29 April, 2008
I read most of it over the past few days, and it's been breathtaking. I love how I can pick it up and forget time, which is kind of poetic in a way since the novel is about a group of people travelling at near the speed of light without their knowledge, and arriving at their destination 18,000 years after they left. So for them, it was kind of like time flowing past them without them being aware of it.
Having not finished a book in a long while, finishing this one reminds me how satisfying it feels. I think I'll be buying this one. Damn, I'm a sucker for space operas. Anyway, I just got my pay
I'm on my way to reading almost everything Reynolds' has written. It's just those pesky short stories in magazines that I have to get ahold of. Somehow. And a random comment: I find it so humbling that his personal website is hosted on Tripod, and is not one of those fancy commercialised websites.
Oh, and I was browsing Amazon the other day and by chance found out that Iain M. Banks has a new Culture novel out! ZOMGWTFBBQ. I mean his general fiction offerings are not bad, but you can never slake a sci-fi lover's thirst with those. We need hard space opera with fusion engines and superluminal travel and General Service Vehicles with names like "Just Read The Instructions" and General Contact Units named "It's My Party And I'll Sing If I Want To". Yeah. I'm totally losing everyone here. Anyway I just need to wait for the library to act on my recommendation.
EDIT (30/4): YAY THE LIBRARY REPLIED TO ME:
Dear Sir/Madam,ZOMGWTFBBQ. I feel powerful, haha. XD Even a small fry like me can request a book to be stocked in the library! I just saved possibly the $30 the book would have cost me. LOL. Okay whatever.
Thank you for your recommendation.
We are pleased to inform you that an order had been placed for the title. If the stock is not available locally , we will source for it from overseas, which generally takes between 8 - 10 weeks.
Thereafter, you may wish to use our online catalogue to check on whether the title has arrived.
Your feedback is much appreciated.
Collection Development Librarian.
Library Support Services.
03:12 / 1 comment(s) 
25 April, 2008
But I like the subject, so I don't actually mind, LOL. Two more days to go!
Actually I don't really feel very relieved or anything when the last day of exams actually rolls around. After my last exam I'm rushing off to teach tuition. Haha. I'm so moneyface right?? Actually I can just say I can't teach the whole day cos of my exam, but I'm rushing back for my second class. You see my class is actually from 6-7.30pm, and 7.45-9.15pm, but my exam on Monday ends at 7.30pm. So I won't be teaching my earlier class (the class that I like better, sadly). But I want my $$$ so yeah.
It's not like I have anything better to do anyway, seeing that I'll just come home and sleep/watch anime/watch movies/play meaningless online games. :D
20:15 / 0 comment(s)
23 April, 2008
Substituted two more tuition classes today = money! And I tell you, the kids were totally angels, compared to mine! *jealous* Maybe they were simply unfamiliar with me, but still, they were very well behaved. *sigh* I wish the kids I taught were like that.
Anyway I'm kind of enjoying my "holiday". Yeah I know, I'm supposed to be preparing for my linguistics exam next Monday. I REALLY AM OKAY (if reading one textbook chapter counts...).
Instead I've finished Clannad and True Tears. I've been recommending Clannad to anyone who'd listen, because it is really really good. The art is just breathtakingly fantastic, and the plot is really well-developed and good. And don't get me started on how I love the characters... at first I thought Clannad was just another fanboy show, where this one guy gets all the girls just because, but it's not just that. Really. So if you have time, watch it. A bit of digging around on the interwebs is all you need. I'm waiting for the full English translation of the visual novel to come out so I can actually play the game. It's probably going to be a few months more, but I can't wait!
True Tears was quite watchable, and it wasn't meaningless drivel with cardboard characters, but I didn't exactly like it that much. I guess couldn't identify with the characters at all.
Right now I'm watching Vision of Escaflowne, Air, and catching up on my Six Feet Under season 2 episodes. Oh, and because of Clannad I got introduced to the world of visual vovels, so now I'm playing two: Planetarian and Narcissu. Go check 'em out, because they're worth your time.
Anyway I'm kind of enjoying my "holiday". Yeah I know, I'm supposed to be preparing for my linguistics exam next Monday. I REALLY AM OKAY (if reading one textbook chapter counts...).
True Tears was quite watchable, and it wasn't meaningless drivel with cardboard characters, but I didn't exactly like it that much. I guess couldn't identify with the characters at all.
Right now I'm watching Vision of Escaflowne, Air, and catching up on my Six Feet Under season 2 episodes. Oh, and because of Clannad I got introduced to the world of visual vovels, so now I'm playing two: Planetarian and Narcissu. Go check 'em out, because they're worth your time.
