Meh. FF7 is eating my life. Nah, not really.
Good thing the PSP belongs to my cousin and I can only get my hands on it at night, when he's home and studying for his exams. Hahaha.
Funny when I think back, but the original FF7 came out at a time when I wasn't very into computer games, and even a while after its release and I *did* get started on games, I drifted more towards stuff like Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital and Red Alert and the C&C universe, where I could build stuff.
But anyway, was watching my cousin's Advent Children disc a few weeks ago when I was slacking at home on a weekend with nothing to do, and I realised that there're a lot of "gaps" in the movie. Coz hey, that's like the latest part of the whole long complicated and emo storyline.
Seriously, I think FF7 defined "emo". It created "emo" before there was "emo". It made "emo" cool. You get my point.
So, before I digress. Me being me, does not like "gaps" in my nice storylines. So. To Wikipedia we shall go. XD
So I poked around on Wikipedia and found that the story is long and convoluted and oh my god, still expanding. Will it never end.
But! It has all sorts of elements that I like, like the angst and the lovely characters. Gerri loves her main characters wonderfully flawed, and let's face it, isn't Cloud the most damaged thing you've ever seen? The Japanese make stories right up Gerri's alley, yes sirree. XD
And Crisis Core is kinda fun. Except for cutscenes where certain characters spout long lines of quotations which make no sense. Those are annoying. Quit quoting your stupid book at everybody! I still don't get why the silly book is so relevant to the storyline. *scratches head*
Ladeeda. Rant over. Now to find some nice wallpaper. My desktop needs a change of scenery.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
"Well, you have a melancholy soul, don't you think?"
Strange how that suddenly comes to mind, and the whole deluge of thoughts that follow behind it.
It must be... -six? seven?- years since we last talked- or communicated, to be more precise. You and I have never really spoken to each other. We've never heard each other's voices, and yet we managed to make each other's lives that much more bearable. I still wonder how we did it.
But sometime in JC I was reminded of you when a friend of mine received a phone call from someone she didn't know, who didn't give his name, and who only asked if she had the time to listen.
Too stunned at this strange turn of events, she simply replied, okay. So listen she did, and talk he did.
Not too unexpectedly, it was a story of unhappiness, of feeling somewhat lost. He did sound depressed, she said. And after all was said, he merely sighed, said thanks, and when met with her stammered: "er, you're welcome" and awkward silence, he said goodbye and hung up.
She couldn't call him back; there was no number to do so. And we still think that maybe he just punched in a random number, hoping whoever was on the other end would be a sympathetic ear and nothing more.
Sometimes I think of you and wonder who you really are.
Sometimes, on bad days, I write things like this and put your name in the salutation.
And on days like this, I remember things that we spoke of once.
"Well, you have a melancholy soul, don't you think?
Like all those poets. All the same."
"I tend to think of it as a throwaway soul."
"Same difference.
I bet you only like beautiful things because you're thinking they won't last."
"Insightful of you..."
"Why throwaway? You haven't been discarded yet, have you?
At least not that you've told me."
"'Yet'?? You're *so* optimistic..."
"*shrugs* We all get kicked to the kerb at least once in our lives, I think."
We both had the same strange problem, didn't we? Somehow we felt too little and we felt too much at the same time.
There was something which made us both strangely detached, like we lived in this world but were not of it, which caused so much tension for both of us, made it difficult to comprehend us, to live with us.
And yet the slightest thing which some would never take notice of could make us both mope for days. Weeks. Months, I remember. But lucky for you that turned out to be nothing.
Between then and now, I've been told many things; some of them you've heard before, some of them are new.
I'm cold, detached, have absolutely no EQ. I'm aloof, I'm unbothered, I'm unfeeling, I can't provide emotional support at all. And those are just the ones I think you've heard before. And I think an echo sounds in your head when you read those words.
But I've psychoanalysed myself a ridiculous number of times now and the only explanation I can offer is that I express myself differently.
I don't hug much, I don't smile much, I don't even have physical contact with people much. I don't talk much sometimes, even around people I've known all my life. I don't understand how they want me to be when they say they don't understand how I can be so unfeeling, and I wonder, is some spark missing somewhere...?
I'm not particularly good with my hands; I don't make gifts, and I never know what to make. I don't give out small little nothings to everyone I know on things like Valentine's Day with messages which are all one-liners and all the same. I don't know a whole lot of places where people go to have fun.
Me?
I leave things on people's desks which I think might be useful, tidbits of information I scrounge together from somewhere and save and print because I think they could use it.
I make soup and trot down to the convenience store for medicine when they're sick.
And sometimes an idea for a gift does come to me, and I turn it into one massive undertaking.
I buy things which end up being terribly belated birthday presents because I hadn't thought of it or hadn't happened upon it and thought, hey, that'd be just the thing, before the big day arrived.
Sometimes I iron clothes they need tomorrow.
And sometimes I just sit and watch, thinking of how their lives could be made better.
But that's all just unfeeling, I know.
On days like this, I wonder who you are, where you are, and if you're happy. And I wonder if either of us realises, in the grand scheme of things, how much we gave each other, even if neither of us knows for certain if any of it is real.
Strange how that suddenly comes to mind, and the whole deluge of thoughts that follow behind it.
It must be... -six? seven?- years since we last talked- or communicated, to be more precise. You and I have never really spoken to each other. We've never heard each other's voices, and yet we managed to make each other's lives that much more bearable. I still wonder how we did it.
But sometime in JC I was reminded of you when a friend of mine received a phone call from someone she didn't know, who didn't give his name, and who only asked if she had the time to listen.
Too stunned at this strange turn of events, she simply replied, okay. So listen she did, and talk he did.
Not too unexpectedly, it was a story of unhappiness, of feeling somewhat lost. He did sound depressed, she said. And after all was said, he merely sighed, said thanks, and when met with her stammered: "er, you're welcome" and awkward silence, he said goodbye and hung up.
She couldn't call him back; there was no number to do so. And we still think that maybe he just punched in a random number, hoping whoever was on the other end would be a sympathetic ear and nothing more.
Sometimes I think of you and wonder who you really are.
Sometimes, on bad days, I write things like this and put your name in the salutation.
And on days like this, I remember things that we spoke of once.
"Well, you have a melancholy soul, don't you think?
Like all those poets. All the same."
"I tend to think of it as a throwaway soul."
"Same difference.
I bet you only like beautiful things because you're thinking they won't last."
"Insightful of you..."
"Why throwaway? You haven't been discarded yet, have you?
At least not that you've told me."
"'Yet'?? You're *so* optimistic..."
"*shrugs* We all get kicked to the kerb at least once in our lives, I think."
We both had the same strange problem, didn't we? Somehow we felt too little and we felt too much at the same time.
There was something which made us both strangely detached, like we lived in this world but were not of it, which caused so much tension for both of us, made it difficult to comprehend us, to live with us.
And yet the slightest thing which some would never take notice of could make us both mope for days. Weeks. Months, I remember. But lucky for you that turned out to be nothing.
Between then and now, I've been told many things; some of them you've heard before, some of them are new.
I'm cold, detached, have absolutely no EQ. I'm aloof, I'm unbothered, I'm unfeeling, I can't provide emotional support at all. And those are just the ones I think you've heard before. And I think an echo sounds in your head when you read those words.
But I've psychoanalysed myself a ridiculous number of times now and the only explanation I can offer is that I express myself differently.
