30 June, 2006
I had a dream just now. It was one of those dreams that have a kind of background story to it, except that I’ve never explicitly dreamed the background story; I was simply aware of it.
At first I didn’t know what “angelproof” meant. I thought he envisioned angels as bad spirits who would come tearing at his father’s astronaut helmet, trying to pry it off and expose the man inside to the deathly vacuum of space, and wanted to build a spaceship that was “angelproof” so that these bad spirits would not get to his father. After thinking about it for awhile, I realised that what the little boy meant by “angelproof” was less sinister. He wanted a spaceship where God’s angels would not come down from heaven to take the soul of his father away. He wanted to build a ship whose forcefields were impermeable to death.
When you come to think of it, it’s such a selfish thought. If God’s angels didn’t come to take the soul of his father away, he would have lived in isolation for the rest of his natural life on an alient planet, only able to tell time by the uncertain rotation of the asteroid. He wouldn’t have anything to eat, to breathe or to drink; he’d be a walking corpse, a ghost with a heartbeat. He’d slowly grow crazy, claustrophobic in the close confines of his suit, yet agoraphobic at the vast expanse of dull, lifeless rock. But aren’t humans selfish beings greedy for life? Life is just an act of self-preservation. We exist merely to propagate our species, to ensure that there will be more of us to act out this meaningless play. After all…
“The living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God’s stage.” - T.E. Lawrence.
Due to a system error, an astronaut on a spacewalk got himself stranded in space without any way back to the mothership. The flight had something to do with the exploration of an asteroid to see if it would be useful to humankind, i.e. if it had any resources we could mine for use in our industries. So he was left to contemplate death as the air in his spacesuit slowly ran out, alone a million miles from home, under alien stars.After the dream I semi-woke up, and I had a lump in my throat because I was thinking about the little boy who lost his father. Yes, it was a little boy, of about 9 years old, who drew that picture and wrote that sentence. I don’t know why he drew it, nor do I know why the woman was going to build the spaceship he drew, but I do know he loved his father very much and wanted to become an astronaut just like him when he grew up.
In my dream, a woman from the spaceship crew had come to pay a visit the dead astronaut’s wife. The wife handed over a piece of paper to the woman, which was a coloured pencil drawing of a spaceship, accompanied by a sentence written in a child’s hand which read, “Angelproof the spaceship for me.”
The wife asked the woman, “Do you think it’s possible to build this?”
The woman looked uncomfortable and took some time to scrutinise the piece of paper before replying. “I suppose we could, if we get the specifications right.”
The spaceship was shaped like an elongated coffin, and had a lid which could open all the way. It looked like it could fit only one person.
At first I didn’t know what “angelproof” meant. I thought he envisioned angels as bad spirits who would come tearing at his father’s astronaut helmet, trying to pry it off and expose the man inside to the deathly vacuum of space, and wanted to build a spaceship that was “angelproof” so that these bad spirits would not get to his father. After thinking about it for awhile, I realised that what the little boy meant by “angelproof” was less sinister. He wanted a spaceship where God’s angels would not come down from heaven to take the soul of his father away. He wanted to build a ship whose forcefields were impermeable to death.
When you come to think of it, it’s such a selfish thought. If God’s angels didn’t come to take the soul of his father away, he would have lived in isolation for the rest of his natural life on an alient planet, only able to tell time by the uncertain rotation of the asteroid. He wouldn’t have anything to eat, to breathe or to drink; he’d be a walking corpse, a ghost with a heartbeat. He’d slowly grow crazy, claustrophobic in the close confines of his suit, yet agoraphobic at the vast expanse of dull, lifeless rock. But aren’t humans selfish beings greedy for life? Life is just an act of self-preservation. We exist merely to propagate our species, to ensure that there will be more of us to act out this meaningless play. After all…
20:35 / 0 comment(s) 
Maple right now giving out double exp! Shuang. Just reached level 37 and maxed my bow mastery. Looks cool whenever I shoot, heh. I wasn't even aware they were starting the 2x exp today, I thought it was tomorrow. I just suddenly realised my percentage was increasing faster than usual. I'm lucky it kicked in the middle of my training, because it'll be so hard to get into the servers right now. I just tried and I can't because server's maxed out. Haha. I did play Maple for like, 4 hours today already though. T_T I'm kind of sick of shooting wild boars right now. Heh.
It feels good to Maple. Mindless fun. XD
It feels good to Maple. Mindless fun. XD
20:34 / 0 comment(s)
29 June, 2006
This is the best song.
21:41 / 0 comment(s)
The pseudo-last day of exams! Haha. But we still have Physics paper 3 next Tuesday. Ah well, who cares. Anyway, if you haven't heard, I got a new camera, a Canon Digital IXUS 750. Spiffy lil' un! And here are some pictures I took. Haha. Nothing exciting though.
This be the bear my classmates gave me during my choir concert!
I finally spent my $15 Borders book voucher. Yep.
