Hello all. I've been absent for a whiles and you might think that it's cause I'm swamped with schoolwork and the like but... truth is I'm not. I've been having the weirdest sleeping hours ever, sleeping in the morning and waking up at night, and that is just ruinous to one's productivity. I can never get anything done in the dead of night.
I've been doing some late night cooking as a result of that, and I've just made porridge. Kinda okay I guess, but I have no idea how to deal with the leftovers. Such a novel experience manzz. Mushrooms, chicken thigh, peas, eggs, a sprinkle of basil and a whole lot of pepper. Just chuck everything in, pretty much a no-brainer. But I was really worried I'd die of undercooked mushrooms or sth, it's pretty terrifying. I'm always wary of fungi and their associates. And fish.
I haven't watched quite as many movies in my admittedly spare time as I'd have thought I would. I watched Sandcastles, a Singaporean movie which was surprisingly good, and A Dangerous Method. I didn't expect Sandcastles to be what it is, very well shot, surprisingly well acted, and very authentic. It was very relatable, if that's even a word, possibly cause of its subject matter(s). I never really expect anything too good from local productions, which is probably rather unfair to local artists, but at least it lifts the burden of expectation. It's in chinese too, so at least it was an opportunity for me to practice haha.
Keira Knightley has the most disturbing jaw ever. It troubled me in Never Let Me Go but after watching A Dangerous Method... Very odd. I knew it was about Freud and Jung but I didn't know a whole lot more about it. I definitely didn't expect the movie to make you think about sex. Not actually, you know, think about sex per se.. More like contemplate the topic of sex. Then again, it's Freud we're talking about so no big shock here. At least mothers didn't play a big part. But yeah. It makes you think.
Like.. why should we repress our sexual urges? Is sex a destructive force or a creative force, is it driven by ego or does it eclipse it? It's pretty interesting really, but I'm afraid I have to devote my brainpower to criminal law and self-defence and the like. But on my way home from the excellent Picturehouse I was just mulling over it.
If asked I'd probably shrug and say I don't know. If pressed maybe I'd say it's cause I'm Christian and I don't believe in casual sex. Then I started thinking, even if I weren't Christian, I'd probably still be repressing my sexual urges, I guess. Haha kind of a weird topic to be discussing, but still.. Is it purely a matter of conditioning that's made sex such a taboo, societal pressure? I don't see why we should let ourselves be confined by that.
I mean sure, it makes (some) people uncomfortable and stuff and I wouldn't go around discussing sex that's for sure, but I'm gonna do it anyway because no one has to read this anyway haha. It's just thoughts that the movie elicited. Definitely a fascinating movie, Michael Fassbender was amazing in it too.
Anyway both movies, while absolutely unrelated, had characters which stood out in my mind. The grandmother in Sandcastles and Carl Jung's wife. They just seemed... so sad. Like they had nothing to live for. All the wife wanted to do was produce a son for her husband, and that was about the extent of her ambitions. It's tragic isn't it? That doesn't seem like much of a life to me. And I'm thinking one day we'll all get old and our lives will have been spent and the day will come when we'll have nothing left to look forward to, apart from visits from children or grandchildren which are few and far between. And you're lying on a hospital bed for weeks, the monotony and excruciating boredom broken only once, maybe twice if you're lucky, a week by caring relatives.
Everytime I think of that I feel awful for not having visited my grandma more when she was in the hospital, no matter that she used to harangue me all the time. Sigh. And soon my parents are gonna be getting old.. Although hopefully not so soon at all!
I've just started with Bones again, and really, Sweets is just (Y). And I just watched the episode which featured Zooey Deschanel, probably the one episode I've been looking forward to ever since I found out they were sisters hehe.
I'm reading Dennis Lehane's Mystic River now. He wrote Shutter Island too, what a mind. Such great movies, both of them. And I bought The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. I saw it on Amazon and decided owth let's just buy it. And The Perks of Being a Wallflower was also on offer, so I snapped that up too hehe. So I've got 5 books unread right now, which definitely sates my appetite, at least for the foreseeable future! But srsly it's all in the names. I've got The Fault In Our Stars, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Mystic River, The Angel Esmeralda and The Faster I Walk the Smaller I Am. Tell me those aren't brilliant names for books?! Or for anything else, actually. Titles mean alot to me. Sometimes I don't even blog cause I can't think of a nice title for me post hehe.
Although I've not been reading much lately at all. Waking up at really weird times does that to you, I just feel so lethargic that all I do is watch TV shows, not even having the energy for movies. I know this all sounds terribly pathetic, as if having no energy for movies is such a boohoo haha. But what to do, I am revolting and disgusting and utterly reprehensible. :)
So I did make a Valentine's day trip to Bristol. On Monday I decided to check out the prices of train tickets and found cheap ones that cost me slightly over 10 quid for a return journey, and I thought that seemed pretty fair! I thought it was gonna be an urban sprawl, and industrial, and very working class, but it turned out rather more cultural than I'd have thought. Which is a good thing! I spent hours and hours on foot and I was dead beat. I went there on less than 3 hours of sleep, which is not a good thing at all.
