Vivien ♀ Twenty one (21) English Literature Major ✎ A Gleek ♬ I love you like a love song

Yes maybe after this post I'd get so bored I would start on my PL paper. I think the coffee is starting to kick in. Either that or it's just my imagination, but suddenly I feel all jittery. I also see double images. Is that normal?

Maybe I should get another cup. Or milo. Either way, I'm so unfocused now, I need to stop squandering my time away.

That's it! GOOD BYE.

Again Stumbleupon has proved itself to be distracting as I viewed through 10 pages or so of pictures of duck-like objects. Amusing much?

And then I found this:

Here is a new set of rules for editing your writing.

1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.

2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.

4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat)

6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.

7. Be more or less specific.

8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.

9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

10. No sentence fragments.

11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.

12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

14. One should NEVER generalize.

15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

16. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

17. One-word sentences? Eliminate.

18. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

19. The passive voice is to be ignored.

20. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.

21. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.

22. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

23. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.

24. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

25. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.

26. Puns are for children, not groan readers.

27. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

28. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

29. Who needs rhetorical questions?

30. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

And the last one... 31. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Which is also interesting if you bother reading it through. I'm probably going night cycling! Not tonight, I mean next next next week, or something. But, yay!

Okay I shall now go brew me a cuppa most potente coffee/draught of zombies, to keep me awake through the night to start on my PL essay.

Once again, I bid you adieu! [aI bId jʊ adʒIa]

I have been struck by a bout of depression. I only got a B+ for my EN (which, by the way, in English Literature, the thing I want to major in) mid-terms! Note the exclamation point, which is used to emphasise my being extremely distraught. I am extremely distraught. A B+! How the hell am I supposed to get good honours?

Okay, so it's only 10%, but please let me wallow in self-pity and think of solid excuses to make my pathetic score seem more justified. Here's one: I sleep in lectures or barely pay attention. Oh, and I've not written any half-decent prac-crit in months, and not only that,the months that have passed were spent on watching inane television programs like Spongebob Squarepants and shows on the MTV channel (not that I'm complaining), so it should account for some serious brain damage. And, lastly, one takes time to warm up one's literary bull-shit prose so that even if one writes bull, the elegant words would hide that fact/detract the reader.

Yes, everyone knows those are lousy excuses, but who cares? It's only 10%! It is! (As you can see from the almost hysterical expressions--the superfluous usage of exclamation points and the phrase "It is!" seems to be a desperate cry for validation--, the speaker is still clearly distraught and is only pretending to be nonchalant)

[time lapse][/time lapse]

Anyway I just met up with Xumei and Sokemay, and went for dinner with Xumei, so right now I'm feeling full and content, and nothing in the world, not even a B+, can dampen my spirits. Okay actually I'm not feeling that happy. I'm just not feeling anything now.

Like the new skin? And the new playlist? The lyrics at the header of the blog comes from the song Bigcitydreams, which is really cute. Although right now I'm feeling a little blue and melancholy, sitting alone in my room. Remember how I wanted to blog about perpetually happy people? Sometimes I wish I were one of them, with this weird hormonal imbalance where there's too many (much?) endorphins in the system.

But I'm not. Some days I don't even feel like talking to people. Of course by people I mean acquaintances whom I make small talk to. I mean, small talk is just that, small and forgettable. Like "Where are you off to?", "Oh, I'm going to meet a friend/to the library to blow a-c/back to hall.", where you can tell that both parties are disinterested. And since my block has a clique-ish group of girls, most of whom (?O_O Grammar check please) come from the same JC/OG/temporary block comm, whom I'm not particularly close to; I cannot hang out with them much. I mean, they're a friendly bunch and sometimes I do hang out with them (not like it's torture, but usually I only hang out with them out of necessity, because, you know..), but I cannot, repeat, cannot, feel comfortable around them.