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton! Good lord it's thick. Over a thousand pages. I'm currently about 700 pages in.
Sequel to Pandora's Star.
Regina's Song by David and Leigh Eddings. Borrowed this after being recommended by Kathy and Dawn's sis, Denise. Heh. It's not bad, but the writing style is really weird. The narrator speaks extremely figuratively, and I don't mean in a literary sense. He has all sorts of colloquial expressions that I find is all right in speech, but he narrates the whole book as if he's speaking. It gets on my nerves sometimes.
Went to Jurong Regional today especially to borrow this!
Left to right, Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained, Regina's Song and Olympos. Regina's Song is your typically-sized paperback, photographed as a sort of reference size. In here you see just how bloody thick the rest of the books are, and just how olympian Olympos is! Judas Unchained has a version similarly sized to Pandora's Star, but the library only had the trade paperback version. Darn.
Keane's Under the Iron Sea! Mum bought it for me yesterday. Wee! I love the album cover design.
This be the bear my classmates gave me during my choir concert!
I finally spent my $15 Borders book voucher. Yep.
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton! Good lord it's thick. Over a thousand pages. I'm currently about 700 pages in.
Sequel to Pandora's Star.
Regina's Song by David and Leigh Eddings. Borrowed this after being recommended by Kathy and Dawn's sis, Denise. Heh. It's not bad, but the writing style is really weird. The narrator speaks extremely figuratively, and I don't mean in a literary sense. He has all sorts of colloquial expressions that I find is all right in speech, but he narrates the whole book as if he's speaking. It gets on my nerves sometimes.
Went to Jurong Regional today especially to borrow this!
Left to right, Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained, Regina's Song and Olympos. Regina's Song is your typically-sized paperback, photographed as a sort of reference size. In here you see just how bloody thick the rest of the books are, and just how olympian Olympos is! Judas Unchained has a version similarly sized to Pandora's Star, but the library only had the trade paperback version. Darn.
Keane's Under the Iron Sea! Mum bought it for me yesterday. Wee! I love the album cover design.
20:51 / 0 comment(s)
27 June, 2006
Chem today. Nothing much to say. It\'s always been like that. Haha. There\'s nothing much I can do about it anyway. I just have to work hard all the way from now until A levels.
You know, the most unlikely thing turned my thinking around yesterday, about studying and all that. For quite a while I had a mindset that I wouldn\'t be able to do my A levels this year. I\'d probably screw them up. So I was thinking of doing \'em as a private candidate next year instead. But yesterday (or was it the day before?) I received the tax invoice for the A level exams and WTF, it cost $350++. That\'s a bloody lot of money. So yeah. I\'ve decided that I shouldn\'t waste money and that I should study. Haha.
I\'m so money-minded these days. Funny how I have no qualms on spending it on food though. Heh. Being decadent. Just had another blueberry cheesecake from Coffee Bean. OMG it\'s soooo good. *sigh* So light and creamy and it has really juicy blueberries inside. LOL.
Maths tomorrow. I haven\'t touched it at all. Blah. Shall go look and memorise some trigo formulas and differential whatevers and stats and numerical methods and complex numbers now.
You know, the most unlikely thing turned my thinking around yesterday, about studying and all that. For quite a while I had a mindset that I wouldn\'t be able to do my A levels this year. I\'d probably screw them up. So I was thinking of doing \'em as a private candidate next year instead. But yesterday (or was it the day before?) I received the tax invoice for the A level exams and WTF, it cost $350++. That\'s a bloody lot of money. So yeah. I\'ve decided that I shouldn\'t waste money and that I should study. Haha.
I\'m so money-minded these days. Funny how I have no qualms on spending it on food though. Heh. Being decadent. Just had another blueberry cheesecake from Coffee Bean. OMG it\'s soooo good. *sigh* So light and creamy and it has really juicy blueberries inside. LOL.
Maths tomorrow. I haven\'t touched it at all. Blah. Shall go look and memorise some trigo formulas and differential whatevers and stats and numerical methods and complex numbers now.
19:10 / 0 comment(s)
Weiqi: Yes, I know I should get a tagboard. Maybe I will. Once I figure out how to put one on Xanga. Hmm. XP
Finished reading Ilium! I stayed up until 3am this morning to finish it, and I'm paying the price now. >.< Am very sleepy. Zzz. But I think it was worth it. Now I really want to get my hands on Olympos, or Hyperion, devour those, and decide whether Simmons should go on my "favourite author" list. Heh. Yes, he's that good.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
I would do a review for the rest of the book, but I'm really too tired to recall anything right now. But I must say, it turns out I like the character Daeman a lot. You really get to watch him grow, from his pudgy, pampered, womanising self, ignorant as all old-style humans were of the world that was going on around them, to a man who defeated the Caliban and destroyed the post-humans' crystal city. Then there's Thomas Hockenberry, the scholic, who was once a classics professor in a university specialising in these epic Greek works, who lived in our time and was resurrected from ancient DNA, then put upon the plains of Ilium to study the war and how it would turn out according to Homer's Iliad. Turns out he single-handedly threw the story into massive disarray, and now Hector and Achilles are allies against the gods. And not to forget, Mahnmut and Orphu of Io, the moravecs from the Jovian moons, whose humour made me laugh out loud. Yes, one thing Simmons does is develop his characters. Any author who bothers to develop characters is more or less on the right track.
