det(A)=0

Last midterm tomorrow! LinAlg please be nice, and by nice I mean similar to previous years.

Caught a cold yet again, so maybe karma will balance and linalg will be nice .."orz The weather sucks too, a week of heavy rain and gusts (thanks to hurrican sandy). Definitely not gonna help with the cold.


will report back tomorrow e_e"


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SURVIVED MIDTERMS :D
kept my record of not cramming until finals roll around woot.

What's not so exciting is the pile of work that was pushed aside, should stop sleeping in chem and start doing suggested practice problems once linalg hits chapter 4. Totally passing that course cause of my calc prof&TA haha...

and get more sleep.
skin has not been well during these weeks e_e"

central

2 month into dorm living and there's already a long list of conveniences I miss from living at home. In fact my first reaction after unlocking the door was, woah this is spacious xD

• Access to a fully equipped kitchen, specifically the kettle. Been surviving with the Earl Grey and Chamomile in the cafe, but those leave a lot to be desired. 
• Comfy armchair to sit on. Imagine Sheldon from BBT if he couldn't sit at his spot e_e"
• Reliable wifi. So glad I came back this weekend, chestnut, or rather UT network was down. I feel bad for the people that had to trek to campus to finish Lyryx. 
• Large bed, there's actually room to pile on blankets and roll around in. 
• Reading material other than textbooks
• The amazing view, which is terribly captured by my phone (the focus is intentional though):
  
  Trust that it looks far better irl. 
• Homecooked Chinese food, 川菜还是最好吃的. 
• and ofc my parents :]

banana pancakes

My new baby hehe:

Yeah I ended up getting the (2,1) on, mostly because I can't stand the feeling of a metal band. The price online was deceiving though, ended up costing a lot more thanks to price difference between Canada and the US, and taxes "orz
Oh well, it better last me until graduation!

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Have also been taking lots of photos of my meals, haven't gotten around to posting them though. So here's them all together:

Left is Savory Cream Green Tea from LatteMei (so much better than ChaTime imo), and right is pad thai from Salad King.

Also from Salad King,  super spicy soup (actual name I've forgotten) 5 chili is beyond me.

Lastly, from last week, vegetable udon from...this Korean place right outside of Chestnut. The noodles were really chewy *u*

stop the world and make you mine

Phys chem...or rather thermodynamics is really tricky @_@" I can just imagine a negative sign screwing me over in the final.

but that's to worry about later, for now is more oasis! This time is acoustic version of Noel singing:

watch decision matrix

^the title half reminds me of the impending ESP midterm (t-4 hours) and half big bang theory.

But anyways, if I'm going to procrastinate, might as well procrastinate productively ;D

Client Statement: I've recently lost my watch and so require an replacement. I would like a relatively cheap (<$150) watch for everyday wear. It should be easy to match outfits & jewelry to.

Problem Statement: The gap in the client's life is that she has lost a mean to tell the time and an accessory for her outfits.
Function: display the current time
Objectives: 

• should be aesthetically pleasing by client's personal tastes and matches her existing wardrobe.
• should be convenient,  can read time in less than 2 seconds.
• should be inexpensive, as much as possible.

Constraints: Shall cost less than $150.
Stakeholders: Client's parents want client to spend money wisely.
Service Environment: 

• Physical: urban center, mostly indoors with controlled temperature/pressure/etc. Exposed to weather elements such as rain. 
• Living Organisms: in contact with human skin, client interacts with other people daily. 
• Virtual: wifi, cellular signal is widely available.

Alternative Concepts:
...so the obvious implied solution is to buy another watch, which I will do. Narrowed the store down to Fossil (rational: personal preference), and down to 6 final options:

 
Prices are listed beside each one, help me decide please XD
Row 1 and 2 are fairly similar, skinny band with large face. Row 3 could be a bit too fancy for everyday. Column 1 contains the lighter colours, which somehow turns out to be cheaper.

Currently leaning towards (2, 1)...

written inside of your head

Mmm today has not been particularly good, so now there's a higher chance of tomorrow being better?

