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

Okay, okay, I know I'm supposed to be doing my three sets of readings on agenda-setting in the media and dialogue and 'inactive publics', whatever. But I've got to show you the funniest crappy video I've seen in a while. This:



It's at once really gross and hilarious. And you'd never listen think of Telephone in the same way again. And while we're on the topic of Chatroulette, Judy told me she'd visited the site once to see what's it all about (covering her webcam, of course, since Judy probably isn't an exhibitionist. Or is she?). So after that I obviously have to check it out, since Judy has already done that and I don't want to lose out, do I (nah, I'm just curious)? And after ^that^ video, I'd sure as hell love to see if I could be lucky unlucky enough to see dudes gyrating in three-piece swim suits.
I must say, that was a stroke of genius! Ah well at least it was cute. >_> And I didn't have to show my face and people did not immediately cut off. And in no way is that even slightly capable of being erotic, so it didn't feed the pervs and pedophiles. Win-win-win, if I do say so myself. And it was less boring (though only a bit less), because there were a few people who grinned, and there was a couple whom I was partnered to twice (what were the odds?), who literally burst out laughing when they saw the stupid leaf again. And there was this person who was wearing a mask, which must have been troublesome to make. Anyway, after about half an hour (or more? I lost track of the time) of next-ing and stuff I got bored, and since it was close to impossible to type quickly with one hand (holding the stupid leaf), I decided to quit and read Calvin and Hobbes instead. But, well, if you're really bored and want to provide some sorta cheer to somebody across the globe, you could go on the site for a while, holding on to a paper cut-out of a face. Although I must again warn you about the jack-off gifs (or, again, real people? Ugh) and the old men/pervs you could possibly meet there (if you decide to show your face, that is. Free society, man!).

It beats doing essays.

Anyway, on another note, I feel really weird when I speak broken English when I know it's broken and I know the proper usage. I don't mean using words like "lah", "lor", or "Wah lau!", because honestly I love those vernacular words, but I mean when I say "little" instead of "few". Sometimes I say, "why so little people one?", and it's like I know I'm using it wrong, but simultaneously I don't want to change the way I say it because if I do it seems fake to me. Like the word "three", when I pronounce it as "three", with the interdental fricative "th" sound rather than the more familiar "tree", I feel all phony and jia gandang. But then I know I'm speaking it wrong and it's killing me inside. Okay, not killing me, but it just doesn't go unnoticed and it gets pretty annoying.

Ah it's 8 already? Better go bathe and do my readings. Sigh. Sigh. SIGH.

When I do readings I sometimes scribble phrases which don't make sense. Phrases like "Everything has agency", or "Technology isn't the only one with agency". I think the craptastic nature of FASS has made me more crappy than ever. Sometimes I doodle on readings too, but that is to be expected of me, so. And then when I come across a ridiculously-put claim I'd scribble "LOL", or "right" beside it, like I were having a conversation with the text. I think in three years I'd turn into a full-fledged crazy.

Okay, back to my readings about wayang. Sigh.

I just had the most depressing hall dinner ever. Note the exaggerated use of italics. Yes, it was that bad.

And guess what? I haven't started on my essay/project either. I am such a loser sometimes. Around 4 in the afternoon I got a headache, and I slept till 6, during which I had a horrible nightmare about being faint due to not having ate anything from morning, and some crazy dudes chasing me in the market because I found out some horrible secret of theirs (which I forgot. Did I find out they were zombies or something?). I hate dreams where people chase me! Then I woke up, and left to have a pathetic dinner in the comm hall, sitting with a few people I know (sometimes I do get lucky like that). But because of the after-effects of the headache, the fact that I just woke up, and the superbly horrible dinner they were serving, I spent about 15 minutes eating and left directly after that. Luckily I didn't waste twenty cents having the dinner to-go, because that would just be portable crap-on-the-go and I'd still have to eat it grudgingly in my room. And wash the container after that.

Enough about that depressing bit of gastronomic crap. Here's another piece of depressing transport-related news. "No more new cross-country buses"- seriously? The Second Minister for Transport was talking about how there wasn't a need for such bus services since transferring from MRT to buses was much quicker, and they were working to cut down on the transfer penalties. Okay, so the government tells us that long-distance buses aren't as efficient. Yeah, like:

But today, 'a direct bus service cannot be faster than taking a feeder service and then the train', she said.

But but but! You don't ride buses merely for the speed! First (and this is crucial. CRUCIAL!), you actually get seats on a bus. Whilst on the MRT you either get caught in a human squeeze-a-thon (always fun!), or find a seat but then have to give it up seconds later because some poor old dude or dudette boards the train and no one gives up their seats and even though you're feeling so fatigued you could die, you just have to give the seat up. Because chances are you aren't so fatigued that you would die from it (yet), but the poor old dudes/dudettes/preggo-ladies (no, don't ask me why I'm using such weird terms. I think my brain isn't working very well today) probably could fall and injure themselves and/or get squeezed by the crown, suffocate, and die. No, they wouldn't die, it's just not very nice to let them stand, all right? I hate those working class people who immediately plop down and/or rush to any available seat as though they would actually die if they had to stand. Old topic; /topic (slash=end). But I have to be honest; I'm not actually such a saintly person- on Monday mornings, when I take the MRT, I usually find a seat (Pasir Ris), and to prevent myself from seeing an old person/pregnant lady and risk a guilt trip, I'd shut my eyes (and eventually fall asleep) and thus save myself from having to give up my seat. I'm not a Monday morning person, sorry folks. But if I happen to feel fully awake, I would give up seats to those who need it. Because I haven't transmogrified into a bitch-faced OL yet.

Anyway, back to the no-long-d-buses topic. Second, remember those long bus rides home from school on 12? Nothing can replace that! MRTs just seem so, so sterile. How can lasting friendships ever be built on MRTs? Okay, I exaggerate, since I hang out with people who don't take 12, but some of my best friends were found on the basis of taking the bus together. There's something to be said about waiting at a bus-stop together for a bus, or running like hounds freed from hell (this the correct phrase or what?) after the bus, because if we missed it we'd have to wait at least 15 minutes. And sometimes even though we don't get any seats we're content just standing and talking incessantly, about anything and everything, like our childhood, funny stories we've heard, the girls whom we think are the prettiest and why, or making up really ridiculous stories about each other. Somehow waiting for the MRT seems like such a impersonal thing to do; it seems to occur in a vacuum, and the cold efficiency of the Mass Rapid Transit just doesn't seem very friendly to me. And if you speak loudly in an MRT in a crowd people would glare at you, but on a bus, since you're usually not under the scrutiny of all the pesky passengers but rather in your cosy own two-seater (how romantic, no?) you probably couldn't see the glare of other people, even if they happen to be staring daggers at your teenage back. Point: Bus rides=great friends. MRT=not a good platform to make great friends. At least, not as great as buses.

Third, buses are way more personal, and long bus rides are infinitely more personal (like your third home, after DHS). Seems like a repeat of point two, actually. Uh. Well, you see, when you're 50 and old and have grandchildren, you could, in the wise, sagely way reminisce about your old days to your grandkids. And you would very much rather say stuff like, "I remember the long rides on bus 12, with my best friends. We used to talk about childhood silliness, like Sailormoon, and Power Rangers, which, incidentally, are things you have never heard of, have you? Well, you could google (assuming that Google exists that many years from now) the terms, but let me tell you what they are... Long before your time... ..." than, "I remember taking the MRT on the East-West green line from Buona Vista to Pasir Ris, a long time ago. There were no seats and we were all stinky after Mass PE. Which, incidentally, is something you haven't heard of, have you? Since you have all those new-fangled protein pills which keep your muscles toned and fats to the minimum; but let me tell you what PE is. Long before you time... ..." I mean, come on, The East-west line? Pssht, how lame is that?

