this week has been so full of draggy lessons and practicals that i thought i'd never make to friday. but guess what, here i am now, at 6.22 on a friday, and have 2 and a half full lecture-less and tutorial-less days to psyche myself up for another tiresome week. it's like as the days go by the hours get longer and longer, time just seems to slip from one activity to the next, and before you know it, you're down to 3 hours of a sleep at night but don't realise how tired you are because things just keep going, and you just have to keep going along with them. in fact, i think i've reached the point where i'm so exhausted on a regular basis that i've almost become immune to the fatigue. i think i was going on 3-4 hours of sleep consistently for more than a week (not that i'm doing anything that important of course, i'm just really good at dilly dallying) before the tiredness suddenly kicked in and crashed on me like a load of bricks 2 days ago. i was so tired i could hardly keep my eyes open, and it felt like there was this anvil weighing my head down. and so i slept at 9 that night. not that that helped my physics SPA the next day, of course. but that's quite a different story.

it seems kinda strange that only a few hours ago i was cooped up measuring the percentage purity of aspirin tablets in the chem lab, when mr lai triumphantly announced that 'it's only between [him] and the weekend now'. somehow, all our tutors seem to have this knack for sadistic humour, that isn't quite so humourous when you put it in the context of a hot friday afternoon after a sweatifying PE session.

anyway. i think i have to do something about my caffeine addiction. i don't think i will stop it altogether, but i think i will try to regulate it for better results. last month's national geographic ran a feature on caffeine, and i'm grateful to know that studies prove my caffeine consumption is not increasing my risk of contracting colon or stomach cancer, nor am i transferring any health hazards to my unborn child. not that i have an unborn child of course, but metaphorically speaking you know? although, i think that 2 cups of coffee, 4 glasses of black/green tea and 2 bars of chocolate everyday might possibly classify me as more than a 'moderate' consumer. but only slightly more lah. because i don't take double shots of espresso every morning or those other extremely highly concentrated caffeine things. but the problem with this addiction is that now, if i were to suddenly stop taking caffeine for a day, my neurotransmitters would function at a much lower rate, and mental performance could be decreased by 30%. and hey, looking at me, i need all the help i can get, so 30% really isn't a stat that i can spare.

and so i have come up with a solution. either i will buy caffeine pills and ration them in 50mg portions throughout the day, or i will cut down my caffeine intake by half. the former is quite attractive because that would allow me to dissolve the pills in any drink and take them when necessary. but i think it's a bit troublesome to carry around the pills, especially since they probably don't come in 50mg doses. plus people will think i'm some drugged out freak, and i don't need more evidence to convince people that i'm mental, thank you very much. then again, cutting down my caffeine intake by half is also quite ambitious, but it would be good in the long run since the effects of caffeine are completely reversible and will go away once you wean yourself of it. so i think i shall just take my coffee 1 hour before important stuff like tests or pracs (it takes 1 hour to enter the bloodstream and jolt your neurotransmitters) and maybe in the morning or something.

the rest of the time, i shall rely on the most simple solution ever: E X E R C I S E!! yup. exercise is really the solution to all problems, it seems. when you're depressed, exercise. when you're fat, exercise. when you want to pig out, exercise. when you're angry, exercise. and when you're tired, exercise. because you can't sleep when you're exercising, and only a really sick freak would be able to fall asleep after pounding the treadmill. there must be some bio reason for this, but currently i can only think of how exercising means your muscle cells respire more and so your heart pumps more blood to provide oxygen to them. but doesn't that mean that your brain cells, which strictly speaking consist mostly of fats, get even less blood diverted to them and therefore you won't be as alert? maybe adrenaline really is more powerful and potent shit after all. hmm.

this discussion is veering to uncomfortable intellectual territory.

oh- something happy. my mom found out today that she didn't get 12 demerit points for using an illegal bus lane 2 weeks ago, and was so overjoyed about it that she insisted it 'called for a celebration' when i came back from school. and, knowing only too well that 'celebration' in my mom's dictionary means either shopping or food, i was overjoyed too. in the end she took me for this huge waffle and ice cream sundae at a cafe in gardens. and, in the process, she managed to park without putting a parking coupon, and narrowly missed getting fined for it.

so you know what that means- another 'celebration'! :)