flip your calendar
Belated Flip Your Calendar
“April is the cruellest month,” he wrote. Which seems very true, in context. But remember to flip your calendar.
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Non-Leap Year
The Saints Go…
Oh new month. How exciting. Flip your calendars.
Monthly Stocktaking
With a new month, of course, comes new goals and objectives and whatnot. February was a good month in terms of work. Sure, the trend is that I’m on a decline in terms of productivity, but that was something I’d expected anyway. I’m doing okay, though this potentially life-changing week will probably have something to say about it. We’ll know more in a week or so, but for now, I can only hope that I won’t react too badly to anything that occurs in the imminent future.
In other words, it’s probably not too wise to make too many plans for the month. The best laid plans and all that.
In the meantime, I do have some other plans, and some of those have to do with my job prospects, so I’m looking into that. I’m also still in the midst of shifting my room, so some things will no doubt be underway soon enough. I have to go to the dentist too.
Of course, school will take place as well, and many things will happen, and we will all grouse and grumble, but it will happen. I’m managing. Not particularly well or particularly poorly, but simply managing.
Awful Days
These days, everything seems to be going wrong. Misaligned. Mussed up in some way that you can’t quite put your finger to. Have you ever experienced that? I think everyone gets things like this every so often, though, not being everyone, I can’t actually be sure. Fairly annoying, nonetheless.
I know that there’s a proper reason for all of it, of course, but I can’t really figure out what it is. It is most frustrating because I don’t mean to alienate anyone, so I try very hard not to, but it doesn’t always work. Is something changing? Some life perspective, some outlook, some character trait, perhaps? I don’t know, but it’s not exactly the most pleasant experience. In the meantime, I’ve put my trust into the things I know best–foolishly or not–whether it be music, art, or humour. I’ll also do everything I can not to offend anyone while I slowly figure things out. I mean, I’ve had more than two decades of civilisation. That has to be the least I can do.
Bookstore
Oh wow. What a lovely place. [via The Book Bench]
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Lil Cthulhu
Good Idea, Bad Idea
I thought of some stuff on Monday. I don’t know if it’s any good, but I wrote it down first. I’m fluctuating between the two ends of the stick, and I’m pretty sure this will all turn out to be a bad idea. But I think the starting scene and the ending scene will work. It’s just that I don’t yet know what happens in between. That is a fairly frustrating feeling, but it comes with the job.
Presentation Down!
On the cards, one lab report, one test, one paper, and one more presentation to go. And a bunch of other random things. I’m trying not to think about it, for fear of scaring myself into surrender, so instead I’ll just keep chugging along until we get to the other side.
Oops
I forgot to remind all you people to flip your calendars! So flip them!
Lil Cthulhu
Aww, this is adorable. [via Topless Robot]
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July, July! (Return Orders)
Brand New Month
And the Web Walrus would like to remind you to flip your calendars.
Return Orders
A couple of weeks ago, I received my Amazon order for two books, one of them being Nick Brandt’s On This Earth. There was a problem between pages 8 and 9, because the edge was a bit stuck and there was also a bit of a tear. Basically, there was a very rough texture and some bits of page 9 on page 8 and a hole in page 9 itself. They weren’t even fully separated.
I tried to follow the returns policy of Amazon and one of the requirements was that I would have to send it back. So I arranged for a return, and printed the barcode and mailing address and all that. It was all going well until I arrived at the post office and learnt that the mailing of the book would cost more than the book itself. Aghast, I went back and deliberated over this for a while. (It should be noted that Amazon can only refund up to, I think, four USD from the postage costs.)
I wrote an email to Customer Service, and the reply was swift and extremely helpful. One of the resolutions offered was a replacement of the book at (almost) no further costs and without the need for me to send back my damaged copy. This was arranged for very quickly, and I saw the new order being made as well as the refund for the new order going through (and this is why I said almost, because the refund was about 1 SGD less than the amount paid, for some reason).
Yesterday, I received the new book and am now very happy with it. And I just wanted to say that the Amazon customer service was all quite excellent, extremely efficient and professional, and in all, very helpful.
Sometimes, good customer service just makes your day.
I Am
Slightly ahead of schedule, in the sense that I’ve been writing faster than I thought I would, but the project is also looking longer than I first thought it would be. I’m trying to keep the numbers down, but, you know, whatever it takes.
It’s becoming a bit monotonous. Or maybe that’s not the word for it. It’s very workman these days, very procedural. I’m just sort of piecing things together, filling in gaps and the like, which is something I obviously want to avoid. It probably has in part to do with how quickly I’m going, but my experience is that if my pace abates too much, I’ll end up just never getting anything done. Besides, like I was saying the last time, I’ve kind of got the momentum for the final run-in going, and I better capitalise on that and just ride the wave.
Shopping
Last Friday, I went shopping with my parents, and there was this bunch of bargain books outside Plaza Singapura. I think it was a Carrefour thing. From there, I got the Stephen Colbert book (I Am America (And So Can You!)), an Alice Munro book (The View From Castle Rock), some Philip Roth (Exit Ghost) and a Michael Chabon novel (Gentlemen Of The Road).
