I am not a fan of sharing personal things on social media (mainly Facebook), but I do not want my mom to feel left out because she sees all these Mother's Day posts but not receive one of her own. So here's mine.
Happy Mother's Day, mee.
I guess you have always been more like a sister to me than a mom, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't mind looking like you could be my sister. I guess you could say that our mother-son relationship is unique; although I can be rude at times and 'bo dua bo soi', but it's what makes our relationship special, right? You have to agree that you can be irrational at times too!
I remember you always trying to squeeze into my tiny bed when I'm trying to sleep and end up talking until 2 or 3 in the morning. I still remember that one time we went to Genting Highlands and spent the whole night talking until it was time for breakfast! That conversation always made me wonder what it would be like to know you as a friend than to know you as my mom.
I miss going out for dinners, just the two of us, driving around in circles looking for a nice place to eat. It has been a long time since we could do that together, and I don't know how many more of these dinners we could have in the future because there is no definite way to tell what the future holds, but I do hope that there are many, many more.
Since I came to study in the UK, I realise that I've always taken the work you do at home for granted. I can now see how lazy I was then, since I didn't have to cook or clean or do any house chores for that matter. Despite the fact that it seems like you enjoy cleaning (hahaha), I still have to be thank you for doing the laundry, cleaning the house, cooking meals (sometimes), doing the dishes, changing the bedsheets, cleaning the ceiling fans, sweeping and mopping the floors daily, ironing the clothes ... I hope you can rest assured now that I can do all these things by myself! But don't worry, I will not interfere with all these things when I go back!
I love you, mee. I wish I could give you a hug right now. I'm sorry for all the times that I've hurt your feelings. and I hope there are many more years ahead of us so we could go out for more dinners and spend more sleepless nights talking till dawn. (and you can do my laundry and clean my dishes)
Your one and only son/monkey/baby/pig,
Kritz
ps. do whatever you want to do with this lah, you can show it to whoever you want to. Happy Mother's Day :)
May 12, 2014
April 25, 2014
Something I gathered after 2 years of undergraduate studies [rant]
I realised that lectures are not my thing. I find it several times more effective to study a well-written set of lecture notes than attend countless hours of dry and dull lectures. I finally understand why some people don't bother going to lectures yet still manage to do well in exams.
Of course, the best option is to read the lecture notes before going for lectures, but that isn't an option for many modules. It's easier to study lecture notes because one can do it at their own pace. In lectures, you might not fully fathom a small but crucial part in the first 10 minutes and have to spend the next 50 minutes listening to incomprehensible jibber-jabber, or eventually, giving up and whipping out your phone.
I've tried concentrating in lectures, but sometimes it really doesn't work, which led me to come to the conclusion that lectures aren't the optimal way for ME to study. (note the emphasis on ME)
Why not read text books? Because no one really teaches based off a text book. What am I suppose to do when you decide to alter the notations and terminology and have materials taken from different sections of a chapter without specifying which parts are examinable? Before you get into how undergraduate learning is about exploring and studying more in depth, let me stop you there and tell you that it is not the case for the course that I'm doing. I wouldn't mind spending several hours on a topic if it meant that I had to refer to different sources and really create a personal relationship with it, but truth is, I have 10 modules from 4 separate academic departments, each with approximately 20 sections to cover, so there's no way I'm doing that. I can't be arsed. Nor is it necessary.
Now it irks me that some lecturers are hell-bent on sticking to their principles of not giving out lecture notes and expecting students to fully comprehend what they teach during lectures, offering no other options to study, making this wonderful façade of the ultimate study experience a really rigid and dull one. (Okay, I might be a little excessive here ... but hey, no one important is reading this right?). Other lecturers give notes so simplified, that it makes no sense.
Why can't they have recorded lectures? Why?! Then again I'm not too fond of that idea, since it means I'll have to listen to more than the minimum requirement of their voices. I might just go insane.
Best option would be to just GIVE ME A GOOD SET OF NOTES DAMMIT. Props to lecturers who do. I feel like I've wasted my time going for so many lecturers and learning nothing.
