31 March 2008
10:14 AM
Work has been nice. I've hit page1s, and enjoyed the articles I get to write. Tea breaks are my fav, walking up to the cafeteria for hot mocha in the freezing newsroom, walking down with swan and aditi for my irish cream coffee iceblended at the bubbletea place.
Covering the Wedding Planner event
Civil Defence Skills Competition
winning taupok //
spinelli's chez ham toast // jellyhearts as page1 treat
aditi's birthday surprise at work
carol's 2nd last day
30 March 2008
2:18 PM
Baking Ambition
1#
2#
3#
Then I can be just like pam!
-
EARTH HOUR 2008 was torture. The family was whining at me the Tyrant. We got through it fine.
The darkness was depressing, but it took my mind off my sliced sole (it sounds worse than it is). It hurt pretty badly, I don't know why.
My brother called me the lord of the land and slavedriver of the sea; all I asked for was a glass of milk.
But I gave him a hug, my young alliterative padawan.
Step Up2 and
The Pillowman next week. A treat for myself, after working overtime.
26 March 2008
12:10 AM
stopAnd stay.
To collect the happyness
To recollect and remain thankful.
No matter who I face, what I face.
That there was more than
this;There
is more than this.
where to, blue shoe
23 March 2008
9:59 AM
"If My people will humble themselves
and pray, and search for Me,
and turn from their wicked ways,
I will
hear them from heaven and
forgive their sins
and
heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14
-
swensens dinner / year-overdue meetup
Welcome back smoot.
The chiasumae gap in my universe has been filled ;)
21 March 2008
12:10 PM
One of the better things about journalism is doing interviews!
My first ever was with yarets vladimir, this grandfatherly russian trying to set a world record- the first deaf-mute to circumnavigate the globe.
Met
rae in rj!
She's doing well after bmt, and she can do guy pushups now (:
for Mr S,. when me and char visited before work.
It was so nice seeing him again, and mr koh and mr mc and ms law
Happy easter!
-
onetootree
03
Unsent Letter
Before you run away screaming like a little girl, let me first say, I'm done with this.
I guess that's what I'm writing to tell you. I'm different, I'm happy, and about the past, well, its over. It was a simple confusion.
So I’m duffel-ing up the regrets, jumping onto the next helicopter and dumping it in the middle of a low-pressure zone.
Just so the air can take all these away.
These and all the words I didn't say.
They say you shouldn't love cos your heart can bleed betrayal.
A fanciful image. When I meet the real deal I’ll let you know
04
Words and ideas come easily at this stage, and I change my song title again.
I say to step up and then you flew, and the cookie jar from whence you came smashed to the floor in 3 pieces
One for each of the hearts you desecrated
And somewhere from the house the smell of saltwater and bread hang in the air. Like thin smoke above the barbeque grill.
And then it's gone because these dreams don't last.
I watch as the pitcher of milk goes on the aluminum top. I am so careless. I let slip, and they left.
and i keep chasing pavements.
08
I write this one for you, because you told me you couldn't.
the pool of shimmering gold in the distance is yours but you're tired of trying to get it
Happy birthday, you're a year older. And you're supposed to know. (know what)
You're supposed to know where this is taking you (to where)
To someplace where there isn't this insatiable urge to be someone you are not.
But there isn't anything wrong with being someone you're not, and you know that. fretting upon this stage
It's part of life. Go on and chase the shadows.
There's always someone there waiting anyhow
19 March 2008
8:12 PM
sometimesjust sometimesi think things become so unfairso ugly and unfairand i want to start shouting at something.-this is not the way it is supposed to besome part of me knows it hurtscos i know what it's likeWhen you love something
Every time a bit of it slips away
You lose a little of yourself
17 March 2008
9:07 PM
I was drawn to the novena window display, but knowing it will be awkward to stop and stare, to disturb the flow of people;
sometimes it's in trying to mimic the sense of purpose of the people bound for destinations that gets to me, people who could 'draw up an itinerary of their futures', and tenaciously receive clipped instructions from their walkie-talkie handphones.
I will see people glance up with a precise and practised boredom, hear the trains thunder on through cemented darkness.
And feel a little out of the loop.
Krauss got it right here.
"The city hurt to look at, all angles and glints of sun like shattered glass.
The trees were pitiful, anchored in concrete.
The distant city rises up through the trees, and the park is littered with joggers and the shouts of children with miraculous ideas."
Man Walks into A Room / Nicole Krauss
Hey funny lady! You got a way with words and you're never short on something to say. Friends know they can turn to you when they need a pick-me-up, a wild night out. And that's why when you're feeling a little stuck, a hearty laugh is the easiest way to get you back on track.