Durrrr another Oasis song to feel better to:


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Oh my gosh, UT engineering is the place for me haha. I love these people.
Obviously the stress of the Statics exam is too much to bear: /pun

cause I just want to fly

and not do the Statics midterm.
But maaaaaybe I can manage with this song on repeat, the acoustic version is amazing.
(and that I've spoiled myself by eating out all 3 days...)

(posted the regular version a loong time ago)

.06

Painkillers are amazing, don't know how I'd get through the day without them.

But the lesson learned is always do the past midterms, especially if the professor is the same. Guaranteed there will be the same questions, and if you're lucky (aka calc and chem so far) it will be the same numbers too.

Soooo grateful for easy chem midterm!

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A few things I've figured out from the 2 midterms I've done:

• I'm subconsciously very stressed about them. This sucks as I always get a terrible night of sleep right before exams. I've woken up at the middle of the night and the first thought that popped into my mind was Squeeze Theorem... (and yet I still forgot to use it to prove a limit)
• It helps for me to have a few lines of a song stuck in my head. Don't know how I would have survived studying for and writing both exams without Kanye and Adele.
• Having sips of water/doing some unrelated action in between finishing each question helps reset my concentration. The test is a lot less intimidating if you're just facing one question at a time, divide and conquer whoo. 
• Write each step out, mostly because I suck at doing arithmetic but makes finding an error at a later time easier. Though now there's more lines to erase if you do find a mistake...

.05

More wisdom from calc professor, in the context of word problems, paraphrased:

There's two things we test you on, how well you can translate from english into math and the courage of your conviction [...] it takes confidence to do well in math. Logical thinking we can teach you, but to be able to stare at an equation and believe that you are deriving it correctly is something we cannot teach.

and with that ends the happy part of the post. Below is a rant on the calc midterm, which was by no means difficult. I just make really stupid mistakes :]

...like subbing in values near 1 into f(x) when the limit was as x -> 0.
So there goes 3/4 marks, if the TA was in a nice mood I'll get a mark for writing down the definition of continuity <_ p="p">and then I proved something is true by assuming it's true. It actually makes more sense in context, but that's still not the way to prove anything "orz
annnnnd I lost marks for notation (prob 2 marks), brainfarting (2 or 1)
so thats maybe 10 marks gone assuming everything else is right. I'll predict a 70-85%, anything above 80 I'm happy with. 

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Plastic water bottle and boiling water are not good friends:

white dress

Ugh need to make a post totally unrelated to academics.
I hate Wiley so so much. Sh!t F!roshs say is a lot funnier a month into school:


ah crap. onto stuff unrelated:
Been talking to Rui a lot of a Sephora haul, so I thought to go through my stash to save my wallet from potential pain.
Lo and behold all my lip balms:

L -> R: Korres lip butter (from gritaly!), Burts Bee lip balm, Yves Rocher moisturizing lip balm, Fresh sugar and sugar rose lip treatment, Mary Kay lip treatment, and Kiehl's #1 lip balm.
(man beauty bloggers must have a lot of patient typing out all the product names)

The first 2 from the left is what's in my backpack. The Korres is extremely pigmented and makes me look less like a zombie for days when I'm too lazy to put any make-up on (so everyday but Wednesday). Burts Bee is pretty all purpose, the minty scent helps keep me awake in lectures as a bonus :]
Yves Rocher one is what I layer under other lip products, also pretty all purpose. The Fresh ones are the free birthday gift from Sephora. They're similar to the ones Mel sold for JA, feels the most lightweight on the lips.
Last two are more of a treatment. The Mary Kay one does wonders for getting rid of dead skin, and the Kiehl's is a bit too oily for daytime use, so I use it overnight.

Conclusion: do not purchase anymore.
(though I really want to try the Dior lip glow T_T)

carnival

Had dinner yesterday at Eat Fresh.
Despite it's slightly sketchy decor, the food is delicious! Portions are large, prices are reasonable, and the service is amaaaazing. Chef Dan and all the waitstaff were so welcoming and helpful, thanks to him I'll never make the mistake of ordering any steak of meat over medium again.
I don't know how I ever ate anything well done.

