The 200th Post: Academe's Supergirl

Academe's Supergirl

***

She scans books with a single glance,

She scales CAP with a single bound,

Wields a pen like a a blazing lance,

And gets A pluses all around.

***

Strange Thoughts

What is the Spring Equinox:

In certain parts of the world, this would mean that the length of day = the length of night, and you either chant a lot or dance a lot or do both. In the grander scheme of things, it means that sometime in late March, the sun is directly between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and the North pole and South pole (same difference) or directly overhead at the Equator. This of course is not an issue to people living at the Equator since the weather is indistinguishable all year round except for certain periods of more rain (therefore wetter) or less rain (hotter). It's even harder to predict now, when it rains one week and then is boiling for the next.

Further out in the twilight of space, where the sun is but one bright spark surrounded by more bright sparks, the Spring Equinox is a phenomenon unheard of... As such aliens to Earth need not bother.

Wanted

WANTED:

$000,000 Cash REWARD

for

House of Many Ways

Vintage buttons

Black Jeans

Plain canvas shoes

Pretty ear studs

Dorian Gray

Sky Crawlers

Ponyo on a cliff

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

Empire of Ivory

Black Powder War

Life of Pi (illustrated)

Ballet flats

Tickets to Pillowman

A good Mystery/Detective Novel (any recs?)

Vanity Fair

Kite Runner

Murphy's

Ruined my aunt's comp trying to email MOE. What luck eh. The thing black screened.


Oh, and left-handers rejoice! The (possibly) ONLY left-handed mouse in NUS can be found on the left-hand side of the library, that is, if you enter from the Quiet Study Area side...

The Book Post: House of Many Ways preview

image: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/diana-wynne-jones/house-of-many-ways.htm

Hohoho. The sequel to Howl's Moving Castle.
I'd actually heard about this late last year, but didn't want to be too happy till the news was official. And you can't get any more official when the cover's out.

The book will be released in May/June 2008, which is...really soon! I hadn't expected it to be so fast, since the news was still pretty much the kind of "I heard so and so say so" sort of rumour. At any rate, I just want to blabber on about the cover for a bit.

Firstly, I was hoping for a more exciting cover. Or something with curly font, and this cover, with its straightforward vertical lines and realist style just doesn't do for a author who has had a habit of breaking stuffy societal conventions. Secondly, just because she is British, and her characters speak with (I can imagine) a crisp upper-class-ish accent (Chrestomanci) doesn't mean they would like that apalling Victorian era yellow wallpaper print on the bottom half of the cover. In other words, this cover is boring, even if I have to admit that this gradual melting of wallpaper prints into multiple doors is a rather nice concept.

On the other hand, I see what might be an homage to Miyazaki and the animators at Studio Ghibli. If you squint at the top right corner of the cover, you'll see this castle-shaped blot that looks suspiciously like the ramshackle thing Howl puts together in Hauru no Ugoko Shiro, right down to the turrety things rising out of the mist, and which seems to echo the opening scene of the film.

The great thing is, obviously, there is another DWJ book out to read really soon. I can't really be bothered about the cover (yeah right) so long as there is something inside to read, though a nice cover that does justice to the book contents really helps too. Of course, i can't say what the content of this book would be like, but I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be good...

In other news, fans of Mamoru Oshii, long time rival and some time collaborator with Hayao Miyazaki would be pleased to know if you haven't already known, that his new film, Sky Crawlers is due to be released some time this year.

Satisfaction

Guiltless Sleep. Lots of it. None of those "I can''t go to sleep because my holiday is ending soon, better make the best out of it" things or those "I can't go to sleep because that bloody essay is haunting me" rubbish

Lots of cheap fiction

House

A house

Veoh would buffer faster

Anime.

Fansubbers would sub faster

A pair of white school shoes

Pale green, pink, and bright yellow fabric paint

Vintage buttons

A blank notebook to start anew in

A reboot of this semester

Dissatisifaction

Is a hard thing to cure.
It's not something chocolate, hot tea with lemon, or a hug can fix.
It's not something the doctors can operate on.
It's not something that will go away by itself.

I think I need a sabbatical even if it isn't the seventh semester yet.
I think I need to climb Mt Kinabalu. And then live in a wooden hut for a month with the birds and monkeys and caterpillars and consuming only fruits and vegetables everyday. Up high, there aren't any mosquitos, so I think I would actually get some meditation done, unless there are flies of course.

And maybe I'll come home satisfied.