I don't hug much, I don't smile much, I don't even have physical contact with people much. I don't talk much sometimes, even around people I've known all my life. I don't understand how they want me to be when they say they don't understand how I can be so unfeeling, and I wonder, is some spark missing somewhere...?
I'm not particularly good with my hands; I don't make gifts, and I never know what to make. I don't give out small little nothings to everyone I know on things like Valentine's Day with messages which are all one-liners and all the same. I don't know a whole lot of places where people go to have fun.
Me?
I leave things on people's desks which I think might be useful, tidbits of information I scrounge together from somewhere and save and print because I think they could use it.
I make soup and trot down to the convenience store for medicine when they're sick.
And sometimes an idea for a gift does come to me, and I turn it into one massive undertaking.
I buy things which end up being terribly belated birthday presents because I hadn't thought of it or hadn't happened upon it and thought, hey, that'd be just the thing, before the big day arrived.
Sometimes I iron clothes they need tomorrow.
And sometimes I just sit and watch, thinking of how their lives could be made better.
But that's all just unfeeling, I know.
On days like this, I wonder who you are, where you are, and if you're happy. And I wonder if either of us realises, in the grand scheme of things, how much we gave each other, even if neither of us knows for certain if any of it is real.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Dreams are strange things. At least to me they are.
My subconscious mind has always disturbed me in some way; it's always told me things that somehow or other turn out to be true.
And the most freaky of them so far has to be the time two semesters ago when I was taking that shortcut from AS4 to the space between LTs 9 and 10, that narrow little lane next to the windows of the AS4 staircase, and I just stopped dead in my tracks suddenly because something just felt very wrong.
And the very second I stopped, a penknife blade landed at my feet. Someone'd thrown it out of one of the windows upstairs, I guess. I never looked up to check, just froze for a while there, then quickly went on my way. But it did freak me out.
And my brain seems to be working overtime these past few months-- or at least one part of it is.
The dream of the lady in black recurred again. Just a few nights after Joseph and I broke up. The dream of the lady in black in an empty dark room, lit only by the lights of a city nightscape. Where a man with no face comes to hold her, touch her, kiss her fears away, but in the end he only leaves with one of the gloves off her hand.
The first time I saw it was during the time shortly before Joseph and I got together, and I didn't understand what it could possibly mean then.
But when it revisited, it suddenly occurred to me; maybe that dream was telling me all along not to say yes to you.
My subconscious mind has always disturbed me in some way; it's always told me things that somehow or other turn out to be true.
And the most freaky of them so far has to be the time two semesters ago when I was taking that shortcut from AS4 to the space between LTs 9 and 10, that narrow little lane next to the windows of the AS4 staircase, and I just stopped dead in my tracks suddenly because something just felt very wrong.
And the very second I stopped, a penknife blade landed at my feet. Someone'd thrown it out of one of the windows upstairs, I guess. I never looked up to check, just froze for a while there, then quickly went on my way. But it did freak me out.
And my brain seems to be working overtime these past few months-- or at least one part of it is.
The dream of the lady in black recurred again. Just a few nights after Joseph and I broke up. The dream of the lady in black in an empty dark room, lit only by the lights of a city nightscape. Where a man with no face comes to hold her, touch her, kiss her fears away, but in the end he only leaves with one of the gloves off her hand.
The first time I saw it was during the time shortly before Joseph and I got together, and I didn't understand what it could possibly mean then.
But when it revisited, it suddenly occurred to me; maybe that dream was telling me all along not to say yes to you.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Estella
This space, cleared and replaced;
A heart with an empty sort of cold.
Not hope nor love lives here;
None but a tired weary ache.
They've all passed now, dead and laid to rest,
These shadows of my once-was loves,
The brittle broken pieces of mine heart
Scattered o'er the coffin
Like many red, red shattered roses.
And our hope lies smothered
In a decaying wedding dress;
Love chained to the hands of dead clocks
That remember too well
When the bottom fell out of the world.
This space, cleared and replaced;
A heart with an empty sort of cold.
Not hope nor love lives here;
None but a tired weary ache.
They've all passed now, dead and laid to rest,
These shadows of my once-was loves,
The brittle broken pieces of mine heart
Scattered o'er the coffin
Like many red, red shattered roses.
And our hope lies smothered
In a decaying wedding dress;
Love chained to the hands of dead clocks
That remember too well
When the bottom fell out of the world.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
A lot's happened in the last three months. I've just been too lazy to blog. :P
My last exam was on 2nd May, my Commencement ceremony was on 10th July, I went for my first international competition in Thailand on 17th July, and of course, my birthday was on the 22nd.
And shortly after that, on the 27th, Joseph and I broke up. Well. That's the gist of things.
Commencement was a... chaotic affair. After the ceremony and we'd all got our scrolls and everything, everyone was trying to take pictures with everyone else. We might really never see each other again, sadly.
While we were all seated listening to the speeches, Ivan actually messaged me to wish me happy commencement. And I wondered why Joseph didn't do the same. We actually hadn't spoken for almost a month; his reservist was 3 weeks long and started on the 24th of June and only ended later that week. I never really knew when was a good time to call, and when I did call, he was always out elsewhere with other friends. He said he'd call back, but he never did. And I just chalked it up to his usual forgetfulness, or maybe he was tired and had to be up early the next day.
Things hadn't been feeling right for a long time.
I left for a competition in Thailand on the 17th, and Joseph said he wouldn't be able to come see me off coz he had to give tuition in the morning. For a minute I wondered, isn't seeing your girlfriend off more important than giving tuition..? But I decided to let it go, since he's always been so work-oriented. Eugene keeps telling me I made too many excuses for him.
So Wai Xin, Xingjuan and Weiquan's girlfriend, Jeslin, came to see us (Fred, Weiquan and me) off at the airport, and just before the plane took off, I sent Joseph a message; since it was our anniversary that day, I said bye and I'd be back in 5 days' time, and happy anniversary. I never got a message back.
Thailand was fun; we landed in Thailand in the afternoon, and the people from the Thailand Outdoor Archery Club were there to pick us up at the airport. They brought us round the shopping district, and we bought ourselves a few things. They dropped us off at the hotel in the evening so we could check in and leave our baggage there, and then they brought us to the competition venue, just 800m from our hotel, haha. So we got to see the competition venue in its early stages of setup, and then we set off to find ourselves our dinner.
The next morning the van driver who helped drive us around the previous day brought us round to do more sightseeing; we actually intended to get a look at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the Royal Palace Gardens and the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha (Wat Po) just opposite the Royal Palace, but when we got there, the Emerald Buddha was closed the whole day for some ceremony, and we spent 3 hours just in the Royal Palace alone! So that meant we didn't have time to see Wat Po before the van came to pick us up and drive us to TOAC's range where that was a dinner-cum-team briefing session.
TOAC's range is a nice place too; their range is small, but in a cosy kinda way. The area where archers stand to shoot is sheltered, and just behind that, there's a pro shop and small cafe where the archers can get refreshments. If only that kind of thing existed in Singapore.
The next two days, Saturday and Sunday, were competition proper. Saturday morning and the earlier part of the afternoon were individual ranking events for us; I shot in the morning, and the two guys in the early afternoon. Later we went for lunch, and in the evening we had the team event for the University category.
Fred, Weiquan and me were the 5th seeded team; we weren't expecting to win anything, since it was an international competition after all, and we thought that the overall standard had to be pretty high.
