rest of this week and next week is going to be zoom zoom!
I went to see my supervisor today to discuss my data analysis and came back with a ton more work to do.
but I'm pretty excited about my thesis now.

school was really short today.
lecture was only 1 hour and 45 mins...
tutorial was hardly and hour even though its scheduled for 2.
Spent most of my time at the hospital waiting for my supervisor...
managed to get some slides done for my presentation while I was waiting so it was ok.
blah blah blah...
I am getting boring aren't I.

Babbletown

There is alot to say today.
First, I would like to introduce Cupid Arrow!
The strawberry and chocolate popcorn...
The truckload we bought... though there was more that couldnt fit into the container...
We had double caramel too but that's pretty much gone. heh.

yum.
Secondly, I finally got down to making jajiangmian.
It's really pretty easy.

Normal egg noodles

+ sauce

= JAJIANGMIAN

It tasted awesome :)
I'm the next culinary queen. thanks.
I also joined twitter.com today.
Shing asked me to and I just decided okay.
but I kinda think it was a bad move
It can be pretty DISTRACTING...
which is bad with the amount of work I have on my hands.
I finished alot of work today though :D
wheee...
I just contradicted myself.
long day tmw.
but it'll be okay since I'll be coming home to PIZZA :D
We ran out of toilet paper.
good thing we have tons of NTUC Fairprice facial tissues.
They are our reminder of home.
and the mark of a true Singaporean.
The familiar purple packets with the blue and red logo have indeed served us well.

Chindian dinner

This was today's dinner :D
I am very pleased.
I made curry chicken and we got dipping bread from coles to go with it...
Stir fried some vege and TADA!
Chindian dinner.
ate till we could eat no more.
ahh... the taste of curry.
I still miss prata.
We decided on naan (or dipping bread as they call it here) because prata here is the frozen ew kind.
still waiting for my cheese egg prata from Al Ameen!!

I was talking to lyd about how school's been really tough for me lately and how my supervisor is so not there for me and I'm really struggling with him.
and it somehow became my fault that my life is this way because I don't complain enough about things and I take it on myself to make up for the lack in others.
I felt really hurt because all I needed to hear was: I'll keep you in my prayers.
But I guess its true and I should be more assertive.
sometimes I wonder what happened to the bossy little girl in me.

QBE RIVERFIRE!

Lyd and I invaded Choobs' place to watch the QBE Riverfire.
Major JAM turned a 5 minute drive into a 45 minute journey..
but we didn't really mind cause on the way there we got to watch the air show.

I have to say it is 100 TIMES BETTER THAN WHAT YOU SEE ON NATIONAL DAY.
After we finally got a parking spot (illegal parking), we walked to Choobs' place..
on the way there, we saw the river FILLED with boats and people were on their boats watching the airshow and waiting for the fireworks to begin.

after 3 hours of waiting, the fireworks finally started.
HALF AN HOUR OF NON-STOP FIREWORKS.

FIREWORKS!

Lydia invaded the screen but MORE FIREWORKS!

MORE MORE MORE!

FIREWORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A-W-E-S-O-M-E to the MAX.
Forgot my camera so I was taking pictures with photobooth..
turned out ok..
the only down side was that I had to pretty much anticipate the fireworks to give time for the annoying countdown photobooth has...
still, AWESOME.

Friday

Friday is the last day of the week for me.
Friday is when I go to work knowing that Saturday will be here soon and somehow that makes me happy.
Friday is the day I decide what to cook for the next week.
Friday is the day I write the grocery shopping list for the week.
Friday is the day I wake up later than usual for some unknown reason
Friday is the day they have late night shopping in the city but I never go cause I'm always at work
Friday is the day I do laundry
Friday is the day everyone thanks God for

This friday was not much different.
except now
Friday is the day I went for statistical consultation and found out my results did not support ANY of my hypothesis.

I think Philippe saw the worried look on my face cause he kept telling me that main effects are much better and easier and cleaner.
The good thing about no results in psych is that that in itself is also a result worthy of 5000 words.

Geek is the Chink.

This verse is currently my desktop background
cause I find that when I am stressed out, I often forget to be joyful and thankful...

I worked on my assignment for the whole day.
woke up at 8.30am (don't ask me why cause I really don't know)
turned on my computer and started on my assignment.
Beside taking short meal breaks and skyping with my parents and grandparents for a while, I just spent my time researching and writing on PTSD.
I am 2/3 through my assignment and actually pretty contented with the amount of work I did today.
I managed to do my data analysis for my thesis as well!!
Jessica is truly a God-sent.
I was just chatting with her in class yesterday whining about how I can't seem to find anything on ANCOVA and she said:"OH! I'm doing ANCOVA too!"
Isn't God great :D
going to see Philippe tmw to talk about the results.
I think I'm handling the immense stress and the ginormous amount of work that comes with being in forth year very well.
I shall attempt to complete my assignment over the weekend and maybe also churn out the results section of my thesis.
oh wait.
there is the QBE Riverfire festival this weekend!! argh!

sometimes I feel I self-stress by setting targets that are higher than I normally can manage.

