October Meltdown

Ok. Long post coming up. I've several things I want to talk about but which I hadn't for the past month because my vanity wouldn't allow it. The month of October is allowed only 5 posts, and as you can see, I made use of the first 4 in the first 4 consecutive days of the month. Those of you in the know would know why 5 posts. Remember - vanity. Anyway, onward!

#1 Ang Mo Kio Fiasco

Out of the goodness and kindness of my soul I attempted to help this nine yr old girl who was crying on the streets outside AMK Hub. Oh the meanness of the Singaporean soul! Nobody else walking up and down the crowded streets even bat an eyelid at her!

For good reason it seems.

I asked her where her mom was and she said 'at home'. I then asked her where she lived and she told me she lived in the very er, "very far away" Ang Mo Kio Ave 10. However, I suppose, when you're 9, anywhere more than 10 mins from your front gate is far. Being unfamiliar with the suburbia of AMK, I asked if she knew what bus to get home and we then proceeded to walk to this bus stop ahead (88 bus stop) which she claimed had her bus. Which, as it turned out did not in fact. We wandered back to another bus stop perpendicular to it (159 bus stop via Sengkang). Which also didn't have the bus. Mercifully, before I decided to resort to a cab (at the taxi stand outside the train station), I spotted one of the buses she mentioned turning into the very Hub which we had walked away from. My heart bled.

And so I took her back there, making yet another perpendicular right, though this time utilising the underpass as I could not bear waiting for the traffic lights anymore. Those of you familiar with that area would realize that I spent a precious 30 mins walking from one bus stop to another around the traffic junction near AMK Stn, trailing a sniveling girl with me under the evening sun. So yes, I hereby permit you to indulge in envisioning this pathetic sight for personal entertainment as long as you want.

On reaching, she recognized her bus and walked eagerly towards it, and leaving me to stare bewildedly at the board and wondering why the bus she wanted to take did not actually go to AMK Ave 10. Anyway, I was done with her. After giving her some bus money, I hastily fled to the upper floors, not daring for an hour to come back down in case she had taken an entire round trip on the feeder service and ended up at the interchange again.

#2 The Death of Duckie, aka Sheep-like Sotong, aka hamster

Rest in peace fat Duckie! You were always the stupidest. But that's ok. We still love you very much.

He is a sheep-like sotong for the simple reason that he was the fattest hamster with the longest fur and sheep appearance. He was also, in local parlance, very 'blur', like sotong.

Allow me to indulge in one reminiscence.

Once, I put him on this long wooden bench at home for walk. He trotted along the edge of the seat happily and then suddenly slipped off. He hung for a split second by his paws, blinked and then fell. Bottom too heavy I suppose. There was no strong sudden gust of wind. Nobody pushed/pulled him. He just trot and fell. So clumsy.

#3 Birthday
Spent it wretchedly with essay submissions. Thank you the lovely ladies who got me Chewy Junior and my presents!! I heart you all.

#4 Halloween Post
I posted some of my favourite poetry that had some relation to Halloween for the past 2 years. Stands to reason I'll do it again this year. I had originally intended Keats's The Eve of St Agnes but it's too long if it's sharing a post with other things. Keats incidentally was born today in 1795, if Wikipedia is to be believed. So, what I have is an excerpt instead:


I
ST. AGNES’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!

The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;

The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,

And silent was the flock in woolly fold:

Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told

His rosary, and while his frosted breath,

Like pious incense from a censer old,

Seem’d taking flight for heaven, without a death,

Past the sweet Virgin’s picture, while his prayer he saith


’Hark! ’tis an elfin-storm from faery land,

“Of haggard seeming, but a boon indeed:

“Arise—arise! the morning is at hand;—

“The bloated wassaillers will never heed:—

“Let us away, my love, with happy speed;

“There are no ears to hear, or eyes to see,—

“Drown’d all in Rhenish and the sleepy mead:

“Awake! arise! my love, and fearless be,

“For o’er the southern moors I have a home for thee.”


