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Wednesday, April 28, 2004 Because Karin and Jan started this:Autumn Sunset Writer, Self-Sufficient, Storyteller You have a way with words and know how to tell a story. Whether you are writing or speaking, you are able to convey human emotion through your nuances and expressions. You are capable of motivating and influencing others, so it is important to ask for higher guidance to stay on the right path. Your personal colour helps connect you to your soul's purpose. Wearing, meditating or surrounding yourself with Autumn Sunset helps you discover the common thread between responsibility and freedom. *smiles* I like. Read Karin's or Jan's blog for the 02A15 lowdown. I'm proud of 02A15 too -- many off to top schools, and 10 scholars and counting. I can't help but feel the way Karin does: "(It's at times like this that I feel a little sad though. I love my parents and my teachers a lot - even if I know with the latter, most of them don't care very much about me. And knowing that I can never live up to expectations or make them proud of me is probably the only regret I will ever hold in this lifetime... I can live with being disappointed with myself. What I can't live with is the knowledge that I've disappointed others as well...) Or perhaps, the worst thing that can happen is when nobody cares enough to even be disappointed, or if there weren't even any expectations of you in the first place... somehow, the knowledge of that hurts more than anything else..." I wanted to make all the tutors proud. But now I've been forgotten, erased, a non-mark on the immortal staff room white board, and I can't blame them for it. I keep my head held up high, but only to force the tears back into my eyes. Viv wished for the moon @ 7:17 AM Tuesday, April 27, 2004 Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting!HwaAAAAAyaaaaAAAAAAHHHHhHHHH!!!!!!!!! C'mon, do that China Manchu kung-fu yell like ya mean it!!!!! Viv wished for the moon @ 9:02 PM The high cost of living. In the process of computating and converting estimated expenses of USC for the NAC application, I literally sat back, stunned. I had never really stopped to consider the conversion rate until this point, and here's what I got: Tuition and Fees (based on academic year 2003-2004): US$28 692 After conversion: S$48 666 That is tuition fees alone; I haven't considered housing, books and other expenses. God, it's so much more money than I thought, it's scary. I don't know how I can ask it of my parents to even pay for my first year. Suddenly the prayer for funding has become much more fervent. Viv wished for the moon @ 8:08 PM Monday, April 26, 2004 Not Business, Busy-ness. Gragh...things to do today (before Thursday anyway):1. Go back to HCJC and fill in the top portion of the recommendation form for Shell-NAC Arts Scholarship, the deadline of which is this Friday at 5pm. D'oh! Trust me to not check these things up sooner. >_< 2. Pound out essays for my NUS law interview this Thursday and my NAC application 3. Put together a demo VCD for the application Applying to do drama under the scholarship...well it's worth a try anyway, ne. Oh, and I got into NTU Communication Studies! It's a viable option. Relieved that I've got something interesting to fall back on. Anyway I'm stoned out and the weather's too humid for any other lucid course of action. BLEeeaAughH. Viv wished for the moon @ 10:59 PM Sunday, April 25, 2004 It's funny how once God is subtracted from the equation nothing makes sense. Why after working hard for so many months and getting the grades I have, nothing's come of it at all. Why, when so many of us started out on equal footing (or indeed, some of us ahead of others) at present I have fallen behind.When I wrote the above paragraph I originally wrote "nothing seems to make sense", "nothing's seemed to come of it all", "at present I seem to have fallen behind". Then I realized I can only say "seemed to have" because I know in reality it's not the truth (note however, the everpresent gap between intellectual acceptance and emotional acceptance.), because in reality God is in the details, God is in the machinery of this whole thing, and therefore there will always be more than what meets the eye at surface level. I guess I can see it in terms of this, that I had plans, dreams and ambitions about how I was gonna run my own life. I went along a certain path, saw certain doors get flung open so that I could get to this crossroads. It's just that this time, God has different ideas for me. Looking at it from the perspective of any Christian friend examining my situation I would call everything that has happened clear evidence that God is pointing me in a totally different direction than I ever expected. And who am I to insist on stubbornly sitting like a teetering pile of bricks in a gale force wind? Bricks hit the ground hard. They shatter, they fall apart. And that's what I know will happen to me if I never come to a new acceptance of my situation. With certainty I know I will crumble, because my wounded pride will question the seeming unreasonableness of the whole system, and the injustice of it all, and I will find no answers, and little by little it will eat me away. It is a tremendous relief putting God back into the picture. Some people would dismiss it as escapism. I don't know how to deal with that, except to say that it helps to restore Him in the balance. There is a safety in knowing that there is a plan for me, however different it is from my original expectations. Perhaps the more the disparity, the better. Looking back, perhaps I will be in a position to understand why it was I was led to where I am, and I will praise Him for His infinite grace and wisdom. I will also probably laugh, and be embarrassed at, myself for my self-pity, my self-inflicted misery and pride. I hope that day comes. And in other news, found my Wacom pen. The world suddenly seems like a sunnier place. Viv wished for the moon @ 9:45 PM Saturday, April 24, 2004 The artisan raises her arms in preparation for flight.Ok, so it's the artist, not the artisan. Anyhoo new art from Hellboy. Trying to colour this but owing to stylus pen malfunction (henceforth "Wacomgate") it's regrettably on hold. Bugger it, of all the dumbassed things that could happen. Hellboy doodle. Viv wished for the moon @ 1:51 AM Brilliant. I've lost my fucking Wacom pen. I fear that I am slowly being consumed alive by my own bitterness, hopelessness, cynicism and despair. I am a black hole, and as I implode I seem bent on taking everything and everyone with me. Viv wished for the moon @ 1:00 AM Friday, April 23, 2004 And in other news, where the hell did my Wacom stylus pen go?? I swear it was here just minutes ago...bugger it. :(And happy birthday to kid brother Aaron...