empty out the cup of eternity

6 hours of sleep is the new normal (y)
So it's only appropriate to listen to a song named Coffee.

edit:
Oh woah, staying up for BC was worth it... In total shock over my mark. The PDF for marking better not have screwed up again...


The lyrics are awesome too :D

It’s already the fifth cup of coffee.
With no particular destination
I walk as if I’m in a hurry, endlessly.

I’ve already emptied out my wallet.
With no special wants,
Pretending to be all busy, endlessly.

It’s too early for us to fall asleep.
Please stay up a little longer.
Please, don’t miss out on the cup of eternity.
You and me.
Me and my coffee

It’s too early for us to fall asleep.
Stay up a little longer.
Please, don’t empty out the cup of memory
You and me.
Me and my coffee.

I miss the warm lips, so I drink a cup of coffee
Alcohol is hard on my body, so I drink second cup of coffee
To keep my empty hands warm, I drink third cup of coffee
Coffee became part of a daily routine.
Walking through time.
Memories of wandering through long dark night might be painful, so I poured another cup of coffee.

It’s already fifth cup of coffee.
Walking through time.
Memory within the black aroma,
It touches my hardened tongue but not my heart.
The cup that once held my habit,
Became a drawer of memory that unfolds like a photo album,
And drifted away like leaves.

It’s easily emptied out.
Move the cup away without regrets.
Falling in love, it’s so easy unlike meeting face to face.
So that’s why I can’t quit it.
I can’t let my hand off the cup.
The aroma is already inside of my head, now I can taste the bitter poison at the tip of my tongue.

With a cup of black coffee and the book I always read.
I flip through the book page by page thoughtlessly, with my eyes closed.

To kill some time, I have abandoned myself.
The coffee that I drink everyday,
Is bitter today and I miss the sweetness from yesterday.

I’ve already emptied out my wallet.
With no special wants,
Pretending to be all busy, endlessly.

It’s too early for us to fall asleep.
Stay up a little longer.
Just, me and my coffee.
Me and my coffee.
Me and my coffee.

It’s too early for us to fall asleep.
Stay up a little longer.
Please, don’t cry.

cream cheese & .09

I think food photos has replaced music posts as my fillers for when I have nothing better to say.

Edit: nevermind, seems like I do have something interesting:
My conclusion of having almost complete first semester is that the derivatives of hot water can solve anything university throws at you: coffee, tea, and steaming showers.

But anyways, food!

From Spring Sushi:

Las Vegas roll (soooo goood)


Spring roll


Black Dragon roll


Beef Tataki sushi (this was suppose to be the highlight, but the vinegar in the rice overpowered the taste of the beef D: )


...yeah not such a great idea posting these before lunch

force swap

So no work was done over the weekend, this is probably the first (and sadly last) time that it'll happen this year. Finals are around the corner...summer research application is still not done, and then there's the last assignment for calc...

Oh well :D
Had an awesome time this weekend. Playing card games with friends (Resistance with highschool crew Sat, Monopoly Deal with UT mafia just now) is always loads of fun.
And defininetly today, I will sleep early.

...and by early I mean before 12.

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k promise I'll go to sleep after this:

After ordering from Jetpens,  my current collection of black pens:

 From top to bottom:

• Lamy Safari with J.Herbin ink in perle noire (nib is not the smoothest, needs to write at a particular angle for the pen to work the best. But it'll always have a spot in my heart for meing my first (and only, as of now) legit fountain pen).
• Uni-ball Signo in 0.28 (I'd say the Jetstream is smoother, but this has a thinner tip)
• Uni Pin 01 (this may just become my everyday notetaking pen. Seems more durable than the Micron, and cheaper than the Staedtler)
• Pilot Hi-Tec-C in 0.25 (thinnest tip I've ever used, this will be what I depend on to cram tiny writing into even tinier spaces)
• Staedtler Pigment Liner 01 (best fine liner, in terms of quality, I've used. Also the most expensive out of the bunch)
• Ohto Graphic Liner in 005 (the tactile of this pen against paper doesn't feel as nice as the others, but that's probably because the nib is meant to be more durable)
• Sakura Micron in 01 (my current everyday notetaking pen, requires a light hand and be held upright. I've ruined the nib of one already within 2 month ha..ha..)
• Knock off of a Uni pen (forgot the exact name of the original, but it's a rollerball. Nib is too thick for my liking, but it's sthmoooooooth)

The use freqeuncy goes like this:

• Lamy for when I feel fancy/need to write special occasion stuff. 
• Gel inks (Signo & Hi-Tec) for writing good copies of study sheets
• Fine liners for normal note taking, I go through a looot of these. Sadly they're not refillable @_@

dasher

Still in recovery mode after BC...or rather recovering from BC starts now since I decided to stay up yesterday night too.

