Tempus edax rerum

You are time. Foul time, who steals the gold from a maiden's hair and takes the sapphire from a child's eyes. Dark time, who has stolen from every thing there ever was all the things that it held precious and divine... And left nothing but ashes and memories and the grave.

-----Neil Gaiman

Five more weeks, the three unremarkable years of my life as an undergraduate student will be over. What have I achieved in almost three years apart from passing all my courses with mediocre grades?

To be honest, not a lot. What I have picked up were mere facts that can be gathered in no time with the right tools; the rest that mattered hardly moved at all in three years.

You know what it is? I just don't think about it

Your misfortunes are nothing but the result of your negligence with time; what are you doing now and what you should be doing? 

More sighs.

Practical Inception

 What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere. 

---Don Cobb

I quote from movies all the time, however the one above stands out because something I witnessed today. 

We were about to start a routine toxicology lab and the lab supervisor was going over the safety procedures. After some politically correct information about ethics, he mentioned "...one of the problems we had in the past years was people fainting, so if you are known to faint to blood don't sit on the stools and fall to crack your head open..."(I did not chronicle word for word but the meaning is close). At this moment, the noise of a soft object hitting the ground was heard. Someone actually fainted; fortunately he fell forward and did not hit anything. When he came to, he had no recollection of events before the blackout.

Later, several people had fits of malaise both before and after taking blood samples, including my lab partner who had to spend several minutes sitting on the floor before work resumed.

The affected appear healthy and in sound mind. None of them is known to be haemophobic or have any other related phobia (Trypanophobia, traumatophobia....I am sure one can spend a lifetime counting phobias.). Blood sampling is not novel either; the same has been done in one of the bigger labs last year using the same equipment, and nobody showed any adverse reactions. 

So what went wrong? First, the speaker suffers from self-admitted Stage IV pessimism, which definitely did cast a bad outlook on this lab. The language used was also suggestive (If you are......) and came from someone of authority(He's a professor so he must be right), which tricks the subconscious to believe the possibility of fainting(This can happen). The ideal parasite grows, traveling up the vagus nerve to shut down conscious. Although only one person came down initially, the event itself reinforces its presence in others and the cycle keeps ticking.

Inception, self-fulfilling prophecy, massive hysteria or whatever, it is working in our subconscious to deliver some surprises.

Before I close this topic, I must mention that yawning is contagious. Yeah, seeing, reading or even merely thinking about yawning is enough to induce yawning, again unconsciously. Next time when the chain reaction start while you are giving a speech, try not to blame them. 

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Emotional rollercoaster explained in songs:

First I was like this

Then I was like this


Deep down

Sighs.

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Also, you can follow me on Twitter @DillADH. Another late conversion here but I am learning fast.

Adieu. 

Official Summary of the break

Managed to cook a couple of good meals and move all my stuff into one room.

Made around $500 and spent about twice as much.

16 hours spent on various assignments, 6 hours on the test first day back, and lot's of Baileys.

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In other news

Former PM Kenvin Rudd is appointed the foreign minister following the formation of a minority Labour government from the (still hung) 43rd Australian Parliament.

Weston Cage, best remembered for his cameo appearance as the young Ukrainian mechanic, is now a metalhead. Unfortunately his musical talent is approximately on par to his father's theatrics.

Bought a CL from Jonathan B of Cream TV with the intention to shoot some film, he gave me a homebrew SR44-PX625 adaptor despite the camera has a non-working meter. It was a good deal.

I must not panic already

A piece of  advice I often give to others but rarely heed well myself

It would be overt generalisation to say that men are incapable of multitasking, but maybe it is good to be taken with a grain of salt. I don't handle stress well and I always knew it. The mere thought of a looming deadline(still below the horizon but somehow visible) is enough to drive me mad.

Well, it is just an one page abstract, how much harder could it get?

And I must not forget about music.

The break continued

Another friday, although this time the intra-semester break is already half gone. I have intentionally put aside the few more important things that i must complete before the semester resumes, including but in no way limited to: two upcoming tests to study for, two research projects and one lab report; a good proportion of them are due on the first day back. Thing will get hectic eventually, nevertheless for now I am having a good time idling (mostly) each day without thinking about much stuff with a glass of JD in my hand. The weather has been wild, on and off, so I will probably not be able to drive aimlessly to the south of taupo according to the plans before the break.

I like driving.  Ideally it is to be done on a relatively straight stretch of motorway (the shore comes to mind) without too much traffic at night. There is nothing in the world but the wheel and the road in front of you, one of the rare occasions that I will be able to enjoy the benefits of a calm mind. 

It has to be my personal sort of instant yet short-lasting nirvana.

I have acquired a bottle of 200mg caffeine capsules and they work wonders. Priced at 20c a pop, it provides a much more affordable and convenient alternative to flat whites which I am already dependent upon. Energy drinks are overrated for students who spent most of their time on their bums. The only component that matters is caffeine; the rest such as taurine, proflavin, intosol etc, may help to increase physical performance by enhancing calcium transport in muscles, yet they have no effect on your white or grey matter at all. Back to the topic of caffeine, usually it reaches peak plasma concentration 30 minutes following ingestion, then it is gradually excreted via the kidneys over 6 hours. Therefore, a giant serve of coffee with breakfast may keep you livid for a couple of hours before the excitation wanes. The best strategy is not to fetch another large latte, but to replenish lost caffeine by small supplyments. For those who wish to follow this regimen with style, I can highly recommend Black Black gum by Lotte. It is a especially minty gum with 5mg caffeine, which is readily absorbed by the oral mucosa. Find it in your local JapanMart or really good dairies.