rey's ramblings

I crossed the bridge at 9:54 AM

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Lost in Wisteria Lane

Music: K.T. Tunstall - Other Side of the World

The outcome of the Emmys on monday were rather unexpected.
Certainly enough, there was no clean sweep for any TV programmes
nominated. In fact, about almost every television series nominated
won something, to say the least. Still, Everybody Loves Raymond
came out on top, winning most of the major categories, including
beating out Desperate Housewives for the coveted Best Comedy
statuette. My best bet for Best Actress in a Comedy was actually on
Teri Hatcher for her vulnerable yet courageous performance as
Susan in the primetime soap that has been a hit with housewives and
non-housewives alike all over the world. Well, surprisingly enough,
Felicity Huffman took the crown home for her role as Lynette. Well,
at least better one Housewife than none.

That being said, the Emmy Awards broadcast this year was in some
ways... rather peculiar. The presentation for the Emmy for Best Reality
Show was given out via the Blue Man Group by wearing televisions in
place of their heads and rolling images on the TVs as though they were
slot machines. Donald Trump actually sang and won(!) in an inaugural
side event called 'Emmy Idol'. And even acclaimed host Ellen Degeneres
had a slightly uneven monologue at the start of the show, after which all
she did was mostly walk around backstage asking people what they were
doing. Well, perhaps the show was planned at the last minute, which would
probably also explain the uneven pacing.

Well, back on matters of studying. More or less been covering the Physics
syllabus from the first half of the year and I'd better start revising A Math,
especially since I don't even know anything about Circular Measure yet.

Telescope eyes see all they want, but is seeing everything what you want?

I crossed the bridge at 9:34 AM

Saturday, September 17, 2005

An inordinate amount of paper

Music: Relient K - Be My Escape

On a nice peaceful saturday evening, what could one possibly be doing?
Well, in Singapore, studying your brains out could always be an option.
Piano examinations went quite well yesterday. The plump bulgarian
examiner seemed distant and indifferent at the start of the 25 minute
long test, but he seemed relatively cheery when I left the room though.

Hmm, now that i'm over that, its on to the next hurdle: preparing for the
final end-year examinations. There's simply a lot of backlog and leftovers
in terms of understanding certain concepts and the occasional A Math
assignment. Gosh, A Maths is seriously nowhere near my cup of tea. More
like a jug of vile-tasting maggots. There is definitely no way in which I
could picture myself venturing into any field involving an excessive and
intensified usage of such advanced mathematical abilities in the future.
I would deem A Maths useless and irrelevant in your studies unless you
aspire to become a mathematician/teacher/lecturer, architect/engineer
or some astrophysics scientist. Not really the sort of careers that would
appeal to me. Perhaps simple arithmetic usage in business or accountancy
would be all thats necessary.

Well, I have to go off to clear the piles of work and assignments left undone.
On a note of insight, primary school maths is all that 91% of our country's
population would require to get through life more than sufficiently. =/

I crossed the bridge at 5:13 PM

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Musicality's fine design

Musical Piece: Handel - Allegro: Suite No. 2 in F, second movement

Tuesday's EL Oral exam went quite well. I'm not too sure of stating
what I'd think my marks might be but I'm quite certain that it'd should
well be above 30 upon a total of 40. Passage-reading was fine except for
an accidental comma. Picture was okay although I missed a minor point.
Finally, conversation was quite a breeze since the topic, Food, is something
I do have a generous perspective on. Well, more or less.

Anyway, I have another exam, this time externally held, on friday. Practical
Grade 7 Piano Exam under ABRSM. Hope I'd do reasonably well. My three
quintessential cardinal pieces should do well because my piano teacher said that
I just somehow happen to be able to replicate, not superbly but enough to get
a pass yes, the mood of that era. But that's unless he happens to be wrong.
Scales just happen to freak me out because its quite horrifying to remember
the multitude of major and minor keys along with the dominant sevenths and
arpeggios. And I kind of started practising and memorising a tad too late. So,
hopefully, the examiner will be gratuitous in distributing marks and test all
things I have only memorised. Hmmmm. Right. Nevertheless, should look on
the positive side and hope for the opportunity to indulge in Ben & Jerry's after
the exam.

Oh and by the way, don't let a piece of history sink beneath the sea and allow
the capital of jazz to simply fade into oblivion. Help New Orleans recover from
Hurricane Katrina. Umm, in anyway feasible enough i suppose. =)

I crossed the bridge at 9:17 AM

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Slumber's End

Music: The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost

Well, with the fourth term beginning tomorrow, there's a lot of things
to get started on. Mainly, mugging for exams would be a priority, although
distractants do get into the way. A passing look at the exam timetable
revealed some rather unnerving schedules. Like for example, on the first
thursday, 6 October, it's an overwhelmingly exhausting 5 and a half hours
of examinations. And it's effects are further amplified since both papers
on that day, apart from being devastatingly long, are two rather extremely
diverse subjects - Physics and Geography. These two have the faintest of
correlations and Geography happens to be mainly oversized chunks of fact.