Probably because big girl cliques are really exclusive. And by "exclusive" I don't mean it in the social, atas way, but rather in purely technical terms, meaning it excludes certain parties, usually not on purpose. All big girl cliques are like that, really. And another thing, besides the whole big girl clique thing, is that those girls seem to be perpetually happy, high (on what, air?), or simply too nice and full of laughter and, uh, happy. Seriously, they're those who can cheer and scream and get high on nothing, and laugh/make exaggerated emotion sounds (by that I mean "Awww", or "Wooo" when watching a show/someone do something/the clock tick) in synchronised timing. And I'm not kidding. Those things creep me out. I mean, must a person be perpetually loud, or in the centre of attention? How can they be so in sync with each other? Don't they have any awkwardness at all?

I know, how can I be such a bitch and not join these happy people right? How can I even think that being happy is bad? Actually, I don't think so. It's just that perpetually happy people freak me out. And no matter where I am, I cannot become one of them. The thought of even giving a sincere, toothy smile to people I barely know is enough to make me shudder. So when I usually see acquaintances I give a halfhearted, barely-upturned-mouth smile, as compared to when I see a friend, or at least someone I'm comfortable around. Then I'd give a real smile. Unless I'm too shagged lah. Of course the whole half-smile thing does not apply to cute guys hahaha kidding shhh.

You people probably think I'm weird. Now, that is.

But then again you already know that I'm pretty much antisocial and unfriendly, so, whee. Too bad I don't stay in other blocks, where I actually know some people (like, those from my OG, or Malaysians haha), so now I usually avoid eating dinner in the hall because a)the food still sucks, b)if I'm unlucky I could end up eating alone, and bad food+alone=ultimate loser dinner, c)if I'm unlucky in another way I could end up eating with guys and then I'd be one of those cannot-find-a-girl-clique-and-have-to-eat-with-guys kinda girl, and/or d)I'd end up sitting with people I don't particularly talk to and end up having an unsatisfactory dinner, which is just sad.

Now you know why I want to spend money on dinner instead of eating in hall. Ahem. I rest my case.

Wow this is a pretty long post, huh? I guess this should be the amount of words I'm aiming for for my PL essay. Can you believe this is already about 950 words? Full of crap, I am. Not in the literal sense, that is.

Anyway, happy! No NM tutorial tomorrow, which means besides the two RPP(s) I signed up for, I'm basically fuh-reeeee! Happy happy. I can do my psychology essay in peace, unless the block people knock on my door in a bid to get people down for the mid-autumn festival celebration thing, meh. I want to eat mooncakes with my family, not with aforementioned creepy happy people (nah, I'd restate it again--they are nice, just not my type. Too happy. I need angst, and whining, and sarcasm! NOW!) who make you feel obliged to feel happy too.

The Internet connection is bad again today. And I'm feeling sleepy again. But at least I don't have a headache, yay! Anyways I shall go bathe now.

Ciao, babes. Love ya.

Um. Yes, like that dude in the video, I seem like I have too much time. But I don't.

And I'm having yet another excruciating headache. Meh. I need to eat healthier food, which means no more laksa/cutlet/cheese sausages which are not merely heaty, but extremely unhealthy too. And then I still have that psychology assignment to do. And then I have to meet up with my EL group in which I only know two members' names and don't particularly talk much to them.

I wanted to blog about the phenomenon of perpetually happy people, but then decided against it since my headache is killing me. Maybe I should get some sleep soon. Even though it's only 10.18pm. I think I'm slowly reverting back to my Primary school sleeping habits. Yeah, I wish. I'm guessing I'd pump myself full of coffee tomorrow. Hyper Vivien to the rescue!

Okay, bye. Good night! Ta.

Hello Earthlings, I am so shagged, after the two mid-terms which have managed to give me the MOTHER of all headaches. And then there are day-one cramps to contend with, and lousy hall dinner (yes, I caved and ate hall food! Luckily I didn't eat alone if not that would have totally made my day) to consume.