It had this suspension bridge which looked amazing at night, well worth the hour or so I spent tracking it down, getting lost and distracted along the way. I had dinner at a fish and chips cause it would have been dead depressing to step into a restaurant on V-day alone haha. Another thing was the frantic looks of men going home to their wives. You could see them fretting outside florists and stuff, it was pretty funny. Although the whole atmosphere didn't seem quite so overpowering.. as Singapore's is. Or at least, how I remember it haha. You walk down Orchard Rd and count the number of bouquets you see, it all begins to look a little lame after a while I think.
Anw I didn't realize Fox Searchlights was so impressive. I look at the films they released and pretty much want to watch all of them, if I haven't already. I wanna watch Once, Shame, Carnage, and other stuff. This Picturehouse offers pretty good films to watch, and it's just about 15mins away from home. Dang. It's money, though, that I am loathe to part with.
I'm really trying desperately to keep a handle on my spending. There's the Vatican trip, then there's my as yet unplanned Scotland/Edinburgh/Loch Ness trip. And London, and Cornwall, and etc etc etc. The thing about trips is that you can't cook. You gotta eat out breakfast lunch dinner, add that to accommodation costs and you've got a hefty sum. Not to mention transport, although with sufficient planning that bit can be sorted out rather cheaply (I hope). But, and I never though I'd whine about this, you don't get to cook! And that is so bloody expensive.
Look at me, maker of goreng pisang and porridge and alot more eh? Buying only cereals that are on offer, rationing my mushrooms and watching out for expiry dates.. Damn. My transformation from Mr Useless mere months ago scares me deeply.. I feel pretty aunty-fied now, I do. At least I don't have a newspaper for me to cut clippings out of. I can just imagine me greedily poring over the papers for deals on Milo powder and the like. Terrifying!
My song of the week is probably A Dustland Fairytale by The Killers. Idk why it's been stuck in my head of late, but it has. Lovely lyrics, ofc, and that video! Sheesh, man. Brandon Flowers has no call being so talented and so good looking at the same time.
Anw I was feeling kinda guilty about nothing - more specifically, doing nothing. So while I was cooking my porridge and brewing my early cuppa Milo, I decided to do an impromptu spontaneous entirely unplanned workout in the kitchen. Boy did I take my body by surprise. Now I'm aching all over. I would say, worth it! but I'm not sure.. Possibly I'll just slump to another 10 weeks of not doing anything again, buoyed by the fact that I did some exercise in the wee morning of one random night. Where does this end?!
Skype was pretty fun, I'm glad I'm not totally forgotten... yet. Hahaha. IWTGBH, AEAORP. All I have to say is that the second half of that is impossible to guess, so I'll say it out loud. And Eat Alot Of Roti Prata. Damn I miss roti prata. I think we should talk in code from now on, it's so exciting.
Well. CUL8R.
Thursday 23 February 2012
Monday 13 February 2012
Cut The Cords.
I don't know why but I feel suddenly aimless. Like I've been cut loose. Like I've been set adrift. I have no idea what to do, nor even what I want to do. It's nights like these that I turn to, and without even much enthusiasm if you can believe it, to dota. Don't roll your eyes angela!
It's weird. I was just reading my book, barely 20 pages in, not nearly enough for me to cast any judgment upon it just yet, when I just had to stop. I don't feel like watching a movie, I don't feel like watching The Mentalist. No real desire to play FF8. Can't muster energy for dota. Bah.
I think it was some of those lines in the book. Very plain ones (which in no way implies anything negative,) nothing outstanding at all. No breathtaking beauty of stunning poignancy. Unremarkable. But it gave me pause. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it gave me stop. I'm not gonna get any more reading done tonight.
It just got me thinking whether I've ever done anything for anyone. I don't mean just anything, of course, despite that being the word I used. I mean anything. Of value, that is, anything being such a vague word, very untrustworthy stuff. Or am I one of those hanger-ons, a leecher of life and burden-at-large. One of those people who take but never give back. Have I done things for anyone that's worth remembering?
Depressingly enough, I can't say. I hope I have, but I'm not sure. Clearly my self-worth in the throes of a bear market here ahah. Why do I remember stuff like bull and bear market sheesh. Hmm.
That's why memories are important. No matter who or what you are now, if you can look back at some distant point in time and say yeah, I made someone happy, or someone was happy because of me (hmm idk but there seems to be a subtle difference between the two, at least for me,) then I guess that's enough. What more can one ask for? To leave behind happiness.
I don't believe in shiny things like a legacy, or shinier still, a fortune. I mean sure, that's all well and good, but not everyone's cut out for that stuff man. Your common man, what should he aspire to leave behind? If not happiness, what then? A swathe of destruction and broken fingers on your way to the top of the corporate ladder? Okay, if you're talented in some way or another then yes, please do leave behind your 47th Symphony or A Remarkable Portrait of an Olde Man or sth, go change the world for the better.