Disclaimer: This is just an off-the-top-of-my-head rant. Hope I don't come off as being immature and ungrateful. Even if I really am. Meh.
Of course, the best option is to read the lecture notes before going for lectures, but that isn't an option for many modules. It's easier to study lecture notes because one can do it at their own pace. In lectures, you might not fully fathom a small but crucial part in the first 10 minutes and have to spend the next 50 minutes listening to incomprehensible jibber-jabber, or eventually, giving up and whipping out your phone.
I've tried concentrating in lectures, but sometimes it really doesn't work, which led me to come to the conclusion that lectures aren't the optimal way for ME to study. (note the emphasis on ME)
Why not read text books? Because no one really teaches based off a text book. What am I suppose to do when you decide to alter the notations and terminology and have materials taken from different sections of a chapter without specifying which parts are examinable? Before you get into how undergraduate learning is about exploring and studying more in depth, let me stop you there and tell you that it is not the case for the course that I'm doing. I wouldn't mind spending several hours on a topic if it meant that I had to refer to different sources and really create a personal relationship with it, but truth is, I have 10 modules from 4 separate academic departments, each with approximately 20 sections to cover, so there's no way I'm doing that. I can't be arsed. Nor is it necessary.
Now it irks me that some lecturers are hell-bent on sticking to their principles of not giving out lecture notes and expecting students to fully comprehend what they teach during lectures, offering no other options to study, making this wonderful façade of the ultimate study experience a really rigid and dull one. (Okay, I might be a little excessive here ... but hey, no one important is reading this right?). Other lecturers give notes so simplified, that it makes no sense.
Why can't they have recorded lectures? Why?! Then again I'm not too fond of that idea, since it means I'll have to listen to more than the minimum requirement of their voices. I might just go insane.
Best option would be to just GIVE ME A GOOD SET OF NOTES DAMMIT. Props to lecturers who do. I feel like I've wasted my time going for so many lecturers and learning nothing.
Disclaimer: This is just an off-the-top-of-my-head rant. Hope I don't come off as being immature and ungrateful. Even if I really am. Meh.
-Kritz
April 2, 2014
rant; thought; something else
I've been taking out the trash for my house and my neighbours' because we share the same backyard, where the bins are. Well, occasionally, they will put the bins back after being cleared the next morning. Occasionally. Maybe one out of 30 weeks, they would be the ones to take out the trash. (Well, a few times were necessary because they had guests over with bikes and it blocked the corridor leading from the backyard to the porch). So last week, most of the people in my house weren't around so no one took out the trash. Lo and behold, they took our theirs and left ours in the backyard. That's not even the worse part. Instead of moving their bin back to the backyard, they just left it in the porch and filled up ours.
Some people just do not give a damn, do they?
To summarise: neighbour doesn't take out trash. Only takes out their own when we can't do it for them.
I just don't like sharing my personal goals with other people. For some reason. Derek Sivers made a TED talk about it once, about how telling everyone your goals makes you less likely to achieve it. I don't know to what extent is that true, but I think it's something I would adhere to. It also irks me sometimes when people tell me what they are set out to achieve, again and again. I don't know why. I just think it's annoying. I guess I don't need to have a reason to think that way? Or maybe I'm just too lazy to conjure up a valid reason because ... who cares? A pet peeve, I guess. So stop telling me how you're going to do something different than me, or how you're going to make yourself more productive, or what your plan is. Ugh.
So 2 people commented on my appearance yesterday. Which was cool because I only had 2 actual social interactions (using the term here loosely) twice. Then found out about another one today through a friend. So there's that.
Some people just do not give a damn, do they?
To summarise: neighbour doesn't take out trash. Only takes out their own when we can't do it for them.
