Money Matters

So you spend it.

Here’s the loot report for yesterday, or in other words, the books joining my little library:

1. Seeing by José Saramago
2. All-Star Superman Vol. 2 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
3. The Odyssey by Homer (Translated by Robert Fitzgerald)
4. The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
5. Pandora In The Congo by Albert Sanchez Piñol (Translated by Mara Faye Lethem)
6. The 4 Major Plays by Anton Chekhov (Translated by Curt Columbus)
7. Last Evenings On Earth by Roberto Bolaño (Translated by Chris Andrews)

Not quite the mix I was expecting, with a shortage of science and poetry. I think I’ll pop by for another book tomorrow if I happen to be passing by, though that’ll likely be a recent novel than anything else. In fact, it might even be in Chinese.

I’m happiest about my Pandora In The Congo buy, actually, because it’s not something I would normally read, and I’ve only heard good things about it.

I had a bunch of other books I was intending to get, including the new Kazuo Ishiguro Nocturnes and In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin, but I suspect I’m going pocket paperback for those, if they ever appear. Otherwise I’ll just get them as they are. There was also a science book that’s in a gigantic hardcover and I was at first slightly tempted, but what the hey, I’m a poor student without a job.

I’m sure there’ll be another before school reopens, since there’s the Great Singapore Sale somewhere along these couple of months, so there’s certainly ample time to stock up on my new semester reading.

Today…

I think I’ll be working on a query for The River. I just want some space from Bukit Merah for now, in case I burn out prematurely. I figure that if I can’t tell how long it’s going to be (since I am making it up as I go along), then I run the risk of either writing it too short (rushing it) or too long (dragging it). Some distance, temporal or otherwise, from it might help, so I reckon I won’t be back at it until Monday, depending on how the weekend works out.

Hmm.

Results in a week. Wonder what I’ll see. There’s something nerve-wracking about getting your results reported to you by your computer. A click of the mouse and poof it’s there. And as if it wants to mess with your head a bit more, it doesn’t appear instantly. No, it just lags a bit and hangs around and tries its best to surprise you. Then it shows up like a magic trick, and you’re struggling to contain the dread in the first couple of seconds as you try to make sense of it all.

Then it makes sense. And it’s like dust, taking ages to settle.

Next week. Friday, I think.

2.8

The WordPress 2.8 beta has got up and going. [via WordPress.org]

TRICO

Team ICO’s next project has an alleged trailer. [via Kotaku]

Looks great. I like the giant beast.

9

New trailer for 9. [via YouTube]

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Brand New Day

Finale

Yesterday’s Physiology paper was a bit of a challenge, and I think it’s fair to say the best part about it is that it’s over. While not as awful as the Math paper, it did a pretty good job of trying to put a damper on our spirits.

Still! First new day! Plans! Plans! Plans! And plenty of fist-shaking, looking as if aggrieved!

Today’s Menu

Today, I’ve got a doctor’s appointment to do a little bit of a check-up. Then I think I’ll pop around town to do a bit of shopping. While this is going on, I think I’ll start on my rereading of Ulysses. I’ll also have to coordinate a gathering on Saturday, so I’ve got to start working that out in my head whenever I get bored and then SMS people too. Then I’ve got to start planning the rest of the holidays, and how I’m going to work things out.

Oh and I hope I don’t forget to wish my birthday friend a happy birthday.

Blind Faith

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood performed in a number of shows together last year, and coming May 19th, there’ll be a live album and a concert film being released. [via Eric Clapton] Set list looks great. I’m definitely going to buy it, though it’s all fast burning a hole in my pocket bigger than the one in the ozone layer.

.deTuned

This looks absolutely trippy. [via PlayStation Blog] I think I’ll be getting it if it’s not too expensive. I always like these artsy things.

Watchmen Aerosol Graffiti

From the description:

Time lapse aerosol graffiti promo video commissioned by Paramount for the UK West end movie premiere of ‘Watchmen’ 2009. executed by ‘End of the line’ artists: Bleach, Probs, Busk and Zadok.

Right Then…

Off to enjoy this first non-exam day, desperately in need of sleep because I stayed up for football.

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Pre-Exam Monday

One More Paper!

So I’m kind of just dropping by with a bunch of random things.

Opinion Soon!

I’ve been listening to The Hazards Of Love, and I’ll be putting up some thoughts on it as soon as things settle down a bit.

All The Plans!

I’ve also been listening to the not-so-new-anymore Starsailor album All The Plans. It’s not bad. Certainly like it better than the last one. It hasn’t quite won me over in the way Silence Is Easy did, but there are a few songs that I’m quite taken to. The opener is really good, and there are a number of others that have a bit of sparkle to them. A really decent album.