Fourth, you won't look like such a dweeb sleeping in buses. Not that I care, but sleeping in the MRT is way more unglam than sleeping in a bus. It's like you have two rows (the one opposite and the one looking at the reflection in the window) of people who could be staring at you if you happen to fall asleep with your mouth wide open, or if you have the habit of nodding off to the people beside you. Not really a good point, but a point anyway. And, and, if the MRT ride is a 40 minute long one, won't you rather sleep without people looking at you for 2 hours (approximately how long bus 10 takes to reach Tampines) than for 40 minutes looking like a dweeb? And isn't it better to sleep for two hours compared to 4o minutes anyway?

Fifth, you don't see anyone ending their lives by jumping in front of a long-distance bus. And disrupting the entire commute. Yeahuh you can tell I'm running out of points too? But you know how those suicidal berks totally ruin everyone's day by dying in this manner? I mean come on, you want to take your life, you jolly well do it privately and not disrupt the entire train service while at it. It's horrible enough for people to witness cases of death and gore in real life (I haven't actually seen any up close but I've seen, from far, tragic cases of people who fell to their deaths- not while they're falling, but the tent covering the body. It's really sad and horrible to think about that), but to do it on such a large scale (an MRT station for crying out loud O_O) is nothing short of an act of terrorism. Yeah, instead of suicide bombers those people are, well, suicide jumpers(?). And how mean are they? Imagine having to scrape off bits of skin and bone from under the train and the tracks during maintenance. That's really inconsiderate. So until all the stations have those awesome suicide-preventing hall wall thingies, buses are still the best, suicide-free modes of transport. No offense to people know people who have died this way, but really, how inconsiderate can you get? Want to go out with a bang? Then strap yourself to a 50 kg of fireworks atop Esplanade theatre. Now that's a bang. And it doesn't interfere with the commute either. And, while I'm on the matter, while it takes plenty of guts (the seen and the unseen, with the visible guts slathered on the MRT tracks) to jump the track, it takes more guts to live your life even though you're all depressed and all that. Try seeking some counseling, for one.

Sixth, you can sing on buses.

Seventh, the seats on the buses are soft. 'Nuff said.

Eighth (because eight is a number. I cannot think of anymore points already!) Efficiency isn't the only factor is transport. First you've really got to solve the few-trains-many-passengers problem of overcrowding. Especially during peak hours and/or involving tourists and random entities trying to get to the IR via the purple line. It's not like I take the purple line trains, but really, is the MOT (Transport? Is there such a Ministry?) really that inept in pre-empting things like that? Plus the fact that you want more people to migrate to Singapore, which means you'd have to solve more problems of overcrowding. I don't see how you can do that without a major revamp of the system, in terms of higher frequencies of trains and better courtesy campaigns (I mean I have nothing against 权怡凤 playing an old lady and an MRT station employee simultaneously, nor do I dislike Phua Chu Kang and his retarded raps, but it's doing pretty much nothing to prevent arses from rushing in before the passengers alight. I suggest positioning Guerrilla-type MRT employees who ambush people who do that. At every single door. Granted that suggestion was crap, but it doesn't change the fact that MRTs breed such antisocial, jackass-type of behaviour. While people boarding buses are civilised, nope, just remembered how Judy pushed me and gave me my shin-scar. (:D)

Anyways, my argument is that LONG-DISTANCE BUSES RULE! THEY KICK YOUR STUPID MRT ASS ANYDAY!

...Yeah I don't know, maybe I should work for SBS (buses division). That being said, the Singapore transport system is really safe (unlike poor Moscow, with the recent suicide bombings. Sheesh, what's with terrorism? Can't people just be nice and forget all their screwed up, radical crazies ideologies?) and my gripes are just that of a spoilt, upper-middle-class, receiving a University education but stupid nonetheless person. What troubles do I have besides those inflicted by my stupid self-righteous lackadaisical self, and those which can only be brought about when you have a comfortable excess? By the way I'm actually quite scared of posting something with all the governmental spied-on words like, well, bombing, and terrorism. Better read up on some legalities before posting this. Well, I'm probably not inciting any hatred with my very, very neutral postings (unless you want to start an anti-bus riot. That's entire your problem, you freak!), and so far I've been politically correct to a fault (actually, no, whatever).

But if I end up going to jail, then, ah well. It'll be an experience. Which I can blog about. -.-

On a completely unrelated note, I really like Paramore's' new song, The Only Exception. Nice, nice.

Anyway, sorry for putting you through such a horribly long and boring post. :D Ciao! Time to hit the showers.

I bought a new phone! Uh. The exclamation mark/point is the mandatory one you have to put behind sentences which talk about getting new stuff, because it's common courtesy to the product you just bought. Frankly I would have been much more excited if the phone I had just bought were an iPhone 3GS, but I shan't be a bitch about it. The phone cost $48 although the guy at Singtel said that if I had purchased it online it would have cost $0. The fish? They should have put that on the website, shouldn't they?It's white! I like white phones, since black seems clunkier while red is too, I don't know, adult for me. Chio right! Although I'm still not used to the whole qwerty keyboard, partly due to the fact that my fingers are very fat and I keep pressing the wrong keys.

If you use Baidu to search for "天安门事件" you'll not get any relevant results due to China's censorship. Uh. I think you all knew that already. Anyway NYT reports way more about the whole Google/China thing than BBC does.

And, in no particular order, except the order in which they pop-up in my mind (well, I suppose you could analyse something about how things are prioritised in my psyche,whatever),

The Best Things in the World

1) Dark Chocolate
2) Cheesecake
3) Girl singers with awesome voices
4) Friends
5) Family
6) The way morning smells (not the way I feel in the morning, unfortunately)
7) Dreary days and rain
8) Great bands
9) Music and songs
10) Books
11) Sleeping in a warm bed
12) Pokémon games when you're feeling blah
13) Calvin and Hobbes when you're feeling blue
14) Long MSN/Facebook conversations with people
15) Fruit juice which costs $1.40
16) Doing nothing/slacking
17) Heart shaped moths. I swear. I saw one in the toilet and it looked like that:
Except in real life and non-cartoon and with a nicer looking head.
18) The elation you get when you finally drive a huge-ass beetle out of your room. Third time lucky, they say. And I've got evidence!

And this is the cue for Chip (if you're reading), to look away.

a)The first time Buddy (Buddy the Beetle) flew in, he serendipitously landed on the window blinds control-string thing.

It was really difficult to coax it off the string, but I finally did it with the help of a paper box (you now, those origami things you fold which looks like a container/hat?) and an empty Choco Baby box. I proceeded to fling Buddy out of the window, from the paper container.

b)That didn't stop lil' (not "lil'", actually. Freakin' HUGE) Buddy, my ol' pal. He buzzed back in seconds later. And landed on my bag, which was beside the window.

Luckily I had my trusty paper box and Choco Baby box with me. For the second time, I flung him out the window. He was buzzing in the vicinity, and I immediately rushed to shut the, well, shutters. But obviously my speed couldn't match buddy's lightning quick reflexes (seriously), so he flew in before I could get the third shutter closed. Dang it, Buddy really tried my patience. I was muttering "Oh fuck. Get out of here!" under my breath.

c) And there he is, near a Breadtalk plastic bag. For the record, the bag was meant for me to throw random junk, and did not contain any bread, thankfully.

