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keep bowlin’ bowlin’ bowlin’ bowlin’
From Wikipedia.
The oral ulcer appears as a white or yellow oval with an inflamed red border. Sometimes a white circle or halo around the lesion can be observed. The grey, white, or yellow coloured area within the red boundary is due to the formation of layers of fibrin, a protein involved in the clotting of blood. The ulcer, which itself is often extremely painful, especially when agitated, may be accompanied by a painful swelling of the lymph nodes below the jaw, which can be mistaken for toothache.
Now that the ulcer’s gotten better, I don’t have the pain in my lower jaw anymore either.
***
Near a friend’s place in Katong there’s one of those park connector things, courtesy of the National Parks Board. Twice I’ve run into a group of children (ten or younger) whom I think are Thai because of the language they’re speaking to each other. The first time they were carrying groceries in little plastic bags… while playing with beer bottles and setting them up like bowling pins. The second time I saw them they were playing with an actual bowling ball, seriously. In a public park. Rolling it around and such. On the one hand, you don’t want them to injure themselves and on the other, you have to wonder just what is going on.
Peace.
takin’ it back to the old school
Remember back in the day…?
Thanks to Nawar. I know mine is still somewhere around with the class list so you can identify who’s who, but I haven’t found it as yet.
Guess where I am.
Peace.
Caught between the moon and Tampines
I think the exams might actually turn okay. Jearina and I actually managed to come up with an essay outline for Desai’s Fire on the Mountain with little to no background reading on the text. Am I frightened? A little. But I remind myself that we got through last year by the grace of God accomplishing a lot more with a lot less. My first paper is on the 4th, and my second (and final) paper is on the 14th. Modern American and Post Colonial, two papers, the least I’ve ever had to cover. I don’t think I’m sorry for not going through the college this year though. For all the drama that went on back then, I think it was a couple of thousand dollars well saved.
I think my preparations for the exams have differed a lot from year to year. The first year was a lot of late nights. The second year was afternoons spent at the Expo, and occasionally with the Queen and Pugnacious D and the third year was spent in the company of the gang. In retrospect, it’s a little strange how intimate (not like that) and confessional last year’s sessions got sometimes, but I’m not complaining. I think we all had things we needed to get off our collective chests and minds, and I know I studied harder than I’d ever done before in 2006.
I still don’t consider myself any sort of expert on Augustans and Romantics, but thinking back it’s weird to consider that I could still probably write a decent essay on Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. I mean, that year I did all my ‘research’ online and somehow pulled through A&R with only three authors and five texts, one of which was a pamphlet. Of course, I also used Mary Shelley twice for that paper. I still don’t know how I got away with it.
My favourite of all the modules I’ve covered over the past four years though still has to be Approaches to Text. In fact, I liked it so much I sat for it twice! Approaches was very honestly the reason why I even signed up for this course in the first place, and I appreciated tremendously the vocabulary and the depth of critical knowledge that studying this module allowed me to apply not just to this course but pretty much anything I’ll ever read, watch, look at or listen to. Looking back, I think I understand why I didn’t make it through the first time. I was probably doing too much politicking instead of making a convincing argument, and I probably messed up a few of my facts along the way. I like one of the pieces I did for my second attempt though, about Star Wars and bringing in Kurosawa, Vladimir Propp and Arthurian legend. What bothers me a little is that I did really well the second time around and I don’t actually have anything to show for it. And it’s still slightly strange how much of the past three years happened as a direct result of my not passing Approaches the first time around.
I don’t know where I’ll go from here though. I think I’ve had enough of academia for the time being and I don’t know whether I want to continue my studies. I hadn’t originally planned to even immediately go back to school immediately after my NS but my biggest decisions are made for me generally, whether or not the ones who suggest them in the first place support their own decisions in hindsight. I suppose in hindsight of course we’ll always end up wondering where the road less travelled would’ve taken us. Whether I should’ve gone to poly rather than JC, or what if I had gone to another (a better) secondary school or junior college, or if I had made it to one of the local universities rather than ending up at the college like I did. It’s all pointless speculation that just takes me further away from the here and now. I don’t think I want to end up like the Pugnacious D or Trofimov, the eternal student. I’ve always had a leaning towards academia, although my grades for the past few years might not show that, ha. Maybe I need is just a change of pace, a change of scenery before I consider my next move.