In Fact!

After the exams, I really hope to be doing an assortment of things that just need doing. Like getting a haircut. Getting a shave. Blogging properly. (Sorry.) Writing. Watching movies. Meeting friends. Dentist’s. More writing. Reading. Some games. Hunting unicorns. Loads of editing. You know, the usual things. It’s just that there isn’t the heart for these things when the exams loom dark and dangerous. Especially after that math paper.

H1N1!

Speaking of exams, I now have to go an hour earlier for my examinations because of the swine flu outbreak, because apparently we have to pass a temperature screening before being allowed to take the paper.

I’m sure these precautions are great and all; but sometimes I get the feeling that the half the media reports emerge from the shadow of fear-mongering.

Three Bags Full!

Photographs of the near-perfect baby mammoth found. [via National Geographic] Beautiful stuff.

Touch!

Researchers at John Hopkins University seem to have discovered that microRNA production is at some level regulated by touch/cell density. [via PhysOrg]

Goats!

Google mows their lawn with goats. [via The Official Google Blog]

All right, back to fend off Physiology.

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Half-Time Report

Well, more like three quarters…

Three papers down. Math was worse than I thought it’d be. Signals was slightly better than I thought it’d be. Cell Biology was, hmm, I don’t know. The usual, I suppose. One more paper, though. Physiology, you better watch yourself.

Goodbye, April

Flip your calendars!

Hazardous

I was supposed to write some comments about The Hazards Of Love today, but it really just came in through the mail yesterday. That said, I’m just very happy to receive it, no matter how late. The signed booklet was a bit of a bonus.

I’ve listened to it once through. It’s certainly different. Not quite the catchy tunes of some previous efforts, and more of a cultured endeavour, an expansive drama that seems to go by very quickly despite being about an hour long. I’m still not sure what I think of it. Wasn’t what I was expecting, but certainly surprised me in a good way.

Friday Neuroscience

The brain works best when in the right rhythms. [via PhysOrg]

Sleeping and memory. [via Newsweek]

Gaming Goodness

New PixelJunk game forthcoming. [via Kotaku] I spend more time playing PSN games than actual PS3 games on that machine, so this news fills me with joy.

Sars Wars

There’s this slightly over-the-top Thai movie called Sars Wars. I’ve never watched it before, but the wackiness of the trailer makes me want to.

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Hello, Goodbye

Briefly…

No feature today again, as usual. Just popped by for a quick update. Studies are going averagely, though I suppose they could be better. Other things are not going at all.

My Decemberists CD has yet to arrive though I suspect it will on Monday or Tuesday. Just the boost I need for the exams, perhaps?

My desktop is making funny whirring noises every so often. I believe the computer imp is grumbling about the recession. On the other hand, a couple of technical issues with my notebook too. Rather irritating, but I’ll deal with that after the exams.

Can’t quite make up my mind on what to study today. It’s either Signals or Cell Biology.

Finale

Watched the first part of the Series 4 finale, The Stolen Earth, yesterday. Not bad. Not bad at all. A couple of things I didn’t like, particularly the cellphone bit, and it was all a little, uhm, busy, a little too busy. And it was always going to be a little difficult to keep up the immense writing of the four preceding episodes. That said, it is a bit wild, a bit scary, a bit funny, and a bit wacky all at the same time, and it’s this sort of feeling that I’m not sure any other writer can recreate when Russell T. Davies leaves. I mean, remember that absolutely insane Series 3 finale? Hard to imagine anyone else coming up with that sort of story, so I think, no matter the writing complaints I sometimes have of the revived series so far, I’m really going to miss a good RTD story now and then.

Onwards to the last episode though.

Art

Here’s some concept art for the film adaptation of The Road, drawn by Hugh Marchant. [via flickr] Very, very pretty stuff.

The film is taking ages to show up, though.

Cell Biology

It appears the cilia did not originate from separate organisms. [via MIT] I’m sure that bit of information will be handy for the exams.

Corpses

You can order the Neil Gaiman penned Amanda Palmer collaboration Who Killed Amanda Palmer? now. [via jsrdirect] Limited copies, I heard. I’m too poor to afford one.

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The Long Week

So Long, Not Long Enough

This is the reading week, where everyone studies like crazy (well, most people anyway) before they plunge themselves into the exams. Looks like a long and dreary week. I have four papers: two on Tuesday, one on WEdnesday, and one on the 5th of May (I think). It’s not actually a lot but a couple of them will need more work than others.

Today I’m going to school to attend one last supplementary class and also to hand up the last of my assignments. Thereafter, I will have shaken off the last of the term commitments and will be able to dive into the revision like everyone else. Looks awful, but I suppose you get used to it.