This time I was smarter; I nudged Buddy into the bag and threw him into the dustbin outside of my room. Bye bye, Buddy.

Of course, Buddy wasn't the only Insect-kingdom(?) visitor I had had. Here's Mervin the Moth!

Alas, he died on the floor overnight; goodness knows what happened.

Now where was I? Oh,
19) Hanging out with your loved ones. And by that I include friends too
20) Knowing that someone out there still cares about you even when you're physically alone. I mean, nothing can beat that, right?

I don't know why I feel all warm and fuzzy. Must be the dark chocolate I just had.

It's been fun, but laundry and lessons and assignments beckon. You're in the Jungle, baby!

I just found out that Apple's Mac, short for Macintosh, has links to the word McIntosh, a cultivated variety of an apple. I always thought Apple wanted to draw links to Mackintosh/Macintosh, the British name for raincoats I always saw in Enid Blyton books. And it took my quite a while to remember Mac wasn't the original name for, well, Macs.

I do remember asking my father (after reading the term from an Enid Blyton book, of course) what a mackintosh was. And he said it was a computer operating system. And I was pretty sure Enid Blyton didn't write about computer OS(-s), so I looked at the illustration and it was a girl (or a doll? I can't remember) in a raincoat. So a mackintosh's a raincoat! Whoa, just had a flashback of the days before you could Google for anything you didn't know. Good times, good times.


Just so we're clear, I don't like Justin Bieber. And not because he looks pretty! I just don't like his songs. Or his image. Twerp!

But you know what? He'd never compare to the contempt I feel towards Super Junior (apologies to Leanne, Ada and Yunxuan). Sadly, I googled for Super Junior demotivational posters but no one made any of them. So no funny contemptuous insults about SJ for your viewing pleasure. I'm really not a very nice person, am I?

Ah well.

Alien vs Pooh.

It's really disturbing. But it can't be more disturbing than the fact that I have yet to finish my article. Because the tutor gave some feedback so I'm re-writing the entire thing (something about the tone not being informal/fun enough). Sigh. Big sighs.

Right now, besides doing my assignments, I'm also into dance tracks (like, those pop-type dance-y feel songs by artistes like Cobra Starship and, well, Lady Gaga) and rock songs (more of classic rock though). So, if you want, you can send me songs recommend me good songs!

I just got a pop-up advertisement from AdultFriendFinder.com. No thanks, I don't want to find adult friends (nice euphemism, no?).

Anyway I was on Google Reader Play, and they showed this site where they made cat macros with Tiger Wood's dirty texts. So one of the texts said "Ever had a golden shower done to you?", and, since I've never heard of that term before, I urbandictionary-ed it. They say curiosity killed the cat (gotta bring in the cat thing, since it's a cat macro!), and oh gosh don't even try finding out what golden shower means. It's actually quite gross. D:

Shit, I have 41 bookmarks in my Bookmarks Toolbar, and 15 RSS feeds bookmarklets. I'm a freakin' geek, I tell you. I mean, a geek without cool computer abilities. And Mathematics. And Physics. Uh. Still, I'm an Internet geek! O_O

Why am I blogging so much recently?

I'm feeling very lonely right now. It's like I'm surrounded by all these people (yeah, you know, since I'm in hall) but simultaneously more alone than ever. What's the point of being surrounded by people whom you have got the least interest in? Yes, they are nice, and, I assume, funny, and friendly, but they all have their own set of hall friends (one thing I've learned is that it's easier to make friends if you already have your set of friends, so as to form a conglomerate of friends with another set of friends) and JC friends, and I have no desire to make small talk with acquaintances.

To be honest, I know an okay number of people in school and in hall (don't we all?), but somehow the more people I know the more isolated I feel, probably because most of these ties are inherently weak ties, and outside of the sterile environment of project meetings you probably don't want to spend more time with them. I have met a few people whom I had hit off quite well with, but we've all got our own little lives to lead, so the friendship ends just there.

And the point is, I don't think I can ever make any more new friends with whom I find the sort of connection and want to go past the "small talk" stage with. It's like I'm jaded. I'm friend-jaded. (This sounds like I'd never know anyone enough to get into a relationship. Eh, there's the loophole in the "make no more new friends" plan then) Plus it's not like I'm hanging out a lot with my old friends, since everyone's so busy. Thus effectively I'm 1) not making any new friends, 2) not bothering to talk to acquaintances so much, and 3) losing contact with my old friends. Seriously, I wanted to send out postcards, but somehow I never got to buying stamps (lol).

But at least I'm not caught up with hanging out with acquaintances over some mundane/trivial hall thing, so that's one source of loneliness gone. In case you don't get what I mean, when I hang out with hall acquaintances it seems like I completely lose my voice (not so much for productions though, since we bonded over bitching), uh, in the figurative sense, of course. I don't want to utter a word because suddenly everyone seems so strangely unfamiliar and I just don't seem to fit in. And it has something to do with my crazy wish to remain anonymous when I'm in a group of strangers.

I'm just really comfortable when I'm with the friends I know and love. It's something like wearing my pair of threadbare white shorts (I'm ignoring the fact that they're the only pair of shorts I owned, because my mom bought me two pairs of DP shorts. Hooray!)-- they're highly comfortable, wouldn't chafe your thighs, and even though they don't always look good on you (and need a heck of an ironing when they just come out of the wash), they're reliable, trustworthy and friendly. Yeah, friendly shorts. I really should go out more, shouldn't I?

Uhuh so it wasn't the best analogy. Point is I'm just pretty much sick of doing the whole fake smile+hello routine thing in front of acquaintances. There should be an unspoken social rule which dictates (wrong word to use, I know) that one doesn't have to act all friendly when you see a person you know. Give me liberty (to not smile, that is) or give me death! Not a good phrase to use, since it's all act-americany and stuff. Cultural hegemony, man.

Not really. Anyway.

Just as a note of appreciation, hanging out with any of you people (I mean, since my abysmal blog is only read by some of my friends lol) really cheers me up a lot. Like when I'm doing the fake-studying thing with Judy I just feel like I'm at peace with the world. And going for failed blood donations with Xumei (and Leanne, the fit blood donor T_T) and then walking to St. James Power Station just to find out where the heck it is (and then realising we were dressed like hobos and therefore probably cannot enter this hip and atas-looking bar which was having its ladies' night and apparently would give ladies 5 drinks. Ah well, hobos can't afford alcohol, much), and standing in a loooooooong queue with FBD (fit blood donor) and BDWC (blood donor with cough, aka Xumei) doing the lame-o crossword and talking about some random trivial stuff (because you cannot have Ben & Jerry's without triviality. It's much too frivolous for anything else).

On a side note, I love (alt + 3= ♥) B&J's strawberry cheesecake! I'm currently in a craving-for-highly-fattening-cheesecake phase. O_O This is bad, but oh well. Wonder if cheese has iron in it. Meh, according to Google, not much. Wonder if cake does.

By the way, Judy, if you're reading this, you're correct! My room has recently been invaded by bugs. but one good thing about living in hall is that I've become immune to bugs. I mean come on, I even dare to touch moths and beetles (albeit for beetles it has to be through tissue); only huge-ass beetles (I SWEAR! Fucking huge! About the size of three keyboard letter keys!) and hornets/wasps still manage to freak me out.