But we beat our first team opponents, Chiang Mai University, and then we went on to face Ramkhamhaeng University. And when we beat Ramkhamhaeng, we realised we might actually have a chance of winning something. Coz after Ramkhamhaeng, it was down to the top four teams, and surprisingly, of the top four, three of the teams were Singapore teams. Our team, from NUS, and the two NTU teams.
Unfortunately, because of our initial ranking and the bracket that we were in, we went against the first-seeded team first, and we lost, leaving us to compete for the bronze medal against one of the NTU teams. We beat them in the end and managed to bring home a bronze medal each, but I still think that if we'd been up against one of the NTU teams first, then we'd have got silver instead of bronze. XD
So we came back on Monday night, on the 21st; our plane only landed at 9.30 pm coz it's been delayed by about an hour in Thailand. The only people who came to receive us were Wai Xin and Jeslin again, and Fred's parents. No Joseph again, but I thought it was probably pretty later for him and maybe he was tired after work. More excuses made.
My birthday was a rather dismal one; two weeks before, I'd already received the only present I'd receive this year-- ten people in the club had got together to buy my bow from the club and give it to me. So my bow of three years now is finally really mine. Thank you Weiquan, Wai Xin, Fred, Connor, Sylvia, Joshua, Xingjuan, Serene and Joseph. :)
But my birthday itself was quiet; Weiquan and I dropped by the range in the morning to see Fred, who was still conducting training despite getting back late the night before. Then we went for lunch and I went back home. Happy birthday messages trickled in, including one from Joseph which simply read "Happy 23rd Birthday!"
And I wondered why he couldn't even be bothered to call after I hadn't seen him for almost a month.
Even the breakup was done by way of an SMS, five days later.
I suppose you're right; I'm not the kind who's good at providing emotional support. Perhaps I'm really just selfish and I keep relying on someone to make my life more bearable while not reciprocating.
And you say that your feelings changed, that you felt our relationship had gone stale. And I remember what you said in the beginning, about how you were tired of playing around-- I wonder, if you were really tired of playing around, wouldn't you have made more of an effort to see that it lasted?
I'd had my own suspicions for the last month. Everyone else has their own. And y'know what they say? They say that you've been seeing someone else for some time now. And perhaps I'm not all that surprised; you left another girl for me, after all. And perhaps... against my better judgment, I said yes to you. Because I thought at that time that you'd only realised you'd made a rash decision too late and that you and that girl were not really to be. Because I thought that you were a better person. But it seems I judged wrongly.
I've asked for all my explanations now, and I can't really tell anymore how much of what you've said is truth or lies. But if you say that you haven't got together with anyone else, then who's the girl in all the Facebook pictures that you went to Bintan with?
Maybe she'll make you happy. Maybe all the numerous girlfriends you've had all this time were really just keeping space warm for her. Maybe this one will finally last and you'll find that candy-coloured forever so many of us will never reach.
I hope you won't let her down like you have the rest of us.
But I suppose that isn't my place to care anymore.
My last exam was on 2nd May, my Commencement ceremony was on 10th July, I went for my first international competition in Thailand on 17th July, and of course, my birthday was on the 22nd.
And shortly after that, on the 27th, Joseph and I broke up. Well. That's the gist of things.
Commencement was a... chaotic affair. After the ceremony and we'd all got our scrolls and everything, everyone was trying to take pictures with everyone else. We might really never see each other again, sadly.
While we were all seated listening to the speeches, Ivan actually messaged me to wish me happy commencement. And I wondered why Joseph didn't do the same. We actually hadn't spoken for almost a month; his reservist was 3 weeks long and started on the 24th of June and only ended later that week. I never really knew when was a good time to call, and when I did call, he was always out elsewhere with other friends. He said he'd call back, but he never did. And I just chalked it up to his usual forgetfulness, or maybe he was tired and had to be up early the next day.
Things hadn't been feeling right for a long time.
I left for a competition in Thailand on the 17th, and Joseph said he wouldn't be able to come see me off coz he had to give tuition in the morning. For a minute I wondered, isn't seeing your girlfriend off more important than giving tuition..? But I decided to let it go, since he's always been so work-oriented. Eugene keeps telling me I made too many excuses for him.
So Wai Xin, Xingjuan and Weiquan's girlfriend, Jeslin, came to see us (Fred, Weiquan and me) off at the airport, and just before the plane took off, I sent Joseph a message; since it was our anniversary that day, I said bye and I'd be back in 5 days' time, and happy anniversary. I never got a message back.
Thailand was fun; we landed in Thailand in the afternoon, and the people from the Thailand Outdoor Archery Club were there to pick us up at the airport. They brought us round the shopping district, and we bought ourselves a few things. They dropped us off at the hotel in the evening so we could check in and leave our baggage there, and then they brought us to the competition venue, just 800m from our hotel, haha. So we got to see the competition venue in its early stages of setup, and then we set off to find ourselves our dinner.
The next morning the van driver who helped drive us around the previous day brought us round to do more sightseeing; we actually intended to get a look at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the Royal Palace Gardens and the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha (Wat Po) just opposite the Royal Palace, but when we got there, the Emerald Buddha was closed the whole day for some ceremony, and we spent 3 hours just in the Royal Palace alone! So that meant we didn't have time to see Wat Po before the van came to pick us up and drive us to TOAC's range where that was a dinner-cum-team briefing session.
TOAC's range is a nice place too; their range is small, but in a cosy kinda way. The area where archers stand to shoot is sheltered, and just behind that, there's a pro shop and small cafe where the archers can get refreshments. If only that kind of thing existed in Singapore.
The next two days, Saturday and Sunday, were competition proper. Saturday morning and the earlier part of the afternoon were individual ranking events for us; I shot in the morning, and the two guys in the early afternoon. Later we went for lunch, and in the evening we had the team event for the University category.
Fred, Weiquan and me were the 5th seeded team; we weren't expecting to win anything, since it was an international competition after all, and we thought that the overall standard had to be pretty high.
But we beat our first team opponents, Chiang Mai University, and then we went on to face Ramkhamhaeng University. And when we beat Ramkhamhaeng, we realised we might actually have a chance of winning something. Coz after Ramkhamhaeng, it was down to the top four teams, and surprisingly, of the top four, three of the teams were Singapore teams. Our team, from NUS, and the two NTU teams.
Unfortunately, because of our initial ranking and the bracket that we were in, we went against the first-seeded team first, and we lost, leaving us to compete for the bronze medal against one of the NTU teams. We beat them in the end and managed to bring home a bronze medal each, but I still think that if we'd been up against one of the NTU teams first, then we'd have got silver instead of bronze. XD
So we came back on Monday night, on the 21st; our plane only landed at 9.30 pm coz it's been delayed by about an hour in Thailand. The only people who came to receive us were Wai Xin and Jeslin again, and Fred's parents. No Joseph again, but I thought it was probably pretty later for him and maybe he was tired after work. More excuses made.
My birthday was a rather dismal one; two weeks before, I'd already received the only present I'd receive this year-- ten people in the club had got together to buy my bow from the club and give it to me. So my bow of three years now is finally really mine. Thank you Weiquan, Wai Xin, Fred, Connor, Sylvia, Joshua, Xingjuan, Serene and Joseph. :)
But my birthday itself was quiet; Weiquan and I dropped by the range in the morning to see Fred, who was still conducting training despite getting back late the night before. Then we went for lunch and I went back home. Happy birthday messages trickled in, including one from Joseph which simply read "Happy 23rd Birthday!"
