falling asleep against the windowpane.
written: 2:27 p.m. on Saturday, May. 06, 2006
Not even the hotness that is Milo Venti-something (Jess from Gilmore Girls) could make me keep watching, because the other characters grated on my nerves.
I just came back from depositing my law textbooks at NUS for the second-hand sale during matriculation week. I woke up this morning to the sound of my mom asking me if I wanted to drop off my books (I nodded) and that I had to get up fast because she had to go to my grandma's to teach my cousins piano. And then, like it just struck her, she asked me if I should sell all my books because I may need them if I fail Contract.
Well, I thought of the same thing but I'm too lazy to go to Kent Ridge in July to deposit my Contract books. Besides, if I fail and have to re-take, it's highly unlikely that I'd touch my textbooks anyway. My Contract casebook has been touched exactly six times, my Anson's only slightly more. I think it's good enough that I haven't deleted my Contract folder yet, though I'm dying to.
I was in a bad mood in the morning. On the bus out of NUS towards Clementi Bus Interchange. Headphones and Foo Fighters and me slouched in the seat, "falling asleep against the windowpane" except I was leaning against the windowpane, staring blankly out of the window, with the same thought stuck on repeat in my mind.
Whatever I do, wherever I go, whenever I wake up, I always end up frightfully alone.
There are people I love, and then there are people I push away. Sometimes, I can't tell the difference.
I dropped at Jurong East and strode towards the library. I wanted to borrow Sarah Dessen's latest novel (because I was too lazy to go to Orchard to buy it and I wanted to read it today) but I got out of Jurong Entertainment Centre and noticed that the library was empty. Then I realised: Shit. Polling Day.
Apparently polling days are public holidays. No one ever told me that.
I should've attended the Workers' Party rally last night, but it was all the way in Serangoon Stadium which is like 10 million miles away and my mom was too lazy to drive and I was also too lazy to get out of the house and so we passed. Oh well, we'll meet in five years' time, when I'd be eligible to vote.
I think we should have elections for Prime Minister soon. Even if the candidates are a bunch of PAP people, it'd be better than having the LEADER OF THE COUNTRY appointed. I've always thought we lived in civilised times. Whatever.
Taiwan's President is kind of pathetic. He wanted to visit the States but due to some statement he made which pissed the US off, they refused to let him land and so he was stuck in Hawaii with the option of landing at Alaska. He didn't want to land at Alaska and wanted to visit some Middle Eastern country, but that country refused to let him land too. So effectively he got on a plane without knowing where he's going.
He's quite a shitty President but man, that's still sad all the same. I mean, from a very, very detached point of view I can kind of get why he's hostile towards China. If I were a Taiwanese, I wouldn't want to "reunify" with "the mainland" either; their political conceptions (ahhh why am I using Rawls' phrase) are completely different. People in mainland China watch Quan Min Da Men Guo because they don't have that sort of political freedom. Hell, I watch the show because we don't have that sort of freedom here in Singapore. And as shitty as Singapore is when it comes to free speech, it's still light years better than the situation in China. I suppose "reunifying" with China would mean going backwards and giving up the way of life they're so familiar with, and in my opinion, it's too big a price to pay.
(Quan Min Da Men Guo, by the way, is a variety show that parodies political figures and entertainment people. My cable guide literally translates it as 'People's Steaming Casserole'. It's hilarious. They have a skit that parodies their own President. The actor that portrays him is amazing; you can hardly tell the fake apart from the real. Everything is accurate, from the way he looks to the way he talks and right down to his mannerisms. Another skit, loosely translated as The Words that Harvard Doesn't Teach, which is a dig at something the vice-president (who went to Harvard) said about Harvard which I don't recall, portrays their vice-president as a psycho feminist whose mission is to correct Chinese words that are inherently sexist. It's absolutely hilarious. The actor that plays Annette Lu - the VP - is amazingly versatile, and so is the actor that plays the President. He plays Li Ao on a regular basis, and Li Ao is like Chen Shui-bian's antithesis. I mean, Li IS from mainland China after all, and we all know how their accents differ greatly from the native Taiwanese's. Li Ao also called Singaporeans 'stupid' once, which cracked me up. And yeah I am aware that this is the longest parenthesis ever.)
Anyway, my dad's glued to the Taiwanese news and sometimes I'd sit down and watch with him and it's full of sad stories about how broke people are. There was a surge in credit card debts recently, and with it came stories about people who were so despondent that they locked themselves in a hotel room along with their wives and children and burnt themselves to death. Many cases of suicide over credit card debts, many cases of large families with small children who are too poor to afford food and so have to share a bowl of noodles amongst themselves, even stories about grandmothers who kill themselves and their grandchildren because they are just too poor.
