A guide to buying textbooks

Book XXX

"The Master said: To buy a book, one should not do so by herself; instead call a friend to do it, and then the book shall be in your grasp."

Black Week.

And it's only Monday.

Clarifications and Updates

Clarification no.1: I do NOT like caterpillars - whether they come in red, black, matching green or modish black n white stripes. Or spots. Or checks. Or whatevers.

Update no.1: My opinion of my current modules as it now stands:
Classical Chinese Philosophy: bewildering and expensive
Geography: I miss geog! What a welcome opportunity for nostalgia and the gd ol' jc days!
Soci: Neutral.
Intro to Film Art: I don't know and I don't care. (See below for explanation)
Genes and Society: Somebody shoot me so I don't have to do this module. Plus. It's expensive.
Film n Cultural Txts: Likewise: a "somebody shoot me situation". It's not expensive though.

What lovely weather we've been having... and I've watched my first film in Spanish! Pan's Labryinth is an excellent film, hence I shall weather Film n Cultural txts because in some vague, currently unknown way, this module will help me better my movie/film watching experience. I can't wait for this semester to end already!

Update no.2: 10 reasons why I should like media studies.

It's er. updated.
It's interesting.
Helps you be consumer aware.
Helps me update myself with the hottest tv programmes, and media trends
It's a little bit like soci and I am neutral to soci.
It's a good break from airy fairy lit.
Some ppl must like it. Pity it isn't me.
One should diversify from dusty moth eaten books [NEVER!]
I like film
I hate ads (now I'll know why)

Clarification no. 2: If it sounds forced, it's only because I'm prejudiced, and am trying to like it. Do help me out by adding on to this list. A semester of surprises indeed.

School Reopening!

Back to school, as usual. When I think about it, I've been in school (different ones of course) for over a decade. How appalling.
6 years in primary school
4years in secondary school
2 years in a junior college
and ___ years to go in university.
In all: 12 full years and one semester (less than 6 months) of academia so far.

Funny how it took 6 years to NOT miss school holidays and dread school. Thank you, secondary school then. And then I think of how it's been like all those years - maths, chinese (horrors). I have the greatest respect for my mother tongue - it's just that it is beyond my grasp; so, come to think about it, is logic. Er. 12 years and what do I have to show for it? School's back - another round of reading (ugh), research (ugh) and essays and projects (double ugh).

Here are my modules for next semester as proof of the amount of reading amd thinking involved. Come to think of it, thinking is hard work too...
Daoism and Confucianism [Qn: WHY am I doing this when I don't even like the idea of patriarchy??]
Film art - an Introduction. [yay!]
Film and Cultural Texts [May I be more consumer savvy with this module.]
Soci [duh.]
Geog [please oh please don't make me go on field trips!! The hot sun...rocky paths...icky humid air...]

Well, at least, with 12 years of studying and exams, tests, pop quizzes and such other "surprises" I can safely say I am as unprepared as I was 12 years ago. A new semester of surprises awaits... not to mention that it's a new year. Whoop.

Merry Christmas!!

Now what is it again?

Peace on Earth and Joy to all Men (and Women)?

Now I can't be sure but who cares?

Merry Christmas to everyone out there!

Going Away

Won't be in Singapore from the 12th to 16th.. Hong Kong here I come!!

Indulgence

Hmm. My first paper [the exam kind] is tomorrow. Indulge me ok.

Fantasy no.1: Kick back and relax in a nice cafe with a good book

Fantasy no.2: Sleep without horrid dreams relating to school work

Fantasy no.3: Watch unlimited TV/VCDs/DVDs... ...you get the picture

Fantasy no.4: NO ringing telephones or rude neighbours

Fantasy no.5: A day trip to a mysterious castle deeply secluded in unspoilt forests*

Fantasy no.6: Catching up on all my fiction reading. There is this whole list waiting to be devoured

Fantasy no.7: Movies!

Fantasy no.8: Chill out with pals without going broke

Fantasy no.9: In which Fantasy no.8 and Fantasy no.1 do not clash - but that is just a fantasy

Fantasy no.10: I can somehow accomplish all this in er. my very short break?

* This is here just for the heck of it obviously. Does Hong Kong count as a cement forest?

And...the verdict is out!

Our group got a grade worthy of that absurd overnight/24hr marathon rush to meet the project deadline! Yay! Today is a memorable day!

Pandemonia!

A Short Play by yours truly.
As opposed to a Looooong Post.

Note: The authoress delines to associate herself with the characters you will meet below. Whether they are fictional or not will be up to you.