And according the the Japanese group-mate/friend (yeah, I think my Japan and Singapore group-mates deserve more than a lame-ass "acquaintance" title. They're awesome as group-mates, which is quite rare really), Singapore a) uses too many acronyms-- tell me about it, NUS has like, five million of those little shits-- LINC (seriously? LINC? What is this? Freakin' Zelda?), RBR (cannot tell you what it stands for to save my life. Something Book Reserve? Whatever), PGP (granted it is a mouthful), myISIS (don't know what the flying fish that stands for), CORS (Centralised O-something Registration(?) System?), S/U and, well, NUS (sorry, out of examples. I'm too noob to know that many acronyms actually)--, and b) has too many insects (which are, as he claims, also rampant in his PGP room. So Judy PGP is not that awesome okay!).

Anyways, according to talkingcock,

NUSSU: NUS Student Union, or No Use, So Screw Up
NTU: Nanyang Technological University, or Ninja Turtle University

I found the NTU one very giggle-inducing. Not the NUS one though, which is not insulting, only because it's true. No lah, it's just not as cute as the TNMT reference.

Oh, oh, and:

SDU: Social Development Unit, or Single, Desperate and Ugly/ Sexually Depressed and Unwanted

How sad is that, huh?

Shit, I'm feeling hungry. Guess I should go sleep then! 9 a.m. lessons tomorrow, and a project meeting. Jeez, I do so abhor project meetings! Especially if it involves film editing. D:

Tata then. (I think this post is overflowing with typos. Damn)

I was looking through my RSS feed from The Straits Times when I saw the headline "Bubbles can be good", so I clicked on the link, thinking I would be led to an interesting article about the positive effects soap bubbles had on people. But nooo, it's about economic bubbles. Bleh, who cares about that?

And about the whole Google withdrawing from China incident, this comment is full of win/fail. It's a wail.

The earth still rotates without Google. Actually the only drawback is that I would find it much more difficult to search porn websites after Google goes.
Camby Wang, Beijing

Didn't know China's censorship system still allowed people to visit porn sites.

Wonder what happens to the people studying in China now. I mean, not regarding the porn thing, but the whole no access to Facebook/Google search thing. I would die without freedom of access to anything and everything (almost; there are sites which the Singapore government blocks. But none of which I'm particularly interested in, like video-sharing porn sites and British political websites(?), so) on the Internet. It's weird how Singapore banned (bans?) the song Puff, the Magic Dragon due to alleged claims to the song being about marijuana use. If you click on the hyperlink it goes to the superbly old video of this trio, Peter, Paul and Mary (probably where Britney got part of her lyrics for 3/Three) singing it like some sad nursery song. And I don't see the link to smoking pot at all. Sometimes the government is really too paranoid.

I've just realised that I have a gross shortage of salty food in my room. It's all chocolate-y stuff, like Milo, and Oreos. And dark chocolate, of course. But nothing salty! D: I like my junk food to come in a myriad of flavours. I do have Nissin Tomyam cup noodles, but I'm saving that up for bad days.

*
I took 2 hours to come up with 39 words for this article we're supposed to do as an assignment. I think I'm losing my touch, in terms of being able to multi-task very effectively. Maybe I shouldn't read Calvin and Hobbes while attempting to do homework. I still haven't completed my readings for tomorrow either. Maybe I should skip the tutorial. Ahh Calvin is freakin' adorable. And Hobbes.

Some mainland woman just called me on my phone. The number was rather dubious (+929003), but I answered anyway. I said Hello, and the woman said Hello, and spoke in a thick Chinese accent asking me if I had some free time. I hung up (not literally, since you can't hang mobile phones up) very rudely, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with no-good bitch-faced scammers. By the way, apparently there's a new phone scam in Singapore. I mean you'd have to be ten kinds of stupid and greedy to fall for tricks like those. I'd know, since I'm probably ten kinds of stupid, but not ten kinds of greedy, luckily. I'm just probably greedy for food.

The scammers have been sending SMS notifications to members of the public via an overseas phone line, claiming that they have won cash of 925,000 pounds (S$1.95 million) in a worldwide 'Phone Top-Up Win Promotion' and that the money is ready to be sent to them.

The recipients were then advised to liaise with the organiser's representative at email address: phpty@aol.com.

Someday, when I'm feeling too free (and have finished reading all the years worth of Calvin and Hobbes (right)), I'll probably answer to one of those scam emails. And lead the scammers into believing I'm some gullible would-be victim. And then have a good laugh. But not now, probably.


It'd be a good idea to try that on scammers. Although if they have thick Indian accents I may not even be able to communicate my point that well. And I'm not being a racist douchebag; I have, in fact, received calls from a dubious lady with a thick Indian accent. I think I blogged about that before-- in the end I lied to her and told her she got the wrong number even though (I think) she was reading my number off a screen or something. She sounded confused. Heck though, I sure as hell couldn't have possibly won a trip because I joined some lucky draw at a tour agency, thank you very much.

Hmm. I really don't want to go for the Japan and Singapore lecture today. Besides knowing for sure that it's going to be boring, I don't want to waste 2 hours in an LT doing nothing when I have all these deadlines coming up! D:

So I've decided! I'm skipping the lecture to do something more constructive. Because I'd most definitely fall asleep during the lecture. Or sneak furtive peeks at Linette's laptop to see what she's doing. I shall attempt to write my article instead!

I'm done with the Headlines! Yeah, I kinda deleted the 39 words since I'm supposed to come up with 400-500 words and the way I'm writing makes it seem as though I would be done in less than a hundred words. Sheesh, I'm so screwed.

NUS is horrible. As in, the IP address of NUS, 137.132.3.7, is pretty much shared by every single person using the NUS Internet service. And you know how NUS is full of crappy Internet users (like me, that is) who inadvertently get into some trouble with the Internets. So the other poor users cannot sign up for Wikipedia accounts (a blanket ban on NUS), sometimes get banned from sites like 4chan (I go there to get pokémon, cartoon and minimalist wallpapers. Honest. Don't go to the other image boards though, your brains would melt. Serious), have other people's cookies appearing randomly (really, I found this dude's email on some site's cookie thing, and I Facebook-checked it and it belonged to a NUS student), and generally not have a very secure Internet. I was going to check out the Wallpaper image board on 4chan (how gay am I?) when I was directed to the ban page, for the reason: "Personal information/call to invasion". Now I'm very curious as to which NUS student actually incurred this ban. And wondering if the person was from my hall. Intriguing.

Telephone's my new loopable song. Lady Gaga's songs are terribly loopable, actually. Oh crud. I really cannot think of anything else to write for the article! It's really weird, since I can come up with long pieces of crap for this blog. Maybe keeping this blogger tab open is sucking all my brain-juices out, since it's been practically open since I woke up this morning. Shh, yes, I've been in front of my laptop since I woke up, and it's 4.23 now. To be honest I haven't stepped out of my room since the morning when I had to brush my teeth and stuff. Gimme a break, not everyone has a life!

But speaking of having a life, next Friday's Good Friday! I don't know about you guys who happen to be Christian, but heck, I could use a break. Uh, and I'm planning an outing on Thursday since you wouldn't have lessons on Friday! Don't you turn me down.

More details at a later date, though.

And back to my article then. 300 more words or so! See you peeps.

Google Wave doesn't sound very much different from Facebook.

Banana and mango juice tastes like summer in a cup. At least, my concept of summer, which has been influenced by books set in places where there actually are summers. And hopefully the banana has provided me with some iron for the blood donation later.

