It's Snowing!

STARDUST!

... is one of my favourite books. Ever. I'm talking about the Neil Gaiman Stardust, by the way.

Why mention the book? Because I was watching Law and Order season 3 episode 1 and noticed Gina Torres (Zoe from Firefly). That was cool, she looked a lot younger 10 years ago, which is not surprising. But that eyebrow flick she has is pretty unmistakable.

Anyway, so I was watching, and then I noticed that it looked like Claire Danes was also in the episode. So I IMDB the reference, and Danes was indeed in the episode. But, there's more! She's !also starring as Yvaine in the Stardust movie! It's going to be released in ''07! Yay!

Just had to tell Phlebas, who basically said "Yvaine is the only Stardust character that Claire Danes can play." I don't particularly agree - she could well play a young version of Dunstan's wife or something. Of course I guess you don't pull a big league actree in to play a minor part... I still think Claire Danes has one of the beautiful smiles I have ever seen (felt this watching Baz Luhrman's R&J), but she probably isn't really suited to play Yvaine. Now, if they got Nicole Kidman or something...

Such a beautiful disease...

I hate New York. Its too rough and tumble, too heterogenous, too strange. Every burg I've ever been too had a central theme - a soul that underlies what the city means to its citizens. Manhattan terrain changes from block to block, like a manic-depressive. Broadway may be bright and beautiful, but a couple of blocks off and you're in Harlem or in the projects... I think I'd prefer life in suburbia, stifling and uniform though it may be, over the big city any day.

Hah! I Blog! Again!

Brief updates:
I graduated. Heh.

My grad school got shuffled around. Those whom I would gripe about this to already know, so that's enough said.

Final grades were good. I am extremely gratified with the way it turned out, even though I now owe H a treat to lunch thanks to our bet... (I bet against myself doing well. Classic hedging strategy, no?) All in all, I'm happy with my undergraduate career with the exceptions that:

1) I didn't have as much fun as I initially envisioned having.
a) insufficient Netflix viewing (I still want to plug Band of Brothers as an excellent series)
b) insufficient gaming (Frag count is still too low! Must slay!)
c) insufficient time with friends ( *sulk*)

2) I didn't do that whole "learn a language" thing I wanted to do. (Although, considering my success with my "official" 2nd language, maybe its a good thing I didn't try to learn another language. If there's something I know about myself, its that I'm literal minded and pretty set in my ways, making language acquisition difficult.)

3) There were so many other fun classes to take and I never had a chance! (Wargh!)

So here I am in the happy P place, and being very much in love. We were supposed to be planning the wedding, but I think we can't be bothered. Oh well. Phlebas knows I'll go with whatever she decides anyway...

So, on to other news, ie: why am I really blogging?

Was struck with the urge to do a web search on the S'porean education system (lazy mornings, and nothing better to do. I've spent my free time learning Java, thinking about research and delving into the intricacies of DnD. Its all pretty representative of my obsessions.) Read lots from blogs from my juniors still in the system, and am struck by my own desire to contribute to the discourse (not like I actually have the patience to contribute anything resembling a well-thought out opinion, as you all know). I mean, it is a topic about which I have firsthand knowledge and something to say. Phlebas and Slyfien have had to put up with my wild ravings on the topic time and time again. In part, its the feeling that I want to know how its been like for my juniors, how things have changed now that I've been out of the system. The question is, is there any real point in my intruding on affairs which are properly no longer mine to deal with?

It's been a good day...

Yup. Been watching Band of Brothers from Netflix. Our CO used to screen the show as a "treat" for the battalion to build morale (he did this just before we went on the long training exercises that preceded our "unit qualification" exercise). It was annoying then because it was a shameless attempt to make us like him, and also because screen and sound quality were very poor. Its much better watching it on DVD =). I think our CO practiced a reasonable amount of censorship over which episodes to screen - obviously showing the episodes with bad leadership would have only reminded us of the tin gods among our unit officers and NCOs. What with the strong feeling of resentment already built up and an undercurrent of mutiny within some parts of the battalion, censorship was very important. Its funny but a lot of the time leadership assumes teamwork works one way - leaders demanding from subordinates without actually giving back.

Anyway, without the reminiscing, the series is very good. Also reminds me a lot of my excessive Call of Duty playing. =)

So anyway, the good news:

Been granted a reprieve on a paper supposedly due tommorrow. Its now due Thurs, so I have time to sort things out to satisfaction (ie: relax a bit)

One class tommorrow has been canceled. Free time! Yay!

