out of town

Flying off in a couple of hours. Won't be back till end of next week.

Bises to all, and a big muackz for the darling bf.

Wish me luck people, I'm operating on no sleep.

A bientot!

This is funny!

So what's with all the dinosaurs?
The world's first Creationist museum - dedicated to the idea that the creation of the world, as told in Genesis, is factually correct - will soon open. Stephen Bates is given a sneak preview and asks: was there really a tyrannosaurus in the Bible?
I love the mailing list I'm on. I'm always astounded at the weird people who actually walk the earth. That, my dear, is the real miracle.

tragedy of epic proportions

*panic*

My violin teacher has been mumbling, crone-like, throughout my classes, and all I can make out are ominous phrases like 'late again' 'going to fail' 'grade 8' 'needs practice' 'newt's tail'.

My thesis sup has very nicely allowed extended my deadline, but has glared at me in class when I resolutely refuse to contribute to the discussion (largely because I haven't read for the class). He has also reminded me that whatever the case, I must see him by the end of the year. Which means I get an extension of about... 1? 2? weeks. Not enough.

I'm trying to console myself for the failure of a test I haven't taken. I know I won't pass already.

My readings are piling up, and I'm going to miss 2 very important classes.

It looks like next year I'll be making another major commitment.

I need this trip to be over and done with.

*cry*

Neurosis

Today in school I saw a girl wearing a familiar t-shirt. It turned out to be the GEP 20th anniversary shirt. My first reaction was utter disgust, cos who goes around wearing a GEP shirt? Your primary school shirt, no problem. I walked around in a 1993 Teochew clan association t-shirt inherited from my cousin (who probably got it for free) until I finally decided to dump it in 2005. Do the maths yourself. I've got saucy t-shirts that amuse my friends to no end and have raised a few eyebrows (eg. at the Student Affairs Office today). But a GEP t-shirt is plain bad taste.

Ah... the neurosis. Golden Rule: Never let anyone know you're a gepper unless under torture or insistent questioning. If you break this rule you're an arrogant show-off. Geppers should be aware of the dirtiness of their past and should be properly defensive and secretive about that bloody period of their lives. (it's like being an ex-Nazi in Israel. You don't exactly go around sporting Hitler memorabilia.) This rule does not apply if you're blogging.

It also seems as if geppers combine an overweening, arrogant sense of destiny with a neurotic (that word again!) but similarly arrogant inferiority complex. Geppers are supposed to achieve everything, and if they haven't, they wander about all day wondering why they haven't become the 1st Singaporean to become the President of the United States yet and angsting about whether this means that they're actually (I can't even say this without an existential fear gripping my being {haha}) dumb.

Geppers also like to blame their disastrous lives, lack of social skills, poor grades, emotional breakdowns, relationship problems, lack of direction, inability to finish work on time, even their successes that are actually failures (omg why did I get an A when I actually wanted a B?) on GEP. Geppers are therefore sincerely apologetic for not being grateful enough for the unfair advantages conferred upon them by the use of taxpayers' money.

Note: pls ignore all generalizations made in this post.

Violin teacher

Violin teacher: That candidate failed. And he played 10 times better than you.

Do you count that as having a way with words? Or just (brutal) honesty?

Argh I'm going to fail my violin exams!!!!!!!!!!!!! (& my classes, and my diss., and my DELF!)

Tentative songs for my wedding (that no one will recognize except J) (just indulge me. I'm female):

- That's All (Buble)
- East of the Sun (& West of the Moon) (Sinatra)
- Me & My Gal (Kelly & Garland)
- Mine (I've got the track, don't know the singers)
- The Way You Look Tonight (Sinatra)
- Come Fly with Me (Sinatra) --> for honeymoon!
- Moon River
- Quand On S'Aime (french duet by unknown singers on the CD someone hasn't returned to me after 2 yrs. *ahem*)
- Aren't you kind of glad we did (Garland duet)
- Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (Louis & Ella) --> if I'm feeling cheeky hehe
- Can This Be the End of the Rainbow --> to finish off

Hee that's all I can think of now. Unfortunately, I don't think I get to decide wedding tracks. Sighz.

And no one's supposed to use this list for their wedding!

These songs make me happy! They're smiley songs.