*sleepily waves flags* He's 16 today, the 24th of April. I couldn't quite believe the day would ever come when he would turn sweet sixteen, but here we have it. I'm...for wont of a better word...impressed. Viv wished for the moon @ 12:39 PM Hmm...seeing how I'm slowly approaching 10 000 hits (WOW!), I have decided to do a special piece of art to commemorate that! And there shall also be a special pic for the person who gives that 10 000th hit, so if it happens to be you, please drop me a line either on my blog or through email to let me know! If more than one person claims to be the big hit, I will randomly toss a coin/draw a name out of a hat in order to decide who to draw for. I'm sorry, I know it's not fair, but there's no other was I can verify who's telling the truth and who's not, and I don't want to say that if that happens I won't draw any picture at all cuz that's just a party poopy thing to do. So we all emerge relatively happy. And of course, in the (rather likely) event that it is I myself who makes that big hit, we'll go for 10 001th! And if that turns out to be me too it'll be 10 002nd! And so on and so forth, ad infinitum. :) But thanks, boys and girls, for the support and comments and general activity on my blog the past 5 months (at least from the point in time when I first put in the counter.). It's really meant a lot to me and I do appreciate it all very very much. :) Viv wished for the moon @ 12:25 PM Thursday, April 22, 2004 Yaaaaay!!I'm an irredeemably eejitous, moderate, tight as fuck, pathetically simple-minded, dribbling child! See how compatible you are with me! Brought to you by Rum and Monkey Viv wished for the moon @ 6:09 AM Wednesday, April 21, 2004 The stars are souvenirs you'll never lose. Feeling more mellow today. Or it could have something more to do with the fact that Tris has not allowed me to throw a fit until 4.30 tomorrow afternoon when he'll be unstressed enough to hear me whine. Yeah, I think that's probably what's keeping the mood even. I ended up sending both deposits; maybe that's why I feel better. They've been rather expensive doors to keep open, but I think I feel much more peaceful that way. Oh God, please let me have one more chance, just one more, at the Game. I've seen how You've worked so amazingly in the lives of others where this is concerned...in this, let Your glory be revealed.Mm...it seems that my habit of putting in italicized prayers has caught on...or at least I like to think the trend started with me. Anyhow, teaching's alright, I had fun teaching my sec one classes about fallacies in logic via the short story "Love is a Fallacy". It's always satisfying to see students enjoy lessons you've prepared, and it's doubly satisfying when you know you spent half an hour in front of the photocopier to do it, and in the process incurred the mournful glares of teachers hoping to use the machine. One thing I've discovered is that while the staff is really nice, when it comes to the photocopier it's natural selection in action. Everyman/woman for him/herself, like herds of elephants who have to share the same watering hole. This is especially true in this staff room where out of three machines (for over one hundred staff), one is currently broken down, and one is reserved for the printing of high volumes of worksheets. The latter was the one I was on today, and that damn risograph ink smells awful. Not that I put my nose to it and sniffed, but the riso has the annoying habit of screwing up attempts to print double-sided copies, and I have to literally shuffle through all the pages and look for those papers only printed on one side. Naturally the cheap ink comes off all over my fingers and it all feels kind icky. Bleaugh. And Melissa and co, doing production: Hey, keep me in the loop! If you guys ever need help during rehearsals or what, please let me know, I'll be glad to help! :) I know it'll be a great show...*gives Mel an extra-special hug and M&Ms* A special for you dearie, because you sound like you could use it. ;) Viv wished for the moon @ 9:01 AM Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Becky, this one's fer you...reading your blog always makes me laugh! Not in the bad laugh-at-you way, but there's just so much joie la vivre in the way you write, and it's so infectious. Thank you. It made my evening. :DQuizziness!!!!  Which Historical Lunatic Are You? From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey. A minister's son from Simljan in Austria-Hungary, you were precocious from an early age. At three you could multiply three-digit numbers in your head and calculate how many seconds visitors to your home had lived. In awe of your older brother Dane, you shot a pea-shooter at his horse, causing it to throw him and inflict injuries from which he later died. This tragedy haunted you ever after. You frequently suffered bouts of illness with hallucinations throughout your life. During one affliction of cholera, you encountered the writing of Mark Twain, with whom you were later to be close friends. Later, another, this time mystery, illness inexplicably heightened your senses to a painful extent, only relenting when you hit upon the idea of the alternating current motor. You developed an aversion to human contact, particularly involving hair, and a fear of pearls; when one would-be lover kissed you, you ran away in agony. Later, you insisted that any repeated actions in your day-to-day life had to be divisible by three, or, better yet, twenty-seven. You would, for example, continue