And I wondered why he couldn't even be bothered to call after I hadn't seen him for almost a month.
Even the breakup was done by way of an SMS, five days later.
I suppose you're right; I'm not the kind who's good at providing emotional support. Perhaps I'm really just selfish and I keep relying on someone to make my life more bearable while not reciprocating.
And you say that your feelings changed, that you felt our relationship had gone stale. And I remember what you said in the beginning, about how you were tired of playing around-- I wonder, if you were really tired of playing around, wouldn't you have made more of an effort to see that it lasted?
I'd had my own suspicions for the last month. Everyone else has their own. And y'know what they say? They say that you've been seeing someone else for some time now. And perhaps I'm not all that surprised; you left another girl for me, after all. And perhaps... against my better judgment, I said yes to you. Because I thought at that time that you'd only realised you'd made a rash decision too late and that you and that girl were not really to be. Because I thought that you were a better person. But it seems I judged wrongly.
I've asked for all my explanations now, and I can't really tell anymore how much of what you've said is truth or lies. But if you say that you haven't got together with anyone else, then who's the girl in all the Facebook pictures that you went to Bintan with?
Maybe she'll make you happy. Maybe all the numerous girlfriends you've had all this time were really just keeping space warm for her. Maybe this one will finally last and you'll find that candy-coloured forever so many of us will never reach.
I hope you won't let her down like you have the rest of us.
But I suppose that isn't my place to care anymore.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Random reflections while mugging in Science Library.
Just washed toilet floors are not always a good thing.
Was in the loo just now, and when I entered a cubicle and happened to glance down at the floor, I noticed--to my horror--that because of all the water that was still covering the floor and the flourescent lights above the cubicles, I could see what the person in the next stall was doing!!
And then I quickly averred my eyes and checked the floor of my stall.
Okay, mine wasn't so bad. And then I quickly did what I had to do and scarpered. :P
Just washed toilet floors are not always a good thing.
Was in the loo just now, and when I entered a cubicle and happened to glance down at the floor, I noticed--to my horror--that because of all the water that was still covering the floor and the flourescent lights above the cubicles, I could see what the person in the next stall was doing!!
And then I quickly averred my eyes and checked the floor of my stall.
Okay, mine wasn't so bad. And then I quickly did what I had to do and scarpered. :P
Monday, April 21, 2008
Compared to the Honours Thesis, the ISM is basically just "an extended term paper", but with a topic that's entirely up to us to choose. 5000 words, compared to the Honours Thesis' 12000.
Thesis has a page for acknowledgements, where you can thank all the people in the world if you want to. ISM doesn't.
So here's my list of people to thank.
To my supervisor:
Prof. Waterson, words cannot express how grateful I am to you for being so understanding, for giving me the time to finish what I started, for helping me to conceptualise and structure my paper.
To Mr. Michael Fernandez:
Thank you for an eye-opening experience, for sharing your experiences and those of your compatriots with me. It's not everyday that we're allowed a glimpse of how different things were, seen through the eyes of the remainders of a time that has been allowed to fall through the cracks and cemented over.
To my teammates in NUS Archery:
In my years at NUS, archery has always been my escape route. Thank you all for giving me somewhere to run away to. Even if it's just our crummy little range and lounge which SRC refuses to renovate or upgrade or improve. Thank you to my bow, Fidelis, for living up to your name and being my loyal companion all these years.
Thank you to all the archers who lived in school; for all the dinners, the late night Bridge (and German Bridge) sessions, mugging together, watching the guys play Counterstrike at night, room parties with green bean soup, red bean soup, chips and tidbits and movies and anime.
Thank you for being so much fun, the whole RVR gang; Sylvia, Connor, Nicholas, Huiting, Mengyi, Xingjuan (although you only stayed one sem) and Joshua. I'll miss living with you guys.
Thank you for the breakfast company on Thursday mornings, talk about shooting in the future and bitching about SRC, Wai Xin and Weiquan.
Thank you to one of the most stressful people on the face of the planet, my dearest Joseph. Thank you for always telling me that I should be working, for always telling me "you can do it", for being the chalk to my cheese, the night to my day, the sedateness to my hyperness, and when we both go a little bit nuts, it makes my day that much brighter. :D
To the Sociology Honours class of 07/08:
Thank you for the fun and laughter, the times of shared stress and deadlines and "Jiayou(s)!!" all around, the birthday parties and cakes and outings, the whiteboard in the Honours room that almost always had nonsense doodled on it; thank you for all the terrible jokes and wonderful times.
Thank you to Weida; coz you're such a great class rep, sending all those emails and communiques and helping us ask for extensions, and thank you for always asking, "How's your ISM?"
Thank you to Wilson ("task-oriented!!"), and Ling; the quirkiest project groupmates I've had in all my four years at NUS, and all that time we spent tearing our hair out trying to juggle the Urban Anthro project and our ISMs at the same time.
Thank you to Shawn Chew; just for being you, haha. And for wearing that silly shirt with the departures board on it. That shirt always made my day. We never did get around to that whisky appreciation session... haha. The image of you high on whisky coke will remain with me forever. :P
Thank you to Dorcas and Shufen for "mothering" the whole Honours class; Shufen with her Royce chocolates and Dorcas for being caring and always so cheerful.
Thank you to Eng Soon; keeping you awake during class was a challenge at times, but it was always amusing.
Thank you to Nicole ("neko!"); for being the one person I could make silly noises at, and have them made back at me. ^_^
Thank you to Yan Ping, for always being so quirky. Good things come in small packages.
Thank you to Dongchou, our resident "North Korean", for your wry sense of humour.
Thank you to Greg for the prayers and the advice.
Thank you to Pamela, my oldest and dearest friend (I sound like a book...); we've definitely known each other for too long. :P But it's good to know that you're still just about the only person I can talk to, wherein our conversation never has to make any sense, and yet we still understand each other. :D
Thank you to any other Honours folks I haven't mentioned yet; I just don't know exactly what to write for you guys! Bobby, Fiona, Charissa, Charmaine, Isabelle, Wei Loon, Melvin Chua, Melvin Lim, James, Yi Ding, Mas, I'dil, Hafiz, Jonny, Diana, Si Ying, Adeline, Pearlyn, Sheilla, PJ, Ana, Clement, Xin Yi, Daryl, Charlynn, Chongwei, KC, Winnie, Daniel, Bianca... and everyone else, because I know I've left out people, but I just can't remember all of you... :P
Thank you to my family:
To my parents; for making me the person I am today, for nagging me, for pushing me, for not giving up, for loving me in your own very different ways.
To my maternal aunts; without you, university and all the experiences which I have gained through it would never have been possible. I have lived on your borrowed dreams.
Thank you to people who don't fit in the above categories:
Thank you Eugene, for being the annoying, sarcastic pain in the arse you always are. Hahaha... Well, in all seriousness, thanks for all the fun times and the overnight mugging which seems so long ago now. Thanks for being a great kor, and here's hoping that your Masters application goes through, and we can all go to New Zealand and run wild for a couple of weeks. XD
Thank you Alex, for keeping me awake on MSN when all the essays were due, feeding me pictures of hamsters, YouTube videos and various other things that make time fly by. :P
And last but not least, the most unsung hero of all unsung heroes in the writing of any essay: my laptop. Thank you for not giving out on me when it was the most crucial time!!
