What.

=p Fact of the day: Apparently, people with bipolar disorder really like opposing colours, in particular, blue and yellow (in that combination). Vincent van Gogh, whom one art historian mentioned (I can't remember who) really really liked yellow, and incidentally, his most most cherished works, in particular, Starry Night is painted in a splendid combination of vivid blues and yellows. Vincent van Gogh as history tells us, was also known for being intermittently in and out of hospitals and suffered from said disorder. This is rather fascinating. Is his art a sympton of his illness, or did his illness allow him to paint with such vibrancy? Which also goes to show why artists with neither eyesight issues or mental illnesses resort to artificial chemicals to produce the same effect...

The Beautiful Sublime

"When the starry sky, a vista of open seas or a stained glass window shedding purple beams fascinate me, there is a cluster of meaning, of colors, of words, of caresses, there are light touches, scents, sighs, cadences that arise, shroud me, carry me away, and sweep me beyond the things that I see, hear or think. The "sublime" object dissolves in the raptures of a bottomless memory. It is such a memory, which, from stopping point to stopping point, remembrance to remembrance, love to love, transfers that object to the refulgent point of the dazzlement in which I stray to be... Not at all short of, but always with and through perception and words, the sublime is a something added that expands us, overstrains us, and causes us to be both here as dejects, and there, as others and sparkling. A divergence, an impossible bounding. Everything missed, joy - fascination".

-- Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror trans. Kelly Oliver.

The Week at a Glance

Bought stuff yesterday at the John Little sale at PS. A dress, and two tank tops, mine first in a long while. (The ones my aunt gave me came with other stuff attached to it) and which are justified by the heat wave currently sweeping through er, well just generally sweeping through. The next things I am determined to buy are Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which seems to be an interesting parody of Austen's well-loved (and well other things, like winced at) novel. Yay! The annoying bit is that to utilise my Times membership fully, I shall have to go to their new branch in Tampines to fully utilise the in-store discount. Does anyone want anything? I feel like I'm on holiday already, which is kind of sucky because I still have a paper to write. Siggh. And if anyone can tell me where to buy cheap and nice wrap around skirts or regular ones will be endowed with my heartfelt thanks. I can't seem to find any anywhere, to my annoyance.

So bewildering it could be true

Franz Kafka International Airport... courtesy of ONN.
Note: One edge is slightly cut off, due to me being bad at embedding players. (It's better than getting one end to stick out)




Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

Never Ever Gamble

The situation: Your sister is doing a coin flip and you're supposed to guess which will be the facing side up. Heads, my dear, or tails. According to probability laws, it's supposed to be 50-50 (assuming that sides are equal and that your sister is not cheating).
However, it is my belief that 50-50 does not begin to describe the odds I have because really, who is to say I am not getting all ten or so times wrong out of a potential thousand? Perhaps, you know, it's just the odds against me for now...