walking until you had executed the required number of footsteps. You refused to eat anything until you had calculated its exact volume. Saltine crackers were a favourite for their uniformity in this respect. In the midst of important work, you forgot trivial details such as eating, sleeping or, on one memorable occasion, who you were. Your inventions, always eccentric, began on a suitably bizarre note. The first was a frog-catching device that was so successful, and hence so emulated by your fellow children, that local frogs were almost eradicated. You also created a turbine powered by gluing sixteen May bugs to a tiny windmill. The insects panicked and flapped their wings furiously, powering the contraption for hours on end. This worked admirably until a small child came along and ate all the creatures alive, after which you never again touched another insect. Prompted by dreams of attaining the then-ridiculed goal of achieving an alternating-current motor, you went to America in the hope of teaming up with Thomas Edison. Edison snubbed you, but promised fifty thousand dollars if you could improve his own direct-current motor by 20% efficiency. You succeeded. Edison did not pay up. It was not long until you created an AC motor by yourself. Now successful, you set up a small laboratory, with a few assistants and almost no written records whatsoever. Despite it being destroyed by fire, you invented the Tesla Coil, impressing even the least astute observer with man-made lightning and lights lit seemingly by magic. Moving to Colorado Springs, you created a machine capable of sending ten million volts into the Earth's surface, which even while being started up caused lightning to shoot from fire hydrants and sparks to singe feet through shoes all over the town. When calibrated to be in tune with the planet's resonance, it created what is still the largest man-made electrical surge ever, an arc over 130 feet long. Unfortunately, it set the local power plant aflame. You returned to New York, incidentally toying with the nascent idea of something eerily like today's internet. Although the wealthiest man in America withdrew funding for a larger, more powerful resonator in short order, it did not stop you announcing the ability to split the world in two. You grew ever more diverse in your inventions: remote-controlled boats and submarines, bladeless turbines, and, finally, a death ray. While whether the ray ever existed is still doubtful, it is said that you notified the Peary polar expedition to report anything strange in the tundra, and turned on the ray. First, nothing happened; then it disintegrated an owl; finally, reports reached you of the mysterious Tunguska explosion, upon which news you dismantled the apparatus immediately. An offer during WWII to recreate it was, thankfully, never acted upon by then-President Wilson. Turning to other matters, you investigated the forerunner of radar, to widespread derision. Your inventions grew stranger. One oscillator caused earthquakes in Manhattan. You adapted this for medical purposes, claiming various health benefits for your devices. You found they let you work for days without sleep; Mark Twain enjoyed the experience until the sudden onset of diarrhoea. You claimed to receive signals in quasi-Morse Code from Mars, explored the initial stages of quantum physics; proposed a "wall of light", using carefully-calibrated electromagnetic radiation, that would allegedly enable teleportation, anti-gravity airships and time travel; and proposed a basic design for a machine for photographing thoughts. You died aged 87 in New York, sharing an apartment with the flock of pigeons who were by then your only friends. Ridiculed throughout your life (Superman fought the evil Dr. Tesla in 1940s comics), you were posthumously declared the father of the fluorescent bulb, the vacuum tube amplifier and the X-ray machine, and the Supreme Court named you as the legal inventor of the radio in place of Marconi. Wardenclyffe, the tower once housing your death ray, was dynamited several times to stop it falling into the hands of spies. It was strangely hard to topple, and even then could not be broken up. --  Nggghhaahhh! Grrr arrr Rum and Monkey. Viv wished for the moon @ 9:08 AM Oh yeah, and bad thing that happened today #4: Nicoll Highway fell down. That sucks a whole lot more than #1, 2, and 3 combined, and I mean it, no matter how flippant I sound. Guess it helps put things in perspective a bit. I've been told things over dinner that have made me realize truly that even more important than the scholarship game (as I've come to call it, the Game) is keeping those I love near to me, and to create rifts with them over the Game mess, the uni mess...it's not worth it. I love all of you guys, and I love you. You know who you are. :) And to lighten the mood in here, aht aht aht. I realize I am probably one of three things: excessively manic depressive, excessively highly strung or excessively fretful. None of the three, I recognize, are terribly positive, or terribly Christian. Lord, in the chaos that is this world, where existence is so frail and contingent and sometimes there seems to be no meaning or some nobler purpose, whisper to me in the still small voice, deep in my heart. Teach me O Lord, for I am an errant child, so full of the disbelief and faithlessness of the age. Be real to me Father, teach me to let it all be well with my soul for Your Spirit lives within me, now and I pray for the rest of my short life in this world. Then, Father, Thy work in me be done, take me Home. Viv wished for the moon @ 8:57 AM It's been a bad, bad day. 1. Got my rejection letter from SIA. 2. That put me in a bad mood and completely ruined my lunch outing with Tris. I'm so sorry, baby. 3. THEN to top it off I lost my NETS card. I have no idea how it happened. Enough injury for one day...for those of you who have called and messaged to ask how I'm doing, thanks. I really do appreciate it...I'll be alright. I just need a whole lot of time. I'll come round. Eventually. I just want to curl up into a ball and go to sleep for a long long time...I do want to wake up of course. But I do want to