*be joyful. be thankful*

blue skies with a chance of caramel popcorn

We gave pizza a miss this week and traded it for fried rice and salad :)
very healthy right?
I ate a lot of popcorn this afternoon.
that's kinda why I opted for salad instead of pizza.
EVIL POPCORN.

its a whole day at school/work tmw..
SO not looking forward to it.
but oh well.
assignments are going to be due soon.
I'm doing them almost everyday but the progress is SO SLOW.
I keep checking my word count. heh.

This expresses how I feel toward my assignments.
My thesis reference is an astounding TEN pages long.
yes.
I wonder if that is even legal.

The simpsons is on.

Craving: Marshmallow Alpha-bits

I ate alot of popcorn today.
I tried really hard to get work done but I just kept getting stuck.
SPSS baffles me.
I have this online quiz thing to complete but I don't understand some stuff so I'm 2 qns short of completing it.
I did a bit of my essay on PTSD today..
but I'm no where near completing it so I don't feel the adrenaline rush to complete it.
I just feel like wasting the night away watching tv and munching on goodies
but that'll just make me fat and useless.
I googled marshmallow alpha-bits today because I totally miss it!!
HANDS UP ALL YOU WHO LOVE MARSHMALLOW ALPHA-BITS!
the cereal range in Australia is surprisingly limited.
I'm hungry again.

Happy Australian Father's day!

It's Father's day in Australia!
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Yes I know that most of the world celebrates father's day in June
But we do it in September because we prefer to space out our special days so we always have some reason to p-p-p-party!
Started the day with a service at Hillsong Brisbane
then went to Chermside to catch UP 3D :)
And bought popcorn to last a lifetime...
then we went to Aunty Flick's place for dinner...
brought a whole lot of salad and had a really nice Aussie Barbie dinner:)
wish I took pics..
We played some game that was some what a combination of Mahjong and Uno..
I kept winning :D
so everyone didn't want to play with me anymore :(
hahahaha..
I didn't do a single bit of studying today.
Tmw I must concentrate on getting work done
and trying not to eat too much yummy popcorn.

Confession

I have a confession to make.
I think I've reached the point where I realize that I'm actually an airhead in disguise.
It is really a miracle I got this far in my studies..
but then NUS education was pretty much mindless memorization.
The people around me seem to know their stuff much much better than me.
And we don't do memorization at all here.
everything is application.
all our assignments require us to apply what we learn and churn out reports that are really really similar to what we would give the ministry of health or some big organization if we were working as a psychologist under them.
Class participation scares me the most only because I really don't know what to say.
Not knowing exactly what is being discussed doesn't really allow me to ask probing questions.
Sometimes I actually do think of a really good comment/question
My head starts to throb and my heart paces faster as I review it about 50 more times in my head before I feel my brain tell my hand to go up
but then the hand of some blond across the room beats me to it and I hear my perfect comment/question crawl out of her lips dripping in authentic australian drawl
and my chance at 5% participation marks fizzle and disappear

I think I should be a novel writer instead.
I'm starting to like describing mundane things in outrageous ways.

I worked the whole day on my 3k word intro and I managed to hit 2872 words.
I am pretty happy.
Catherine told me her intro is 8k worth of words and she needs to cut them down..
I told her she should give me some...
if only our thesis topics were even remotely similar. pfft.
Didn't get to skype with amanda :(
ladida!
I'm off to munch on cereal and relax a bit before I attempt to think of another 128 words to write.

Skype lunch

teenage pregnancy + depression + spss = my life now.

I worked really hard today okay..
I managed to cross the 2000 word mark for my thesis Intro section :)
After this thesis, a 3000 word essay is not going to be that challenging anymore.
the only thing that I'm still really clueless about is the analysis for my thesis.
I need a statistics whiz around now but there really aren't many.

I had Skype lunch with shing today!! :)
We were eating the exact same biscuit despite being miles apart :D


Whee!!!
I'm going to have skype tea with amanda tmw!! :)
I love skype :*

Ekka, 2009

Ekka was a long time ago but here are some pictures :)
We took alot of freebies.... being Singaporean, we had to fully stretch the AUS$17 we paid for the day :P


We saw the farming side of Australia...
SO many animals, SO much fruits and veges...

Some were pretty strange...

Some were really HUGE

We also got to taste a whole lot of food at the food pavilion.. such as these Honey puffs...

This is one of the 'stars' of Australia news.

many many cute ang moh kids..

and many huge butts.
see if you can tell which one is male and which one is female.. heh.


I have a lot more pictures but mostly of animals...
and I can't be bothered to post all of them.
I have a whole lot of work to cover today..
I hope to be able to finish at least half of an assignment!
spent the morning attempting to do my data analysis.
The worse part of any assignment is starting it... hur.
I shall not get distracted!
though I kinda just did.

FINALLY!

THE INTERNET IS UP!! WHEEE!!
Lydia called the internet 3 times today to keep pushing for the internet to be up.
hohoho.
I have so much work to do and I can finally get down to it!! yay!
Went to see my supervisor today to work things out..
I feel much more relaxed now that we have talked things over...
but now I really have to start sprinting and get things done as efficiently as I can.
2 months!!

I keep feeling giddy today..
I felt a bit woozy just now after lecture and the room just spun round once.
Maybe the work is starting to get to me..
I must increase my Vitamin C intake.

WORK WORK WORK!