Thesis has a page for acknowledgements, where you can thank all the people in the world if you want to. ISM doesn't.
So here's my list of people to thank.
To my supervisor:
Prof. Waterson, words cannot express how grateful I am to you for being so understanding, for giving me the time to finish what I started, for helping me to conceptualise and structure my paper.
To Mr. Michael Fernandez:
Thank you for an eye-opening experience, for sharing your experiences and those of your compatriots with me. It's not everyday that we're allowed a glimpse of how different things were, seen through the eyes of the remainders of a time that has been allowed to fall through the cracks and cemented over.
To my teammates in NUS Archery:
In my years at NUS, archery has always been my escape route. Thank you all for giving me somewhere to run away to. Even if it's just our crummy little range and lounge which SRC refuses to renovate or upgrade or improve. Thank you to my bow, Fidelis, for living up to your name and being my loyal companion all these years.
Thank you to all the archers who lived in school; for all the dinners, the late night Bridge (and German Bridge) sessions, mugging together, watching the guys play Counterstrike at night, room parties with green bean soup, red bean soup, chips and tidbits and movies and anime.
Thank you for being so much fun, the whole RVR gang; Sylvia, Connor, Nicholas, Huiting, Mengyi, Xingjuan (although you only stayed one sem) and Joshua. I'll miss living with you guys.
Thank you for the breakfast company on Thursday mornings, talk about shooting in the future and bitching about SRC, Wai Xin and Weiquan.
Thank you to one of the most stressful people on the face of the planet, my dearest Joseph. Thank you for always telling me that I should be working, for always telling me "you can do it", for being the chalk to my cheese, the night to my day, the sedateness to my hyperness, and when we both go a little bit nuts, it makes my day that much brighter. :D
To the Sociology Honours class of 07/08:
Thank you for the fun and laughter, the times of shared stress and deadlines and "Jiayou(s)!!" all around, the birthday parties and cakes and outings, the whiteboard in the Honours room that almost always had nonsense doodled on it; thank you for all the terrible jokes and wonderful times.
Thank you to Weida; coz you're such a great class rep, sending all those emails and communiques and helping us ask for extensions, and thank you for always asking, "How's your ISM?"
Thank you to Wilson ("task-oriented!!"), and Ling; the quirkiest project groupmates I've had in all my four years at NUS, and all that time we spent tearing our hair out trying to juggle the Urban Anthro project and our ISMs at the same time.
Thank you to Shawn Chew; just for being you, haha. And for wearing that silly shirt with the departures board on it. That shirt always made my day. We never did get around to that whisky appreciation session... haha. The image of you high on whisky coke will remain with me forever. :P
Thank you to Dorcas and Shufen for "mothering" the whole Honours class; Shufen with her Royce chocolates and Dorcas for being caring and always so cheerful.
Thank you to Eng Soon; keeping you awake during class was a challenge at times, but it was always amusing.
Thank you to Nicole ("neko!"); for being the one person I could make silly noises at, and have them made back at me. ^_^
Thank you to Yan Ping, for always being so quirky. Good things come in small packages.
Thank you to Dongchou, our resident "North Korean", for your wry sense of humour.
Thank you to Greg for the prayers and the advice.
Thank you to Pamela, my oldest and dearest friend (I sound like a book...); we've definitely known each other for too long. :P But it's good to know that you're still just about the only person I can talk to, wherein our conversation never has to make any sense, and yet we still understand each other. :D
Thank you to any other Honours folks I haven't mentioned yet; I just don't know exactly what to write for you guys! Bobby, Fiona, Charissa, Charmaine, Isabelle, Wei Loon, Melvin Chua, Melvin Lim, James, Yi Ding, Mas, I'dil, Hafiz, Jonny, Diana, Si Ying, Adeline, Pearlyn, Sheilla, PJ, Ana, Clement, Xin Yi, Daryl, Charlynn, Chongwei, KC, Winnie, Daniel, Bianca... and everyone else, because I know I've left out people, but I just can't remember all of you... :P
Thank you to my family:
To my parents; for making me the person I am today, for nagging me, for pushing me, for not giving up, for loving me in your own very different ways.
To my maternal aunts; without you, university and all the experiences which I have gained through it would never have been possible. I have lived on your borrowed dreams.
Thank you to people who don't fit in the above categories:
Thank you Eugene, for being the annoying, sarcastic pain in the arse you always are. Hahaha... Well, in all seriousness, thanks for all the fun times and the overnight mugging which seems so long ago now. Thanks for being a great kor, and here's hoping that your Masters application goes through, and we can all go to New Zealand and run wild for a couple of weeks. XD
Thank you Alex, for keeping me awake on MSN when all the essays were due, feeding me pictures of hamsters, YouTube videos and various other things that make time fly by. :P
And last but not least, the most unsung hero of all unsung heroes in the writing of any essay: my laptop. Thank you for not giving out on me when it was the most crucial time!!
Monday, April 14, 2008
I'm in a strange kinda mood at the moment.
Still doing reading and drafting for ISM at this time. Got allowance for extension, but my new hand-in date hasn't been finalised yet. Thank god for such nice supervisors.
I've gone mad lately, Tsubasa Chronicles has come back to haunt me with a vengeance. I remember when I first got my laptop almost two years ago, I found all sorts of amazing things on YouTube at the same time. Like the fact that you could watch whole episodes, whole seasons, whole shows on it for free.
And I stumbled on Cardcaptor Sakura clips, and out of curiosity, decided to watch the whole series. And then that led on to Tsubasa (Reservoir) Chronicles (TRC), the most confusing crossover series I have ever seen, despite the amount of fanfiction I read; not only do characters appear almost randomly and not necessarily in their original kind of roles-- this "crossover" is canon. And to add to that, TRC's universe can be terribly complicated and confusing.
Also promptly fell in love with the music for Tsubasa Chronicles. Kajiura Yuki is amazing.
I watched them off YouTube till episode 40, after which I stopped keeping up-- the series was still broadcasting in Japan then, and you could wait anywhere from two to four weeks for a subbed version on YouTube-- the waiting only became obvious when I caught up to where they were showing, and then at some point I just didn't bother anymore.
So I'm on a TRC craze at the moment. Always happens. My wallpaper folder has about ten TRC wallpapers, my desktop is hosting one currently, and my Tsubasa music folder has only increased slightly.
"Aikoi" (from the fourth TRC soundtrack) has been on repeat for the last three days; it keeps me awake. Works almost as well as caffeine. Or better. Since it looks like my system is metabolising caffeine faster and faster now.
I remember in year 2 Alex used to take caffeine pills to mug, haha. Dunno if they ever worked as well as caffeine though. I never asked.
Ah, caffeine. The world's most popular and "legal" drug.
Still doing reading and drafting for ISM at this time. Got allowance for extension, but my new hand-in date hasn't been finalised yet. Thank god for such nice supervisors.
I've gone mad lately, Tsubasa Chronicles has come back to haunt me with a vengeance. I remember when I first got my laptop almost two years ago, I found all sorts of amazing things on YouTube at the same time. Like the fact that you could watch whole episodes, whole seasons, whole shows on it for free.
