i think i have a tendency to forget meals. especially when isolated from everything else in the science hall comp lab. where i have been holed up every single morning/afternoon/night/free time i have since monday.

btw this place seriously needs a thermostat. i know it's cold out, but with the heat generated from the comps in here, u wouldn't be able to tell. it's. freaking. warm. argh.

i know that when i graduate, i'm gonna miss my late nights here, nights when i'm the only one left in the entire building (except for the custodian who probably recognises me by now). ok so the latest i've left was 12am, and tt was last night, but i've definitely lost count of the number of times i've stayed past 11pm.

anyhow, it almost seems like i live here. in fact, i spend more hours holed up in here than i do at home in this past week, considering how i only go home to sleep, before making my way back here bright and early in the morning. stupid GIS. stupid ArcGIS program that forces me here.

actually ArcGIS isn't that bad. i mean, it's not the most enjoyable thing, but it's all right i guess. i do find a little sadistic pleasure in creating maps and all sorts of weird spatial analysis. it's the GIS itself that kills me. honestly. there is NOTHING geographical in the information systems bit, which is so emphasized in the class i'm taking. it kills me bit by bit to have to study something as mundane and boring as computer system (ok sorry to all comp science majors, but SERIOUSLY! how do u survive!?)

finally got a good grade. my first good grade the entire sem. in economic geog. like ok that's more like it man. that's my kind of geography. that's the reason why i love geog, the reason i'm doing it, the reason I've never lost interest in it. the kind of 'alive' analysis that is so steeped in human geog, the case studies, the whole PRACTICALITY of it all. it's so much fun. gis is merely the tool which i can use to understand this fun, but in and of itself, it's NOTHING GEOGRAPHICAL AT ALL.

ok so concludes my rant about the ungeographicalness of Geographic Information Systems. blehhh

on to more important matters, like the weather. my heating's repaired and back to normal which is absolutely wonderful. i spent 4 days in a 12-degree apt, with 0 degree weather outside. not cool. especially in the mornings when u have to drag yourself out of bed at 7 in the morning. but honestly, it really made me acclimatise like almost overnight. going out today in 4 degree weather in my columbia jacket kinda made me start perspiring. seriously. 2 weeks ago, i was wearing the same amt of layers in 6 degree weather and i was still shivering.

anyhow, my apt's a comfortable 20 degrees and actually, it's a little warm in bed as it is...
oh and it snowed. flurried actually, but yeah. first snow fall of the season. temps are finally getting to be more like the season, so it's goodbye to late summer temps =/
and with dst and everything, the sun sets so early now. it's a little depressing cos it's dark. and then u start panicking cos u think u only have a couple of hours left in the night to pia yr work, but guess what? it's not 9, it's only 6pm. haha.

anyway, i guess perhaps cos i'm not in nus, so i really have no idea how to get hold of any spatial data (ie gis data) for singapore. i know URA and the other agencies have it, since i've worked with all the shapefiles over summer. and i know cadastral lots data constantly gets updated depending on where dvpt is, but there is no dept like the USGS or US Census bureau in singapore that actually publishes and releases all these data forms for spatial analysis. certainly no clearinghouses! it would be really interesting to be able to get hold of that and map some socio-economic distribution for example, on the map of singapore.
or even do park analysis. or disease occurrence analysis. i know they do it in the various agencies. but i guess it's prob all confidential data. as usual. perhaps i should anonymously ask ura if they can direct me to some area tt i can access such data. hmm. just a thought.

anyhow i'm hungry. i want to go back and cook. but. i. need. to. finish. these. maps. prob means i should stop blogging. -yawn- lethargy and boredom's setting in. ah well. back to mapping contingent labor agencies in chicago wrt african americans and hispanics populations =)

thank God for a good result. and for a smooth presentation. and for smoothing out the thousand and one problems tt are inevitable in gis. He's been good, definitely. =)