sleep a long long time nonetheless... *fades* Viv wished for the moon @ 7:42 AM Monday, April 19, 2004 What happened?I had the world at my feet. Patch by patch it got a little smaller but it was still there but it's getting smaller still and very soon the only thing to do will be to fall into nothing Viv wished for the moon @ 12:50 AM Saturday, April 17, 2004 Been given the kick by MAS, but I guess I can understand. A "C" for economics is hard to explain to superiors when you're in a government finance regulator. But I guess I'm not too bugged by it...couldn't quite see myself working there. I guess I'm mellowing about this sort of thing, a little. It does hurt, but not as much as it used to somehow. Still awaiting word from SIA, MOE, URA, DMS...something soon, pleease?In other more significant news I was dead certain I was headed for Northwestern when the USC tea happened. And now I'm not so sure anymore. USC sounds awesome, and there was such a culture of ease and friendliness. And even better, my parents like it so much they seem willing to pay for me to go there. So I'm sending in my deposits for both USC and NU. A lot of things are contingent, and there are a lot of things that I'm not sure of. I have a feeling if I get a scholarship it'll be MOE administered, and I'll be required to take teaching subjects, ie Lit. And well, to be deadly honest, literature ain't what USC is known for at all. I've heard it's not that great. And if I'm going to teach lit and English for 6 years I better get a good degree from that, which I know I can get from Northwestern. But beyond that, USC gives me the chance to do the things I always dreamed of doing but never dared to try: I could minor in film, communications, animation...and given the links to Hollywood and Disney and every other film studio you could imagine, USC is perfect. Here's my chance to chase my dream, and somehow I'm afraid to do it. I'm sticking to the safe, the staid, the tried and true, if I head for Northwestern. The irony was acute when it finally hit me when my parents and I were returning home from the tea-- I spent half my life shunning conventionality, and somehow that philosophy was worn away sometime last year and the year before, when we all went on the university and scholarship chase. And somehow my dream was hidden in the broom cupboards. Now here is the chance to fly, and I'm so hesitant to take it up. Perhaps I'm afraid it's too good to be true, perhaps I'm afraid that in some way it is an inferior education. USC is up and coming, as the alumni like to stress over and over, but it doesn't have the brand name that Northwestern does (someone in the back row pipes up "Northwestern where?" Yeah yeah, old joke. Alright, comparative to USC anyway.). Does it command the same respect? Ah there I go again, harping on brand. I shouldn't do that. Curiously in considering USC I feel liberated, and yet apprehensive. I do love literature, and I would like to have a solid and respectable literature course. If there can be a guarantee that I can get it from USC, then I'm off and soaring the the sky. But until then, it's all a big question to the world. I guess the thing that scared me the most in the entire episode when I argued with my parents about why I wasn't so keen to go to USC (admittedly it was half for the sake of being contrary, I was kinda grouchy for some reason in the car) was that I was denying my dream, and here were my parents, insisting I live them out. Usually it's the other way round, isn't it? My dad's exact words were "Here's the chance to do all the things you always wanted to do. We know it's what will make you happy." After the initial bout of contrariness wore off I was so moved by that. I can never say I have unsupportive parents; they really want me to do what will make me the happiest, and they know so much better than I and with so much more what those things are. And here they are, insisting I do what would suit my interests best and here I am, refusing. So strange, isn't it? And then there's the God dimension to consider. Where does He want me to go? The place that will make me happy or the place where He has it all planned out? Yes the two can converge, but sometimes they don't. And the clock is ticking, I have, have to send my documents off next week. Lord please illuminate Thy way; let me not search and stumble in the darkness, and let me not choose wrongly. Let me have no regrets, and let me have the assurance that I have chosen what pleases You, and what is in accordance with Thy perfect plan. It's such a lovely afternoon...I normally don't like warm afternoons but there was something pleasing about this one. And when we came home Misty trotted out into the sun to greet us, and she looked beautiful, all shining white (today was bath day for her, see) and sprightly. She reminded me of freshly laundered linen out in the sun, which was a nice thought for me. :) Just impressions of the afternoon. Bought Pirandello's Six Characters In Search of a Play and a book of Tom Stoppard criticism. Should've hit the comics as well and bought Weird Al's latest album but that felt like more than enough extravagance for one day...but damn it felt good, because I had a Borders' gift card and the newspaper coupons that offered 20% off books, and ultimately only paid half of what I would've had to without the card and discount. Borders was actually pretty nice, they cut the coupons from stacks and stacks of newspapers and had them all behind the counter, so they could just offer to endorse the coupons snipped off from them for customers who didn't know about the offer, or who didn't snip the coupons for themselves (like moi.). They even let me keep the rest of the set of coupons for myself! Now that's customer service. *Beams* Viv wished for the moon @ 5:41 AM Thursday, April 15, 2004 D'ohhh. L'esprit d'escalier indeed...I saw some of my former students along the corridor and didn't know quite what to say to them. Mumbled and left. Now that I'm back in the staffroom I think of a million other things I could've asked them about! Gah! :S Viv wished for the moon @ 10:22 PMTuesday, April 13, 2004 Another one bites the