Everything but study...
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
I can just see the look on Daniel's shocked face now: "It's 200 bucks you know, no kidding!"
This is the exam period. For most, exams have already started. For some lucky (or unlucky) folks like me and Kim, exams begin very late but finish quickly in one blow.
Now this is also the exam period. Even for the most "muggerish" of the lot e.g. someone like Denis, he too tends to do something he'll never do during the school term like play computer games. So tell me why the rest of us should not deserve (for want of a much better word) to do everything but study?
This is the exam period. It is a time when people feel the most vulnerable even for on-the-spot performers like Daniel. Thus people tend to succumb to the little little things which they've always wanted to do during the sem but never got the chance to or felt guilty about doing it, however, because of the adrenaline rush exams gives them, they attempt to do all these little things at one shot.
You don't know what I'm talking about? Let me give you some examples to refresh your memory hur hur.
- A LOT of sleep. You feel as if you're sleeping your sem's worth right now, who the hell cares about exams? Sleep is the most important thing on your agenda right now. Besides, how can you go into an exam hall and freak yourself out and still do the paper within 2 hours without getting that much deserved sleep?
- Watching re-runs or episodes and episodes of some drama or anime like a maniac as if the discs were due tomorrow at the video rental store, when they really are going to be there all year/sem round anyway. This is the escapist mode. Transporting your mind to somewhere else all the time helps you not to think about the exams, true or not? Of course, deep in your mind, you know that "what the hell? Like TV is going to help me pass my exams," but you do it anyway to avoid thinking about it.
- Play computer games at the same rate you normally do during the holidays. This is the serious gamer we're talking about: play eat play eat play sleep and the cycle repeats, mostly not in the same order.
- Go shopping. Retail therapy works all the time, especially when your stress level is high or you're emotionally unstable. It makes you even more happy to see your pocket empty and your shopping bags pile up. This is just it man, now you can have another thing to worry about other than exams, now doesn't that make your life sound swell? Hur hur.
- Hang out with friends, just so you guys can bitch about exams together! Now doesn't that console you that your friends are not studying as well? Besides you can do stuff that you seldom do even on a regular basis, like play mahjong and have sleepovers and all.
- Start planning your after-exam activities. I'm not surprised if you had a whole itinery already mapped out for the rest of the holidays. Besides, it's never too early to plan for the holidays.
- Makeover yourself. Get a hair cut, get a pedicure manicure whatever.. as long as you do something to make yourself different or make yourself try to do different things, then you will feel somewhat sane.
- Start thinking of stupid things that you never thought about you were busy with school, but now that exams are here and there are no more lessons, it kinda frees up your time to think about other things.
- Eat alot, especially junk food and things that you normally will only eat as a luxury, because why make yourself suffer more when you have to suffer already for the exams?
- Start blogging like a maniac and blogsurf for all it's worth. Well you have broadband right?
And finally when you have satisfied enough of your needs here and there, you start panicking right before the paper itself. And this is what you will do in desperation:
Think of the least amount of studying you can do in the least number of days and scheme to try and deceive yourself that you have actually studied enough and studying more might not actually help in the on-the-spot performance itself.
And the funny thing is, even though you may think about all these things during the exam period, after it's finally over, you really don't remember all this stuff anymore, especially the holiday itinery that you painstakingly mapped out with the thought that you will really strictly follow it.
Now this is really the exam period. For sure. Get moving guys.
1:12 am
クロサギ
The day the easel went home...
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Yesterday was Mandy's birthday but the day before that, I tagged along with Kim, Benita and Aloysius to find Mandy's present while they shopped for a Crayola brand pen for their mutual friend's birthday present.
Kim was efficient, as usual (but only at shopping hur hur), and by the time I reached, they were already in the process of wrapping it up. Next, we wandered around Artfriend because I thought we could get something artyfarty for Mandy and we ended up getting one of those easels on their display. Being the blur nuts we were, the people behind the counter had to prompt us to check the wood, because the stuff came in a narrow but long box the length of a car, and had to be self-assembled.
And then he overheard our plan to surprise Mandy after class the next day on her birthday itself at school and he said:
"You are going to make your poor friend drag it home all by herself from there?"
uh.oh.
"KIM!!! What are we going to do?"
"I don't know!!"
Then came the voice of reason from someone not embroiled in the whole thing... Aloysius said:
"Why don't you just deliver it to her tonight la!"
oh.ya.hor.
