Anyone who's been reading this blog for long enough knows that I love Cirque du Soleil. For the longest time, Alegria has been the only show which I really love; I've only seen Quidam live, but I still love Alegria more. Dralion didn't really seem like a very coherent story to me and Saltimbanco didn't really do it for me either. So yep, I just remained stuck on Alegria and its beautiful Flying Man act and the contortion and the Russian bars.

Until during the recent exam period, I don't know why, but I did a search for Cirque stuff on Youtube and a whole lot on Varekai popped up. And then I saw the second most beautiful Cirque act that I've ever seen: the Fall of Icarus, Anton Chelnokov's aerial contortion in net act.

Icarus is a character from Greek myth that many people are probably already familiar with; Wiki it if you like. Cirque du Soleil takes the story of him falling from the sky and runs with it; Varekai is the result.

And Anton Chelnokov here tells the story of a boy who's fallen from the sky, lost everything, and now has to start all over again. This boy does things in a net 20 metres off the ground that most people can't even do on flat ground.



The act and the music together is just... love. Sad that he's not in the show anymore though; such a beautiful boy.

And for gratuituous ogling:

So. I gave in to temptation and bought myself a pretty little Moleskine from Kenny and Karen's store. :D

Pictures:

Of work and related things.

I'm working at an advertising company right now, for a few weeks; James from my Honours class told me his aunt's company needed someone for a few weeks to do some simple work with Excel, so I told him yes, and his auntie got me the job! So nice of her. And him, of course. :)

But, as always seems to be the case, data entry is boring, terribly uninspiring stuff. The lady who gives me work to do seems to think I'm really fast though. Same thing happened when I did data entry for Reckitt-Benckiser. Odd. I wonder how long previous temp staff that they had took to do stuff. Or was their typing speed *that* slow??

Other than that, work has been a chore for some other reasons, despite the fact that it's only been three days. The strap on my pair of white heels broke (again) and on my FIRST DAY; I was late by about 15 minutes, but good thing James' auntie was nice and understanding; she even lent me a pair of shoes I could use to get around in for the time being. I went out during lunch later and got myself a new pair of shoes.

And this new pair of shoes has been busy gnawing away at my heels for the last two and a half days.

I think they just need to be worn out a bit more so the material will be a bit softer and the shoe itself will have expanded to fit me better, but well, the day before I started work, I was wearing another pair of new shoes which were a size too small for me, I think.

I have no idea why, but when I tried them on and walked around in the shop, they seemed to fit. Argh. If no one else in my family wants them, I'm gonna be posting pictures up here so I can sell them. They're still in pretty good condition anyway, considering they've only been worn once and were bought less than a week ago.

Anyway, back to the point. That pair of shoes gave me quite a few blisters, and this new white pair that I have now aren't doing wonders for those blisters. It hurts to walk with OR without shoes on now. -_-

The only bright side I can think of is that Kenny's bookstore is just next door to where I'm working. ^_^ I pop over during lunchtime and after work; looking at all the books makes me happy, even though I can't buy them. :P Although it does make me feel bad; I keep popping in and out and I never buy anything. Hopefully I'm not too irritating. :(

And I only recently realised that Christmas is less than two weeks away! Wow. How did that happen...

Christmas wish list thus far:

1. Cirque du Soleil DVDs: "Alegria" and "Varekai"

2. External hard disk; I dunno what capacity might be best to get-- I've been told that 80 to 100 GB is more value for money?

3. A CAP of above 4 please?

Something from Sylvia's blog. Who got it from Wai Xin's blog. Who is now linked in the sidebar (whee!). :D

This Colo(u)rGenics thingy (the "u" is added just coz I'm anal about American spelling); it's the kinda thing where you pick colours and the programme tells you about yourself. Click here to try it.

My profile seems to be pretty accurate. Although reading it is really throughly depressing.


Enough is enough - and you feel that you've had enough for a while. You don't need any more battles. You just would like to be able to shout 'stop' and experience a little peace and calm - even if it be only for a little while. This doesn't mean that you need to cut yourself off from the rest of the world - it just means that you are seeking some respite, some physical or emotional relaxation that could release some of the the tension and possibly reduce the internal conflict.

You are working extremely hard trying to improve your image in the eyes of others. You are looking for acknowledgement from your peers and those who come into your sphere of influence. You want to be liked, not for what people think of you but for what you really are.

You feel tired - worn out and listless. The last thing that you want to do is to be in an open conflict with those around you that are forever tormenting you. What to do? That's the rub. You are feeling that you are being choked - unable to breathe.

Setback after setback has resulted in considerable stress and now you have got to the stage where you are continuously on your guard, not only to protect yourself from others but to protect yourself from yourself. It would seem that many of your unfulfilled hopes and dreams have led to uncertainty and suspicion. You no longer wish to answer to others and you are insisting on freedom of thought. You feel that you are fully self-sufficient and can control your own destiny. You are seeking ways to protect yourself from further loss of prestige and against further setbacks. You have become very dependent and you doubt that matters could possibly get any better in the immediate future and this negative attitude is leading you to exaggerate your claims and to refuse reasonable compromise.

You need to be needed and would like a situation where you will no longer be subjected to pressures and demands from those about you. There is no harm in 'dreaming' but it is you - and only you - that can be able to realise those dreams and to turn them into reality.


I suppose one word to sum everything up would just be "tired".

Life is fun when you're staying in hall with friends, and it's after the exams and no one has anything to do.

Shooting, going for dinner, jogging, late night movie with seven people squished on one person's bed, getting hooked on silly Neopets games and LOTRO.

These are the things that I wish Life was always made of.

*bounces up and down*

Is it too early to say that I know what I want for Christmas? :D

I want two DVDs... Cirque du Soleil's "Alegria" and "Varekai"!!

Now if only I knew somewhere I could get them locally. They're still pretty expensive over the net.

Randomness is a strange creature. It strikes at the most... well, random, of times. Like say, in the middle of studying on a cloudy, rainy Wednesday evening. And it inspires things like this:



A red pill, and a blue pill.

And if you take the red pill, we shall show you exactly how much your degree is worth, and whether all that knowledge which you've gained in the last ten-odd years of studying is really worth anything.

What makes you think it's really knowledge?

What makes you think it's worth learning?

You think that's really knowledge you're stuffing away up there?


Ah, yes. The rabbit hole of a university education.


Well, not really. XD

They're just jelly beans. Jelly Belly jelly beans, I might add, which my mummy brought over for me, who in turn received a whole large bag of them from Auntie Pauline when she came down to visit last week. They taste lovely. They're all sorts of psychedelic mottled colours (not just boring solid-colour like the ones you can find almost anywhere here) and all sorts of fascinating flavours. I ate one which tasted really strongly of blueberry; there was another one which was vanilla; one tasted like coffee, another like chocolate, and still another tasted a bit like strawberry yoghurt.

