00:59. Almost 1. I am torn between going to bed and finding something amusing online to keep me from going to bed. I have no reason to stay awake at this hour. It's the holidays and there are no assignments to deal with. As a matter of fact, I am feeling a little on the drowsy side. I should just go plop down onto my cozy bed and drift into blissful sleep. But I know I won't. Why??
1:05. Perhaps it's a bad habit I've developed. If I think about my situation, the best decision would definitely be to abandon the computer and hit the sack. Not only do I not waste my time wasting time online, but I get to be up fresh and early the next morning. It's always a good feeling waking up early, feeling fresh and knowing you've a long, beautiful day ahead of you.
1:08. Or perhaps it's something I can't control, something inherent that craves impulsively for amusement. It's not about what tomorrow might hold for me, but about what all I can wring out of today. While it does sound like a noble thought, the idea does not hold when it comes to actual work. For work, it's about how long it can be put off until the concern that the deadline might not be met overwhelms the compulsive craving in the brain.
1:14. It's been 15 minutes since I began this article. Am I a slow writer? What's the pace of normal writing? Not for a classic or polished article, but for a blog post like this. Mine's probably average, depending on how much thought needs to be put into the article. If I'm recounting something without worrying about phraseology, I could probably speed it up. But a ponderous article can take long. This one's a tricky one, I'm thoughtful at points, but just breezing through others as I simply transcribe my thought process.
1:19. This is stupid. But I am a little more awake than I was when I first began this article. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure. Probably bad. I want to feel so drowsy that I drift away the moment I hit the pillow. Hmm. I dunno. Sometimes I use the time before falling asleep to dwell on interesting thoughts, or just on wild daydreams as I let my mind loose. My easily-distracted mind can keep me busy for hours. I do get bored on long train rides though. Or maybe I don't. I think it's when my chain of thought or my daydream is broken and I look at my watch and realize how much longer there is still to go, boredom sets in. And I'm lost in my mind again. But the combination of all those little punctuations of boredom create the feeling of a long boring ride. Maybe I am just making a case for my mind to make it seem more amusing than it might really be, I don't know.
1:26. Don't want to keep this up much longer. I've some tasks I need done by noon tomorrow. It would have been done today, if it were not for the fact that it's Easter Monday. "was". I didn't know it was a holiday until I got out on my bike to find all the shops closed! If it were not for the little shopping I did Saturday, I'd be starving now.
1:31 I took too long to write that last paragraph. I just didn't know what exactly to mention and kept debating things in my head. Thoughts are complicated things. When I'm not consciously thinking about what I'm thinking, I wonder if we even think in a language. The mind just knows to figure things out at lightening speed without the translation into language slowing it down. But as I write, my mind is thinking in sentences. Or perhaps it's being fed by invisible ideas from all around the sentences that form the main thought. I'm totally lost now. It's like one of those physics problems that you really need to think over before you can comprehend it.
1:35 So yea, ok. The vastness of the universe. It's vast, everyone knows that. But can we truly comprehend its vastness? I think we cannot, you can't multitask when thinking about these things. Just focus and try to fathom how minuscule and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. Then snap back and put our lives in perspective. Where do we stand? If there was a god who could observe the whole universe at the same instant, earth would still be so insignificant, he probably couldn't care less about it.
1:41. But some might say that life on earth is what interests god. If we are all this whole creation is about, what's the purpose of more than 99.999999999999% of the universe. Why would god create all the extra crap?
1:43. Talking about god is not very interesting. Anyway, I might have said how insignificant we are in the big picture, but it's amazing how something so insignificant has been able to scientifically comprehend the size of the universe. From this tiny corner of our galaxy among billions, we have managed to use the collective intelligence of several generations of our best thinkers to come up with a way to figure out what's out there, to graze the very edge of the universe, to dare to fathom it's history and its probable end in the future. As individuals, we bear little significance, but as humans we are definitely capable of leaving a mark. Our combined intelligence spans all four dimensions to their limits. That's not to say, a single stray meteor couldn't wipe planet Earth and all humanity off the universe in an instant! It would be a tiny poof that would hardly be noticed in the broad scale of the universe.
1:57. I have gone into a ramble now, I hardly even know what I'm talking about anymore. Oh and if Earth was destroyed, we'd still have that tiny group of humans in the International Space Station. The ISS would probably go shooting off into space. I wonder if the group inside would find a way to survive, reproduce, and keep the human race going!
2:00. The topics heading into sci-fi now! Goodness, it's been exactly a minute over an hour since I started this post. I need to end this incoherent rant now!
2:01 Goodnight!!!