dust. Got rejected by SPRING Singapore...well. News flash for the day. Viv wished for the moon @ 11:55 PMTo the stranger friend of a friend. I only know you in passing, but your open eyes are a gateway into another world. Take it as a compliment. Viv wished for the moon @ 4:46 AM Sunday, April 11, 2004 You like someone for their strengths, but love someone for their weaknesses. True or not? I leave it to you to decide. :) Just one of the bits I picked off Hellboy yesterday. I gotta tell ya, despite the dismal attempt at a deus ex machina kind of ending, this movie is wonderful for the sheer brilliance of Ron Perlman's portrayal of Mignola's Hellboy. He's bad-assed, angsty, self-depreciatory and has endearingly childlike weaknesses for cats, Baby Ruth candy bars, nachos, cigars and the rather lethargicly acted (in my opinion anyway) pyrokinetic Liz Sherman. What Ong Sor Fern said in the Life! Review of this movie was true; you want so badly to see a sequel, not because the plot was terribly brilliant or anything (and even for a girl who doesn't like violent movies, how all the baddies met their ends weren't satisfyingly climatic enough), but because Perlman's performance is a true gem. Two scenes I shall forever remember (beeeeg spoilers ahoy!!!!) are the ones where Hellboy fights off this Cthulhu-type hound of resurrection called Sammeal (dam' stupid name IMO, sounds like something I'd call a circus seal) while carrying a box of little kittens in the subway, and where he sits on a distant rooftop, dourly munching on milk and cookies with a 9-year old boy who's chanced upon him as he spies on Liz on a date with young FBI agent John Myers. It's a film that has some terrific character moments indeed, but the baddies really aren't that great. Considering they're supposed to be Nazis they're pretty big weenies when it comes to demises. You'd expect something dramatic but it's disappointing in that falling-pillar-crushes-immortal-Nazi-broad-and-that's-the-end-of-her kinda way. Anyhow, spoiler over.Nothing better to go with a good movie than wonderful company. Thanks baby, for a free lunch (;P), great conversation and simply the best company a girl could have all Saturday afternoon and evening, despite the fact that you found the waitress in Cafe Cartel cute. (>;P)(Kenah, I bet it's the apron right?) Here's to many more wonderful outings and times love, and pretty waitresses to spare. (eh heh heh heh. *grin*) Viv wished for the moon @ 5:20 AM Wednesday, April 07, 2004 On another note, it's Hellboy's opening day at the box office today! W0000t! Let's hear it for the wonder that is Mike Mignola! Viv wished for the moon @ 8:19 PMOh, Canada! Just wanted to say that. :D Mood slowly improving, but now the issue is actually choosing a school, and sending off my confirmation and deposit ASAP. And don't get me started on scholarships...SIA was truly a test of endurance! They ought to just give everyone who sat through that thing if not a scholarship, at least some monetary grant of some kind to compensate for an entire day of blood, sweat, tears and brain cells squeezed to their very last drop of cerebral moisture, whatever that stuff is that makes you think. At 8.15 in the morning my typing skills are atrocious...and blast I've just remembered I have to get the sample cards made for ArtIntern. Saaaaave mee!!!!! *yawns and flops over* But yay we have strawberry waffles and maple syrup, and I borrowed Love Me If You Dare from the DVD rental place. :D And there's rehearsal tonight. :D :D And who knows? Maybe I'll see you today too, baby. ;) All in all, it's setting out to be a peaceful sort of day. *ruminates* Viv wished for the moon @ 8:17 PM Monday, April 05, 2004 ~LikE...Hahaaz...dUN let G0 OKiez?~~** lEtz b frenz!!^^ ~muAkZ~Just look at that. Doesn't it positively just send shivers of horror down your spine, and make you want to curl up into a little quivering wreck on the floor? What is it with the average Websurfing Singaporean teenager and abysmally bad spelling? It's not funny, or remotely cute, to see such tortured language displayed for the entire world to see. And have the entire world discover (if they're astute enough) that the bulk of such atrocious English-manglers are Singaporean pubescents. Honestly I think it gives us all a bad name, and I cringe inside. You can't even argue that this unique brand of communications -- or rather, miscommunications -- is acceptable because in this fast-paced cyberworld of realtime, economy in language is everything, ergo, the shortening of words becomes a necessity. Understandable, looking at words that have become part of our written repertoire even in the real world: IMO, Cya, BRB, LOL (but Tris will have me know that to hear people actually say this in conversation is friggin' scary. He has a point.). These are all short forms of longer phrases, and the arguement is valid looking at these few examples. But I honestly dUn SeE HoW If you believe in good proper communication in the English language, on and offline, STAND UP AND BE COUNTED! Viv wished for the moon @ 5:34 AM Sunday, April 04, 2004 Nice arty goodness to be found here und here.Urrrh. What can I say? It's been a strange, Twilight Zone kinda week already, and today things just got a notch weirder, and I'm not sure what to make of it at all. *shrugs* Only time will tell, and till then, honestly, I wish you all the best I can muster out of my tumultous state of mind. Viv wished for the moon @ 10:23 AM Those lightbulb jokes again with an American twist; pirated off Karin's blog who in turn pirated it off someone else. Whee, chainsteal! How many Princeton students does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to mix the martinis and one to call the electrician. How many Brown students does it take to change a light bulb? Eleven: one to change the light bulb and ten to share the experience. How many Dartmouth students does it take to change a light bulb? None: Hanover doesn't have electricity. How many Cornell students does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to change the light bulb and one to crack under the pressure. How many Penn students does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but