i just read the Bertrand Russell essay 'In Praise of Idleness', though it has been lying around in my computer for approximately two years (it's in the ki 2006 folder. lol).

some parts are notably funny:

"Broadly speaking, it is held that getting money is good and spending money is bad. Seeing that they are two sides of one transaction, this is absurd"

"I read recently of an ingenious plan put forward by Russian engineers, for making the White Sea and the northern coasts of Siberia warm, by putting a dam across the Kara Sea. An admirable project, but liable to postpone proletarian comfort for a generation, while the nobility of toil is being displayed amid the ice-fields and snowstorms of the Arctic Ocean."

this is true though: "Peasant dances have died out except in remote rural areas, but the impulses which caused them to be cultivated must still exist in human nature. The pleasures of urban populations have become mainly passive: seeing cinemas, watching football matches, listening to the radio, and so on. This results from the fact that their active energies are fully taken up with work; if they had more leisure, they would again enjoy pleasures in which they took an active part."

honestly, i can't tell which parts are intended sarcasm and which are genuine propositions.

that speaks a lot of my reading and comprehension skills. lol. but ya maybe i should email mr thompson and ask what he thinks. i'm really quite curious.

our aerial screw doesn't fly!!!! i'm so disappointed. the two parts functioned so convincingly on their own, but when combined.. haiz. well. but in the process, we had fun.

a friend from another studio said: "this thing can't fly because.. there's gravity." LOL.

but anyway. if i can't make the human world less gender-oriented, i shall at least not bother giving plants genders. so Firenze shall be an "it". description: variated green-and-pale yellow leafy plant.

back from celebrating tammy and lyg's birthdays. it's crazy. i didn't do any work ytd. so today must slog. and if the new model doesn't work again...

i had a dream. i dreamt that our prototype for the aerial screw worked. lol.

i knew ytd was going to be a good day. i just knew it as i was walking down the stairs into the mrt. lol. except, tuition wasn't very good. God bless fabian for his monday exam. lol.

received a mail from tante inge and it's now Herbst and she attached a picture of the garden turning yellow. so pretty.


no cause for too much happiness. our aerial screw doesn't work! doesn't fly! we spent the entire day building this model based on the gasing principle. doesn't spin fast enough.

i thought Firenze sounds male too.

so the new design assignment is on da vinci's inventions. interesting idea, i'd say. but the problem is, most of his "inventions" either haven't been tested or do not work.

happy Hari Raya to all.

1221 essay finally done. it's sunday. which means.. the term break is over and i haven't rested! wth!! amfufu.

amanda will be back in singapore?? in a few hours' time? see you soon.

halimaw = monster. lol.

man.. this is tough. lol. when again? someday. Alles zu seiner Zeit. and even then, what now? time changes people. people change people. "The only constant is change." who said that? (checked online, i think that's by Heraclitus). i've come to the end. there's nothing to regret, there wasn't anything i would change. it wasn't my decision alone.

it's like your body. as a baby there was a first you. and then there will never be the same you again. you learn to stand, and fall. learn to bike, you fall. try to be funny and you get knocked on the head. the world changes you. the same with your life.

i don't forget. it may not matter, but still i hope you know.

i was a very happy person. lol. ya hor..

i guess this is one thing i enjoy doing: giving tuition to fabian. though sometimes it causes terrible headaches. exam in just a week plus' time.

i've registered for b2.5 exam preparation course, which means i'll be taking the b2 Pruefung this december. so exciting! i need a goal :D

okay tonight must really really finish the AR 1221 essay.