*slaps self out of bimbo mode* Back to work.

Can you join MI6 as a linguist?

Check Your Skills We are currently looking for linguists with written and spoken fluency in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Chinese and Spanish. We will be recruiting for other languages at a later date so if your skills are in other languages please bookmark this site and keep checking it.
Click on the language you are interested in to test your skills.

I pass the test for Chinese... But for French, if I get 3 (actually 3.5!) out of 5 right (and after much hair-tearing), would they still consider me?

It seems that the Chinese test is easier than the French one (I don't understand the rest, sorry). I mean, a write-up on a simple survey vs an exposition on Debussy?

Hey... no wonder I didn't get all the French ones right. (haha...)

Disclaimer: I have no intention of joining MI6, I think James Bond is a bit of a bastard, and I'm not Brit anyway.

BBC again

Searching for 'our alien origins'
The late Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe have been the champions of "Panspermia", the idea that life on Earth originated on another planet.

Pakistan votes to amend rape laws
Pakistan's national assembly has voted to amend the country's strict Sharia laws on rape and adultery.

Missed opportunities

I'm in my "did I do the right thing" mode again.

What I chose to do for one year saved me a lot of money, opened a few doors and allowed me to do some of the things I've been meaning to do. Unfortunately, my choice also closed a lot of doors that, if someone had only bothered to tell me about earlier, I'd have jumped at the chance to enter. I guess it can't be helped, since these other doors didn't even exist when I made my choice.

Sighz.

Ah well, time to go practise that darn violin. Busy busy busy...

(btw, I'm using the new blogger. If it screws up and my entire blog is lost, I'll announce it on MSN.)

My original colour

I wanted to buy concealer, because I'd finished my last pot after... 1?2? years? (yes, I know you're not supposed to keep them for that long). Because I'm an idiot when it comes to makeup, I asked the salesgirl to help me choose a colour.

Salesgirl: What's your original colour?

Me: *chortle*

*imaginary conversation ensues*

Me: Oh, I used to be this lovely shade of royal purple, but it's so difficult to match clothes and accessories. I mean, I could only wear gold, green, silver and white! So I got a new paint job.

Sg: I know what you mean! I was born scarlet myself, and trust me, while it's striking, you look like a walking bull's eye. And I got all these jokes during Chinese New Year...

Me: Ya, it's so difficult choosing skin colour these days, especially since we have to blend in with this yellow crowd here...

Sg: Totally! By the way, when was the last time the mothership contacted you?

*imaginary conversation ends*

Sg (looks mildly offended): Because when people get a tan, I usually ask them to go back to their original colour before getting makeup.

Me: Oh... right...

It's over!

The end of my misery and the beginning of my embarrassment. I've just submitted a really lousy paper that I'll probably have to present to a strange, hostile, condescending audience.

I decided to travel beyond my safe, familiar neighbourhood to explore the world. And of course beyond my safe, familiar neighbourhood, big bad wolves lurk. I think I just lost a limb or two.

*cries her way home*

I'll never take risks again!

(see NUS Graduate Employment Survey below. Now you know what my honest answer is.)

NUS Graduate Employment Survey 2006

This is Q.39 from the survey (see title)

39. What are your reasons for not being interested in becoming an entrepreneur?
(Please check boxes that are applicable)
1. Afraid to undertake risk - I prefer to stay within my comfort zone.
2. An entrepreneur is born, not made.
3. Culture in Singapore is not suitable for entrepreneurship.
4. Difficult to obtain government grants and subsidies.
5. Difficult to obtain information on entrepreneurship.
6. Domestic market is too small to support market players.
7. Education system here does not encourage initiative.
8. Fear approaching others to discuss my business concepts.
9. Fear of failure.
10. Lack of personal financial resources (e.g. savings & liquid assets) to pull off entrepreneurship.
11. Lack of support from my parents and relatives.
12. Lack of support from my peers.
13. Lack the persona for it.
14. Lack the skill sets required of entrepreneurship (e.g. communication, strategic thinking & networking).
15. Need a regular job to finance commitments (e.g. support siblings & parents, paying for the apartment, etc).
16. No idea what business to pull off.
17. Not fortunate enough to be born into a conducive environment (e.g. educated parents, old money, etc).
18. Not inspired - there is a lack of success stories that I can identify with.
19. Not interested in Local Market - better opportunities elsewhere.
20. Parents have expectations of what I should be.
21. Usually do not plan so far ahead. I just see where life goes from here.
22. Others (Please specify)

I chose others, and specified: i've other goals. y do these options associate lack of interest in biz with some sort of deficiency?