Ben and Jerry's free cone day's today! By the way.

I was happily glancing at Facebook photos the other day, and I realised the comments section for the neoprint Slacker's Club took was extremely long. There were 117 comments spanning 5 days (February 7th to 11th), and the comments were only from the four of us. I don't know why but I have this habit of talking on Facebook instead of MSN sometimes. Weird.

Hmph. I want to go Teo Heng! I ♥ Teo Heng.

And I want to hang out with my friends, who are way too busy lately. Sigh. It's like I've not been seeing anyone besides my project groupmates (for the Cosplay project. This is by far my favourite group of project people) and my family. Where are my friends?

At least I get to see Xumei today. She better not curse me with a low iron level. D:

All right then, I shall go pack my clothes-strewn bed. I don't know why but I spend 10 minutes a day trying to decide what to wear, then in the end I'd end up choosing the most boring and repeated outfit I can think off. I am sad.

Well, ciao!

This is the 445th post. Okay, not a big deal, but before this it was post 444! Yeah, whatever.

Anyways, there's school tomorrow. I am contemplating skipping the el boring lecture to sleep complete my readings.

And I should sleep now since it's 12.21 in the morning and I have no chance of surviving tomorrow without ample (probably not the truest word to use here, but anyway) sleep. My life is so boring now. I should probably buy one of those little miss shirts which say "Little Miss Boring". I mean, if they were still remotely in fashion now. But then again since when have I been wearing clothes which were "remotely in fashion"?

I have such a boring life! Reiteration. You should all probably just kill me and get over with it, since no one likes a boring person. Wish I had a non-civic-minded friend who would not mind dragging me to go out despite my many group projects (read: responsibility, since groups=not alone=screw up individually also means you screw the group up. I hate that!) and deadlines. But nooooo, all my friends are too goody-two-shoes (like me, of course. Not a bad thing, necessarily) and wouldn't think of corrupting others. Damn. Wish I had bad-influence (in the sense of shirking responsibilities, of course. I hate the smoker-beng types. I mean, I hate smokers, not bengs, but shutting up now). I need someone to shirk with! I need a Shirk Buddy©! T_T

Application to be my Shirk Buddy© is now open. Interested participants may apply via tagboard.

Yeah what am I thinking? No one's qualified to be my Shirk Buddy©. You all happen to possess a sense of responsibility (I assume), for one.

Off to bed then! Goodnight people.

I'm back from filming! I had to leave early because I'm having lessons at four. In the end we couldn't find the cemetery, so we shot it in some estate surrounded by woods. There were plenty of mosquitoes there though.

But overall it wasn't that bad; remember what I said about me being a whiny ass? I had KFC a.m. riser meal for breakfast. And it wasn't good. I just needed the coffee to keep me awake.

"Invisibility cloak created in 3-D". Is this cool shit or what? But then again, I don't need cloaks to make myself invisible. Like Dumbledore, no?

And:

Lady Gaga on MTV Boiling Points. Seriously, she looked so, uh, normal.

Damn, I'm in a Pokémon craze now. Help!

My desktop. Om-nom-nom-anyte.

And is this the best dress ever or what? And her bracelet is some kind of pokéball. Ahhh.

Which reminds me of my current scarcity of clothes. I mean it in the qualitative way, of course. Because a person cannot wear the same things week after week after week after- oh you know what I'm saying. Maybe I'll go shopping after the JCC trip tomorrow.

Oh no, deadlines are looming! O_O

What the hell is wrong with the NUS email? Who in the world designed such a lousy user interface? Ugh.

First, you can't delete more than one mail at a time (in the sense that you have to check the boxes individually) - at least as far as I know, maybe I'm stupid (I think I may actually be wrong. But still). The shit? So you have to take a freakin' long time to actually delete the mails when the mailbox has reached its limit (then, you have to delete the deleted mails from the deleted mails section! How abso-fucking-lutely fun!).

Second, the mailbox limit (set by totally awesome NUS administrators, apparently) is somewhere around 60000 KB - I guess, since they send us warnings once it reaches 46080 KB -, which is approximately 60MB (I say approximately, because "Technically, 1KB = 1024 Bytes (2 to the power 10) and 1 MB = 1024 KB (because the actual bytes are in the powers of 2 and hence will not be exact 1000)", according to a helpful guy on Yahoo! Answers). Compared to the 7434 MB of space Gmail provides.. D: And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I can save more shit in a 1999 floppy diskette. And that's with all the NUS mails coming with fancy graphics and colours, which take up more space. Oh, what? A monkey ate your brain? I forgive you; no wonder you're such an imbecile, administrator.

Third, the deleted item folder takes up space too. Ingenious! Now you can have twice the amount of fun deleting mails you just deleted! Why not make a deleted deleted mail folder for more exciting deleting action? That would be so totally, ass-kicking-ly awesome, NUS administrators! Damn you when I say delete I mean delete, don't be such namby-pamby arseholes. Most of the mails you send are junk anyway.

Fourth, it doesn't automatically save contacts. No, no visible cookies (and not the yummy types too. How lame), no prompts to show you they recognize the address you're mailing to; you have to do the saving of contacts manually. Well, administrators of this high-strung, kiasu University, that's pretty much a shift from the school's unspoken philosophy of high rates of efficiency and productivity isn't it? You believe in these ideas, but you don't do anything to show that. Instead you try to hinder the students by providing them with this lame excuse of an email platform. Gosh.

Fifth, which isn't really that big a deal, but Outlook is soooo supremo-boring. No wonder we students are dead inside. How can you find anything enjoyable if the email platform you have to go onto every single fucking day of your academic semester looks like one of Fong Yeow Wah's slides? I don't even know (care, w/e) if I spelled his name correctly, but really, how drab can a design get? I know, professionals like it simple and clear-cut (which isn't a word I would use to describe the interface, just sayin'), but we're not boring professionals. We're twenty-something students who don't appreciate the soul-sucking dreariness of such a design, thank you very much.

Sixth, obviously they're trying to drive us to divert our mail to another email service provider. Obviously, if not they wouldn't try so very hard to make Outlook so bloody undesirable. Then just tell us already! Why didn't you just send us an email at the start of our Freshman year telling us that we must totally divert our emails, if not we would be cursed to use the lousy interface which is the NUS administrator's version of Outlook. Okay, so I did do that, at the start of this semester, but here's my last gripe:

Seventh, because I clicked on the choice of sending the email both to the NUS Outlook one (I checked the "Keep a copy of the email in my original mailbox" choice) and my Gmail account, I'm still affected adversely by the whole smaller-than-a-floppy business. So I think due the fact that I haven't cleared out my NUS email inbox in a long while, I went way over the limit and I couldn't receive some of my group project mails. In either account. Curse you, administrators! Anyway I just found out that the limit of the NUS mailbox is 1,048,576 KB, which is 1048 MB, which makes it 1 GB (same size as my thumb drive, whoop-dee-doo! How awesome, right?), still horribly, horribly pathetic, considering how the space is taken up by my un-deleted deleted mails in the deleted mails folder. Anyway I unchecked the choice, to save me from anymore pesky reminders of how I'm going over the floppy-diskette/low-end thumb drive limit of the imbox (short for imbecilic-box, amiright?). D:

And, lastly, you cannot search your mail. Neither can you rank the importance of your mail (starred for the important ones), so effectively you'll have to scroll through every single page of the slough you didn't bother deleting (much less double-delete) and similar sounding email titles (NM2101 blah blah blah, you could find 10 of these in two pages) to get to the mail you're looking for. Is this ground-breaking design or what? Only if the ground were to break because of the sheer stupidity of the user interface, that is. I mean, even medieval Hotmail allows you to search your emails (medieval in the sense that it was started in the 90s. 90s, baby, and the NUS-administrated Outlook Web Access can't even compare to it), and is a million times more user-friendly.

