recently, the only quality essay i've been asked to read was 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' by TS Eliot. it was, i feel, the first coherent, comprehensible and articulate essay i read since the beginning of my life in this department.

some particularly well-expressed lines:
"Tradition ... cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour."
"[The poet] must be aware that the mind of Europe - the mind of his own country - a mind which he learns in time to be much more important than his own private mind - is a mind which changes..."

anyhow.. today two random lines were stuck in my mind (these were my own lines):
why do i make sisters?
no hurries, no worries.

i'm so glad that Hendra Setiawan/Markis Kido won the gold medal yesterday. cos today is our national day! lol. i watched the game, and it was at times so fast that the shuttlecock speed beat the human eye. anyway... congratulations to the pair and also to Lilyana Natsir/Nova Widianto for the silver. and also to the other medalists :)


thank goodness there's Mustafa around the corner. cos i forgot to get clay and wire for tomorrow's session. so had to go there tonight.

i bet the entire singapore is watching the table tennis match now.

this one bloody assignment took me around twelve hours to complete. if the guy doesn't like it.. well too bad. i'll catch up in the next assignment. but i'm actually really glad he asked us to redo, cos i'm feeling much happier with the redo. i guess ya, the ultimate test is your own satisfaction. i'm really not satisfied with my last diagram,, but i was too tired to think so i just did it. if i'm getting some lousy grade, i'm blaming it on the last diagram, and ultimately myself.

a friend summarized my thoughts well: "the weirdness of this course is pissing me off."

so now Indonesia's chances in badminton golds lie with mixed double Lilyana/Nova Widianto and men's double Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan. all this while dear callista is more concerned with Phelps' golds. lol.

am real tired. school has only started for a week, but it feels like an eternity. i cannot believe it was only last week that i went on flag day and watched rag and like still in holiday mood. i must have aged by thirty years.

singapore's 43rd national day. i'll go to the 30th storey to watch the fireworks later.

around two weeks ago i was so surprised (and kind of pissed) that i came back from germany and found crunchips PAPRIKA flavour on cold storage shelves!! the horror! it's not that it tastes bad.. just that it reminds me of how (almost) all the chips there are paprika flavoured. it's quite a shame. but then again, i'm actually eating it now. haha.

ok stop eating chips.

'the mathematics of the ideal villa' is such a bore! i couldn't understand anything!!

anyhow. today's review is 'Botchan' by Soseki Natsume. it was written in 1906. it's really good!! it makes sense that people compare it with The Catcher in the Rye cos the two narrators have similar style - direct and personal. in a way, the whole book sounds like a person ranting. it's really funny it makes me laugh and giggle (in public) which makes me look really ridiculous. having read 'I am a Cat', this Botchan didn't disappoint me. it's lighter and shorter (with no haiku exchanges to confuse me). no wonder Soseki Natsume is one of Japan's greatest modern writer. i guess your enjoyment of the book has to depend on how well you relate to the character of Botchan. the funny thing is, Botchan's real name is never revealed. i think 'Botchan' explores the issue of change (both on his personal level - from childhood to adulthood, and in Japan's society of that time), 'modernism' and its impact on society's values, and also the tension between the individual and society - the last one being the most important one. i shan't go on about this and bore uninterested parties, but if you feel like and have some time, do pick it up!!

four thumbs up for 'Botchan' (that includes the toes).

today's review: DAISO

it's an amazing store where you can get many things from plates to socks to toys at $2 apiece. appearance-wise the stuff are really nice, quality-wise.. not sure. haha. but i imagine they're not that bad. lol. i've personally used a number of things from daiso and they've lasted me quite some time. i should only warn that there are some things that are actually worth less than $2, so think closely before you buy.

p.s. the Vivocity branch has greater variety than the Plaza Sing branch.

The Dark Knight

i enjoyed it. it was kind of "stretched" in length to accommodate the twists and all (what with the joker having to escape the cell and burn rachel and dent, and start another chase). 2.5 hours if i'm not mistaken. but i quite enjoyed it.

some uncomfortable parts. but ya, i don't like dark movies, books, etc. so that's just my taste. not too bad cos it was after all optimistic in the end. (or maybe not so?) 369 votes for murder (i made that number up, but it wasn't far). i'm not too happy about that. but then again, what can i, someone who hasn't been pushed to the edge, say about that?

oh i'm not too worried about spoiling it.. it's been playing about two weeks now. most people would've already watched. but hm, there were still many people just now, so yea. i'll shut up.

i liked the acting. heath ledger was cool, he even sounds quite different. he spoke clearer, too (which is good, cos i usually have problem with trying to catch his words). that was A LOT better than his acting in '10 things i hate about you' ten years ago, or even 'i'm not there'. it's quite funny how christian bale also acted in 'i'm not there'. he's pretty good here, too. oh i know nuts about acting, but i liked it.

watch this. it's the Visit Indonesia 2008 TV commercial. man, i want to travel all round Indonesia. i haven't seen enough.