I think it's worth noting that Simmons is a writer of horror in addition to science fiction and fantasy. That would explain all the gruesome descriptions of severed body parts and corpses floating around the post-humans' crystal city. Ugh.
END SPOILERS.
Someone wrote on the Iain M. Banks forum:
"This was like reading Simmons for the first time."
I have exactly the same sentiments, though I would say, "This was like reading Banks for the first time," because my situation seems reversed, for I am a fan of Banks, who has recently discovered Simmons.
Blah, I would love to write more, but I think I'm boring everyone with all this talk about books and sci-fi. I need to go now though, meeting Meow and Weiqi for a movie and Kbox. Yay!
Finished reading Ilium! I stayed up until 3am this morning to finish it, and I'm paying the price now. >.< Am very sleepy. Zzz. But I think it was worth it. Now I really want to get my hands on Olympos, or Hyperion, devour those, and decide whether Simmons should go on my "favourite author" list. Heh. Yes, he's that good.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
I would do a review for the rest of the book, but I'm really too tired to recall anything right now. But I must say, it turns out I like the character Daeman a lot. You really get to watch him grow, from his pudgy, pampered, womanising self, ignorant as all old-style humans were of the world that was going on around them, to a man who defeated the Caliban and destroyed the post-humans' crystal city. Then there's Thomas Hockenberry, the scholic, who was once a classics professor in a university specialising in these epic Greek works, who lived in our time and was resurrected from ancient DNA, then put upon the plains of Ilium to study the war and how it would turn out according to Homer's Iliad. Turns out he single-handedly threw the story into massive disarray, and now Hector and Achilles are allies against the gods. And not to forget, Mahnmut and Orphu of Io, the moravecs from the Jovian moons, whose humour made me laugh out loud. Yes, one thing Simmons does is develop his characters. Any author who bothers to develop characters is more or less on the right track.
I think it's worth noting that Simmons is a writer of horror in addition to science fiction and fantasy. That would explain all the gruesome descriptions of severed body parts and corpses floating around the post-humans' crystal city. Ugh.
END SPOILERS.
Someone wrote on the Iain M. Banks forum:
I have exactly the same sentiments, though I would say, "This was like reading Banks for the first time," because my situation seems reversed, for I am a fan of Banks, who has recently discovered Simmons.
Blah, I would love to write more, but I think I'm boring everyone with all this talk about books and sci-fi. I need to go now though, meeting Meow and Weiqi for a movie and Kbox. Yay!
12:36 / 0 comment(s)
Everyday is just another struggle. I had no idea how much pain words could convey, how much pain these words, like barbs, could inflict. They are like gunshots, exploding into existence, then embedding themselves into the flesh of the heart. It is not just our actions, not merely our outward, physical portrayals of our desires that express what we feel inside, but the things we say, that matter most.
Yet for me, there is nothing more cathartic than physical pain. I just wish the wounds would not come along with it. It is unhealthy, I know, and that is why I refrain from doing it, but self-restraint only lasts so long.
I want to find a way out of these four walls that enclose me. Like a pacing tiger in its cage, I'm full of so much pent-up rage inside, I don't know what to do with it. Problems do not solve themselves; solutions do not appear out of thin air. Yet I often wish they do. The escapist in me just wants to curl up in an inert ball and shut off the outside world, devouring words that others have written. I still remember the comfort that I found in Orson Scott Card's Speaker For the Dead. It's one of the few books that I have read more than once.
Words spoken aloud to no one, often do not heal.
I've almost finished Ilium; just about a hundred or so more pages until I'm done. Simmons writes quite gruesome stuff actually, and I was reading it at 2am in the morning, and it kind of freaked me out a little (the scene where the Caliban is revealed was icky, but I liked how he injected it with humour, using the classic large-chair-turns-around-to-reveal-bad-guy scene), but it was good stuff. I've always seen Simmon's Hyperion lying around in the library, but the cover always put me off. I guess I'll be a little adventerous and borrow it the next time I go. Besides, many of the reviews that I've read have praised the Hyperion quartet as one of his best works.
Looking at Amazon.com really makes me feel like buying books. >.< If I buy Hyperion together with its sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, it will only cost me a little over S$25, minus shipping. *sigh* I still have my $15 Borders book voucher that Ms Yang gave me for my birthday. Thank God it doesn't have an expiration date! But seriously, I have way too many books. Actually, I think everything will fit on my bookshelf, but there's a lot of useless stuff on it now, like Secondary school textbooks and stuff, which I always tell myself I'm going to clear out but never get around to doing. XP
It's been raining since I woke up. It's beginning to stop now. I don't want it to stop. I want it to keep on raining forever.
