Sakinah Abdul Aziz

This is frustrating. I ranted out so well and all it takes was an accidental click and the whole entry's gone. I am beyond infuriated (obviously this doesn't show). But then again, I can always rant twice. As I was typing before, the things I have to do and have to complete by this week and next week have completely exceeded the existing resources I have now :( I have three ongoing projects to do and I have been multi-tasking like crazy. There's paediatric psych presentation slides to tidy up, french powerpoint slides and presentation script and MNO report and presentation, again. It's crazy. The worst feeling is knowing that there are people around you who are somehow depending on you (well we are all depending on each other in groupwork) and it's tearing me apart. But I am only human and I can only do things one at a time. And I hate to admit and to have reached this state but I completely abhor how the academic aspect of french is slowly killing off my intrinsic ...

Just the urge to blog a few things. 1) I realise that Caucasian men seem to look better as they age. Why oh why. Hugh Grant. Hugh Jackman. Mr Shuester. Brad Pitt. And yeah, some other people. Like perhaps some of the professors in school, hmm. 2) But I like boys too. Andrew Garfield! Ok technically, he's 27, but very boyish look! If you're wondering where I found him, he stars in Social Networking! Awesome show with quirks here and there. He might star in Spiderman 3D in 2012. 3) Rainy weather = nostalgic! When I was in Paris, it kept raining cats and dogs, and somehow I seem to associate rain to Paris, not in a bad way though, in a good way because I love how rain gives you chills and forces you to keep yourself warm and snuggle. And when I thought of Paris, I thought of Endless Love by Mariah Carey. Amazing how we can associate unrelated things. But yes, I'm feeling nostalgic, and feeling all so good now listening to Mr Shuester's version of Endless Love (with rachel)...

Good morning. I woke up today thinking about this awesome new pizza that Pizza Hut just came out with. Not that I'm advertising for it. But this advertisement at some random busstop caught my eye while I was on my way to school. Being a cheese-lover, I've gotta try this one. Hoorah for Italian cheese :D Speaking of Italy, I'm dying to watch this! Ah, gelato! You might be wondering why is it that I seem to have more time in my hands. The arts faculty's having this e-learning week now. It masks all the million things I actually have to do. Like the 3 pending lectures to hear, and of course my projects. You see, we actually think that by having this, we'd be able to save more time but it actually makes you do more work. By being at home and being in front of your computer, people actually thought it will be faster, but in actual fact no. Like online discussion is twice as long as the actual physical discussion we could have had in classes. I just had two e-learning via...

You know, the bad thing about not having the time to blog is that, I keep relying on the "save drafts" option, which obviously haven't been good at producing entries for a month! Well for obvious reasons, it's either I lost the mood to continue where I left off, or that I couldn't bring myself to sort out my thoughts well. So I shall give a summary/accumulated/condensed version of what's been written on my "save drafts"; - How much I have to read my psych texts - How heavy my eyelids were while doing so - How fast time flies - Eid - Being known as the "polar bear" by the MNO tutor, sheesh - Sat for a French listening comprehension test without knowing it was on that day, double sheesh - Universal Studios - Best popcorn bought, everrr. Voila, saves lotsa words ain't it? So that while I'm here I can blog about more recent things. So finally, I am so over and done with the mid-terms. Of course the pending presentations are still not d...

Well, it's been way too long isn't it? Let's see. 4th week of school was so passé and I've begun to feel slightly worried about my schoolwork cos I haven't really done much about it. And also, it's been a week since I've bidded farewell to my dear Beninois. I've been busy with YOG ever since its opening ceremony. I used to tell Kai Teng during one of the June/July trainings that we attended, that I never felt any form of satisfaction attending any of those. But once the olympics commenced, I feel the satisfaction sinking in bit by bit. First of all, I had access to the village, which is an atmosphere you'd want to sense every single day. Ok, at least for me, I love the international feel of it. You walk along those long corridors of NIE, and you see people of different colours speaking different languages. Trust me, I'll never look at NIE the same way again. It's like a mini world. With people exchanging pins, basking in the culture of others...

So this morning, I totally felt defeated. I guess language acquisition is really hard. Really, really hard. I went back to reflect upon myself how in the world do I acquire English and Malay in such a progressively easy way. And I realise that the only way to acquire language so well is to speak it everyday. And by everyday, it means, every single moment, every single opportunity you take to communicate with someone else. To utilise it in our speech everyday, and to listen to others when they speak. Because otherwise, you can never get across what you really want to say, and you can never understand what others want to convey. Acquiring a third, forth, fifth (and so on) languages at a generally older age IS hard. I used to have this confidence that if you throw me in a French-speaking country, I think I would be able to hold conversations. Yes, that's true. Normal conversations at a rather average, slow-ish speed. But I don't want to feel limited when I communicate (I do admit ...

Modules this semester: - Social Psychology - Paediatric Psychology - Learning and Conditioning - French 5 - Management and Organisation So tomorrow, or rather, later, will be the start of a new semester. Daym, Year 3 sounds so old. I'm feeling pretty apprehensive because some of the psych modules above are rather heavy. I am uber scared for French because this time round it is mostly about French literature which is something new and foreign to me. And that apprehension is futher aggravated upon seeing that my lecturer could be the same one I had 3 semesters ago. Not that he's bad, just that he always has tendencies to call my name whenever I was off-guard or wasn't prepared for answers, like all the time. Do you know how silly that looks? Imagine question marks all over my face while trying my best to form sentences in my head. Ok but thankfully because of him, I bucked up a lot and that probably contributed to why I'm still pursuing this language. So yeah, this is a c...

Happy Birthday Singapore! Although the National Day hype diminishes as I age, Singapore is too tiny a country to not feel the vibe, especially when you get those roadblocks due to the parade rehearsals in the city, fireworks on Saturdays and of course the aerial flypast. I guess partly the reason why it diminishes is because I'm no longer exposed to what we used to when we were younger. Remember back in primary and secondary school we have the sing-along sessions during assembly? And we would readily sing them? Damn, I miss those mass celebrations that succeeded in building up an atmosphere enough to make you feel you have celebrated an occasion fully. I have to give credits to the National Day songs because most of them, if not all, are really good. A few days ago, I was present at this YOG event, and they started to play several national day songs. And without fail, I can easily sing the songs without putting in effort to remember the lyrics at all. It's amazing how words to ...

"Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he's a little of both. We gallop through our lives like circus performers balancing on two speeding side-by-side horse called "free will". And the question you have to ask every day is - which horse is which? Which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control, and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort? There is so much about fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction. There are certain lottery tickets I can buy, thereby increasing my odds of finding contentment. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I ca...

So here's basically what sums up my Sunway getaway: - Sleeping late - And with that, of course waking up around noon almost everyday - Playing Monopoly Deal till late nights/early mornings - Social networking - And by this, knowing Kiki's circle of friends in Sunway, thank you for making my stay awesomest! (: Kiki has awesome housemates and her roommate from Sabah is hilariously expressive! - How I Met Your Mother marathon. In need to finish up Season 5 before the semester starts! - Karaoke with an unbelievable, cheap cost of 5 Sg bucks somewhere in Sunway Pyramid. It's not even those shady-looking karaokes, it's actually better than decent. Zomg, why is karaoke in Singapore so bloody expensive?! - Had the best of both worlds of food. Hands down, nothing can ever beat hawker centre food with sumptuous home-cooked meals. It makes me feel closer to home. And for what felt like the longest time ever, I finally taste the best Nasi Padang with awesome belachan! Everything fo...