little puffs of brain matter ;

not quite a winter wonderland...

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:23:49 GMT

but I was cold enough. Don't understand how other people on the trip can tahan temperatures of around 10degC with just 2 layers of clothing (and neither of them a thermal) without wanting to run back to the hotel and cry; I was moving around with at least 4 layers a day (inclusive of rather lousy thermal) and still complained incessantly. Heh :D The scenery was beautiful though, and I was in History-wonderland most of the time thanks to all the beautiful old buildings we got to visit. Hagia Sophia! Sultanahmet! Cemberlitas! Endless examples of Ottoman this-and-that! Much happiness. All the pictures are here, although I really apologize for the lack of organisation. After coming home I seriously regret:

1) Not bringing my USB cable so I could upload photos by day. Now everytime I look at the album I get this "grarh so messy" feeling.
2) Bringing lousy (and fugly) thermals.
3) Not buying enough stuff!!!!! Should've got a few more shawls, tealight candle holders, dried fruits, desserts, and fake Burberry polo tees. Mother scolded me for not bringing back enough to give to the 295628773 family friends who suddenly crawled out of the woodwork upon hearing that one of the Miranda children was visiting Istanbul. So annoying >(

Don't regret the experience at all though; Turkey was great, and so was (most) of the company. Am really thrilled that everyone who I got to know better is staying in PGP, so we can all hang out in 5 days! (i.e. next semester blaargh) Gotta get through the presentation this Friday though, and find a way to be "controversial yet inoffensive", or whatever the Prof. wants. Hrm.

Oh, and yeah,

Assing around in the museum.

Before going out clubbing on New Year's Eve. The club we went to was probably a gay place (funny how I always find myself in such establishments, haha) 'cos the person who got the most action among all of us was Wenjun. They probably thought he was all Chinese and exotic, which he is I guess haha. Turkish club music is kinda awful though! Endless techno :/

The best chess set I've ever seen. Saddam vs. Bush, Osama vs. Condoleeza, Plane vs. Tower... (Y)

Am lazy to post more so I shall just end off with this super entertaining but kinda tragic photo. Love you Christine :D

Am feeling rather worried about some stuff that's been going on recently; really hope things work out 'cos I don't want anything seriously bad to happen :( Oh well.

"konichiwa!"

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:06:45 GMT

Seriously, I've never heard that word so many times before. And we're in freaking Turkey, where the meats (and the men, actually) are plentiful but not very appealing, winter sunlight shines through leaves of still-green trees, drivers take on near-90degree slopes fearlessly, and a techno version of Jingle Bells is played in clubs at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day. Some days I get terribly homesick and miss everything and everyone from my silly sister to chicken rice, but on other days I look at this place and think that I wouldn't mind living here one day.

Photos will be up on Facebook when I get home, which will be in.. 2 days? :) :( :/

p/s: Damien if you're reading this, I love you! Be safe on your trip to Birmingham, and don't forget to remember me, etc.

back for a day

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:09:50 GMT

I'm home from KL! Which was, considering the fact that the bulk of our time was spent in stuffy/freezing seminar rooms listening to over-the-hill professors natter on about "Dialogue and Multiculturalism" and other such titillating topics, a pretty good experience. Some lectures and discussions were actually really interesting, we were fed about 7 times a day, and we got to visit Prof A's house in KL, which was awesomely fun. There were Arab musicians playing during dinner, and after we'd stuffed ourselves we all got forced to dance by over-enthusiastic men in their fifties who somehow managed to be fitter and more nimble than us. The shame. There was also plenty of drama (teehee) to keep everyone entertained, and if not for the persistent flu that I developed midway through the trip, I'd have had lots more fun.

My CAP, however, is an entirely less positive story and something I'd rather not think about for now. I know that I shouldn't be feeling too cut up about it since I'm still firmly in 2nd Upper territory, but getting my 3rd B- in as many semesters is a truly disgusting feeling. And I don't even have any As to balance it out this sem :( Gah. Okay never mind. I'll sleep it off, like I always do.