And I stumbled on Cardcaptor Sakura clips, and out of curiosity, decided to watch the whole series. And then that led on to Tsubasa (Reservoir) Chronicles (TRC), the most confusing crossover series I have ever seen, despite the amount of fanfiction I read; not only do characters appear almost randomly and not necessarily in their original kind of roles-- this "crossover" is canon. And to add to that, TRC's universe can be terribly complicated and confusing.
Also promptly fell in love with the music for Tsubasa Chronicles. Kajiura Yuki is amazing.
I watched them off YouTube till episode 40, after which I stopped keeping up-- the series was still broadcasting in Japan then, and you could wait anywhere from two to four weeks for a subbed version on YouTube-- the waiting only became obvious when I caught up to where they were showing, and then at some point I just didn't bother anymore.
So I'm on a TRC craze at the moment. Always happens. My wallpaper folder has about ten TRC wallpapers, my desktop is hosting one currently, and my Tsubasa music folder has only increased slightly.
"Aikoi" (from the fourth TRC soundtrack) has been on repeat for the last three days; it keeps me awake. Works almost as well as caffeine. Or better. Since it looks like my system is metabolising caffeine faster and faster now.
I remember in year 2 Alex used to take caffeine pills to mug, haha. Dunno if they ever worked as well as caffeine though. I never asked.
Ah, caffeine. The world's most popular and "legal" drug.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Decisions, decisions.
Today was a good day at work. Well, several good things happened, really.
Although I woke up late. XD (Good things seem to happen everytime I wake up late for work...) But I'd packed my stuff the night before, so all I really had to do wash up and rush downstairs and buy a curry puff from Old Chang Kee for breakfast, then wait at the bus stop. And the MRT is lots faster than the bus, so I still got to work on time with almost no hassle at all.
So, I suppose the first good thing is that I managed to make it to work on time.
Secondly:
I'd kinda gotten it into my head that I wanted to try and see if I could finish off what I have early, so that maybe I could leave early, since there's competition tomorrow and the day after.
And I did manage to finish early; at around 4 pm (I'm supposed to be off work at 6 pm), I'd cleared my desk, and Priscillia and Evon (the nice ladies who let me know what I need to do) were shocked. I think I'm getting used to it and I'm getting faster. Lol.
Priscillia found some other stuff for me to do, so I took my time with it, and was done at about 5.45 pm. At which time they told me I might as well go off early. Heehee.
So, off to get my timesheet signed by Joyce. I'm still not really sure what her role in the office is, just that she's right next to the GM's office, and I think she's something like the office secretary. Coz everything in the office seems to go through her.
Joyce handed me my new timesheet for the month of March, and at the top of it, I noticed that my pay rate had been increased from $7 to $9 per hour. And Joyce tells me that she's given me that rate for my February pay too. Wheeee.
So that's the third good thing.
Joyce also asked again when I'm graduating and whether I'd be interested in working as permanent staff; told me to give her a CV when it's nearing the time I'll graduate.
And then when I was walking to the MRT station, this lady called Jocelyn calls from the office, telling me that apparently, the feedback about me has been quite positive, and asking me if I'd be interested in a permanent job, and about an interview next week.
Fourth good thing.
So now I'm thinking... should I be considering part-time Masters instead of full-time Masters now? If I even decide to do Masters? Hmm.
Today was a good day at work. Well, several good things happened, really.
Although I woke up late. XD (Good things seem to happen everytime I wake up late for work...) But I'd packed my stuff the night before, so all I really had to do wash up and rush downstairs and buy a curry puff from Old Chang Kee for breakfast, then wait at the bus stop. And the MRT is lots faster than the bus, so I still got to work on time with almost no hassle at all.
So, I suppose the first good thing is that I managed to make it to work on time.
Secondly:
I'd kinda gotten it into my head that I wanted to try and see if I could finish off what I have early, so that maybe I could leave early, since there's competition tomorrow and the day after.
And I did manage to finish early; at around 4 pm (I'm supposed to be off work at 6 pm), I'd cleared my desk, and Priscillia and Evon (the nice ladies who let me know what I need to do) were shocked. I think I'm getting used to it and I'm getting faster. Lol.
Priscillia found some other stuff for me to do, so I took my time with it, and was done at about 5.45 pm. At which time they told me I might as well go off early. Heehee.
So, off to get my timesheet signed by Joyce. I'm still not really sure what her role in the office is, just that she's right next to the GM's office, and I think she's something like the office secretary. Coz everything in the office seems to go through her.
Joyce handed me my new timesheet for the month of March, and at the top of it, I noticed that my pay rate had been increased from $7 to $9 per hour. And Joyce tells me that she's given me that rate for my February pay too. Wheeee.
So that's the third good thing.
Joyce also asked again when I'm graduating and whether I'd be interested in working as permanent staff; told me to give her a CV when it's nearing the time I'll graduate.
And then when I was walking to the MRT station, this lady called Jocelyn calls from the office, telling me that apparently, the feedback about me has been quite positive, and asking me if I'd be interested in a permanent job, and about an interview next week.
Fourth good thing.
So now I'm thinking... should I be considering part-time Masters instead of full-time Masters now? If I even decide to do Masters? Hmm.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
I feel... kind of like I've just done one of the most stupid things in my life.
Something in me knows that it's not really that important, and yes, it's true, I don't really need it since I'm graduating this semester, but still.
People train long and hard for this, people work for this, people fight for this; and I gave mine away.
I don't know why. Sylvia says it was nice of me to do it, but I *know* that I'm not a "nice" person. So I don't know why. I really don't know why.
Something in me knows that it's not really that important, and yes, it's true, I don't really need it since I'm graduating this semester, but still.
People train long and hard for this, people work for this, people fight for this; and I gave mine away.
I don't know why. Sylvia says it was nice of me to do it, but I *know* that I'm not a "nice" person. So I don't know why. I really don't know why.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Finally..!!! My IVP Gold trophy, which has eluded me for the last three years!! :D
Good competition for the whole team as well, and for the first time, we won more awards in the higher Recurve categories than in Standard.
So, first time shooting 90 arrows instead of 72; my individual score on Saturday was actually quite lousy, I think.
My 60m round went fine; score of 211 out of 300. Good, I suppose, considering that I only finalised my sight for 60m on Thursday, when I went down to Zhenghua to shoot with Wai Xin and Weiquan.
My 50m and 40m rounds, on the other hand, were not as good, at least not by my own expectations. I missed the board twice in each round, and ended up getting a score of 230-plus for each. If I'd landed those arrows, my 50m and 40m scores would've been nearer to 250... damnit.
Tired, lah. Plus my stupid cough wouldn't leave me alone and go infect someone else.
But it turned out to be good enough. By the end of the FITA 900 round, I was ranked third, but first for IVP, since the two girls with higher scores than me were not in IVP. NTU held both Open and IVP Outdoor together, so technically, this means that IVP archers will be ranked in both categories. So in Open, I was ranked third, and in IVP, ranked first.
So, individual knockout on Sunday for Open; damn shocked when I found out there's IKO on Saturday-- I haven't been to a competition that had IKO for almost two years...!
But went well, haha. Me versus an NTU girl first; 3rd vs. 6th. I forgot her name. Oh dear. I won by 12 points.
