*Almost sees the light at the end of the tunnel*

Time started: 05:02
Listening to: Morning birds chirping away
Mood: A little more refreshed
Weather: Nice and cool but warm enough :D

I woke up at 4am and it is now 5am!

For the past few days I've been battling with chronic fatigue. I must've slept 20 hours a day for the past week and it was horrible trying to cope with keeping up with piano practise, completing contrapuntal analysis & composition assignment (which was the biggest Bitch with a capital B), writing up my essay for Music History and attempting to study for my Chauralation and Composition exam. I was feeling quite overwhelmed with the work load piling in all at once and not having the energy to live through it. However I'm glad to announce that I'm half way through it.

Yesterday I completed my contrapuntal assignment. I know that it was badly done and I finished it off with a rush but I DON'T CARE! IT'S DONE!! Far out...that was the gayest assignment for the entire year! My colleagues have been bitchin' and moaning about it too because it was so hard and time consuming (as well as brain cell consuming...). I probably spent 14 hours in total on EACH question and there were four of them (well...three, but one of them was divided into two parts). That's 56 HOURS ON THIS LITTLE PIECE OF ASSIGNMENT CRAP THAT WASN'T EVEN WORTH THAT MUCH! Okay...actually it was worth 12.5% which to me is quite a lot...but still........

Anyway...I also completed my Chauralation exam yesterday. What it is is just a singing exam, a component from Music History. It involves singing in a group and individual examination of modal singing as well as sight reading or atonal singing. I chose atonal singing. Overall I got 59/60 for my exam! I'm really happy about it! I lost the one mark from the group singing because our entries weren't really together. We only had two proper rehearsals though and they were quite rushed. Carl (the examiner) said that I was the only one so far to get full marks for the atonal melody. Woo! Maybe I'm some kind of singing genius! Hahaha...well, I could only dream. Well yeah...I'm just really happy about doing well in the exam because it means I got 29.5% out of 30% for the course. Right now I'm well over the High Distinction cut off for music history and just require 78% for my final essay to keep my High Distinction which I'm quite confident on achieving. I'm reasonably good at essays and I got 94% for last semester's essay so yeah :D.

I'm holding onto my happiness on Music History because I'm not doing particularly well this semester overall. I had a white wash of HD's last semester but this semester is probably going to be filled with Credits and my only HD will be for History. Contrapuntal Analysis & Composition exam is my only big hurdle now because I fear that I might actually fail it. I'm behind this course by about 8 weeks and done very little work on it. It's just such a boring subject involving compositing music using all these rules and numbers. It just seems to defeat the purpose of composing music for me. I know that J.S. Bach applied a lot of these rules and wrote great music but contrapuntal music BLAH! It doesn't mean that I have to! It's not like I'm going to be thinking about the rules and numbers of the music while I'm playing Bach! How is that going to help me make the music sound nice? That is beyond my comprehension...

Anyway...yeah...I'm worried about this course because yesterday Pey Shin was looking through my assignment before handing it in and she's noticed that I was doing everything wrong and asked me to study with her today. She's really good at this subject and I hope she can help me pass. If she does, I'll shout her laksa when we're in Malaysia! :D
I just wish the exam wasn't compulsory to pass...otherwise I'd be fine.

My contrapuntal exam is tomorrow (Wednesday) I also have to hand up my final essay for Music History and after that all I need to worry about is the piano exam which is Thursday next week. As long as I'm resting well and feeling energised, I should be able to do fine for the exam. I'm hoping I could pull a Distinction but I don't want to put such high expectations on myself and I'm more likely to pull a Credit. As long as I improve (which I am) and enjoy what I'm doing (which I am) then I'm happy.

Well...I can almost taste the end of the academic year and with my health struggles I'm just glad it's almost over! Not long til I'm home back in Darwin...then off to Malaysia with my mum to see my family! I'm also looking forward to a fresh new start for next year too :).

I wish anyone else who's stressing out about exams and assignments at this time of the year the best of luck and hope they pull through physically and emotionally!

Time finished: 05:26
Mood: Motivated
Weather: Still the same

Writing an Essay is like Proving the Value of 'x'!

Time started: 01:11
Listening to: The whirring of my external hard drive.
Weather: Overcast and fairly warm.
Mood: Exhausted/Somewhat stressed/Somewhat apathetic/Restless.

A lot has happened between the time I posted my last post to the point I am writing this post now...but I'll get to the stuff that has happened another time...right now I want to write about this:

I had a revelation as I was proof reading my friend's essay tonight.

Essay writing is like proving the value of x in an algebraic equation. Symbolically, this is how an essay should be along the lines of:

Essay topic: What is the value of x?

Intro: x + y + z = 16
y = 2
z = 6
People ponder over the value of x all the time but knowing algebra does wonders. For this equation, with the rules of algebra, and the given values, the conclusion can be drawn that the value of x is 8.

Body: If y = 2 and z = 6 then we know that x + 2 + 6 = 16.
2 + 6 = 8 thus x + 8 = 16
x = 16 - 8
x = 8. EUREKA!!!

Conclusion: Knowing the values of y and z in this equation is essential. Without these values, going through algebraic process to solve x is not possible. The world would be a better place if we all just stated unknown values...and if assessment tasks and exams in education is optional only . X = 8, BIATCHES!



This is what my friend's essay is like:

Intro: x is solved like this...this and this...
But wait....the equation is x + y + z = 16!
y = 2. It is also the letter in the beginning of the words "yesterday", "you" and "yuck"!
z = 6. If you turned the letter 90 degrees, it would resemble a capital N! Not many people look at z in this kind of perspective!
x = 8 but it could be also be 4 + 4 since 4 + 4 = 8.

Body: 4 + 4 = 8. It's a scientifically proven fact, okay?!
Some people think x = 4 + 4.
x + 8 = 16 because the laws of algebra leads the equation to evolve to this state.
y = 2 suggests that x is 8.
z = 6 also suggests that x is 8.
OH! X = 16 - 8!
It seems to be that x = 8.
x could also be 4 + 4 since 4 + 4 = 16 - 8 is also true.
But it seems more likely that x = 8.

Conclusion:
x is a value unlike any other! Word.



Yep...I need a holiday.
I'm tired.
I do the strangest things when I'm tired...

2 ASSIGNMENTS DOWN, 2 MORE TO GO!
2 EXAMS DOWN, 3 MORE TO GO!

All within the next 12 days...fuuuuuun.

12 DAYS TIL UNI IS OVER FOR THIS YEAR!
14 DAYS TIL DARWIN!

WEEEEEEEE!

Time finished: 01:24am
Mood: GARGH! I JUST WANT IT ALL TO BE OVER!