[Added later: I was thinking about our inability to comprehend the size of the universe, and I truly believe we cannot, yet. The idea of the size of the world is different to a world-traveler than to someone who has never left his little village, even if the same number crunches of the dimensions of the earth are given to them. Numbers give you an idea, something to compare to. But when you run into the realms of light years, our mind cannot make realistic comparisons because nothing compares to the sheer numbers dealt with in astronomy. The nearest galaxy, Andromeda is 2.5 million light years away! Our longest flight is probably around 20 hours, and fastest jet travel is ~0.85 mach, which is less than the speed of light by several orders of magnitude. How then are we to grasp how far even our closest galaxy is, much less the vastness of the universe!!]
PS. If you're wondering, I know midnight isn't 1 am! But midnight can leniently be interpreted to mean middle of the night. So yea, my title isn't too far off! :)
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Update
Ok I think it's about time I updated my blog! The more I wait, the more it seems okay to wait just another day... and it's a vicious cycle that given no deadline, seems worse than any procrastination. With procrastination you get things done last minute, but what if you don't have a last minute... you can procrastinate forever!
Anyway, what have I been up to since my last post? Oh yea, here's something interesting about my last exam. So I knew the last of my exams was on the 3rd of April so, not being fully prepared, I pulled an all-nighter the night before. Not recommended for whatever reasons, but if the difference is passing and failing, it has to be done. Maybe the fact that I don't get a grade on the course has something to do with my laziness to not go for it!
Regardless, the morning of April 3 arrives. I'm bleary eyed and decide I need to get out before I fall asleep and miss the test. I head out at 8 am thinking that will give me enough time to sort out seating problems like I had in my last exam. Then I could relax and finish studying for the 4 pm test outside in the building compound. My bike had already been stolen at this point, so I had to take the bus there. I live 15 minutes walk away but the bus schedule meant I got there at 8.30. I looked at the list outside the Fluid mechanics department that has the names and corresponding hall and seat numbers, and sure enough I wasn't listed again. Non-regular students have to register for exams manually as opposed to online so mix-ups seem uncommon.
So as I walk towards the secretary's office to get things sorted, I see the assistant teacher for my class entering the lift with a bunch of students. Struck me as a bit curious! Then I see my professor talking to someone in the hallway, so I go up to him and ask, "Professor, what time's the exam?". He looks at me amused, and says "9 o'clock"! I began to panic... it was 8.40 now and I had no idea where my hall even was!
The secretary seemed slow as she tried to find my name in her list. Thankfully I was there so she wrote down my seat number, my candidate number and my hall on a post-it-note and handed it to me. I didn't know where the hall was so she showed it to me on the map. "It's in that Hochhaus, about 5 minutes walk from here."
8.45. I have enough time I think. So I walk towards the Hochhaus (literally translates to "high building", generic name for tall buildings). But the hochhaus is surrounded by little buildings and I have a hard time finding the entrance as it does not lead directly from the street.
8.50. I realize I don't even know what floor the damn hall is on! I summon the lift but wait for someone to show up so I can ask. Finally I find someone to ask, and she gives me a vague answer, somewhere on the 2nd floor. I run up the stairs and find two people chatting, they tell me they think it's around the corner at the end of the hallway. There's nothing there! I go a floor down and find someone seated on a couch. He seems unsure but points me in a direction. I'm panicking now, I don't want to miss this exam. They're pretty strict about punctuality, late and you can't get in!
8:58 There it is!! I see the sign "Gäede Horsaal". I walk in the door and sigh in relief as I see the student-teachers calmly chatting behind the desk at the front! It's a little past 9 when they even begin distributing the papers, and they go through each question in german! When we actually began the test it was 9.15!
Anyway, the test went well. If it were not for me getting out of the house randomly at 8, there was no way I was going to make the exam! For some reason I thought the exam would be at 4 pm like my other one! I'm stupid like that!
Ha! I seem to have written longer about the incident than I thought I would.
What else? Oh yea, Budapest! But this is hardly a travel journal and I don't think I had any interesting encounters that I want to blog about.
Then we come to yesterday. I hadn't played football in a while because I'm not a fan of playing in muddy conditions. It had been raining quite often. But the weather now is perfect. I can go out in my tees, no jacket! Anyway, I decided to go play some football. Since a lot of german kids are home at the moment, there were only 7 of us. We played in a smaller section of the field. I hadn't played in a while but I was feeling pretty good. The passes were connecting, I scored a few, and the only problem I saw was my decreased stamina. But I decided to go for it as we got towards the end of the game.
I was at midfield when I got a perfect through ball. I ran for it and it was then just between me and the goalie. The ball was moving fast and I had to keep up with it. The goalie decided to come forward for the ball too! I ran as hard as I could and just as the goalie got to it, I flicked it towards the post, then tried to get out of the way, but WHAM! The goalie had decided to avoid me by going in the same direction. We collided pretty hard. I could feel the blood pouring out my nose the instant we collided! I was down for a while trying to stop the bleeding but it wouldn't stop so I called it quits for the day. After getting the bleeding somewhat under control with my head tilted upwards and some tissues, I biked home. But as I showered back in my dorm, my nose kept dripping blood throughout! It was disconcerting, but people donate blood all the time so losing a little shouldn't be a problem I assured myself!