Three More

Three, right? I watched the one with the cloned girl and didn’t really like it. Then the Agatha Christie one was kind of okay, clever in bits, and yet somehow sort of missing a little magic. I also caught Silence In The Library yesterday, and I have to say, very clever, Mr. Moffat. Very clever. Excellent monster design, in particular.

On The Jukebox

I’ve had a lot of Rod Piazza playing for some reason. Some of the older records. Actually, I don’t have the new ones. I should probably keep and eye out for them. Speaking of which, The Hazards Of Love has yet to arrive, yes, but I’m just impatient.

Recent Conversations

Conversations with real people (hey, just in case you were suspicious) in the past couple of days have included discussions about: skulls, ice sculptures, flashing purple emoticons, girlfriends-boyfriends, killer monkeys, stars, the art of monster design, chopstick revelations, pandas, rhinoceroses as dinosaurs, Nicolas Cage in his new movie, kidnapping me.

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Results

Results are out today and they are in fact terribly average. They also seem to tell me that I’m supposed to be in Arts, but I guess after moping around and refusing to commit to that change-in-course application, it’s too late now.

The results are:

• Organic Chemistry, B-
• Biotransport, B+ (the paper I messed up; was banking on this to pull things up)
• Biochemistry, B+
• Chinese Music, A
• Singapore History, A+

Hmm. Yes, I probably should have gone to Arts.

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Back In Business

Exams Are Over

And the verdict is… I think I did okay overall. I messed up my paper on Monday quite badly, but other than that mostly without incident. I just hope the results don’t go awry either. We’ll find out in a few weeks.

Write!

I’ll be reading Flann O’Brien during the holidays. I’ll also be going through The Absolute Sandman. Many  big changes to implement in The River. And some shopping to do. But mostly, it’ll be just those few things.

I might be editing some essay work for people too. And with some luck I might earn a little pocket money by taking that on as a part-time job, though that’s yet to be confirmed. All looks very uneventful and normal for the holidays, though, which I guess is a good thing.

Oh, I scrapped my Roth reading plans because there simply are too many books for me right now.

22 Days

To Christmas of course! I’ll be coming up with a short guide on gift ideas some time this week, I think. It’ll be just books, if things go according to plan. I’ll aim for the weekend.

Otherwise, have a good week, and it’s great to be back. Blogging service will resume from here.

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Proper Names On An Exam Monday

First Blood

First paper today! And this will probably be the last substantial post you’ll see from me in a while. The photo features should continue, though.

New Name

I’ve finally got rid of the pompous first name we’ve been using around this place for something a little less fancy and closer to the heart. The original name (“scordatura”) was always kind of a filler name and I’m happy to see it go.

Quantum Weirdness

On quantum antitunnelling. [via Scientific American]

Pop-Up Pulp Art

Somebody took pulp adventure books and cut out the covers in a pop-up fashion to create some rather interesting results. Take a look. [via io9]

Pixels In A Wedding

Came across this yesterday, this pixelated wedding. [via cabel.name] It honestly looks quite pretty.

Earphones

I’m interested to see how the Atomic Floyd earphones turn out. [via Josh Spear] Not that I’m considering a purchase, of course. My Ultimate Ears are still young.

All right then, I guess this will be it from me for a while… Time to fling myself against the exams. Rawr.

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Hit The Pause Button

Paused

I’ve decided to take a break from the writing until after the exams are over. I’ll almost certainly be starting on the edits for The River during December, so that’ll take precedence, so this probably means I won’t be doing Singapura for quite a while.

Exam Schedule

Here’s what my timetable looks like:

On Monday, I have Chinese Music.
On Thursday, I have Singapore History.
On the next Monday, I have Biofluids.
On the Tuesday after that, I have Biochemistry.
And my last paper is on Wednesday, with Organic Chemistry.

GMail Themes

There are now themes for Gmail. [via Official GMail Blog] How very colourful.

John Barth Interview

I also found this interview over at Barnes & Noble with John Barth interesting. [via Barnes & Noble]

Well, it goes through several filters. My wife, bless her, who is my first reader and best critic, is very sharp-eyed — not only catching typos, but also applying her wonderfully retentive memory so that she can say, in effect, “Look, you played this card on page 4 and you forgot to pick it up on page 137.” Or as Chekhov said, “If you hang a rifle on the wall in Act I, you have to fire it in Act III.” You needn’t shoot out all the lampshades in the room — just fire the damn thing.

Ah, so it appears I’m missing a wife!

Book Arrangements

Finally, there’s also this intriguing article about arranging books in one’s personal library. [via The Online Photographer] I suppose that’s something I’ll have to worry about in the near future.

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