I used to pride myself (just a teensy bit) on Understanding Calculus. Not memorising, but comprehending, utilising, implementing. It's been a good year since that was necessary and I've just been slaughtered by a couple of integration questions of the Brother's test paper.

Not because they were uber complicated but because I'd forgotten all the rules, the subtleties and WHAT THE FARKING ZARDWARKS I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE C.

It's not quite wangst-worthy but it is very demoralising.

This only proves that my brain is rotting away in university.

I fear that soon no other kind of phone can be my phone other than the HTC Dream. All my future phones are slowly morphing into sleeker, smoother, very similar smartphones with flip out keyboards, touchscreens and APPS APPS APPS galore. All this marvelous syncing with all things Google is only making this worse.

Dependency is a very bad thing.

I also fear that I am losing that battle against the urge to Spend Money Online again. Just received 4 new Threadless tees and I've already spent most of yesterday eyeballing a variety of handphone cases and spent about 7 hours of today having my mind (and potentially wallet) blown by Gmarket, a Korean ebay that SHIPS TO SINGAPORE AFFORDABLY and IS IN ENGLISH.

Oh Yusof, you come and go so fast.

But seriously. Gmarket is beyond awesome. It's like having widespread access to the mega-hyper-Godzilla-of-online-shopping Rakuten. Except everything's Korean and usually cheaper. Hubba hubba. Mucho Overload.

And then there's money I need to set aside for Big Night Out 2010, maybe The Killers and definitely Lion King & Chicago. And Taiwan trip money which I need to start ferreting away into sekrit places beyond my own grabby fingers.

The moolah is never enough. Alas.

Techie problems, they take up time and are very frustrating.

On the up side, I am the proud (and somewhat smug) new owner of a HTC Dream. No Sony or Nokia for me, laggeriffic Samsung and LG begone. I am Android-empowered biatches.

My Dream is also the first new phone I've used since that retarded and depressing episode where I jumped in the sea with my Sony in my pocket. Bugger that. Anyway, that is all past. And Bugdroid is just so much cuter than anything Sony's done in SEA. Y'know, for a semi-Japanese company, SE has yet to manifest any form of Kawaii in its products. Most disappointing. (Although the bizarre little clamshell Jalou is comes pretty close)

On the downside, I'm running on Android 1.1 instead of the updated 1.5, Cupcake. 2.0 Eclair is just out though so I'll just twiddle me thumbs and hope they make upgrading easy.

On the down side, it absolutely refuses to connect to hidden SSID networks (...which is what my Internet is at home. Damn.) and has no lanyard/danglable bits.

On the further down side, I can't seem to install a XP Theme patch. Frustrationisms.

On the upper up side unrelated to techie things, there are several good bands coming next year and two great musicals to look forward. 2010 is looking very nice so far yes. Just need to get these pesky Finals out of the way.

Also, I cannot find the disc for T.Rex's 'Electric Warrior'. Which is bizarre because nobody else listens to them and I don't have a CD player anymore. WTH.

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.)

</div></div></div>

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.