My FYP takes top billing, of course. It… It’s progressing. I’m not so sure what to make of it. I’ll do my best, but I’m still learning many things and it’s still taking quite a bit of time to get anywhere. Hopefully I’ll iron out the kinks by these couple of weeks and we can get to making excellent progress during the holiday season.

Oh yes, the holiday season. So many presents to buy! So few actually bought. Daryl sad.

This weekend, I’m hoping to get started on a bunch of other duties. It just struck me last night how many things I have to do these holidays. I hope it works out. Honestly, I have no idea if it will, but I’m basically going to deal with it one at a time. I’m sure it won’t turn out too bad.

One of those duties–and I suppose it isn’t really a duty–is meeting up with some of my friends. And this is one of the things I am so thankful for, because I have such excellent friends. I don’t know how they put up with me. I’m afraid to find out because that might shatter the magic spell. So I’ll just let them do their thing and I’ll try to be the best that I can.

Oh I guess I should say a bit about my FYP. It basically involves reconstructing three-dimensional models from medical images (MRI so far) and using these models for simulations of computational fluid dynamics. I’ll show you a picture next time. Promise.

To end off this fairly disjointed blog entry, here’s a video of David Bowie performing “Teenage Wildlife”:

It’s on my jukebox now, and it’s such a wonderful song.

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I am, for instance, quite excited by the imminent release of Roland Barthes’s Mourning Diary, which sounds so ridiculously morbid I probably shouldn’t have said it, but the thought of more Barthes to read is always a happy one. Plus, I read a couple of sentences from previews here and there and it seems so completely heartbreaking. So in a sense, it’s a book event that I’m looking forward to on the scale of that which occurred back when 2666 was going to be released.

Station To Station just got re-released, and I’m looking forward to giving it a spin once I get my hands on it. I may also check out the new Eric Clapton album.

On the subject of music re-releases, there’s also the re-release of Dylan’s mono albums. I’m no stickler for mono, but I’m curious as to how they will sound. And on top of that, Dark Horse records is releasing new editions of the Ravi Shankar albums produced by George Harrison.

This week is Nobel week! I’m rooting for Bei Dao, Mario Vargas Llosa, Cormac McCarthy, Javier Marias, or Antonio Tabucchi to take it. I know that’s not very likely, but it would be nice to be right once in a while, you know?

Some new ideas! Thinking on them!

This week, my purchase of Derrida’s Of Grammatology should arrive and grace my shelves in due course. I don’t know why I never thought to add it to my library before, but problem solved.

The French movie Le Petit Nicolas, based on the children’s book series, is coming to Singapore, and this excites me for reasons I cannot really mention. I’m quite sure this won’t stay a source of excitement for very long.

I’m quite sure there are a few other little things, very little things, but that’s as much as I can ask for nowadays. Right, back to work.

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flickr has a new look, with bigger pictures. Look at mine. [via flickr] I like it so far.

A look into the J.G. Ballard archives. [via A Piece of Monologue]

‘I am not going to give one inch to the “you need to support yourself” argument. I had a student at the School of Visual Arts once. He came to class one week and didn’t have any work because his camera was stolen. I understood that. But the next week he came back and still didn’t have any work because he said he didn’t have enough money to buy a camera. I said, “I’m going to throw you out of the class.” I made him come up to the front of the class and I asked him to stick out his arm. He did. I grabbed his hand and said, “What is that?” He had a Tag Heuer watch. I said, “Sell that watch and buy a camera.” He said, “I can’t sell that watch, my grandmother gave it to me.” So I said, “Sell your grandmother into slavery and buy a camera.” I threw him out of the class. ‘

Talking to photographer Thomas Roma. [via The Days of Yore]

StarCraft II is the fastest selling strategy game of all time. [via Kotaku]

On Education, by Bertrand Russell. [via Wikisource]

Hi, David Bowie. Hi, George! [via Youtube]

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It’s David Bowie Day! Paint a lightning bolt across your eye! Let the children boogie!

(Happy birthday, sir!)

Subjects

Today is (hopefully) the last day of subject selections. We have this system called CORS, where you essentially make use of your bidding points and bid for the subjects that you want (and are allowed) to take. The way it generally works is that different classes of subjects (called modules) will be available in different rounds, and obviously different subjects have different numbers of vacancies. There’s an open bidding period and a closed bidding period in each round. In the open bidding period, you get information about the highest and lowest bid points and the number of bidders. In the closed bidding period that ensues, you will only get to see the number of bidders on your screen. If your subject is popular, you’re going to want to change your plan, either by stepping up your bid or by opting for something else. Defeatists will choose to give up altogether. Self-pity is optional.

CORS days are sad days to me. They create this sense of nervousness as you sit at home and periodically check your screen to see if the number of bidders has increased. All you’re really doing is praying very hard that no one else has noticed the subject that you intend to take. It is a little like hoping that no one makes a move on the girl that you like.

Of course, unpopular subjects tend to be unpopular for a reason. This figures on your brain sometimes. Maybe it’s a difficult subject. Maybe it’s got some kind of reputation. Maybe people just don’t like the title. It’s hard to tell. But you just try to convince yourself that it’s not going to be anything horrifying.

I’ve got two more subjects I’m waiting to pick. One is probably going to be more popular than the other. (Sociology is generally more popular in the free-for-all round than Literature, I think.) Wish me luck.

Space!

Hubble gets a look at the farthest galaxies. [via ScienceDaily]

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Yesterday, I read Roberto Bolaño’s The Romantic Dogs. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and while I tend to think I have unhealthily narrow tastes in poetry, it seemed to push all the right buttons for me. I think I can easily consider it one of my favourite collections.

And now I have to pick another book.

Unfriendly

There is an unusual sense that the individual subjects that I’m doing this semester aren’t particularly bad, and yet, when taken together, might prove fatal. The weeks go by very slowly, and yet too quickly. It’s a funny feeling. The deadlines are starting to come in, and the work is beginning to take on the countenance of a mountain, but I reckon you could simply say that it comes with the job.

Starman

For no particular reason, here’s David Bowie with Starman.

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