he gets six credits for it. How many Columbia students does it take to change a light bulb? Seventy-six: one to change the light bulb, fifty to protset the light bulb's right to not change, and twenty-five to hold a counter-protest. How many Yale students does it take to change a light bulb? None: New Haven looks better in the dark. How many Harvard students does it take to change a light bulb? One: he holds the bulb and the world revolves around him. How many Tufts students does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to change the light bulb and the other to say loudly how he did it as well as an Ivy League student. How many MIT students does it take to change a light bulb? Five: one to design a nuclear-powered one that never needs changing, one to figure out how to power the rest of Boston using that nuked light bulb, two to install it, and one to write the computer program that controls the wall switch. OR They don't. It is a time for mourning: everytime a lightbulb goes out, a great idea has been lost How many UVa students does it take to change a light bulb? Four. One to change the bulb and three to talk about how good the old one was How many UNC students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two: one to screw it in and one to take the old bulb and save it for throwing during the next UNC-Duke game. How many Stanford students does it take to change a light bulb? One, dude. How many University of Chicago students does it take to screw in a light bulb? None: they'll just all read in the dark until exams are over OR One: Would you really expect to see two Chicagoans doing something unscholastic together? OR One, but not before think "What would Galileo do?" OR Two: One to change the light bulb, and one to win a Nobel Prize for it. How many Johns Hopkins students does it take to change a light bulb? No one changes it. The less competition the better. How many St. John's College students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Four: one to read and explain Edison's patent application, two to construct a working lightbulb from his theories, and one to screw it in. How many Syracuse students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two. One to screw in the light bulb and one to drive the snow plow to get to it How many Caltech students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Five, one student to change the bulb and four students to dip the old bulb into liquid nitrogen, then drop it off the library roof. How many Michigan students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Ten: one to change the bulb and nine to act as the Supreme Court to affirm the action. How many Wisconsin students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two: one to change the bulb and the other to get the Cheesehead hats. How many Colorado students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Twenty-one: one to hold the bulb steady while twenty football players turn the house. How many Duke students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two: one to change the bulb and the other to yell GO BLUE DEVILS! How many Emory students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two: one to change the bulb -- but while listening on his hands-free cell phone, his mother gives him proper encouragement by telling him what a perfect job he is doing in order to reinforce his self-esteem. How many Rice students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two: one to change the bulb and the other to insist that Rice is really a southern Ivy. How many Northwestern students does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two: one to screw it in and the other to tell him how to do it according to the manual. How many Berkeley students does it take to screw in a light bulb? 2001: one to demand his right not to change the bulb and two thousand to stage the strike in support of him. How many Macalester students does it take to change a light bulb? Six: one to change the bulb, two to debate the political correctness of the old bulb as being used or pre-owned, two to recycle it correctly so that all glass and metal are properly separated, and one to worry that they won't cut themselves. How many Notre Dame students does it take to change a light bulb? 25,000: one to change the bulb and the others to cheer him on from the stands. How many Purdue students does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to change the bulb and the other to boast he's proud of being a Hoosier and that it has nothing to do with chickens. How many Grinnell students does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to change the bulb and the other to wonder if having a degree from a small college in Iowa will get him a job in a bookstore after graduation. How many Oklahoma students does it take to change a light bulb? One: but when he's finished he thinks he's earned his degree in electrical engineering. How many UTexas students does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to change the bulb and the other to tell the Aggie jokes. How many Case Western students does it take to change a light bulb? One: but that doesn't mean he's a nerd. How many Oberlin students does it take to change a light bulb? Three: one to change it and two to figure out how to get high off the old one. How many Vassar students does it take to change a light bulb? Eleven: one to screw it and ten to support its sexual orientation. How many Middlebury students does it take to change a light bulb? Five: one to change to light bulb and four to find the perfect J. Crew outfit for the occasion. How many UC Santa Barbara students does it take to change a light bulb? Two, one to change the bulb and the other to check it for STDs How many Wellesley students does it take to change a light bulb? The whole student body; girls can't do anything right. How many Georgetown students does it take to change a light bulb? Four: one to change it, one to call Congress about their progress, and two to throw the old bulb at American U. students. How many Lehigh students does it take to change a light bulb? A whole frat, but only one of