Yet for me, there is nothing more cathartic than physical pain. I just wish the wounds would not come along with it. It is unhealthy, I know, and that is why I refrain from doing it, but self-restraint only lasts so long.
I want to find a way out of these four walls that enclose me. Like a pacing tiger in its cage, I'm full of so much pent-up rage inside, I don't know what to do with it. Problems do not solve themselves; solutions do not appear out of thin air. Yet I often wish they do. The escapist in me just wants to curl up in an inert ball and shut off the outside world, devouring words that others have written. I still remember the comfort that I found in Orson Scott Card's Speaker For the Dead. It's one of the few books that I have read more than once.
I've almost finished Ilium; just about a hundred or so more pages until I'm done. Simmons writes quite gruesome stuff actually, and I was reading it at 2am in the morning, and it kind of freaked me out a little (the scene where the Caliban is revealed was icky, but I liked how he injected it with humour, using the classic large-chair-turns-around-to-reveal-bad-guy scene), but it was good stuff. I've always seen Simmon's Hyperion lying around in the library, but the cover always put me off. I guess I'll be a little adventerous and borrow it the next time I go. Besides, many of the reviews that I've read have praised the Hyperion quartet as one of his best works.
Looking at Amazon.com really makes me feel like buying books. >.< If I buy Hyperion together with its sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, it will only cost me a little over S$25, minus shipping. *sigh* I still have my $15 Borders book voucher that Ms Yang gave me for my birthday. Thank God it doesn't have an expiration date! But seriously, I have way too many books. Actually, I think everything will fit on my bookshelf, but there's a lot of useless stuff on it now, like Secondary school textbooks and stuff, which I always tell myself I'm going to clear out but never get around to doing. XP
It's been raining since I woke up. It's beginning to stop now. I don't want it to stop. I want it to keep on raining forever.
12:35 / 0 comment(s)
26 June, 2006
New layout thing, as you can see. It is untitled. I can't be bothered to pick a name. The photo in the background isn't even mine, haha, which kind of goes back on my principles of everything on my site being made by me. I got it off some photography place somwhere, I can't remember. And since the picture isn't mine, I don't think this layout deserves to be named, because it doesn't represent anything. I wanted to do one named "dead rainbows" (which I think is a nicely melancholic phrase), but I couldn't find/make/draw any nice pictures of oil slicks. Bah.
Anyway, put up a tagboard for all you lazy people. This will obviously take away all my comments, but blah. Due to popular demand and all that. So since there's a tagboard, give it some lovin' and keep my happy.
I might put up some actual content after the exams. I'll think about it. But there's nothing to actually put up/say. Haha.
I'm so sick of life. But going to school today made me look past my immediate problems. It lets me not think, you know? It lets me pretend that everything's all right, that everything will be normal again. The bus will always come and bring me to the same place. I'll go up the same steps and take the same route every morning. I'll see familiar faces and revel in familiar jokes.
And then I head home.
Anyway, today had GP exam. Block test. Whatever. It was okay. The essay topics sucked, but actually wouldn't have if I had spotted topics and read up on them, which I didn't bother. Ended up writing some shit on why children should have rights or something. I don't think I'll scrape even a 30. The compre paper was better; easy, in fact. I hope I score on that one. It was a surprise to many of us really, because there was only one passage as opposed to two, and I thought the AQ was quite a no-brainer -- I mean, it didn't make me think very much. Hah.
Got my SAT results back today. 2020. I don't know how good/bad that is, but I'm glad I got more than 2000. I won't take it again though because I don't think more studying will increase my marks. But I'll make a confession here, and that is I didn't really study for SATs until the day before. I only did one practice test and I only read through the high prospect and high frequency words in the wordlist. On second thought, maybe if I studied thing English section I might have scored better. I hate the essay though: I only scored 8/12 for that one.
Tomorrow's chem. I can't wait for the exams to be over.
Anyway, put up a tagboard for all you lazy people. This will obviously take away all my comments, but blah. Due to popular demand and all that. So since there's a tagboard, give it some lovin' and keep my happy.
I might put up some actual content after the exams. I'll think about it. But there's nothing to actually put up/say. Haha.
I'm so sick of life. But going to school today made me look past my immediate problems. It lets me not think, you know? It lets me pretend that everything's all right, that everything will be normal again. The bus will always come and bring me to the same place. I'll go up the same steps and take the same route every morning. I'll see familiar faces and revel in familiar jokes.
And then I head home.
Anyway, today had GP exam. Block test. Whatever. It was okay. The essay topics sucked, but actually wouldn't have if I had spotted topics and read up on them, which I didn't bother. Ended up writing some shit on why children should have rights or something. I don't think I'll scrape even a 30. The compre paper was better; easy, in fact. I hope I score on that one. It was a surprise to many of us really, because there was only one passage as opposed to two, and I thought the AQ was quite a no-brainer -- I mean, it didn't make me think very much. Hah.