And so we tried to trick Mandy but failed because I wasn't such a good liar. Neither was Kim. Hur hur.
And we caused a big commotion when we lugged it to her house. Thanks to Kim for her canoe polo strength, we might have not managed without her hur hur. Anyway back to the commotion... Mandy's mother went in Chinese:
"zhuo zhen merrrr!"
This was highly contrasted with Kim's high-pitched chirpy voice: "HI AUNTY!!"
And so we managed to convince her that it was not something we picked up from somewhere, nor was it as threatening and dubious as it looked. Because you could hardly tell it was an easel from its unassembled items in a narrow long box.
Shocked was the only word to describe her. Her sister was equally surprised sitting on the sofa gaping at us. Because it was like ten minutes to midnight at that point in time, I can hardly blame her sister and mom for reacting this way hur hur.
The next day, Mandy recounted to us how her father had the same reaction when he came home and poked at the box and asked if it was some electrical appliance her sister bought from the mega fair at Vivocity. The same explanation given to her mother was passed to her father. In the end, her parents were so surprised and pleased about it that they felt Mandy had to give us a treat hur hur.
At least our surprise didn't go to waste, even if the person we wanted to surprise saw right through our plan. Damn, I really need to brush up on my acting skills.
Mandy was so pleased with the easel because we helped her achieved part of her dreams for the future.
5:32 pm
クロサギ
Hell hath no fury like an essay scorned
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Yup, you heard that right. It was a torturing 6 days. I couldn't even see the end, I thought it'll never come. I didn't even have time to think about it. After I was finished with one thing, I had to do the next one immediately.
The statistics: Every night I was sleeping at 5am. Of the 6 nights, I slept 3 hours each in 2 of them and 1 without any sleep. I could have died in my swarm of essays, but I didn't and for that I'm rejoicing now. (Well, let's not go to the exams yet alright, let me have my two minutes of victory.)
During this time, I have had no sense of time, day, date whatsoever. My sleeping hours were warped, so were my eating hours. I had an average of 1 to 2 meals per day at funny timings. And no, even though I was doing most of stuff on my bed, I did not fall asleep. How do you fall asleep when your bed is swarmed with papers and books all over it? (Actually I was secretly gloating inside that I had a queen-sized bed to hold all my stuff hur hur..)
What kept me going: I don't know. Panic I think. My plans for doing one thing on certain days failed because I was just too slow and so I had to multi-task. And no, I didn't rely on coffee, red bull or any adrenaline stimulants. When I got really really tired in the middle of the night, I relied on watching Japanese dramas (haha!) No kidding, I don't know why I picked it up, my usual stuff are anime, but due to a large amount of procrastination, I didn't I just wasn't going to reward myself properly if I only got 15 mins of enjoyment for all my hard work. And yes, I did go back to do my work after watching one episode. Hur hur, I don't know what it was, guilty conscience? Maybe.
The achieved: 25% film project plus report (we did a mini-animation, in which we drew and painted, filmed and then did major editing), 70% cold war essay (so much weightage, I know, groan..), 40+% Asia-moderns essay (why 40+%? Because it is my estimate, I really don't know how much it weighed)
Although I'm still feeling kind of zonked out from major lack of sleep still, I'm really glad it's over and hope the past will never repeat itself. Well, ok that's really hard to say with level 4 modules. Argh the pain.. Anyway I have reason to relax a bit (or at least get some sleep to nurture my brain cells) before mugging for the rest.
What I'm left with: 50% shakespeare & film exam, 30% cold war exam and JLPT 3 (this is an official proficiency exam to test your Japanese language skills)
Hehe, now now people, don't get too jealous. I have paid it off with all my 100% CA thing. It was painful but it was worth it :)
11:14 pm
クロサギ
Rockapella rocked our world!
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Yes, I have a guilty confession to make: I secretly (well not so secret now anymore) went for the one-night only Rockapella concert and turned into a groupie, together with Kim, Faith, Mandy and Maggi.
After the group of five guys started singing in their wonderful wonderful voices, the five of us melted and started having recurring raging hormones from like teenhood or something.
Examples of rising oestrogen levels: "They were so goooooooooodddddddddddddddd..."
"omg they are so cutttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeee!!"
How the hell do they do it?! No instruments, no nothing, just them and their voices. The vocal percussionist, Jeff did all the instruments using his voice. I couldn't have believed it if I weren't there for myself, it sounded exactly like the real thing- the drums, the cymbals, everything. And according to Mandy, the pitch expert, they were pitch-perfect, despite the lead singer, Scott having some sort of sore throat.