Anyways, presenting the food:











Definitely treating myself to this place after midterms end.

not a thing

Shad (and McKinsey YLF) covered a large portion of ESP. I feel like it's simultaneously a really useful and useless course @_@"

Done PR! Group made it through without biting each others' heads off, we get along rather well haha. Let's hope this continues into CDS and beyond.

This must be the nth time I've mentioned how awesome my calc prof (and TA too ofc) is. A graphical explanation for lin alg helps soooo much. I totally get eigenvalues and eigenvectors now, and yes they are cool / useful.


Onto midterms...
weekend say hello to a hundred calc practice problems :]

midterms

I forget whether I first heard this from my grade 7 or 8 teacher, but "the feeling of impending doom" is a perfect description of how I feel at the moment of the titular subject.

and ESP, just ughhh. 

hurry for tea & music for keeping me sane focused.
(it's not thaaaaat bad, I'm prone to exaggeration when stressed)

.04 & others

So the $300 I spent buying textbooks won't be so useless after all. Chem was already fun to read (or as joyful as reading a textbook can be), but turns out that Lin Alg textbook explains the concepts quite well. And just maaaaaaybe I'll finally be hitting the Statics textbook for practice problems (though I much prefer to do past midterms and problem sets from other sections).
ESP...yeah shouldn't have bought that.

ANYWAYS
Had a good afternoon, so I treated myself to some donuts and internet wishlist-ing :]
hehhehehee (in the least creepy hehe possible).

Some office wear lusts from Club Monoco:

jacket / shirt & skirt, perhaps together?

My point: I actually have no business formal wear. Yes I have blazers and pencil skirts, but none of the match (navy and grey for blazer and black for skirt, plus the skirt is quite short). Debating between whether to get a really nice wallet (either this (can't decide between green or black) or this) or a pencil skirt (why nice ones cost the same price as a leather wallet is beyond me, but it'll be an investment).

I was going to get a watch with a metal band, but luckily I was able to mooch off some super glue and fix my current watch (leather band broke). Really happy that I get to wear it again, it's

• light weight
• comfortable (leather whoo)
• has both silver and gold colours on the face so I can wear whichever other jewelry that I want

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Woah haven't made a long post in a while, so therapeutic haha.  Signing off with a view of the sunset:

(disclaimer: photoshoped, but to match reality)

rockets

Summary of past 2 days in (mostly food) photos:

Friday night spent working on HiSkule, the variety of materials in the supply bins is astonishing. Spent a good 4 hours playing around with those before heading off to pho for some much needed dinner.

Trainhead!
Soup is well seasoned (not too salty, unlike pho 88), and generous portion of meat all for $5.50. I remember the frosh handbook noting that cheap food is food under $6 haha.

Fancier food was consumed for Mel's birthday dinner.

The sushi were really good, especially the one with black rice (interesting texture).

Had fun catching up with highschool friends, haven't seen most of them since my birthday back in August durr. After party at Janice's was also great, fell asleep to the intense clicking of people playing League xD

determinates

^cool stuff
So is 0.1 microns and thick paper to take notes on *u* Though that's no where near the level of a guy who uses a Rhodia pad with fountain pens and writes the most amazing cursive!

Anyways, priority for now goes in this order:
Not failing > extracurriculars > social life > sleep > high gpa

so far so good.

I always have ideas for posts when I have no access to the internet. Once I'm free to actually make a post, the idea is long gone.

.03

You need progressively less sleep
So far my bed time has shifted back by 1 hr each week, lets hope this trend doesnt continue.

Then theres always my mug of tea and shot of espresso.

stroke in a cup

Days ago, I went to the newly opened Momofuku in Toronto ;D
So awesome that it's just a 5 minute walk from my dorm too.


They have THE most amazing pork buns:

The drinks are pretty good too, most reviews suggested the Seven Spice Sour, which really lived up to it's name of spice and sourness xD

Had the ramen for the main course and it was alright. Points for not having an overly salty broth (as well as having slices of that heavenly pork above).