Got my SAT results back today. 2020. I don't know how good/bad that is, but I'm glad I got more than 2000. I won't take it again though because I don't think more studying will increase my marks. But I'll make a confession here, and that is I didn't really study for SATs until the day before. I only did one practice test and I only read through the high prospect and high frequency words in the wordlist. On second thought, maybe if I studied thing English section I might have scored better. I hate the essay though: I only scored 8/12 for that one.
Tomorrow's chem. I can't wait for the exams to be over.
21:09 / 0 comment(s)
Raar. I need to sleep. It's late. Early. Doesn't matter. It's just so hard to get down to work when there are a million other things floating around in my mind.
The house is always so dark and quiet. When I look out of the doorway and into the dining room where nobody eats, I can barely make out the cuckoo clock that hangs on our wall. It's an old-fashioned cuckoo clock that runs on clockwork and is made of real German wood. The elitist in me snubs electronic cuckoo clocks, because they're just plastic imitations of the real thing.
There's supposed to be a full moon tonight, but I think it's too cloudy out to see. I can't be bothered to search the skies anyway.
I think I'll finish up Walking On Glass before I go to sleep. Which really means I really should get off the computer now.
I really hate holidays. I need some sort of structure in my life, but if you leave things to me, there's going to be no structure whatsoever. I just sort of laze around and never get things done. At least having school makes me... go to school and do something constructive. At least staring blankly at the lecturer is more constructive than stoning around at home at thinking that I should be using this time more fruitfully by studying and somesuch.
Blah.
The house is always so dark and quiet. When I look out of the doorway and into the dining room where nobody eats, I can barely make out the cuckoo clock that hangs on our wall. It's an old-fashioned cuckoo clock that runs on clockwork and is made of real German wood. The elitist in me snubs electronic cuckoo clocks, because they're just plastic imitations of the real thing.
There's supposed to be a full moon tonight, but I think it's too cloudy out to see. I can't be bothered to search the skies anyway.
I think I'll finish up Walking On Glass before I go to sleep. Which really means I really should get off the computer now.
I really hate holidays. I need some sort of structure in my life, but if you leave things to me, there's going to be no structure whatsoever. I just sort of laze around and never get things done. At least having school makes me... go to school and do something constructive. At least staring blankly at the lecturer is more constructive than stoning around at home at thinking that I should be using this time more fruitfully by studying and somesuch.
Blah.
21:04 / 0 comment(s)
17 June, 2006
Ugh, another week gone by. Time is my greatest enemy.
I'm almost done with Walking On Glass. I think after reading Ilium, reading any other book will seem easier and faster, LOL.
Bought several CDs yesterday. Mwee. qian is a happy girl.
I can't wait for school to start. Just being out of the house is an escape from everything.
I'm almost done with Walking On Glass. I think after reading Ilium, reading any other book will seem easier and faster, LOL.
Bought several CDs yesterday. Mwee. qian is a happy girl.
I can't wait for school to start. Just being out of the house is an escape from everything.
12:40 / 0 comment(s)
It rained all day today. Grey skies, intermittent lightning, the rhythmic pitter-patter of raindrops on window panes and black tarmac.
Went to school for the fac comm interview. It was all right, although a bit boring. I didn't say much, just sat there and doodled on my piece of paper. Both Rachel and I agree that if we ran for the comm this year, we probably wouldn't have got in. At least the dance ICs next year will be able to do hip hop and whatever, which is a good thing. Haven't got much else to say about it, because I can't very well go around telling everyone what we decided, can I? =P Besides, I don't know if that's finalised or anything. Things always happen without me knowing. Maybe it's because I don't care enough, I don't know.
Went to Kbox yesterday! From 2-7. FIVE SOLID HOURS of singing. Superfun. Although as usual Weiqi monopolised the mic (LOL we're not blaming you. Seriously. XP), we all got to sing stuff we wanted. Before that went to watch She's The Man, that movie inspired/based/whatever on Twelfth Night. It was a nice, good, chick flick. It was also superfunny and the whole cinema was laughing really hard. The odd thing is, I read a story with a very similar plot last year. But you have to admit, it is rather clichéd, but entertaining nonetheless. =)
Reading Iain Banks's Walking On Glass right now. The only gripe I have about Banks is how difficult it is to get into his novels, especially his non-sci-fi ones. And to tell the truth, I'm having trouble going through The Bridge, which I've been reading on and off for about a year or so. As much as I like Banks, I must say that I prefer his more mainstream novels like Espedair Street (which I really should buy) and The Crow Road (which was the novel that brought Banks into my life in the first place). And of course, his sci-fi always rocks, although I found Look To Windward a bit lacking, but there are those that take your breath away, like The Player of Games and Consider Phlebas.
