22nd Nov 2022
My home is a mess. I need to transfer my small form factor PC into the newer casing soon and make more space on my floor. Bring the modular drawers up above the wooden drawers too. That floor space should remain clear.
Managed to be more confident in today's presentation, talked more slowly and gently.
23rd Nov 2022
So far so good with the Herman Miller Aeron, the lock for the backrest tilt is actually useful, though the headrest itself... I'm beginning to agree with the original designers of the chair that when you're busy, the headrest is redundant (hence the Aeron does not inherently come with a headrest).
It might also partly be that I'm used to using the computer without my glasses and somehow I feel more comfortable hunching over to look at the monitor more closely.
Clinical posting was up since Sunday night, going to IMH like everyone else. Strangely, some of my female classmates will be in male wards while I am going to a mixed gender ward, which means the lack of male nurses is not one of the reasons they're there. So why?
26th Nov 2022
Yet I'd rather spend hours reading the manga Blame than to reassemble my PC.
I am boring, there's no way to get around this fact. The other thing is that I don't like to take charge.
These two are the main factors, I believe, that have led to the current state of my singlehood.
There are two matches who are keen to meet up but can't make time in their schedules, and they haven't responded since yesterday evening, which most likely means they're busy, and I am not interesting enough to pull their attention away from whatever they're doing.
It also means my mind is too free to be dwelling on this, yet I'd rather be procrastinating on what needs to be done this weekend.
Didn't even workout just now, except for a little bit on the elliptical, barely enough to work up a sweat.
...
This feels a little like a wave of depression, except I managed to do something about it. Settling my laundry helped made me feel better, guess household chores are indeed therapeutic. Shall unfold my mahjong table to begin work on my PC tomorrow.
The last suit I got from Suit Supply felt so amazing. Haven't won it in so long that I'd forgotten just how comfortable it was. Had to use the jacket as a blazer because had a presentation that required smart casual, and I had run out of any good pants that could go with my shirts, so wearing jeans with a t-shirt and putting a jacket on top was the only reasonable way to attain smart casual level with my current wardrobe.
Just got a pink long sleeve button-down shirt from Robert Graham this Black Friday, plus a pair of black jeans that looks like a pair of chinos, so hope this works in the future. Bringing my jacket around in school was no fun, not to mention it felt like a massive overkill for the purpose it served that day.
Matched with a Brazilian woman today. She's touring Asia next year, but it's going to be nothing, unless things change next year. Hard to imagine myself being a tour guide for anyone.
Forgot to get something for my part-time helper. Not only has she been preparing labour-intensive garnishes for my simple dishes, I think she fixed my kitchen light.
Not sure if possible to get her anything right for xmas, so might just settle for a red packet for CNY.
The Atlas headrest turned out to be quite redundant indeed. Leaned back and yawned hard just now, and my head managed to push the headrest off the chair. It's just not sturdy enough, and I don't rest my head on it much in the first place, so might not reattach it.
27th Nov 2022
Nah, the light isn't fixed.
Accidentally overbought some items. Now I've got an extra carton of fat-free milk that I usually take for lunch, and an additional hundred capsules of activated charcoal. Fortunately, neither is a major issue, since I'd recently noticed that the fat-free milk only contains under fifty calories per packet, so I can easily take two a day, plus one more in the evenings, and even if weekends are out, that's still fifteen per week, or sixty per month. Two cartons make ninety-six packets, so this would only last a month and a half, or I can stretch it more by only having two packets a day on weekdays only.
The charcoal pills last for years, so it doesn't really matter very much.
03rd Dec 2022
This week was meant to be a breather but turned out to be yet another hectic week involving my first time staying in school for a project meeting till 7pm even though classes had ended by 4pm.
Totally forgotten to not make finding a partner the main goal of my life. Changing it now. Trying the sensory deprivation pool next week.
06th Dec 2022
It's already December 2022, and it's time to plan gifts and potluck. Maybe I'll wrap cherry tomatoes with cucumber instead of wrapping grapes.
10th Dec 2022
Not making food for class potluck because it's going to have to be halal.
Opened up the new casing and my small form factor PC only to realise it's pretty complicated to take apart, not worth the effort to bring the components over. Going to keep the new casing aside, maybe make a new PC when the old one dies.
Went for float therapy on Friday morning, used to be known as sensory deprivation tanks. It's a pod that is filled with water about 20cm deep that's saturated with epsom salt, so you float in it. This pod can be closed and the light inside can be turned off, so you can't see or feel anything. Still can hear though, particularly your breathing. The spa is also in a small light industrial building, so there was once or twice when I could hear some very light rolling noises, since it's not sound-proof, just dampens outside noises very much. The loudest noise was my own breathing, or the crack of my joints at the end.
Good for back sleepers, bad for people like myself who find it hard to fall asleep on my back because I'd feel my throat closing as it relaxes (turns into snores) and wake up. Also, close to the end of the session, probably at around 45-50mins, I felt the need to turn, likely to keep my blood circulation going, but that was not possible. Pretty nice overall if you need to find silence and darkness, but an hour is more than enough.