8:48pm: The brain. There are two white armchairs facing each other across a small table, also white. The furniture is set in a square room with 3 walls, all painted gray. One of the armchair has a box, also white in colour on it. The front of the room is "open" to the audience, i.e. no wall. ficklemiss enters stage right, and sits in the empty armchair.

ficklemiss: [looks around nervously] Did you hear that?

A loud burst of crackling interference from the white box is heard, and ficklemiss jumps nervously again

The other voice in my head (hereafter known as ToViMH): No, hear what?

ficklemiss: Shh! I heard something...didn't you?

ToViMH: No...can't you see I've no ears?

ficklemiss: Ooh! I heard it again! [springs up agitatedly and runs to hide beside the armchair]

ToViMH: I REALLY don't hear anything...

ficklemiss: [peeking from the armchair to stare at ToViMH accusingly] Listen HARDER...now shh!

ToViMH: Wait! I heard something... what's that odd sound?

ficklemis: Elementary, my dear Watson - it's the voice of Hysteria! [laughs]

FIN.

Can't the weekend breeze by? I'm agonising for Monday to come. Damned 24 hr marathon. If we are going to do badly...I'm going to cry...

A Looooong Post

In honour of a friend (who asked for a post), and since it IS her b-day, it'll be a long one. So bear with me.

Thus! We shall begin with Su.Z's very first Looooong Post!!
It was a fine day, as most days are regardless of whatever you may be feeling, which as it happened, can be put simply with this facial expression: a long face. So, to cut a lengthy story short, let's just get on with this verbose post...

This morning, my train journey was delayed for some mysterious reason. Now, I run on a tight schedule trying to get to school on time, and I could not be more relieved when the train started moving after a protracted wait in the dark tunnel. Miraculously, I got to class in time, but that was after a ridiculously ardous climb up Biz Fac. What a horrible place filled with continuous flights of stairs!
So, after a drawn-out day at school, with the end finally in sight, me and a pal decided to take a bus down to Harbourfront for ice-cream. Luckily the slow journey was made better by the unusual perspective provided by us sitting on the upper-deck of the bus. Now, I've never sat on the upper-deck of Bus 10 before, and the view was amazingly different. Makes all the difference when you are tall, I suppose... ...you feel like you are towering over all that strectched out expanse of shorter shophouses before us.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any good ice-cream place at Harbourfront, so we both decided to train down to PS. Yay! Ice-cream! That sweet delight is all the more enticing after that absurdly roundabout bus/train ride. I ordered a Frosted Malt Choc (I think that's what's it's called). It has been noted that prolonged starvation makes food taste way better, and it's true when FNALLY, my sweet treat which I had yearned for appeared magically from thin air in front of me!
Of course not. Duh. What happened to thanking the waiter/waitress who served you your long-awaited meal? Too long has it been since we all indulged in a little courtesy!

We had a wordy discussion on haunted houses (halloween may be over, but it wasn't that way back ago) while waiting for the food to arrive. When it did, we spent so much time laughing that we took an extended time trying to finish our ice-cream.

Well, I got home soon after that. Now, my only desire is that I somehow wrap this post up tidily and go off to bed without typing my fingers off! What a terribly draggy day!

Murphy's Law or Plain Bad Luck

The title sums up everything about this film module I'm taking. Shoot me.

Time is EVIL

Not enough time. As usual. Who films and edits in one week? Considering we actually have absolutely no experience whatsoever with the editing programme, some really mysterious pixels and whatever other stuff that can't be put here for the sake of diplomacy. I'm supposed to be doing the immensely boring accompanying report and I hope my draft of it doesn't kill us all though if it sucks it is our fault for procrastinating. Huh. No time to yak more - here's a lovely orchre [I hate yellow] space for me to hide in, if only for a few minutes. I might even go for lunch after I leave. Hah!
Hey. Someone wanted an update. I'm ruined. But at least it's more than 2 sentences long. Only one person will get that line before this line, fortunately.

Pick Me!

These are my Lit paper questions. Pick one for me and tell me why you chose it. I think they're all horrible. That said, I still have to do them. I think I ought to watch Sympathy for Lady Vengeance for the first question. That said... I don't like Korean films...
The winner doesn't win anything obviously. Though if you like candy I'll get some for you. =D

1. Ibsen's Hedda Gabler forces us to see domestic frustration, disappointment, and fiasco as forms of violence against women in society. Discuss.

2. The title of Duras' film script, Hiroshima mon Amour [Hiroshima My Love], is equivocal about its proper subject: the address to "my love" can refer equally to an unnamed lover as well as to the proper noun 'Hiroshima', the city itself. Reflect on this ambiguity.