22:09 / 0 comment(s)
19 April, 2008
Anyway, I'm supposed to be studying for my Jap test tomorrow. Haha. Not that I'm superbly confident or anything, or that I actually remember all my grammar, but bleh. Okay. I'll at least do the worksheets again for revision. :P
Oh, just because it doesn't happen very often: I'm on my wireless at home! It's rare because my laptop usually cannot detect the wireless signals in my room. I can't really download anything though, since my mum is downloading stuff on the computer downstairs and hogging all the bandwidth. But it's enough that I can get online at all. The speed's comparable to my NTU dial-up, but I can kinda live with it, as long as I don't get the urge to download anything. Just updating my AVG virus database was painful enough (1.5kb/s???).
Blah, I'm in such an after-exam mood, which I'm not supposed to be in. Been playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates since I got home after walking around Jurong East with Mother today. Borrowed two books from Jurong Regional (despite not having finished Pushing Ice...). One's a Robert J. Sawyer novel, who's like, the chick-lit for sci-fi, in a sense that his books are always an easy read that I can get through in a day or two if I set my mind to it. The other is Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. They were having a second-hand book sale at JEC, but my browsing didn't turn up any buried treasures. Just as well, because I blew $3 on a UFO Catcher. Haha. Kinda guilty cos my mother was saying it was such a waste, but eh, it was fun anyway. Even though I didn't catch anything.
Ooh, bought two more Threadless shirts! Couldn't find any sprees open so I made WQ buy them for me. :P Haha, more money blown! Eh at least I'll be earning a bit more this month, seeing that I'm substituting for four extra tuition classes.
22:58 / 1 comment(s)
15 April, 2008
I'm thisclose to deciding to go on my own, which is gonna be really sad, but I don't care because I want to hear James Blunt LIVE. And I don't think asking people to go with me through my blog is going to help matters, since I can't get people to go with me when I ask them IRL. Then again, it's not like I tried very hard, but I can't think of people who would 1) want to go with me to watch a concert, and 2) who don't mind listening to James Blunt.
Okay. I better stop thinking of my after-exam activities. Had my first paper this morning, and I was adamant about not waking up, dragging the time until it was like, 8am before I went to wash my face (my paper was at 9am). Was just in a general bad mood because I didn't really prepare much and was angry at myself. But it wasn't THAT bad. I mean, okay, for this paper we were given the questions ahead of time, and people already wrote their answers out for goodness sakes. I just had this piece of paper with 5 points written down on it. Since it was a speech module, we had to write speeches during the exam and I came up with them on the spot. Somehow I have a feeling that even if I prepared it would have been the same.
Ah well, anyway it wasn't that bad after all. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish the paper, but I did, just in time. Crapped a bit, but what do you expect, eh? Anyway it's worth like 40% of the total grade, one of the least heavy weightings for all the papers I'm going to take.
I've got a paper later at 5pm, which explains why I'm home now. And I should be mugging for it, seeing that I didn't touch any of the material until last night, but I really can't be bothered. I mean I've S/Ued this module, I just need to pass. So I'm going to read over the lecture notes a few more times... yawn. I'm getting sleepy already.
13:23 / 0 comment(s)
13 April, 2008
Some people must have absolute order in their lives. Their desks must be tidy, their socks must be sorted by colour, their underwear by size. I, on the other hand, am nagged at constantly by my mother about the state of my wardrobe and bedroom floor, on which many things lie strewn and stubbornly unsorted.
There is, however, one thing that I absolutely have to keep utterly immaculate and perfect: my MP3 ID3 tags. I go to great lengths to obtain correct artist, album name, track number and track title information, which has to be in the original released language.
I was halfway through re-tagging the Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack when it occurred to me how very much a waste of time renaming forty tracks was, yet I didn't want to stop because it's oddly satisfying to see all my tracks nicely tagged and ordered. You know the clichéd reasoning about how it gives me the illusion of having some control over my life. Ironic how I don't make the effort to tidy up other parts of it, hmm?
And just for the record and heck of it, neowing.co.jp is my regular haunt where I get the information for all the Japanese releases I get. I don't know why, but I'm continually fascinated that how the search engine recognises romanji.
Sometimes, I marvel at my ability to procrastinate, and engage in the most inane things while neglecting the important ones.
Oh and in other news, I wrote my first ever Japanese composition today! It's juvenile and stupid, but a milestone nonetheless!
00:13 / 1 comment(s)
09 April, 2008
I was lucky yesterday because it stopped raining just before I left the house, and started again only when I reached school, before stopping when I came home. :D It's little things like that that make me feel lucky. But pity it didn't rain today when I wanted it to. The sun was way too scorching and it gave me a headache.
Oh well. I didn't get anything done today. I came home, mooched around on my computer awhile (reading manga, mostly), then had dinner. During dinner my eyes felt funny, but there wasn't anything wrong with them so I ignored it. After dinner however, I realised that they were getting puffy and swollen. I have a constant problem with eyes that swell up for no reason, but usually it happens to only one eye; this time it's two.