Anyway I've concluded that Mid-terms are like fevers--they have to get worse before they get better, or something along that cliched line. The New Media one was a fiasco, since I couldn't remember the convergent thingamajigs. And then Psychology MCQ was more of a guess-fest than anything. On the bright side, it's two down and one to go.

I promised an update, didn't I? So here are the incredibly boring details of what happened during recess week. Uh. I watched tonnes of TV. Probably to make up for the TV-less nights in hall. And then I gorged myself on chips and instant noodles. And more food. And slept lots more too. Basically I slacked the entire week away at home.

And I realise I'm way lazier and unmotivated at home than in hall. And I sleep much more. Plus the Internet connection is seriously %$^&-inducing, to say the least, so I've also found out that LAN is so much more reliable than Singnet. But nothing beats the creature comforts at home. So in short, if I want to not slack my entire University life away, I should stay in hall, but if I want to grow fatter and lazier, I should stay at home. The second option is really tempting. And I don't say that in an entirely sarcastic way. Shh. Sloth and gluttony strikes.

Oh. And I got into the internship thing for the S'pore PH scholarship, which means I passed the first round of interviews! Although technically it wasn't so much an interview as it was a chit-chat session between three friendly people and myself. Which stands in stark contrast with the three semi-unfriendly old women in my previous wreck of an interview with you-know-who (you know, Choo's favourite organisation) where I was so uncomfortable sitting there having them ask questions and me giving cringe-worthy and obviously fake answers. I love it when I'm not lying.

But this means that my summer break (summer? Pssht stop acting like you're in a seasonal country) is entirely burnt. But then I'd have an income for at least two months. Gah my head and shoulder aches (I mean, have you tried shading a hundred circles sitting in the LT seat which has such ridiculously low tables? Have you? It's like every time I shade a circle I feel my shoulders and back protesting) are killing me.

Now what? Sleep, probably. I need sleep. I'm dying. My brain cells are dying (200 000 a day in adults, you know? I'm 18, they're probably dying at an increasing rate nowadays), and my memory is not as good as it used to be (no, actually I'm lying about that part; my memory was always bad). 11.39, it's got to be a new record for me. Looks like I'd have to start on my psychology Mid-term paper (yes, yes, there is an exam and a paper. 50% in all. What the hell were they thinking, right?) tomorrow. It is due on Friday, but luckily they only want two pages, which I'm pretty sure is manageable. Let's just pray for the miraculous effects of the bell curve, which seniors are always raving about. Hopefully the six years spent in DHS can allow me to be slightly on the correct happy end of the curve. Either that or I'm happily ignorant and you can just shut it and let me wallow (or, rather, frolic) in my little enclosed space of joy. Shh.

Okay, sleep beckons (actually, it screams at me), I've got to see that it shuts up. And I have twelve packets of coffee expiring tomorrow, anyone wants some to help them keep awake, just tell me. If not I'd drink two packets in a desperate attempt to do the PL paper (caffeine is proven to stimulate your dendrites, or whatever it was which I have clearly forgotten) and throw the rest away. Which would be a waste since it isn't bad coffee. Maybe I should tempt fate and drink it ,*gasp*, past the expiry date.

That's all, folks! RPP tomorrow (no, no, nothing to do with role-playing, it's a pesky research participation thing, rah), need sleep nao losing brain functionssssszzz.

Going home, again.

And I just ironed my freshly laundered white shorts, again.

Sometimes life is so mundane you need a couple of mid-terms to shock things up a little.

I'm screwed. T_T

Um. I'm thinking I should just go sleep now because I'd never get anything done. My apologies for being MIA for this whole week, I was basically too lazy to blog. Updates soon, or not. Ciao! :D

If you're in need of some cheering up or are just feeling bored, you can visit this, or this for some non-FML style, nice time-wasting text. I know I wasted tons of time (which could have been used for essay writing, but noooo) reading those random entries. And now I'm too lazy (and sleepy) to change my blogskin, and since I couldn't find any good ones anyway, I shall leave it to another day.