Recount of past few days:
Wednesday: BC
Thursday: BC
Friday: Submit BC, and then the fun starts :D

Rui came to visit (on a mission from the rest of the loo kids to meet Lionheart), so we had dinner out & strolled around Eaton (because J.Crew had a sale and it made me miserable seeing others on the street, who did not have to do BC, holding shopping bags from Black Friday).

Dinner was at Kinton Ramen, the other super hyped ramen place aside from Sansotei:

Fried Tofu as appetizer, t'was delicious. The tofu had a crispy shell, while the interior was still soft. The accompanying sauce was good too, kind of like a tangy mayo?


(Aside, I really ought to turn my screen to full brightness when ps'ing)
Onto the ramen itself. Ordered a Shio Ramen just so I can compare the two restaurants. Both places had the eggs boiled to the perfect doneness :D Verdict is that Sansotei has the better broth (juuuust the perfect saltiness) and meat (the shoulder at Kinton was slightly tough, but it's not truly comparable since I had belly meat at Sansotei), while Kinton has the better noodle (more springy). Atmosphere wise, Kinton is reminiscent of Momofoku with the communal tables and louder noise.

The portions at Kinton were huge, so gotta walk all that dinner off in Eaton. Conveniently all the Christmas decorations were up:

Too bad the Swarovski crystal tree wasn't up, or is that being replaced by the tree above?

Subwayed back home with Rui at the end of the night, it's nice to be home :]
In the spirit of American thanksgiving, I am super thankful for homemade food and the company of my mom.

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As a side note, here's proof that my phone has the better photo editing capabilities. Pfft instagram cannot compare to VSCO cam and Camera+

Original, VSCO, Camera+


Now to finish the night off with a much needed episode of Suits :D

qft

Edit: DONE BC. ahahahaaaa.
Only ever stayed up late to cram for ESP assignments...
Looking forward to tomorr... later today.

Truth from the F!rosh handbook, under the heading of "Before coming to university, I wish I had known..."

That ESP requires more time than all my other 20 credits combined

Email...
PR... (k these 2 weren't nearly as bad)
CDS...
BC...

Goal is finish BC tomorrow and go shop on Friday :D
(generously funded by UTAPS, honestly my day got so much better).


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Though I must say that 最近很有口福, been eating out at a lot of good places (thanks sweetie :]). Today's lunch was at One Hour:

小锅米线,  三鲜wonton (lol I only know the sichun way of saying them in Chinese), and  银耳汤.

The portions are just right, enough to be filling but not too much. Food is fresh and most importantly tastes authentic! It reminds me of eating 小吃 with my aunt back home this summer. Mann can't wait to go home on the weekend to eat my mom's food *u*

fish cakes

I've found my means of surviving the finals!
Thank the deities for jazz versions of Ghibli songs.



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Count down to finals:

• 2 assignments: BC and calc writing assignment (this will either be lots of fun or pure hell).
• Summer research application: research proposal (...I am so clueless as to how to write this) and edit resume again. 
• Lots of chem chapters to catch up on
• ESP readings: 5 more chapters of Human Factors.
• ESP seminar readings and presentation, the seminars have actually been pretty fun (and chill). Just wanna get presentation over with this Wed.

Semester one is almooooost done!

stacks

I had the goal of not stepping into Robarts for the sake of studying, but that was broken today and it wasn't all that bad. Was decently productive and managed to finish off ESP seminar stuff. BC on the other hand...hahahaa "orz


I was surprised to see a vending machine selling stationary supplies, overpriced ones too. 

But before making way to Robarts, saw a glimpse of the Santa Claus Parade!




Civil engineering at work :D
The third pig obviously did his truss analysis correctly.


