I have to ask, what do you do when you depressed? Sleep? Eat? Or maybe for some people, shopping?

I don’t get depressed a lot, but when I do, I’ll just go and sleep it off, or just pour out my depression online. That’s what I usually do. At least before I came to Auckland.

Some of friends, and relatives, choose to go out shopping. And when I said shopping, it means going out and spend lots and lots of money buying unnecessary clothes, accessories, etc.

I always think this as a useless activity to do. Waste of time, money and energy. At least with sleeping, you don’t lose money (since you definitely waste time just sleeping, and if overslept, you will be more tired).

Then I came to Auckland. No, I didn’t go and shop-till-you-drop at Queen’s Street like that. I did it before, until I kinda realised I ended up buying clothes/things that I will probably use once or twice in my whole life. So I tried to stop, and it worked. But one thing that doesn’t change, even when I try really hard.

Shopping for books.

Weird, isn’t it? Most people go shopping for clothes, etc., but I went for books. It never happened in Malaysia, probably because the bookstores in Malaysia seldom have sales, if ever. And when they do have it, it was never about books that I like, but mostly children’s book or something like that. Here, in Auckland, bookstores have sales as frequently as the other stores. Maybe even more, like Dymocks. I’m sure they have sales like every two weeks, for one whole week. And the sales are like, “30% discount on all books”, “Big Books Sale”, etc. And even when there are no sales, they usually sell old-title books (not second-hands books!) at a very low price.

And books? My ultimate weakness. Just behind anime/manga.

These two weeks, for example, the University Bookstore (UBS) has their ANNUAL BIG SALE. Last week, they started it off with “Fictions book from $7.99″, “25% and 30% off NZ fictions/non-fictions, new titles”, etc. Today, when I went to check it, they have this deal “2/3 off!!”. Means that you only have to pay 1/3 of the selected books’ original price. Roughly, you got 66% off the original price.

And being me, you honestly think I can just avoid it?

Obviously not.

So, last week I ended up buying two books; Wormwood by G. P. Taylor and The Planets by Dava Sobel. Both cost me altogether $15.98. This was because of the depression of being forced to return a library book when I still need it, and had to pay the fine for not returning it earlier, as well.

And just today, after our meeting with Sheryll, I bought three more books: The Faces of Angel by Lucretta Grindle, Through A Glass, Darkly by Donna Leon and an old title which a friend had borrowed and lost it (she insisted that she never borrow the book, but when I told the summary of the book to another friend, she interrupted, “I’ve read that book before!” ~____~); The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. These three books cost me altogether $28.35. There is a hard-cover book (original price: $35.00) and two paper-back books (original price: $24.99 each) .

The first two was from the “Fictions from $7.99″ sale and the other three from the “2/3 off!!” sale. Pretty good deal, if you have lots of money to spare. Which means, not really good for me at this time of the month.

With five new books, I now have 44 books that I’ve bought in New Zealand (four bought in Rotorua, the rest in Auckland), which I have finished three of them and is currently reading two of them. Oh, I have to mention the five books I’ve borrowed from the library NOT for my assignment.

Conclusion: Books sales are definitely NO GOOD for me. But I’ll miss all these when I go back to Malaysia, I’m sure. XP

Four weeks into the second semester, I have so many, different thoughts about the courses I’m taking this semester. I’m taking four subjects (as usual): English Language Teaching (LANGTCHG 300), Applied English Grammar (Linguist 203), Assessment, Measurement and Evaluation (EDUC 225) as my main courses and Mastering Cyberspace (COMPCI 111) as my elective. And my thoughts on these subjects?

LANGTCHG 300: The course itself is fun, but the lectures are boring and can put anyone to sleep. -.- There are two lecturers teaching the subject, but you have to sit at the front of the lecture hall to actually listen to what they’re saying. Their voices are just too small. Oh, and the lecture hall isn’t a real lecture hall after all. We don’t have any
tutorial except for two hours lecture per week.

Linguist 203: Basically, we learned this back in our first year in IPBA, so I doubt we have major problems for this subject. And, the lectures and tutorials are interesting except for a few facts: Our lecturer tends to get off-topic when explaining something (like last week, I honestly don’t know linguistic questions can lead about talking about dictionaries during lecture.) and during tutorials, his explanation sometimes make us more confused. Well, it was fun since we’ve learned about it before, or else it will more confusing for us.

