Space Oddity

Strange things are happening on my side of the universe. I can’t exactly explain what they are, but let’s just say that there are maybe two or three things that have had me thinking, Well, this never happened before. It’s nothing too terrible. I am losing sleep, but that has to do with something else. And I know how vague all of this sounds, but I guess I don’t really have a choice about that. Suffice to say, it’s an odd time for me and I don’t think it will let up any time soon.

Now for an assortment of things:

I’ve been writing again. Or at least, I began to get back to it last night. I’m not sure if there will be any sustained effort forthcoming but I certainly hope so. I have about a fifth of the manuscript left to do and I hope to be able to complete that as soon as possible.

My cat says hi.

It’s Nobel season and in case you haven’t been guessing, I named a few hopefuls in my blog post over here: [via Who Killed Lemmy Caution?]

Plenty of movies to watch, plenty of things to read. School work is… let’s say, unfriendly. I think I’m doing okay, as far as surviving goes. I’d certainly like to be saying that I have all my homework done and dusted three weeks ahead of time but you know, that stuff is theoretically possible but practically impossible. Like a car appearing on the other side of a mountain because of quantum mechanics.

I’m watching Paris Is Burning today, and I’ll soon have to rewatch Mulholland Drive. The latter is for my essay, which I’m… still thinking about. It’s starting to make sense (the essay, I mean) but there are a couple of kinks I’m going to have to iron out.

I got a haircut yesterday. I now have less hair than the day before.

It’s strange to think it’s October already because it makes me feel like the end of the year is already about.

d

And then, updates.

Hello.

Just dropping by to say that Gloomsday arrangements are not going all that well, but I think they will work out in some way.

I’m back at writing in the long form, i.e. the novel, and it’s great to be back. I think I’ve learnt some things about it in the past few months that will hopefully prove beneficial as well.

Speaking of learning things, some strange personal issues have cropped up. I would like to declare them resolved, though I’m not entirely sure. When asked yesterday if I was happy, I said that I didn’t know. I feel like I have a stronger sense of my beliefs, but not stronger beliefs per se. I feel closer to my heroes, but further from my friends. A lot of things seem clearer to me but some things also seem murkier. It’s a strange time, I guess.

School is good, and busy. Been making friends, in a sense. Been also realising how busy I will be getting very soon, and have been trying to get the old engine started. I feel really stupid going into every class but I don’t think that will be a major problem because I’m probably going to get used to it.

I managed to borrow a copy of Kenneth Branagh’s 1988 production of Twelfth Night, and certainly find it more to my tastes than the production of Midsummer I watched prior to this. I don’t think it helped that I’ve had a shift in opinion on these two plays. It’s sometimes weird to note how much one changes. I remember being quite taken with Midsummer before, and also (naively) dismissing Twelfth Night as being something of a lightweight play. I now feel that Midsummer seems to show too much of Shakespeare trying to find his feet and trying to wrestle his craft under control, not helped by how it does appear a little like a jigsaw with pieces that don’t quite fit together. On the other hand, I think Twelfth Night shows better execution on his part.

Well, I suppose I’m just getting old and all complain-y.

d

Difficulty Level

I have to say that going into the new course, I expected my classes to be difficult, but it’s still managed to catch me by surprise. I guess that’s how it is, isn’t it? You can’t actually imagine the difficulty ahead of time. You can sort of guess, but the way it creeps up on you and the emotions that fester, well, it just doesn’t work. I suppose it has in one part to do with how hard it is to imagine emotions. I mean, seriously, I find it really difficult to imagine being really sad or angry when I’m not really sad or angry. Okay, maybe that’s just me and my deficient imagination.

I’ve just had a psychoanalytic film theory class which was really quite something. I mean, I liked it, so it was something. And it was difficult, so it was something. So. There. I don’t, as my other lecturer puts it, speak Lacanese, just dribs and drabs, but I imagine I’ll have to pick it up at some more advanced level now.

Love all my classes so far, though. They all seem like great topics with nice lecturers and nice people in the classes as well.

