the lines i couldn't change.
written: 9:42 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, 2005

Somehow, I have this ominous suspicion that I'm going to get some pre-Victorian era piece for tomorrow's written test, assuming it's going to be practical criticism. You know, John Donne, Geoffrey Chaucer, people I've never read before (except for the extracts printed in the Lit Paper 1 exam paper that I thumbed through after the paper ended while waiting for the invigilator to collect all the scripts), people I won't understand if all you're gonna give me is two hours to read, digest and analyse their writings. This means that I should google it or something, and maybe I will.

I'm running out of hard disk space. I need to buy blank DVDs to burn all my TV shows into. Today I got a sudden urge to watch Gilmore Girls Seasons 1 to 3 again, because it's been 3 years since, and I still remember how I thought Jess looked like my first boyfriend and how watching Jess on Gilmore Girls affected me rather negatively when things ended.

I don't know why Nostalgia refuses to end its insurgency against me. I hope to build up a formidable enough defence to ward off its advances.

Today's Tort tutorial on private nuisance and other propety-related torts was a total mind-numbing killer. I think this tort is really boring and confusing and I didn't digest half the cases I read so best of luck to me for the exam and this stupid module is 8 fucking credits and actually I still don't know what that means but 8 is bigger than 4 so I suppose it's quite important.

On the upside, I spoke about three times in total. On the downside, everytime I spoke TK thought I was talking rubbish. Hurhur. I think there's something quite wrong with my English when I attempt to speak; my grammar and sentence structure get all confused and I end up not making sense. Like TK was asking, why do we not need to prove intention in negligence? And I was like, because if there's intention then the act isn't careless. TK went, No, there's a simpler answer! The guy behind me went, Because if there's intention then it's not negligence.

WHICH WAS EXACTLY WHAT I MEANT. 'The act isn't careless' is merely me being stupid and describing what negligence is not instead of just saying 'it's not negligence'.

Like, duh, it's quite obvious why intention isn't an ingredient in negligence right? You don't even need to be a law student to figure that out for yourself; just flip through a dictionary for the definition of 'negligence' and connect the dots.

Because I was changing sentence structures mid-sentence though, the thing that came out of my mouth didn't remotely sound like anything I'd just typed. Ha, ha, ha.

I have to buy Eiji Yoshikawa's "Musashi" from Kinokuniya tomorrow when I go to Orchard after the written test and spend Sunday thumbing through it. Why? Because I stupidly represented that I've read the book in my personal statement when I haven't actually read it, and only have the intention of reading it. You see, I wrote my personal statement thinking that I wouldn't be called for an interview so I threw caution to the wind and wrote absolutely retarded things in it, including a lousy paragraph on my relief teaching experience in Jurong Junior; without it, the whole thing would've been about Literature and nothing else.

I have another bad feeling that I'm gonna be quizzed on "Musashi" so it's better to read at least a chapter or something, then at least I can say, "I'm still reading it actually, but from what I've read it seems to be a very ambitious novel about a legendary Japanese swordsman that discusses [insert relevant themes here] and blah blah blah."

If only I remember the Vagabond manga series! It was based on the novel and it's by Takehiko Inoue but hell I read the Chinese version, the first eight books, and because it's Chinese I don't really remember much of it. But the funny thing is, the name of this legendary Japanese swordsman who was a real person that lived in the 1600s is Miyamoto Musashi. And Miyamoto is the name of this scrawny, goggles-wearng character in Takehiko-sensei's "Slam Dunk", which I love to bits and pieces; so I'm wondering what's up with that, since...

Okay, I've lost my train of thought there. Nevermind.

I have less than a hundred pages to go before finishing Man Crazy and I'm surprised by how fast I'm reading this book. I'm obsessed with books now, a full-fledged obsession and I'm gonna pick up a few more Julian Barnes novels tomorrow while I'm at it. I don't exactly have money coming in but I justify my spending thus: Chinese New Year is coming! I always get at least $400 on Chinese New Year which means I can spend $400 now and it back, so to speak, later!

I'm looking at my bookcase and I'm realising, with alarming clarity, just now boring my book collection is. I have the books of about ten different authors in there and that's it, and it's so tragic, I need more books, I need names of people whom I can read! I keep wanting to re-read my Julian Barnes (like Flaubert's Parrot; I think it's infinitely fascinating) but I can't keep reading the same thing can I? No, I obviously can't.

I pre-ordered Jay Chou's sixth album today. Today's the first day of the pre-ordering period. I don't really care for the poster but I pre-ordered anyway because I've been doing it for his past couple of albums and hey you pay the same price but you get a poster so why not. And I'm also afraid of not getting my CD on the day of the release just in case it's sold out in the stores near me (and that's a major possibility considering he's Jay Chou Jie Lun). And my point is, MAN he looks so hot in the poster! Dodgy choice of outfit aside, he's sporting a earstud and I'm wondering if he really pierced his ears or if it's a clip-on, but either way HE LOOKS HOT WITH THE EARRING. Have I ever, EVER mentioned my delightful penchant for guys with pierced ears? Earrings are so hot.

My dad thinks that a guy is automatically gay if he wears earrings.

My dad is weird, I know. He's a stubborn antique, as my mom likes to say.

Jielun has rather bad dress sense I must say. It has 'uncouth' written all over it and um, I don't know why I'm saying this but hell, it's the music that matters.

I'm so excited about going to Taiwan next year, so much that I'd just die and bawl and cry and declare myself permanently suicidal if the bird flu thing explodes like it's SARS all over again, with all the travel restrictions and everything. I don't know how this bird flu thing started but I'm willing to bet that it was due to the negligence of human beings, or just plain stupidity of human beings, so basically we brought everything upon ourselves. It was the same with the mad cow disease, wasn't it? They just had to fuck with the poor cows' feed and screw everything up and slaughter innocent cows when they really had nothing to do with the complacent arrogance of us human beings. I'm disgusted; your solution is massacre. Mass massacre of how many fucking chickens who eventually died for nothing. It's not enough that you have to eat them; now you're "solving" your man-made problem by killing them, asserting your superiority over weaker creatures and what gives you that right, really? It pisses me off that I can't do anything about it, and if I had it my way I'd buy an island or something and release all the animals bred for human consumption and ship them all to the island where they'd never be bothered by human beings again. If I had things my way I'd ban the consumption of meat and everyone would be vegans; not just vegetarians but vegans. That's my ideal world for you.

There used to be times when I'd miss the taste of chicken drumstick and steak and other assorted meats and when I got really hungry I'd even start craving for it, but not anymore, and it's a realisation that suddenly dawned upon me, when I see meat I'm automatically repulsed, slabs of meat conjure up an image of the animal as a whole in my mind juxtaposed against an image of a dismembered human being and what it'd be like if that slab of meat I'm staring at is human meat, and, just, you know, yuck. Nature versus Nurture and everything and I think Nurture has a much stronger case.

I don't have a point. I have to stop writing this thing and read Azrul's prac crit essays. My essays were never half as good as his. He's so gonna be on the Angus Ross award shortlist at least.

I'm so sleepy and I don't wanna take the test tomorrow. Looking forward to shopping; very much so.

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