When they sung, all my childhood dreams of becoming part of an acapella group just came back to me in a flood... I wanna sing like them damnit!! Girls, we should form a band man, there are five of us too, just nice... muahahahhaa... and you know, start small like they did on the streets of New York with a hat out for collecting money for dinner.
Yup it's true, I totally admit... the guilty pleasure of watching this right smack in the middle of all our deadlines made it more enticing. I am so gonna pay for one night of indulgence. To a geek, my actions would have seemed unfathomable, no, he/she would think I was mad. Just what the hell did I think I was doing going to a bloody concert when my deadlines (now let us not go to the exams bit first) are just around the corner.
No regrets nonetheless. Rockapella totally rocked our world! We did enjoy ourselves watching Rockapella and pigging out before
and after the show. Really, we can just not stop eating, especially around the still-growing and ever-hungry Mandy and Faith.
Never underestimate the power of their eating capability haha. Now they're just going to kill me for defaming them here hehe.
After the show, they had an autograph signing session, which being newbies to this sort of thing, we completely missed it, and by the time we came back to it, there was a long queue. So the closest we could come to Rockapella was behind a red tape. Kim was trying to strategise by casually walking past, but to no avail, since we ended up standing in front of them from afar like some voyeur hur hur. In the end, Mandy helped us make a resolution: "the next time we come here for their concert, we are so going to buy their cds (assuming that we should have started working by then and have relatively more spending capital) and then queue there from the start."
P.S. we took photos and I was going to post them up here but Faith and Maggi haven't uploaded them yet, so the photos will just have to wait.
1:11 am
クロサギ
Things you should not attempt to do for your HT or ISM...
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Yup learn from the absent-minded person who found out everything last minute.
What you should not attempt to do:
- Not go for the damn talk. You know that talk in some vague email in the middle of the sem saying that students who intend to do ISM/HT should attend? If you have some vague desire to do, you should go. I'm not kidding, you must learn how to do all the bureaucratic stuff that is important to our conservative school.
- Try to change your HT/ISM title 2 hours before it is due. Because I didn't go for the talk, I didn't know that a formal note is needed to inform the department, the honours coordinator and my supervisor about the change of my ISM title. Apparently when you hand the thing in, they will not only check against your name but the bogus title which you wrote in your contract at the beginning of the semester. So being me, I found out only the weekend before it was due, and naturally panicked.
- Not be consistent. This is serious stuff. Because there are no lessons, you tend to push it aside and everything gets pushed to the very last minute. A month or so before it was due, I started to do intensive research. And because of lack of resources, I basically got most of the stuff from my head. Considering the final thing constitutes 100% of the grade, this is no joke.
- Not see your supervisor often enough, which I'm glad I didn't do, but I didn't always prepare for our meeting sessions. I just had to see him to make me feel guilty about not doing any work and then hopefully I would start doing something.
- Not draft your paper. Even though I only did one draft for my supervisor, I felt that I could have done at least two, just to secure my final paper which is worth all of the 100%. Well, at least one is better than none.
- Not talk to your fellow working-on-ISM/HT people often. You should, to get all sorts of tips on like formats and binding and stuff, which I admit I didn't always do ha.
- Attempt to hand your thesis/ISM to your supervisor. You cannot do that. All papers must go to the general office for policing the time and date of your submission.
- Try to find out the format of the paper 2 days before it is due. This is very bad, it gets you into a frenzy trying to find at least one person who knows, and what more, pissing a higher authority with your no-knowledge.
- Force yourself to study without any rest after handing in the final paper. Because I crashed at 3am last night, I found myself waking up at 11.30am when my class was at 12nn, all because I was so tired and set my alarm to 10+pm instead of am. Hur hur.
9:42 pm
クロサギ
I can't wait for everything to be over
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Judging from how little I mention school in my entries (2.5 out of 10), I think I should start developing some guilt and pen down my impending deadlines, just so I won't forget.
13th November 12nn ISM final submission 100%
20th November 10am Shakespeare and Film creative project presentation and report 25%
Same day Cold War Texts final paper 70%
21st November 11am Asia-Moderns final paper 40+%
Looking at them in their entirety, I wouldn't
dare forget.
I am so screwed next week.