Went to the library today on the way home from school. Wanted to borrow Simmons's Olympos, but it was already out on loan. Considered if I should reserve it, but changed my mind. I'm supposed to be studying anyway, so I shouldn't be actively trying to borrow it, but if I should ever see it lying around, then I suppose I would. qian can never resist temptation, especially when it comes to books (and food). Apparently Jurong West Community Library didn't have Hyperion either. Grr. I swear I saw it before. But I did borrow a book in the end. It was Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star. I haven't actually heard of the book, but I've heard of Hamilton, and the blurb looked interesting. I was a little disappointed to find out that it's the first of a trilogy or something though, and that Pandora's Star ends with a dreadful cliffhanger. Argh. That's the bloody problem with trilogies and suchlike. That's why I've just got to get my greedy hands on Olympos. Bleh.
Going to visit Daddy tomorrow. Haven't seen him all week.
Went to school for the fac comm interview. It was all right, although a bit boring. I didn't say much, just sat there and doodled on my piece of paper. Both Rachel and I agree that if we ran for the comm this year, we probably wouldn't have got in. At least the dance ICs next year will be able to do hip hop and whatever, which is a good thing. Haven't got much else to say about it, because I can't very well go around telling everyone what we decided, can I? =P Besides, I don't know if that's finalised or anything. Things always happen without me knowing. Maybe it's because I don't care enough, I don't know.
Went to Kbox yesterday! From 2-7. FIVE SOLID HOURS of singing. Superfun. Although as usual Weiqi monopolised the mic (LOL we're not blaming you. Seriously. XP), we all got to sing stuff we wanted. Before that went to watch She's The Man, that movie inspired/based/whatever on Twelfth Night. It was a nice, good, chick flick. It was also superfunny and the whole cinema was laughing really hard. The odd thing is, I read a story with a very similar plot last year. But you have to admit, it is rather clichéd, but entertaining nonetheless. =)
Reading Iain Banks's Walking On Glass right now. The only gripe I have about Banks is how difficult it is to get into his novels, especially his non-sci-fi ones. And to tell the truth, I'm having trouble going through The Bridge, which I've been reading on and off for about a year or so. As much as I like Banks, I must say that I prefer his more mainstream novels like Espedair Street (which I really should buy) and The Crow Road (which was the novel that brought Banks into my life in the first place). And of course, his sci-fi always rocks, although I found Look To Windward a bit lacking, but there are those that take your breath away, like The Player of Games and Consider Phlebas.
Went to the library today on the way home from school. Wanted to borrow Simmons's Olympos, but it was already out on loan. Considered if I should reserve it, but changed my mind. I'm supposed to be studying anyway, so I shouldn't be actively trying to borrow it, but if I should ever see it lying around, then I suppose I would. qian can never resist temptation, especially when it comes to books (and food). Apparently Jurong West Community Library didn't have Hyperion either. Grr. I swear I saw it before. But I did borrow a book in the end. It was Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star. I haven't actually heard of the book, but I've heard of Hamilton, and the blurb looked interesting. I was a little disappointed to find out that it's the first of a trilogy or something though, and that Pandora's Star ends with a dreadful cliffhanger. Argh. That's the bloody problem with trilogies and suchlike. That's why I've just got to get my greedy hands on Olympos. Bleh.
Going to visit Daddy tomorrow. Haven't seen him all week.
12:40 / 0 comment(s)
Phew. Just got back. Just wanted to say that tonight you can see the moon and Jupiter in the sky. You can't miss Jupiter, it's the brightest star. Once, I looked at Jupiter through a telescope and I could see its moons, little dots surrounding a larger, brighter sphere.
That's magic.
Oh, and qian so wants to buy Soler's album. Julio and Dino's voices are just... wow.
That's magic.
Oh, and qian so wants to buy Soler's album. Julio and Dino's voices are just... wow.
12:40 / 0 comment(s)
Hmm. Have resorted to having a temporary blog. I don't even know if I'm going to blog very often or anything, but I guess there'll be somewhere for me to ramble on about obscure topics and details of my life. I just hope the problem at greyprism rights itself soon. Grr.
If you're wondering, Conamara Chaos is a region on Jupiter's moon, Europa, which in Dan Simmon's Ilium, is one of the central hubs belonging to a species called moravecs, a civilisation of partially organic AIs who are distributed among the moons of Jupiter. These moravecs were created by post-humans, who are a largely engimatic species so far, because the book hasn't gone into much detail about them. I'm only about halfway through, so I'm not sure if anything will be revealed in further plot developments.
The Conamara Chaos Central isn't particularly significant to me, but I picked it as the title of my temporary blog because it has been resounding in my mind for the past few days. It's sort of catchy, isn't it? And also because I'm enjoying the book way more than I thought I would. I was intrigued when it first came out, especially because it's based off the epic poem, Iliad. (I have a promise to myself that One Day, I'll read some classic work of literature, but my every attempt at it so far has failed miserably. They're all waaay too high-brow for me! XP) So having it written in easier-to-swallow form of my favourite genre, my interest was definitely piqued. But having been bitten once by Stephen Baxter's Evolution, I was wary of setting out to buy it, and so I ignored my book-buying compulsiveness and pushed the thought to the back of my mind. When I saw it on the shelves at Jurong West Community Library, I immediately jumped at the chance to finally read it, and I must say it hasn't disappointed.