These are like the closest thing to Every-Flavour Beans!! ^_^

Was blogsurfing during a study break, saw my sis' blog with that lovely little video of the Porsche 911 Carrera. I thought the little boy was adorable: "I'll see you in about.. twenty years." And the salesman was was lovely too; actually allowed the little boy to get in the car and take a look around. Maybe they should train car company salesmen to realise that sometimes obsessions with cars start young. ^_^

So after seeing that video, naturally, I went on to YouTube to see if they had commercial/ promotional Maserati videos. Unfortunately, none of the Spyder-- neither the GT nor the Gransport editions. But there were plenty for their new GranTurismo-- the one below is one of them. But before you watch it, be warned--


This promo for the Maserati GranTurismo is like car porn. That's how abso-fucking-lutely sexy it is. XD

It's not really a good feeling to know that your exams are about a week away, you still have plenty of those readings to do, and yet, you still have three deadlines to meet.

Nope. Not a good feeling at all.

But I suppose we have to find our bright spots where we can sometimes.


And for the moment, you're mine.


Happy 1st, baby. ^_^

The Honours Room fridge again.

5 days later.



There's 5 different kinds of Absolut in this picture. See if you can spot them all. Whee. ^_^

Stuff on top of the Honours Room fridge.

Alcohol, alcohol and more alcohol. There's more *in* the fridge. XD

A "hangover pillow"; a tiny little pillow from Nepal stuffed with really strong-smelling herbs which are bound to clear your head.

And Nicole's shot glass, which loudly declares that "Everyone has the right to be stupid."

The fine print reads: "You are abusing your privileges."

Yaaay. After today, I'll be rid of presentations. Two more deadlines down. And er... 5 more to go.

Nov 6th:
SC4216 Project Presentation
GEK1511 Presentation 2

Nov 12th:
SC4209 (Interpretive) Term Paper due

Nov 15th:
SC4204 (Social Policy) Term Paper due

Nov 20th:
SC4216 (Law and Justice) Term Paper due

Nov 21st:
SC4213 (Qualitative) Final Report due

(My exams start on the 24th... -_-)

Nov 30th:
Departmental Ethics Review for ISM due


Grr. Have to go find out what I'm supposed to do for the ethics review thing - hopefully it's not too much stuff coz it'll be the middle of the exam period by then. And hopefully I don't need to have found a supervisor yet by then. Coz Gerri doesn't have a supervisor yet.

More than one cup of caffeine in less than 24 hours is generally not a good thing for Gerri.

One serving is good enough to keep me awake for a few hours; I have a system which is thankfully, unlike my sister's, quite sensitive to caffeine. And sugar. And alcohol. But yes, back to caffeine.

Two servings, however, no matter how necessary that second serving may be to keep me awake, is not good.

It wakes me up but makes me fidgety so I can't really focus.

So. Two cups. There must be a lot of caffeine in my system right now, coz I keep *smelling* coffee each time I breathe in or out.

I wonder if coffee air-freshener or potpourri would be as effective as coffee in keeping people awake. I should buy coffee beans and give it a try.

*wanders back to work*

The things that I do when I should really be working hard on my papers and projects.

1. Looking at T-shirt designs on online stores
2. Dreaming about buying books
3. Fantasising about robbing Kinokuniya...
4. ... and filling my own personal library with my ill-gotten gains.
5. Stumbling upon disturbing videos promoting veganism by showing how inhumanely animals are treated in factory-farms...
6. ... and thinking about starting a "humane farm" when I graduate.
7. If such a thing exists. *squints and wonders*
8. Reading friends' blogs and wondering why everyone's going on exchange
9. "I wanna go overseas on my own/ with friends too."
10. Bemoaning the fact that I haven't been any further than Malaysia in the last um... oh dear.
11. Thinking of where to go for graduation trip
12. Worrying about grades and my class of honours

At which point I get back to work and half an hour later, the process begins anew.

I think that when I started fourth year, I was already suffering an accumulated three years of burnout. I need a good holiday from academia. So no Masters immediately after graduation, methinks, thankyou.

Papers are due in about two weeks now. And my research process has only just begun to gather steam. Oh well, shall just have to tough it out; I know I've pretty much brought this on myself by being so damn unmotivated and lazy this sem.

But still, things like these make me happy:

1. Baby SMSing me in the morning to say he loves me
2. Clean rugs (after finally sending them down for washing)
3. Petting Nuzzle till he falls asleep in my hand
4. And this song: How Six Songs Collide by Norwegian Recycling

Nicole gave it to me last week and I found a YouTube video just now. 'Tis really a lovely song; it makes me happy. ^_^

Facebook seems more amusing than Friendster.

I'm not on either of them, but I'm sitting here in Qualitative now and Greg's just shown me one of the most amusing things I've seen this whole week.

There's a group in Facebook called "If I Weren't Christian, Chua Beng Huat Would Be My God". Chua Beng Huat being one of the more widely known (and illustrious?) lecturers in the Soci department.

And apparently there's another group called "Why is Daniel Goh so Hawt??" much to Greg's mollification.

Well, on the bright side, at least it shows that the Soci department's a fun place. Lol.


And on another note, methinks someone's screwed up the timer for the corridor lights in my block. When I got back last night after dinner, the corridor lights in my entire block were out; I thought it was a blackout or something, but they didn't come back on in the night. No matter though. But this when I woke up this morning to go wash up before class, I noticed the lights were on in broad daylight. *snicker*

Honours year is killing me slowly. :(

And Gerri has a craving for hot chocolate right now. Maybe when baby and I went out to the supermarket last week, we should've bought Cadbury's hot chocolate too. And there's no need to look at me like that, it's useless; I'm one of the last people in the world who's gonna feel guilty about what they eat.

There isn't gonna be much time before you're too old to eat anything which has too much sugar/ salt/ oil, which is too cold, too spicy, too whatever, so you might as well try everything and look back on it happily later. :)

Wai Xin made me realise that I need a special blend of hot chocolate; a special recipe. So here's mine. Gerri wants hot chocolate just so:


ONE LARGE CUP of hot, creamy chocolate
ADD:
ONE LARGE DOSE of Motivation
TWO SHOTS of Inspiration
SPRINKLE on Happiness

Serve with a plush toy on the side for hours of squishy amusement

Serving suggestion: ideal for rainy days in bed with lots of warm blankets and someone else to share the joy with.


Sigh. I really do want hot choccy right now.

I'm leaving terribly long periods in between blogging nowadays. Very unlike me, I know. Oh well. No time, and what's more I feel completely unmotivated to do ANYTHING.

Not studying, not reading, not researching, not training-- absolutely NOTHING. ARGH.

I need to do reading, I need to get my lecture notes all inked/ printed/ in order, I need to do research for my term papers, I need to get that interview assignment for 4213 done, I need to do research for my ISM (so I can finally define a research question and scope), I need I need I need. AAAARGH.

I need um... a good kick to the head or something which will galvanise me into action, to make me realise that GERRI GODDAMNIT THERE'S ONLY ABOUT TWO WEEKS BEFORE YOUR FIRST TERM PAPER IS DUE!!!!


And even typing that out myself only made my brain just go kinda like: "Ngh. Bleah." Kinda like the brain-equivalent of "rolling over and going back to sleep".

-_-... stupid brain.


I need someone who makes me feel better about being me.

Wow. Haven't blogged for quite a while.

Honours year surprises me in some ways; I seem to be spending more time this semester having group discussions and such than I ever have in previous semesters. Perhaps it's coz most of us have similar timetables, given that many of us are all taking the same level 4000 modules, so we kinda have more time to discuss group projects and such.