In times like this, I badly need Mandy's essay-churning power, and I do mean fast and good essays ha, as well as alot of optimism to get me through (Daniel, please pester me to
chiong my essays). Make that alot of redbull as well (under Kim's recommendation).
But after ISM submission and before D-Day
s, we still have reunion on Wed to look out for :)
I can't wait.
3:43 pm
クロサギ
Notre Dame de Paris
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Wow. From the rich mise-en-scene to the powerhouse vocals of the main actors/actresses to the vigorous dancing of the ensemble. Notre Dame de Paris the musical was just wow.
It was all in French, something I think both held its magic for me as well as hindered it, but on the whole, I'd rather prick my ears and listen to the quick French singing pass me by than read the rather distracting subtitles at the side (even though my French has somewhat turned rusty and has remained stagnant). Given a choice, I would rather have it in French because the singing in the language was simply beautiful. English or any other language would have made the sentimental scenes lose their intended emotions and the raucous scenes their prowess and integrity.
The mise-en-scene was cleverly built such that the transitions between scenes were fantastically smooth from the creation of the effect of the church tower walls to men hanging from the bells to the jail scene. I especially liked the moving gargoyles on tall pillars around the stage. The mise-en-scene was so rich there was always something else to look at other than the actor/actress singing in the spotlight simultaneously, either something in the background or another character's action in the foreground or the intense lighting effect when Esmeralda was singing solo whilst standing on one of the church pillars. And I know this is something most people would miss but I thought it was superbly done: the makeup and costumes. If sitting in front has advantages, it would be to be able to see the characters' faces too clearly. I could see Quasimodo's painted face to look like he had only one good eye and his humped back on one shoulder, as well as Esmeralda's sparkles on her eyelashes which matched her gypsy dress, and Phoebus's and Gringoire's very distinctly drawn eyebrows.
The powerhouse vocals of the actors/actresses captivated my entire attention, so much so that I wanted to just stare at them sing instead of flitting from their faces to the right or left boards for subtitles. And it got to a point that I didn't want to even know what they were singing about anymore, even though throughout Act 1, I was quite focussed on what they were singing and the lyrics were incredibly sentimental to the extent that I felt it was memorialising Victor Hugo's work. I heart the soundtrack, not just because of its meaningful lyrics (in fact there was a strong opinion given on revolution and anti-establishment that I recalled from Romanticism in them I thought, something reminiscent of the book), but also because of the music itself. The delivery was so beautiful and the music even more beautiful, I felt I was floating through another realm altogether.
And even before the end of Act 1, I felt the compelling need to buy the soundtrack during the 20-minute interval, which I did and I heart :) I bought the two-cd compilation of the original first cast from Paris, complete with a pretty packaging and a mini hardcover book containing the lyrics (in French of course) and some pictures of the scenes.
This gets even better when my friend realised he bought the wrong category of tickets and got Cat 2 instead of Cat 4 (and he was nice enough to sponsor the difference on the account of my birthday hur hur) and plus the fact that there were not many people on a weekday night, we were upgraded to about 7 rows from the stage. We also saw MP and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean with a few other distinguished guests seated in the front row, and their bodyguards at the side (the freeloaders! ha)
On another note, the cathedral Notre Dame is every bit as dark as it is portrayed in the musical. I have been there and I could just imagine Hugo's fictionary Quasimodo hanging around the tower up there and all the incestuous relationships centering the cathedral in the middle ages. I especially loved the rose windows and gothic-style architecture, although it probably needs a little painting up of the exterior, because when I last went there about two years ago, it was almost black and they were doing some construction on the left side which made my photos look different from the poster kind of images. Yup I would definitely go back again soon, and will also take the chance to visit the neighbouring sacre-coeur cathedral as well. And this time, I will brush up my French and give the parisien snobs something to take home to tell their children
hur hur.
11:56 pm
クロサギ
In my mother's eyes, I am 10 years old
Yup, the perks of having a ten-year-old sister: having the chance of reliving your childhood, especially getting presents from my mother which are similar to what she buys for my sister.
Let me give you an example: the egg-shaped My Melody clock that has a little character inside which swirls with the fluid inside, complete with glitter, when you shake it.
Or: the My Melody plastic file which I now carry to school, thanks to the poor state of those free NUS files co-op gave out some time ago.
