http://feeds.reference.com/click.phdo?i=6053af813a9f65eb4941933fd9eb1cf2

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/11/09.html

fungible: interchangeable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:POTD/2009-11-09

Picture of the day
A panoramic view of South Beach, a neighborhood and beach in the city of Miami Beach, Florida. This area was the first section of the city to be developed, starting in the 1910s. The area has gone through numerous man-made and natural changes over the years, including a booming regional economy, increased tourism, and the 1926 hurricane, which destroyed much of the area. Photo credit: UpstateNYer Archive – More featured pictures...

Today was the longest time I spent talking to my mother on skype.
Usually, either one of us will be too tired or too busy to talk properly...but today, I got to properly talk to her, confide in her, talk her ear off like I used to. I was so reluctant to hang up, and it felt strange turning my mind back to writing my EU Law essay in English after chatting with my mother for so long in Chinese (or at least, a mixture of Chinese and English. My Chinese is kinda really bad...she chastised me near the end for using the wrong word for "essay" in Chinese. :| )

Homesickness really comes and goes. Maybe I feel it exceptionally hard today because of how stressed out I felt last night. I really wanted so badly to cling to my parents through the phone, to reach through the line and pull them through, or maybe pull myself through back home to them, into a big big hug.

It gives me such a huge rush of warmth that it's always my Dad who calls me on skype, even if he quickly passes the phone to my mother after a few standard greetings and questions. I love you too, Daddy. ♥

Indeed, why concern the self with the fear of monstrosity? Neither this world nor the Lord are concerned with ineffectual, repeated self-flagellation. 'Tis a truth I am struggling to learn. Complacency, whether it be pride in a good habit or a bad one, is never easy to shake off. In such case, the concern is not about beating up the self, but about being a better person, and not just in projecting an image but in genuinely improving. Impressing others really should be a secondary priority, if not tertiary or even less, since some of the personally important people may not know or care about your existence. It's okay. There's no need to fret about this. 'Tis another truth I am learning. In some way it is reassuring and liberating, odd though it may seem.

The radio's on and they're playing lovely hits (: It was particularly sweet when Bryan Richmond played his son's song [Bent; it's terribly elusive on Google since he's a local artist but worth a listen if you can find a site with the track that works]. I imagine that it must be a very proud moment for him.

*

More from Smashed:

I'm tired of the world that won't rescue girls until we're long past the point of saving. We live in a culture that expects teenaged girls to cry for help by acting out in ways that girl are conditioned not to.

...

Every new story makes me think of Sylvia Plath's "Mushrooms". It finds me marveling, "So many of us!"

The devastating hours that women share with me bond me closer to them than happy hours ever would. I want to know them all because they make me think Plath's words might apply to us, too:

Our kind multiplies
We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.

I know, I'm weird. I read books that I'm not supposed to read; think about things that I'm not supposed to. And then I post them online.

*

I feel a tad guilty about the weekend because all I've done is to sleep tons, finish up a book, read 1% Chinese [literally] and then sleep somemore.

[Oh, and look at awesome pictures on Facebook. It's terribly inspiring - now I want to go out and shoot! Film has this really different feel to it - the way grain and colours appear on it cannot be compared to that of a digital. I love it, and am thankful that I do have access to such media :D Which reminds me that I need to go down to Penisular and scout for more film!]

*

Otherwise, life has been exciting and drab at the same time. Is grumbly about waking up early [though I doubt I will ><] and the insane rush for dental [it's at 3PM, can you just see Cao with the knife!], but I'm hopping out of school for breakfast/[brunch?] and maybe I'd meet the juniors :D

Don't really have my post-Os mapped out ATM, other than lunch at Holland V, grad night and calling up the people that I really should now that I'm crossing the bridge [hopefully before I go for GCP; that gives me 2 weeks!]. There's also somebody I want to see awfully badly, but I've been told she's busy + not in Singapore :(

One more hurdle ><

This is pretty noteworthy, so: for my very last lab assignment, I managed to do it with zero help whatsoever. =D A nice way to end the programming course, I think. (Then again you must also consider that I did email for help just that I got no reply... and it's really easy... and I kinda cheated a bit.)

9pm, with scant progress.