There's nothing like a great joke or a silly moment to instantly put the sparkle back in your eye. You're always looking for fun new ways to stimulate your brain and amuse your mind. Keep 'em laughing!
Your 2006 Summer Anthem Is
|
Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield
"No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins"
|
16 March 2008
9:35 PM
Admittedly things haven't really changed much these months.
I am still hard at work, now chugging night shifts when I can't get my articles done. Still watching people and book shopping. Still keeping up with performing and organising concert things.
It's an almost-carbon copy of junior college. Even meeting new people has always been part of the job, and aside from the occasional "I Just Spoke to QUANYIFENG!" moments, internship is nicely steady. There are impromptu times, like when my editor asked me to justify my sprinting across the newsroom to dee's desk when I had no article to write (this was the Quanyifeng I-just-interviewed-in-chinese!! moment), or on my very first day, when I had to finish an article (thanks goes to aditi and char and the interns for so much help).
2 internships in one break span is just enough I think; like julee, I too feel the strange urge to "scoop ice-cream" (haha), i.e. do something I can only justify at this age, at these times. I secretly want to do the lindy hop, buy muffin trays and baking things, go for a sewing class, swim everyday, grill atlantic salmon, go for the NZ ice-cream buffet, order jellyhearts.
But for now, I need to keep being busy, because that's what I'm good at, I realise. Filling up time back-to-back, having a fixed packed schedule that I can't break, creating and keeping responsibilities to people- supervisors, HODs, editors, interviewees. Anything as long as I'm not captain, because then I lose momentum, fall over, and don't want to get up.
And I'm moving along, going strong.
I could be this for a long while, I realise.
15 March 2008
11:51 AM
(click for the full article)
Don't go to law school: But if you must, take my advice.
By Dahlia Lithwick
"All this advice is probably extreme and excessive.
Your parents will probably set my house on fire for providing it.
But read it anyhow.
And think about it."
Some small fraction of every class is comprised of people destined to take the legal world by storm. These are the people who intend to get straight A's, outline every case, make law review, and spend the rest of their days in a leviathan corporate law firm where they will do whatever it is that's done in such places. These are the people law school was built for: people who think in zero-sum terms about everything—grades, jobs, and salaries. I wish them the very best of luck for the next three years. This advice is not for them.This advice for the rest of you—who applied to law school simply because you took the LSATs, and who took the LSATs simply because the MCATs were too hard. This advice is for the people who graduated college with the generalized sense that they ought to be doing good works on this planet but were uncertain how to go about it. In short, this advice is for those of you who, like me, went to law school hoping that the experience would be stimulating and/or mind-expanding; a liberal-arts grad school for political people. A. Know Why You Are Going
As noted, the majority of people who get swept up into the law schools of North America are there as a result of inertia, career confusion, or some combination of both, and not a searing passion for drafting complex discovery motions. But that same inertia that swept you into law school may just sweep you into a corporate career in which you never had any interest. But if you're there because you love writing, or you vaguely hope to do something about the rainforest, you'll want to work hard to avoid being sucked into the screaming centripetal force that is the corporate law firm.
B. Know Why You Are Not GoingIf there is one law of law-school thinking it's this: "If everyone else wants something, I must want it, too." Not since the days of the Malibu Skipper will you have so lunged for stuff in which you have no real interest, just because everyone else is lunging. And each step of the way, law students make choices—to interview with certain firms, take certain classes, apply for certain clerkships—based on an impoverished sense of other options and the fear that other people will get all the good stuff if you don't grab it. This is hard advice to give and harder, I expect, to take. Fear and conformity dig some pretty deep paths at law school. Don't just follow because they are there. C. Have a LifeI had, for the first six months of law school, only one vector. I traveled from the dorms to the law school. After breakfast in the dorms I went to class in the law library, and from there I went to dinner in the dorms, which led inexorably to an evening in the law library. Get out. Go to movies. Volunteer someplace. Make friends with the people at Starbucks. Get drunk but kiss someone when you're actually sober. Do anything to remind yourself that there is a life out there, and that missing one night of reading will not turn you into someone who lives in a garment box under the freeway. (haha)Life is short. Misery is overrated. If law school is what you really want, then do it as yourself. Learn, question, make a precious lifelong friend, ignore the guy in the bow tie. -
A very skewed take on some of our future ambitions, but I really enjoyed the writing. I will show this one to my mum.
14 March 2008
5:01 PM
The End
I think the big question is:
when did I start relying on my girls' imploding energy and ebullience and sparkly life to pull me through my aging (hawhaw).
More often than not, I catch bits of gossip about irascible bosses, some other little things that normally lie dormant, but can suddenly irrupt into the conscious mind and produce the most unexpected train of thought.
