bah i need bookmarks

my table's in a huge mess because of the random pieces of paper i have strewn all over, because i have my wallet, calculator, pencilbox, clock and random other things on it, and also because i have a number of books next to chuzzle (i've taken to naming my laptop). which is well and good, and does't bother me at all, except that i am in the middle of reading a tome about the british constitution (which is very very interesting considering the british don't exactly have a constitution. yes. so it's a tome about something that doesn't exist. one wonders how big the book on the universe will have to be)

the point is, i had to mark out the page i stopped reading in the tome. being lazy and anyway not possessing any bookmarks, i decided to use my precious room keys to mark the page instead.

and then i left my room to go to the toilet.

slamming my sturdy room door after me.

did i add that the door is self-locking?

BAH!

my empty bookshelf!

as i slowly battle with my 2 essays a week, my bookshelf is finally getting emptier and emptier. as testament to that:

the books on the bottom bookshelf form part of the reading for the last politics essay i have to submit! =) yay. the second shelf is purely for leisure(as the pooh and jamie oliver books show) except of course, there's probably a layer of dust on those books now.

2 more philosophy essays to go, and it's nose to the grind, revision time. 6 topics to cover in 2 weeks, wish me luck.

my brit friend sang lao shu ai da mi!

as a testament to how drunk he was, my brit friend confessed to me how much he missed karaoke in china. =P (in britain karaoke is nothing like how it is like back home. for starters, only losers or drunkards sing.) he then proceeded to holler lao shu ai da mi, quite in tune actually, with pronounciation that would put sheryl (or tim) to shame! (ehhh immunity sought here uh!) hilarious. i asked him if he knew the meaning of what he was singing, he did! cool. i should burn him a cd of my chinese songs one day. he loves fir and jay chou too.

it's lousy english weather nowadays. too cold, too wet (showers really, but annoying nonetheless). my friends (not the singaporeans hoh) can't believe they have to switch their heaters on in summer. conducive to studying, except of course i do little of it. listening to chinese songs, bouncing on my big big gym ball and teasing abiel about his chinese more like it. heh.

holed up in my cosyish room, bundled up with soft slippers and comfortable trousers and all, i'm now feeling very guilty. i can't imagine how the homeless here must feel. no place to hide from the cold, no place to shower, few public toilets to use, no place to keep dry, no electricity, nowhere to sleep. and here i am wondering if i should splurge 20pounds on bath products. my first real econs tute today with my new smashing tutor made me realise - with a thud, how economics is now so geared towards the real world, towards solving problems regarding welfare, towards third world poverty. it's very easy to forget why you're studying when you're preparing for examinations. econs is not a bunch of equations put together in a fanciful way - it has the ability to impact many, for good or for worse. here i am wondering if homelessness if the result of aggressive privatisation and cost-cutting efforts during the thatcher years - or cold cold humanity? i see the homeless everyday, but how often do i actually think of them, or even just try to emphatise? better yet do something to help? isn't empathy something that makes us 'human'? (philosophy here - doing an essay on personal identity this week). or can we actually get desensitized to suffering in general? perhaps the only concrete thing i can do to help is to buy the big issue, or just give them money. i hope they don't use it to buy drinks or cigarettes though. sigh. or perhaps, when oxford has a be homeless for a night thing, participate.

sigh too many jumbled thoughts in my mind now.

arghhhhh

when my tutors return me my essays i generally do not want to look at the comments. this is especially so for my philosophy essays, since by now i am fully convinced that i will never be able to understand what any philospher is talking about. this is interesting and slightly awkward for me, to say the least, since i have to submit essays every week on topics that are effier and effier. i also think i've gotten to a point where i can't quite care about the essay anymore? for example, for my very first philosophy essay, i was playing bridge at the same time as writing my essay (yes i get demoralized rather quickly).

well i got the essay back, and refused to look at the comments until now, when i have to submit my third essay.

i realised, with much much much horror, that i submitted my uncompleted first essay to my tutor.

considering the crap that was in it (the last 1/4 was the saving grace, i swear)i am surprised he decides to continue teaching me at all!

i shall go to bed now and not think about it.

damn.

some things to do before i die

1) run a half-marathon (this august!)
2) run a marathon.
3) learn how to swim properly.
4) learn how to bike.
5) do a triathlon.
6)
(natural progression yes?)
7) gobi desert march -- this, in particular, i felt will be a very good pre-honeymoon bonding experience. i think abiel agreed. (and you don't have to run all 252km of it, plus it's over six days)

food for thought

If Aljunied GRC falls to the WP, it will be 'dismal like Hougang'


After his walkabout with his GRC team at Hougang Mall, Foreign Minister George Yeo warned that if the Workers' Party wins in Aljunied GRC, Aljunied will be 'dismal like Hougang,... in terms of upgrading, physical appearance, cleanliness, orderliness, in terms of level of business opportunities, even in terms of property prices'.

rest of article here: http://www.pap.org.sg/articleview.php?id=971&mode=&cid=23

just take a minute to see this.

tim showed me this, and it left me shocked for a while.

http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2006/yax-581.htm
of course, we are reminded, very soberly, that crowd turnout is not the same as support at the ballot box.

gymming running and such

i've always wanted to blog about gymming. it's weird, i know, and i'm not going to list the exercises i do, the timings i run or anything. just some quirks that happen in the gym. =)

i go for this class called bodypump, which i love -- surprising since i don't like weight training and this class is all about weights. basically at the end of 50mins, you're really quite tired. this is when good music is important. the abs tracks are always very motivational - the instructor's favourite is 'don't cha'. so basically while you crunch away (and wonder why you subject yourself to this torture - i especially hate super-slow) you remember why you're doing this..."don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me". (the class, incidentally is almost entirely female)

and there're some songs that i can never listen to without cringing again. black eyed peas 'pump it' is a hard bicep track. one of my most favourite songs, dj sammy's 'boys of heaven' is a back track. phantom planet's 'california' is a killer tricep track. =S if they start using the killers i might have no use for my speakers!

there're a number of instructors who teach bodypump, i like the female instructor, andrea. if, however, you have a death wish, you might want to go for the classes conducted by the male instructor (jeremy?) instead. i am not kidding. or even go for his circuit training classes! what can happen to me in an hour, you ask. well, to put it simply, he comes in with a huge smile in his face and goes, "now guys, are you ready to ssssuuufffeerrrr? you know you want it!" and here i am, probably the only weirdo in the group who goes "no?"

oh and running. don't even get me started. i am aiming to run the army half marathon this time, and the standard chartered marathon after that. this was what i found on the standchart website.



right. i will tell myself that when i am running in the snow.