What you see.


What I see.

Well, I am so completely shagged now I don't even feel like sleeping anymore. On the bright side, I've finished my essay! Although it's probably a crappy piece of substandard writing, I've completed it! And I feel so accomplished, since the essay was given a month ago and I completed it in less than 24 hours. Yes I have such skewed logic. Don't argue with me, it's 4 in the morning.

I was contemplating changing blogskins, but I think I'd faint from sheer exhaustion.

8 am lesson tomorrow. Epic win. Interview tomorrow. Even more epic win.

Vivien ftw! Oh gosh I better get my beauty sleep, lest the interviewers think they're dealing with some form of zombie attack tomorrow.

Bye!

The world is ending.



How can they turn Dora into a tween?! That's just wrong.

No more, "Swiper, no swiping. Swiper, no swiping. Swiper, no swiping!". Instead she's now a fashion doll. Serious. Maybe she'll go gaga over Jonas Brothers and go on shopping sprees. Instead of mountains and rivers she'll traverse shopping malls and Starbucks joints.

"I don't care how wholesome it is, she's not who she is any more," Ms. Lamb said. Look at the outrage of parents!

But anyway, I'm so lonely now in my room. T_T Sundays really should be spent at home. Too bad for D&D last night, and this comm interview I have tonight, so I cannot go home.

Dora's a girly-girl! And I'm screwed if I don't start planning my essay. Farewell, people!

You know you're an epic fail (I don't know if fail is a noun, whatever!) when it's 2.15 in the morning, you've got tons of readings to complete and a full-length essay (+bibliography) due next week, and you're sitting in your hostel room viewing failblog's 113th page.

I am so stressed out I don't even feel stress anymore. My NM group project is in a mess (seriously), and the report is due next week. I am so behind in readings in my gem class that I should seriously start reading next term's ones so that I wouldn't fall behind then. And don't even get me started on the essay. And then there's an EN lecture quiz on poetry next Monday, which I am completely unprepared for. Plus I probably have to sit for the SPH interview next Friday, and you all know interviews can make or break me. Meanwhile,



Isn't that too cute?

I should get some sleep. Total mugger mode tomorrow! I shall complete some of the essay. Sorry, I meant to say, I MUST! At least after the movie/lunch/whatever.

In the meantime, I shall sleep. Goodbye, people.

For those of you who watched/watch Ghost Whisperer, remember those creepy-looking pictures (girl with bee for dress, person tearing self) in the opening sequence? I found who the artist was! Actually, I stumbled upon the site.

Here

Cool cool cool. What's not cool is how I've managed to spend 3 hours doing nothing on the Internet. Okay, so I did post something stupid on the IVLE gem forum on Christianity (which, I realise, I know nuts about. Nuts. And by that I'm not referring to some obscure form of circumcision of which I am knowledgeable about, you know, nuts? Okay fail, I shall shut up). But then the forum is already mostly silent because there's a new one on Islam! I am always one step behind the class meh.

I need to go bathe now. Wow. You can see from my short and random blog posts today that I haven't done anything remotely constructive. Epic fail.

See you people soon! I'm currently (attempting) planning Leanne's and Xumei's birthday celebrations. I win.

So numb below the clouds

Dark and splintering near the shadows
We eat humming shivas in the earth
God! The end is hard
Strangely brilliant beyond the dreamscape
You command blue demons near the shadows
Be aware! The day will come again
So numb below the clouds
You battle sexy illusions below the earth
Bizarre! The feeling is gone
translucent hesitant
fading slowly
any wind that blows
In whose eyes
the foreigner
leave his home
while the world changed

No, that isn't a "real" poem, I just generated it from here. Once again, I waste time like nobody's business.