Teaching is a whole new ball game, I've realised. It isn't so much about the planning beforehand, but the what-do-I-do-now that gets to me. I like answering questions because it pokes at gaps in my knowledge. And I like staying back with the girls, gossiping (not me) and just chillin'.
tools of trade
writing 82 notes is a little mind-numbing.
The people I will remember:
mdm rahayu
meet rascal / monster
annie councillor / my fav cheerleader
the view from the window
And I will miss them too.
-
I got an Easter Egglet from london, yumyum. thanks ivy dear!
Had a nice and long chat with julee! (:
11 March 2008
5:20 PM
I am a boring person. That means I like marginally boring things - Kafka, US politics (democrats), Singaporean short stories /colonialism (Baratham, thanks to shawn's intro), Cyril Wong's lyricism and the origins of language.
Alright, now that its been said and done.
During an observatory lesson, Ms Emily Koh mentioned the power of Martin Luther's speech within the context of an arthur miller play. Reading about Hillary's dismissal of his Speech churned up some more thoughts on the already discussed-to-death topic of US politics.
There isn't any need to set the stage: Come Nov 2008, results that will change the course of international relations as we know it will (as I predict) give new voice to the young. Hooray for us. Yet, time has not diminished King’s powerful condemnation of the status quo.
"Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
These few days, I find it important and appropriate to
question my support of Obama, seeing how my mum, Bush and Barbara Streisand are happy Hillary campers. This coupled with the fact that Hillary is a woman, isn't it time women start supporting women?
But I am Youth first, Gender thereafter. And I have been reading about Obama's grip on young voters in every major magazine, and yet am similarly swept away by his soaring rhetoric and message of hope. Perhaps I have set up camp with those gullible impressionable youth of today, those who know nothing of the intricacies of political manoeuvres, seeking instead a Change that is both blind and boorish. Perhaps it could be that I have been blinded by Obama's optimism, idealism and passion, the 3 qualities that have earned him such a loyal following.
Yet, I wonder if it makes me naive or merely hopeful, whenever I hear Obama recognise the times of International Cooperation. (onward UN!) Hasn't it been for too long that we have been subject to the mocking masquerade of a 'United Nations', when it wields the weapons of USA and the USA alone.
Obama has rightly acknowledged that "whether it's global terrorism or pandemic disease, dramatic climate change or the proliferation of weapons of mass annihilation, the threats we face presently can no longer be contained by borders and boundaries." (To wonderful alliterative effect, no less.)
Our largest threats are transnational, and national borders have been all but eroded; it's time a president realises that.
BUT
Post-Americanism in America
Yet, this scarily whispers of Post-Americanism; one that comes at the wrong place and time, especially when we need the strong bold American dream now, more than ever.
This waning of American influence -seen most dramatically during the Jimmy Carter era - notoriously became associated with passivity and retreat when the Big Guys decided to rely on ""growing American maturity in a complex world." This maturity failed to persuade Tehran to free the hostages, and policy was pulverized into active helplessness.
The thing is, Post-Americanism is a very real, very frightening possibility, one that could foreshadow an Obama presidency. Obama has attacked the 'arrogance' of the Bush Administration, for its refusal to allow US policy to defer to global bodies.
Q: And finally, do you feel a sense of mission in your quest to become president?
OBAMA [interview]:
"Now it's our moment to lead - our generation's time to tell another great American story. So someday we can tell our children that this was the time when we helped forge peace in the Middle East. That this was the time when we confronted climate change and secured the weapons that could destroy the human race.
And this was the time when we renewed the America that has led generations of weary travelers from all over the world to find opportunity, liberty and hope on our doorstep."
-
ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE: You favour Hillary, don’t you?
MM LEE: I feel safer. I’ve watched him on television, but I’m a bit scared when he says "We'll get out of Iraq" just like that and he can't get out of it, you know.
MM LEE: If he wins, he's got to get out of Iraq and that will be a very big mess.
-
MM LEE: I do not want to say anything that will hurt President Bush because I believe he went in with the best of intentions."
MM LEE: Yes, that you could change Iraq. How can you change Iraq? It's a 4,000-year-old society. You know, it's not malleable, it's fractured.
-
Is the world ready to openly hand power to institutions and people who never hold elections in the first place? This is all so touch-and-go, but is the world ready to have a president who snubs Ahmadinejad, or one willing to engage in “talks” with him?
2008 might see the second coming of Carter in foreign policy - and in far more frightening circumstances than in 1970s.
-
John McCain, former Vietnam war prisoner:
"Hope, my friends, is a powerful thing. I can attest to that better than many, for I have seen men's hopes tested in hard and cruel ways that few will ever experience."
"I do not seek the presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need.
"I seek the presidency with the humility of a man who cannot forget that my country saved me."
