Luckily, I didn't have to. The ELEC1601 quiz today wasn't too bad. It was just 8 multiple choice questions. I knew that I got 3/4 (it's half a mark per question), which isn't too bad compared to the people who sit next to me, but I don't know which ones I got wrong.Yesterday's linguistics exam was harder. Then again, even with that I didn't have to pretend to collapse, although before both quizzes I did feel a little bit dizzy.

There was a new lecturer in maths today. Luckily, he has a "neutral" accent unlike someone else, and he's funny too.

I took the robot home today. I should really check it to make sure that it survived the journey. xD It's surprising that my group actually agreed to let me take it with me considering that I ride a bike to the train station, so it's relatively risky.

Then again, trying to put a song on it will be fun! I want it to play "Dans ma fusée". It would be so ironic to have this slow-moving little robot play "Dans ma fusée" ("In my rocket"), but I really like that tune.  Hopefully, I'll get it done before the other person who's also working on music figures out how to make it play the Pokémon theme song.

Surprisingly, today's ENGG1804 lecture was actually fun. Well, at least the first part was fun.

Somehow, the lecturer with the Canadian accent doesn't sound as cool as he used to. I think I'm getting used to his voice. (This is weird - as I get used to the maths lecturer's accent, I don't find it as annoying as I used to, but as I get used to this engineering lecturer's accent it doesn't sound as nice.) The lecture was about sensors, and it started off on the topic of human senses, which of course included hearing range. It was mentioned that as people age, they gradually lose their ability to hear higher frequencies. At that time, I heard a buzzing noise coming from somewhere high up and behind me, so I asked the lecturer "speaking of hearing ranges, what's that buzzing noise?". He said it was probably the lights, and proceeded to adjust them to get rid of the noise. Someone else decided to ask him "can you hear it?", and he said "no, I'm too old" (and this is the younger one of the two lecturers) . The whole class laughed. Oops. It must've been awkward for him. xD Later on, he talked about active and passive sensors, so I decided to take out my lasertemp and ask him which one it is. I pointed it at him as if it was a gun, so the whole class laughed again.

The tutorial wasn't too bad either. The first part was a talk about communication, which included information about proper writing. The lecturer emphasised the difference between "it's" and "its". This is the kind of the thing that I usually pick on! We were also told to avoid circumlocution. This is just so natural for me. It was good that I was in the group that did this in the first half before going to the library tutorial though, because it would be so ironic if I had the communication talk in the half of the tutorial that clashed with my linguistics lecture. In fact, if I was in the group to have that in the second half, then I'd rather skip it and go to the linguistics lecture instead. Then again, they took attendance so I probably couldn't really have done that. I'm sure that the tutor asked for my friends' names when marking them off the roll, but he knew my name, although he said it to me just to make sure. I must be really easy to recognise. It's probably for all the wrong reasons, but I don't care. xD He also came to answer my question just when I looked at him. Tutors are generally good at noticing eye contact. I can usually get them to come over and answer my questions just by looking at them. This reminds me of the time when Jenny said that a waiter at a certain café insisted on telling her friends not to wave at him and instead to signal for him to come over by "eye contact". That might work in a class, but in a café? I don't think so!

What's more, I even learn from it! Really, today in my differential calculus lecture we were starting on L'Hôpital's rule, which my IRC friends have taught me. I think we're starting on Taylor series next week. I ought to just ask my IRC friends about it. xD There will be a different lecturer starting from next week too. I hope he doesn't have a weird foreign accent.

Today I met Anne after the maths lecture, and guess what, I was telling her about IRC too. It's always IRC for me. Go #ennui!

I left the revision for the differential calculus quiz to the last minute. Luckily, it was much easier than I expected. xD The preparation questions were much harder than the quiz itself.

Today was a pretty good day. Somehow, the rain was really well-timed so that I didn't have to ride around in rain at all, even though it was raining really heavily during the lectures. It was funny when someone fell asleep during the ENGG1804 lecture. The lecturer made fun of him too, as in telling the whole class "Is this person asleep or is he dead?", and then telling him "I'm worried about your health" when he woke up. xD I'd have to say that today's lecture wasn't too bad. Somehow I was really awake at the time, and I managed to pay attention too, even if it's not the lecturer with the cool accent. I even asked questions. What's more, it finished half an hour early!