LEGO! :D
(there was also one with Sack Boy, but the image file is corrupt D: )




And afterwards, a nice dinner out :]
This time at another restaurant on Baldwin called Vegetarian Haven. The atmosphere was really nice and the food was delicious too :


Tofu claypot with purple rice in the front, and Bali styled rice noodles (?) at the back.

HSPDE

UTHSDC...has successfully been completed!

It's such an accomplishment, the hiskule team has been awesome, the volunteers have been awesome, and never will I want to cut out letters from vinyls ever again.

Time to type out a long summary of the day, and well, of the night before too.
Actually no I'm way too tired to type, so here's a series of photos documenting the crunch night:


The war room, aka gb204, not a pretty sight.


To do list for the night...and subsequent morning.


What I spent 6 hours doing: cutting letters and gears out of adhesive vinyl. Never do I want to touch that ever again, my thumb on my cutting hand was legitimately shaking when not holding the pair of scissors. Though somehow it's still shaking now, so I have no clue haha.

Also my heartfelt gratitude for whoever did this last year,  I completely emphasize and appreciate your hard work.


lim n -> infinity...and beyond (actually there were 25, the extra N now sticks to the back of my phone case as a reminder of this night).


Resupplying at around 11, my eating schedule has gone to hell for Hiskule.



Results of my night, fancy decorated hard hats given to the top 3 teams. 

Got roughly 5 hours of sleep that night, and surprisingly I feel more awake than days when I've got 8. And this is with a measly cup of timmies versus espresso shot(s). This is what the engineering course load does to you e_e" Walked to campus in the complete dark, the Oasis songs blasting in my headphones made the experience much less miserable. 

The actual day of the competition started out quite hectically. Majority of the exec team overslept and we were rushing to set up registration & a billion other things. Sad that I missed opening presentation, which thanks to the talents of our promo director, is pure gorgeous. My ppts ought to be at that level.

Moving onto construction time, I somehow ended up manning the store despite multiple, explicit expressions of unwillingness. The morning rush was just...not fun. There were sooo many kids scrambling in the room scourging for the best materials. This is definitely part of the competition that requires yet more improvement on (to be honest we did try pretty darn hard to revamp the materials sign out process this year). All was good after morning rush though.

Testing was also nerve-wrecking at first. 40lbs of weight should not be above a large tank of water... Luckily most teams' bridges were quite sturdy and none were tested to failure. Unfortunately, testing rules, despite our best effort, were not communicated effectively and caused some confusion amongst the teams. We also lagged behind schedule and had to scramble to get ready for presentations.

Presentation wise, there were really good ones and...doubtful ones. Many had solid justifications for their design, and tried their best to use APS terms (to great effect too). Others, the bs was very apparent, at least to me. I'm tempted to look back to my own presentation and see how badly I would grade myself haha. I've definitely learned a ton in these 2 months of university XD
The highlight of the day for me would have to be when I convinced this one group who wanted to forfeit the presentation to give it a try. By "I" I really mean Kenny who gave them a giant pep talk xD The group pulled off a rather impressive presentation given that they had roughly 4 minutes to prepare. 

Overall, I am so so so so so so so thankful for the volunteers that helped out. If I had the financial ability, I would totally buy them all drinks. They are super awesome and cleaned up the all the rooms while the final presentations were going on. So if by some fluke they ever see this, THANK YOU SO MUCH. And the amazing executive team, I honestly don't know how we pulled this together & I would have gone insane cutting all those letters without you guys.

...k that was way too much thinking for such little sleep, or rather all this typing should have been done for my BC assignment. I would finally like to thank the Honey and Clover soundtrack for keeping me awake until now.

One last photo :D
Giant Christmas tree at City Hall!

Can't wait to see the Swarovski one at Eaton *u*

broader considerations

Dear ESP: I actually find your lectures mostly interesting, but please, the assignments, really?

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But that's not the point. Been a rather busy week, staying for extended periods of time on campus now feels pretty normal. UTHSDC is this weekend, so HiSkule meetings have been frequently happening. Synonymous with that is delayed dinner, it was totally not cool when someone walked into the room with a bag of Popeye's  T_T The fried chicken smell...

