whatever.
written: 2:13 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004

Argh. I hate writing things a second time because 1) it feels damn false; and 2) I can never make it as good as the original. That is probably why I got a measley 30 for my Paper 4 Lit mid-year test, the essay, as I was too busy trying to reproduce my 7-page assignmnet in AN HOUR AND A BLOODY HALF.

Very smart, Yelen.

Okay, I'm just going to attempt to do this.

So the reaction here is double delayed but here goes:

OH MY GOD HE WON THE GOLD MEDAL! OH MY GOD HE BROKE THE OLYMPIC RECORD! OH MY GOD A CHINESE WON A TRACK AND FIELD EVENT! OH MY GOD I AM SO IN LOVE WITH LIU XIANG!

Here are a few reasons why he's amazing:

1. He's cute.

2. He broke the Olympic record and equalled the world record.

3. And he's only 21.

4. He's gonna blaze through the Beijing Olympics, just like he blazed through the 110m yesterday.

5. He left a trail of untouched hurdles in his wake while his competitors left a trail of toppled ones.

6. In other words, he barely made contact with those hurdles.

7. He is gorgeous in action.

8. Did you see his fucking speed? Those 12.9 seconds felt entirely like something out of a beautiful, surrealistic dream, watching someone with yellow skin sprint past traditionally-powerful runners and crossing the finishing line way before anyone else.

And it was really, really, really amazing. This pretty much says it all.

This really sucks. I typed these huge chunks waxing lyrical about his run and it was good stuff but of course I can't re-write any of them and I'm damn pissed because I'm spending way too much time on this and this entry does absolutely no justice to the wonder that I witnessed yesterday but I can't do it a second time lah fuck. I fucking hate technology sometimes. I really do.

Suffice to say, then, that it was clear right from the very beginning that he was gonna win. I came home from the useless Maths mock, all excited, waited for my brother to finish watching the USA lose to Argentina in basketball (HAHAHAHAHAHA!), popped in my tape, rewinded it to the very beginning, sat through two false starts and a round of introductions (his name is Liu, not Lui, for chrissakes), and then the pistol was fired. They sprinted for the finishing line, but he sprinted the fastest. It was obvious from the very BEGINNING, those split seconds in reaction time to the fired shot, that he had the best form, he was in the best shape and he wanted it the most; ergo, he ran home to the gold medal way before anyone else, and he did it with the most class. Whereas others stumbled over hurdles and some fell, he blazed (there's really no better word for it at all) through the entire 110m and barely touched the hurdles; his lane was the only lane with all hurdles intact.

It's times like these that I'm absolutely thankful for the invention of the VCR. Granted, I could've watched it on the news, but it's all thanks to my trust-worthy VCR that I get to watch it OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

You know, he and I should totally get married. He's 3 years older than me and his birthday is one day before mine. Imagine how we'd celebrate if we were married!

I gotta get started on my History essays. I have like, five to do, and one of them is on the French Revolution which I'm still very hazy about, and my exam is like, next Monday. This entry still does no justice to Liu Xiang but whatever lah. I don't have the time for it anymore.

One last point before I move on: I LOVE LIU XIANG!

So yesterday the Maths mock was a waste of time. The only bit I could do was the proving bit in the first question on trig, and that was only half the question. I attempted to find the value of k for some shitty continuous random variables question (CRVs are the worst; I'd sooner do Hypothesis Testing for the rest of my life) and two lines later, my limits changed from 4 and 3 to 3 and 1, and hence k was wrong, hence E(X) was wrong and Var(X) was wrong too. I didn't feel like doing it all over again but when I realised that I couldn't do anything else, I decided to stave off the boredom by doing the thing all over again. Effectively I integrated the two bloody equations six times. Was a pain, indeed.

After the mock I attempted to help a classmate with her Paper 4 Lit essays. I'm still quite amazed by how very magnanimous I was, considering my selfish/all for me mindset when it comes to academics. I'm not exactly one to share ideas and examples (close friends are exempt from this rule), for it's stupid to let your competitors in on something that would probably give you an edge... then again, all things considered, even if I told the people in my school nice phrases and examples to use in Econs essays and shit they'd probably still do worse than me anyway.

I sense another my-school-is-shit-and-it-sucks rant coming on and I'm quite tired of it so I will get to the point.

Anyway, I eventually decided to help the classmate because she's been getting quite a bit of flak from Tubby lately, and because I like her as a classmate/friend. So why not, right?

And I'm glad that I decided to do it. I've finally understood the things that Tubby and others have been telling me, about the importance of addressing the question directly. She had a lot of details that were impressive, especially since sometimes I had no idea that I was supposed to know those things, but what was clearly missing was the bridge that links those details to the question directly. I mean, for every other detail that I read I wrote a "So?" next to it. It's in writing things like, "Orwell effectively portrays the dystopic world of 1984 by cleverly subverting the traditional and even sacred conventional wisdom that children are the keepers of innocence, blah blah blah" that prevents a person from slipping into the pits of Story-Telling.

That girl story-told through the whole thing. If she'd related it back to the question she would've got a better mark.

Yeah, so now I know what I should never do at all costs. Well, it wasn't really like I didn't know but...

Okay, if it's not obvious enough I have lost all sense of coherence and this entry has gone to hell, so I'm just gonna stop here.

I love Liu Xiang.

I love Liu Xiang very much.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010