But for us regular folks? Happiness. The memory of a kindness done. Companionship fondly remembered. Not to say we shouldn't change the world for the better, just in our own small ways. No need for grand gestures like solving world poverty and all that, although if you could that'd be swell. Baby steps will do. If the whole world takes a tiny step in the same direction.. it would be kinda cool. Haha I can't think of anything wise and clever to say. Maybe the earth will tilt a little dangerously.
I was just thinking of being cut loose when The Killer's Human came to me. Surely one of the most bewildering lyrics ever. Are we human? Are we dancer? Are we denser?? What??? And I was just thinking about the cut the cords part. I'm associating that with electricity and wondering: what would we be like if we cut all the cords? I reckon we'd be buggered. 6 billion people who wouldn't know how to adequately handle boredom. We'd be bored into the depths of insanity, man.
I never like to think of myself as reliant on anything but I'd be well confused if technology were to be taken away just like that. I'm not sure I could survive. There's just so many things we're used to now which would be gone. It's when I think of that that I think I can, maybe, somehow understand what the older generation are going through with all these technological advances. It's just this whole new world, one they weren't brought up in. It's kinda sad.
And they don't have much choice in the matter. The decline of the radio, kids forcing handphones upon their parents (by kids I include those middle-aged ones of course,) the seeming necessity of emails and stuff. Seriously creepy too-many-buttoned remote controls.. The list goes on. Must be pretty bewildering, no?
Umm yeah. Kind of ran out of thoughts. So, litany over. Mayhaps some dota!
It's weird. I was just reading my book, barely 20 pages in, not nearly enough for me to cast any judgment upon it just yet, when I just had to stop. I don't feel like watching a movie, I don't feel like watching The Mentalist. No real desire to play FF8. Can't muster energy for dota. Bah.
I think it was some of those lines in the book. Very plain ones (which in no way implies anything negative,) nothing outstanding at all. No breathtaking beauty of stunning poignancy. Unremarkable. But it gave me pause. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it gave me stop. I'm not gonna get any more reading done tonight.
It just got me thinking whether I've ever done anything for anyone. I don't mean just anything, of course, despite that being the word I used. I mean anything. Of value, that is, anything being such a vague word, very untrustworthy stuff. Or am I one of those hanger-ons, a leecher of life and burden-at-large. One of those people who take but never give back. Have I done things for anyone that's worth remembering?
Depressingly enough, I can't say. I hope I have, but I'm not sure. Clearly my self-worth in the throes of a bear market here ahah. Why do I remember stuff like bull and bear market sheesh. Hmm.
That's why memories are important. No matter who or what you are now, if you can look back at some distant point in time and say yeah, I made someone happy, or someone was happy because of me (hmm idk but there seems to be a subtle difference between the two, at least for me,) then I guess that's enough. What more can one ask for? To leave behind happiness.
I don't believe in shiny things like a legacy, or shinier still, a fortune. I mean sure, that's all well and good, but not everyone's cut out for that stuff man. Your common man, what should he aspire to leave behind? If not happiness, what then? A swathe of destruction and broken fingers on your way to the top of the corporate ladder? Okay, if you're talented in some way or another then yes, please do leave behind your 47th Symphony or A Remarkable Portrait of an Olde Man or sth, go change the world for the better.
But for us regular folks? Happiness. The memory of a kindness done. Companionship fondly remembered. Not to say we shouldn't change the world for the better, just in our own small ways. No need for grand gestures like solving world poverty and all that, although if you could that'd be swell. Baby steps will do. If the whole world takes a tiny step in the same direction.. it would be kinda cool. Haha I can't think of anything wise and clever to say. Maybe the earth will tilt a little dangerously.
I was just thinking of being cut loose when The Killer's Human came to me. Surely one of the most bewildering lyrics ever. Are we human? Are we dancer? Are we denser?? What??? And I was just thinking about the cut the cords part. I'm associating that with electricity and wondering: what would we be like if we cut all the cords? I reckon we'd be buggered. 6 billion people who wouldn't know how to adequately handle boredom. We'd be bored into the depths of insanity, man.
I never like to think of myself as reliant on anything but I'd be well confused if technology were to be taken away just like that. I'm not sure I could survive. There's just so many things we're used to now which would be gone. It's when I think of that that I think I can, maybe, somehow understand what the older generation are going through with all these technological advances. It's just this whole new world, one they weren't brought up in. It's kinda sad.
And they don't have much choice in the matter. The decline of the radio, kids forcing handphones upon their parents (by kids I include those middle-aged ones of course,) the seeming necessity of emails and stuff. Seriously creepy too-many-buttoned remote controls.. The list goes on. Must be pretty bewildering, no?
Umm yeah. Kind of ran out of thoughts. So, litany over. Mayhaps some dota!
Sunday 12 February 2012
The Looking Glass Wars.
