a private nuisance.
written: 9:27 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005

**

My row was called on today for SLS and when the lecturer got to me I was replying someone on MSN and so didn't catch what he was saying. He asked me to comment on what he said and I was like, "Um, can you repeat what you said?"

Utterly embarrassing but on the bright side, he's a nice dude so he repeated - probably to the chagrin of the handful of people who made noise when I asked him to repeat - and his question was something along the lines of, "Do you think the basic function of Contract law is to enable individuals to engage in transaction?"

I was like, "Uh...I think it also serves to safeguard consumer interests."

He asked me to elaborate. I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, the Unfair Contract Terms Act; he asked me to explain it to him like he were a lay person, I went, Uhhhhhh...and had this "oops I'm fucked" expression on my face that I put on whenever I can't answer a question; in the end a half-formed answer popped into my head and I went off about the consumer's imperfect knowledge in an imperfect market, things I vaguely remembered from Microeconomics lessons, and he was either satisfied with my answer or tired of grilling me, and so he went on to the person next to me.

Which happened to be Ruishan. Haha!

SLS is fun. Toss-up between reading for SLS and reading for Contract I'd choose the former. I seem to be more interested in ultimately-pointless philosophical meanderings than whatever's at the opposite end of the spectrum.

I hate answering the questions they set that are meant to help you digest the readings though, so I simply don't. It's like comprehension, only a bit tougher and a lot more anal retentive, and I've hated comprehension since time immemorial.

I suppose that's bad.

**

We have to do this library research quiz thing, which is basically an exercise in locating books in the library and articles in periodicals and whatever. I didn't want to do it after Contract tomorrow and it's due on Thursday so I did it this afternoon with Ruishan and a few other people.

Then again, to say that I did it would be attributing too much credit to myself. It was more like, I did the easy ones and attempted to do the more difficult (i.e. things you can't search for online) ones but because I never paid an ounce of attention during library research training tutorials, I had no idea what the hell to look for.

I was with Kelvin and Weihan and a friend of theirs. I had no idea what to look for; ergo, I was all, "Shit how to do this! Do you know how to do this?" and thrusted my questions in their faces and in the end their friend (I think his name is Morris?) located the last two articles for me.

And you wanna know something extremely preposterous? I was getting my knickers all tied up in a knot trying to figure out what the hell the "Index to Legal Periodicals" is and asked the librarian and it was apparently some online database and so I used the computer in front of the counter and attempted to search for it but of course I turned up nothing. A while later, when I was this close to banging the mouse repeatedly against the LCD, Morris came up to me and showed me his laptop, and lo and behold! He's found my highly-elusive article.

Naturally I asked him how he found it; did he use the online database whatever thing with such a complex search function that I really had no idea what I was doing?

He asked, "Do you really wanna know?"

Hell yeah I wanna know. And so he hit the 'back' button on his Internet Explorer browser...and I found myself looking at something very familiar.

HE GOOGLED IT. GOOGLE FOR FUCK'S SAKE. GOOGLE!

I can't believe I didn't think of that!

**

I'm also extremely upset that Julian Barnes didn't win the Man Booker for his novel. When will the injustice end? I need his book now.

I think I'll get it tomorrow at Kino. Must ask mom to give me money.

Seriously, JB is so underrated that it's ridiculous. He deserves some accolades for being such a genius. People keep calling him one of the greatest living writers (I think he's the greatest living writer) and I'm like, yes I fucking know that, now give him an award already!

Well, then again, writing is not a competition. I guess it doesn't really matter in the long run, but for the next few days I'm still going to avoid all mentions of the Man Booker Prize 2005 and I won't be picking up the winning book anytime soon, that's for sure.

And also, thanks to my elitist and snobbish inclinations, I'd just die if he ever became a best-seller, which naturally means being desecrated by the guileless general public, and stops being my favourite writer that no one else reads and I actually like this exclusivity of sorts, just like the way I like films that the average person my age has never heard of, the way I listen to some bands that not many people have heard of. I know I did his book as an A Level text but that's really beside the point because I said so.

I've yet to write that letter to him. I really wanna. I wanna meet him. Like, oh my god, when have I ever idolised a writer to this extent? I'd be like, "Oh my god it's Julian Barnes! *insert fangirl scream*" and make a fool out of myself.

I don't even know what the hell I'm saying. I'm babbling nonsense because I don't wanna study and I don't wanna think about how I don't wanna study and the larger reasons for that.

Ugh.

**

Kelvin said I sound like a bimbo on MSN because I always use "like".

But everyone uses "like"! And sometimes I go, "That's like so like exciting like!" and it's a pure parody of bimbo-talk, because I personally find it amusing as hell.

But he qualified that by saying "I know you're not one" so there's no need for him to fear for his life.

**

Someone from Australia has been reading this rather religiously for the past few weeks. I wonder who it is.

Hint, hint.

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