&& Istanbul tomorrow! :)

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:32:39 GMT

Jellemiah Looooq Flancheeko, I lurbchewz even though you:
1) Fail at hiding the tag of hideous and expensive jacket while trying to look all cool and suave in an "evil dictator" pose.
2) Are perpetually sunburnt and have 4 different skintones on your face and arms alone. And refuse to use aloe vera gel on them unless prodded for at least 20mins.
3) Wash your face with body soap instead of just going out to Buy. A. New. Bottle. Of. Facial. Wash. (!)
4) Consider Polo Boys your favourite TV show. (!!!!)
3) Are having a blast right now at a $1000-a-night and seriously gorgeous room at Raffles Hotel with 7 other people (none of whom are me, obviously, seeing as I am at home sitting sadly in front of my laptop) because D's mother somehow got a night's stay for free and gave the room to her daughter. Who invited their whole gang for a Party - Night of Mayhem. (Wow I've started expressing myself in oblique Facebook terminology.) So unfair. Why don't I have friends who get to use swanky hotel rooms for sleepovers??! :(

Sigh I'll be leaving for KL in about 4 days, and Istanbul in 10. The one day break in between travelling that I'll have to rest in Singapore won't provide much respite; I'll be too busy packing for the next trip and bemoaning my stamp-chop-confirmed awful CAP to really enjoy myself. Would pull out of the whole circus if I could, but the money's been paid and the first leg has started so I may as well just go through the whole programme. Maybe I really will learn something.

i went to the library today

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:02:10 GMT

H.L. Mencken's description of President Warren G. Harding's linguistic proficiency -

He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.

-- from The Lexicographer's Dilemma: the evolution of "proper" English, from Shakespeare to South Park

I'm starting to cultivate an overwhelming fondness for soups and stews of any kind. Everytime I eat out these days I have this insane craving for soup and bread, and actually dragged Miah to Marche on Saturday primarily because I wanted their .

Yeah I mean, just look at it. Om nom nom. It turned out wonderfully, but has done little to curb the craving. Tonight I'm going out with Joel [edit: + Bern and Christine] and we are ~~probably going to eat at Cedele, once again for the soup~~. [Went to Xin Wang HK Cafe instead, which wasn't too bad.] I don't know what's wrong with me and this new granny-ish habit, and I hope it passes soon 'cos there really aren't that many good and budget-friendly soup places in town for me to indulge myself :(

ouchies

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:12:34 GMT

Was looking through the photos of yesterday night's trip to Zirca and am amazed that I could still grin like a loon and make various cutesy poses despite the excruciating pain in my feet. Hate those heels. Hate them. And I blame myself completely for not breaking them in before attempting a 4hour dancefloor session, because walking has become a pain in every sense of the word. Toes still feel like they're all crushed up together, and the massive blisters on both fourth toes keep stinging :( Would've been a pretty fun night if not for the feet and not-too-fantastic music - seriously, they kept playing the intro bars to great songs and then switching to random annoying boom-ch-boom-ch beats - and now I've lost the mood to do anything fun tonight, even though I have 3 different gatherings with different groups of people. Sigh. Shall see if mood improves later and if parents are willing to allow me out late again I guess.

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:45:47 GMT

[edit after reading: Oh god I'm talking about next semester when this semester only effectively ended yesterday for me. Am such a loser. With no nice clothes. Must go shopping. Rah.]

Checking out modules for next sem and I'm suddenly feeling very scared because it seems like I'll be settling on a combination of modules that:

a) I'm really not keen on
b) I'm keen on but will have to put in tons of work for
c) Will be somewhere in between Options A and B but will require me to overload (!!!)