Apart from that, I also got a new Gravis bag for the new term. It is orange. And to top it all off, I got a couple of bits of stationery.
Battery
My laptop battery appears to have died.
Bah.
Off to work.
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Press Start
It’s A New Month!
Which goes hand-in-hand with today’s post, but in the meantime, this sentences here is to tell you to flip your calendar.
All Packed Up
With the results out and none too disastrous, I took some time to pack up the notes and textbooks yesterday, so my desk looks slightly neater and the shelf is now empty waiting for the new term. Probably should have done that a couple of weeks ago, but I kept having my mind on the results, so I just didn’t dare to touch it for a while, almost as if I would jinx them or the like.
Present
That packing up reminded me to splurge, since my results weren’t too bad. Of course, you know that this sort of thing works either way, and I would have told myself to cheer myself up with some spending if they were bad. I’ve been picking a present. I was thinking of the Planet Earth series on Bluray, though the idea of getting a couple of rare photography books has also surfaced. I think in the end, I’ll go for the combo of the documentary plus Nick Brandt’s On This Earth: Photographs From East Africa [via Amazon]. Someone pointed me to the book yesterday and I have to say that the few low-res shots I’ve seen from it look spectacular.
Still thinking about it, though, mostly because I reviewed my spending for the past month and it’s clearly a little higher than I would’ve liked.
June!
Yes, apart from all that clearing up and rewarding of myself, the arrival of June will hopefully coincide with other “new beginning” things. I stopped at about 50% for Bukit Merah yesterday, and I have to admit that the last couple of days haven’t been particularly fruitful in terms of writing. All been rather workman-like. So I reckon that this is a good place to take a substantial break before diving in again.
In the meantime, I’ve designated June as submissions month, and seeing as to how I haven’t got too many baskets to put my eggs in (yeah, there goes your daily awkward expression), I figure I’ve got to make them count. At the same time, I really think it’s not healthy to obsess over The River much longer, so it’s really time to take the plunge and hope for the best. I don’t know how to go about this, especially given the perhaps slightly unique local scene, but there’s a certain now-or-never to this, and I’m not going to sit around asking silly questions anymore. Bah, you only live once, right?
Certainly not quite as comfortable as sitting in a chair banging out the words, but there isn’t a way around it. It feels kind of like waiting for a job interview, in fact.
I haven’t got a plan of action yet, but at the very least I’ll be needing to clean up a couple of spots in the submission version, and I’ll also have to go asking for some guidelines from anyone who might even be mildly interested in this. If nothing else, that’s some kind of start, right?
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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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An April Morning
On this day, people tend to want to play little tricks on you. Not here! this humble establishment! Only the truth here! Instead, we (that’s me and the Web Walrus) would simply wish to remind you to flip your calendars.
On another note, Mario has (I think) found a new home. A friend of my grandmother’s. I hope he does well there. It was nice having you here, Mario!
And that’s it. No tricks. No gimmicks. No hidden Easter Egg. Really. You ought to believe me.
Though if you didn’t, it might help you to pass the time.
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Merlion Monday
Struck By Lightning
It’s been ridiculously rainy in the past week or two, but it’s only been in the last couple of days that I’ve been seeing flashes of lightning. While the weather doesn’t bode well for the stray cats outside of my place, we another… more unusual casualty during the weekend. It seems that the Merlion was struck by lightning on Saturday (I think) and lost a bit of his/her/its head. I suppose the bizarre portmanteau of an animal (I always think of it as something that came off of the island of Doctor Moreau) had offended nature in some way so… there you go, I guess. I’m sure they’ll patch up the creature in no time.
This does play nicely into a story I was planning, however. It had something to do with the Merlion, and I didn’t think of lightning, but now that that’s happened, I guess it’s something that works brilliantly, so pardon me if I cannibalise a bit of reality in that particular short story. Thats on the back-burner though, so it won’t be showing up any time soon.
I snipped off the article describing the incident from the papers. One for the kids, I suppose.
Though I do sometimes wonder what people think of the Merlion, both Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans. I’ve seen poems that extol it and poems that criticise it. I’ve heard amused opinions and not-so-amused ones too. All very different, and that’s why I wonder.
The Hazards Of Love Pre-order
The Decemberists’ new album, The Hazards Of Love, is available for pre-order. [via The Decemberists' Shop] No rush. You’ve missed the signed copies. (I always do, unfortunately.) I got mine with the ‘The Rake’ tee. (I’m sure that isn’t the right way to say it but just putting two ‘the’s together feels inexplicably amusing. I think I need sleep.)
The Rake’s Song is the only song I’ve heard (not being able to attend any concert and all that) and on the basis of that alone it sounds like it’ll be a great album. It’s nice to have him on a t-shirt too, that unforgiveable sod of a man, and the Carson Ellis artwork is great as ever.
Calendar Reminder
O, it’s March. Flip your calendars, people.
Not Unless…
The Space Game is a space variation of tower defence that’s really rather fun. [via The Casual Collective] I first saw it over at Kotaku. [via Kotaku] Don’t go there if you haven’t got time to waste, though.
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