I would have just said heck it, I'll bear with it, it'll go away on it's own, but Mother insisted on going to the doctor and since she was going along with me, I went. I usually visit the doctor on my own, but I don't like it. I feel insecure, somehow. Maybe I'm just too dependent. So I got some medicine for the swelling, which seems to have brought it down somewhat, although it's still a bit puffy. And I 顺便 got medicine for my cold as well, which still hasn't gone away. Hopefully everything turns out fine tomorrow morning.
I can't believe how close I am to the exams and not feeling the heat. Not really.
And I can't believe that my first year in uni is drawing to a close. Next semester I will no longer be a freshie, wet behind the ears. Seriously, I don't even feel grown-up enough to be in uni. I guess some part of me hasn't caught up yet with my chronological age, and my mum constantly chides me about how immature I am.
Shit, I'll be 20 in seven months. Twenty. The big two-oh. This realisation is not as fabulous as it should be.
23:41 / 1 comment(s)
08 April, 2008
Anyway I find it funny that I'm beginning to dislike my P5 class more and more, when I used to like them at first. The two newer boys are getting on my nerves. One boy keeps on talking about anything and everything, while the other is just behaves strangely and has a know-it-all attitude. It doesn't help that everyone keeps on interrupting me while I'm speaking. It's not that I want to be a major bitch and scold everyone, but I only have one pair of ears, so would you please stop talking over one another?
On the other hand, my P4 class is getting better and better. The problematic boy who used to defy me all the time has actually started to quiet down and participate in class, giving answers that show evidence of thought and consideration when I ask him for his input. But there is that foreign girl who refuses to speak up, even though I've prompted the class time and again to raise their hands if they need me to repeat/explain/etc. And I know that she's having problems. I'd go and help her one-on-one, but firstly, I don't have the luxury of time, seeing that I have to attend to the rest of the kids, and secondly, she doesn't seem to want to help herself, and it's so easy to just let these kinds of kids slip through. That's the problem with managing a class, because you're so torn between trying to give each of the kids individual attention and moving on.
The pay's not that good, but it's fun, interacting with these kids and getting to know that there's a world outside uni and the tiring climb up the mountain we know as CGPA. Sometimes I see bits of myself in them, sometimes I marvel at how much these kids seem to know (at that age, I was more interested in watching TV than studying, really). But sometimes I get really annoyed at them and imagine the most horrible death-by-tuition-teacher scenes imaginable. And it doesn't help when you're trying to teach reproduction in animals to a bunch of eleven-year-olds who giggle and squeal over everything.
On another note, the Chinese medicine tea thing that my mother made me drink because of my cold (which still hasn't gone away) is giving me a buzz. My heart rate's up and I'm not tired... it feels kind of trippy, actually.
So yeah. Am going back to reading my hugeass marketing textbook.
00:31 / 0 comment(s)
04 April, 2008
Dawn: Nope I didn't take any photos at the funfair. Didn't bring a cam. Wished you were there. :D
And here are the photos of my old MP3 player, just to commemorate my new one. :P
All falling apart.
MY NEW PET ROCK.
And here are the photos of my old MP3 player, just to commemorate my new one. :P
All falling apart.
MY NEW PET ROCK.
22:04 / 2 comment(s)
03 April, 2008
I think all the late nights are catching up with me. I definitely feel a sore throat coming on. Argh. And exams are a week away.
ANYWAY. I finally got a new MP3 player. It's a 2GB Creative Zen Stone Plus because I wanted something small and fuss-free. I love my MuVo V200 though, but after 4 years it feels like it's going to disintegrate any moment. I showed a couple of my friends how it's coming apart... I should take a picture, but it's pretty dark now and my room lighting isn't the greatest. Haha.
Oh and I randomly decided to by FiRST magazine today (influenced by my group project... LOL) and Takeshi Kaneshiro was on the front cover! But that wasn't the best part: Jang Hyuk was on the last page of the magazine too. <3<3<3 Talk about fate. Today was a really great day for a lot of other reasons too. It's times like this when I feel like can believe in things like blessings.
ANYWAY. I finally got a new MP3 player. It's a 2GB Creative Zen Stone Plus because I wanted something small and fuss-free. I love my MuVo V200 though, but after 4 years it feels like it's going to disintegrate any moment. I showed a couple of my friends how it's coming apart... I should take a picture, but it's pretty dark now and my room lighting isn't the greatest. Haha.
Oh and I randomly decided to by FiRST magazine today (influenced by my group project... LOL) and Takeshi Kaneshiro was on the front cover! But that wasn't the best part: Jang Hyuk was on the last page of the magazine too. <3<3<3 Talk about fate. Today was a really great day for a lot of other reasons too. It's times like this when I feel like can believe in things like blessings.
23:36 / 1 comment(s)