I just had this most amazing dream. Or rather, series of dreams. And it wasn't exactly amazing per se; it was not particularly fantastic nor did it suspend my disbelief. Well, it did require a little suspension, but it was not the Golden Gate kind, more like the Tree Top Walk kind. Whatever the case, it was a very happy dream. I won't share it all with you, cuz it was personal! I had like 4 dreams in a row, and only one of them wasn't pleasant. It was Annabel telling me my hair is becoming a disaster hahaha. I have no choice but to say that it already is a disaster. I'm getting tickled all over my face by unruly strands of hair. The other dreams featured certain people of the female persuasion, some of whom my brain really worked hard to dredge up from the past, and it was nice.
It was so pleasant that even after waking up and subsequently failing to get back to sleep to try and hold on to the dream, I managed to retain that sense of happiness! Even till now. My subconscious probably has a crush on me or sth, it treats me so good! Hehe.
I've been listening to some songs lately which I really like. And some of the videos are brilliant too. One of them is The La's Looking Glass, which is a nice way of thinking of dreams. It's like a looking glass through which you glimpse a life you could have had, or a life you might yet have. Thank you Lewis Carroll for Alice in Wonderland!
Great Northern - Houses is one of my favourite songs atm. Then there's Kasabian's Days Are Forgotten. Madraguda's Step Into This Room And Dance With Me really grew on me. Initially I thought meh, but now I really like that song. Civil Twilight - Letters From The Sky. Guster - Satellite has a really nice video. So does Fossil Collective's On and On. SoKo's First Love Never Die has a super cute video too, co-directed by Matthew Gray Gubler!! I'm gonna have to watch Criminal Minds super soon man. And the boy in the video's name is.. Trip Star Moon. Tell me how irresistible is that? Super awesome.
Echo Is Your Love is one of my new finds, a Finnish band introduced by a Finnish friend. He told me they were one of the most creative rock bands on the scene and I concur. Silver Sufferer and We Celebrate Life, das gut! Saint Etienne too, to satisfy a craving for some electropop. Goodstuff!
Marina and the Diamonds' I Am Not A Robot is cool cause I like the lyrics. About trying to fit in and to be cooler than you are, or at least that's what I think. Maybe it's about Terminator trying to be taken seriously as an actual person, with feelings, though. It's hard when you're an Austrian superhunk though.
Well. Just watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo too and it was pretty good. Not at all what I was expecting. Much more... graphic. And intense. Definitely not one for the squeamish. And that girl has the weirdest face ever. Not exactly ugly, but not pretty either. Just odd.
Also made goreng pisang again, but I don't think the outcome was as good as that first time. Less creamy and it didn't melt in my mouth this time :( I think it was the semi-ripe bananas in use instead of the overripe ones. I also made a successful prawn dish, so my Cooking has gained quite a fair bit of EXP I think! When I reach level 50 I can enter the cooking guild (Y) (runescape anyone!)
Anyhow. It seems I'll be going to the Vatican for Easter Virgil this year. Definitely not something I'd foreseen, but that's what happens when you say "yes" to someone else. So many things would be different (not neccesarily better) if one just takes proposals with an open mind, instead of saying no for the sake of saying no. So a Vatican trip materializing out of no where with 2 of my fellow Singaporeans here. Should be interesting.
And I have decided not to go for the Valentine's Day traffic light party. I can just imagine the hordes of desperate single people decked out in green (or yellow, those who're trying to be coy) pouncing on any and every opportunity that presents itself. Not that I'm not desperately single myself... but that sounds pretty garish to me. Desperation in the air probably way past saturation point, you'll probably see blobs of gloopy Desperation on the walls and floors. Yurgh. I haven't decided what I'll do though. Probably stay at home and play a game hahahha. With Rinoa to keep me company.. Which is hands-down the most loserishest thing it's possible to do probably, but I shalt care not!
It's pretty depressing how I've only ever had one Valentine. Aha. In the realm of the single sad lonely gamers, the one-date man is king. So I shouldn't feel too bad about myself! Although that was... 4 years ago now! I've probably lost my touch altogether.. Hahah. That's pretty incredible, the passage of time. I wouldn't have pegged it as something that happened 4 years ago. That's a lifetime ago. Damn are we ageing!
I'll listen to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on V-day. There's always a song to celebrate every occasion. This Christmas past, mine was Greensleeves, or What Child Is This. I was in Nice when I suddenly thought, damn, if only I could listen to Greensleeves! I only heard it upon coming home, 2 weeks after Christmas, but it's still my Christmas song haha. Sgt Pepper's lonely, Sgt Pepper's lonely, Sgt Pepper's lonely hearts club band!!!
Ho hum. Okay. See ya'll. Signing off as the LB (lonely boi, that's what we called ourselves wasn't it? nong nong time ago.)
It was so pleasant that even after waking up and subsequently failing to get back to sleep to try and hold on to the dream, I managed to retain that sense of happiness! Even till now. My subconscious probably has a crush on me or sth, it treats me so good! Hehe.
I've been listening to some songs lately which I really like. And some of the videos are brilliant too. One of them is The La's Looking Glass, which is a nice way of thinking of dreams. It's like a looking glass through which you glimpse a life you could have had, or a life you might yet have. Thank you Lewis Carroll for Alice in Wonderland!