But then again, since the administrators obviously aimed to provide such an atrociously lousy interface to drive the students to redirect their email, they have very successfully achieved their goal. Losers. Did the person even study anything about design? Heck, does the dude even have human instincts?

I don't know why I bothered blogging about this actually. I guess I just don't want to go to sleep because I don't want tomorrow to come - and you know why, because it's D-Day tomorrow. I don't want.

Sorry for the typos though. I just typed 'though' as 'think'. That's probably a sign that I should be going to bed now. I wish I didn't have to wake up at 7.30 tomorrow. D:

3 varsities raise fees.

And then, one person commented:

"WHY LETS MOE PLAY US ALL THE TIMES, LIKES OUR NORTHERN NEIGHBOUR SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO AUSTRALIA AND SUBSEQUENTLY ENTER AS TALENT & THEN PR.

Do one year foundation and chose your University and course at the same time

Must do well and subsequently be accepted to the University and course of your choice.

Maybe into medicine and so forth.

Straight after secondary four at 16 year old, Australia accepts Prelim or "N" Level result why waste two or three year for "A" Level and yet can't get the choice of your interest .

All of us have been fooled for a lomg time and yet we still have not wake up. Is a evil intention to retard us and our children and benefitted just the few and the obedient (Likes in Thailand)"
Posted by: junisis at Thu Mar 18 22:01:21 SGT 2010

You know I'm probably the last person who would defend MOE, or NUS for the matter. But really, if the above is supposed to be an intelligent criticism (I mean, since she reads the news she must be of average intelligence at least) of the system, then I am terribly appalled by the intellectual standards of the average person in Singapore.

But then again, maybe I'm one of those who have been "fooled for a lomg time and yet we still have not wake up". Although it is quite heartening to see fellow MOE-dissenters, to tell you the truth. But personally I don't think the Australia-Uni route is prudent, since it's a huge investment (overseas=expensive, sadly), and if the main aim of studying in an overseas Uni is to get a paper qualification to rub into the faces of those who cannot get into a local Uni (or get cheated into a local Uni >_>), then wouldn't your life be just one sad little charade, playing into the hands of elitism anyway?

The whole foreign talent thing is crud anyway. Singapore is so bloody small and you still want to squeeze who-knows-how-many-more millions of people into it? Maybe those idiots who suggest the whole "foreign talent" thing should try peak-hour commuting, or dining someplace public during lunch hour. It's not like I'm xenophobic, or "Hurr oh noes the foreigner is going to steal my job oh noes oh noes", but six-point-fucking-five million people in Singapore? I think I'd suffocate. Maybe I should move to somewhere highly secluded and become a hobo-recluse, living on tree bark.

Recently I've been reading the news more (online, that is), probably due to NM2220 and the fact that I haven't got that much to do (if I ignore all the pending but not-yet-due stuff). Which means RSS feeds from BBC News, NYT, and of course, The Straits Times. Although TST doesn't have free full articles. But it's not like I'm that hard-up for Singapore news anyway. At least not the Singapore entertainment news.

BBC News is good though. They have headlines like "Man assaulted officer with penis", which has been on the top 10 most-read list for three days already, and is always fun to read if you're really bored. And "Hacking "fun" for British teens", which really isn't even considered hacking, since what they mean is people who try to guess their friends' FB passwords to enter their accounts. To me, a hacker is this super-nerd who knows everything about computers and the Internet, and codes, and somehow manages to get past even the toughest security systems. Not guessing people's passwords. I mean, I know Judy's MSN password, but if I enter her MSN it does not make me a hacker. Just a very, very bad friend. Damn if I knew even a smidgen about codes and computers I'd totally dig hacking. It's so bad-ass (and geeky, but bad-ass-ly so).

But I'm not. So.

Changing the subject, Soke May and I just had a date, and watched Alice in Wonderland! It was sort of a bromance thing, as Linette suggested. I was feeling nauseated during the movie though (maybe it was the psychedelic colour scheme? Or the KFC we had for dinner? Or maybe it was the Red Queen's extraordinarily large head ._.), and teared quite a bit even though it wasn't a 3D movie. Must the the proximity to the large screen (and Bonham Carter's large head, again), and my low tolerance for movies with people moving. I don't know, I seem to be developing some weird sort of motion sickness. It's like I can't even watch a movie without feeling sick. Damn you, Avatar! You have cursed me!

Anyway, AIW didn't feel very Burton-y. Because Tim Burton seems to me to be more of a dark colour palette sorta director, and this is more of a psychedelia colour palette movie. It's like some gay-activist Unicorn puked onto the set of the movie or something. In some scenes, at least; you know how I like exaggerating. It was quite feel-good (Disney feel-good, actually) too, and I guess I was expecting something more than simply "feel-good"? I don't know, it seems like I over-expect stuff. Avatar wasn't that good either.

I did like Anne Hathaway's portrayal of the White Queen though. And the Red Queen's (Bonham Carter) not bad either. Johnny Depp's Mad hatter sometimes spoke with an Irish accent (?Well, it sounded Irish, I don't know D:), which was really weird. And it was like watching Jack Sparrow in psychedelic clothes and make-up, with bad frizzy hair. And green contact lenses. Yeah, not really, but somehow Johnny Depp=Jack Sparrow, a little. I guess I'm just not used to thinking of the Mad hatter as a real character with acute feelings and stuff like that. Because he's mad. And he celebrates half-birthdays. That's just too frivolous. And in my imagination the Mad hatter didn't wear make up. And was madder, but not in the clinically unstable way portrayed by Depp. More like, mad mad. Yeah I don't know what I'm saying either.

I would still watch the movie though (in retrospect), because it's Burton-Depp and all hyped-up because of the Burton-Depp thing. And there were some good parts.

I think the reason I feel nauseated is the CGI special effects. And, well, the large head. And the colours. And the fact that the people (and rabbits) were moving really quickly. Okay, I shall shut up about the nausea now.

But I badly needed a break, so even these sort of not-very-escapist type of movies work for me. It has been a hell of a week (and it's not even Friday yet!); one project meeting after another, and I still feel like I've done nothing. I hate feeling overworked and unproductive at the same time. Like, wtf am I supposed to be doing now? D:

And, *WARNING, EXCESSIVE WHINGING COMING UP*, I have to be at AMK hub at 9 in the morning tomorrow for the film project! I hate film projects, because I don't get the point of doing some would-be slipshod film and getting grades for it. Like, what does it contribute to? What do I learn, at all? And I probably wouldn't be complaining so much if it weren't for the fact that I would have to wake up fucking early tomorrow to travel, and that we would be filming in a cemetery. Fanks, but no fanks. I like my group members - well, as much as I can like a group of people I'm not particularly close to at all -, but really, nothing irks me more than waking up early. I'm not a morning person, and I'm serious. When I was in primary one, the first time in my life I had to wake up at friggin' six in the morning for school, I literally stomped around the house - my parents called me "elephant", I think - in a grumpy mood. No joke. Now if you catch me before 9 in the morning I would be in what I call the zombified-brain stage, with my eyes half-closed and walking really slowly.