The problem with gargantuan novels like these (600+ pages!) is that it's always hard to grasp what's going on in the first few chapters -- you're left literally swimming in a pool of jargon and foreign references -- and this, I find, is a particularly pronounced problem when you're dealing with books set in the future, i.e. most science fiction novels, which turns off many neophytes from venturing further into the exciting realm of sci-fi. But once you conquer that learning curve, once you overcome that initially incomprehension and push on... that's when you discover that you're being taken on a roller coaster ride you never want to get off.
Yeah, qian likes her sci-fi novels on an epic scale, with mandatory planet-traversing and futuristic-weapon-blasting ingredients. =P
Today's Sunday. Another week shaved off my holiday. Argh. I need to start doing my work and studying for Block Tests. But I keep on saying that and doing nothing. I need some motivation, and I fear that my inner voice is not strong enough to overcome the evil distractions that lie around my house! >.< Ah well.
If you're wondering, Conamara Chaos is a region on Jupiter's moon, Europa, which in Dan Simmon's Ilium, is one of the central hubs belonging to a species called moravecs, a civilisation of partially organic AIs who are distributed among the moons of Jupiter. These moravecs were created by post-humans, who are a largely engimatic species so far, because the book hasn't gone into much detail about them. I'm only about halfway through, so I'm not sure if anything will be revealed in further plot developments.
The Conamara Chaos Central isn't particularly significant to me, but I picked it as the title of my temporary blog because it has been resounding in my mind for the past few days. It's sort of catchy, isn't it? And also because I'm enjoying the book way more than I thought I would. I was intrigued when it first came out, especially because it's based off the epic poem, Iliad. (I have a promise to myself that One Day, I'll read some classic work of literature, but my every attempt at it so far has failed miserably. They're all waaay too high-brow for me! XP) So having it written in easier-to-swallow form of my favourite genre, my interest was definitely piqued. But having been bitten once by Stephen Baxter's Evolution, I was wary of setting out to buy it, and so I ignored my book-buying compulsiveness and pushed the thought to the back of my mind. When I saw it on the shelves at Jurong West Community Library, I immediately jumped at the chance to finally read it, and I must say it hasn't disappointed.
The problem with gargantuan novels like these (600+ pages!) is that it's always hard to grasp what's going on in the first few chapters -- you're left literally swimming in a pool of jargon and foreign references -- and this, I find, is a particularly pronounced problem when you're dealing with books set in the future, i.e. most science fiction novels, which turns off many neophytes from venturing further into the exciting realm of sci-fi. But once you conquer that learning curve, once you overcome that initially incomprehension and push on... that's when you discover that you're being taken on a roller coaster ride you never want to get off.
Yeah, qian likes her sci-fi novels on an epic scale, with mandatory planet-traversing and futuristic-weapon-blasting ingredients. =P
Today's Sunday. Another week shaved off my holiday. Argh. I need to start doing my work and studying for Block Tests. But I keep on saying that and doing nothing. I need some motivation, and I fear that my inner voice is not strong enough to overcome the evil distractions that lie around my house! >.< Ah well.
12:34 / 0 comment(s)
16 June, 2006
Weiqi: I remember Yingwan's craze over Ahn Jung Hwan back in Sec 2! LOL. And I didn't get to catch the Togo vs. Korea match. Grr. NTV7 wasn't showing that match. =(
There are times when you feel that there's nothing left to live for in this world. That your life just isn't going right. That there isn't anything else to look forward to anymore. When you wake up in the morning, you go, "Shit, another 24 hours." Yeah, that's how I feel right now. But we had choir farewell today. And it reminded me that, hey, there are people who care about me, people who remember me, even if just a little, and that my life has in some way, impacted some others', and that maybe, life is worth living after all.
Being typical pessimistic me, farewell was so much better than I expected. Which is a good thing. =) We could tell that the juniors put a lot of effort into our farewell, even cooking lunch for us! Wow. And it tasted really good too. I don't regret sacrificing my entire Thursday doing up gifts for the Sop juniors, even though I felt like giving up because I didn't think I would finish them in time. I gave them the same things that I gave my seniors last year, personalised "postcards" which I drew on drawing block. I would have used coloured paper, but I didn't have any. Spent quite a long time thinking of what to draw for them, and when I was done, I was a little disheartened to find out that all my effort amounted to just a few pieces of colourful paper. =( And I regret rushing out my messages. In fact, I scribbled thorugh them on the bus to school today, because I really had no time to write them properly.
The juniors gave us black baseball caps with our names painted onto the bill! It looks really cool. And the glitter is really... glittery. Gets on everything. But it's so nice and shiny, LOL.