Have so far narrowed down my choices to 2 EL, 3 HY (even though I really don't like the modules from my major this sem, sigh), 1 U.s/P Arts modules and perhaps a C/b.M but I'm really not sure about that last one. It sounds really tough and I'm scared :( Obviously I'm not going to do all of them but I may settle for 2 + 2 + 1 + 1, and I'm afraid it may kill me. 6 modules!!! Besides, I've already done 1 C.B/M this year and I don't know if I should take on another... But then again, if I don't do it now, my future semesters are only going to get more taxing, so. Gah decisions. Shall just module-preference everything and see how later.

yay

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:43:18 GMT

K November 30 at 12:17am
okay lets put it to a vote (if only i had google wave :( this would be so much easier)

if you wanna go to zirca on thursday just reply: ZIRCA
if you wanna go play on friday or sat or you dont care which day reply: PLAY FRIDAY or PLAY SAT or PLAY ANYTHING
if you wanna go for both reply: LIVER CIRRHOSIS

Ah, the sweet smell of (soon-to-be)

I actually cannot wait for the exams to be over; while I appreciate that I've had a good long break between my second-last and last paper, I'm really tired of being unable to slack properly even when I want to, since there's always this little voice of (t)reason telling me that I ought to be studying :( Such gloom. Okay, shall make a list of all the stuff I have to do once the dratted paper is done with at 7pm tomorrow.

1) Clear out my room!!! Have to surrender the key by 7 Dec, and Christine the Wonderful has offered to let me dump my bulky stuff (printer, fan, etc) in her room during the holidays since she's applied for vacation stay <3 But I still have to bring my clothes and whatnot home, and do a final clean-up before moving out 'cos I don't trust the cleaners to do a proper job in the 3 or 4 weeks that I won't be around. Don't want to come back to find hordes of dust bunnies.
2) "Get what I love, give what I don't" at Levi's with Miah; been waiting to do the jeans trade-in ever since the ads came out :D
3) Shop for Istanbul! Yeah I got accepted for the Study Tour so I'll be leaving for KL on the 19th and Istanbul 7 days after, but the biggest downside is having to find cheap and un-fugly winter clothes. Usually the two categories are mutually exclusive, gah.
4) Get started on my Sekrit Christmas Project, heehee.
5) Rush preparations for the C.SS Advent Programme - only 2 weeks or so to sort everything out!
6) Spend loads of time with friends and family before flying off, 'cos I won't get to see anyone for weeks :'( Have mentioned that I really am not made for exchange programmes, and this is why.

So much to do, so little time! But it's all making me tremendously happy :D

crushed

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:03:02 GMT

3 papers down, 1 more to go. I've realised that I really really cannot handle examinations, and shall do my best to ensure that I've got at least 1 non-examinable module per semester from now on. Open-book is still alright, but I totally fudged myself during the closed-book History paper yesterday and am still feeling mope-y about it, 'cos it's my first level-3000 module for my major, I love the professor, and was hoping that I'd be able to do well enough to even out my less-than-satisfactory grades for the two assignments. Both of which I'm still feeling sore about actually, I really don't think I deserved a B+. Twice. :( But after yesterday's paper, I'd be grateful if I could get a B+ overall - I wrote such absolute twaddle for both questions and had 0 factual substantiation; it was like going through NJ exams all over again, with nothing but half-remembered sweeping statements seeing me through. In NJ I got Cs for that kind of crap. Now... Gah. I dunno. As usual I only have myself to blame for wasting my time the day before on nonsense like this, which, though extremely fascinating, caused me to waste about 3 hours reading practically every article on it and then dicussing it with Miah for another 2, and being filled with lethargy and don't-wanna even when I didn't have much else to occupy my time with.

Also, I'm really really annoyed with my PeeGeePee room. My power has been completely cut off at least 5 times in the past month, and this happens even though I barely spend any time in my there. I don't even think it's my fault because I hardly have any electronic equipment in there that could cause the power trips! :/ Stupid Residence. I asked them to fix it properly once and for all but the technician hemmed and hawed for ages till I got so frustrated I just told him to do a quick fix and go. Sigh I need to grow some balls.

