nobody really expect the year to pan out this way, but hey there's still a blog for me to complete for the year so here it is.

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so obviously, the elephant in the room is covid and the impact it has to daily life etc etc.

i count myself lucky that my own lifestyle has largely remain the same, with no impact financially and being able to ~90% of what i would had done pre-covid. can't say the same for quite a number of people who had lost their jobs and having to face quite a good bit of hardship.

of particular, i do wonder how those interns who are graduating this year are fairing, hopefully they've managed to secure a job or an internship to tide through this trying times.

though, i would think that i'm still not out of the woods yet -  there's always that possibility of a second round of recession, and with the economy likely to be sluggish/nascent it would be premature to say that i'll escape unscathed as before. 

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work-wise, it was ok, even for the working from home aspect during the circuit breaker, and the alternate work-week arrangement during phase 2.

i've actually intended to move on to another company this year until covid kinda wrecked that plan (spoilers: you're going to see an inordinate amount of covid being mentioned in this post).

but not all is lost however; i've decided to take this downtime to further pursue a masters.

is this what it feels like to have a mid life crisis?

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i suppose some of the things i do miss is to head to the gym and use the equipment; those tools are not something i'll buy and store at home [although i did buy a yoga mat and ball to tide through during circuit breaker, that was a pretty good investment all things considered.]

also, ill concede that the initial tracetogether/checking-in etc is a bit of a bother but i have been accustomed to it. 

ah, and also running too - just to minimize contact with others (which admittedly i've been doing so for a good deal pre-covid), i've limited my runs to late night (2200h+). i got to admit, i really like running at night more than i expected; its pretty cathartic. i've build up proficiency in cycling during this period - even cycling for ~50km along changi/east coast!

when the initial circuit breaker period hit in late march/early april, the pc tower from office had to be lugged back home. i still remember dropping the tower and causing a crack on the casing as the it was raining particularly hard during that day, and i slipped and fell. that doesn't feel all that great. reported that to the IT guy but i doubt that it is something that he can physically fix. fortunately, there wasn't any damage to the motherboard nor any of the internal components, so i guess i'll thank my lucky stars for that.

it feels kinda weird to be working from home during that period, but if there is any silver lining to this pandemic, i suppose its great in the sense that i dont have to spend ~2h daily on travel.

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also, i took another module with the 'free' L3 alumnus voucher during the first half of the year, which started off as a physical in-person lecture and transitioned to webcasting end-march prior to the circuit breaker announcement. got to admit, taking exams online does feel rather surreal in the sense that there's... almost no sense of pressure. 

its not that i hate taking online exams; on the contrary, online exams are to my advantage since i can type way faster than writing anyway. gotta feel sorry for those who aren't exactly fast at typing.

anyway, the prof was pretty cool, and i do appreciate the industrial insights and live demonstrations.

don't really feel like SEO baiting with the module codes this time round, so i'll omit mentioning them.

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and with this covid issue, i suppose its a good time as any to continue pursuing a masters.

in my mind there was three possible paths to take: either a chem eng masters, or a HSE masters, or data science/statistics. the first is pretty obvious, but i reckon that there wasn't much value add to be had by taking it. data science is cool and all but it would be suicide to take it without in depth knowledge on the languages (C#, python and the works). so i settled on HSE. still relevant to work though, but at least its a bit of a different fork to just chem eng stuff. gotta diversify man!

took another 2 modules for the second half of the year. also webcasted since congregation in campus isnt a sound idea in the middle of a pandemic. and exam's online too, just like before.

here's to another ... 1.5 years of part time studying as of this post.

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i still managed to attend an orchestra by joe hisaishi in february prior to the entire world going belly up in march/april.

it was my first personal experience attending a live orchestra and i got to admit, i really liked it a lot (although i paid a pretty penny for the seat). the sound, reverbs etc are something i dont think cant be replicated at home.

when things do resume, i would like to attend more where possible.

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also, previously i did mentioned that i've received an award from a japanese research publication on a paper that i've written previously.

with covid popping up, it was inevitable that it was cancelled. back then i was still hoping to attend it (and also take a short vacation break for the first time since i've started working; hell, i've even planned out the vacation routing and booked tickets for the ghibli tickets!) but given how things have panned out, i guess it was good that it was cancelled since things really went south reaaaaal fast in april/may.

i still have my dollars with SQ though, havent requested for a refund since i would still like to travel eventually and i dont really have a pressing need for the money back. if nothing else, it gives me a reason to actually take a holiday break.

i'm cool with waiting until this pandemic blows over (assuming that it really does).

... hopefully it does, but there's that sinking feeling that i've better gird myself for something worse.

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brother's wedding took place in november at raffles hotel.

there were quite a fair bit of limitations imposed (e.g. =<50pax guests, no sit-down meals etc) but i suppose it was good that it went without a hitch, and also uneventfully.

reflecting on it... i really still like the solo life though. besides, i'm probably too eccentric/random in nature to deal with anyway.

goodness, that was such an off-tangent isnt it? heh.

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moving forward, given that i'll have to juggle my masters with work, its likely to set back other developments that i had in mind, such as continuing N3 and honing python/C#. 

but i'll still be pushing for grade 7 piano as soon as practical sessions are permitted in singapore. i kinda still want to push to grade 8 eventually though as a personal target although it may not be practical to do so.

so many things, so little time. time is such a fleeting concept isnt it?

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here's to another year - better make use of the time!