Sunday, December 20, 2009
jc and poly bandfest 09
helping out as a chaperon this year brought tears and laughter, and taught me again what it means to 有福同享，有难同当. amazing, but i don't know whether i wanna do it again next year...shimmied at 5:14 PM
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Tuesday, December 01, 2009
science in literature
so, for the first time in many, many years, i get to read up on stuff like the double-slit experiment, Schrodinger's cat and critical mass etc, thankfully, without the math. less interestingly though there's also that bit on galileo and copernicus, but that was easy, we're all well-versed in the heliocentric universe. i love it that bentley points out 'the evidence of one's senses is that the sun goes round the earth. that the earth should go round the sun is directly counter to that evidence. the average man accepts the latter idea on pure faith. so far as he knows, it could be wholly untrue. for the demonstration lies in the realm of the abstract and the abstruse.' (from The Science Fiction of Bertolt Brecht) But of course, it being literature, we focus on the human drama in science rather than scientific fact itself. for sure, what we read of copernicus, heisenberg and the copenhagen interpretation would surely be outdated.im glad that this sem i managed to learn some new stuff (and unlearn a lot too) for at least two modules...the rest were a waste of time, esp creative writing zomg.
shimmied at 4:34 PM
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Monday, November 30, 2009
how much is that doggie in the window
today i saw a beagle in a pet shop. im head over heels in love.shimmied at 6:10 PM
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Friday, November 27, 2009
malady of a lit student
or melodie, perhaps?asking one another what we're gonna do after the exams, and we excitedly start talking about ooh im gonna start on this or that new book i bought! really, oh cool im gonna be reading this and that too!
haha.
shimmied at 4:35 AM
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Sunday, November 22, 2009
l'avenir looks bleak
butterflies in my stomach for tomorrow's exams. i've hit a roadblock, nothing im reading is giving me any new knowledge but im not getting any ideas of my own either. so the most interesting module of the sem is gonna suck. what a lacklustre semester this has been! poor essays, to-be-disastrous exams, suicide-worthy grades.well at least the prof has been real nice and encouraging. the other day he told you im doing well for someone with no background, in reply i told him to expect me in his amateur class next sem, and he chortled heartily, and to my surprise, started pitching his amateur course to me. sounds interesting, hope i can get into the class. still, the bell curve works against me. stupid stupid. it was suicide to do the advanced class but every other class was full. you know the school admin cites classroom size limitation for keeping so strictly to the class size limit, but i think that's a non-issue because there will always be ponners, and there're always empty seats! so i think they can increase each class by like...5-10 more people each.
stalking fb and getting all jealous of people who have their exchanges paid for by some scholarship or another. wish i was one of them, too bad im not smart enough. im never good enough for anything. it's infuriating.
i don't know whether i should continue studying. it's not going in anyway...what is blind cinema? well, how should i know. arrrgh. i feel like i've done the best i could all this sem, and particularly for this module because it is so challenging (how come i couldn't do that for maths? haha) but it's going nowhere. it's nightmare.
i am looking forward to next sem though. but of course that depends on what courses i get. if i get the ones i want, like amateur film theory, modern poetry, shakespeare, gender and politics, it should be real cool. if im forced to take others like...i dunno, feminist theory or modernism or something it'd be yet another boring bad sem.
shimmied at 3:59 PM
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
ac days will never be back
dom and i went back to ac today. it was a bit awkward because we didn't know anyone at all, change conductor again, ms sng on holiday, laoshi prolly also on holiday, no juniors we know. in fact we didn't even know where to sit so we sat on the stairs near the shoe racks, until a perc poked his head in and directed us to the couches at the back. end of prac, the only eupho player, melvin, (who's pretty good!) came to say hi, cos samantha told him a eupho senior wld be visiting haha. nice of her. when he learnt my name, he was like, oh! I know you, your name's still on the eupho case! haha super funny. q shocking too like omg why's my name still there but nice to see that im still there la haha.while refilling my bottle, i saw something that amazed me. rosalind and two other ladies were singing familar songs fr songbooks in the canteen. dom said quite matter-of-factly, some things never change. indeed! i'd forgotten that everytime the A's are going on there'd be a prayer group quietly supporting, praying and singing, for us. how ungrateful of me, how quickly we forget their labour of love for us! i felt so touched there and then, to think i once benefitted from their prayers, to think that somebody was even praying for me, was amazing. one of the reasons i miss ac so much, it's so affectionate. (but of cos we aren't perfect either, glad to see we're working on it though)
anyway, just a shout out on acband's behalf (not like anyone relevant will read this but haha anyway) acband tune-in happens next saturday, 28th nov, graduating sec4/5 bandies all dearly welcome. registration starts at 8.30am. join us for a day of fun and music-making!
