dilemma

i really don't want to go to formal anymore okay? :( stop pressuring me...
i already went to all that trouble of buying a dress (the first i've owned since i was 7), and now we're talking about hiring a hummer and having preparation at somebody's house...just why bother?
i really appreciate being accepted into a social group, and i like being invited and included, i'm just not into the party stuff.
i guess i would rather save $200+ than go to a party. besides, just because you don't go to formal, doesn't mean you can't have fun on a friday night. yes, i might miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime, and yes, most people will be going, but i personally don't feel up to it.
i probably won't deserve it anyway haha, seeing it's just days before report cards arrive.

on a lighter note, i made lemon sandwich biscuits today. they turned out surprisingly good. had a little trouble piping them, they flattened out a little in the oven and lost a bit of the rosette shape, but overall the taste was pure, it was crumbly, the filling didn't make it soggy, smelled amazing in the oven, and most importantly they liked it. But honestly I only made it to get rid of the leftover mascarpone haha. Shh. recently i found so many food blogs that are accessible from school (yay), which means in times of boredom and hunger i get to indulge myself in 2D food world.

i found myself very impatient today. i yelled at bro for no reason twice or thrice. not good. and i need to stop saying things i regret. which is basically everything. sigh.

today i borrowed 4 books they suggested i read in order to improve my UMAT. they'd better help because my ATAR's not looking so good right now.

and that's it for the daily rant. thanks for tuning in and see you next time.

what's the time

i made new year's resolutions before the start of this term, except it's not new years. i just wanted a fresh start. in my study patterns, in my schedule, in my priorities, etc. right now i'm loosely following a draft of a study timetable that i drew up. not sure if it'll work. we'll see.

what did i do recently?

today in biology we dissected pig's balls. and they're massive. you basically need to cradle the things.

sorry skeleton man!!

removing the bottom...

ew. just ew.

i was gonna write other stuff, but right now i can hardly keep my eyes open. so until another time!!

i made these the day before my english oral. no wonder i failed. 

easter themed sugar cookies

halfway home

i think i forgot to explain the title of the blog, thursday late afternoon. it's also the title of a picture. i was looking for a fancy name but couldn't come up with one so i just looked at my calendar and picked out the picture for May:

anyways, enough about the title. here is what i've been doing for the past 2 days...

we had to get to school early so we get an extra hour to work on our biology prac, so altogether we had a little more than two hours on the prac. woo! as simple as my experiment is, i only finished just in time, as we needed 5 trials. my experiment looks at the effect of pH on the activity of amylase on starch. so in the pictures below what you see is an amylase-starch solution being dropped into wells with iodine in them every 10 seconds. when the iodine no longer turns colour it indicates that all of the starch has been broken down into maltose. 

at pH 3 amylase is at its optimum... only took 90 seconds

as pH increases it takes longer to break down the starch:

and longer...

here's an interesting photo :) it's actually just the waste beaker, with all the buffers and starch and amylase and water and iodine.

pH 11 took its time...

anyways, this blog isn't about biology. sorry for all the photos, i just think they're cool...
yesterday i was mostly occupied with english :( stupid english, if only i could understand poetry. i took me a whole day to write the 1000-word speech script, and by the time i finished recording it was well into the night. since i talk extremely slurred and slow, i had to record and re-record so many times i got tired of listening to myself :(( to get within the time limit i sped it up with audacity haha, but it made my voice squeaky so i adjusted the pitch too XD i actually saved enough time for a conclusion yay

other than english, i caught up on my baking too. in the morning we bought strawberries that were only $1 per pint, so i decided to make something strawberry based - strawberry yoghurt cheesecake :)) baking really is the perfect antidote for me, the process of it consumes your thoughts and keep your hands busy. i was lazy so i just crushed up wheat biscuits and mixed it with butter and called it base. i divided the strawberries in two, half was pureed and half chopped for more texture. i didn't really do a good job decorating, just dumped some whipped cream and strawberries on top. anyways, i was pleased with the overall result. the flavour of the wheat biscuits were a little too overwhelming though :( next time i should use digestive biscuits.

may i introduce my new lover, mr electric mixer. up till now i've been making all my desserts manually, and it's such a CHORE. egg whites took half an hour to whip up properly, and by that time i'm usually drenched in sweat. i might as well have been beating with toothpicks. yesterday mum finally convinced me to get one, since i've been resisting because a) they're not cheap; b) i already had one back home but can't use it here because of the voltage difference. it's worth the money though, only took one minute literally to whip the cream cheese <3

my beaters collection/evolution.

a failed attempt at shooting a decent photo of the cake. it's better than it looks, i swear.

Tomorrow

first of all, thank you for stumbling onto my blog, whether by unfortunate mistake or happy accident.

i guess the real reason why i felt the need to set up yet another blog, my fourth actually, is that i need a different way of talking to myself than out loud. don't you just hate when you're humming to yourself while walking to the bus stop thinking you're alone, and next second bam twelve people suddenly apparate to your side and eye you with critical judgement? haha happened to me this morning in fact.

um. since it's only the first post i don't really know what will become of this blog, but i will try my best at sharing whatever trash is inside my head :)

for my own protection i shall remain nameless & faceless, just so you don't point and laugh when you meet me on the street one day haha. but i will tell you some things about myself, like friends do (?) i've just started my final year in high school, i have an addiction to greek yoghurt, i try and fail at playing the guitar, i don't know what i wanna be when i grow up, and i'm a generally pessimistic person (yea we all got that). please don't judge me :( just trying to be honest here.

maybe i should start by talking about school. this is what happened today:
1. in biology we carried on conducting our digestive enzymes prac. my experiment looks at the effect of pH on the activity of amylase on starch. although it's looking good, it is taking a long time, especially when no one wanted to share their tables with me today :( will need to get to school early tomorrow to finish experiment.
2. in english we did another bruce dawe poem, 'happiness is the art of being broken'. i just know it's beautiful, but i'm most certainly doomed if i'm lucky enough to get it for my oral. english classes are actually much less daunting now, having a good teacher really takes the pressure off :D
3. maths...was the usual, we finished our work on vectors, i think.
4. at break my friend and i buttoned up two lab coats and wore it back to back, so we looked like conjoined twins. it was raining and it was fun :)

i'm sorry, i hope i'm not boring you out of your mind, i'll try coming up with something interesting next time.

found this song last night. i don't think the band's very popular, but i like it. the laziness and roughness of the lead singer's voice, not to mention it features my man mraz.