Readings are also snowballing a lot faster this semester than in previous ones; some of them are really deep and philosophical and confusing-- they make you wanna throw them aside the minute you read the first paragraph, which utterly confounds you. Some of them are incredibly long; you wouldn't believe they're just "papers"-- you'd think they were whole chapters of books. Very long chapters, at that.

Some of them, for some modules, are just intimidatingly numerous-- how to complete four readings for one class when you still have to complete the others for the other modules??

But I suppose I'll have to do catching up in the week of the mid-sem break. Sigh.

Misery does enjoy company; it's relieving to know that among my Honours batch, I'm not the only one whose brain feels rather "dry" this sem-- this sem, of all semesters, when we're supposed to be formulating research questions and planning research and interviews for theses and ISMs and whatnot.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who hasn't yet figured out how exactly to approach their ISM topic; I'm glad I'm not the only one who hasn't found a supervisor.

I'm glad that my batch are friendly people who can let their hair down and have a good party; I'm glad that the professors and lecturers in my department are the amiable, sociable folks they are-- it's times at these that I especially love the major which I've chosen.


SAFRA shoot is this Saturday and Sunday; I didn't want to participate in Pesta Sukan earlier, in August, coz I felt I didn't have enough stamina yet; not enough regular training as of late.

Thought I might have had some time to build up stamina in time for SAFRA, but it seems that I wasn't fast enough and was probably a bit too slack during training. Add to that the fact that we're shooting triple-face targets for the individual round as well as the team round, and I know I have a mental "problem" with the triple-face.

I hope my "competition sense" saves me; *something* has always spared me from doing too dismally during competition-- I don't know what it is, but I hope it doesn't desert me now. I hope I still have some time to build up more strength and stamina, no matter how limited the time seems. I hope I don't let myself down. And even more, I hope I don't let my teammates down.

Sometimes I feel we should just forget about the prizes and awards on Rag Day, since everything's partly like a scam.

There's no transparency at all in the judging criteria, and the same Faculties win the same top awards every year. The only category which I can safely say is without bias is probably that of the Halls.

This year, I think the Most Creative Float Design award was a sham. The judges must be blind. Apparently, attention to detail means nothing at all.

But, my dear fellow Arts Raggers-- those whom I have seen four years of Rag with, those whom I have seen become Raggers in their own right, and those whom I have only come to know this year-- we can take pride in the fact that no other faculty used the tessellated-can design that we used; and we're probably the only faculty who knows how to do it. We can take pride in the fact that we created our own "new technology"-- those folded paper flowers. We can take pride in the fact that our float was mistaken for a Hall float (twice) while it was in the static display area. :)

And I hope that all of you have enough pride, that despite not winning what was rightfully owed us both this year and last year, you will get back on your feet and build an even better float next year.

Arts Rag and Arts Raggers, we've come a long way since I was a first-year, and I'm proud of all of us. :)

Coin counting for Flag today.

Was feeling oddly nostalgic.

I wonder if I'm one of the few people who's been involved in Flag this many times; as it is, I was one of the more "experienced" coin counters in the room today. Some people like Eileen and Reuben were doing it for a second time after last year, and maybe the NUSSU people were doing it for a second time too, but I might've been the only one in the room doing it for a third time.

What's more, there were people in the NUSSU Flag comm whom I'd seen in the last two years, but I didn't see any of them around the function rooms today, where we were counting.

And it did strike me yesterday morning, when I arrived in school at 7 am to help Meiling and Xinyu distribute the Flag logistics, that this is the last year I will do any administrative work associated with Flag. This is the last time I will wake up at an ungodly hour to send people out to collect money from the general public; this is the last time I will get stressed out over labels, stickers, T-shirts and NUSSU's crazy directives; this is the last time I will get frustrated over freshies not giving a damn about Flag and just going off to sing karaoke with their OGs and bringing back nearly empty cans in the evening; this is the last time I will sit down with fellow Flag comm/admin people and bitch about said freshies' laziness, other faculties, NUSSU, and many many other things, passing the time till the collection cans are returned to us safe and sound.

And every year around this time, I find myself wondering the same thing: why have I so actively participated in the two most under-valued orientation projects for almost every year that I've been in NUS?

People argue that it's useless, people tell me that I'm stupid, people say it's a waste of time. Almost everyone else whom I see in these projects for a second or third year running gets this kinda feedback from the people who know of their participation. And every year, I do wonder, why is it that despite what these people say, there're always about 20 who come back to slog for virtually nothing at all?

I certainly hope that we're not "stupid" and "wasting our time" as everyone has said. Rather, I think that aside from the feeling that we do this (take part in Rag and Flag) for the friends who are in it with us, it might be because we are among the strange minority of the faculty which has an unusually strong sense of faculty pride.

That feeling of satisfaction as the faculty's float rolls into the performance area; that feeling when the cans are collected back at the end of Flag Day and every faculty does its best to convey to every other faculty present during the collection time that its tins are so full of coins that they need four people to carry a box of twenty tins; that feeling when it's over and you want to come back next year and make it even better.

This year I'd like to feel proud, for one last time. :)

Just moved into Ridge View this morning.

I came early, hoping that I'd be able to change my room (coz Nic told me it might still be possible), but alas, no can do.

So here I am, sitting in my newly cleaned room (except for the floor) and bemoaning more than just a couple of things about it, while sorely missing my Eusoff room.

To begin with, my room windows face the road, and sitting here, listening to the buses go by is making me lose almost all hope of sleeping in late in the mornings. Not to mention that all the vehicles going past are going to make my room get dusty a lot more often. I am definitely keeping my blinds drawn.

At first glance, the room seems a bit smaller than my Eusoff one, but on second thought, it might just be the arrangement of the (mostly-immovable) furniture fixtures that make it seem that way.

The bed, most of all, is quite annoying. There're shelves at both ends of the bed, and the shelf at the foot of it is really quite unnecessary and looks rather out of place. Especially when you consider that the shelf faces outwards (not back onto the bed) and because of where it is, the entryway of the room is barely half a metre wide.

There're lots of cupboards, but most annoyingly, few drawers; there're no desk drawers, only shelves, and I'm definitely not going to climb so high to reach the top shelf all the time. So I moved the board separating the first and second shelves in each of the cupboards above the desk and made a big, tall space for files instead. :D

The toilets aren't nearly as big or as brightly lit as the ones in Eusoff, but I suppose they're passable; at least they're still quite clean. It's just the dreary grey and white colour scheme which makes everything look rather shabby, I think. The Eusoff toilets were big and well-ventilated, with light orangey-pink tile and yellow lighting; yellow lighting always makes a place feel more homey.

But there is one good thing. Half of the shower cubicles here have shower heads that can move; in Eusoff, all the shower heads were fixed into the wall. I was actually quite surprised to find that Ridge View has ones which are movable.

Shall be off now; going to have lunch with Connor and Nicholas. Later, I still have my Honours briefing to attend-- *finally*. Almost every other department seems to have had theirs already.

