It's my last week of classes and it's over. Finally.
Monday was trying, Tuesday was fabulous, Wednesday was exhausting, Thursday was tiring and Friday is for freaking out a bit and enjoying life before revision begins.

Aside from great group-mates for my projects (which reduces the grief involved), I'm incredibly thankful for whatever it was that made me choose Prof Chong's G1 for COMM101. His course and methods, gave me something More to look forward to week after gruelling, mind-numbing week. And the people in G1, so much more than the regular zombie clones without interest, brains or personality.

I relished the opportunities we got to do speeches and do them our way instead of the commercialised, business-centric crap the other sections were doing. Even if you weren't speaking, it was great fun to watch. And when you finally did get up there to do your thing, there are few things which feel as great as that.

Grades are good but the challenge was better.

It is an amazing thing to be special, utterly capable and in control for even a second, what more 5 whole minutes. It's a great way to feel and think of yourself but honestly, it's not something most people believe in on a regular basis. I sure as hell don't. Which is why it is a very humbling thing to be told so by someone else, someone who means a great deal. Humbling because you feel pressured to live up to the hype now, hype that you don't quite understand really. And inspiring because apparently someone believes in you.

So, I started out this term thinking that I'll trudge through based on abstract goals and personal desires. I'm ending it thinking about people. The crazy people I want to go travel with, the people I've met this term, the people at home who're cheering subtly when they aren't thwacking me to study and all those nutcases I don't get to see often enough who will also be suffering in the next two/three weeks.

The fabulously rainy weather lately makes all the difference in the world too.

So the Neil Gaiman, Dream King or creator of the Dream King if you like, has been. This time it was not a case of last minute scrambling. I queued early in the morning for tickets. I came for every talk early. I was beyond prepared yo and It Was Good. He's one of the very few authors whom I adore and is still Living. And to top it all off, he's really nice, very rumpled, always witty and also pretty strange, Just the Way I Love Them.

The Man of My Dreams, Gackt, has also been, believe it or not. Sometime during my Week of Insanity end of Oct, he popped up with small army of Dears to hang out (and sometimes perform) and then leave. I will not dwell on this. I will not go berserk. I will not go into shock. I will not freak out. No, not at all. Inhaling. Exhaling. Repeating. 

My dreams have taken a turn for the Bizarre also. Apparently my subconscious ships Harry/Draco. GASP.

( What The Hell Is My Brain Doing )

I don't know what was in that porridge I had for supper but it must be pretty close to magic mushrooms.  
 

So I'm 19 now.
I have my own shinai.
And a new hairdryer.
I've eaten lots of cake (mostly from Glace).
And had several good meals with great people
Whom I miss terribly.
And they don't even live in a different country.

That's sort of sad
Which is what school mostly is these days
That might explain why I'm re-reading A Clockwork Orange.
And downing lots of pearl milk tea.
Then again it might not.

My head has gone from streaks of aged straw to purpleish.
According to the box of dye, I'm aubergine.
I go great with sambal
And will become nice and marshmellowish
When heat is applied.

This is supposed to be the 500th entry
But I thought it quite a waste for a landmark number
To be heralded with a siansational update.

This isn't an attempt at poetry
I just like looking at smaller columns of text

I have half a speech to finish by 6.30pm
After which I will spend 2 hours
Thrusting, screaming, making my feet parallel
And attempting to lunge impressively.

The tragic highlights of my day are
The Mentalist @ 10pm
And a scoop of Orange Choc Bitters
from UDDERS.

I'm probably updating a lot less
Because I don't care for much of anything these days
And there's only so much you can say
About an unfulfilling day
anyway.

Thursday was Hariz Day and it worked out real nice.

Quiet place, calm neighbourhood. Who'd have thought that somewhere in Tiong Bahru was a lovely cake-lover's find? A late afternoon of tea-sipping (Earl Grey, and surprisingly nice it was too), having some very nice cake and yakking about anything and everything. It was perfect since the shop had all of 1 high table and two bar stools. Nobody came in and only time seemed to pass by.

It's been way too long what with him stuck in camp and myself caught up with course things, projects and Kendo.



Soul food is what it is.

(Although the hours after that was spent on a my Frantic Quest for Mooncakes at the Last Minute. (ーー;) That boy deserves to be sainted for putting up with my nutty scrambling from Takashimaya to Bugis to City Hall and BACK to Taka. Also, he has all the nice pictures since my camera died after taking this One Photo.)