Next, me vs. Winnie Khoo from RP. She's actually pretty good! :) The two of us were talking crap half the time, behind the shooting line, *at* the shooting line, walking to collect arrows, talking nonsense while collecting arrows... *rolls eyes*
It's actually the first time I've ever been friendly with an archer from another club during competition, haha. I usually keep to myself and only talk to NUS people. Must be getting soft in my old age. :P
Beat Winnie by just one point. Really close. In the first end, I led by one point, in the second end, she led by one; in the third end, we tied, and in the final end, our arrows had almost all the same score: we each had one yellow, one red, one blue, but one of mine in red cut the line. XD
So, onto gold medal and bronze medal match for myself and her respectively. Me against a girl from HTNS, she against Crystal from NTU. I ended up losing to the HTNS girl by just 7 points, but at least it was a good fight. I knew she'd be pretty tough to beat anyway. :)
So 2nd place in Open instead of 3rd; IKO actually turned out to be a good thing. Lol.
I wasn't in the team event, but Linette, Mengyi and Serene later beat the NTU girls' team to get Gold for team. Yay. NUS now officially holds both the FITA 900 Ladies' Golds. XD
At the same time, Joseph, Joshua and Connor beat the NTU team they were up against to get bronze. That was a great moment, man.
The best picture of the whole competition. Hafiz with Joshua halfway over his shoulders; Connor and Joseph in the background on the left. A little to the right is Mengyi, and that's me hugging Serene.
Now for more pictures.
FITA 900 Ladies' Team: Linette, Serene, Mengyi
Gold Medal
FITA 900 Men's Team: Connor, Joshua, Joseph
Bronze Medal
FITA 900 Ladies' Individual (Open): Me!
Silver
(the guy standing in first position was just collecting the trophy for the girl coz she'd left early, but his club made him stand up there and take the picture, lol.)
FITA 900 Ladies' Individual (IVP): Me again
Gold
Standard Class Ladies' Individual: Sin Kei
Bronze
All the medallists, plus Coach in the middle...
...and one of the whole team. :)
Good competition for the whole team as well, and for the first time, we won more awards in the higher Recurve categories than in Standard.
So, first time shooting 90 arrows instead of 72; my individual score on Saturday was actually quite lousy, I think.
My 60m round went fine; score of 211 out of 300. Good, I suppose, considering that I only finalised my sight for 60m on Thursday, when I went down to Zhenghua to shoot with Wai Xin and Weiquan.
My 50m and 40m rounds, on the other hand, were not as good, at least not by my own expectations. I missed the board twice in each round, and ended up getting a score of 230-plus for each. If I'd landed those arrows, my 50m and 40m scores would've been nearer to 250... damnit.
Tired, lah. Plus my stupid cough wouldn't leave me alone and go infect someone else.
But it turned out to be good enough. By the end of the FITA 900 round, I was ranked third, but first for IVP, since the two girls with higher scores than me were not in IVP. NTU held both Open and IVP Outdoor together, so technically, this means that IVP archers will be ranked in both categories. So in Open, I was ranked third, and in IVP, ranked first.
So, individual knockout on Sunday for Open; damn shocked when I found out there's IKO on Saturday-- I haven't been to a competition that had IKO for almost two years...!
But went well, haha. Me versus an NTU girl first; 3rd vs. 6th. I forgot her name. Oh dear. I won by 12 points.
Next, me vs. Winnie Khoo from RP. She's actually pretty good! :) The two of us were talking crap half the time, behind the shooting line, *at* the shooting line, walking to collect arrows, talking nonsense while collecting arrows... *rolls eyes*
It's actually the first time I've ever been friendly with an archer from another club during competition, haha. I usually keep to myself and only talk to NUS people. Must be getting soft in my old age. :P
Beat Winnie by just one point. Really close. In the first end, I led by one point, in the second end, she led by one; in the third end, we tied, and in the final end, our arrows had almost all the same score: we each had one yellow, one red, one blue, but one of mine in red cut the line. XD
So, onto gold medal and bronze medal match for myself and her respectively. Me against a girl from HTNS, she against Crystal from NTU. I ended up losing to the HTNS girl by just 7 points, but at least it was a good fight. I knew she'd be pretty tough to beat anyway. :)
So 2nd place in Open instead of 3rd; IKO actually turned out to be a good thing. Lol.
I wasn't in the team event, but Linette, Mengyi and Serene later beat the NTU girls' team to get Gold for team. Yay. NUS now officially holds both the FITA 900 Ladies' Golds. XD
At the same time, Joseph, Joshua and Connor beat the NTU team they were up against to get bronze. That was a great moment, man.
The best picture of the whole competition. Hafiz with Joshua halfway over his shoulders; Connor and Joseph in the background on the left. A little to the right is Mengyi, and that's me hugging Serene.
Now for more pictures.
Gold Medal
Bronze Medal
Silver
(the guy standing in first position was just collecting the trophy for the girl coz she'd left early, but his club made him stand up there and take the picture, lol.)
Gold
Bronze
Friday, February 15, 2008
A Valentine's caper.
In which Gerri bakes an Oreo cheesecake for the first time. :)
I've only ever baked cheesecakes before, never the version with Oreos added. So for this version, I used 11 cookies for the crust (which still turned out to be pretty thin); which means 22 Oreo biscuits, with the cream removed and added into the cake itself later, so I used less sugar in the cake since I figured the cream would make it pretty sweet.
Then just went about my normal cheesecake-making process, cheese and (less) sugar and eggs and all, and then threw in the remaining um... 19 biscuits, broken up into chunks.
The mixture turned very brown indeed. Lol.
And it very nearly overflowed the dish that I use for baking cheesecake all the time! I hadn't considered the fact that adding in the cookies would make that much of a difference in the volume. :P
But it turned out okay; Joseph and I had two slices of it each, he took three slices home for his grandma and his parents, and all the archers in RVR had one slice each. :D
Everyone said it was nice; pretty good for a first attempt, I think. Haha. But I think Connor was right in that the crust was a little soggy. Sigh. The biscuit crumbs refused to stop clumping together when I was making the crust; they're really different from Digestives that way, and I have no idea why! Oh well. Shall try to improve on that on my next attempt, haha. ^_^
In which Gerri bakes an Oreo cheesecake for the first time. :)
I've only ever baked cheesecakes before, never the version with Oreos added. So for this version, I used 11 cookies for the crust (which still turned out to be pretty thin); which means 22 Oreo biscuits, with the cream removed and added into the cake itself later, so I used less sugar in the cake since I figured the cream would make it pretty sweet.
Then just went about my normal cheesecake-making process, cheese and (less) sugar and eggs and all, and then threw in the remaining um... 19 biscuits, broken up into chunks.
The mixture turned very brown indeed. Lol.
And it very nearly overflowed the dish that I use for baking cheesecake all the time! I hadn't considered the fact that adding in the cookies would make that much of a difference in the volume. :P
But it turned out okay; Joseph and I had two slices of it each, he took three slices home for his grandma and his parents, and all the archers in RVR had one slice each. :D
Everyone said it was nice; pretty good for a first attempt, I think. Haha. But I think Connor was right in that the crust was a little soggy. Sigh. The biscuit crumbs refused to stop clumping together when I was making the crust; they're really different from Digestives that way, and I have no idea why! Oh well. Shall try to improve on that on my next attempt, haha. ^_^
Monday, February 04, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
I feel.... lousy.
I came to school today just to check into my residence and collect my room key, get my ISM registration form signed and submitted, to work, and pick up a book that I have on hold in the library.
And that's about it, since I have no classes on Mondays this semester.