* * *
I just don't like sharing my personal goals with other people. For some reason. Derek Sivers made a TED talk about it once, about how telling everyone your goals makes you less likely to achieve it. I don't know to what extent is that true, but I think it's something I would adhere to. It also irks me sometimes when people tell me what they are set out to achieve, again and again. I don't know why. I just think it's annoying. I guess I don't need to have a reason to think that way? Or maybe I'm just too lazy to conjure up a valid reason because ... who cares? A pet peeve, I guess. So stop telling me how you're going to do something different than me, or how you're going to make yourself more productive, or what your plan is. Ugh.
* * *
-Kritz
March 21, 2014
Easter break
A provisional exam timetable's out. 9 papers in the span of 4 weeks.
It's week one of my 5-and-a-half-week long Easter break, and I've since started to do a little bit of work, which is good. Since I'm not travelling this break, I've been more lenient with my spending on groceries and other ... stuff, heh. Went to a OneRepublic gig, again, 2 days ago, but that doesn't count because I bought those tickets few months ago. Going to Daughtry's this weekend, which I'm pretty stoked for!
Well, back to doing research for my essay. Just wanted to check in, for no reason.
It's week one of my 5-and-a-half-week long Easter break, and I've since started to do a little bit of work, which is good. Since I'm not travelling this break, I've been more lenient with my spending on groceries and other ... stuff, heh. Went to a OneRepublic gig, again, 2 days ago, but that doesn't count because I bought those tickets few months ago. Going to Daughtry's this weekend, which I'm pretty stoked for!
Well, back to doing research for my essay. Just wanted to check in, for no reason.
-Kritz
March 9, 2014
Learning how not to be an asshole
I find myself being very, very judgemental at times. Of course, 99% of the time, I don't voice them out, so nobody knows. Then, I go through the cycle of telling myself to imagine what it would be like to be in their shoes, giving them the benefit of the doubt if necessary. That is then followed by me thinking about how flawed I am myself, and how I shouldn't judge others before judging myself. It can be tiring sometimes, but I have to stop my brain from thinking highly of myself.
-Kritz
March 5, 2014
A letter to my (near) future self
Dear Kritz,
Hope that by the time you are reading this, you will be preparing for the third year ofthis dreadful mistake you have made your undergraduate course, and not the second year.You have had your chance to redeem yourself, I hope you did not screw that up.
If you did well for your finals, then congratulations! One more till the end of one nightmare and the beginning of another (hopefully a fun one).
If you did not, you have no one to blame but yourself really. I know you hate having to do this, studying things that you just hate studying, but you have to. Think of all the hardship other people go through, think of all the effort people put into doing things they don't enjoy doing because they have to. Now you have to do second year all over again. It's really just a question of which is the lesser of two evils: studying your ass off for 2 months or be depressed an entire year.
Anyway, all the best!
Regards,
Kritz
Hope that by the time you are reading this, you will be preparing for the third year of
If you did well for your finals, then congratulations! One more till the end of one nightmare and the beginning of another (hopefully a fun one).
If you did not, you have no one to blame but yourself really. I know you hate having to do this, studying things that you just hate studying, but you have to. Think of all the hardship other people go through, think of all the effort people put into doing things they don't enjoy doing because they have to. Now you have to do second year all over again. It's really just a question of which is the lesser of two evils: studying your ass off for 2 months or be depressed an entire year.
Anyway, all the best!
Regards,
Kritz
March 2, 2014
Summer
2 more weeks till end of term 2, which means the beginning of a long and arduous journey to second year finals. I hope I don't screw up my five-and-a-half-week worth of Easter break by doing absolutely nothing, which has been a recurring issue since ... ever ...
Time to start thinking of what to do during the summer as well. It seems like everyone is peer pressured into getting an internship somewhere during the summer break. I wonder what happens to people who graduate without any internship experience? I admire people that just don't give a damn about these things.
 |
| source: http://zappablamma.tumblr.com/ ... the first post is the comic above. I don't know why I went through the hassle of scanning my university newspaper ... |
Just so you know, the green one is me. I guess I don't really care much about working in a big bank here, but any opportunity of a decent job here in the UK would suffice, really.
-Kritz
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