Farewell meant lots of bonding, especially for us J2s! Made me feel sad that we wouldn't be able to spend as much time together anymore, even though I'm not super close to them or anything. We did the Mrs Goh thing... the one where all of us stood in a circle and threw around a ball of yarn/string to the person we wanted to thank most. Lots of tears and stuff. After everyone was done, we had a tangled web, and that represented how we were all interconnected. I guess at the end of it all, at the end of all the hardships and tears and laughter, we really do love choir, deep inside, as we love each other. And we've all touched each other's lives in some way or another, be it big or small. Then we cut the strings (ahh.... noooo...) and got to keep our portion.
I'm so looking forward to Christmas carolling at the end of this year! And I will really miss my juniors, who wrote lovely messages to me. Hehe. You know, it has only been 6 months since we got to know them. It's been so fast. Time does fly.
Oh yes: Robbie Williams concert on Nov 18th! The day right after my A levels! Woohoo. I so want to go. Just gotta find people to go with me. Heh.
Ugh, I know, greyprism needs a new layout. I tried designing one, but it turned out crappy. And I don't really have a lot of time on my hands right now. I'll see.
There are times when you feel that there's nothing left to live for in this world. That your life just isn't going right. That there isn't anything else to look forward to anymore. When you wake up in the morning, you go, "Shit, another 24 hours." Yeah, that's how I feel right now. But we had choir farewell today. And it reminded me that, hey, there are people who care about me, people who remember me, even if just a little, and that my life has in some way, impacted some others', and that maybe, life is worth living after all.
Being typical pessimistic me, farewell was so much better than I expected. Which is a good thing. =) We could tell that the juniors put a lot of effort into our farewell, even cooking lunch for us! Wow. And it tasted really good too. I don't regret sacrificing my entire Thursday doing up gifts for the Sop juniors, even though I felt like giving up because I didn't think I would finish them in time. I gave them the same things that I gave my seniors last year, personalised "postcards" which I drew on drawing block. I would have used coloured paper, but I didn't have any. Spent quite a long time thinking of what to draw for them, and when I was done, I was a little disheartened to find out that all my effort amounted to just a few pieces of colourful paper. =( And I regret rushing out my messages. In fact, I scribbled thorugh them on the bus to school today, because I really had no time to write them properly.
The juniors gave us black baseball caps with our names painted onto the bill! It looks really cool. And the glitter is really... glittery. Gets on everything. But it's so nice and shiny, LOL.
Farewell meant lots of bonding, especially for us J2s! Made me feel sad that we wouldn't be able to spend as much time together anymore, even though I'm not super close to them or anything. We did the Mrs Goh thing... the one where all of us stood in a circle and threw around a ball of yarn/string to the person we wanted to thank most. Lots of tears and stuff. After everyone was done, we had a tangled web, and that represented how we were all interconnected. I guess at the end of it all, at the end of all the hardships and tears and laughter, we really do love choir, deep inside, as we love each other. And we've all touched each other's lives in some way or another, be it big or small. Then we cut the strings (ahh.... noooo...) and got to keep our portion.
I'm so looking forward to Christmas carolling at the end of this year! And I will really miss my juniors, who wrote lovely messages to me. Hehe. You know, it has only been 6 months since we got to know them. It's been so fast. Time does fly.
Oh yes: Robbie Williams concert on Nov 18th! The day right after my A levels! Woohoo. I so want to go. Just gotta find people to go with me. Heh.
Ugh, I know, greyprism needs a new layout. I tried designing one, but it turned out crappy. And I don't really have a lot of time on my hands right now. I'll see.
20:22 / 0 comment(s)
13 June, 2006
When you think about it, funerals are more for the benefit of the living than the dead.
Went to watch World Cup at Poh Wei's house yesterday. Didn't sleep the whole night. >.< Came home and slept from 7am to 1.30pm. Haha. I don't usually watch football, but I don't mind. We were playing Risk during some of the matches, and I realise that I really suck at strategy. LOL.
Togo VS Korea tonight... heh. I think Korea will win.
Went to watch World Cup at Poh Wei's house yesterday. Didn't sleep the whole night. >.< Came home and slept from 7am to 1.30pm. Haha. I don't usually watch football, but I don't mind. We were playing Risk during some of the matches, and I realise that I really suck at strategy. LOL.
Togo VS Korea tonight... heh. I think Korea will win.
19:43 / 0 comment(s)
11 June, 2006
Sometimes stuff happens.
At other times miracles happen.
Blog is up again! Yay and all that. Will figure out how to "transfer" my posts from xanga here later. I'll probably do it manually though.
Yes, I think greyprism needs a remodel. It deserves one for spontaneously recovering. Heh. I figure the problem has to do with my server or something. I don't care though, as long as this thing is working. *pokeprod*
At other times miracles happen.
Blog is up again! Yay and all that. Will figure out how to "transfer" my posts from xanga here later. I'll probably do it manually though.
Yes, I think greyprism needs a remodel. It deserves one for spontaneously recovering. Heh. I figure the problem has to do with my server or something. I don't care though, as long as this thing is working. *pokeprod*
01:52 / 0 comment(s)