But the upside to this is that the team usually heads to a nice restaurant to eat afterwards. Tofu stew was from last meeting, and today we went to Sansotei Ramen.



on a totally depressing note, finals start in 3 weeks time.

.08

ESP lecture is cancelled for today and Friday due to convocation, so hurray for an extra hour of sleep in the morning!

...except that translates into having an extra hour to do work at night.
(same with daylight saving time)
Tired ._.
Debating whether there are more types of supports in civ or whether there's more equations in thermo. To be fair both can be categorized to make memorization easier.

so I guess the lesson learned is...I don't even know anymore.
Oh yeah, units and negative signs will absolutely screw you over in thermo.

back to problem sets whoo!

deflection to length ratio

The paradox of being exhausted and yet wasting time on the internet instead of sleeping.
Aka all day everyday.

Another day of spending 12hrs at school, wasn't all that bad actually. Was gonna nap in the common room, but found an interesting math problem to do instead haha. Guess this is reassurance that I've chose the right major.

But like I don't know
(warning, here's starts another round of doubting my choices)
I find that I enjoy my math courses (and the more theoretical parts of the math classes) more so than my more "practical" courses (ie. statics and phys chem). Then again I find ESP alright, I actually find learning about the design process to be quite useful. Or rather, I am amazed at how much of it was taught at Shad (how I still do so bad on the assignments is just ughh). Funny moment: I was complaining about cramming for CDS during phys chem, and the guy sitting behind me, whom also went to Shad, commented that it should be a joke after surviving house projects xD

...I went rather off topic, and is too tired to veer back on track.
My new standard of measuring sleep deprivation is how often I laugh hysterically at completely neutral statements. It's pretty bad atm mmm.


Nice weather on the weekend! Gonna go soak up the sun *u*

(k stopping. here's some photos of this week instead. Sorry the quality is pretty crappy)

Found my new source of Korean Tofu Stew, life is complete.


Perks of living downtown.

heat of freezing & .07

One of the few benefits of winter is that the skies are clearer.
^Morin's justification for why the SES class was freezing at YorkU's observatory. That was a cool trip though.

Anyways, with daylight savings time in effect, I officially end class at sunset.

(the colours are a lot more brilliant irl, too lazy to photoshop it.)
And soon enough I'll be starting class with the sunrise too e_e"

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More frosh lessons learned from midterm weeks & beyond.

• Problem sets take a really, really long time. I'm no longer surprised when 4 questions end up taking 3 hours to finish. Consequently, going to sleep "early" now means "before 1am".
• It does help to develop a pre-exam ritual. Mine's currently consist of assigning each exam one song, and listening to that on repeat while studying & on the day of until I walk into the exam room. Also found it much more beneficial to nap in the last half an hour instead of cramming more information in. 
• Discovered that I review the best by rewriting and colour coding my notes on a sheet of blank paper. I'm actually quite proud of my study sheets, guess I'll make a post about them at a later date.
• If upper years say that a certain course's final is a joke, it will be. Multiple choice options included "some of the above", "all of the above", and "all of the above and more". I don't even...
• Lin alg is pretty cool, and really, really confusing.

beginning of the end

Just discovered how awesome ketchup and sriracha sauce are together, it's as wonderful as espresso and late night studying cramming.

I don't foresee my workload decreasing until finals are over...

Another Noel Gallagher song to fill up space:

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the beginning of the end is marked by the release of midterm marks. Here goes:
Calculus: 85 (I was stupid, test was really similar to last year's)
Linear Algebra: 83 (I was stupid at arithmetic)
ESP: 97 (whoohoo!)
Physical Chem: 97 (yay, except it's worth 10% less than the other midterms)
Mechanics: 85 (92 after float, so yay?)

So far it's pretty good. Let's see how much longer that statement remains true.

CDS

I lost more sleep and spent more hours working on the CDS than I spent studying for my midterms. That's very sad.

3 till 2 and then 12 to 3 whoohoo! Beating previous record of 2 to 12 for UTSDC.
Though there's people that pulled consecutive all nighters, so I can't complain too much.

Side effects included not feeling hunger or tired, which was sorta cool. If this workload is sustained, it would be a pretty effect diet haha. But I'm guess the double shots of espresso played a big role is keeping me awake until now. Hot shower + nap is way overdue.

Can't really tell if what I'm writing makes sense durr.