This isn’t meant to be depressing by the way, just contemplative. It’s been quite a trip. When work took me to Haw Par Centre, I couldn’t help but take a detour just to walk past the old place and just take it all in, in all its anti-splendour.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end, huh? Which, curiously enough, comes from Seneca originally and not Semisonic. Hey, it’s news to me.
Peace.
Massive Attack - Teardrop (Live from Abbey Road)
With the inimitable Liz Fraser on vocals, of course. Nobody else compares. Live from Abbey Road is a mixed bag when it comes to its selection of performers, but you can’t really go wrong with Massive Attack and Teardrop.
Technorati Tags: massive attack, teardrop, live from abbey road, house
daily meditations
The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.
This is the substance of the way of the samurai.
Technorati Tags: hagakure, samurai, ghost dog
driven
I took and failed my driving test again for the second time last Monday. Jumped the curb, thus resulting in an immediate failure. I tell my mum that like football this is one of those things that I’ll never really ‘get’ and that it’s better for me to work out whatever kinks I have now as she can definitely attest to the fact that there are plenty of people out there driving on the roads who deserve to have their licences revoked. Instead she calls me a girly man and berates me for not giving my all to the cause.
I’ve put off taking my driving test for the time being since the next available day for the test is June 4th and I don’t really think I have enough time to both study for my exam and devote a decent amount of time towards driving lessons. I also can’t book for a date after the 4th, and I can’t even check whether there are any available slots online. Meaning I’ll have to make a call after my exams.
At least I don’t run into Suhaimi Yusof, harbinger of doom.
This is not a tribute…
…this is the greatest song in the world.
Radar has some sample photos from an upcoming photo book of the DC scene during the 1980s called Punk Love, with Henry Rollins doing commentary for the photos. Worth it to see Rollins and Ian MacKaye in their Häagen-Dazs uniforms. Also, going to see American Hardcore on Thursday.
Thanks to That’s How It Happened for the link.
***
Something relevant I think for this time.
…when people who are songwriters say, “That’s my property and if you give it away for free then I lose my incentive,” then, well, good riddance.
Technorati Tags: american hardcore, fugazi, punk love
Grindhouse
All of Quentin Tarantino’s movies are ultimately tributes to what would be considered B movies of the 1970s. That having been said, his movies are also highly enjoyable and I’m looking forward to what his collaboration with Robert Rodriguez has to offer. If it comes out here. The directors and the stars made their rounds on the late night talk shows circuit to promote the film in the US and still no word of if and when it’s being released in Singapore.
Note: I’m fond of both Rose McGowan and Rosario Dawson and this really isn’t the best picture of either one of them, although it’s a cool image.
Technorati Tags: grindhouse, tarantino, robert rodriguez, rose mcgowan, rosario dawson
Planet Earth documentary
If you’re not already doing so, I highly recommend the documentary series Planet Earth, currently showing on Arts Central on Wednesdays at 10pm. It features some of the highest production values I’ve ever seen in a nature documentary, shot entirely in high definition and has some incredible footage, both in terms of innovative camerawork and the locations and animal behaviour being captured. If sometimes we forget or we’re in denial of the majesty of this planet or the beauty of God’s creation and it takes a television series to remind us, so be it. I’m just sorry the Youtube video does this excellent series no justice.
Planet Earth BBC
Planet Earth Discovery Channel
Planet Earth wikipedia
Technorati Tags: planet earth, documentary, bbc, discovery channel
Cheer up emo girl
(EDITED 7th April 2007, 11.36am)
02 April 2007
YOUTHink, Home, The Straits Times
“Emo heroes: Just a bunch of zeroes?”
Jessica LimThe anti-hero has come full circle: What follows the 1990s’ icon, the angsty late Kurt Cobain, is now part of mainstream fabric.
Meet Gen Y’s role model: the ‘emo hero’.He may be cute, brainy and kind. Unfortunately, he is also a bit dumb. Worse, he may be presenting an unfair image of the rest of us.
The classic emo hero? Prison Break’s resident cute, brainy and kind Michael Scofield (played by Wentworth Miller).