I don't really understand this. Is this some type of ideological manipulation where they hope that by forcing you to associate negative traits with lack of entrepreneurial desire you'll feel obliged to become an entrepreneur?

Argh

I keep doing work without accomplishing anything. Bad.

I'm notoriously bad at keeping in contact with old friends. Just realized I haven't heard from/seen a particular friend in 1? 2? year(s)? Darn, I can't even remember.

The last I saw her she was flying off somewhere... and for the life of me I can't remember where. She should be somewhere in UK I think...

I don't know if she's still using the same number/email add, but I sent her an email anyway.

Hmmm. Argh I'm lousy at this.

behind the news again

Hey I just realised Saddam has been sentenced to death!

(And you all wonder how I could survive political science for 4 years.)

But the whole episode just makes me a little sad.

I don't like the death sentence, not even in this case.

It's not going to solve anything, you know.

gloating

Gloat.

Gloat.

Gloat some more.

Mwahahahaha I got the dissertation supervisor I wanted! *does crazy dance*

Gloat.

Gloat.

Ok enough of that.

The ceiling light in my bedroom is making a humming/buzzing noise that only my sis and I can hear. If I didn't know better I'd think it's some kind of divine/satanic/ghostly/alien communication directed specifically at myself and my worthy sibling.

I do know better, so when the jack-of-all-trades uncle came by to help us with various stuff today (aka the leaky toilet, the busted light - yes, my house is falling apart), I asked him if he could help me with it. Nope, he can't hear the noise. Nope, his assistant can't hear it either. It didn't help that my mum kept saying that no one could hear it but my sister and I. They looked at me strangely.

Hmmm.

Hello? Is anyone out there? Are you trying to tell us something? Stop mumbling like Jay and tell us what you want.

Gloat.

plasticine lizard

A strange-looking lizard died in the middle of my living room. For some reason it looked fake, like a lizard made of dark brown plasticine... Being the coward that I am, I ran into my bedroom while my mum got rid of it.

I like baby lizards. They're cute.

In a Rut (just my life in general)

My brain can't wrap itself round the idea of writing a paper that has nothing to do with politics... I find myself reading for a political angle even though That Is Not What I Want. Maybe I should give up the fight and just write something on politics.

And I keep thinking about the paper I submitted on Friday, largely because it's for the module that I lost 25% for during the exams, so I really need to do well for that essay. Unfortunately, procrastination being a hard habit to break, I submitted a really dubious paper. Sighz.

My poor darling honeymunchkins is not feeling well, so being the sweet, committed girlfriend I am, I went out with my girl friends today and bought a ridiculously expensive tin of safflower & orange flower cookies. Which I'm going to eat because my darling honeymunchkins shouldn't be eating expensive cookies right now. Get well soon, honeymunchkins! *sends smooches from afar*

Back from failing the exams!

A government for all its intelligence, is nothing if it lacks empathy.

I think that the reason why we don’t seem to have much of a heart, is because our current administration is, apart from the grassroots, highly divorced from the ground. The scholars are the best of the best, the brightest of the brightest; with degrees from Oxbridge or the Ivy Leagues, and who have near perfect GPAs and CCA records. But how many of our administrators can see things from the other side? Do we actually go and visit a 2 room flat infested with bed bugs and talk to the people living there? When we talk about a “world-class” transport system, do our reviewers actually get onto the buses during peak hours and experience for themselves what it is like to be all squished up with every single other person around? I even remember someone telling me, that one of the new P65 MPs had actually said that before he joined the grassroots, he didn’t know that developed countries still had poor people.

Yep, I'm done with my exams! The first went off the richter scale in terms of damage done, and today's paper, compared to the first, was not too bad. I solemnly swear I shall not misread the question and lose 25% of my grade ever again. I also solemnly swear I shall never again be unmotivated and lazy, or else I shall be forced to repeat this same oath.

On to the essays!