I wish my voice would come back. Am freaking nervous about APEC dinner show now. So afraid cos we sound like crap hurhur. Plus with my voice, I really do sound like crap. Am so nervous I typed a long and nervous-sounding email to Prof Gary, troubling him once again with exam reschedules (poor guy, he's the nicest person really I will get him a damn nice gift when this sem is over). Presidents of 21 countries, anybody? -_- And the evening before the forum starts. Oh goodness. Honestly our situation is so ridiculous I would laugh if I could (but right now I'm more of wishing fervently we could change the lead singer for the chinese song and meet up like for another 3h to rehearse the damn thing)

Also I really need to learn how to tie my sari. Damn. Help, Lizzie? >.<

Programming programming programming come on Sali it's the last chance you'll get before the semester is over

Unlike chromium_atom, I don't have a lot of work. What I do have is, unsurprisingly, a lot of mugging. My big failure is Physical Geography (Human Geography is really GP with a little extra on the side), which I completely don't understand. My second big failure is Renal Physiology, although that's really because I didn't pay attention in class. Thank heavens for webcast lectures.

In completely non-work news, I've finished reading Unseen Academicals. I think I may have to read it again because it's falling into that category of Pratchett books that I don't quite like the first time round, but I like a lot more when I re-read it again. Also, slightly more than week left till I can get my Doctor Who fix. The remainder of my life has also been taken over by re-runs of Hotel Babylon, Hustle and Torchwood. Yes, I really feel alive when I'm sitting in front of my couch watching television.

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Numbers 6:24

ALL THE BEST.

The rather trivial affair of the A Levels aside (I am so going to have retribution come on my head for saying this), I just hope that some of the cynicism some seem to have toward the educational system won't ruin their memories of school life. It's not worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Also, about the accolade-giving, and favouritism on the part of the education system, and whatnot: all these credits, and positions, and certification - where does it lead one to? A prestigious scholarship, a prestigious overseas school, a good, steady, highly-paid job. Yet is it the only path to the same end? Is it even a path to the best end- will one alleviate poverty? find happiness? know more friends? And, despite all the flaws in the system, the very best still get the very best treatment; perhaps some excellent people are ignored, or some less-than-excellent people are picked out, but things even out in the end (one could do a statistical test, haha); everyone makes mistakes.

Why am I saying all this? In the hope that people can leave this school happy. I have made mistakes, I am still terribly and dreadfully displeased about how I have handled the disaster I caused, and there has been lots of meanness and unhappiness, and I have not always been as good a person as I have wanted to be, but I hope we can have more-than-pleasant memories - more than memories, actually - tangible effects we can pack into our emotional portmanteaus as we leave the finger-post behind.

Overall, I'd give my performance in JC a C, a Fair rating. There are moments I'd give myself a big tick and draw (or stamp) a star, and my Introduction promised an A, but - things do happen.

To sum up:
Let us love nobly, and live, and add again
Years and years unto years, till we attain
To write threescore; this is the second of our reign.
John Donne, The Anniversary

I remember last year, when our physics tutor, Ms Emily Li, told us that one of the questions in our test paper was actually from her dream. That time, I was quite amused by it. And last night, it happened to me.

( The questions. )

Deco USB LOL

Kinda screwy though they keep dropping off. :X

There is no free will, at least not in the perfect philosophical conception of it. I argued in my essay, without knowing how it'd turn out to be, till the ending, that free will must be the ability to choose an option which we have no prior conception of, to be completely independent of our background factors.

-

 ¹⁶I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

i talked about staying awake quite well so far, and i took a 3.5 hour nap. wahlao. XD

http://feeds.reference.com/click.phdo?i=651a68f235b3ba9c4ec23db090257e78

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/11/08.html

billet: to quarter, or place in lodgings.

All i want is a room somewhere!
far away from the cold night air.
with one enormous chair
oh wouldn't.... it be loverly!!

lots of chocolate for me to eat.
lots of flowers. babe
and lots of sweets. :)

warm hands
warm face
warm feet
oh wouldn't. it.

be lover-ly! :P

I haven't been very happy since I came back from Brunei.

I'm physically tired. But I can't see the rest I need coming. Would be good if I could take 1 day off this coming Friday. Then after that it's 11 days straight; that's going to be another exhausting stretch till the 27th. December better be better.

I'm becoming rather dissatisfied with my weekends once again. It becomes so miserable when things don't turn out the way they should. :( Last weekend was bad enough, having only Saturday, and then this weekend I felt like there was nothing much after SATs yesterday. Today was entirely burnt away by stoning/sleeping, for I'm so tired.

I'm stuck at this point where I must carefully decide whether I should be going out or resting. If I go out, I'll feel happier, but more tired. If I sleep, I get a little more rest, but I feel more miserable. And I don't know which I want.

I'm so uncertain about everything now.


And some things just keep me so preoccupied even up till now.