Great Northern - Houses is one of my favourite songs atm. Then there's Kasabian's Days Are Forgotten. Madraguda's Step Into This Room And Dance With Me really grew on me. Initially I thought meh, but now I really like that song. Civil Twilight - Letters From The Sky. Guster - Satellite has a really nice video. So does Fossil Collective's On and On. SoKo's First Love Never Die has a super cute video too, co-directed by Matthew Gray Gubler!! I'm gonna have to watch Criminal Minds super soon man. And the boy in the video's name is.. Trip Star Moon. Tell me how irresistible is that? Super awesome.
Echo Is Your Love is one of my new finds, a Finnish band introduced by a Finnish friend. He told me they were one of the most creative rock bands on the scene and I concur. Silver Sufferer and We Celebrate Life, das gut! Saint Etienne too, to satisfy a craving for some electropop. Goodstuff!
Marina and the Diamonds' I Am Not A Robot is cool cause I like the lyrics. About trying to fit in and to be cooler than you are, or at least that's what I think. Maybe it's about Terminator trying to be taken seriously as an actual person, with feelings, though. It's hard when you're an Austrian superhunk though.
Well. Just watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo too and it was pretty good. Not at all what I was expecting. Much more... graphic. And intense. Definitely not one for the squeamish. And that girl has the weirdest face ever. Not exactly ugly, but not pretty either. Just odd.
Also made goreng pisang again, but I don't think the outcome was as good as that first time. Less creamy and it didn't melt in my mouth this time :( I think it was the semi-ripe bananas in use instead of the overripe ones. I also made a successful prawn dish, so my Cooking has gained quite a fair bit of EXP I think! When I reach level 50 I can enter the cooking guild (Y) (runescape anyone!)
Anyhow. It seems I'll be going to the Vatican for Easter Virgil this year. Definitely not something I'd foreseen, but that's what happens when you say "yes" to someone else. So many things would be different (not neccesarily better) if one just takes proposals with an open mind, instead of saying no for the sake of saying no. So a Vatican trip materializing out of no where with 2 of my fellow Singaporeans here. Should be interesting.
And I have decided not to go for the Valentine's Day traffic light party. I can just imagine the hordes of desperate single people decked out in green (or yellow, those who're trying to be coy) pouncing on any and every opportunity that presents itself. Not that I'm not desperately single myself... but that sounds pretty garish to me. Desperation in the air probably way past saturation point, you'll probably see blobs of gloopy Desperation on the walls and floors. Yurgh. I haven't decided what I'll do though. Probably stay at home and play a game hahahha. With Rinoa to keep me company.. Which is hands-down the most loserishest thing it's possible to do probably, but I shalt care not!
It's pretty depressing how I've only ever had one Valentine. Aha. In the realm of the single sad lonely gamers, the one-date man is king. So I shouldn't feel too bad about myself! Although that was... 4 years ago now! I've probably lost my touch altogether.. Hahah. That's pretty incredible, the passage of time. I wouldn't have pegged it as something that happened 4 years ago. That's a lifetime ago. Damn are we ageing!
I'll listen to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on V-day. There's always a song to celebrate every occasion. This Christmas past, mine was Greensleeves, or What Child Is This. I was in Nice when I suddenly thought, damn, if only I could listen to Greensleeves! I only heard it upon coming home, 2 weeks after Christmas, but it's still my Christmas song haha. Sgt Pepper's lonely, Sgt Pepper's lonely, Sgt Pepper's lonely hearts club band!!!
Ho hum. Okay. See ya'll. Signing off as the LB (lonely boi, that's what we called ourselves wasn't it? nong nong time ago.)
Thursday 9 February 2012
Days Are Forgotten.
I forgot to mention my awesome saturday actually. It started off with actual snow, which I did mention. Actually it started off with me waking up at 9am. So that's 2 miracles within 10mins of my waking up. That already satisfies the criteria for a Super Saturday I think. But that wasn't all. I dropped my Horlicks and spilt the powder everywhere, so that takes it down a notch or seventeen.
There were CNY celebrations so I was treated to a brilliant display of fireworks on campus! Singaporeans are so starved for fireworks really, it's just NDP, NDP rehearsals (I think those feature fireworks) post-NDP firework spam, and my birthday. That is so self-aggrandizing. Which, I think, is the whole point of that phrase anyways. You feel more important and coolz just saying self-aggrandizing. I mean New Year's Day of course. It would have been mega brilliant had I not had a chap with a mega umbrella standing in front of me blocking half the show. I had to duck and weave around on the spot trying to get better angles, which really does wonders for one's Fool cred.
After that I returned home for dinner. Creamy chicken soup with croutons, leg of lamb with butternut squash and oven-baked peppers. Sounds good already yeah? But no. We ended off with goreng pisang. Which I made. Okay, I was not alone in my endeavours, but the goreng pisang would not have come into existence without my contribution!! So pleased with myself hehe. A man is forever changed after he knows he can cook a mean goreng pisang. And damn if it wasn't the meanest goreng pisang ever. Self-praise is no praise, sure, but I'm going to go ahead anyway!! So smooth. And creamy. It could almost be said to be divine, except it was a little better than that. The way the pisang melted in your mouth. You know what's the problem here? It's me trying to describe something that's indescribable. It's unpossible. It was good!