EDUC 225: I think I have a love-hate relationship with this subject. I love the lectures and tutorials, but I really hate the assignments. Sorry Gavin for hating your lecture for our EDUC 283 last semester, but your lectures for 225 are simply interesting and easy to follow. Except you start talking about maths and all the calculations crap. I failed at being a mathematic teacher. And, yes, your example of me being extremely bad at math and good at writing hit all the right marks.

COMPSI 111: Took this course just to fill in the elective, at first. Then, the lectures are quite interesting (although they are three hours per week) and we get to sit in the computer lab for three hours to do our lab assignments. EVERY WEEK. The topics used in labs are interesting, though. Will be learning how to create a web page in this week’s lab.

Overall, I love all the subjects this semester. Not to bits of course, but I really want to get good grade this semester. Last semester, I don’t even care about as long as I pass.

And let me get started by finishing the 300 assignment I have to submit tomorrow. Procrastination is a bitch.

Books I have to read for three of my assignments. And half of them are still with Adlina. *is dead*

It has been one year and four months since the last time I actually wrote something in here. If the last post can be counted as an update, that is.

But I guess there’s nothing much to say too.

I decided to update my Vox journal again after I was reminded of it during the COMPSCI 111 lab today. For those who doesn’t have a blog of their own, they have to make one, and update it as well. My Livejournal has been friends-locked and I simply too lazy to un-lock it, then lock it again just for the sake of the lab assignment. Then I remembered this blog. My poor, abandoned Vox journal.

So yeah, I decided to use this blog for my assignment, since it is definitely cleaner and safe-to-the-eyes journal compared to the other one.

And, I have also decided to try to frequently update this blog and make it more academical and more… realistic. My other blog tended to show the other side of me: an obsessed girl who only know when to squeal and rarely have a serious entry about my life. Except a few.

So yeah, to my small group of friends (who most I already know in real life), nice to see you again.

HE. IS. OFF. LIMIT.

No, I’m not talking about Mr. H. This was the line I keep saying to myself since the day I found out about his break-up with his girlfriend almost a month ago. He seemed to be happier now, thus convincing the rumors that their relationship won’t last long.

Not surprising, I was one of the ones saying that two years ago.

He was too ignorant, she was too controlling. He was caring, but more so to other people than her. She was possessive, and more so with him.

But more importantly, he loves me just like a younger sister. Not someone more, which frustrated me the most.

A friend told me that now was my chance to get him, or at least, get closer to him.

I denied, of course, by saying we were nothing more; just siblings. But no one knew, how I would do almost anything to change that simple statement.

More than anything else.

He was faraway from her, but faraway from me as well. He avoided her, but did not avoid me.

That confused me like hell.

There was once I wanted to ask him; who was I to him, what was our relationship to him. But I could not, for the fear of anything that linked us together for these three years.

To my ‘brother’: I know you won’t have a chance to read this, but I love you. Just in what way… I can’t even say, let alone to spell it. Thank you for just being there, close enough to be an important person to me, but not close enough to be the most important one.

In less than 3 weeks we will be having our final exam for the foundation year. Language Description, Language Development, Social Studies and English Studies. While I’m worried about the Social Studies paper, I’m don’t really care about English Studies paper. Bad, I know, but blame it on my lecturer on this. Her classes only make me hate literature more…

This week is also the third week of our fasting month. Just about one week more and we will reach Aidilfitri. Somehow I don’t really mind about this year festival, just like for the past two years ago. In 2005, we have to come back to our college after the fourth day of Aidilfitri, and in 2004, I was busy with my preparation for the SPM that year. So, although I can’t wait to see my cousins and the money that we get, this year’s festival is not something I’m eagerly waiting for.

Just like what have been mentioned in Adlina’s newest post, the city where our college is situated in has been surrounded by haze. It was annoying, and I can bet that by the end of the week a lot of people will get sick. I myself was sick yesterday. One whole day worth of class gone just like that. Yesterday (9 October 2006), we got heavy rain in the afternoon and most people had hoped that the rain would chase the haze away, but unfortunately, it has not. And I think it just got worse after the rain! The reason of the bad haze is because of the harvesting season in Indonesia. This kind of situation happens almost every year, but this is the first in a long time it had been this long and this bad. And unlike Adlina, which her hometown is not affected by the haze - Kelantan is on the other side of the peninsular-, the people in my hometown will probably have to wear mask by the time I reach home in two weeks.

Too many events and incidents have happened in this one month that I don’t know if my body can ever take it much longer.