shimmied at 8:20 PM
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
legitimizing science
the more i think about legitimation of science (in literature, whether fictional or non-fictional), the more it begins to resemble legitimation of religion. quite laughable...although i suspect this sudden insight is probably not original, it sounds like something everyone will arrive at given the time. i'll get back to this when i start studying sci&lit. i wish i could get to sleep..hope i can wake up in time tmr!shimmied at 7:17 PM
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study week events
my study week is looking more like an ac week...earlier on i had dinner with amirahh, tomorrow i'm meeting dom to visit acband (finally!), friday im meeting rose to study...oddly though none of them are from my batch.today i went for a classic medi and pedi. im kinda irritated that i cannot bite my nails now. i know it's a disgusting habit but it's...comforting. im not used to square nails...they look nicer but i dont like the jutting edges. haha i seem to do my nails at the same time...last year i did it twice, once before sem 2 exam the next for my birthday/sem1 exam. this year it's twice again, first on my return from uk, the next for sem1 exam. hahaha actually it's a waste of time, because you don't study when you're doing your nails, and when you're done you can't exactly touch anything for another two more hours. then again it's not like im actually studying anyway..
im feeling more and more demoralized about my papers. this is my slackest (and hardest) sem so far - not much studying to do for choir only memory and vocal work, another module s/u, the creative writing module over, so three modules to really study for. yet of those three there is none that i am confident for...so that seriously sucks. haven't written a proper essay for some time. in the past i used to have at least one good essay per sem (yes i know other people are producing good essays for every mod but im not that smart)..this sem i don't have a 代表作品 so im very disappointed.
well at least the film theory essay is over. i know it's not well-written, i couldn't articulate my thoughts well...but the ideas, the process of thinking, was divine. i didn't think i'd like film but this lecturer changed my mind.
shimmied at 4:25 PM
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
a story of love
received this anecdote in the mail, just thought i'd share it. it's Sunday, after all.
* * *
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art. The son joined the army. He was very courageous and died in battlewhile rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son. About a month later, just before Christmas, There was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.' The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much.. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.'
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift.'
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected. The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?'
There was silence...
Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.'
But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?' Another voice impatiently, 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandts. Get on with the Real bids!' But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting...' Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
'We have $10, who will bid $20?'
'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.' The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!' A man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the
collection!' The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'
'What about the paintings?'
'I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!'
God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
shimmied at 2:19 PM
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
jumble of thoughts and stuff
i saw on facebook (ahha stalking, as usual, cos antm is so boring) that andrew kan wrote on kai's wall about choir. he would know four people in the photos, kai, laser beam, jevon and myself. he only wrote on kai's wall though. felt a little strange to be no different from a stranger to him now, when in secondary school we used to talk on the phone pretty often, mostly he'd call to say he learnt a new song on the guitar so he wanted to sing/play it for me. sad.i had dinner with jevon last night, which was great. my friendship with jevon is sorta a complete opposite from andrew's, stopped speaking to him in primary school, and after taking this module together i've started talking to him again. quite funny la.
so, with the choir exam over, that makes two modules over and done with. i don't feel any relief...but as some disembodied voice behind me said yesterday, we can worry about it when the results come out.
i wrote a 2700 word essay on a film that's 11mins long! i am rather amazed at myself, but there was nothing too original in my content so i mean, nothing to be really excited about i guess. i hope i don't fail anything this sem though. sigh.
look up look up, school days are over!
