Archive for August, 2009
The Lovely Bones
So I got these bone models back yesterday. I’m apparently supposed to be using them (that is, with my group of course) in the course of the design project.
It’s basically a left scapula and the accompanying humerus.
I didn’t really have any space in my bag yesterday, so I had to hold them by hand on my way home. On the way, I got a few funny stares, but the thing that made my day was when this little girl (maybe about six?) was walking along with her mom and saw these bone models. She yelled, “Marmee, he got big bone!” That made me smile. Next, she said, “Dinosaur bone!” Then I smiled even more.
Dinosaur bone. It was like something that I’d been waiting all day for someone to say.
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Just a commemorative post.
This post was scheduled to go up on 12:34:56 07/08/09 Singapore time. Just for the sake of it.
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Hey you, how was your first week of school?
Slightly Older
It’s Friday! That means it’s the last day of the first week of school, which truth be told hasn’t been the most interesting affair, but if anything, it’s great to see some friends again. Not everyone’s back yet. Far from it, in fact. But a couple of friendly faces are always nice. It’s not been that long since the last term ended, but things feel a little different. Things seem to have changed a bit. The stuff that you talk about, the people you’ve become, and all that. Perhaps the three-month break allowed a little space for reflection, something we were all a little short of.
It’s not started to get busy yet, of course, but this semester looks ridiculously challenging. Having been out of the school rhythm for so long, I suppose it’ll take some getting used to. I probably don’t have much time to do so, however, because the schedule seems to tell me that we’ll really have to hit the ground running. Brr.
Book Selection
Yesterday, I finished up with The Paris Review Interviews, Volume 1, so it was my first book since the start of the term. It took me four days, which is about eight to ten hours of reading. (I’m not a fast reader.) So I went through the slightly agonising process of choosing a new one. Eventually, after some deliberation, I settled on The Catcher In The Rye. First time I’m reading it. I suppose I’m a little late to the party.
My current bookmark is also too gigantic with the tiny paperback that I have, so I had to return to my old one.
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Good Night, Good Night
Everything is a bad idea.
I thought yesterday that everything I’ve dreamed up for the forthcoming project is pretty bad, so it all looks like a giant cancer of some sort now. I’m letting that take its time to sink in. So in the meantime, I’ve cranked up the editing gearbox and we went at a pretty high pace right for a time.
2.0
I finished up with a first round of line-by-line editing yesterday. At least, I did it on paper. I wanted to get it done quickly so that I could put together some reading copy for a few unlucky beta readers. This first edit is essentially to correct the typographical errors and also to smooth out some expressions. Call it a detailed technical inspection.
I’ll be working the edits into the actual document today onwards, though I’m not sure when I’ll be finished with it. The likelihood is at least a couple of days, though to be very optimistic, I could possibly complete it by today, and to be more pessimistic, I should be done before National Day.
It’s still a long way to go, really. I’m a little glad that the school term has started because that gives me an excuse to set it aside for the time being. I want to come back to it with a mind to replace significant portions of it. The main feeling I get after going through it once is that a number of big sections sag, so I’ll be looking to remedy that. I think I’m currently too deeply entrenched in it to figure out how that’s going to happen.
Apart from that, I’m still not sure if it’s cohesive, and if it does what it’s supposed to do. It’s quite a different undertaking from The River, and so I don’t really have that experience to count on. It starts and it ends, and a bunch of things happen in between, and at one moment I was convinced that all of these things work well together, but that belief has drowned in the course of working at it. In other words, I’m looking for a sense of solidarity that in some way (pardon the puffy expressions) binds the elements together. I was sure it would fit at one time, and now it’s time to affirm that.
Oh yes, and keeping up with the habit of naming my drafts, this one is Good Night, Good Night.
Inherent Vice
Just in case you’ve missed the news, Pynchon’s new novel Inherent Vice is on sale now! [via Amazon]
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Pentatonic Scales
First Day Of School
O yes. So it starts today. I’m taking five subjects this semester, with a look to doing a sixth, though I’m still not very decided on that. This week, however, will be an entire week of only one subject, and a quick glance at the notes reveals that it’s going to be some sort of schematic modelling.
Funny feeling, though, going back after so long. It’s been a pretty long summer, and on Saturday when I started to print my notes, there was this tingling sensation in my gut. In a way, I think it’s back to a life where you don’t have so much control over the circumstances around you and you’re kind of lulled into taking what you get, if that makes sense. I’m sure that sentence is going to be misunderstood in some way, but I really can’t think of any other way to say it now.
Reading Duties
Going back to school means that it’s time to start reading again, which is something to look forward to, of course. I have about thirty books in waiting, and at the time of this writing (the day before this gets published, as usual) I’ve yet to pick out the one to start with.
The Brain On Scales
It made me smile to see this yesterday. And in any case, Bobby McFerrin is a brilliant man.
World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.
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