In what could potentially be a disasterous Christmas ended up not so badly. First of all, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas at all…not that I know what Christmas should feel like… Sense of despair almost overcame all my senses at various times. The thesis is certainly a joy killer, and seeing my friends go one by one (even if it’s only temporarily) makes it even more painful. But none can negate the wonderful memories that were created this day.

So it began, with waking up early to drive Li Zhen and Penny to the airport. But first, I wanted to check tire pressure, and it took a while. For some reason, three out of four tires were at around 25psi while the right front one was at 31psi. I decided to pump all of them up to 31psi, not before one tire dropped to 20psi…strange… Anyway, everything’s fine, got both of them and off we went. It certainly felt like only a short time to get to the airport, which was a shame. I was only planning to just go to the airport and back, assuming that T&T was closed…but that was a false assumption as Li Zhen called to confirm that they were indeed open! So I happily obliged to go and pour in my money there. Came back home at close to 1pm. Then there was lunch at Crystal with Harry Forest and KCS. This was when KCS realized that he fit in just fine with my crazy friends…hehehe. Came home and I slept while KCS went to do laundry, and I thought that was the end of this Christmas story…

…but fortunately it wasn’t. Forest called after I woke up from my long afternoon nap. Apparently he had success in packing and preparing to move, so he had the evening free. So I suggested that they come to my place for dinner and see what happens. They did, and they played the train game (Harry won) before having dinner. After dinner, more games! Played Felix where Forest finally won a game in a long time! A couple rounds of poker where KCS won the first one and Forest won the second one, though it was a night where those who folded early could have easily won the game…heh. Harry even folded one that could have given him a full house… KCS folded one that could have given him two pairs. In the last hand, KCS had pocket queens, but unfortunately that was against Forest’s pocket aces! Anyway, we played one more game of trains, where realizing a serious omission early on just one step too late cost me tons of points, and I ended up with a possibly historic low of 27 points! Harry won, of course. Finally, we played foosball. Boy did we play a ton of foosball! It was just hilarious. Forest had tons of experience, so he was very good, and ended up being undefeated. That was quite frustrating for me initially, but I got better as the games went on. There were so many hilarious moments that we laughed ourselves silly. Ended up playing it for over an hour! Heh…and that ends this Christmas story. Spending lots of time with friends, that was so wonderful. And now, Forest goes off to Montreal, and I’m still stuck with my thesis…life goes back to its painful self…

If there ever was a good title for a book written about this time of year, it would be this: How the Thesis Stole Christmas.

There’s so much that I can write here, but I just couldn’t get myself to write them. It’s all the thesis’ fault.

I’m so negative.

I think I’m pretty much doomed.

So depressed right now. Wondering why I ever decided to do a PhD.

This is my 1700th post.

I meant to be good. I meant to do a lot of work. Yet…distractions came, I made a few mistakes, and then the day’s down the drain. What would it take to get me to turn around?

I don’t know, do people generally just don’t notice stuffs? I was thinking that they saw and were ignorant, but now I think they didn’t see at all… I’m probably not making any sense.

Why is it that my leather winter gloves are not keeping my hands warm?

Treacherous complacency.

I’m in a sort of “I’ve screwed up so much that I can’t do anything to recover” mode, hence I’ve had no progress on the thesis for weeks. Sure, I was full of inspiration this morning, even came to the office earlier than usual (i.e. 11:30am), but everything came crashing down pretty quickly. So…once again, I’m screwed.

Last Saturday…what a day! First it was a trip to T&T with Gary David Betty (188.9 kilometres). We had a nice drive, nice lunch, good amount of shopping, all under sunny skies. I even put on sunglasses for the drive. Came back for fellowship, where I led a Bible study that I’m not really capable of… Dinner at night for 4 only, but evening boardgame at Li Zhen’s place for 5. Harry won again, not surprising…I won second place over Li Zhen by 1 dollar…heh. Meanwhile, the snow came. Lots of it. Lots and lots of snow! The drive home was incredibly slow over fresh 5-10cm of snow on the ground. Got home safely, but tired. Next day, ice pellets and freezing rain! But I ventured out to church anyway, having first needed to scrap the ice off my car, which took a long time! Stuck a few times along the way, most majorly at the University Philip intersection. Yikes. CC service with very few people, KWCAC service with more people, and finally a lunch and home safe while it was raining hard. What is with the strange weather? At least it makes things very interesting!

For a brief moment (or two) (or three), I was addicted to http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq/game1. I managed to get up to level 11 out of 12, but couldn’t get past it… Same thing with the Canada one. So I guess I still know something, but not enough. It was fun, though. (Just did the world game again, and passed with flying colours!)

My visa card gave me the annual dividend…and it’s about $120. That means that I’ve spent way too much money this year…

Still not able to make any progress on the thesis. Very depressed.