I was supposed to update the birthday post during the weekend, but some really strange things happened during the weekend. I’ll do it tomorrow or something. It is, however, going quite well. At least, better than I expected, though, to be fair, I wasn’t expecting all that much, so the preparations were almost bound to be a success.

Meanwhile, I have received good comments from people who have read my latest short story, meaning they enjoyed it, which is a relief mostly because I’ve never quite written a story like this one before and I was sure it was going to be a terrible attempt. But I guess this is some consolation, even if I win nothing. And I guess that’s really likely because I’ve read some really good Singaporean short fiction recently and I’m sure it’ll be the likes of them who will win something.

In any case, hello. Hope you had a good weekend.

d

Next week.

School begins next week. We battle anew.

It was a sobering feeling logging into IVLE again today. Those months sure went by quickly.

The prospect of returning to school is more than a little intimidating, mostly because it’s a whole new experience for me. I do sometimes imagine myself dying in a blaze of metaphorical fire, which is a more positive thought than it may at first seem. I mean, hey, better that than dying like a cigarette being stubbed out, right?

Brand new experience, brand new people, brand new subject matter (well, in a sense), brand new timings, brand new places, brand new brand new’s.

It doesn’t help that many of the uncertain things that I had to contend with at the start of the summer break are still uncertain. And more things have since cropped up, things that I’m not exactly at liberty to write about publicly, I think. (Well, it’s nothing serious, just slightly personal.)

I tried to take fewer classes so as to help with the adjustment to the new environment and all, but I do still get the feeling I’ll have a lot to do. Not to mention that I hope I manage all right.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested, there’s a Borders clearance sale at Expo this Friday through the weekend. I suppose it might be their very last one with the way things are going. I might drop by just to say farewell. I don’t have the money nor the space for too many new books.

(The library’s somewhere in the vicinity of 400 books, and my room’s not all that big.)

d

Groovy

Recently, I’ve become quite interested in the act of performance. I’ve been watching plenty of concert videos (some new and some old favourites) and a common thread running through them is that the performances allow me to understand the music better. When artists make a direct connection with their art and that connection manifests physically via performance, it also helps you to understand their work in a broader way. I often wonder if this has implications for writing. It’s certainly not a straightforward one, but I figure that the abstract something that I feel here will translate in some way to my own work.

I think I’m getting back into the groove of writing again as well. Sure, I don’t have much to show for it, but I do have a title and a title’s important. I’m working on a short story with a deadline. I only added three or four hundred words (to the existing two hundred) over the past couple of days, but I have that title and it makes me think that I have my direction as well. I know where I’m going with this and that’s been missing for the very lengthy amount of time that this story has been gestating. With some luck, it’ll show up over the next couple of weeks. I need to send it in soon.

My textbooks arrived earlier today. I’m going to get started. School begins next week and I better get to work. I’m going to begin with Hamlet.

I have a dental appointment tomorrow. I uhhh let’s just say I strongly dislike dental appointments. I don’t have an outright fear of them, but I really dislike them. I think almost half of it is what you always hear of: the sensation of almost-pain, the machinery, the sounds, the smell of the gloves, et cetera. The other almost-half is the fear of letting someone down, because anything that happens to your teeth is your fault. Guilt complex. I have that. There are other minor contributing factors as well.

Also, it is the end of one July and the beginning of another (Lunar). It’s also the beginning of August. Flip your calendars!

d

The English Channel

I’ve been back in Singapore since Thursday. Things have been okay, and the days have been busier than I wanted them to be, and not with the things I had intended either. I’ve spent most of my time working on the photographs. I’m done with processing them and am in the middle of uploading them right now. I doubt I’ll be able to complete the uploading today (I kept about a thousand photos), but I’ll do my best.

I quite enjoyed myself over there. I went to London, Lyon, and Paris. I enjoyed Lyon for the people, Paris for the art, and London was, well, London was just my kind of city. It was cosmopolitan, bustling, and even the bad weather agreed with me somewhat. So, while it’s not fair to compare them, if I was forced to, London was my favourite stop, and I hope to be back there again some time soon. Not too soon, of course, with the Olympics coming up.