XL.
She hurried at his words, beset with fears,

For there were sleeping dragons all around,

At glaring watch, perhaps, with ready spears—

Down the wide stairs a darkling way they found.—

In all the house was heard no human sound.

A chain-droop’d lamp was flickering by each door;

The arras, rich with horseman, hawk, and hound,

Flutter’d in the besieging wind’s uproar;

And the long carpets rose along the gusty floor.


XLI.
They glide, like phantoms, into the wide hall;

Like phantoms, to the iron porch, they glide;

Where lay the Porter, in uneasy sprawl,

With a huge empty flaggon by his side;

The wakeful bloodhound rose, and shook his hide,

But his sagacious eye an inmate owns:

By one, and one, the bolts full easy slide:—

The chains lie silent on the footworn stones;—

The key turns, and the door upon its hinges groan.


XLII.
And they are gone: ay, ages long ago

These lovers fled away into the storm.

You can see for yourself how long it is from the numbering above the stanzas. The original can be found here.

October. The Crazy Month. For all kinds of reasons.

Quote of the Day

"were all men always attentive to life, were we constantly to keep in touch with others as well as with ourselves, nothing within us would ever appear as due to the working of strings or springs" Henri Bergson, "The Comic in Situations" trans. Brereton and Rothwell

And quite, quite suddenly, I think I might be beginning to understand Deleuze and Guattari from 19th Century class

The Original Letter from Crazy Peoples

This is what happens when you are doing research for essays and you come across this again. Below is a short excerpt which one critic cited and then cheerfully called the author "unmistakeably...a megalomaniac"

William Prynne (1600-1669)

Histrio-mastix.

The players scourge, or, actors tragædie, divided into two parts. Wherein it is largely evidenced, by divers arguments, by the concurring authorities and resolutions of sundry texts of Scripture, That popular stage-playes are sinfull, heathenish, lewde, ungodly spectacles, and most pernicious corruptions; condemned in all ages, as intolerable mischiefes to churches, to republickes, to the manners, mindes, and soules of men. (the second full-stop here) And that the profession of play-poets, of stage-players; together with the penning, acting, and frequenting of stage-playes, are unlawfull, infamous and misbeseeming Christians. All pretences to the contrary are here likewise fully answered; and the unlawfulnes of acting, of beholding academicall enterludes, briefly discussed; besides sundry other particulars concerning dancing, dicing, health-drinking, &c. of which the table will informe you.

Observe how the second full-stop is really a technicality, since he goes on to start the next sentence with "And".

Notice (updated)

Oh lookie. Deja vu.

My phone has died again. There really is something about me meeting up with my sec sch friends that it really doesn't like. Or something. Like how it wants to infuriate me in my fav month of the year perhaps.

Update: My phone died again in spite of the new battery. It looks as though I'll be using my dad's ancient nokia for a while longer. Sigh. My ear. my ear.

TV has never sunk so low

The scene - a nippy bankside at one of Singapore's water catchment areas
The cast -
one standard clandestine young couple meeting secretly
one standard story line about young girl being sent overseas by ambitious parent to pursue music career. They are about to be separated for 3 years.

They cross the small distance to clasp each other's hands. The girl is visibly distraught. She is, as they say, stuck to be filial, pursue her own career, and in the process leave her boyfriend behind. The young man is understandably upset but what happens next doesn't make sense, even as cheesy R&J speeches go.

Girl (rough approx of lines): It can't be helped, my mother has already paid them the money. I'll have to leave for 3 years!
(They hug passionately) Both are miserable at the cruel twist of fate.
Boyfriend: But, can you bear to let me go?
Girl (shaking her head in frustration): I don't know! I don't know!

Yeah. I sure don't know either. Let me go sounds kind of pathetic when it comes to comforting your girlfriend and it's unnecessary to ask such a stupid question in a scene that is already visually coded to yell happily-in-love-couples-to-be-separated.