them is sober enough to get the bulb out of the socket. How many Hamilton students does it take to change a light bulb? The whole student body: when you're snowed in, there's nothing else to do. How many Sarah Lawrence students does it take to change a light bulb? Five: one to change the bulb and four to do an interpretive dance about it. How many Swarthmore students does it take to change a light bulb? Eight: it's not that one isn't smart enough to do it, it's just that they're all violently twitching from too much stress. How many Mount Holyoke students does it take to change a light bulb? One: she calls a Smithie to do it. How many Smith students does it take to change a light bulb? One: all you need it one hot woman and you'll never have a heterosexual light bulb again. How many Boston University students does it take to change a light bulb? Four: one to change the bulb and two to check his math homework. How many Amherst students does it take to change a light bulb? Thirteen: one to change the bulb and an a capella group to immortalize the event in song. How many Wesleyan students does it take to change a light bulb? Wesleyan's boycotting GE... you know, military-industrial complex and all that. How many Connecticut College students does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to change the bulb and one to complain about how if they were at a better school the light bulb wouldn't go out. How many Bucknell students does it take to change a light bulb? One: but he'll only change it if he can put in a white light bulb. How many Bowdoin students does it take to change a light bulb? Three: one to ski down to the general store and buy the bulb, one to take the chairlift back to school, and one to screw it in. How many Bard students does it take to change a light bulb? One: but she'll only do it if it's an alternative light bulb. How many Boston College students does it take to change a light bulb? Seven: one to change the light bulb and six to throw a party because he didn't screw it in upside down this time. How many Reed students does it take to change a light bulb? One: and she doesn't even need a ladder because she has platform Birkenstocks How many Vanderbilt students does it take to change a light bulb? Two. One to change the bulb and one more to explain how they did it every bit as well as any ivy leaguer. How many Georgia students does it take to change a light bulb? Three. One to change the bulb, and two to phone a friend at Georgia Tech and get instructions. How many Florida students does it take to change a light bulb? Four. One to screw in the bulb and three to figure out how to get high off the old one. How many Alabama students does it take to change a light bulb? Five. One to change it, two to talk about how Bear would have done it, and two to throw the old bulb at Auburn students. How many Ole Miss students does it take to change a light bulb? Six. One to change it, two to mix the drinks, and three to find the perfect J. Crew outfit to wear for the occasion. How many LSU students does it take to change a light bulb? Seven. And each one gets credit for four semester hours for it. How many Carleton students does it take to change a light bulb? One, she just has to drive to the Mall of America to get a new one. How many Washington U students does it take to change a light bulb? None: since they won't get their hands dirty - and besides, you could break a nail. How many Colby students does it take to change a light bulb? None: they prefer to be left in the dark about everything -- except when the Northern Lights appear. How many Brandeis students does it take to change a light bulb? Eleven: one to change the bulb and ten to be a minion to mourn the passing of the other one. How many Haverford students does it take to change a light bulb? Three: one who waits to change the bulb while two others argue if change is good, if the bulb really wants change and that change can only happen when the bulb wants it. How many Trinity students does it take to change a light bulb? Who cares. How many Bates students does it take to change a light bulb? None: they dont' know what's burned out? Them or the light bulb? How many Wake Forest students does it take to change a light bulb? First, there is a campus-wide study to figure out why no one can find the light switch and then an ad hoc committee is formed to find out what a light bulb really is and what it really can contribute to society. How many Bryn Mawr students does it take to change a light bulb? One: to call the electrician but it had better be a woman doing a man's job. How many Kentucky students does it take to change a light bulb? Eight. One to screw it in, and seven to discuss how much brighter it shines during basketball season. How many Tennessee students does it take to change a light bulb? Ten. Two to figure out how to screw it in, two to buy an orange lampshade, and six to phone a radio call-in show and talk about how Phillip Fulmer is too stupid to do it. How many Mississippi State students does it take to change a light bulb? Fifteen. One to screw in the bulb, two to buy the Skoal, and twelve to shout, "GO TO HELL OLE MISS, GO TO HELL!!!" How many Auburn students does it take to change a light bulb? 100. One to change it, 49 to talk about how they do it better than Bama, and 50 who realize it's all a lie. How many South Carolina students does it take to change a light bulb? 80,000. One to screw it in, and 79,999 to discuss how this will finally be the year they have a good football team. How many Arkansas students does it take to change a light bulb? None. There is no electricity in Arkansas. And for us Britsos... How many Oxford students does it take to change a lightbulb? 