Unscheduled Downtime

So here is a post where I’m actually very sleepy. It wasn’t supposed to show up now, but there were some technical problems that I believe the Web Walrus has fixed. I mean, who else could have done such miraculous work? We were actually back up about 24 hours ago, I think, but I was out the whole day and didn’t get back to it until, well, now.

I’m very tired now. It is a good time to sleep. Particularly because I need to get up early tomorrow despite it being a public holiday. Of course, every time I say something like this, it means I probably won’t be sleeping any time soon.

Today was a particularly hot day. That is, even for our sunny country. I guess I picked the wrong day to have a rest. While I was doing my laces before leaving the house, I’d already begun to sweat. And of all things, I had to spend the whole day outside, walking in the open quite a bit too.

This looks like a busy weekend, and I’m not sure how much work I’m going to get done, but I’d expected weeks like this. It’s why I don’t feel particularly good about myself whenever I seem to be cutting into bonus territory. Typically it ends up being a sort of buffer for days like these.

The book club is… hmm, it’s probably too early to tell. I have cause for optimism and also cause for pessimism. I think we’ll see in a week or two.

I’m not particularly tired now, but judging by the structure of this post, my brain is already working out of order. Just let me ramble for a tiny bit more.

It was nice to see all of those friends today. Sure beats the typical stay-at-your-desk day, but it can’t happen every day. Partly because I need to work. Partly because they need to work. And partly because we would really get sick of one another.

I want to drop by at IKEA and get one of those glass oh wait I think I’ve mentioned this before.

Results are coming out on Monday. Exciting times, these. I don’t really know what to expect, particularly because NUS results days are like a whole season of 24.

Finally, I want to say that I just finished Flowers For Algernon, one of my first loves, for the second time. I think I look at it very differently now, though. I also bought a book for two dollars yesterday. It’s a second-hand (third? fourth? fifth?) copy of Imre Kertész’s Fatelessness.

Okay, I’m done for the night.

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Link Rojak!

It’s been a while since I did one of these.

Christopher Uminga renders your superheroes in his adorable fashion. [via WildAmmo.com]

Oh I suppose it’s been a couple of days now, but happy birthday, The Empire Strikes Back! [via Wikipedia]

“i am merely giving you your problem” [via pictures for sad children]

Why is Middlesex University philosophy department closing? [via The Guardian]

Vernon Lott makes a documentary on Bad Writing. [via The Book Bench]

The Singapore navy is testing a remote-controlled, mine-hunting vessel. Go, Singapore! [via PhysOrg]

On A High Wind In Jamaica. [via The Millions]

Inter Milan (and Jose Mourinho) win the Champions League. [via ESPNsoccernet]

Marco Benevento has a new album, and here’s a nice article about it. [via Hidden Track]

Dinner plates with useful graphs about global food consumption. (Including fresh water consumption.) [via Josh Spear]

All right, that’s it for today. Have an excellent Monday, everyone!

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Many Things And A VR Man

Study…

Started serious revision yesterday. Made me feel like a zombie. Funny how you tend to study less when it’s getting to the exams, unless you really slap yourself into doing it.

Nabokov

Nabokov’s last work, The Original Of Laura, is going to be published, says his son. [via The Telegraph]

R.I.P.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now, but in case you haven’t, J.G. Ballard passed away. [via The Book Bench] Rest in peace, sir, and condolences to the family.

Ideas, Ideas

So many ideas these days, almost as if my brain is (against my wishes) ramping it up before I dive into writing. For some reason I have plenty of strange-creature ideas, and I’m sure I won’t be using all of them, but a couple of them might prove handy once I get the headlights on and see where exactly I’m going. Yeah, that’s not much clearer, but hey, ideas are always fun, if not always helpful.

Two For Two

Watched Forest Of The Dead and then (yesterday) Midnight, and they’re without question two of the best episodes I’ve seen from the revived series. This is the stuff TV should be made of. Too bad we get so much trash.

A Little Bit Of Singapore

Speaking of TV… Here’s a little something that our local station either very proudly and stupidly or very tongue-in-cheekly (benefit of the doubt and all that) produced a long time ago. It’s called VR Man, starring James Lye as VR Man and Michelle Goh (who doesn’t appear in this clip) as the reporter girl, as I remember. This features VR Man and Lisa Ang starring as some character I don’t remember.

I couldn’t find an actual clip so here is something from The Noose, which was a satirical entertainment news programme that made fun of shows and the industry in general. I seem to recall that it had to produce some of its sketches, but… you know… some shows make fun of themselves.

“Maybe then I can win Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal.”

I’m still waiting on that, VR Man.

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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New Days And Singaporean Writers

All Over Again

So begins the new semester in a flurry of activity that involves all the usual elements of timetable messes, tutorial balloting, textbook fencing and the dread that usually comes with the acknowledgement that it will bring with it the tests, tutorials, projects and examinations.

I see it as a good thing in the sense that apart from all the school work, I’ll no doubt be compelled to be fulfulling all my other obligations, like that query letter sitting alone in the dark right now. There’s this strange illness where at some point during the holidays you accept that you just can’t do all of these duties anymore and you have to wait till the work (from school) piles up and you are somehow motivated to make your life miserable by piling on the extra commitments. I don’t think it can be treated. However, it does imply that I can finally get some of that work done.

Looking ahead, it looks like a difficult semester, but I’m relatively unfazed. The subjects are definitely not to my tastes, but sometimes you do what you want to and sometimes you do what you must. (I think that came off Sandman. I just finished the Absolute run.) I think I can eke out some okay results. On the other hand, there is quite a bit of uncertainty with the writing, but I’ll get that sorted out. I have no doubt that it’ll make some sort of progress during the term so I’m not entirely concerned.

Oh and friends. Yes, got to sort some things out. Though it’ll mostly be work for these three months, and the three months after that, and then it’ll be the next term!

I would sigh hear but you wouldn’t be able to hear me.

Prizes

I saw a report in the Sunday Times yesterday about how Singaporeans are still waiting on their writers to win a first international prize. If memory serves, it seemed to refer to our recent Olympic heroics. To me, it seems to miss the point because it puts an unhealthy emphasis on prestige and glory when art cannot thrive on those things. And art is nothing like competitive sports, and that reference was poor. That the article was published in our main English paper makes it all the more sad because it shifts the attention of the public away from art and onto the prizes.

You know, the bathroom singer might be a less successful artist than a lit prize winner, but he is no less an artist, and he might even be a more capable one.

Handy Links

Lovely Doctor Who figurines. [via Forbidden Planet] I think there are fifteen of them. (Click around.) You should get them. I shouldn’t because I have neither money nor space for them. Though I want to. So very much.

New SDXC cards to go up to 2TB in storage. [via The Online Photographer] I read this as good news not because I’m going to be using them but because it means that the prices of my camera cards should be going down.

Useful links to sites that deal with books. [via Mashable] Speaking of which, the Web Walrus sent me a link to Reading Trails [via Reading Trails], which looks intriguing. It’s a social site of sorts, as far as I can tell. I was supposed to read more about it and try it out but I haven’t got to it.

Handy WordPress things. [via Smashing Magazine]

And onwards to the new semester.

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