Gerri's birthday... :)

Sylvia is officially the first person to wish me happy birthday this year; I got her SMS at midnight, haha. :)

Also, messages from James, Kristy, my Rachel-mei, Beatrice and Pamela. :)

Had dinner at NYDC the night before with my sisters, my cousin, Joseph and Ben; good food, and Joseph ordered Hoegarden beer, so I finally got to try it. :D We even bumped into Wai Xin as we were leaving the place. :D

Special mention for my lovely kor, who remembered it's my birthday and called all the way from New Zealand this afternoon. :) I hope you find a cheaper way to send those cookies for your sis's birthday. Lol.

So...I spent the whole day with Joseph today; I think baby's getting smarter. Somehow. Haha.

A crazy idea popped into my head last night; I wondered if I could ask that Joseph take me shopping for my birthday, but I kinda nixed that, coz that was followed with "What do I wanna buy?" and I didn't know what. :P

But baby met me at Orchard MRT this afternoon and he tells me: "Your surprise today is... shopping trip! Buy anything you want."

Mildly freaky, but pleasantly surprising. :)

My mum says I'm becoming transparent, but really, I don't think that's it. I don't know how he managed to hit on what I wanted, but I guess it's a good thing. :)

And well, me being me, the first I did with my "shopping spree" was to walk into Borders and get two books. :P

Baby wanted to get me clothes, but he discovered my problem with clothes firsthand today. I have rather broad shoulders, so in the event that the tops do fit, they're too narrow at the shoulders, and they bunch up in an ugly way if I raise my arms. And if they fit the shoulders, they're too baggy around the torso. Sigh.

Sorry if your shopping experience with me was a rather disappointing and discouraging one, baby...

In the end, I only bought one item; a long, black cotton blouse from GAP. Looks kinda semi-formal, which is good coz that means it has use for multiple occasions.

Thanks for spending today with me, baby. ^_^

In addition to special term stuff, Gerri actually has two other "projects" going on at this period of time.

One is really very hush-hush and everything; shall not blog about it here. All anyone needs to know is that it's been ongoing for the last two months now. It's taking far longer than I expected. Probably partly because I'm kinda lazy at times. -_-

Aside from that, I have another one.

My dad bought me a model plane for a birthday years ago, but because I had no idea to go about fixing it up and no one around me knew how to either, it's just been lying in its box, gathering dust all these years.

But, now my cousin's come to stay with us coz he's studying here, and he recently brought a few of his unfinished Gundam models down from Malaysia, so he has the know-how that I don't.

Turns out that the process is really quite simple; all the little parts are labelled; you just need to cut them out and put them together as shown in the booklet that comes with them.

The hard part is when some of the pieces are so tiny, or when you're sticking on so many tiny parts at a time that there's just nowhere for you to hold onto as you put them on and try to get them to stay where they are.


So now, for pictures. The model is an F14 Tomcat plane, by the way.

This is the first part of the plane to be put together: the cockpit:

Some of my "tools" can be seen in the background; plastic cement, super glue for the metal parts, and thinner.


The inside of the cockpit. I had to cut out and stick together every piece that you see in there. My thumb is there for you to get an idea of the size of the thing. :D


The wheel! The small parts were all painstakingly stuck on by me. No tweezers were used because I didn't have any at this point in time.


This is the body of the plane; half-completed.


Left: The turbines. Right: Close-up of propeller detail inside.


These are the back wheels. If you look at the top left part of the picture, you can see the assembly that was required for them.


The mostly-complete main body of the plane.


One of the best-looking parts of the whole model: the ladder leading up to the cockpit. The ladder was actually optional, but I chose to do it, thinking that detail would be good.
The left picture is a view from the top (and you can see how small it is in relation to the cockpit), and the right picture is a close-up. Each individual rung, step and the two metal sides were all very painstakingly, carefully put together.


And here's where I stopped: the wings.


As for my other project... Does anyone know where I can find nice, big, simple-looking glass containers? I might need one with about 2 litres capacity...

Watched Transformers on Saturday with baby.

Was good; only pet peeve was that Megatron had a strange way of addressing Optimus Prime as "Prime" in the movie; as far as I can remember from the cartoons, *no one* ever did that. It was always either "Optimus Prime" or just "Optimus". Ugh; "Prime".

Bumblebee is the cutest car ever. I want a voice-controlled car too, which can transform itself into a Maserati Spyder. XD

The only autobots that I recognised from the beginning were Bumblebee and Optimus Prime; Bumblebee coz, well, no other Autobot had that much yellow on him and Optimus Prime, I recognised him coz I remember he was the truck. That big red and blue truck. Ooh, but they gave him blue paint and red flames in the movie. Snazzy looking.

For the Decepticons, the only ones I remembered were Megatron and Starscream and Bonecrusher.

Why are the bad guys always cooler, man... Starscream's mid-air transformation from robot to fighter jet and back again (twice!) was so damn cool. XD

And did anyone else think Frenzy (the little radio-Transformer) seemed like he was on crack??

I found this especially funny, considering that earlier in the film, that police officer and Sam had been asking each other, "Are you on drugs?" and here comes a crazy, fidgety little thing whose limbs seem to flicker out every which way; and as he sits in the police car and reads off the patrol car's screen he twitches and nods and yammers to himself.

I thought the robot was on crack. Seriously.

Megatron... okay, I've already mentioned my gripe about that. Oh, but the whole "I am the emperor of the universe, bow down before me" attitude was quite firmly in place. Yeah, this guy's head is so inflated, you'd be surprised it's still made of hard metal and not a super-stretchy balloon. XD

All in all, a good film. Not really something to watch if you want thought-provoking stuff; leave your adult brain at the door and unleash your inner 6-year-old. Wahaha.

Ooh. And I was just thinking, last week; the Transformers cartoons are seriously old stuff; not even everyone who's my age or older watched them, and my sister who's 5 years younger than me hasn't even seen them!

So I was thinking... Doesn't that mean that hundreds of teenagers are going to walk into cinemas to watch Transformers without even knowing what it really is? Not even knowing it was originally a cartoon? Sad to think of it, really.

...At which period in time Gerri is kind of all alone. Sigh.

Coz kor has left for exchange to New Zealand already (remember to send back gifts for Joseph's and my birthdays! XD); Joseph and I had dinner with him and da-sao, Christine, on Friday night, and on Saturday evening, we saw him off at the airport.

And this morning, Joseph went back to camp for reservist, so I'm temporarily without any bitching partners.

Sigh.

Hm. Whee. First lab for Gen Bio today.

So... we were told we were gonna make beer and observe bacteria.

First, the beer.

To be exact, *we* didn't make it, the lecturer did while um... about 5 lab assistants... helped. Which kinda made me think. How many people does it take to open a can of malt and hops concentrate...??

(One lecturer and about three lab assistants, apparently. C'est bizarre.)

It seems that the beer will be done fermenting by our next lab session on Wednesday next week, during which we can bottle it, and after it's bottled, it'll be ready to drink in six days, but it can be stored in the bottles for up to 3 months.

And the most interesting thing is that this whole home fermenting kit can actually be purchased in Singapore! Except if you start making the stuff, you'll have to get a license for selling alcohol. Which my lecturer says costs just ten dollars, so you could probably recover what you've spent by brewing just one batch of beer. (23 litres of beer)


Bacteria was quite interesting to look at.