That was the day we watched The Fountain. So it was a superb day! The kind of days you hang on to life for. Hoping tomorrow turns out that way. Instead you mope about on facebook and lie in bed with a book and listen to songs on youtube and play dota and/or final fantasy and cook instant noodles and slide off one day at a time into oblivion.
Not that I don't enjoy all that. I'm as happy as a cat with cream (how happy is a cat with cream anyway??) when I get new books and get to tuck in under my duvet (oh my duvet.. how thou art lov'd) and spend a whole day just reading. But that's not always enough is it? Life is incomplete wtihout goreng pisang, that's my point.
I just got 2 new books delivered. thebookdepository newbestfriend. I love the covers on these books, they look so amazing. I didn't even rmb they looked so awesome or were gonna be in hardback till I opened the parcel. These are the "experimental" sorta books. The kind I might like but just buy anyway, at least they look awesome so even if I don't enjoy them I'm kinda satisfied hehe. How shallow! But I have high hopes for them. Don DeLillo's The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories and Kjersti A. Skomsvold's The Faster I Walk The Smaller I Am. A Norwegian author, seems pretty cool! And the website told me it was a rare book so I couldn't help myself haha.
Okay I keep forgetting about this post haha. It's been 3 (or more) days since I started it but I keep getting distracted by dota and the like.. Those of you who are interested to know (and, unfortunately, those who aren't) will find out that I have spent 54 hours (more, that does not include the restarts and ragequits) on FF VIII since last tuesday!! Pretty amazing I think.
Valentine's Day looms. My friends are trying to convince me to go out to a club but I think I shall resist. Somehow they managed to get me to go on tuesday though, tsk. I guess it was alright, although I must say that was the first time I've ever heard Wonderwall in a club. And S-Club-7. They don't call it Cheesy Tuesday for nothing. But that was 10, almost 15 pounds, and I really should be saving my dough. I still need to do my groceries!! You would not believe how domesticated I am now haha. I've been busy using up all my stock in my fridge though, I'm left with half a packet of prawns and 1.5 onions. Pretty amazing how I manage to stave off starvation!
Kasabian - Days Are Forgotten
Well, ta.
There were CNY celebrations so I was treated to a brilliant display of fireworks on campus! Singaporeans are so starved for fireworks really, it's just NDP, NDP rehearsals (I think those feature fireworks) post-NDP firework spam, and my birthday. That is so self-aggrandizing. Which, I think, is the whole point of that phrase anyways. You feel more important and coolz just saying self-aggrandizing. I mean New Year's Day of course. It would have been mega brilliant had I not had a chap with a mega umbrella standing in front of me blocking half the show. I had to duck and weave around on the spot trying to get better angles, which really does wonders for one's Fool cred.
After that I returned home for dinner. Creamy chicken soup with croutons, leg of lamb with butternut squash and oven-baked peppers. Sounds good already yeah? But no. We ended off with goreng pisang. Which I made. Okay, I was not alone in my endeavours, but the goreng pisang would not have come into existence without my contribution!! So pleased with myself hehe. A man is forever changed after he knows he can cook a mean goreng pisang. And damn if it wasn't the meanest goreng pisang ever. Self-praise is no praise, sure, but I'm going to go ahead anyway!! So smooth. And creamy. It could almost be said to be divine, except it was a little better than that. The way the pisang melted in your mouth. You know what's the problem here? It's me trying to describe something that's indescribable. It's unpossible. It was good!
That was the day we watched The Fountain. So it was a superb day! The kind of days you hang on to life for. Hoping tomorrow turns out that way. Instead you mope about on facebook and lie in bed with a book and listen to songs on youtube and play dota and/or final fantasy and cook instant noodles and slide off one day at a time into oblivion.
Not that I don't enjoy all that. I'm as happy as a cat with cream (how happy is a cat with cream anyway??) when I get new books and get to tuck in under my duvet (oh my duvet.. how thou art lov'd) and spend a whole day just reading. But that's not always enough is it? Life is incomplete wtihout goreng pisang, that's my point.
I just got 2 new books delivered. thebookdepository newbestfriend. I love the covers on these books, they look so amazing. I didn't even rmb they looked so awesome or were gonna be in hardback till I opened the parcel. These are the "experimental" sorta books. The kind I might like but just buy anyway, at least they look awesome so even if I don't enjoy them I'm kinda satisfied hehe. How shallow! But I have high hopes for them. Don DeLillo's The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories and Kjersti A. Skomsvold's The Faster I Walk The Smaller I Am. A Norwegian author, seems pretty cool! And the website told me it was a rare book so I couldn't help myself haha.
