right thing at the wrong time.
written: 11:21 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005

I began reading The Picture of Dorian Gray in the C J Koh library while waiting for 2.30 p.m. to arrive (the time I was supposed to see TK for consultation regarding my abysmal Tort test); it was hot outside and I stormed into the library and dumped my things on the nearest empty table and stormed out and walked back in and took out my novel and started reading. And from time to time I felt myself smiling privately and making no effort to mask it, I took out my green highlighter after coming across the nth fabulously cynical and cynically witty line because I couldn't stand it anymore, I just had to mark out these lines, one of them being, "Conscience and cowardice are really the same things...Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all."

Seventeen pages into the novel and I was already relishing every word.

Oscar Wilde went to Oxford ("...tossing his head back in that odd way that used to make his friends laugh at him at Oxford" and at Oxford he was a bit of an oddball) and Julian Barnes went to Oxford.

I shouldn't be obsessing over books at this juncture, when my exams are kind of just around the corner. November 18 was it? SLS paper? Hmm. I can't remember when Tort is; I think it's a week after. And Contract, December 2.

I don't intend to study much for Contract. I know very well that I can't possibly get anything substantial done before the test anyway, because I am a tediously slow reader when it comes to reading cases, and I'm only talking about extracts reproduced in casebooks here, not the entire judgment.

I can already see my progress report (or whatever they call it in uni): CCCC, no pun intended. Ha, ha, ha. I think that's kind of funny.

It'd probably be in my best interest for me to find a chain and a padlock and lock up my book case until my law school obligations have been fulfilled, at least for this semester; otherwise, I'd really hate myself when I'm really staring at a column of C's sometime in the near future.

Consultation with TK was fruitful. He told me to write blog-style in my exam paper. Huh. I've yet to figure out how that's gonna work (can I use the word 'gonna' and write things like 'this judgment is just fucking stupid, if you want my honest opinion'?) but I do agree with him that the rubbish style I adopted in my test was extremely stilted and shitty. It's my exam writing style, a mechanical way of stringing together words to form a semi-coherent sentence just for the sake of forming a semi-coherent sentence. It's rather unnatural and wholly unconvincing.

Also, I genuinely did not know that we were supposed to incorporate critical analysis into our answers. I thought all I had to do was to answer the question, i.e. state whether this person is liable for injuring this other person and why, fullstop. Now that I know otherwise: Ha, no wonder it felt so easy, such that it was too easy, and after the test I was wondering why I had so little to write.

Okay, so now I've convinced myself that the stupid test was a fluke and nothing more, thank you.

I was on the shuttle bus heading to the Computer Centre and I was absolutely bewildered and I missed my stop because I didn't know where the stupid buzzer was. If that one guy hadn't got off at the next top, I probably would have ended up at the Science faculty.

I had to re-sign some shit for my notebook loan application because my signatures did not match. It was so preposterous! My signature always differs and I can't get them to look the same. I had to sign at three different places on the form and one of them was exceptionally outstanding. The woman got me a pen and paper where I practiced signing but when it became apparent that I couldn't do it properly, she took out a piece of tracing paper and asked me to trace it instead. But because I am me and because my hand was extremely unsteady, I made a huge mess and eventually asked her to do it for me.

Banks are bloody anal retentive. They should use thumbprints instead; at least it reduces (or erases) such needless confusion. If I have to go down again I will just kill somebody.

I currently hate my laptop because it does not have a DVD burner and I have not figured out how to transfer all my TV shows to my other laptop that has a DVD burner which will then allow me to burn everything into a DVD or two or more. I wanted to buy a thumb drive but the 1GB one costs $169 for a Sony one, and there I was, thinking that thumb drive cost only "a few dollars".

If I were Paris Hilton $169 would be "a few dollars"; unfortunately, I am Yelen, and hence $169 continues to be 10% of the total amount in my pathetic bank account.

Despite the poor state of health of said bank account, I'm going to get a couple of nice short $75-each skirts from Zara because they're nice. And Chinese New Year is coming pretty soon, which means I'd be getting money, which means I can afford to spend some money now. I also want to get a $70 top from EDC Esprit that is just gorgeous, as well as Triumph underwear and a lot of books.

I didn't do any studying at all today.

I am quite screwed, am I not?

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