I remember the last time I was supposed to look at cells in Sec 2; we were supposed to scrape cheek cells from the inside of our cheeks and put them on slides and look at them, but I never saw anything and to this day, I think all that I managed to get from the inside of my cheek was just saliva. :P

They gave us yoghurt culture to look at. And we were supposed to stain it and observe it. But later some of the lab assistants walking around told us to make a new slide and *not* stain it, and that way we'd actually be able to see them moving around.

They're actually kinda cute. Tiny wriggly things that bump into each other as they go about their business. ^_^

And now I have no idea how to explain the answers that I have for my assignment. Sigh...

NUS Indoor Shoot.

Which was semi-weird because it's the first competition in which the club is participating wherein I'm not shooting.

But it's kinda refreshing to be standing by the sidelines for once. Not to mention that I've always preferred behind-the-scenes work, so helping to set up and helping the comm to run the show on the days of competition itself wasn't such a bad thing.

First day was individual events, and Joseph won gold for Standard Male Individual. So proud of you, baby. ^_^

Linette, Sylvia and Yvonne won third place for Standard Female Team on the second day as well.

Nothing for our Open class people, but oh well. There'll be a next time. :)

As for me, time to get back to training and push-ups; to build strength and get rid of the strange shooting problem which I've developed recently.

Archery chalet last week.

In which Gerri learned that her baby managed to make a fool of himself and that the commando camp has a strange sort of celebrity status.

The chalet was at Aloha Changi, 3 days and 2 nights.

I didn't stay over on the first night coz I still had French class the next day and I didn't fancy the idea of travelling all the way back to school from the east.

So I went home after the barbeque on the first night and came back on the evening of the second day.

The thing about the chalet is that the area it's in is only accessible by one bus, and that bus comes from Tampines Interchange. For the first half of the journey, the bus goes through normal HDB estate area, passing apartment blocks and schools; the second half of the journey however, winds around military bases, on quiet two-lane roads lined with wire fences with green weaving and two rows of barbed wire.

A little freaky.

And it didn't help that when I was on the way there with the bunch of them who were checking in on the first day, Connor mentioned: "Imagine if you got lost and had to find your way out of here alone at night."

-_-|| No thanks.

So, on my way there on the evening of the second day, I was on the bus and this group of about um.. five to eight guys got on the bus and happened to sit right behind me. I was just kinda staring out the window and stoning, and when I got back into my own headspace and "tuned in" I suddenly realised that in their very loud conversation, these guys mentioned the phrase "commando camp" in almost every other sentence.

For a second there, it felt like I was on a tour bus. -_-

(Insert mental image here: "And on your left, you will see.. oh, another army camp! And oh look, hot sweaty men." XD)

Yes, it turns out that the commando camp is the camp which is nearest to where the chalets are.

So when the bus stopped at the bus stop right outside the camp, the guys behind me got even more excited and started talking even more loudly. Seems it was because the lights were all on and there were plenty of people in the parade square. Later Joseph told me it was probably coz one batch was POP-ing.

And when I reached the chalet, everyone there told me that the night before, Ervin, Wai Xin and Joseph had been very um... entertaining. Lol.

I suppose the club tradition of embarrassing people during the archery chalet continues. XD


And here's a group picture from the first night.

Four generations of NUS archers. ^_^

Silly me forgot to blog about my first French lesson yesterday.

The funniest thing about it though, was that I actually didn't realise that my French lecturer was taking attendance at the beginning of the class until he'd called about 5 names. :P

And then as usual, I started worrying and wondering how my name would come out.

After 3 years in NUS, I can count the number of tutors who *haven't* mutilated my name on one hand. Some of them seem to have a problem with names which exceed two syllables, some of them seem to have trouble with English itself (what the hell??), let alone English names, but what I hate most of all is when only some garbled, half-assed version of my name stumbles off their tongue; something which, most of the time, sounds vaguely like "Jehr-deen?"

My hand goes up; "Um, it's 'Geraldine', sir. Or you could just call me Gerri."

Better that than have you ruin my name for the rest of the semester.

But hey, surprise, surprise (although thinking back on it, I shouldn't have been surprised...).

My French tutor *enunciates* EVERY *SINGLE* letter of my name perfectly. And hell, my name sounds *fantastic* with a French accent. XD

The day I check out of Eusoff Hall for good.

Had to head back to school for my first French lesson today-- Special Term 1 starts today-- so just before my lesson at 10 am, I dropped by Eusoff to return my transponder.

Before that, I stopped by my room one last time to make absolutely sure that I hadn't left anything behind in the room. After which, I locked up room C301 for the last time and said farewell to C Block of Eusoff Hall.


My room door during the last week of exams, with 3 PhD comics stuck to it and a postcard with my theory that studying, not curiosity, killed the cat. XD


The C3 long wing corridor from my end of the corridor...


...and this is the view from the other end, where the double rooms are.

I think some of the things that I'll miss most are the room itself (Eusoff rooms are pretty big), popping over to other people's rooms just to chat, seeing people whom you know during mealtimes in the dining hall, and the view from my room window. After the tree just outside my window had a lot of its branches pruned and cut my room became a lot brighter and the port was much more visible-- I could see the cranes lifting containers through gaps in the rooftops of the private houses just next door.

C Block isn't too noisy; or maybe it's just the fact that I'm at the end of the corridor which puts me far away from the noise which usually happens in the *middle* of the block, be it mahjong in the block lounge, people talking loudly in the kitchenette at C2 while making themselves supper, or the C4 guys yelling expletives at each other while kicking a football around upstairs.

A good number of the C4 guys were also part of the Hall band, so sometimes there'd be singing accompanied by a guitar at night; most of the time I'd think it was Sham, since it seemed like it was coming from his room-- directly above and to the left of mine.

Other things that I'll miss?

Waking up just an hour before class, getting breakfast from the dining hall, washing up and getting dressed and slowly strolling towards Arts. Late night trips to the 7-11 round the corner at Fong Seng for munchies. Block suppers and Hall suppers and free food (heehee). And during exam period, if you're lucky enough to have one of your exam venues be in your own hall, you also get the satisfaction of strolling out 15 minutes before the start of the paper, and not have to stew and panic with everyone else who's waiting.

And one of the most entertaining things is also when there's a 9 am paper at Eusoff and I wake up at 8.30 to get breakfast; walking to the dining hall (and passing all those panicking crammers on the way) while barely half awake just rubs it in-- "Haha, I just woke up and you had to wake up an hour and a half ago to get here and cram for your paper." XD

But once again, most of all, I'll miss my bright happy room with my bright happy bedsheet.


My room before packing...


...and my room *after* packing.

But I suppose all good things do have to come to an end.


Goodbye, C Block.


Goodbye, Eusoff Hall.

Please help.

If you're a poor undergrad like I am, we can't do much financially, but the least we can do is spread the word and raise the level of public awareness.

I don't read or watch local news much, so I can't really say that I know it's been featured very much in the local media, but this is something we talked about in my Social Memory class a few weeks ago, and watching the numbers of deaths and displaced peoples climb in those last few weeks has been heartbreaking.

But you know what would be worse?

It would be even worse to think that after the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide, the human race still hasn't learned, and that we could let something like this happen all over again.


Help spread the word.

Wikipedia page for background and details of the Crisis

The International Crisis Group's page on the situation

Sign a Petition:
To bring Darfur's war criminals to justice or,
to demand that the UN Secretary-General take action.