3. Discuss the language and attitude to the subject of love in any one of the following three poems:

Jonathan Swift's 'A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed'
T. S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'
Leong Liew Geok's 'Love Songs'

An observation and commentary (unrelated)

Today, it started raining at approximately 12.30pm. Terrible smell of smoke accompanied the rain. Everything was grey(more than usual)and if you looked clearly, you could see tendrils of smoke with the rain. Must be the first time that I saw such nasty pollution. Eyes are itching too, possibly as a reaction to the smoke which is currently also clogging up my respiratory system.

I went to the library yesterday. With the opening of the Bishan Library (YES!) a significant number of books have been left on the shelf for the newer facilities down the road. Hence, I had a field day picking my way through full shelves. Execellent if not for the fact that I have several papers to write, a number of non paper projects and no time to spare for some of the really good finds (in a damn long time I tell you) that have mysteriously turned up despite the abject mess of the shelves. What is Tom Holt (HOL) doing on an M shelf I ask?
In any case must put that list of books to be read/reread/completed somewhere and it might as well be here. The holidays never seemed so far away. Actually, it isn't, just that I'm procrastinating quite successfully and feel that while i require more time to get assignments done, I also don't want to be kept away from a nice long break.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (or is the other way round?)
The Prestige, which popped up from nowhere like Magic!
I am a Cat
Anansi Boys
Ender's series (don't remember exact title)
Onion Girl, which makes the list not because I'm dying to read it but because in all my time at that library, it's the first time I've seen it - and it's not new.
(The list seemed longer yesterday)

In retrospection

A few days ago, I went to return VCDs which I had borrowed for schoolwork. I was in one of those on-the-go moods, feeling as if nothing could disturb my sense of finaly broken through procrastinating and getting down to work at last. With such determination to get SOMETHING right for once, I walked into the one VCD shop that I frequent in the jolly, bustling heartland.

Looking back from where I am now, i.e. in the present, it was all some absurd nightmare. I happily breezed into the shop, saw that no one was at the counter for me to return my VCD to and decided I'll browse around. It was really a half-hearted attempt to waste time, because I had somewhere else to go, and better things to do than browse around. So, in boredom, I puttered around the shelves wondering why no one was appearing at the cashier.

On my way in, I recalled having seen a couple of slackers smoking at the door. Assuming these were the staff taking a break, I civilly decided to wait, being empathetic about work dissatisfaction. Looking up from browsing, I saw that one of the fellows that worked there staring at me. Since I possess a natural dislike for being stared at, I huffily wondered why the slacker was staring at customers while obviously slacking. It wasn't any business of his to examine what I was looking at. It didn't matter if I'll gone to the shop 3 days consecutively. I had to borrow the discs on my 1st day, returned one that I'll watched on the second and was now back on the 3rd to the same. In the end, glancing at my handphone which I'll fished out of my bag to look at the time, I decided to approach the cashier who was standing outside the shop.
I held out the VCD and said "I want to return this." He took it back, and said, "Where's the other one?" Thinking that he had an amazingly short memory, I reminded him that I had returned it the day before. Looking back, it was ridiculous.
He said I had another in my bag. Amazingly, I who had frequented this shop had been accused of being a petty thief! Insulted, I threw him my bag for him to look through. He clearly believed in the existence of 'The Invisble VCD' because he made me remove my jacket as well, so that no large objects would be obstructing his view. (I dimly wondered how I could be accused of stealing anything when I'll asked him 2 days before if they had a VCD I had wanted, but they didn't have.) He couldn't find anything (duh), and gave me back my bag and went to get my real VCD which I was returning, scanned. When he was done, I icily retorted if I could leave, and left fuming silently to myself.

Looking back, it was funny. I was browsing half-heartedly (I've been there 3 times), fidgety (hey I was bored) and possibly must look guilty-stricken to smog covered eyes. There it was, a polite customer here to return borrowed goods, and an over eager sales assistant. Thinking about it now, I can't seem to find it funny. Isn't it strange that one can have dual feelings about something that has happened? I find it strange that while I can review that unfortunate episode with a good deal of bemusement, I can't help but feel angry the instant I pass the shop, while cursing it smugly- Ha! Not only has competition just opened across the road, your once valued customer is GOING there too!

Interlude: The Jumbled Mind of Me

Just had lunch in school. Will be going for second lunch in half an hour's time. Whoopee! While waiting, I decided to go print notes in the library, but there was a long queue, so decided to read notes using laptop instead, with notes magnified to 120% for easy reading. I intend to maintain my 6/6 vision (though it could be 9/9 by now).

I've made a discovery: someone has been keeping secrets from Me! The fact is: it's a conspiracy that no one has informed me that Marmite n Cream Cheese Toast is an absolute and fabulous gourmet creation. Perks include: cheap. easy to make. tastes heavenly. I'm obessed by it.

