Spring Break - ASB

As usual, I can't rest even when it's break. Guess I just like trouble.

I'll be off to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St Paul) for one week with a group of 10 people to contribute towards the betterment of the society. Sounds noble huh? Hahaha...Our job is to assist the Hmong children (a minority group in the States) in their academic pursues. To be honest, I have little inkling how will it turn out to be. Hope it'll be fun though, and that I can really help the children and leave a positive impact in their lives.

Will update on that in a week's time. Ciao.

Arrrgghhh!!!!!

Crap. Shit. Arrrghhh!!!!!

Writing this right now in the Shapiro library. Guess what?? !@##$% just lost my leather gloves!!! Left it in the bus. Effking annoying man.. What a waste....bought it in Vancouver. Crap, this is the third pair of gloves lost. Guess that means no more gloves in the future...

Stress, stressing, stressed, stressed...

It’s confirmed; I have bought the tickets (hope I wasn’t conned and that I’ll get the tickets soon). So, I will be going back to Malaysia this May, the 3rd, and will come back to US on 20th of June. Before going back to my beloved country, I might go visit Canada again, probably Toronto, to fully utilize the visa that I had applied earlier for the Vancouver trip.

Time sure did fly for the past few weeks, especially last week. All my first midterm results were out already, and I’m quite happy to say that they were at least above mean, a situation which would be unacceptable by VS (haha...read his ramblings in his blog). What more can I expect...guess I’m more and more accustomed to mediocrity. Or maybe that I’m wiser already, realizing that there’s more in the world other than academic performance?? (yeah right, that’s hilarious from a nerdy guy who can’t sit still without being anxious about unfinished homework and readings)

Although I do not have any midterm until after spring break, this week had been quite stressful, thanks to my Geosci. How can a guy be possibly stress-free studying all the stress that’s stressing the earth? Those stress really stresses me out...it’s not as easy as I had imagined afterall. In addition to that, being unable to differentiate between the jargons really helped a lot in boosting my mood; faults, fractures, failure points, ruptures, cracks, I somehow believe that these are the very things that are going to put a permanent and unrecoverable strain in my mind.

Spring break is just a week away, but it is meaningless to me. At least, it doesn’t mean relaxation. I’ll be off for ASB, and my patience and socializing skills will be tested. Those adorable kids have already given me a name: Chee Meng (Tsiv Meej). Hmmm...kinda reminds me of a DBA guy.

Ok, I should set my goal for the week here – be more focus and know better what I want. Easy said though. Very try real hard to achieve that.

First midterms over....

Yayyy!! First wave of exams is over. Finally can slack off a little bit...just a little bit though.

Went to music school yesterday, and realized that I’m getting more and more impatient with my progress in piano. My fingers, I realized, are somehow very imprecise in hitting notes. Instead of just striking the right note, there’s always some other keys that I accidentally pressed…Besides, I seemed to lack control in the dynamics. What the heck, maybe it’s because my ability to concentrate was not so high at that moment....it’s midnight anyways. (I know such excuse is kinda lame)

Playing on an upright also seemed to be more and more intolerable, now that I am quite accustomed to the Steinway and Sons grand. But shouldn’t a good pianist be able to play well on just about any piano?? (not out of tunes one of course). Guess I really need to reevaluate my skills and find out where the problem is...it’s actually embarrassing that during the two years in the States, I learnt almost no new pieces. Aside from the nocturne which any 6th grader (in piano) would have easily mastered, every of the pieces I attempted is not at all concert-ready (a term too big for me, I mean presentable here). Most of them were half-abandoned when I was too frustrated in going through them over and over again and reached no progress. Remember the fantaisie impromptu?? It became fantaisie impossible for me after a while...not given up hope yet.

As I am going back this spring, I would hope that I can finish those unfinished pieces in my home. Some may ask why I insist on doing this. Sheer satisfaction my friend...boy, only if I can play those pieces...

Sighzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz................... (Un sospiro)