The horror.

Well, to start it all off, the first exam - EL Oral - commences on Tuesday.
I really have to triumph for this one, because I have high hopes on EL
being my top subject. It's relatively easier to pull off in comparison
with other subjects in my opinion, since i'm not really the bee's knees
at algorithmically and scientifically-based subjects. Anyway, unless
something as unrelated and inordinate such as asking for your opinion
on migrating patterns during the oral exam occurs, an A1 mark should
be more or less attainable.

The september holidays were rather mundane except for the enjoyable
party joel held on monday which included a dangerously senseless take on
Spin-The-Bottle in which vanessa happened to be exceptionally unlucky. =P
Oh yes and not to forget the amusingly baked creation by marcus and esther of course.
Hmmm. Also, on wednesday, had dinner at nydc with sean, john and javier,
followed by a charming visit to essential brew where i took my chances with
an ice-blended concoction of vanilla and Earl Grey Tea - something I've never
drank before (or at least I would think so). Turned out to be surprisingly sweet
although the waiter mentioned that it would taste bitter. Had rather meaningful
conversations about most things under the sun, including future career prospects.
I feel it's just a really great place to hang out, chat and importantly enough, relax.

Well, I'd better get hyped into the mood of intensive mugging for exams before
it grows too late. Time to go and do a bit of preparation for EL Oral.

On a completely unrelated note, HongKong Disneyland opens tomorrow.
I'd say good luck to HK once the mainland people make a rush for the park,
especially during the upcoming Golden Week holiday. =)

"Know what you say, but don't always say what you know" - Claudius

I crossed the bridge at 3:04 PM

Friday, September 02, 2005

The neglect of life

Music: All-American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret

This week was rather fun in total retrospect because we had
hardly any lessons. Monday was really relaxed 'cause roughly
about three-quarters of our teachers for that day were absent
for some mundane reason. I suppose its great to get into the
mood of taking a day off and devoting more energy to other
things instead of travelling to school and back whilst having to
entertain either really uninterested or really energetic (read: violent)
kids. It was really well-timed because incidentally i was feeling
completely debilitated and nauseated probably because of something
I consumed over the weekend. Come to think of it, must be
the baked-cheese oysters I had at Country Manna with javier.
Haha, I was simply goaded (ahem!) to try a couple of the shellfish.

Oysters aren't really my style honestly. Its not the case where
I've never made an attempt in giving it an opportunity to land on
my tastebuds. The occasional attempts throughout my life to
give the delicacy a chance were all rather... unpleasant. But thank
god, shellfish isn't a major food category or anything and neither is
it an essential food group. Its highly possible to go through life entirely
without shellfish on your menu and im also highly ascertained that
there are many others whom I know of and are out there that do not
fancy it either. The weird and arresting thing though is that im the
only member of my extended family that dislikes shellfish. Well, maybe
except for my grandmother but that's probably because she's got
cholesterol intake problems. Hmm.

Anyway, reverting back to the main story, I shouldn't really have gone
to school that day but at least I managed to survive until I reached home.
And as penance, I got a M.C. the following day which, I heard, was a rather
exhausting one. Wednesday morning was pretty laid-back albeit boring.
There was the silly, pointless aces day workout. Honestly, most of us
don't need to have a walk. Those that do, however, should be getting
themselves a diet/workout plan. Like Weight Watchers or something.
There were no lessons in actuality because the 40 minutes our chinese
teacher had were used to play some defunct chinese word competition.

Not much to say about the concert. The Educator presentation was
entertaining, to be honest, but thoroughly lame. A decent effort though.
Kudos to andrew wang for making a brave effort to carry off a guns n' roses
rendition in front of the crowd. It was far better by leaps and bounds than the
less than mediocre effort of the 'green day' performance. The lyrics weren't
very clearly articulated though. =(

The rest of the afternoon was pretty mild and disappointing in some ways.
Went for han an's birthday party at swensens, holland v later that night. It was yes,
rather strange in some ways, the overdiversity of the people present for one. The
arrangement was that we all sat at different tables, creating an unusual, segregated
atmosphere. There was much peculiar behaviour going on too. Well, I guess what was
most important was that han an enjoyed himself. Hmm. I was sitting at a table together
with javier, sean, john and chang ming and we decided to leave for essential brews
a few doors down and I agree with sean that it was a great place to be at night with
friends, the whole zen interior and ambience of the place. Instead of sitting around
tables, the design was such that we sat on cushions upon this wooden floor. We just had
a really fun time chatting and sipping delectably fashioned teas. Yup. =)

Well, the september holidays are here, marking the beginning of revision so there's
plenty of studying to do. Use the opportunities given to you wisely.

I crossed the bridge at 8:29 AM

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