Okay shall quit moping, my next exam is only in 4 days and I've got myself a pretty new toy to waste more time on. Besides, I think my sister is even more grouchy than I am - most of her friends did better than her in the PSLE and she's rather upset. Poor poppet.

yaaargh

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:42:23 GMT

Three days of (admittedly very on-and-off) work, endless revisions, two new levels in Maplestory (told you the work was on-and-off), lots and lots of trees killed in the interest of research photocopying, and Three Thousand and Twenty words later...

The last assignment of this semester is finished. I cannot bear to look at it anymore and am just going to hand it up to the Workbin, 40% of my total grade for the module be damned.

Anyhoo, let's all watch Domo-kun "dancing" (?) in a bizarre Jap-rock video to celebrate! Yay! Studying for my other 4 modules starts tomorrow! Ffffff.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:20:40 GMT

This semester has essentially been one painful essay after another - I don't know what's gotten into me, I used to be able to read and write at a faster-than-average pace but I'm now so awfully sloooooooooooow. Spent 4 days killing myself over the Math essay that is now sitting pretty in the Workbin (it's actually rather awful and a bit shorter than P. wanted but I'm too sick of it to attempt any more modifications) and now I've got another big one to write and turn in by the 20th of November. Which happens to be 3 days before my first exam, 4 days before my second, and 6 days before my third. How to study like this, I ask you :(

BTW, if anyone has useful information (books, articles, whatever) on Jehovah's Witnesses in Singapore, please let me know! <3

=(

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:49:11 GMT

Have suffered two essay-slams in the past five days, I don't know if my poor procrastinating heart can take it anymore.

#1: Math Essay
(during Thursday's tutorial, when I decided to be a muggertoad and sneak in a question about my research paper during the lesson)
Me: Er prof, I was reading Hamming's explanation for the so-called unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics and I found [the argument that I intended to rebutt in my essay]... Doesn't this imply [my rebuttal]?
PP: (with heart-crushing terseness) No.
Me: Oh. -heart is crushed- Well.
PP: Hamming was actually referring to ... [something completely different from what I'd thought] ...
Me: Oh. I see. But -
PP: But what?
Me [WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT IN YOUR COMMENTS ON MY PROPOSAL SO I WOULDN'T BE ROYALLY SCREWED OVER NOW?!!?!?!] Oh, nothing. It's alright.

#2: History Essay
(during today's lecture)
Prof: [ethnic minorities blah blah] Oh, I was pretty surprised to note that quite a few of you who'd chosen to use Burma as the case study in your essay on language policy picked English to be the language of instruction in schools...
Me: [OMGTHATSMEPLEASESAYITSGOOD]
Prof: ... interesting, but no I wouldn't really agree.
Me [Shit.]

Ok hai worldz I r fail @ life :( If my other research paper gets rejected now I think I will cry, especially since I've already gone and photocopied a couple of books on cults and they're bound to cause me quite a bit.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:43:40 GMT

ZOMG CHEST HAIR..?!?!11?!?

Okay I know this is a bit of late entry but Photobucket got majorly screwy so I had to switch to Flickr, which I didn't know how to use at first and I still think my photos are too small blah blah blah okay anyway photos from my very first dress-up Halloween -

Hanging around Clarke Quay after resolving the first big mystery of the night (the second being my inexplicable attractiveness to supposedly gay men, which I don't think we'll ever find a satisfactory explanation for and NO BERNARD IT IS NOT BECAUSE I LOOK LIKE A TRANNY HRMMF) when we found Moniza's phone lying on the ground where we had exited from the taxi. We'd spent about ten minutes frantically calling the cab company and chasing down random taxis in the hope that they'd be the one that had sent us there from PGP, haha.

Most of the costumes at CQ were pretty generic - the usual pirates, slutty bunnies and people covered in fake blood - but there were a couple of fun ones. Poor Engin graduate, I hope he gets a job soon.

Anyway, about our costumes - Joel was Amy Winehouse, Christine was a punk rock chick, Moniza was Bloody Mary, Hui was a guy in a bathrobe, Lizzie was a cowgirl, and I was Avril Lavigne. Su Yin, who joined us later, was a Chinese ghost I think :/

CQ was damn crowded, so we headed to what is fast becoming our favourite place...

