Archive for October, 2008
It’s Friday
End Of Another Week
This means that the exams are coming… Brrr.
In the meantime, though, submissions of papers, quizzes, tests, labs, all the good stuff. The run-in to the end of the semester, as I’m sure I’ve already told you, is packed full of deadlines and days of reckoning. I’ve spent the good part of the week, for instance, at work on a paper, which means that I’ve more or less left most of the other work behind. I think I’ll have to catch up during my long weekend.
Oh yes, speaking of which, it is a long weekend. I’ve no lessons today, and the same applies for Monday. I’ll probably be finishing up on a short paper I’ve got up for submission next week, and start work on the couple of tests I’ve got in the week. If I manage to fit it all in, I’ll also pick up the pace on one or two of my modules.
All looking all right.
Meanwhile…
I’ll be having to consider what I’ve to do next for my writing. I have a vague idea now. I’ll probably put up my plans once I have a better sense of the next step to take.
Relevant Fragments
I’ve finished Uncharted and thought it was pretty fun…. Today I might be getting LittleBigPlanet and Fallout 3…. I’ve decided on Fallout 3 for the 360, mostly because I figured I should keep the DLC option open and my computers are all probably not up to snuff…. I’m currently (re)reading Lolita…. When is the second All-Star Superman volume going to arrive…. I got a book voucher as a belated birthday gift…. I suppose it means more books…. Listening to a lot of Muse in the past couple of days…. Absolution, in particular…. Also been playing word games…. And games with names…. Like random scribblings out of the blue…. Don’t quite know why…. I had the strangest dream the other day…. There was Freakazoid, from the old cartoons, trying to save the world, I think, and he said something funny that really wasn’t very funny…. Apparently, one sign that the world was in trouble was that people got brainwashed…. And this famous actress (I don’t remember who now) was repeatedly singing this song with lyrics like…. Uh…. “I want to marry Murakami…”; I presume she meant the author…. And I could remember the tune, but I can’t now…. She was like a robot…. Now the Decemberists are singing on my speakers…. And finally, I like the four-dot style.
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Have a Whitman quote…
The Sleepers
I will duly pass the day O my mother and duly return to you;
Not you will yield forth the dawn again more surely than you will yield forth me again,
Not the womb yields the babe in its time more surely than I shall be yielded from you in my time.The Sleepers, Leaves Of Grass, lines 202-204, Walt Whitman
Under The Weather
I’ve been feeling a bit ill. It appears to be a mild stomach flu. In the meantime, I seem to have developed a cough. Oh unhealthy me.
Books
I’ve been reading, of course. I’ve also been recommending books to folks. I’ve lent books to people. I’ve bought a style manual for someone. I’ve bought books as birthday presents. I’ve to work out what books I’m going to be reading next, in what order and all that stuff. Right now, I’m trying to figure out what book to lend to a friend from China, who apparently hopes to try a detective novel in English.
All this book-lending and book-spreading. Hope it actually ends up to the benefit of people.
Week Eleven
Wow, two more weeks and the term ends and it’s the exams. Fun times, these.
I Think…
I’d better get back to work, or get some rest. Brr.
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Monday Links (And Then Some)
Happy Deepavali
Which explains why I’m home.
Hawking
Stephen Hawking has stepped down from his post as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. [via PhysOrg] Some of the other notables who’ve sat on the chair of the Lucasian Professor include (of course) Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, Sir George Stokes and Paul Dirac.
I am sure he will continue to make scientific investigations, but this in some way marks the end of an era, and I can’t help but say, job well done, Dr. Hawking.
2.7
Wordpress 2.7 is coming soon. [via Wordpress.com]
My Eyes!
This is the official website of Mocmoc and Mermer. [via mocmoc & mermer] I never thought I would see the official site and I have to say that a long time ago when someone introduced them to me, I was for some reason rather creeped out. I still am.
Yay
A nice Cyanide and Happiness strip. [via Explosm.net]
Writing
I’ve been writing this Chinese music paper (in English). It has been rather challenging.
And in the meantime, I could do with some sleep. As always.
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Recent Additions
What I Bought
- Derek Attridge’s The Singularity Of Literature (which was in fact rather costly)
- Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise
- An anthology of Nobel lectures that includes the Literature lectures for two decades
- The reprint of Robert Frank’s classic, The Americans (double yay)
- The Drop Edge Of Yonder by Rudolph Wurlitzer
- Haruki Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes
- Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
- Lost In The Funhouse by John Barth
- The paperback edition of Coetzee’s Diary Of A Bad Year (better late than never!)
- Junot Diaz’s much acclaimed The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
- The Everyman’s edition of Lolita
- And a few that are in fact gifts
What I Couldn’t Find
- Beckett’s Disjecta
- The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen III: The Black Dossier
- Saramago’s Blindness (couldn’t find the edition I wanted)
What I Had To Give Up
- William S. Burroughs
- A Eugene O’Neill play
- Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book
- Dickinson and Eliot
- The Everyman’s of Svevo’s Zeno’s Conscience
- Some other Saramago book
- Some Cormac McCarthy book
- Tom McCarthy’s Remainder
- Stefan Merrill Block’s The Story Of Forgetting
- Netherland, which I really wanted to buy this time but just couldn’t because I was short on cash
What I Paid
Over 350, actually, which seems a far cry from my usual 100 or 200 dollar budgeting plans. However, keep in mind that The Americans is actually a belated birthday present from myself to myself. And the gifts themselves are about 90 dollars.
What I’m Glad About
Mostly that I’ve finally added Raymond Carver to my library, along with Rudolph Wurlitzer, whom I very much admire. Also happy that I’ve added more academic texts, in the form of The Rest Is Noise, The Singularity Of Literature and the Nobel lectures. Finally, it’s great to see Nabokov take its place on my shelf alongside the likes of my other heroes, Joyce, McCarthy, Beckett, and even the more recent ones such as Saramago. The Americans too actually is great to have. Well, hmm, I guess you could say that every purchase was a point of happiness in its own way.
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Short Friday Notes
You Should Always Quest Alone
I’m going to the bookstore alone today. Many things on the list, and some side orders as well. I have to get a DVD, for instance, and also a few birthday presents; but the bookstore is probably the central thing. I’ll be back with my loot report.
No Romance
So no more early Beatles on my jukebox. It seems the stinging lyricism of Dylan and the soundscapes of Radiohead are more to my tastes for the week.
New Saramago Book
Read what James Wood has to say about José Saramago’s new book Death With Interruptions. [via The New Yorker]
I’ll Be Back
Later.
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I Will Not Yield, Deadlines!!
Have At You!
Curiously, this semester has the unnatural trait of having almost zero deadline pressure. Last semester, I was fighting with deadlines every other day, as if I had new projects every week. No such thing this semester. In fact, it’s been relatively stress-free as far as assignments have been concerned. It’s really been more a matter of tests and labs.
Well, that happy period is over and this week, all of the subjects come knocking with their own versions of projects. I can’t say I haven’t been expecting it, but it’s certainly starting to feel more like school.
Strange, though, it’s nearly the end of the semester.
In any case, it looks like it’ll be a busy time for me.
Book Outing
If anyone wants to go shopping at Kinokuniya, I’ll be at the central store on Friday. Unless something bad happens like my house gets attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex and three ninja kittens. Then I’ll go on Saturday. Drop me a line if you’ll be there.
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