I then took a rest and woke up with little blood clots in my nose! Hehe! It wasn't as disgusting as it might sound! At least I'm all better now, as long as I don't press on my nose that is!
Looking forward to another game of football later this week! :D
That's it for now then. Hopefully the next post isn't too far off! Ciao!
Anyway, what have I been up to since my last post? Oh yea, here's something interesting about my last exam. So I knew the last of my exams was on the 3rd of April so, not being fully prepared, I pulled an all-nighter the night before. Not recommended for whatever reasons, but if the difference is passing and failing, it has to be done. Maybe the fact that I don't get a grade on the course has something to do with my laziness to not go for it!
Regardless, the morning of April 3 arrives. I'm bleary eyed and decide I need to get out before I fall asleep and miss the test. I head out at 8 am thinking that will give me enough time to sort out seating problems like I had in my last exam. Then I could relax and finish studying for the 4 pm test outside in the building compound. My bike had already been stolen at this point, so I had to take the bus there. I live 15 minutes walk away but the bus schedule meant I got there at 8.30. I looked at the list outside the Fluid mechanics department that has the names and corresponding hall and seat numbers, and sure enough I wasn't listed again. Non-regular students have to register for exams manually as opposed to online so mix-ups seem uncommon.
So as I walk towards the secretary's office to get things sorted, I see the assistant teacher for my class entering the lift with a bunch of students. Struck me as a bit curious! Then I see my professor talking to someone in the hallway, so I go up to him and ask, "Professor, what time's the exam?". He looks at me amused, and says "9 o'clock"! I began to panic... it was 8.40 now and I had no idea where my hall even was!
The secretary seemed slow as she tried to find my name in her list. Thankfully I was there so she wrote down my seat number, my candidate number and my hall on a post-it-note and handed it to me. I didn't know where the hall was so she showed it to me on the map. "It's in that Hochhaus, about 5 minutes walk from here."
8.45. I have enough time I think. So I walk towards the Hochhaus (literally translates to "high building", generic name for tall buildings). But the hochhaus is surrounded by little buildings and I have a hard time finding the entrance as it does not lead directly from the street.
8.50. I realize I don't even know what floor the damn hall is on! I summon the lift but wait for someone to show up so I can ask. Finally I find someone to ask, and she gives me a vague answer, somewhere on the 2nd floor. I run up the stairs and find two people chatting, they tell me they think it's around the corner at the end of the hallway. There's nothing there! I go a floor down and find someone seated on a couch. He seems unsure but points me in a direction. I'm panicking now, I don't want to miss this exam. They're pretty strict about punctuality, late and you can't get in!
8:58 There it is!! I see the sign "Gäede Horsaal". I walk in the door and sigh in relief as I see the student-teachers calmly chatting behind the desk at the front! It's a little past 9 when they even begin distributing the papers, and they go through each question in german! When we actually began the test it was 9.15!
Anyway, the test went well. If it were not for me getting out of the house randomly at 8, there was no way I was going to make the exam! For some reason I thought the exam would be at 4 pm like my other one! I'm stupid like that!
Ha! I seem to have written longer about the incident than I thought I would.
What else? Oh yea, Budapest! But this is hardly a travel journal and I don't think I had any interesting encounters that I want to blog about.
Then we come to yesterday. I hadn't played football in a while because I'm not a fan of playing in muddy conditions. It had been raining quite often. But the weather now is perfect. I can go out in my tees, no jacket! Anyway, I decided to go play some football. Since a lot of german kids are home at the moment, there were only 7 of us. We played in a smaller section of the field. I hadn't played in a while but I was feeling pretty good. The passes were connecting, I scored a few, and the only problem I saw was my decreased stamina. But I decided to go for it as we got towards the end of the game.
I was at midfield when I got a perfect through ball. I ran for it and it was then just between me and the goalie. The ball was moving fast and I had to keep up with it. The goalie decided to come forward for the ball too! I ran as hard as I could and just as the goalie got to it, I flicked it towards the post, then tried to get out of the way, but WHAM! The goalie had decided to avoid me by going in the same direction. We collided pretty hard. I could feel the blood pouring out my nose the instant we collided! I was down for a while trying to stop the bleeding but it wouldn't stop so I called it quits for the day. After getting the bleeding somewhat under control with my head tilted upwards and some tissues, I biked home. But as I showered back in my dorm, my nose kept dripping blood throughout! It was disconcerting, but people donate blood all the time so losing a little shouldn't be a problem I assured myself!
I then took a rest and woke up with little blood clots in my nose! Hehe! It wasn't as disgusting as it might sound! At least I'm all better now, as long as I don't press on my nose that is!
Looking forward to another game of football later this week! :D
That's it for now then. Hopefully the next post isn't too far off! Ciao!
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