Donate; see a list of websites to which you can make a donation here at BBC news page; UNICEF and the Red Cross are among them.

Wristbands, being sold by Save Darfur.

Please do not do nothing.

So... I can finally catch a breather.

Three papers down and one more to go, plus I just turned in that final report for XD3102 this morning, so that means that now, I have a whole week to study for my SC4212 paper next Wednesday.

Earth Day was just a couple of days ago, and I figure now's about a good time to put down the things which've been running around in my head for quite some time now.

Global warming is a hot issue at the moment (pun intended). No reason why it *shouldn't* be. And lately I keep seeing all these pleas to the public to help save the Earth, to save it for your children and for the many generations which will come even after them.

And it kinda made me wonder about how fast kids seem to be growing up nowadays and how fast change happens from one generation to another now.

I see ten-year-olds playing with their handphones when I only received my first handphone at the age of 17. I see girls who look about twelve years old wearing lipstick and one-and-a-half inch heels when the first time I wore a pair of pumps was in secondary school.

And when I work during the holidays, I notice quite a few overweight kids (mostly boys) walking around with their parents, obsessed with their handheld games.

And that last one, most of all, makes me wonder.

It seems that what most kids do for fun nowadays is play on the computer; I had a Chinese tuition teacher whose son did that all the time-- he kept wanting to play on the computer and she wouldn't let him.

And I thought maybe that was why the small playground at the base of his apartment block was always empty, except for a few youths sitting around and chatting.

An entire generation which grew up in the "digital age", while the previous generation--mine-- still "went out to play" when we were allowed to play.

And one thing leads to another.

I wonder if soon, playgrounds will be the only space in which children have to play.

I wonder if, as Singapore and the rest of the world continues to develop, there will be less and less space to run around and lose yourself in.

I wonder if cities will become vast tracts of streets and tarmac and concrete jungle while parks become tiny spaces of isolation lost in all the smog.

I wonder if the children who are born twenty years from now will even be able to run outside and play; will there be anymore "outside" left? Or will the world just be a series of rooms and spaces enclosed in glass and plastic and metal?

I wonder if, with all our "upward development", and the recent fad of "aerial gardens", will these be the only green spaces left? Will the only space that your children can run about freely in, be a space that is sixty stories up in the air?

Will the only space that your grandchildren can run about freely in, be a space that is eighty stories above the ground, shielded by a plastic and glass bubble which contains manufactured "fresh air" pumped out by hidden vents?

I wonder if the world just a hundred years from now will be an alien one to those of us who know it now.

And I wonder if all this will simply be a fairytale for my children, yours and everyone else's.

So it begins.

One down, and three more to go.

Whee.

Last year, during the World Cup season, I found out that Converse was selling these limited edition bags of selected countries in the World Cup; Germany, Italy and Spain were among them.

I wanted a Germany one (naturally, being the Germany fan that I am. XD), so Eugene and I went down to a Converse store one day and we found out that they were sold out. And the store attendant even told us that the Germany editions were sold out islandwide.

Sigh. Was depressed, but it wasn't particularly a big deal, so I got over it soon enough.

And today, Joseph comes to school and presents me this lovely thing:



And I never even mentioned to him that I'd actually wanted this bag last year.

Happy anniversary to you too, baby. ^_^

I fluctuate between a brilliant hope and a relentless kind of despair.

I still haven't got back the papers for SC3205 and SC4212 yet.

But I have got back my test and project for SC3206 and GE2224; B+ and A+ respectively-- good, I must say, coz I was expecting a C+ for the former. :P

And my XD3102 symposium presentation went better than I expected; it was done the night before the presentation, but I guess I finally gave in to that niggling feeling that I had about the Spivak essay and went ahead and challenged her assertions anyway.

And maybe that challenge even scored me extra points. Whee.

So everything actually looks pretty good now; I still have pretty high expectations for those two papers which I haven't received back yet.

But right now I'm so afraid that everything's gonna wind up going straight to hell, and taking my hope of getting a good CAP for my honours by the end of next AY along with it.

Because I have exams on the 21st, 23rd and 24th of April, and at the same time, the final report for XD3102 is due on midnight of the 24th of April; Dr Ryan has already quite nice as to set that date pretty far back after I told her that I have 3 exams packed together in the first week of examinations.

So to sum it up really, I have less than five days to study for three exams and write a paper.

Someone please save me.

I don't know if I ask for too much.

I keep thinking I should be more understanding, less selfish, less demanding--

And then something else asks, how much is enough?

I don't know if I ask for too little.

What if I compromise too much? How much am I supposed, expected, to understand, to compromise, to not demand?

It makes me sad when I look back because everything looks so different now.

But something tells me to be understanding, and the cycle begins all over again.

And each time it only feels like the hole I'm standing in gets dug a little deeper.


I'm tired of looking backwards.

I'm tired of knowing that everything good is behind me.

I'm tired of thinking of questions which don't have answers.

I'm tired of wondering why things are, or if they even should be, this way.

Well, looks like it's goodbye to Eusoff Hall now.

I don't have enough points; not for lack of trying though. I had tried to join committees in my first semester here, but they're not too keen on taking in the Year 3s, unless the Year 3s are already seniors with experience or whom they've worked with before.

I don't really blame them; Year 3s have more academic workload than the Year 2s and 1s after all, and there's also the fact that some of those Year 3s are likely to be graduating-- they might not have that much time to commit to Hall activities.

But I'd been hoping that I might still be able to secure a room if I joined Rag Wardrobe and helped Shazzy out since she's the Rag Wardrobe Mistress now. It wouldn't be too difficult for me either, since even though I'm not intending to stay over the holidays, I still live fairly near school and my French module during the Special Term is going to have me coming back almost everyday anyway.

But.. the JCRC sent out an email to all those who're appealing, and it says that we need to reject any other accomodation offers that we've recieved and put ourselves on OSA's Waiting List. And then, while EHOC (Eusoff Hall Orientation Committee) members will be given priority, if we do get accepted back, we'll still need to sign a kinda contract detailing what contributions we'll make to the hall in the coming academic year.

Note the "IF".

And there's the fact that I'll be in Year 4 next academic year-- the thought of having to commit to more things in such a crucial year made me seriously stop to think.

I've already been offered a place at Ridge View because the Sports and Recreation Centre sets aside 100 rooms in RVR for school athletes. And while I don't really like the old blocks (which are the blocks whose rooms we're given), the rooms themselves aren't too bad; pretty much the same size as Eusoff's rooms.

I'd been trying to get back into Eusoff coz I like their rooms better, and I think the surroundings are better too; RVR is a little too near to vegetation for my liking, and what's more, Eusoff is much nearer to Arts than RVR is.

Then I thought about the fact that most of the girls in the long wing on my floor are actually moving away to other blocks next year; even if I do come back to Eusoff, I might not wind up back in my block, and I most likely won't even be with the same people.

In contrast, if I were to move to RVR, about half the archery club will be there.

So thus, I made my decision.

