Burnt

Add to list of things wanted:
Ability to Mentally cause combustion Of little papery bits of unwelcome nEws

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.

The Book Post

If you are very free and want something to read and like dragons:

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik. Quite a fun and light book. Yay.

Personally, I shouldn't even be reading stuff outside my school work. I haven't even started on Love's Labour Lost yet

BarberQ

Going to a BBQ and meeting the people you haven't met in a while or people you've never met at all is like watching Sweeney Todd.

Really.
It was

fun
disturbing

(slightly)
and

ended
too

Soon.

(Mostly, I just liked the title, so there, an analogy is born.)

Skin

Don't worry if you are feeling overwhelmed.

This brilliantly coloured skin would only be around for the CNY hols. Guess I was feeling festive in advance, to make up for the essay and presentation hell after that...

What my stomach told me

On Saturday, I watched kappa eat the delicious fish bee hoon from downstairs and felt hungry even though I had breakfast not an hour ago. It was a sign. Now there isn't anymore fish bee hoon downstairs. The entire store, fish and bee hoon have up and disappeared.

And then, another era fades away. Though, in this case, more like abruptly came to an end.

The day the printer died

Damn damn damn damn.

Which is why I hate cleaning up. Everything works before it is cleaned up, packed away or thrown. Dunno why. The fates insist on a dirty shelf perhaps.

When Skool happens

The Skool Survivor Scheme
An Easy Guide to Follow and Adhere by

Being the unique and utterly useless treatise on subjects of mild interest
By MsF

First and most obvious thing: Your Bag: Always bring one with you. You never know when piles of textbooks would suddenly drop in on you, and a bag is always handy for such circumstances. You don't actually want to be seen lugging these evil creatures about do you? Therefore, for the 1st week, and I mean the first 7 schooling days, a big bag. After that, you don't want to be seen with the mother of evil creatures - the unsightly big bag do you?

Second and of secondary importance: Shoes: Comfort is important, but then so is newness. New shoes, are bought for not only comfort, but also speed and infinite stairs.

Third, which is not so much 3rd as in conjunction (in anticipation of murphy's law), or as is most often the case, followed by: plasters: Tucked in said big bag / underneath demonic new shoes / jeans pockets

Four, for: Fun (last chance, really)

Fifth: The Essential Element: A notebook. Electronic or otherwise. Remember to get it updated, change your passwords, especially if they have expired...

Sixth, and final, which is for Patience, for getting down to here, you don't quite need the advice, but still, be patient with the new, the unwelcome, the housekeeping and general sense of getting down to slaving away.

A Long Time Away

Hah! Realised that I haven't blogged in a really long while. As you can see, phone died, and I had to get a new one... A Sony Ericsson! Now, I've always been a Nokia user, and the switch is confusing. Apart from pressing the wrong buttons a lot, the charfer plu seems to like the switch at home a lot, and refuses to be unplugged unless extreme violence is undertaken by yours truly.

Apart from that, happier memories: cycling at Pasir Ris! Aside from getting midly sunburnt (ugh! have I been holed up fpr so long that i've forgotten what sunlight is??), it was nice just to go out and do so excercise. If I keep up the illusion that my tummy looks flater after all that biking around, I think I'll be cycling a lot more from now on. Now, if anyone were wondering what happened to the so called attractions on Sentosa, I can tell you where they moved to...
Pasir Ris Park!

No kidding, there has sprung up, among other things, a pony ride! I'm not sure how much it costs, but its conveniently placed next to this carpark, but not so conveniently placed for those coming from DE, as it's a good 15 minutes bike ride away (and very far by foot). It wasn't very amusing, but I suppose little kiddies would like the ponies very much, even if they pee and poop and all...

Still, it was a nice day out... Sigh... School's reopening in two weeks's time. Darn.

Contact

My phone which got its screen fixed, is now unable to get reception. No matter how much I try waving it in the air or doing other sane things to make it work. You can start smsing/calling me though as I've switched to a spare phone that my dad picked up in his taxi.. At least it can send smses/calls.

Contact

Dear all.

My phone has just died. That had involved a lot of shouting, screaming etc, and one very stupid sister who has a lot of money to pay my repair bills. Don't bother trying to call or message me for the above reasons until further notice.

Thank you.

Whoop

I had something to say here... I can't remember what. So.. what you'll get instead a nice little happy post about how my exams end tomorrow. Or maybe, that is what I wanted to say.. really, about from gloating that I get free preview tickets to watch Vexille next week.

Greedy me wonders greviously why we don't get free preview tickets to Stardust, or The Golden Compass, or rather, when I want to watch something, it's the exams... or essays. Still, am super happy. I only hope it doesn't rain tomorrow, because if it does it totally ruins my plans...
This, people, seems to be the beginning of a beautiful holiday

Examinus Lazuli

Dear doctor:
My head aches, and my nose is runny. It's not a flu because I don't have a fever, and I feel sleepy only if I look at my revision notes. Perhaps I am allergic to paper? No? Oh yeah, I've written on them ever since I could write (or scrawl or doodle). In any case, do you think you could write me an excuse? I don't want to take my exams.

Thank you.
m.F.

Inundated

Do I wake or sleep?

The past week has been nightmarish really. Will turn into a paper eating zombie at this rate. Well, actually I've one more essay to go, but I guess that can be ignored for now. Am dead tired... But I guess that waking up at 7 says something about being tired but having a damned essay to do. Alrighty, enough with the complaints. But then, it seems like all I have to do are essays. Or reading. Or more essays. This isn't a complaint, its more like a sigh of resignation. But still, the weather hs been lovely, and I can't say I'm not relieved that it hasn't been baking hot, but nice and cool. There's nothing like waking at five AND having to endure bloody heat...

Had a muffin for breakfast, and now i kinda realised that I ate a piece of the wrapping to boot... Hmm. Paper zombie?