The Half-Empty Glass

Wa, I haven't updated in almost a week! Must be a record for me .. XD .. I think it was the Econs presentation that had me on the brink of insanity -- it was a nightmare to prepare!

A whole week of researching, worrying, panicking & feverish discussions with Buford and Li Shan -- and for what? Five glorious minutes in front of a half-empty classroom with only a lecturer, your team-mates and another team, as your audience?

Sometimes all the hard work & nauseating effort students have to put in for projects & presentations seems so ... meaningless. Every time there is a project, presentation, common test or quiz, we have to work our butts off. And then, what happens? We get our marks. And they're not full marks or anything like that, so the more projects you do, the more marks you lose. Schoolwork can be so depressing - if you choose to look at it that way.

Hmm, well, enough of that nonsense, my economics presentation went fairly well. Mrs Goh had a very scrunched up expression on her face throughout everybody's presentations (including mine! *eek*), but then she said the magic words after I launched into my usual "With this, I thank you." --> "Very clear. Good." Wha wha wha wha! I was so happy, it meant the rubbish I was rambling actually formed into actual meaningful facts in my lecturer's brain. Yay. She didn't say anything after Ming, Rameera, Mary, Jet Xin, Hong Ting & Buford's presentations though -- or maybe I didn't catch it.

Hong Ting surprised me! He was REALLY loud and clear!! I couldn't wipe the smile that was plastered all over my face, he was so nice to watch -- such a change from his usual VERY soft voice! Haha, H1, you would have been stunned!

Among all of the other presentations I heard today (we only get to be audience for our team & another team that has their presentation in the same period), Buford's was the best! His was the only one that I really, actually understood. And he didn't prepare a word-for-word script.

I always admire people who can go onstage and speak without preparing word by word beforehand -- because I can't do that. I panic. I have to prepare everything. Every inflection in my voice, every nod, every hand gesture -- it comes naturally (after years of being drilled by teachers into public-speaking competitions), but I practise. A lot. Until I'm prepared. So -- what Buford can do, I cannot. ;)

And Ming handled my powerpoint beautifully!! Thank you, Ming! And I feel SO BAD because I was a blurcase on hers -- I thought I could handle it fine, but then for some f***ed-up reason, I clicked one slide and then went to the NEXT ONE almost immediately! I had to find the blardy pointer and reverse the slides. And then I was so blur with her script (her script that was in front of me was different from the one that she was saying! So I couldn't catch up! eeeK!) -- but then I pulled it off sloppily in the end. Not perfectly. It's like I can't do ANYTHING without practising first. :( I'm so sorry, Ming doll!

I'm still kind of worried about my team's presentation because I didn't reaaally understand Rameera's presentation (her script), but it's over now, so all I can do is hope that we did well. And Meera did check her answers with all the other Question 1 people in class... but still. It was all kinda different from what I would have answered if it were say, an exam question. In conclusion, either I am very wrong, or my team-mate is very wrong. Which means, either way, I lose points. Crap.

What else is new? Moral Quiz 2 tomorrow. Haven't studied a thing yet. Going to have to cram useless Moral gunk into my head before I go to sleep tonight. Then, do my ESL Presentation Draft. Before that, I have to complete my Specific Outline. But before doing even that, I have to do my Research Proposal and my General Outline. Why? Because I've got it ALL WRONG.

Then, have to do BM Investigative Study. Same process. Life is so sweet.