Ripples and Sunshine

I only managed to finish 3 Christmas cards! So you-who've-got-the-card, better feel privileged, k =) I think the abysmal productivity is partly to do with my long-windedness, and much to do with my awful habit for procrastination...

Brother: *flicks open a Christmas card and stares* Wah! You're writing essay issit?

Dad: Oh, are these for next year's Christmas?

But hey, it doesn't mean I love anyone else less okay! I still heart you all very much indeed. Am feeling a tad guilty now, but the fact that I've got to meet up and spend time with some important people before Christmas kinda alleviates that guilt a little =)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, my dear friends =)

Met up with my SC girls and am feeling very 幸福! They never fail to remind me of the sweetest things in life... which, incidentally, includes them as well. I heart them all! Meeting next Friday, yes? :)

Skirmish prac and gig in the morning, which went fairly well, I guess :) Lunch at Miss Clarity with the Reso folks, and then shopping and coffee with Su and Cherie, which proved to be a really enjoyable session. You'll never run outta intriguing conversation topics with Su around, and Cherie's got an uncanny ability to say hilarious stuff in the most deadpan manner :P

Time to knock out, will write again!

(Speaking of which, I'm behind in my Christmas cards writing, argh. Help.)

"What are you doing, little rain-child?"
"Scattering raindrops. Look, it's a misty light shower down on earth now."
"Ay, child. The farmer must be delighted."
"Alas, no. Look."
"Indeed! Why is he frowning so, why does his family look so miserable? "
"Because he believes the drizzle to be a thunderstorm, and tells them that it will destroy his crops, for they are too weak to withstand the shower."
"Too weak! But have they not ploughed the plantation and made the soil loose and moist, and do all they could to make the crops grow?"
"That is what I mean. The crops will survive, for they are a product of hard work, and the rain will let them grow strong and healthy. Yet the farmer sees them small and yellowed, and cries for the sun, for his cousin on the sunny offshore island have green, leafy plantations bigger and stronger than his is now."
"His cousin has had that plantation for years, longer than he..."
"I begged the sun child to send his rays upon the farmer's crops, too, for I cannot bear to see them sad, but the sun child says no, he cannot."
"Indeed he cannot, my child, and you know why. The crops must learn to withstand the occasional rains to emerge stronger than ever, and to grow. Should the farmer have sun all day, his crops will never be as hardy..."
"The sun child says, give him a year or more, for if he were to give the young farmer all the sun he could have now, everytime he expects it, his family will cease to work hard... but I can't help feeling sad, still."
"Why, child?"
"He has no faith in the work he had put in, that his family has put in, how the rain has moistened the soil, how their ploughing and fertilising had made the soil rich, and all it takes is just consistent work to make them grow well... He does not see that with each year, the volume of his harvest grows, but laments the weaker crops that wither in the process, the waste, and blames his family and himself for the negligence that brings about the wasted percentage..."
"Yet it is not possible, a full harvest. There will be some crops who will never make it..."
"Alas, how true..."
"Have faith in them, little one. The next harvest will be a better one."
"I do have faith in them. Always have. I can only wish that they could have a little more faith in themselves, too."

It's really comforting to have a da jie jie around to listen, and I'm really grateful for that :)

I feel an incredibly urge to slap someone upside down.

I contemplated stoning and throttling before, and that was only when I've gotten part of the explanation. Now, reading a dear friend's blog, I feel so incredibly incensed, I could... I could... I could...

Argh.

Never mind if you don't know what I'm talking about. Don't even ask me about it, just in case you might unknowingly be the aforementioned, and I'm still in the mood for saying things that are not at all pleasant to your sensitive ears.

And because I do actually take people's feelings into consideration, this entry will not continue. I will find my catharsis somewhere else.

Huh. I can't believe my timetable. If I were to pick Language, Gender and Text over Narrative Structures, I will effectively have one exam only-- on the absolute last exam date of the term.

That means people will have finished 5 exams, and I wouldn't even have taken my first paper. Gah. Or maybe I'll spend my reading week studying only for some irrelevant science module that I'll s/u.

3 non-examinable modules leh! That adds up to how many essays again? =(

This is terrifying. I should just apply for my level 5000 module.

And I want someone to take History of Film with me, but I haven't got anyone who's keen yet. Huh, I don't want another film module alone.

Well, at least next sem's modules look way more interesting than this sem's.

Exams are over!

Yes, so I was staring at my one-page question paper in utter horror today, even though I started studying for this paper a full week or more in advance. For a fleeting moment, after my eyes had flicked through the four questions, I was sorely tempted to raise my hand: "Excuse me? Can I check if I've got the right paper? The questions look wrong."

But there, the author names were in there, and so were the texts, albeit all on alternative topics that require reconceptualising whatever we've studied to answer the question. I could've guessed, really, from the exposure module exam paper I took ages ago in year one sem one, which asked about the presentation of the theme of friendship when we didn't at any point touch on friendship for the module, just like how today's paper asked about the technical observations of grief when my mind was chockful of nationalism, the Imagination, the Sublime, slavery, Religion, Print culture, Science, the functions of satire, Social Love, the degeneration of the English Empire... and so on and so forth. But Dr G is quirky this way. Had it been other less philosophical module I may have survived, but philosophy compounded with verbose thousand-line poetry just stumps me. Alas, alas.

But that is that. Charlene told me, quite cheerfully, after my hullabaloo over the phone, that "well, maybe the whole cohort will just get a D" -- which isn't the most comforting post-exam thing to say-- but then again--

This marks the end of exams for this semester! All sorts of stuff to do in the pipelines-- we don't have that much time to complain, do we?

So here goes the holiday list:

7 Dec: KTV with the Reso folks, meeting
8-9 Dec: Post-examinations damage control--tidying up the study table; work out timetable for next sem; module preference exercise; pack for Chlamp
10-12 Dec: Chlamp
13 Dec: Unpack; Prac; meet The Girls; borrow storybooks/starter-research material
14 Dec: Prac + Carolling Gig
15 Dec: Pack for trip
16-19 Dec: Genting/ KL trip; read children's lit on journey there
20 Dec: Unpack; Breather
21 Dec: Settle necessary documents, school book lists, etc with parents for brother @ new school; pick up PSLE cert @ old school
22-23 Dec: Readings; Meet SC girls for Ms Ong's choir concert
24-27 Dec: Pracs for 28th gig; research and amass material for ISM
28 Dec: Carolling Gig
29 Dec-3 Jan: More readings; research and conceptualise possible topics
4 Jan: Meet Dr A for ISM-- state proposal
5-14 Jan: Refine topic and proposal; start buying next sem's books to read (!); pack wardrobe
15 Jan: School reopens

Crap lar, it looks way packed. And the semester's just ended!

Maybe if I decide on my texts faster I needn't do so much reading. It looks abysmal, the time blocked out for research. I shall kop off a day or two to shop with my mum.

Yikes it's 3:15am. Will be back again, methinks-- and if anyone wants to meet up this hols... uh... maybe after Christmas? =x

*weeps* I want to watch The Golden Compass and Lust Caution!

Speaking of which-- Enchanted is way lovely. Anyone who loves romance stories and Disney musicals, or appreciates a quirky, witty bit of spoof should go catch it. It's priceless. Even my mum is asking me if I want to watch it again =P

Oh yes--do me a favour if you can--drop a note and let me know your favourite children's book or children's author, or any kid book that you'll want to recommend to a friend. Thanks loads folks! =)

Was going through my 95 facebook photos and felt so incredibly nostalgic and infinitely blessed with such wonderful, wonderful friends.

I love you all! *hugs*