In London, I ate a proper fish and chips (it was huge), visited Shakespeare’s Globe, and saw a TARDIS. In Lyon, I chanced upon the James Joyce Pub, bought an Alphaville postcard, and visited wonderful people. In Paris, I saw my first Goya, ate my first snails, and was surprised at the lack of tourist merchandise.

Books and coins have made up the bulk of my personal souvenirs. Highlights include a lovely Folio edition of Macbeth from the Globe and a couple of beautiful coin/medals from Paris.

It was good there. It’s also good to be back.

My administrative obligations are starting to clear up, I think. I believe I’ll be able to get back to writing soon. I completed a short story recently, and–out of certain requirements–have to do another one, though the deadline isn’t that imminent. That gives me a little bit of room to look at my manuscript again. There is also the looming shadow of school. I’m completing the last of the registration procedures, though I’ll only be really done by mid-July.

In the meantime, hello again. I’ll be putting up all the photos over the next few days and will be ringing in with the links next time. Meanwhile, it’s time to write and read again.

d

Points of order.

Hello,

I came back from Malaysia at the beginning of the week.

School is basically officially over, with my FYP poster presentation done, all the loose ends tied up, and having tried my commencement gown on yesterday. I’ve yet to indicate my attendance and place an order for my gown though, so I better get to it. The poster presentation went by fine. The graduation night dinner was okay too, and I suppose I managed to settle a few things that I didn’t think I would be able to.

I’ve been busy clearing up admin matters and getting the house in order. Have also been meeting many people and enjoying myself in doses. I am looking to get back to work very soon. There actually are deadlines I have to meet so I better get to it. I think my mood is swinging very gradually in the right direction so with some luck I’ll be back at it real soon.

I’ve been doing a lot of revisiting lately. I rewatched my favourite Audrey Hepburn movie, Charade, last night in the new Criterion edition. I reread Vila-Matas’s Bartleby & Co. and have been rereading Gao Xingjian’s 《灵山》. I’ve also been listening to some of my favourite music.

I got my place to do an MA in Literary Studies. I’ve yet to officially accept it.

My copy of Radiohead’s The King of Limbs arrived in the mail and I have to say that the packaging is quite lovely and thoughtful.

My to-do list is immense. I’ve not seen such a massive to-do list since I last had… well, lots of things to do. But seriously, I put it down on my whiteboard and even as I’m cancelling things, new things keep surfacing. I don’t think this summer break is going to get any easier.

I got a new keyboard and mouse. I love my new keyboard and mouse. And mousepad.

Okay, I think I’ll get back to work now with the promise that I’ll be back blogging again with more frequency.

Of course, these promises… they are guilt-generating machines.

d

Things that might interest you.

Or might not! Who knows! That’s half the fun.

There is a new Lykke Li album. There is also a new R.E.M. album arriving soon. And recently, I’ve really been enjoying the new PJ Harvey album, Let England Shake.

Things are slowly falling into place, in some way. My FYP, which I’ve yet to describe to you, I know, is coming together, though it’ll be a pretty close finish. My other subjects look a bit tough, but also enjoyable in their own ways.

There is finally the feeling that I’m closing things out, that this is really the final semester. It feels… odd, I guess, but I guess in a way (that is, hopefully the only way in which I can say it without looking silly) I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. I mean, I was half-expecting it to surprise me. But no surprises.

I’m planning overseas trips. Plenty of them. Well, okay, so that’s a lie. Not many of them, but at least more than I normally go for in a single year. (Three, if all goes well.) Fingers crossed!

I’m starting to make headway with my humongous book queue. [Click here for a reminder.] I’m reading Le Clézio. It is my first exposure to his work. My friends all comment on the back cover thus: Who is that dashing chap there? Well, okay, not in the same words, but to the same effect. He was/is a rather dashing bloke, and a marvellous writer to boot. (I’m reading Fever.)