TT_TT

Another time wasting page, of personality tests. Usually I either get ENFP or INFP. which goes to show you that I'm sometimes Intraverted (Introverted?) and sometimes Extraverted (Extroverted?). And I did this Freud one and apparently I am anal retentive (aka angst-ridden teenage mess who defies authority and is disorderly and unorganised). I probably am.

Anyway, Stumbleupon has got to be the worst thing ever conceptualised. T_T

Bye!

Politics and cute food. See what I waste my time on? I was trying to find the bloody MLA bibliography thing, but decided that it was too troublesome (essay due next Friday).

Bah my Internet is screwing up again. Need to restart my computer. Later!

This could have been taken in Singapore for all the difference it would have made. Oh except the people would be more well-dressed. Not.

If the word "dolor" means pain, why would anyone name their child Dolores?




I have no idea why I'm wasting my time on such sites when I should be doing everything else I should be doing.

This is a bloody cool waste of time. I shall stop blogging now, since I've been here for two hours+ and haven't done anything constructive. At all. Anyway SPH sent me an email regarding some interview thing. Apparently I still have a chance in the 2010 academic year. O_O Wow that is bittersweet. Actually, it isn't, I'm just out of phrases.

Chronic diarrhea. T_T

I'm so shagged!

To-do list:
1. Post on gem IVLE forum and pretend to have something constructive to say
2. Find people to do my surveys!
3. EL Tutorial
4. Read chapter on Christianity T_T
5. Get my ass moving and start on gem essay (due 18th sept omfgdie)
6. Pesky web thing
7. Stop blogging
8. Go to sleep

I am so shagged. And I haven't even done anything. But still, enjoying Uni life, because I haven't failed anything yet, and every second is new to me, in some way. I do miss going home and sleeping on my nice familiar bed. Aw.

Anyway, Chip, thanks for the postcard! I'm feeling the ♥! And I pinned it to my room's noticeboard to cheer me up when doing my shitloads of readings. Okay, seriously need rest for tomorrow's lectures. And stuff.

Ciao babes!

I'm blogging from home!

...

Yeah that's basically all I wanted to say. Because I'm so shagged now, although I have absolutely no reason to be shagged. I didn't go for Francesca's send off because being a homebody (and I have absolutely no idea what that word means; homebody: n. pl. home·bod·ies One whose interests center on the home, okay untrue) and someone who abides to home curfew (which, by the way, is unspoken, but there), I cannot stay out too late when I intend to return home. Meh, I really wanted to go, since Francesca was always so nice. :D

I guess I'm shagged because I lugged my Psych and Religion textbooks home in a attempt to be studious (read: phail). Psychology is really interesting, by the way. Really. Unlike English, which I've whined about incessantly and I bet you all are really sick of it.

So I shall talk about my one and only pair of shorts. Yesterday, I dripped ketchup onto it. So I washed it, and this morning, it was dry, so I wore it home, but accidently left some red marker stains on them. So I had to wash them again. Something tells me I'd look like I was bleeding from my thighs for at least a few weeks. White shorts, pah!

But alas! Those are my only pair of shorts.

I know, I know, I've talked about the topic of shorts to death. I so have to find a good topic to blog about one of these days. Or change a blog address to get new inspiration/deter random people from reading my blog.

Okay, ciao, sleep beckons. And I only wanted to tell you people that I was blogging from home, that's all. Bye!

I think I should get me a printer. And I want to take a French module next semester! Voulez vous? Unless the school offers something like Latin or Spanish. Si, señorita! Español! Although I cannot do the whole tongue thing, arrrrriba!

Anyways gotta go sleep. Meh I hate transcripting.

And another.



:D

Push
13:31

I know I'm supposed to be completing my shitload of readings, but I got bored. And sleepy. So I decided to heck it. T_T

Epic fail, I am.

