All HYPed up

Okay, I shouldn't be blogging, and yes yes this is the absolute worst time to blog, but with my heart pumping like mad, the blood flowing through my caffeine (no typo there), I think I should distract myself yet a 1002nd time and post something.

HYP presentation later, 1600hours. That's the Honours Year Project, or Honours Thesis, which took me two semesters to make, and which is given 24 modular credits, or 3 modules/subjects combined.

45minutes of talking to the audience, who'll mostly consist of my supervisor, my examiner, and a bunch of fellow statistics final year kids, and my unofficial supervisor Gelo of course. Haha I owe you a lot man, seriously. My sincerest gratitude for your help and patience. And another 45 minutes for an interview. A small intimate interview consisting of me and my supervisor and examiner.

My hands and fingers are shaking from too much coffee now, and my slides are still short of being fully completed. I still have to iron a shirt (shall I wear the gray one I wore for the first presentation of project progress, or shall I wear the striped pinkish purplish one?), and I can't even for the life of me iron these shirts perfectly! Even after one hour of trying and trying. (I miss you Ma! Kai does kickass ironing too, come to think of it!)

Anyway notes to self: Finish the slides by 1230AM. Head off to the statistics lab where the presentation is to take place, and start yakking by 1AM. Speak slowly, like Dad says. Don't hold anything, I know from experience I shake. A lot. Calm down, breathe, relax. Like I tell myself, this whole public speaking business is an unconsciously acquired skill -- and after speaking in class, in choir, in The Ridge, in random meetings, and even back in grade school and high school, dammit I should be OK now. Never mind if it wasn't an art I really mastered. But hmmmm actually I won in some oratorical contests in grade school (got eliminated early in some too lol)! Haha that should count for something?

Notes to self. Chill. Like Chang says. Yan Ru and Matt seemed to do okay in their presentations and practices, so just relax Jose. Admit that there were serious typos in your paper. Yes yes, they already know by now it was a rushed job, but that's that. They're statistics professors, so they know better than to judge for typos. They will evaluate your paper based on statistical analysis and discussion more than anything else.

Don't worry about Dr L. He's a nice chap, really, so don't think that he's coming back to haunt you after you whined about his other module two years ago -- whined to the Stats department bigwigs too at that. He's brilliant really, I'm in awe of him. And with his big booming voice in lectures, I can't help but be a bit intimidated. He won't fry you, even if he knows the material you're discussing only too well.

Dr C my supervisor is on your side. Seriously. Keep thinking that. Even if you were blindsided and felt you didn't deserve the B- in her module last semester, it's okay. She's on your side. She won't fry you. She'll douse the fire even should Dr L decide to do the frying.

Okay okay, think positive. Nobody's getting fried. If anything, it's the HYP presentation I'm gonna fry till it's well done. Well done. Kick ass. I've always been anal and nitpicky when it comes to presentations and articles etc -- that HYP paper I submitted three weeks ago was well, a major hiccup because I didn't have time -- so this is gonna go down smoothly. Smooth and easy baby.

It comes down to this. The biggest project I've done as a Statistics major. 40% of 12 modular credits will be completed tomorrow -- and that's actually more than one module. In an hour and a half. Help me Lord.

Let's do this baby. Bring it on. 16 hours and 5 minutes and counting.

Oh, and happy Easter everyone!