Here's another one of my drawings. (Click here)It has mice in it, of course. More "mice-arranging". Not a heart this time though.

Oh no! I'll have to get up early tomorrow.

My (online) friend is back from his holiday... I was kind of looking forward to seeing him online, even if all he ever talks about is science. I can even relate a song to this: "I don't understand the funny signs on his blackboard..." Then again, that would be stretching it because it's IRC and not a blackboard, and that song has connotations that wouldn't be appropriate anyway. (Go ahead and look up the song and say anything you like.) You know you spend too much time online when... you start missing someone that you've never met. (Then again, this isn't the first time. Leighann, where are you?)

I would be looking forward to tomorrow if it wasn't for that I have a clash... We're starting on morphology in linguistics... I was looking forward to that. I've been reading the textbook, and everything in there looked very familiar because I've been reading all sorts of popular-level books on this topic last year. I knew that all the random reading would come in handy someday... xD

This has to be the most exciting day of my mid-semester break. I went to Taronga Zoo today. It's a place for my dad to be nostalgic about. He's been there 20 years ago or so. I've just realised that I've never really been to a zoo before. Well, I've been to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, but I don't remember seeing any animals there. Ocean Park has seals and pandas, but it's not a zoo.

This is what the front entrance of the zoo looks like. It looks almost like a castle, doesn't it? This building is the souvenir shop. They have so many toys in there. Snakes, crocodiles, spiders, everything. It's the kind that I would've really liked when I was little. (I wonder why my dad didn't bring me to this zoo before.) Now I don't bother about buying these little toys because I already have too much clutter at home. (Except for mice, of course. I still collect toy mice. They don't have any of those at the zoo though.)

I had an ice-cream in there, and the strawberry ice-cream had mint ice-cream in it. Really, I don't know whether I'm lucky (that I get to try some mint ice-cream) or unlucky (that the ice-cream shop people were so careless). For such a brightly-coloured ice-cream, it tasted pretty good. (Usually these colourful ones are all flavouring and colouring with no cream.) There are actually quite a lot of food outlets in the zoo, but the lines are so long! Later on the way there was a café that advertised pancakes, and they looked so delicious, but when I went inside they didn't have any pancakes left. How disappointing!

The view from Taronga Zoo is great. Look! It's the Harbour Bridge! There's the Opera House too.

Well, there's not much more to say about it. Enjoy the wall of images!

From the Sydney Morning Herald: Fading curtains alert: more daylight saving on the way

I hope they really add an extra month of daylight saving. I'd love to have an extra month of being in UTC +11.

First of all...

Happy birthday to Firiona and Xumbra! (Hmm, unparallel usage. Why aren't I using their real names here?)

See, there are a lot of birthdays in April. Mainly people on #ennui, and I've just realised that I missed one yesterday.

Lately, I just spend too much time online. I'm growing more and more attached (no pun intended xD) to #ennui. More specifically, I think I'm starting to become attached to someone there, and I haven't even been there for too long. 

Well, I first went there in late July 2006, so it's been almost 9 months. Last year I was really attached to someone that I've only knew for less than 7 months. (I shouldn't have to name this person. If you're reading this, chances are that you already know.) Then again, at least that was someone that I actually knew in person. This time, I'm attached to someone I only know through some words on a screen.

Yes, I have so many friends and I'm still so attached to this person that I don't really know. I think it's because I kept telling this person about myself, and somehow I had so much in common with him. May be this will be the next person that I end up talking about all the time. (Then again, if I don't even see him in person, nothing can really happen so there won't be anything to talk about. xD)

Oh, and the high-speed connection turned out to be fast once I restarted the router. I should've thought of that earlier on. xD

Here's my latest drawing. (Click here) It's a mouse in a rose. I don't know why I had an idea like this... I don't even like roses that much.

Well, I've been thinking about taking up an activity at the art centre in Roseville... (Now that's really stretching it. xD)