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Two and A Half Men = The Dope 
 

1. Thank goodness for my Management Comm Prof. Aside from the fact that class ended so early today that I can go home and unlax before training later, it's the only class I actually Care about doing good in. And yes, it Is Fun. Routine message writing assignments not really but the fact that we're getting to do speeches makes my term. He's surprisingly easy on the ears, a bit unconventional and fairly interesting (and I suspect he's also a Grammer Nazi deep down. All that meticulousness in his speech and attire must mean something after all.) I SWEAR. TO. GOD. I would've killed myself if it wasn't for COMM101.  (ーー;)
2. I am listening to Elton John's stuff seriously for the first time. 
3. Finally finished sanding Bae down. Tedious as hell (and I ingeniously managed to sand away some of the skin on my fingers) and not a perfect job but good enough for now. His seams are all smooth now, all the better to creep people out in photos. Ohohoho.
4. NEIL GAIMAN. I've got tickets for all three events. （￣ー￣） So need to spend the next month completing my Sandman/Gaiman collection and re-reading. 
5. NEW MUSE AND GREEN DAY ALBUMS. Although the Green Day one isn't..er..that new. Both are fairly good but still under 5 listens so far so it's too early to say. I do hear some funky influences in the Muse album though and both bands seem to be trying new or unusual things.
6. I have a break for all of next week. WOOHOO. Some time to catch up with people and projects (my own & hobbies-related mostly. I don't think school projects merit such enthusiasm or time.)
7. You can spend forever watching videos of speeches from TED.
8. This entry is terribly mundane.

I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get back on the House wagon and catching up with the second half of Season 5. 

There's a mountain of Stats, Economics, Accounts and whatnot ahead for today but doing that nonsense after S5E17 makes all the difference in the world. After five seasons, they've still got it. These flawed characters who are easy to dislike when simplified or mentioned in passing but the essence of them and their complexities still draw you in, still keep you hooked.  

House is a snarky, self-destructive bastard who is ruthless with the truth.
Wilson is always so busy pleasing people and being the nice guy that we wonder if there's anything more to him.
Cuddy is the Authority, the Person That House pisses off, there to provide conflict. 
And the list goes on. 

But no matter how many episodes you've watched, no matter how much you've seen them do, you still can't predict them, can't grasp the entirety of them. Especially the dynamics of the House-Wilson relationship. Fodder for much slashing good fun, definitely. (And brilliant fics have been written for those two.) But also fascinating because they dance all around the concept, providing no hard definition, no solid idea or foundation. Separately interesting but together, an incredible contrast with surprising chemistry. 

Also, my wonderful Friends in China have blessed me with HQ Torchwood Season 1 so Happiness all Around man. I am no longer at the mercy of BBC Entertainment for my fix.   

EDIT: Also, the weather today is magnificent. I am happy.

So I've found a new distraction and re-discovered an old one. (Because a life ruled by unending revision and project work is not one at all. Although I probably don't study enough.)

Oddly enough, they center around the same things. Paper dolls and dress-up. Frivolous fun. See?


Here is where I'll probably be spending quite a bit of time. It's a community format similar to Neopets with the buying, selling, special items and so on. However, Poupee-girl focuses only on clothes and related wearable accessories. Sounds like a great place for the vain yes? Thankfully, not really. Items from your real-world closet/stash/boxes lying around the room cannot be posted if there's a human face in the photograph. Which leaves the wanderer free to admire awesome (or not so awesome) things without being blinded by layers and layers of make-up or 6000000000 versions of cutesy poses.

It's a Japanese thingumbob but the accessibility for English users is actually pretty good. Which is why I'm on it in the first place. Post up real world items/comment on stuff and you get points to buy virtual items. You can also just pay $$$ too. But poor people like me can't do that. 

Also, rediscovered the joys of Kisekae dolls. Kisekae or KiSS (which has nothing to do with the KISS principle) dolls are basically virtual paper dolls. Most of my favourites/most worshipped artists/creators tend to take it far beyond that though. Incredible concepts/characters, set design, amazing outfits and seriously cool features. Anything from the backdrop to make-up, eye shape and even gender can be changed.

There's also a lot of ugly pointless ones out there but I don't play with those. I've also found the scraps of my first and second attempts at creating a KiSS doll. Quite surprised that it wasn't half bad but I never stuck around long enough to do fabulous wardrobes and so on. Rick Cramer's Jamie and Zero are tres nice.

What started me on KiSS again is a marvelous Freddie Mercury set off DA.com. There's only one I think so it's easy to find. Large wardrobe and a very wide range of effects (hair styles, make-up, expressions, facial hair etc.). Totally made my day when I found it (by complete accident). 

I will never get back the hour of my life just wasted watching the pilot of 'Dollhouse', some ridiculous Whedon creation. 

If I have to sit through 5 more bland-ass episodes for it to get good, I'd rather hop off to watch House, Life on Mars, Two and a Half Men, Torchwood, Blackpool, Doctor Who, Glee, Rome, Merlin, Robin Hood, even the Mentalist's occasionally less-than-amazing episodes. Shit this list can go on forever. 

Good Grief, Dushku's acting was painful from the first 30 seconds of the episode for crying out loud. The whole thing felt like some crappy mesh of typical Whedon characters and old-as-dirt stereotypes.