Fuck why can't days start at 12? Then I wouldn't be in such a vulgar mood and I wouldn't be spending all my coins on canned coffee.

Now I'm all angsty and pissed off and I don't even have a valid reason for that, besides me being a whiny bitch. If I were Queen of the World I would make it a rule that the day starts at 12 in the afternoon. Makes life better for everyone. Because sometimes we're so caught up in being productive that we lose sight of the things which make us different from machines. Including the fact that we don't just live so that we can be useful, productive human-cogs in the well-oiled machine of industry. Or do we? Nah, I think there's more. I just haven't found it yet.

Actually, I think I have some of it, since I have loving friends, a whole family and everything I could possibly need, material-wise. So why why why am I still such a whiny little toe-rag?

But I feel better now, since blogging always helps in the catharsis, as a whining outlet. FYI I learned the word "catharsis" from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Who said TV didn't teach you anything, huh? I need to read a good book. I need a good book. Alice in Wonderland doesn't count, since I've read it before. I need a new good book.

Maybe I'm feeling all disgruntled because I haven't been reading much (ever since I came into Uni) good books. T_T I'm an introvert, so I guess it helps if I engage in such introverted activities. I need a new good book!

Introverts are cool, anyway. ♥

I just came back from the JCC. Technically, that is. Because the damned place isn't open on Mondays. So we went there for nothing. Plus it was raining %^%& heavily for a while, and then the rain stopped. Okay, thanks a lot?

We had lunch at overpriced Food Opera at Ion, and planned to go there again on Saturday. Isn't life just full of joy and wonder?

Well actually it was kinda our fault anyway, since we didn't bother to check the days it's open. Still, it sucks. To the max. kthxbye.

The inane Justin Bieber song keeps playing in my head; "there's gonna be one less lonely girl...", and it's driving me nuts! I don't like him, although his voice is, without doubt, very good. He just seems like a little twerp, y'know?

Anyway, today=bad day. Hope it gets better. Tomorrow, I mean. Because hall meetings are never good anyways.

I've not been updating very regularly/frequently, sorry about that.

Anyway, the movie thing is postponed, since Miss Pung has some doctor's appointment tomorrow. And Miss Koh has a project meeting.

Eh. I hate projects. Everything is much more efficient if we didn't have to deal with other people. That's the mild misanthropic side of me coming out again. Then there's a hall publications meeting tonight. Sigh. I cannot wait for this semester to end!

T_T

You know the semester is going badly when you skip two Monday lectures just to lie in your hostel bed doing nothing. I feel like such a bad student (eh, never been a good student anyways). I mean I was on time and I even printed out the lecture notes beforehand. But I just cannot, I repeat, cannot take it anymore. I don't want to study anymore. I want to just give up, because, seriously, what's the point?

We're all going to end up dying anyway.

Not like I've been studying very hard though; recently I downloaded a GBA emulator and I've been hooked on nostalgia (in the form of Pokémon, that is) ever since. I'm in shitloads of trouble if I want to maintain my CAP. Ah well.

Can someone/something give me some motivation? I need a sign to tell me this isn't all that crappy. Really. Anybody?

In the meantime, I shall go wash my face (since I just woke up from my skipped-two-lectures-to-take-a-nap nap) and prepare to go to JCC. Which is the Japanese Creative Centre. Betcha' didn't know there was such a thing, did ya'? I wonder if they allow people to wear slippers in.. Hmm, better not.

Ciao people.

Change of plans. Alice in Wonderland next Tuesday! (That is, the Tuesday after the coming one, 16th March)

Interested?

I don't know why I interpret Wonderland to be cotton-candy pink. Shit I'm really turning into a pink person.

Open invitation to watch Alice in Wonderland! Next week.

I'm free Monday after 4, Tuesday after 2, Wednesday after 6, and Thursday after 12! Would prefer Tuesday though. Oh, and it's restricted to cinemas in Singapore only. Not France. Interested people please contact me (or tag on my board). I'm planning to go with ah Pung so if you don't like her in her current state, that is, the entire unkempt hair, emo-shitz look (she was wearing an dark-blue/black ensemble today; that emo-shitz or what?), then don't blame me for signing up and then regretting. :D

That is all.

I think I have a severe lack of sleep. Because I keep making the most elementary spelling and grammar mistakes. D': I cannot survive this much because prolonged periods of fatigue may cause a)suicidal emo thoughts (which may drive me to write long emo posts about not having friends boohoohoo, but since I'm happy now I'm not particularly sad about being a friendless loser. :D), b)extreme bitchiness (the usual), c)random dark thoughts which may lead to symptom (a), and d) really bad spelling. I'm not so much worried about (a-c), but I don't want (d) to occur! I live for proper spelling! Well, not really, but you know what I mean.

I don't like pompous arses though, on another topic. Unless I'm the one being the pompous arse- then I love it. But really.

And then:

What in the world..? The Asian-looking man(?) as Princess Leia is chuckle-worthy in some shots though. And who doesn't like parodies?

It's only one in the morning? Feels like 3 to me. The TV program is fcking annoying because it features a bunch of squeaky voiced, imbecilic Taiwan-Chinese girls. Including the freakin' annoying 瑶瑶 who's actually not pretty at all (I mean I hate looking at not-pretty girls! D: On TV, of course. You want to make it onto my television set you better be bloody good-looking. If not getoffa my television screen!), but no one probably notices because of her boobs.

Sometimes I'm so sick of the world's superficiality; until I go on my next retail therapy that is. Material- can't live with them, can't live without them.

And then other times I feel like renouncing all things material but I'm not strong enough (lol). I'm such a weakling. D: I'd like to go to sleep though.

Moo. Goodnight!

Yesterday, we celebrated Jiamin's twentieth at The Central (hipster Japanese-type mall?) at Clarke Quay.

That's Jiamin! In a picture! We ate at Mr. Curry; the food was simply good (really! I mean, who knew cheese and curry went together so well?) but we realised, to our horror, that the cost of food after GST and Service charge isn't:

(let Cost of food be y)
y x 1.17 = 1.17y

but rather

y x 1.07 x 1.10 = 1.177y

No wonder we get it wrong every single time.

But apart from that rude shock/epiphany, it was a happy night! Friends make even the most dreary days seem awesome. And believe me, yesterday was a dreary day before dinner. And it was a dreary day today too (although the time now is 0019, for all intents and purposes we shall assume it's Friday), before the Mid-term test ended. Luckily I woke up at 9.30 to cram the five weeks' worth of lectures into my (empty) head, if not I think I wouldn't even pass the exam. At least now I'm quite certain I would pass it. :D

But lunch cheered me up considerably, since I was lunching with Phua and Pung, the Thai buddies.

And now, picdump time! (2 pics /=/ picdump)

Yeah, everyone know it's unglam and (some other derogatory term here) to take pictures in restroom mirrors, but who could resist? Although it was quite smelly in there, mind you.

And this one has better lighting. I look really shocked for some reason. I need to cut my fringe.

You know sometimes when you're with friends you just have this inexplicable feeling of euphoria? Like nothing's worrying you and you know your place in the world? If I could replicate that feeling and bottle it up to sell I'd be a millionaire in no time Ah nothing's better than that. :D Well, unless being in love is better; I've never fallen in love/been in love with anyone so I cannot judge.

