Temporary Break from Laboratory

Got a temporary break from lab to handle a more pressing matter. Just before the break, 3 major events occur.

1. During a presentation, my group happens to be the last to present. However, because the previous groups took up too much time, we had only 15 minutes to present 20-25  minutes worth of material. I cannot understand why Year 4 students cannot keep their presentation to the stipulated time limit. Yes. You are busy with experiments. But I am busy with experiments too. Why should I be penalized because of your laziness to trim your presentation? I got kind of worked up and went straight to the lecturer's office to request for a presentation. Thankfully, he acceded to our request. Somehow, I think the current me has became a lot more assertive when it comes to things that matter. (Note: I just realized that the paper which has taken over 30 minutes to present actually could be done within the time limit. Either I have overestimated the abilities of that group, or they are indeed too busy to put in effort to properly present the paper.)

2. For another assignment, I took a very long time to search for a good and novel topic to write. Took too much time and ended up starting to write the essay just the night before submission. I managed to submit 11 minutes before deadline. This is, by far, the most last minute desperate rush for time I have experienced for assignment submission. Seniors said I think too much. But then I think my essay still has several loopholes that I was not able to adequately cover. Oh well... It was an extremely thrilling experience but it is best to avoid such situations. I may not be able to survive next time.

3. An old friend of mine, who has been trying to "encourage" me to go after someone, turned around and accused me of bugging that person. One thing that I absolutely cannot tolerate is someone falsely accusing of something I have been working hard to avoid doing. This is ridiculous. I hit back. But perhaps, a little too hard... Speaking of "go after", this seems to be quite a common topic in the lab after an event last week. Almost drove me nuts.

Work has finally caught up

After feigning ignorance for so long to concentrate on laboratory work, module work has finally caught up with me. Dateline is 5 days away. I have narry a clue of what to write for the essay. It has to be novel, it has to be plausible. There are a few candidates... but all of them are not perfect. I guess if I am pushed to the wall, I will choose the best candidate among these to write. So far, I am able to keep up with laboratory work, though optimization is taking up a lot of time...

Oh social front, after the Wednesday and Thursday, my heart has been out of sorts (brain and heart are separate entities for me - brain is the more logical one, and heart the emotional one). Think of someone who has just struck lottery and is comtemplating whether to continue buying or to stop because he/she acutely and logically knows that this is a one-off event. On the other hand, he/she also feels that perhaps luck may once again smile on him/her. Brain is quite sure that is a one-off event but heart thinks otherwise. It is taking very long for the heart and brain to settle their arguments... Going straight up to ask is the most direct but the worst thing to do. Perhaps the high level of stress from work and the sudden oasis of calm that event has brought has contributed to the maelstrom that is now stirring. Need to filter these distractions out.

(For the record, I dislike betting and do not encourage anyone to gamble, except for pure leisure [definittely not to make money via gambling].)