Where we met the Spice Girls,

and chair-danced to Hush Hush by PCD while Joel and Hui got drinks,

and I lost my camera case but oh well. What's sadder is that Joel makes a sexier woman than I do.

Seriously lah. Life is unfair. There were MANY cute gay men there too, which was really annoying gah why does that old cliche have to be true :(

Okay yeah then we danced to music that wasn't as bad as the last time we were there, but not as good as the first, and left at about 3ish, but couldn't get a damn cab back to PGP till it was close to 4.30am.

T'was a good night anyway <3

Anyway, horror of horrors - I logged on to MapleStory today using my sister's unwanted account, and actually enjoyed playing the game after a hiatus of about 2 years. This does not bode well for my undone essays.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:23:20 GMT

URGH STUPID PHOTOBUCKET, WHY WONT YOU LET ME UPLOAD MY PHOTOS :(

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:04:43 GMT

Yay Singapore! Wish I'd been there to see it.

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:18:47 GMT

I'm currently working on a project that is new and different and altogether quite wonderful in one of the best committees that I've ever been a part of, so why is it that I cannot shake the feeling of repeatedly coming up against a brick wall whenever our ideas are presented to the community as a whole? :( I don't understand all this resentment that's being generated at what I see are essentially small things, and I don't see why people can't just get along and - yes the cliche is coming! - work for the greater good. I had hoped that petty politics wouldn't come into play in a religious student group, but I guess that was just wishful thinking; politics are everywhere, it just depends on the extent to which they are made public.

Oh well. Do what I have to do and try to enjoy the process as much as I can, I guess.

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:03:45 GMT

It's such a grumpy day today - my dad is annoyed because my sister spoilt her handphone and he had to go send it to the shop for repair, my mum is annoyed because she ran out of some spice midway through cooking curry (yes, my Chinese mother is attempting to "cook something Deepavali-ish" for her Catholic family), my sister is annoyed 'cos her phone will only come back after 5 days, and I'm annoyed because I have too many damn things to do. 2 paper proposals to churn out by Monday, a senseless solo project to finish by Friday, and 3 big papers due roughly at the same time, on top of publicity work for a C.SS activity. Gah. Even my dog is grumpy because we won't let him out of his fenced-in area; he's shoving around his bed basket in a show of rebellion. Stupid dog. Stupid work. I shall go start on my U.SS response paper (my last for the module, thank God) so I can feel a bit better about having no clue about what I want to do for the Math paper.

more costume ideas!

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:33:09 GMT

Have caught Halloween fever from Moniza; Miah and I stayed up till 2.30am last night discussing possible costumes for him and this is what we have:

1. Egg-roll sushi.

(the one on the left)

We'll take a shoebox, paint it yellow and tie it to the back of his head with dark green ribbon that's meant to (somehow) look like a seaweed strip. Then we'll take some cardboard, cut it into a circle shape (for a dish) and make a hole in the centre for his head to go through, so the 'dish' will rest on his shoulders. Add white face paint and - ta-da, my boyfriend the sushi!

2. Captain Planet.

Hmm okay maybe not. Miah only likes it 'cos he wants to dye his hair green.

3. The Little Mermaid

I really liked this one! Get a red wig/hair dye, purple cardboard seashells to be stuck on his chest, and green trackpants with a cardboard 'fin' attached to the feet. Sounds good right? He isn't as keen as I am on this, though I can't imagine why :D

4. Pikachu.
Yellow vanguard sheet shaped into cones for the 'horns' on his head, a yellow cardboard tail, and... Gosh I don't know. Yellow long-sleeved tee, pants and bodypaint I guess? We were laughing quite a lot at the idea of this but now it seems like too much work for very little fun.