I’m tempted to buy a couple of other books but I’m really strapped for cash (due to said planned overseas trips) and more importantly find it embarrassing to have to explain my enormous reading queue to my parents. Why are you buying so many books? they exclaim. I don’t mind them asking because, seriously, I ask myself the same thing every now and then.

Okay, I’ll tough it out for a month or so first and then get those two or three, plus three others I want to preorder, when it feels right. Then I think I’m done with book puchases till the end of the year. (I swear!)

It’s nice to be blogging again. But it’s time to go back to work.

Have a great weekend ahead.

d

Back in business.

Hello, hope you had a good break this Chinese New Year. Mine was relatively normal and slightly boring, but it was okay, I guess. I am currently quite stressed about something but I guess it’s still going as well as it could.

I’ve been reading a lot. I’ve also been meeting friends, which is great. Mostly smooth-sailing.

This week on the menu: aforementioned stressful issue; FYP, FYP, FYP; some administrative issues; my Singapore theatre project, which has to do with Drama Box; meeting up with some other friends; and the new blog. That’s probably as much as I can swallow at this point. Oh yes, I should also blog more, so I’ll try to get things back on track. Empty promises, maybe, but I won’t give up the ghost without having a shot.

Been spending a lot recently. Most of it has been on tickets, clothes, and some books. I can feel myself slowing down in this respect though, which is a relief. I often wonder if other people get the same sort of feeling when that happens, assuming that our spending patterns can even be compared.

Oh I’ve spent some money on new music too. No regrets though. Some great new stuff available recently.

My FYP is doing fine, though maybe going a little slower than I would’ve liked. I’ve got some stuff the puzzle out right now and it’s not looking too optimistic. I’m hoping to stumble on some bright idea by the end of the week. I also hope to finish a model by the end of the week, so it’s not exactly going to be a piece of cake, if I can put it that way.

On the project side, we’re hoping to visit Drama Box this week and get some stuff done at the very least. Watch a couple of plays and obtain a couple of scripts, one hopes.

Yes, I realise I’m writing in a very haphazard manner; I’ve not been sleeping well.

Okay, I’ll be back soon. I already have a couple of ideas of what to be writing about, but it all kind of depends on what happens during the week.

And oh yes, who knows, it might be after the finale of my stressful event the next time I’m here, so, should that be the case, see you on the flip side.

d

Another Week

There goes another week and here begins another one. It’s not got off on the best note–my arms hurt like crazy from some training and I’ve had quite a few things to worry about–but it should get better as the week goes along. It’s going to be a packed week, basically, or perhaps eventful is a better word. Whatever it is, it’s family and friends closer to the weekend, so I’m keeping that in mind for now.

On a related note, tomorrow is a more straightforward day than today was, and today didn’t turn out all that bad.

I put together my new blog as I was promising over the weekend. It’s still finding its feet so I’m going to link to it a bit later. It’s also nowhere near a functioning edition, and in that respect, I actually just set it up as a sort of temporary fixture on WordPress. I’m going to have the hosting worked out when things get more comfortable. That’s the idea, of course; reality doesn’t really like behaving according to intention.

I’m reading Secret Rendezvous (密会). It is splendid. On the back cover, someone describes it as seeming like a collaboration between Hieronymus Bosch, Kafka, and Mel Brooks, and that’s kind of true. I’m about a third through it and completely engrossed in it. I’m just too tired to read now and want to do it justice, so I’m not going to try.

I know I promised to talk about my FYP. I still remember. I’m going to try to do so the next time. I actually have some pictures. I’ll put them up in that post and hope that the pictures are enough to make you happy. I doubt it.

I studied a couple of chess games over the weekend, including one less well-known Fischer game that was quite brilliant. I’m terrible at this, both chess and chess history, but I do enjoy it as a side project of some sort. A hobby, yes. I don’t know why I didn’t say that the first time.

Tomorrow, I’m having classes about Singapore theatre. I’m also going to be discussing with my team members our project for that subject. I get the feeling it’ll be interesting. We’re doing Drama Box, and to end off today’s post on a peculiar note, I’m going to link to them. [via Drama Box]

All right, see ya.

d