Okay I keep forgetting about this post haha. It's been 3 (or more) days since I started it but I keep getting distracted by dota and the like.. Those of you who are interested to know (and, unfortunately, those who aren't) will find out that I have spent 54 hours (more, that does not include the restarts and ragequits) on FF VIII since last tuesday!! Pretty amazing I think.
Valentine's Day looms. My friends are trying to convince me to go out to a club but I think I shall resist. Somehow they managed to get me to go on tuesday though, tsk. I guess it was alright, although I must say that was the first time I've ever heard Wonderwall in a club. And S-Club-7. They don't call it Cheesy Tuesday for nothing. But that was 10, almost 15 pounds, and I really should be saving my dough. I still need to do my groceries!! You would not believe how domesticated I am now haha. I've been busy using up all my stock in my fridge though, I'm left with half a packet of prawns and 1.5 onions. Pretty amazing how I manage to stave off starvation!
Kasabian - Days Are Forgotten
Well, ta.
Monday 6 February 2012
The Last Good Fight I'll Ever Know.
It's snowing!!!!!!! Woohooooooooo. It's a different feeling when you're not on holiday and it's snowing right out your window like it's the most natural thing in the world. Wooohoooooooooooooooooo!! It's been freezing the last couple of days though, I'm srsly considering wearing my long johns if I go out in the night, although it always makes me feel slightly loser-ish haha. Jeans4winners. But nothing serves better as a deterrent for school than frozen solid white precipitation bombarding you eh? Always happy to have new excuses to miss lectures :)
I finally completed my essay and it was a mess. Complete rubbish really haha. I'm hoping I'll scrape through with a 50% or sth, that's how dire it was. And I got a 2.1 for my first assessed essay so I'm plenty happy hehe. Never thought I'd be overjoyed to get 62% but that's how it is. There's no way I'm getting a first, ever. It's a pretty tall order man! And I was pretty convinced I was gonna flunk the essay. I've never felt so kancheong receiving any results before, not even O's or A's. It must be the idea that I was gonna fail it and dreading it like crazy. Thank god that worked out well.
I haven't really been doing much of late. While doing my essay I downloaded Final Fantasy VIII (only one of the best games in existence) and I was just so desperate to get my essay out of the way so that I could start playing it. Hehehe. That's what I've been doing since Tuesday. Day after day of Squall and Rinoa and occasionally Angelo and RENZOKUKEN! Okay. Mega-nerd maybe. I dontch cares I have my game to play!!! I found time to squeeze in some games of dota as well. We all know my wayward friends are constantly leading me astray.. or they just can't do without my skillz. I don't know when and how I've become so cocky while playing though.. wait! I've always been this cocky! Oh.
I watched Contagion at the campus cinema and The Grey in the theatres. I don't know but Contagion was oddly unsatisfying. Well, not really, just not as impactful as I expected it to be. It's not like anything was wrong with it; the acting was solid, the casting was superb, the whole movie was eerily realistic. I think maybe there were too many strands of the story waving around, and it wasn't all that interconnected. So it wasn't bad, but it wasn't fantastic.
I'm not sure what I think of The Grey. I'm pretty sure wolves don't behave like that in real life, so I was kinda dubious about the whole thing. But Liam Neeson was good. And I really like that poem.
Once more into the fray
Into the last good fight I'll ever know
Live and die on this day
Live and die on this day.
It's the "good fight" part that strikes a chord. It's what you want to believe. I always wonder, if (when) I'm gone, will people be able to say:
He ran the good race
He fought the good fight.
or something like that? Was it a life worth living? A life I can be satisfied with? Who knows eh? Let's hope the day is still far off haha. I'd be pretty upset if I were to expire in the near future. Hopefully when the time comes I won't look back and see a trail of destruction and neglect, to have exhausted my money and expended my love, all for naught. That would be sad. But there's still many many years to go yet, and everyone has the power to choose what they wanna make of their lives, so let's hope I don't muck it up haha.
There usually aren't such fatalistic thoughts in my head, it's just watching Liam Neeson trudge through blizzard after blizzard and having to fend off a pack of wolves haha. And reading The Hunger Games. Good stuff, that. I have such a weak spot for teenage fantasy/sci-fi action books. Even though usually you find that they are lacking somewhat in depth, and they're not allowed any sex or anything too bleak and depressing. But there are amazing ones. Everytime I think of amazing young people's series I think of Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy. Was it Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen? Amazing stuff. I have to buy it definitely.
Then there's When The Tripods Came, the trilogy (or 4 part I can't recall.) Then there's Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising, which was apparently massacred as a movie haha. Then there's Twilight... you know I'm trolling. I swear 9gag is getting out of hand btw. I admit I've spent hours on the damn website trawling through the trolling. But it's incredible how a sub-culture has evolved into sth so massive it's 1-in-3 facebook posts.
I kind of doubt the majority of people from older generations get what in the world is going on with all the trollfaces and the lolpics and stuff. I have this impression that their humour is more direct, not so many insinuations and cultural references and stuff. It's pretty specific, I think, and exclusive. To a generation that understands My Little Pony and Twilight haha. It's weird to think of humour evolving. Sometimes you watch an old comedy and you think, lame!! and it's like we outgrew certain forms of humour. Weird man.