Ridge View Residences and my fellow archers, looks like I'll be with you guys next sem. :)

Jack Johnson's music makes me smile.
Funny how this song says so much about you and me. ^_^


Do You Remember

Do you remember when we first met?
I sure do
It was some time in early September
But you were lazy about it, you made me wait around
I was so crazy about you, I didn't mind
So I was late for class, I locked my bike to yours
It wasn't hard to find, you painted flowers on it
Guess that I was afraid that if you rode away
You might not roll back my direction real soon

Well, I was crazy about you, then and now
But the craziest thing of all
Over ten years have gone by and you're still mine
Locked in time, let's rewind

Do you remember when we first moved in together
The piano took up the living room
You played me Boogie Woogie, I played you love songs
You'd say, we're playing house
Now you still say we are
We built our getaway up in a tree we found
We felt so far away but we were still in town...

I feel stupid.

Well, more stupid than usual.


I'm always thinking of ideas at the *wrong* time; why did I only manage to think of a topic for my SC4215D term paper last semester a WEEK before it was due? (Although there isn't really anything to complain about coz I got an A+ for the paper) Why did I only think of an appropriate case study for my SC32505 paper this semester three days before it was due??

And WHY, someone please tell me WHY, have I only thought of looking for library books on trade unions in Singapore TODAY (when the paper is due on Thursday) instead of looking for working class culture in Singapore???!?!

*bashes head on table*

I am an IDIOT.

And I *know* the world hates me right now, because the one and only interviewee I have for this paper is away in India right now. Argh.


Plus, XD3102 is only further frustrating me.

EVERYTHING in the whole course is so confusing and I can't make ANY sense of head or tail of ANY of the readings! Well, okay, just about 90% of them. Phizacklea I can understand, but her simplicity just means more questions to ask; Ang is interesting and I can identify, but she makes my head swim; Butler makes my head spin even more and Spivak most of all, just makes it spin right off and explode.

Spivak. ARGH.

Why the hell is my project using her arguments and her essay as a means for comparison and understanding when I can barely understand HER?!?!?!???!!

Someone please just KILL ME NOW.

I can't believe I'm willingly staying on for another year of this torture.

I was panicking about my SC4212 paper deadline on 29th March an hour ago; I realised that apart from some stuff which I had gleaned from other modules and common knowledge, I didn't have anything in the form of a literature review. Because hey, there IS no literature on my topic. -_-

Then I figured maybe it was about time I looked at other working class cultures to see if I could extrapolate anything from there (stupid me, only thought of it so late), instead of constantly trying to look for information on Singapore's case.

My essay could turn out terribly sparse and totally not the quality of a level-4000 essay at all....!! *wails in despair*

Could I get a better grade for putting in effort to write on something that hasn't been researched on, at least...?

But then 5 minutes ago, I logged in to check my email, to see if Prof. Hadiz had emailed me back with the contact whom I could interview for said paper.

And the most recent unread email right at the top of the screen reads "Essay Extension".

So it turns out the deadline for my SC4212 essay has been moved back a WEEK, till the 5th of April.

God bless Prof. Waterson. :D

*Heaves a gigantic sigh of relief and bounces round her room cheering madly (at the same, if it's possible XD)

On another note, Prof. Hadiz is now one of the nicest ever profs in the Soci department in my opinion, coz he's just been so helpful.

Will you be my ISM supervisor in two semesters' time, prof? :P

Of shiny new things.

Kristy finally got her new NX Expert riser on Friday, so she was setting it up and tuning it yesterday, with Coach's help, of course. :D Took ages, but she finally stepped out into the sun to shoot her first arrows with the new bow. And it's damn quiet. 0.0....

No more vibration sound! No more funny "twang"!

Just a short "thumm" plucking noise and then it all goes completely silent!

Behold Gerri's excitedness (despite the fact that it's not even her bow, the stupid little girl) and saucer-plate-sized eyes.


On my side... well, Mr Lim Chee Wee called recently to say he now sells Samick products. Kinda odd, since at the time when Kristy and I had the $100 vouchers from IVP, he kept trying to get us to buy stuff from him, but when I mentioned that I actually wanted a Samick riser, he said that he didn't sell Samick products. And suddenly he SMSes, emails and *calls* me to tell me that he now has Samick stock.

I've been eyeing the silver Samick Masters riser for quite some time, and a month ago, the only price which I'd managed to find for it online was Bill Wee's price: $750. Ouch.

On Friday, while delivering Kristy's riser to her at her hall, Mr Lim asked her to pass on a message to me, saying that while Bill Wee sells for $750, he's selling it for only $698. (Hehe... although just this morning I checked Bill Wee's site and I noticed it's changed... he's selling it for $695 now.) Ooh. Price war. XD

Then yesterday, at training, I mentioned the whole thing to Coach and he suggested I wait for a while and let him check with Mr Tang, the head of our archery association in Singapore, who's also a dealer for Samick equipment.

And guess what..?

On account that he's on good terms with our coach, Sunny Low, and he knows that Sunny's our coach and he knows that we're all poor students (or some combination of factors along those lines, hehe), he's willing to offer it to me at $680. XD.....!! The consumer is king indeed. :P

But he said that he'd check to see if he had any silver stock with him, and I still need to confirm if I'll actually be buying (and I need to find somewhere I can earn the money...!!).

Here's a look at the pretty thing:

See the silver riser in the middle? :D


This one's a close up photo of the blue riser; pity I couldn't find one of the silver one, but the blue one does seem awfully pretty up close... :P


And finally, I have new glasses!! :D

My sisters collected their new glasses last week when I went home, so I went to get my eyes checked and get new glasses too; the frame of my old pair had actually got a bit twisted after a minor accident during training last year.

So the good news is that apparently, my degree has dropped by 25, and my astigmatism is gone too (the optician tells me it used to be 25)!

When I went to pick them up yesterday night, my new glasses make everything *SO* much clearer; it was a bit of a shock when I first put them on. I thought my old glasses were still okay, but apparently a change of just 25 in the degree makes all the difference! Everything's just a lot sharper.

Less than a week till my Soci of Power and Social Memory term papers are due.

Gerri is in pretty deep shit.

Politics has really never been my kinda thing (and at the same time, I think I know more Political Science majors than Soci majors; my boyfriend and godbrother even number amongst them), and while the course is pretty interesting and thought-provoking, I'm still at pretty much of a loss as to how to research for it.

As for Social Memory.. I think that paper's in even more trouble.

In what seems like a repeat of my level 4 module last sem, I just *couldn't* think of any possible topic to write on, until last week's session, when we got started on a bit of discussion on working class memory and whether any such thing existed in Singapore.

Then it occurred to me: why not write a paper on it?

And then on Saturday, I asked my prof, Prof. Waterson, for some advice on it, and when I mentioned my proposed paper topic, the first thing she said was, "Wow, that's more for a thesis than a term paper, isn't it?"

And um.. well, I didn't really understand what she meant by that, but I went on ahead and asked if she could point me in the direction of any topic of interest which I could develop or expand upon. And I also mentioned that I'd checked the library and found very little literature in the way of a Singaporean working class. And she suggested interviewing people.

Argh. *SO* do not have time for that now.

And then, on Tuesday, during my Soci of Power tutorial, Prof. Hadiz mentioned something in the course of the class discussion which just made me silently curse and go: "Oh shit, way to go, Gerri."

What he said was this: "Well, one of the things which really hasn't been researched very much in Singapore is the working class."

