Archive for September, 2008
Monday Notes
Closed For Renovations
I’ve stopped my book club experiment over at lobster shells because I figured I can’t really quite get it established the way I want to for now. More details over there. [via lobster shells]
I think I’ve learnt a little on what I need and what I have to do, though, so I’ll be hoping to bring it back to life in the (near?) future.
Nerdy Glasses
I got myself new glasses, which are decidedly nerdy. Yay.
F1 Done
Does this mean I don’t have to look at Lewis Hamilton everywhere I go anymore?
Busy Week
On the menu for this week, lab today, lab report to do, (better get started on my) term paper, organic chemistry test on Thursday, biofluids homework to submit and a couple of other random things. It’s the collective pressure of tiny, nagging things that makes it all a rather unhappy week; but I think I’ll manage. Second draft, slight romance, and lots of Beatles helps to provide a little buoyancy.
Reading List
I’m currently doing Joyce’s Portrait. I’ll be moving on to Bolano’s The Savage Detectives next.
This Doesn’t Make Sense
And yet it’s still hilarious. It has Sonic, and Mario, and… [via Fires Of Heaven Forums, originally via Digg]
Science, I Choose You!
These are the finalists from the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. [via Wired Science] I personally like Mad Hatter’s Tea the best, though The Glass Forest cuts it close.
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2.00: “Abhurite And Thunder”
It’s Saturday and I ought to be a little upset now that the mid-term break is almost over, but I’m doing fine, partly because yesterday afternoon, I finished up the editing on the second draft of The River.
It looks structurally the same. The corrections mostly have to do with continuity errors and just plain bad language. The changes are meant to make it all flow a little better, catch the rhythms I’ve been missing, remove the awkward bits, and bring in more focus thematically.
Things look quite good for now. Sure, it doesn’t aspire to greatness, still, but at least it’s significantly improved and far less embarrassing to read.
I’m supposed to tell you where it’s going to go from here, but the truth is, I don’t really know. I’m just going to let it sink in a bit and wait to see what happens in a couple of days. Maybe I’ll spot something in a book I read that’ll show me what to do next. Maybe some feedback will come in and I will figure out what I can work on. Maybe I’ll poke around and suddenly get a massive lead of some sort. Well, I don’t know.
But at least it looks good for now.
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Slow Days, Fast Days
Slow Working Man
I’ve been trying to do school work. Progress is extremely slow, partly because sometimes I don’t actually know if I’m making any progress. There’s a sickening sense of time slipping away, but not doing so fast enough. The days are long and boring, but they also go by too fast. It’s this apparently contradictory notion that defines most of my holidays.
Edit Edit
I’m almost done with the second draft of The River. It might be complete tomorrow, but I say this with absolutely no sense of certainty. It still doesn’t look like anything great, but at least it’s significantly improved.
Meanwhile, I’m still getting ideas. Very slowly, yes, but they’re coming.
Today…
I think I’ll try to study today. I’m not really going to bother about schoolwork. Grah.
Around The Web
Steve Niles’s City Of Dust looks like it’ll be great. [via Comic Book Resources]
Google’s page for its 10th birthday. [via Google]
And this The Dark Knight spoof is just hilarious. [via YouTube] I would refrain from watching it if you’re intending to watch the film (for the first time or otherwise) though. I just don’t think I can watch it in the same way again.
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Wow, it’s…
Spider-Man and Stephen Colbert. [via Comic Book Resources]
I’m… not sure what to think. But hey, I like Stephen Colbert, and I like Spidey, so it must be double awesome, right?
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I call this post “Gondola Dolphins”
Though that isn’t supposed to mean anything.
Art And Craft
I went to the Singapore Art Museum yesterday. It was an interesting trip, with a bunch of new exhibits since I last dropped by. I didn’t know that they had an additional building (dubbed 8-Q, which I think is supposed to be some hip way to refer to 8 curators, or 8-Q-rate, as they put it) and I thought that the stuff there was great, if not for the sometimes large empty spaces and the overzealous receptionist.
I think the lunchtime promotion is a great thing. I’m surprised that so few people visit. It should really draw in more crowds.
I thought I saw this girl who lives near my place at the main block. It left me momentarily stunned as I tried to figure out who she was. I must have looked like a moron.
I have to say that some of the performance arts (do they call it that? because they always seem to be ‘performing’ exhibits and I must confess that this is sometimes not really my thing) don’t quite work for me. Some of them are too deconstructionist, or too meta, to the point where they question the nature of art and qualify their places in a museum by virtue of the uncertainty of whether or not they are in fact pieces of art, which seems to cheapen the thing for me a bit. And some of them just leave me cold, but I suppose there are always pieces specific to each person that won’t ever be understood.
That said, I thought I saw the effect of some pieces in my friends as they studied and surveyed and pored over the figures and paintings and pictures. I guess in some ways, it’s comforting to know that, even when it isn’t completely understood, art still manages to produce an effect on people.
The one piece I enjoyed the most was The Caretaker in 8Q. Slightly freaky.
So I just really wanted to tell you that I really like the Art Museum, especially since it’s free at lunchtime. I’ve enjoyed myself both times I’ve been there (in recent memory). Do drop by if you are so inclined.
F1 Madness
When you take a trip to town these days, you’ll find shops advertising F1 promotions. Yes, F1 promotions, meaning discounts that are somehow related to the impending F1 Singapore GP.
I get the relevance when it’s clothes, especially with all the Ferrari branding these days and the Tag Heuer faces. I get it too when Giordano cashes in with T-shirts featuring outlines of F1 cars. I’ll even buy into the story when you’ve got F1-themed perfumes. But restaurants? F1 set lunches? Really?
And then there’s… F1 promotions for jewellery? F1 promotions for… underwear? Lingerie? Japanese food? Beer?
Hmm.
Why isn’t Kinokuniya giving me a F1-themed discount period? They could call it Racy Books and it wouldn’t be horrendous enough to make me ashamed of the bad pun. I’d still spend hundreds there.
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Sashimi On Sunday
Weekend Over
Over the weekend, I didn’t do very much except for… contemplating some ideas on romance, editing The River, sashimi, revisiting some Beatles albums and playing some PixelJunk Monsters.
Anthrax
The culprit of the post-911 anthrax mess has been identified with… electrons. [via Scientific American]
More Love
Speaking of the Beatles, a DVD of the documentary accompanying the LOVE project will be released next month. [via The Beatles] This makes the Beatles nut in me very happy. This makes the wallet in my pocket very unhappy. October is a month of many games, and a Beatles DVD to top it off isn’t exactly going to help.
But that said, I remember being sceptical about LOVE at first, but it’s turned into one of my favourite albums of all.
More On Roth
Another review of Roth’s Indignation, this one by Mark Sarvas. [via Barnes & Noble] Certainly gives me second thoughts about getting the book. I’ll probably proceed with my plans to go back to classic Roth and leave this a little lower down the priority list.
Work, Work, Work
Okay, I think I’ve got to leave it at that and get to work on a number of random things.
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