5. A ninja. Probably the easiest to execute, but also the most boring.

Guys have it way easier when it comes to costumes I think! Any of the above would be disgustingly cutesy or skanky on a girl, but on a guy its fun. Gah. Am still stuck with Avril till I come up with a better alternative :(

---
[+ edit]

In other news, I actually succeeded in finishing an essay that was 'due' about 3 weeks ago but apparently no one in my class cares. Which is a good thing, for me at least. Anyway, I've realised that I'm getting really lazy with my essay-writing these days - I no longer go over them as many times as I used to before, and the sheer pain of having to spend hours banging away at my keyboard (with only two fingers, seriously, it is not easy) makes me just want to dump the file into the IVL3 workbin as soon as I finish. I tried to make an effort today and went over the entire thing once when I was done, but I only made a couple of adjustments before telling myself I couldn't take it anymore and logged on to IVL3. Sigh.

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:38:26 GMT

Hahaha the one line from the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" cracked me up!

+

Short-sleeved black shirt + red skinny tie + my sister's ballet skirt (and get some tulle to make a cheap underskirt so it goes all poofy) + skulls-and-chains jewellery + spiked cuffs + fishnet fingerless gloves + sneakers/Doc Martens if I can borrow them + ratty-looking streaked hair + angsty emo glare + lots and lotssss of eyeliner = Avril circa 2003. All in all, it'd be relatively easy to pull together, and I can basically throw in cheap tacky junk from Bugis Street or wherever :D So much for my happy ending, y0.

comeback lines

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:56:01 GMT

When discussing the upcoming video-conference with students from Y@le in this module I'm taking -

Random Student: Prof, how come the readings the Y@le people do are so much shorter and simpler than ours?
Prof: Well. We are a world-class university you know.

Very witty, I like :D

---

I've been trying to calculate exactly how many projects and papers will come descending upon me in the following weeks and how much time I will have to do them, but everytime I do, my stomach seizes up and I start buffering Project Runway on tudou.com :( Talked to a couple of seniors from the above-mentioned module and was extremely depressed when I found out how disgustingly high their CAPs are - seriously, people should not be having a 4.8 in Year 4. It is not right. I always held the vague assumption that everyone kind of descends into this comfortable mark range (like.. I dunno. 2nd class Honours-ish?) by the time they hit the end of their 3rd year, and then people like these come along to make me feel like a slug. You know those coffee cups that have slogans like "God, if You can't make me skinny then make my friends fat" or something along those lines? I need to meet more similarly slug-like people so I don't feel so bad about myself, haha.

movies i want to watch

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:02:47 GMT

I didn't really give this much thought so please encourage/discourage appropriately - I get very angsty when I watch lousy movies and am really broke so I better get my money's worth if I choose to catch any of the following:

(probably in order of how much I want to watch them)

1. Accident
2. (500) Days of Summer
3. Funny People
4. City of Life and Death
5. Inglorious Basterds (it's only this far down the list because I am a wimp and don't really like gory movies haha)

++ Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but that is more Miah's choice than mine.

Actually, if my days continue passing as quickly as they have been, I probably won't have the time to watch any of them. I missed Up, for heaven's sake, and everyone and their grandma seems to have watched it. Twice. Meh :(

family

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:37:46 GMT

An sms from my dad, after I tried to call home but no one picked up the phone -

"Hi girl, all at home is ok. I was busy ironing when the phone rang, mummy was busy eating grapefruit and your sister was busy reading. You have a good sleep and eat well ok. God bless."

Night 1 in PG.P after a full week at home last week, and I already miss my family :( That's one of the major reasons why going to Uni overseas was never an option for me; I know I'd die of homesickness by the end of the first week and put myself on the first plane back if I did.

gee~

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:12:38 GMT

Passive-aggression is when you express your frustration at your boyfriend by making his virtual character work as a toilet cleaner in Restaurant City. Roar.

Going to drown myself in cutesy Korean music now -

++ male version of the song! V fabulous, I hearts.

Hotpink, Blue and Orange are so kyuuuuuute <3

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:33:20 GMT

This Kanye-West-slamming-Taylor-Swift thing is getting a bit out of proportion -

HAHAHAHA what is this.

biggest scandal of the night:

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:09:12 GMT

Ignore the extremely unglam open mouth and focus on the canoodling couple to my left, please -