If you have, tell me. No, I mean it, if any of you get into a relationship you have to post it on Facebook for your entire friend population (including me!) to dissect. We'll deconstruct your relationship (and piece it back together again, of course), talk about rumours we have heard, find out everything we can about your partner and find more things to gossip about. Like vultures. But friendly, supportive vultures. Who love you. But still cannot wait to get their hands on the piece of juicy news. (Hanging out with people like Cecilia aka Gossip/Uterus Queen has certainly taught me something)

That's what friends are for, right?

And I think I'm planning another outing before the whole final exams frenzy sets in. We can celebrate Soke May and Koh's birthday (in a costume party lmao, sorry, contextual joke from lunch). I need to shower anyway. So I shall talk to you all later!

I ♥ you all!

Monica: Love is the best medicine.
Chandler: That's laughter.
Monica: Why do you do it?
Chandler: I don't know.

PS Chip thanks for the supergirl doodle haha.

If it weren't for dinner later, I think I'd just die of boredom today. The tutorials were a blur as usual, because 9am lessons just don't do anything for me. Then I had the most enjoyable lunch of my life crap for lunch:

It smelt really good (well, not really), but tasted merely a little salty and fake-meatish. And speaking of fake meat, there really were fake bits of meat floating in the soup. Damn, I really shouldn't have bought two cups. The oil didn't help much either. There goes $2.60 I'll never get back (unless you count $2.60's worth of fats and unwelcome aftertaste).

Luckily I had Chocobabies to cheer me up. It's not like they're the best-tasting chocolate out there, but somehow they just cheer me up. Must be the packaging. Or the branding. Which reminds me of tomorrow's mid-terms. *Think of a happy place, think of a happy place!*

Mini chocolates in a portable container. I don't know, everything about it just screams to be eaten. In a cheerful mood. Because it's chocolate. End of story.

And who puts little faces and stars on mini chocolates? Who does that?

Well, the fantastic, makes-people-happy Meiji, of course.

But Meiji won't change the fact that I am so behind for NM that I think I'm actually regressing. D: Does the second semester seem much worse than the first, to you all? I don't know, I just feel so, so, uh jaded. Nowadays I don't even feel like opening my mouth to speak. Serious. It's like, when people help out in those daily small things (like holding the door for you, keeping the lift doors open so you can rush in) you usually say thanks, or something polite back to them. I cannot bring myself to open my mouth to utter the words. All I do is give a small smile, and if the person isn't looking I'll probably seem like the rudest jerk around.

If I keep up with this whole not-talking thing I think I may just end up losing my voice permanently. I cannot do this whole University thing. I'm not grown-up enough; I'm not smart enough. I don't like the local education system. I cannot take the whole "every-fucking-test-counts" idea.

I think I'll just shrivel up and die soon. Everyone probably thinks of me as this awkward, quiet girl who doesn't laugh at their jokes (sorry I'm not one of the people who get your inside jokes). Okay, putting that in context, because context is all, I'm talking about one of my project groups, where I was assigned - being one of the people without groups, because I don't know anyone in my SE class, and you know I don't talk to people much - into a group of four (girls who know each other before forming a group, oh joy!) others. And they're all chummy and I fucking feel like an outsider every single meeting (just had one). I mean, they're all nice people, really, but it feels like one of those jigsaw puzzles, where nothing fits. You gotta give up on them, you know.

Actually I've never had a jigsaw puzzle which didn't fit. But it's a bloody analogy, gimme a break.

I think I need more of those Meiji chocolates. Or retail therapy. Or hang-out-with-me friends in Uni. Because everyone needs a hang-out-with-me friend. But I don't have one. I have oh-hi-let's-make-small-talk friends. And let's-hang-out-for-a-while friends. There must be something fundamentally wrong with me, huh?

I am depressed. And not just because of the whole angsty meh-I-have-no-friends thing.

But maybe tonight will cheer me up. Then I'd revert to the whole panic mode tomorrow. Oh no.

Remember what I said about how the panic of not studying for tomorrow hasn't struck me yet?

Yeah, it has struck me. Now.

I have a penchant for cutting my own hair. I was fiddling around with my fringe, when I suddenly thought, "Hey wouldn't it be an awesome idea if I took a pair of scissors and snipped off some of it; it is getting a little unkempt!"

And I did. But luckily the hair's unkempt enough not to make a difference.

Stupid grapes are not fully grown.

I know I should be freaking out that I haven't started studying for my Midterm exam (singular, yes, one. But I did essays and there are ongoing projects, so it isn't all that great either), but somehow that sense of urgency hasn't struck me yet. I don't know what's wrong with me either.

Maybe I will only feel it on Friday, since the test is on Friday. And if I wake up at 9.30 I'll have about six hours or so to study for it.

I don't like adding lecturers as friends on Facebook (actually, I've never done that before. But I don't like it), but for the Freshman Sem we're supposed to, so.

I'm boring myself to sleep. But I'm waiting for my grapes to be fully grown so I can harvest them. I really don't know what's the point of doing all that. Although it's a great time-waster (we all need time-wasters, don't we?) and you don't have to think too much playing it. Unless you want to discuss how Farmville doesn't have a state, which means there are no official rules. But the thing is, we can only do good in FV and not anything evil. So what does that mean?

...

No, I'm serious, we really discuss that in lessons. I think my head's not made for those cheemo discussions. D: Every time I have those three hour long lessons I feel like dozing off, no matter how much rest I got the previous day.

And now my Internet is lagging. Awesome.

Come on Grapes! Grow! Grow like there's no tomorrow!

"Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.”
-Mark Twain

Doesn't mean I don't want to go shopping, though.

I don't really care about signaling theory, thank you very much.

1. NM2101 Mid-terms are on Friday, which means reading on all the theories which I know nuts about thanks to hall productions making me miss the lecture.

2. Freshman Seminar's tomorrow, which means doing the readings and setting up the Facebook campaign group (._.) by then.

3. Hall annual advertisers are to send in check and advertisement by March 6th, which means I'll have to liaise (hate this word) with people and get them to send in the stuff by the deadline. And I'd also have to cc the emails to the hall secretary (her job sucks).

4. Project meeting on Thursday, which means researching on the supernatural and its links to pop culture in South-East Asia, but something less trite than horror movies and books.

5. Comm photoshoot on Friday night, which means I cannot go home. But recently I've grown quite sick of home traveling home. So.

6. Need to borrow Video camera and equipment from AS7.

7. SEP (exchange) application closes on the 19th, and I have yet to even visit the website. Wondering if I should go for the consultation. This is one of the more important things to do, since I feel completely stifled in Singapore. I'm a whiny ninny, but really. And it doesn't seem as though I can maintain my CAP for long (read: this semester), so I better apply early and not in the next semester.

8. Watch Webcast of lecture before Thursday's tutorial. D: I hate the Internet.

I cannot live without the Internet (a few weeks maybe, and also during holidays), but I hate it (it's pretty much a love-hate relationship, though)!

I have to try to live through this week without succumbing to the craziness of everything.

Midterm test (format: 1 essay + a few questions requiring short answers): 35%

Oh no I'm so dead. What am I doing here?

Well, I'm waiting for the woman from some company to send me an email regarding the $#%& hall annual thing. I've already made it clear that I'm not staying in hall next year, so why am I still stuck to all these irrelevant responsibilities? I hate liaising. Stupid word.

Stressed! I'd like something to read to run away from all these. I've got Alice in Wonderland to read in hall, but I've read that before, so. I need something new to read. But I guess I need to go do my readings/pseudo-mugging now.

Later, people. T_T

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

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