14th Dec 2022
A bit of a breather week this week. Three matches on CMB, none were right.
https://youtu.be/etnMr8oUSDo
The caffeine analysis was a surprise in that you get less caffeine in an espresso as compared to a pour-over even with the same amount of beans.
It also confirms that the longer you steep the beans, eg in a French press, the more caffeine you get out of it, so in the Aeropress I'm currently using, if I leave the hot suspension in the upside-down Aeropress to steep for longer, it will get stronger up to a certain point.
And yeah, that's my current technique - flip the Aeropress upside down with the plunger in at half cm from edge, put 16g grinds and 230+g water in, stir and let it steep, put cover on, put mug over cover, flip it back. Stirring is absolutely necessary to release the air bubbles that will be created (typically in the form of crema) when the grinds are disturbed as you flip the Aeropress. Without stirring, the near-instantaneous bubble formation will create a sudden push of the plunger out of the Aeropress, and if you weren't bracing for it, the plunger could come loose and lead to spillage.
My vintage candelebra arrived last week. Really as beautiful as expected, hopefully it's really an antique, but will probably never know.
Now the candles from the 12/12 sale on the way.
Overbought a little this 12/12. Got an oval plate I thought was really nice, but not sure how to use it now, and a little too expensive to be given away. Could still be used during gatherings, but tbh I should be getting small bowls rather than platters and plates..
14th Dec 2022
Turns out candles have a catch. I wonder what it is. Will test it out during a weekend, with three candles in the living room and the aircon on.
16th Dec 2022
Time to get a little serious about money, the stream might be drying up by June.
17th Dec 2022
This week turned out to be the breather. Kind of. I still couldn't study much for the pharmacology test.
Haven't been working out much, can see I have gained weight, since the L size shirts are no longer just a little snug while my waistline at the beginning of the semester hovered between L and XL, and it was good that I went ahead and bought more XL jeans during the 11/11 sale, although it isn't exactly necessary yet, since my legs (and presumably also my butt) are shrinking from loss of muscle mass. They're just more comfortable around my waist.
How do people sleep if they work out as much as it is necessary to be physically fit? Last semester my cold sores returned because of my persistence in working out daily just to maintain, and this semester I am getting fat.
Working out isn't as simply as doing the exercises. We need time to change, shower, prepare the equipment on both ends of the sessions, and then it cannot be too soon before bedtime and after meals, but if you work out hungry before meal you'll not perform well.
So right after I get up? Sure, so I get up earlier than I did last semester. But it is near impossible to control what time I sleep without the necessary discipline and time management skill, so the result is less sleep.
Shall I work on those two? Discipline can't be that hard if I can maintain my daily workout schedule like that. Time management has always been my weak point though, and that might need to be honed for my future job.
How?
Writing and pasting the reasons for my working out will help with maintaining the daily workout routine. Will doing the same help for the two?
18th Dec 2022
Realised some whiskeys can go well with raw oysters.
After listening to how the relationship of one of my close friends went over the years, I realised I might have been expecting too much upfront with some of my past relationships, except for the first one. Should cut the next one some slack in the future, focus more on her better side.
22nd Dec 2022
Passed my practical test on wound dressing and aseptic technique yesterday, albeit barely apparently. This is the new course leader who took over our last one who resigned abruptly over the first month of our second semester, and she was much more straightforward, to the point where she asked me if I was really serious about being a nurse because she thought I could do much better than that.
The previous night while going through the list of steps to take for the procedure, I did come to the conclusion that I had been looking at it wrong. Rather than really understanding the principles of asepsis, I took it in as a script, probably because of how the procedure was presented by the module leader as a series of steps to follow, so rather than learning to change wound dressings and handling the sterile field, it was more akin to memorising a script for a play.
23rd Dec 2022
The way we are located at the Straits of Malacca, an absolutely vital route that's almost an artery of fuel and trade for countries like China and Japan, is actually pretty scary while presenting an incredible array of opportunities. It's basically the same as living on the fertile land around some volcanoes.
But rather than a volcanic eruption, we risk proxy wars.
I didn't realise how few options there are beyond our area for the moving of fuel for our East Asian neighbours.
Recently matched with someone who's probably a 9/10 in the photos, turned out to be probably not a scammer so far. I say probably because even though her style seems too roundabout for efficiency if it's a scam, she is too hot and replies too quickly to be real. Beautiful women who speak first and reply promptly are unicorns as far as I know, so until we meet face to face, she's likely a scammer regardless of how she talks. But I use "she" because so far, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt for her conversation style.
Of course I asked her out by the second day, ie today, just to make sure, but she rejected politely with an explanation, so it feels even likelier to be a scammer, pushing my estimate from 60% to 70% possibility that this is a scammer. Too hot though, I can't help entertaining the conversation. There is this concern that I am thinkinng with my wrong head for sure, but as long as there isn't a mention of money or investment, it remains fine.
26th Dec 2022
Ok that was a scammer. He stopped talking when I mentioned I talk to scammers for fun when I am bored, probably took it as a hint that I'm just messing with him (unlikely to actually be a woman).
What a nice windy day.
Five convos on CMB, stopping one because she wasn't going to meet till Feb. Makes no sense because the text convo can't go on for two months, she's just not that interesting, nor am I.
Back is starting to feel weird again. I absolutely must restart my workout today.