It's heartbreaking, isn't it? When I think of Taiwan I don't think of poverty; I think of Taipei and its glitzy metropolitan shopping centres and buildings and streets, the places I grew up in, the haphazard traffic and congestion, things that signify modernity and development. Who knew that such darkness lurks in the shadows of the narrow backstreets and preys at those left behind by the ever forward-moving city and its high-flying inhabitants? Who knew that the rural areas are as in want of development as Singapore is of free speech? I admit now that I'm not capable of seeing things broadly, that I'm myopic and I only focus on what appeals to me. How easy it is to get blinded by the glaring materialistic filth of modern cities and overlook the less fortunate who need all the help they can get.
Anyway, sympathy as an emotion is useless, isn't it? Sometimes I wish I could do something, but...well.
I'm going to get myself a cup of Ben and Jerry's strawberry and cheesecake ice-cream or whatever it's called and watch the latest Veronica Mars. Can't wait! I hope the sound problems don't creep up at crucial Logan/Veronica moments though.
**
Edited to add at 4.14 p.m.:
(Major spoilers for Episode 21 of Veronica Mars S2)
OH MY GOD. FOR REAL. OHMYGOD.
WHY DID IT END??? I WANT MORE!!!!!
Okay. Composure, self. Take a deep breath and slowly let it out...ah, there you go.
It was like brilliant and gripping and heartbreaking and outrageous. Aaron Echolls getting away with murder in the second degree, statutory rape which WE ALL KNOW HAPPENED, and aggravated assault. Woody and the bus crash. There's been some speculations about Woody being the one who blew up the bus but nobody really guessed why and I certainly didn't make the connection between him and the two seemingly-random bus crash kids who were featured in previous Mysteries of the Week who are not so random anymore. Oh my god, nothing is coincidental in this show. NOTHING. I have NOT seen a show more tightly written with a plot so closely connected and interwoven and coherent. This show continues to blow my mind, and apparently there's some vague news that it's been PICKED UP FOR A SEASON THREE!!!! WHICH IS THE BEST VAGUE NEWS I'VE HEARD ALL DAY!!!!
And and that shooting scene in school RIPPED OUT MY PUMPING HEART. I really thought Jackie was gonna die, or that Wallace was gonna get seriously hurt (not die 'cause they need him in S3!). It was probably one of the most tensed, nail-biting scenes in Veronica Mars history. The intensity of the fear of that scene was almost as palpable as the school shooting at the end of Gus Van Sant's "Elephant". Amazing work.
Is Criminal Law a joke as a rule rather than an exception? Oh god. The trial scenes in this episode totally pissed me off. Defence lawyers need to pull their skeevy shit because it's what they're hired to do, and I have no problems with that (even when Aaron's defence lawyer brought up Veronica's STD to insinuate that she sleeps around which supports Aaron's fabrication that V propositioned him for sex in exchange for the Lilly sex tapes). BUT when a stupid JURY is in charge of the verdict? Not so much. It's ridiculous. Crim law here is too strict and crim law in the States is too relaxed. What gives? No wonder defence lawyers get such a bad rep, but I do admire the way they implicitly raise doubts as to the witness' credibility. It's so manipulative and slick and it's a skill I wouldn't mind having, to be honest. You need some sort of wit and quick-thinking for that.
Anyway, Weevil being tutored by Beaver in Algebra was HILARIOUS. I love Weevil. Something bad's gonna happen to him though; what he did to Thumper is SO gonna bite him in the ass. AND THAT SUCKS. I was so proud of him when he got a B for his algebra test which means he can graduate. And nicely juxtaposed too, that scene, which came immediately after the kids who saw him beat up Thumper IDed him in the Sheriff's office. Ugh! Can they please stop getting these awesome characters into serious deep shit with the law? It makes my heart ache just thinking about it.
I want the finale now. Hopefully it won't be preempted again. I must check and see if the Nets lost or if they're playing next Tuesday again. I hate the Nets; have I mentioned that?
The only bad thing about this episode was that there wasn't a more confrontational Logan/Veronica moment. The only time they talked was when V asked him about Lucky, but hey, at least her voice-over acknowledged the awkwardness of the aftermath of last week's emotionally explosive scene.
In other news, VM's 32% lost to One Tree Hill's 43% for that poll I begged people to vote in. Damn, I knew I should've created more gmail accounts to stuff the ballot.
Off to read forum posts about the episode now.
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