Okay I just watched The Fountain. Incredible. I'm still kinda reeling from how mindblowing the movie was. Wow. Srsly. I think Darren Aronofsky is epic. Black Swan. Requiem For A Dream (which I haven't watched only because I'm too scared too watch it, which says alot about the movie doesn't it!) The Wrestler (which I'll have to watch now) I won't pretend I understand fully what went on in the movie what it was beautiful nonetheless. Definitely one for a second viewing!
Okay I'm gonna watch Submarine, The Help, The Inbetweeners, Once, Transsiberian next. Clearly not gonna have enough time to study! But dota beckons, now. :)))
I finally completed my essay and it was a mess. Complete rubbish really haha. I'm hoping I'll scrape through with a 50% or sth, that's how dire it was. And I got a 2.1 for my first assessed essay so I'm plenty happy hehe. Never thought I'd be overjoyed to get 62% but that's how it is. There's no way I'm getting a first, ever. It's a pretty tall order man! And I was pretty convinced I was gonna flunk the essay. I've never felt so kancheong receiving any results before, not even O's or A's. It must be the idea that I was gonna fail it and dreading it like crazy. Thank god that worked out well.
I haven't really been doing much of late. While doing my essay I downloaded Final Fantasy VIII (only one of the best games in existence) and I was just so desperate to get my essay out of the way so that I could start playing it. Hehehe. That's what I've been doing since Tuesday. Day after day of Squall and Rinoa and occasionally Angelo and RENZOKUKEN! Okay. Mega-nerd maybe. I dontch cares I have my game to play!!! I found time to squeeze in some games of dota as well. We all know my wayward friends are constantly leading me astray.. or they just can't do without my skillz. I don't know when and how I've become so cocky while playing though.. wait! I've always been this cocky! Oh.
I watched Contagion at the campus cinema and The Grey in the theatres. I don't know but Contagion was oddly unsatisfying. Well, not really, just not as impactful as I expected it to be. It's not like anything was wrong with it; the acting was solid, the casting was superb, the whole movie was eerily realistic. I think maybe there were too many strands of the story waving around, and it wasn't all that interconnected. So it wasn't bad, but it wasn't fantastic.
I'm not sure what I think of The Grey. I'm pretty sure wolves don't behave like that in real life, so I was kinda dubious about the whole thing. But Liam Neeson was good. And I really like that poem.
Once more into the fray
Into the last good fight I'll ever know
Live and die on this day
Live and die on this day.
It's the "good fight" part that strikes a chord. It's what you want to believe. I always wonder, if (when) I'm gone, will people be able to say:
He ran the good race
He fought the good fight.
or something like that? Was it a life worth living? A life I can be satisfied with? Who knows eh? Let's hope the day is still far off haha. I'd be pretty upset if I were to expire in the near future. Hopefully when the time comes I won't look back and see a trail of destruction and neglect, to have exhausted my money and expended my love, all for naught. That would be sad. But there's still many many years to go yet, and everyone has the power to choose what they wanna make of their lives, so let's hope I don't muck it up haha.
There usually aren't such fatalistic thoughts in my head, it's just watching Liam Neeson trudge through blizzard after blizzard and having to fend off a pack of wolves haha. And reading The Hunger Games. Good stuff, that. I have such a weak spot for teenage fantasy/sci-fi action books. Even though usually you find that they are lacking somewhat in depth, and they're not allowed any sex or anything too bleak and depressing. But there are amazing ones. Everytime I think of amazing young people's series I think of Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy. Was it Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen? Amazing stuff. I have to buy it definitely.
Then there's When The Tripods Came, the trilogy (or 4 part I can't recall.) Then there's Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising, which was apparently massacred as a movie haha. Then there's Twilight... you know I'm trolling. I swear 9gag is getting out of hand btw. I admit I've spent hours on the damn website trawling through the trolling. But it's incredible how a sub-culture has evolved into sth so massive it's 1-in-3 facebook posts.
I kind of doubt the majority of people from older generations get what in the world is going on with all the trollfaces and the lolpics and stuff. I have this impression that their humour is more direct, not so many insinuations and cultural references and stuff. It's pretty specific, I think, and exclusive. To a generation that understands My Little Pony and Twilight haha. It's weird to think of humour evolving. Sometimes you watch an old comedy and you think, lame!! and it's like we outgrew certain forms of humour. Weird man.
Okay I just watched The Fountain. Incredible. I'm still kinda reeling from how mindblowing the movie was. Wow. Srsly. I think Darren Aronofsky is epic. Black Swan. Requiem For A Dream (which I haven't watched only because I'm too scared too watch it, which says alot about the movie doesn't it!) The Wrestler (which I'll have to watch now) I won't pretend I understand fully what went on in the movie what it was beautiful nonetheless. Definitely one for a second viewing!
Okay I'm gonna watch Submarine, The Help, The Inbetweeners, Once, Transsiberian next. Clearly not gonna have enough time to study! But dota beckons, now. :)))
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