Apart from that, I'm reading Kafka as my Lit text. Bureaucracy? It's all a conspiracy too - of a cosmic size in this case. My Marmite n Cheese Toast pales in comparison with this delectable text. You should read it - it's brilliant. Why is it brilliant? I don't exactly know yet, but it appears to deal with Life, the Universe and Everything, in particular, bureaucracies, which we all have dealt with now and then.
Ok. Time's up. Lunch is beckoning enticingly.

Blogging from the Far Side

Far and away!! Every morning, it takes me approximately one and a half hrs to get to school. I know, I know, quit complaining, yadda yadda, in other countries, it's a blessing if u can make it to sch in 2hrs, that sort of thing. Unfair comparisons aside, I can't help but be just a little envious of those who live near university. Two years of walking to school must have softened me. Shopping sprees do not count. I used to wonder what it felt like getting up really early to get to school. Well, now I know it. Not really, I just wonder how they wake up early and have no complains, unlike whiny old me.

As it is, shall we go on to lighter matters then? The food is nice in NUS. As in, what I've tried so far anyway. There are also many stairs in NUS. Some of the stairwells are dark. The place can get creepy at night. My bus has no aircon. The stuff in NUS are cheap. Isn't the last one cool?? Campus is huge though. I've been spacing out lots during lectures. Why is that? During lectures, when I'm not paying attention, my head feels really buoyant and happy, like it's about to float away on fluffy white clouds if I forget to hold on to it...

Life at the edge.

First Day Blues

School started proper today, meaning lectures. Woke up early, caught the bus early, and made good time to school. Upon reaching NUS, I decided to drop at the library, which seemed to be closer to the lt that I was headed for. At least, I recalled that it had appeared closer on the map.

Since it was the first day of school and all, there were lots of people walking around, and most of them were moving at a sort of half-jog, half-walk hybrid pace. The woes of rushing from lecture to lecture. To prevent myself from being squashed by incoming students, I had to walk at that odd pace too, and got to the lt with 20 minutes to spare. Sat around then, and did a little people watching. Then, it when it was about time, I went in to lecture. Sat around somemore, while waiting for p.y. to appear.

Then. I find out that I'm in a Soci lecture. Hahaha. Wrong place. Whoopie.
Rushed to the correct lt. Mercifully, I had not missed anything in particular. What a way to start my 3 years at NUS. Joy to me.
As a side, I realised that somehow, my wonderful module combi is such that I have a lecture EVERY SINGLE DAY of a working week. So that means that I've got to go to school everyday. Way to go miss. Must remind myself to arrange a better schedule the next time round.

Bargains!

Went to the library used book sale today. Everything is going from about $2. Reached the expo at about 0830, and there was already a sizeable crowd waiting there. Most of them had come prepared with newspapers to while the time away waiting for the sale to open at 0930... Some came even more prepared, with huge backpacks and market trolleys.

Then the sale started. At first, we could approach the carts of books with ease, but within minutes, you had to fight increasing numbers of bargain hunters that had absolutle no scruples when it came to pushing, shoving and/or scratching. Don't forget the elbowing too. If you can withstand the maniacal crowd, it's really worth a visit. Of course, we didn't stay long. Got in at about 0930 and we were out by 1100. Honestly, the crowd was unbearable by then, and most the er. hunters had by then settled down amongst the crowd to peruse their trophies. We left the place exhausted. And to think it had been less than 2hrs!

The Notebook Hunt

Got my laptop today. Yay! First of all, I really must recount [yet again] the process of getting my laptop collected and processed. Amusing actually. Sort of like a treasure hunt you know. Walked all over NUS while lugging said notebook to search for the Staff Club where it was to be processed. Map was inaccurate, even if it featured only 3 places - the IT- Co op, an overhead bridge and the opposite end of the bridge. Lost lost lost. What a fun game. Embarrassed myself walking back to the IT shop to ask for directions. lol... what a sight.

After getting the laptop, decided to take cab home. Only.
The one available cab in sight zoomed into the distance before I could stick out a hand to flag it down, being weighted down with heavy tech stuff. So took a bus back instead. Never ever do that. It's heavy, inconvenient, and the bus ride was LONG. Mercifully, both buses were quite empty, and they would have been emptier still if swarms of student fresh from a day of doing good had not chose that precise moment to enter the bus. But I guess I can't really blame them, since it's a hoilday, and they are naturally excited. I remember loving the National Day holidays. Red all round. Actually, I prefered having the whole day off. Besides. I like white better. Red on the other hand, entails a trace of bloodshed.

Now, I'm at home, waiting for the laptop to finish charging or whatever it is that it has to do. Apparently, the plug from the charger came loose, and I've wasted one perfectly good day for charging it. Huh. Well. At least I'll get to play with it tomorrow. Whee! My own laptop!