When I was ten, I never had things like My Melody, Hello Kitty or other Sanrio characters stuff... in fact, I didn't know what was the difference among the pink characters (which I now know) like Little Twin Stars (the vaguest memory were the sweets) and My Melody and Hello Kitty (ah yes, I recognise this quite distinctly from the Macdonald's fuss). We didn't have enough money for me to indulge in all these girlie stuff, so now my mother is unknowingly compensating for this lost section of my childhood by buying my sister and me similar things.
Today I got stickers! And not just any kind of stickers but those pop-up kind of stickers that consist of very colourful butterflies and bumblebees, complete with flowers and grass.
Hur hur. I think my mother is very funny.
My mother was like: "Nah, take take take. Before your sister sees them and gets jealous." (Even though she bought for my sister exactly the same set of stickers)
Now I'm wondering where on earth can I stick those stickers? On my black and white notes? On my water bottle? On my notebook? (Wait, I don't have a notebook!)
If any of you want cutesy stickers, come and ask me.
Hur hur.
12:34 am
クロサギ
The fourth child
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Misty is the fourth child in my family. (I didn't mean to start my composition with a primary school writing style but oh well) My sister and brother play with her like she were their little kid sister. My father laughs at her for doing silly things like he does at my sister and my brother and I when we were younger. Sometimes he gets scolded by my mother for 'encouraging misbehaviour'. And my mother, of course, being the head of discipline in the house, teaches Misty manners, such as not jumping around/along with us when we are walking, not biting us and basically anything that irritates me mother (almost everything Misty does can irritate my mother).
Everyone treats Misty like a baby, and she is the baby of the family after all. At four months, she was teething pretty badly. At five months, which is now, her milk teeth are starting to fall one by one. Being nearly a first-time parent to animals, we didn't know what to do so we called the petshop and the lady advised us to get teething gel meant for babies at the pharmacy. Of course, she eats up all her teething gel that we apply on her teeth that we are never quite sure if it worked at all. I have since collected two of her teeth, after preventing her from eating them (yes, to our horror, puppies do swallow their own milk teeth). Like a proud parent, I have sealed her two milk teeth in little ziplop bags, saving them for a space in a scrapbook for her (which I am thinking of creating later on).
My daily routine with her includes: brushing her hair and moustache, cleaning her eyes, cleaning her ears, brushing her teeth and training her to do tricks. My mother's daily routine with her includes: feeding her twice a day together with three different types of multi-vitamins for who-knows-what purposes. The normal hygiene conditions still apply: cleaning and replacing her pee and poo tray. Last of all, she needs alot of attention such as patting, talking to her, playing with her etc, because this would be good for her overall well-being and her physical body condition with some exercise. So you see, she is really more troublesome to manage than a human baby, although they probably share a similar kind of environment at the initial stage.
After we got Misty, we had to be really careful of what lies on the floor since like babies, puppies tend to eat whatever they get their paws on. Basically we had to puppy-proof the place for a safer living environment for her. And if any of us fell sick, we were firmly instructed by my mother not to spread the germs to her.
Like a princess, Misty whines when she gets hungry and wants food or when she feels sad or pain. She doesn't bark, in fact many people who have seen her think that she doesn't know how. I have seen her bark in the petshop with the other puppies during mealtime, but somehow in our house, she knows that she doesn't need to because she is the only one here. I mean, who else will eat dog food but her, it's only a matter of time. So for that, she whines. She also whines to get your attention, sometimes almost excessively. But she is an independent dog, we have trained her to sleep in her own room (which used to be a study room before it was taken over by her), she recognises her own room and is comfortable going back to it.
Recently she has gotten used to my lap and when i sit on the floor cross-legged, she will come to me and snuggle on my lap. Such a sweet girl she is. In the initial stages of her puppyhood, she was never satisfied to sit or stand at one place for long. She was often restless, highly excited and hyperactive, likely to run around between the hall and her room nonstop, so much so that we were worried she might get heart palpitations for the constant adrenaline rush. Now, she has learnt how to rest after some time, although she is still as hyper as ever and even has a high jump record to prove it.
To end it all, this smart fourth child knows who can be bullied in the household and who can't, which she uses to her advantage. With my mother, she keeps her behaviour in check, sometimes not even daring to move or only so much as to crawl and lower her head in obedience towards her. With my sister, she jumps on her and licks her face on the lips or she jumps on her from the back and bites her hair. Even though we adopted her from the petshop, Misty has grown very comfortably into the fourth child and sixth member of our family, so much so that we now treat her like one of us.
11:44 pm
クロサギ