Biggest one: got an award from the school, though I haven't actually got the official announcement yet (got wind of it because a school newsletter needs a photo and some quotes). The departmental assistant can be pretty slow, however...

Finished final presentation for The Dreaded Class. Its more or less over. Just a report (due Thurs, but its short and will be a fleshed out version of the presentation) and its all over.

False Advertising!

Bitching about dumb ads today.

1) "True." Dating service. "Full to the seams with single women" the ads say. Images of closeups of just boobs. Or the latest one: blond in bikini with a heart shaped pillow grinning lewdly at the camera. (I'm getting this because they're all over the Dilbert website.) Are you seriously telling me that single women actually looking for a relationship would flock to a website that sells itself using sex? Weird, huh?

2)Election season stuff for student government. The candidates are getting really in-your-face this semester. Aside from the fact that I've lately come to realise how horribly shallow student officials are (read: most are doing this for their CVs, not for the community. Our "student president" 2 years ago was a B, C average student but got into MIT from his position. I know a prominent senator who never comes to class and gets near failing grades. Reading the stuff these guys spew in the school newspaper really pisses me off - mostly high sounding but empty words, lots of buzz-words but very little action. But I digress...)

OK. where was I? Yes. Student government. So they're running for government, and they &^(&@# put up 100s of flyers on noticeboards all over campus, covering up everyone else's stuff. Talk about egotism. (Add the campaign ads chalked all over the floor around campus and in the city, and its a hell of a mess. They're just vandalising the school with their ads because they never bother to clean up afterwards... )

But I digress again. My main problem is that those very same boards with 20-30 election flyers (from the same 5 people) have a sign above them saying "Do not use staples. Do not put up more than 2 of the same flyer." And these dickheads put up 10 or more flyers and staple them all. Talk about anti-social. Now, why should I vote for someone who is a) a criminal (in the sense that they're vandalising school property - stapled flyers are very hard to remove ) and b) completely selfish (dammit, I want to read the OTHER notices on the board, about seminars and stuff, not 10 copies of the same stupid slogan)?

I'm casting protest votes this year.


PS: annoying fact about our school's student politicians - they're all about special interest groups. So annoying because I'm not in the greek system. Also annoying because the best way to get anything from student government, is guess what? Being friends with an official. School politics - your first introduction to cronyism and other forms of official corruption.

Taking a step back...

I'm following Sylfien's lead and taking a blog entry to think and/or re-collect what's been happening in my life. Basically, its been a little of the good, a little of the bad, and a little of the just plain odd. (I'm lying: nothing strange has been happening)

Major events since last I blogged:

1)Got grad school acceptance. Yay. It was my 1st choice anyway.

2)Messed up one grad school interview. Boo. Whatever, it probably doesn't matter.

3)Finished Call of Duty and the Expansion pack on the lowest difficulty. Replaying on regular now. Its going fine, but I'm not doing 11 hour straight sessions anymore. Its a good game. I can see how multiplayer and mods totally would rock. I recall a CS map of one of the schools back home... It'd be great to play.

4)Did math midterm. More computation than expected. Otherwise pretty OK. Feel good about it, despite lack of preparation beforehand.

5)Lab reports are becoming a bitch with well over 20 hours per report, per week. This is ridiculous. Must streamline working procedure. It was more efficient working alone... because then I'd be forced to make up facts and BS my way through. I have very bad habits when it comes to academic honesty.

6)Really bad: Phlebas isn't going to visit me. Feel a little sad about that still. We can't wait for the wedding, and the end of the wait is near, but... Its true that I have too little of a life outside her, and a few other close confidantes. Its a situation I'm sort of happy with, if only because it spares me the trouble of having to accept everyone else for what they are instead of dismissing outright. But I digress. Or would, if this blog entry had a point. =)


I don't know what's come over me, but I've been a lot more critical lately. Like I mentally categorise people really fast and treat the ones who fall below my standards with a hint of contempt. Probably a consequence of too much success, and maybe being a little stressed. I know what motivates me is often a mix of fear, self-loathing and seething hatred... And hating more stuff helps reduce the first two, but it probably isn't healthy. Heck, the whole attitude isn't healthy. I guess that's why Phlebas means so much to me. When I'm in her arms I can't really hate anymore, at least not to the same extent. And any fear is just a generalised haze of uncertainty that doesn't ever get too bad because she's prone to knocking sense into this thick skull of mine.

Alright. Gotta run. Damn, I never get enough time these days. Too many commitments... And I'm not willing to reduce the stuff I'm committing to out of fear that my life will become really empty... At least this way I'm too busy to feel alone.