halfway through 'the 5 people you meet in heaven', and i have to say this is one cult book that really is deserving of its hype- it's simple, plain philosophy infused with heartwarming, feel-good sentiments, minus the chicken soup bullshit you get in movies which try to teach you moral values. unlike other novels which sometimes get draggy and bogged down with indulgent narrative, this one is a pleasure to read. i recommend it to everybody. really, this one is brilliant and not high-brow, so if you haven't read it- dude, you're missing out.

had the most shittifying chem prac of the entire year today (which, also being the -only- chem prac of the entire year, leaves room for further surprises later in the term) which involved continuous sampling and (you guessed it!) titration, titration, and more titration. and the solution in question was this piss-coloured concoction, which had to be carefully pipetted and transferred out of the flask every few minutes. which was a royal pain in the arse, even when ignoring the fact that an exciting 4 rounds of titration followed after that. plus, halfway through the prac i discovered mysterious dark blotches on my papers, which were like blue-black and most unaesthetically splattered all over the tutorial and prac notes which i had left on my bench. they HAD to have been made by some bumbling asshole who was passing by with starch indicator, had a quick accident at my bench, and conveniently scrammed after that. because i know for sure i had NO starch indicator on the bench, and the blue-black blotches could only have been made by that. after that, while trying to conduct damage control, me and lab partner colin discovered that the taps at our bench weren't working either, and when turned on full blast, issued pathetic trickles of water like something peeing into a urinal. and then of course came the great screw up with the titration readings, which resulted in colin and me getting a graph which shot up exponentially from the origin. yes, 'tis all in a days work.

and so i have to remind myself: one week down! one week down!

only 39 left to go, and then some, ho hum.

the only perk was that i managed to escape today's 'superlegs' PE, and missed out on an invigorating workout session, involving the girls running about 3K of the track, stopping every 200m to do circuit training like crunches, push-ups, lunges, etc. in any case i really have been sick for like the longest time, and i wouldn't want to jeopardise my early stages of recovery with overly strenuous exercise, would i? that would only be terribly stupid, no?

pilates and yoga exercises have been satisfactory this week, and since they're supposed to be good for my back as well, i will step up my resolve to practice them religiously everyday. that, and also the challenge by darryl and markwang to 'unhybridize' my '6 pack' should be sufficient motivation to help me at least keep to one of my new year's resolutions, i hope!

cheers to a stress-free weekend!