You gotta help me out
Tuesday, September 1 19:30

I am contemplating shifting this blog somewhere else because it's time for a change of sorts. Anyway, did you know that baby lizards have softer chirps than adult lizard? Because there's a small baby lizard by the window right now about the length of a bobby-pin, and it just made the most adorable abhorrent chirping sound. Damn I bet it's the offspring of the fat adult lizard I saw last week. Curse lizards and their ability to reproduce (in my room, at least)! Now I have to clean up their mess (poo), and my mess (clothes and books), which isn't at all fun.

Sounds fun though, "Ooh, I think I spot another brown after-pellet left by my friendly room mate, the lizard! I shall use a piece of tissue to pick the poo up! What joy this gives me!"

Bah I'm supposed to go off soon to do some photography thing, then if the floorball IBG team needs more players I shall go play. Well, at least floorball is fun, I don't know nuts about the ISO/exposure compensation/shutter speed thing (like what buttons to press, what dial to, uh, dial, and stuff like that) because I hadn't been paying very close attention to what the tech people were saying (being the inattentive dolt I always am), and I'm on duty with a couple of people I don't know from the country of you-know-what, so I basically cannot strike up any conversation with them, since my mandarin is astonishingly bad (even worse than it was before), and they're bound to want to stick together.

I wonder how Choo is now, haven't seen her on Facebook for too long.

Gah I shall go for my duty now T_T Bye bye.

Sept 1st
16:44

Oh, HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY!

That's for Xumei. Remember how your students loved you? You're not meant to lead an antisocial mamee existence!

:D

Got to start on my to-do list. Which would most likely take up more than a page. Oh no.

Why are these lights so bright?
12:43

Good afternoon, people. For reasons beyond me it is once again raining drearily here at NUS. And of course my current mood parallels the dreariness of the weather, because I am way behind in terms of academic stuff. I haven't completed my English and New Media readings (on allophones/phonemes and the Network Society respectively), and I haven't finished the English tutorial (identifying phones based on some crudely drawn pictures of the vocal tract. Happy), and I've not posted anything on Christianity on the Gem IVLE forum (probably because the topics have nothing to do with circumcision, haha).

However I've finished reading The Bluest Eye which is a really interesting book. And short, so it wasn't a torture to complete (unlike books such as HMT, which had a somewhat convoluted storyline, and was full of words such as "palimpsest", and god-knows-what).

Right now I have about half-an-hour to kill (if I were to completely ignore my tutorials and readings, that is), and I'm feeling very full and lazy (as usual), since I just had some coffee and pastry from Coffee Club which is located very near LT11. Cleaned me out, $4 plus for bloody regular coffee, zzz. And the caffeine doesn't even have any effect on me! T_T

I haven't read the news in quite a while, so I have no idea what is happening around the world, except on Sundays, when I'm at home in the morning. And I miss reading the comic strips every morning too. I miss having nothing better to do than stone around and watch the whole day meander along. And having no worries, living a bohemian (similar concept, nowhere as chic) lifestyle. Now I have to worry about mid-terms, and term-papers, and speaking up in tutorials, and forums, and understanding lectures, it's no wonder I'm having an outbreak and a bad cough.

I have no idea how the trigo rap video on youtube garnered over 1000 views.

Actually I have nothing better to say anymore. And this post has served its purpose in helping me kill time. Yippee! I've been meaning to post on stuff other than my Uni life (like Choo's send-off, which, by the way, wasn't teary because the "teary" part was meant as a joke on my part since I knew Choo wouldn't cry; I've never seen her cry before), but cannot do so in such a short period of time. Anyway I've got some stuff to contend to before heading off for my Gem lecture (I'm in my hall by the way, since it's so conveniently located ♥).

Bye dahlings!

Chip ★ Choo ♥ Cecilia ★ Judy ♥ Linette & Yingxian ★ Jiayin ♥ Vina ★ Skins ♛ Twitter ☁ Blogger ☢ Facebook ☠ Tumblr ♐

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