Did I also mention that this sem, I have a one-and-a-half day school week? *evil grin*
So, work. I have a 2-4 pm slot for webcast, and my 5-9 pm slot for computer lab duty. Yay, I've just made... $40 today.
But I have to go back later and clean my room... sob. At least it's not as dirty as it was when I checked in last sem. No lizard shit all over the place and everything. Everything's just mostly very dusty, and dust is easily dealt with.
I was still packing my stuff this morning and neither of my parents could send me to school in the morning so my stuff's all still at home. My dad's offered to help me get my stuff over tonight though, so I guess I'll be making a trip home after work.
This is turning out to be one of those terribly random posts.
I made a cheesecake yesterday, and by this morning it was all gone. I brought some of it over to Joseph's house for him, and he said it was nice. His mum said it was nice too; even asked for the recipe, which made me feel a little... I don't know, silly? Coz the recipe's really simple and it really doesn't take long to make, and asking me for the recipe makes it sound like I spent so much time on it, but I didn't, and I just feel like a horrible cheat or something somehow.
Or maybe I'm just being weird.
Shall go do the reading for Pereira's class now. I'm determined not to slack off on readings this sem, and it may be my last ever semester, so I'm determined to make good on it...!
I came to school today just to check into my residence and collect my room key, get my ISM registration form signed and submitted, to work, and pick up a book that I have on hold in the library.
And that's about it, since I have no classes on Mondays this semester.
Did I also mention that this sem, I have a one-and-a-half day school week? *evil grin*
So, work. I have a 2-4 pm slot for webcast, and my 5-9 pm slot for computer lab duty. Yay, I've just made... $40 today.
But I have to go back later and clean my room... sob. At least it's not as dirty as it was when I checked in last sem. No lizard shit all over the place and everything. Everything's just mostly very dusty, and dust is easily dealt with.
I was still packing my stuff this morning and neither of my parents could send me to school in the morning so my stuff's all still at home. My dad's offered to help me get my stuff over tonight though, so I guess I'll be making a trip home after work.
This is turning out to be one of those terribly random posts.
I made a cheesecake yesterday, and by this morning it was all gone. I brought some of it over to Joseph's house for him, and he said it was nice. His mum said it was nice too; even asked for the recipe, which made me feel a little... I don't know, silly? Coz the recipe's really simple and it really doesn't take long to make, and asking me for the recipe makes it sound like I spent so much time on it, but I didn't, and I just feel like a horrible cheat or something somehow.
Or maybe I'm just being weird.
Shall go do the reading for Pereira's class now. I'm determined not to slack off on readings this sem, and it may be my last ever semester, so I'm determined to make good on it...!
Friday, January 04, 2008
Today was a day of... mixed blessings. But maybe more up than down.
Didn't start off right; I woke up late for work, at 8 am. Normally I wake up at 7 am and leave the house by 8 am to catch the 8.15 am bus to get to Tanjong Pagar by 9 am.
So I had to take a cab down instead; bloody expensive since it's peak hour and there's ERP as well.
But during lunchtime, when I went to submit my December timesheet, the lady asked me what I was doing in Uni. So I told her Soci, and then she asked, "How do you feel about media?" (The company I'm working in is an advertising agency.)
I was kinda stunned, but I told her I'd never had any experience with it and went on to ask her some other stuff about what it would involve. In the end, she took down my number.
Then, after lunch, someone gave me tickets to a movie premiere; it was a Chinese movie, "Linger", and I didn't even know anything about anyone in it, lol. My sis told me the lead actor was formerly from F4, and later on while we were in the cinema, Joseph told me that the lead actress is very famous in China too. *shrugs*
Was kinda weird though, coz the premiere was really a gala premiere, so the lead actor was there. Maybe just for the fanservice. When I got to Cine tonight at about 8.50 pm, the outside was packed with people and there were black Merces and Beemers driving off and a few security guards, the kind dressed in black suits and wearing earpieces. I think 80% of the population in Cine tonight was female and under the age of 20.
Joseph and me actually contemplated selling the two tickets that we had to see if we could get maybe 50 to 100 bucks for each of them. :D But we ended up going into the theatre and despite the fact that it was supposed to start at 9 pm, the lead actor probably didn't even step *into* Cine till maybe 9.15; continuing to excite all the fangirls outside with his mere um.. presence.
And we were sitting in the theatre for another 15 minutes, I think, and wondering what was taking so long, before the lead actor came in and gave some little speech before the movie started. And Joseph got a little fangirly. Lol. He got really excited and he started taking pictures of the guy with his phone. And then he moved to seats further up front to take more pictures. Maybe he'll post those pictures on his blog. :)
Anyway, back to the office; just before I got off from work, the two ladies I sit next to asked me if I could continue come in once a week to carry on the work I was doing for them. Apparently, they churn out the data that I'm putting together once a month, but this year they've requested the reports for one whole year at one go instead.
So I've been offered a part-time job and I think, along with some interest in taking me on for a permanent job.
And to top it all off, when I got home, my mummy got me the two Cirque du Soleil DVDs that I wanted!! :D
Didn't start off right; I woke up late for work, at 8 am. Normally I wake up at 7 am and leave the house by 8 am to catch the 8.15 am bus to get to Tanjong Pagar by 9 am.
So I had to take a cab down instead; bloody expensive since it's peak hour and there's ERP as well.
But during lunchtime, when I went to submit my December timesheet, the lady asked me what I was doing in Uni. So I told her Soci, and then she asked, "How do you feel about media?" (The company I'm working in is an advertising agency.)
I was kinda stunned, but I told her I'd never had any experience with it and went on to ask her some other stuff about what it would involve. In the end, she took down my number.
Then, after lunch, someone gave me tickets to a movie premiere; it was a Chinese movie, "Linger", and I didn't even know anything about anyone in it, lol. My sis told me the lead actor was formerly from F4, and later on while we were in the cinema, Joseph told me that the lead actress is very famous in China too. *shrugs*
Was kinda weird though, coz the premiere was really a gala premiere, so the lead actor was there. Maybe just for the fanservice. When I got to Cine tonight at about 8.50 pm, the outside was packed with people and there were black Merces and Beemers driving off and a few security guards, the kind dressed in black suits and wearing earpieces. I think 80% of the population in Cine tonight was female and under the age of 20.
Joseph and me actually contemplated selling the two tickets that we had to see if we could get maybe 50 to 100 bucks for each of them. :D But we ended up going into the theatre and despite the fact that it was supposed to start at 9 pm, the lead actor probably didn't even step *into* Cine till maybe 9.15; continuing to excite all the fangirls outside with his mere um.. presence.
And we were sitting in the theatre for another 15 minutes, I think, and wondering what was taking so long, before the lead actor came in and gave some little speech before the movie started. And Joseph got a little fangirly. Lol. He got really excited and he started taking pictures of the guy with his phone. And then he moved to seats further up front to take more pictures. Maybe he'll post those pictures on his blog. :)
Anyway, back to the office; just before I got off from work, the two ladies I sit next to asked me if I could continue come in once a week to carry on the work I was doing for them. Apparently, they churn out the data that I'm putting together once a month, but this year they've requested the reports for one whole year at one go instead.
So I've been offered a part-time job and I think, along with some interest in taking me on for a permanent job.
And to top it all off, when I got home, my mummy got me the two Cirque du Soleil DVDs that I wanted!! :D