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?

The Stolen Child
-W.B. Yeats-

WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scare could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering troutA
nd whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand

Observations IV

There is this person in a long-sleeved shirt and pants snoring in the library. I can't concentrate.
Hungry too.
Why Why Why

Reading and Writing

MF:Gooood evening ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Ms Fickle's Mind Live! Interview, where you get to meet such extraordinary persons that you won't think to meet! (and will never meet, Peace be upon you) As for tonight, let's see just who we have tonight at the studio!
[camera pans right to cushy armchairs]

MF:Ah! I see that we have the excellent Master Reading here in the studio tonight with us! [chorus of excited murmur]
MF: So! Master Reading! What a pleasure it is to meet you in person! I am told that as it is the end of the semester, you have seen a slight dip in those who follow Readership.
MR: [Sourly] It is expected of course. But those who turn away ultimately return during the exams. I am not overly concerned by this.
MF: I see! How nice it is to see you so unconcerned... As a matter of fact, you have been criticised by some as being rather autocratic. Your followers complain that they have been often coerced into Reading textbooks and research.
MR: [waves one hand nonchalantly] I quite fail to see it as my problem. Insofar as I see it, they'll just have to deal with me in whatever way they can. [smirks] Seeing as they can't escape me anyway.
MF: Oh dear. Perhaps this might exlain why in the mean time, Readers have turned to your more charming cousin, Sir Essay Writing. I hear that at least he has been more democratic in dealing with his er. essayists.
MR: Democratic? I hardly think so. He may be as you call it, more "charming", but he is no less demanding than I am. Though I do admit that the effort put in on working on essays are strictly on a voluntary basis. Flattery may get you somewhere with him, but not me. I am not so two-faced. [looks at clock on the wall impatiently] Is it over yet? I did not ask for this ridiculous interview did you know? I am a busy person.
[link terminated]

Booklist

Revived an old list of "to read" books, and decided that I have to update it..

List of Books to read:
-Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman [finished!]
-The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro [finished!]
-The Magic Toyshop, Angela Carter
-The Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake [it's STILL sitting at home]
-Gods Behaving Badly, Marie Phillips
-American Gods, Neil Gaiman [I never seem to get round to reading it]
-Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
-Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl
-100 Great Books in Haiku, David Bader
-The Misanthrope: and other plays, Moliere
-The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
-Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders, Gyles Brandreth
-The Time Traveller's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

The Irrelevent Post

Hmm. So life continues on, without stopping (as usual) for a breather, while I sit back and admire the lovely mess I've created. Went back to school yesterday, forgetting it was a public holiday, and naturally, everything was closed, my readings stuck behind the wretched glass wall... No matter, I suppose, so I went back home, and scowled at the review I was supposed to be writing, while simultaneously planning this other essay I've got... the one of many other essays to come, but I needn't complain. I forsee all-nighters in the not too distant future. And I haven't finished reading Jane Eyre. And I have a presentation on it.

I do wish I can cough up 10 page research papers in a day... I hear you have to do something similar if you want your PhD... Incidentally, PhD; I don't know how many of you actually know, but it doesn't mean Permanent Head Damage as many of us know it as, but A Doctor in Philosophy. Weird, especially when there actually ARE doctors of Philosophy out there... i.e. the profs at the Philo Dept (where else).

Right then, back to my point about writing essays fast. I really don't have all day to sit around waiting to be inspired, but it happens, and I glaze over the essay/review/write-up/report/proposal/research paper and half the day is gone. Talk about time passing...

Lost lost lost

Why oh why can't I go through a semester without losing something?!
Last sem, it was my earring and nearly a textbook, and this semester it has to be my thumbdrive. The worst part is. I don't even remember where I lost it. Or HOW. Did I leave it hanging on a computer somewhere (most likely right). Mercifully, most of my stuff are in the other thumbdrive and my laptop, but still! Waaaaaaaaaaah.
Come to think of it, I also lost a newly topped cashcard too. All on campus. Damn damn damn!

Am feeling like an idiot. And miserable to boot. My faithful thumbdrive.. that saw me through the busted laptop period...lost. gone forever. taken by some twit. ungrateful twit at that.

Observations III

Well then. Where are my slippers? I can't go out without my slippers! Who has taken my slippers? Mom?! Have you seen my slippers?

And so. I wear my sister's slippers, which are a tad too big for me cos my feet are smaller than hers, and slip and slide all the way and frantically cling on to the staircase in case I fall down...

Where do I start?

I could start by burning all my books. And papers. Yes. In particular those. There's too much of them.