'Change, what do you mean change?' These past few days have been a period of coming-to-terms; I still have some way to go. There are times when I'm grateful that I have schools to choose from, and others where I get to thinking about how my classmates and friends fared in the application game and I'm bitter all over again. Perhaps that's why I've not been too keen to see friends lately -- I need to be more or less adjusted to and proud of my options, and their worth, before I am willing to hold my own once more with my friends. Sorry people, those of you who I know read my blog...it's nothing against any of you. I'm really happy for you guys, but well...I don't know. I'll be back, soon. But I need a while. We've all been brought up on a diet of success stories, a diet of brand names: brand name schools, brand name scholarships, brand name lifestyle. Brand name universities. And we are constantly bombarded with the accounts of those who made it big -- the Ivy Leaguers, the Oxfordians and whatever you call students from Cambridge. On the other end of the scale, we hear an equal number of cautionary tales, legends of the ones abysmally bad. But what about the ones inbetween? The mediocre, those who almost made it to either extreme end of the spectrum but fell short. They are the silent, vast, unspoken-for majority, and sometimes, close to the extremes as they are, they sometimes fall prey to the misconception that they are alone, and they are the also-rans, the almost-made-it-but-not-quite. What they need to be reassured they are not isolated individuals; they need to hear more tales of their own kind; they need to know that even though they didn't make the big time the choices they made, the circumstances they find themselves in, are respectable, valued and appreciable. But at the same time, they need to recognize the real world. Not everything is branded there, and they've lived under the delusion long enough. It's a comfortable and comforting delusion however. I know because I am the Also-Ran; all my life I have been the story of the one who nearly made it, but didn't quite hit the high notes. And it shouldn't really matter, should it? I'm a young woman, and life goes beyond university. I'm going to start work, and as the years pass the importance of that piece of paper that declares where I graduated from will lessen until it will finally just occupy a space on my living room wall, a pretty ornament, a conversation-starting relic. It's easy to recognize these truths. It's hard to integrate them with the feelings that accompany my current predicament. Thoughts break forth in a random stream. Tris has told me that I am too Chinese; I believe that I'm just more Chinese than I realize. Face. To the Chinese woman/man, face is abnormally, disturbingly important; it's not just the older generations who espouse this. Even though we like to claim that we younger generations are free from the shackles of such crippling perceptions, we have been firmly rooted in them from the day we were born. As I said before, look at the brand name society we live in. It's an integral element of the metropolitan, advanced city, and certainly it gains all the more importance when placed in the context of the Asian society. Brand name secondary schools, brand name JCs. Raffles, Anglo-Chinese, Hwa Chong, Chinese High. And it's natural that brand name universities follow. Princeton. Yale. Columbia. And as much as we refuse to admit it, part of the reason we apply to these schools more than anywhere else is that there is always that little thrill when someone asks you where you're from. There's a part of you that relishes the looks of admiration your reply evokes, and the feeling of self-satisfaction is palpable. Yes, I admit, it was part of my motivation for applying to the Ivies myself. But I guess God had different ideas, and He had a point. Too long I've existed for these brands, too long have I existed for face. And I have to learn to let go. Viv wished for the moon @ 6:04 AM Thursday, April 01, 2004 And Columbia makes three. Endgame, show's over. Yale, Stanford, and now Columbia.Now, to deal. Viv wished for the moon @ 8:22 PM Why Georgia ::John Mayer:: I am driving up 85 in the Kind of morning that lasts all afternoon just stuck inside the gloom 4 more exits to my apartment but I am tempted to keep the car in drive And leave it all behind Cause I wonder sometimes About the outcome Of a still verdictless life Am I living it right? Am I living it right? Am I living it right? Why Georgia, why? I rent a room and I fill the spaces with Wood in places to make it feel like home But all I feel's alone It might be a quarter life crisis Or just the stirring in my soul Either way I wonder sometimes About the outcome Of a still verdictless life Am I living it right? Am I living it right? Am I living it right? Why Georgia, why? So what, so I've got a smile on But it's hiding the quiet superstitions in my head Don't believe me, don't you dare believe me When I say I've got it down Everybody is just a stranger but That's the danger in going my own way I guess it's the price I have to pay Still everything happens for a reason Is no reason not to ask myself If I am living it right Am I living it right? Am I living it right? Why Georgia, why? Viv wished for the moon @ 7:47 AM Columbia? Counting down the hours...about 14 and a half more hours till I see my Columbia results. Boy it's nervous around here. *bwwwb* Viv wished for the moon @ 1:33 AM |
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Head in the clouds Vivienne Wong was hatched on the 12th of June 1985 and hails from Singapore, which contrary to popular belief, is not a colony of Japan. Formerly of Raffles Girls' Primary and Secondary School and then of Hwa Chong Junior College's Humanities Scheme, she is currently readjusting herself to the finer points of academia (read: she hasn't studied in ages and is really overworked) in her 2nd year at Nanyang Technological University Communication Studies. However she is currently spending the semester on the snowy plains of Ithaca College, New York, and lovin' it. Otherwise, she likes talking about herself in the third person, drawing, acting, comics, watching cartoons, eating Italian food, light rock, Irish music, Broadway tunes, acoustic guitar riffs, drawing some more and singing loudly in the bathroom. On the other hand, she dislikes unmotivated people, afternoon naps, the conventional, and people who are either smelly or wearing clothes too tight for them so that they end up bulging. Contactable here.
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