Which just totally EXPLAINS why there is practically NO literature on it.

ARGH. How to write a term paper for a topic which has NO prior research??! In one week..!!?!

Well, all right, don't completely panic. I have an outline for the essay. Prof. Hadiz gave me someone to contact for an interview, but eh... I had to email Dr. Leong for it, and he hasn't replied. Damn.

If I look on the bright side though, it seems I've found a topic for my Independent Study Module, if I choose to do it next academic year. And it seems I have a pretty good idea of who I should pick for supervisor too.

To my 4th-year/graduated seniors who read this blog: anyone have any idea how you go about asking someone to be your supervisor for ISM and how early you can ask them?

Something I found on Ivan's blog-- lovely lovely fun. ^_^ Go check it out and get your own little widget. :)

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I love this song right now-- "Prelude 12/21" by AFI. I just wish that the band had made it longer to begin with.

But maybe there was a purpose or hidden meaning or a point they wanted to make in keeping it short. :)



If you're interested, the "12/21" in the song title is a date which seems like it may be a reference to one of two things; the 21st of December is the date of the Winter Solstice and in ancient Mayan culture, the 21st of December is thought to be the date on which the world will end. This same idea is also found in a few other cultures, and they all seem to agree that the exact date will be 21/12/2012. Hence, "Prelude 21/12", if you think about it, is really a "prelude" to death; a suicide note, a swan song-- anything that will finally let you "lay (it) to sleep".

Today's post is brought to you by the number 300.

Because I just realised that all the significant events that happened to little ol' me yesterday seem to revolve round that the pretty little number.

Firstly, miracle of all miracles, when I was least expecting it, I broke my 300 barrier when I was shooting one round from 30m distance. The exact score was 316/360. Bloody hell it was amazing. :D

Although I do realise that the 30m round comes after the 50m round in competition, so realise that it's not really a "fair" approximation of my normal score.

But then that more or less confirms that my problem is keeping up my stamina, and in a way, it's a good morale boost. Hey, at least I raised my own glass ceiling. :)


And the second thing was the "300" movie.

There were sneak previews yesterday, and my dear Joseph just *had* to watch it as soon as was humanly possible, so I went along with him, after I'd quelled my cynicism and was sufficiently satisfied that it wouldn't be a mindless action flick, like the disappointment that the second Matrix installment turned out to be.

And really, it wasn't. In fact, it was a fairly inspiring film, and I *loved* the.. um.. sole actress in the whole movie. :P

I don't know what it is, but over the years I've become very sensitised to stereotypes that get employed in film and various forms of mass media. Personally, I'd say that maybe it's due to my training in the social sciences and humanities. Given that this film has a practically all-male cast, I was a bit of leery of what the portrayal of the only woman in the film was gonna be like, but the reviews I'd read so far assured me that she was gonna have at least some character development.



*SPOILER ALERT*
(Do not read the following half of this post if you haven't watched the film yet and don't want it ruined for you!)



And I loved her within the first half an hour of the film, when the Persian emissary asked Leonidas why she, a woman, would think that she could speak among men, and she answered that it was because "Only Spartan women give birth to real men."

Something, I'm sure, which has escaped the notice of most patriarchal states; for all that you esteem the men, only the women can bring them into the world.

So.. okay. The female character passes; she has character development, she has depth, she has more than five lines in the entire film and I love her delivery of the Spartan women's send-off for their men. Curiously enough, I was telling Joseph earlier in the day that it was said that when Spartan women sent their husbands and sons off to war, they would tell them to come back with their shields, or on them-- to return in glory still bearing their shields, or be borne home upon their shields after dying an honourable death.

And Queen Gorgo says it in the movie. With such force and passion that you really can believe that this is a Queen who *knows* exactly what her place in her husband's heart is. If you ask me, that scene was just beautiful in all its simplicity.

I like that she doesn't just fade into the background or become some story by the wayside of the main theme. She's instrumental to Leonidas' campaign for freedom in the film, and my opinion is that by her speech before the Spartan council, she lays the foundations for Delios' tale later; she makes them open to Delios' persuasion, as he spins his tale of valour.

But something I began to notice as the film progressed was this: there seems to be a very consistent portrayal of the Persians (and by association, all the peoples of the Asian continent, especially as Delios' narration begins to refer more and more to the Persian army as "the forces of Asia" and "the creatures of Asia") as being barbaric peoples.

Uncivilised peoples who keep slaves, torture animals and produce such freaks of nature as the Persian Immortals in the film and their chained bloodthirsty man-beast which nearly brings about Leonidas' death.

Asia becomes a land of slaves and bondmen, while Greece, Sparta and the European world are the lands of "free men".

It strikes me as a kind of racism, if you ask me; why only mention the "free men" when Greece and Sparta had slaves and bondage of their own?

I'm nitpicking, I know, but hey, as they say, film buffs (not that I'm claiming to be one) only get really picky about the films that they like. :) In the end though, I know that it's not exactly supposed to be an accurate historical representation of events; I know that film can't be perfect; I know that some themes are more important than others and prejudice has its own part to play in making the world easier to understand.

But I don't agree that we have to condone it.

So even if making everything black-and-white does make us root for the bravery of the Spartans and makes their heroism and sacrifice so much nobler, I still say that not every Asian in the Battle of Thermopylae was out for European blood, and self-proclaimed, power-hungry god-kings were not found in Asian cultures alone.

And that, as one of my lecturers likes to say, "we need to look at the history of things to really understand what they mean now".

The end of the two-day Singapore Polytechnic shoot.

I didn't participate coz I have mid-terms around this period; I had one on Friday (yes, *during* the mid-sem break) and I have one tomorrow.

Only four of the Standard Class guys took part-- Wai Xin, Chris, Ervin and my dear baby, Joseph. :) Personally, I think it's a good thing they took part; after the Standard Class archers were denied the chance to participate in IVP this year, I think it's a good thing that they at least get some experience and take part in a full shoot.

The Sembawang shoot wasn't really a full shoot in the sense that there was only one round of 6 ends of 6. In a proper shoot, there should be two rounds.

Anyway, I'm proud of the guys coz they brought back the Bronze team medal! They were up against some pretty fierce competition, although when they were fighting for third placing (coz they got beat by the Pasir Ris uncles *again*), from the very first end, from the way their opponents were shooting, I could tell they had a very good chance of coming away with the medal. :D

Pictures:


Just before the team event, lining up at the waiting line; Ervin, and Joseph behind him.


Ervin shooting, followed by Joseph.


This photo is their version of the "band of brothers" shot; during last year's IVP, Chwan was going around snapping pics with his camera and he took a photo of Nicholas, Weiquan and Weizheng walking back after retrieving their arrows which really looked pretty cool. For comparison, here's the original picture:





The guys-- from left, Ervin, Wai Xin and Joseph-- after their team event. This was the photo where they were supposed to look proud or arrogant or something. :P


The guys with their medals. Chris on the left there was the "reserve". :D


Another picture of the guys with our coach, Sunny Low...


And the last picture of the day, which included everyone who was there to support them-- which really was just Sylvia, Chris and me on the second day. Most of the others had come down to support them the previous day, the day of the individual ranking events. But after Sylvia sent out the message that they'd won third place, the messages came flooding in from everyone. :D