Monday, October 06, 2008

Do I sound like I'm taking the As in a month.

You hardly see the familiar faces you're used to seeing around school anymore. They're either all concentrated in the library, or nowhere to be found. Exactly 4 weeks left for the beginning.

On Yhursday, I met Du Chen on the bus- she remembers my sister and says we walk alike! hahaha.

Farewell on Friday was really good- the best I've seen in four years. The teachers' version of Boom De Ah Da was hilarious, and so were their performances. (Mr Yong! and Mr Chow!) All the videos were good, and the house comm skit was amazingly amusing. The teachers' band was good as usual, except for the mic problems, and Ms Wong's (oops is that her name?) song was so touching. I need to go get that book Mr Chan talked to us about. Congratulations to Pegasus for coming in first! And of course we had to have the songs, no matter how overrated- Graduation and the other one that I suddenly can't remember. And nothing Victorian is complete without the mass dances =] (ARGH missed I Want You, my favourite, 'cos they played it after friendship dance and we couldn't stay cos we had to rush to amend our personal qualities thing and go for the KI meeting.) Which is what we did, rushing to class to get our PQ run through for spelling and grammar, then rushing back down to check that our IS documents are complete and signed. (THANKS laura and dhevy!) Not to forget chasing after Mr Harris to ask about lit make-up lesson. And eating the ice cream the school bought for us somewhere in between. =)

Then we rushed off for class lunch, after taking photos with Mr Chang and Mr Chow and our pw group photo! Woot might have been the only group in class where everyone was around for lunch. Many phone calls and collection of worksheets later, we made our way to parkway, unable to decide where to eat. I left the class when it was around 1.45 or 2 and almost forgot to pay =D

Finally met the dudette (!) who's nothing like what i'd imagined. =P After many narrow escapes, we finally managed to get the birthday present without being spotted.

Saturday was VJ's Open House. It was good as far as I could see- from my balcony window. The first Open House I hadn't been able to go to in four years =(

Then Sunday! Great fun planning stuff with the hilarious Officer. Went over to Archana's house in the evening and missed the Officer's signal, haha. Happy Belated Birthday, Raghav! Hope you were pleasantly surprised =]



WOOHOO for RnB! =D

Monday, September 22, 2008

The Revival of Language

[So prelims are over. Just a month or so left now. Much thanks to all who wished luck or helped, especially Dhevy for proposing studying for fun, Ganesh and Subra who remembered my lit exam, May for the pre-prelim luck, the Indian girls for the mass math studying, Raghav for remembering Thursday and for the thanks, Sudarshan for the luck, the senior for your GC, the senior who's been talking to me for the past 6 weeks, Sowmya for the luck, Henry for the 4am studying plans, Laura for the 'gorgeous morning' messages, all other friends and classmates for luck. Met Gerald (from the 05 batch) in school on the day of math paper 1. He's just finished NS and is applying for Cambridge! whoa.]


Now the main point of the post. (Not that the thanks weren't important.)



I find it disturbing that language isn't what it used to be. People have smaller vocabularies and some have lots of bad grammar to go with that. At least, institutions should ensure they use good English. I hate seeing language mistakes in notes, whether they be science or maths and in the very rare case, literature (which i will give the benefit of the doubt to and blame typing, because literature teachers speak well and have never given reason to doubt their language abilities). Sentences become shorter, because research shows that humans lose their attention span if faced with a block of words. And so, many keeps their sentences short and their syntax simple, so that the poor reader will not feel discouraged. All this is fine, but it should not be forgotten that there still are people who revel in classics by the Romantics, like works of Austen and Dickens, and that there is a beauty in the way paragraph-long sentences fall into place perfectly. Perhaps long sentences and difficult words don't go well with the masses, but a complete rejection of this style is uncalled for.


Another disappointing situation I find myself in very often is that of using modern connotations on classic novels or poems.


Remember this rhyme?-



Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.



Due to alterations in the meaning of certain words, which is inevitable, no child born on Wednesday or Sunday, for example, would like this poem very much. However, instead of changing the verses, to suit modern times, which has been done, the rhyme should be appreciated for it's original meaning. "Wednesday's child is full of woe" intended to say that a child born on Wednesday is serious, not sad, and Sunday's child is, as you know, happy. To change the verses of the rhyme will result in original meanings being lost forever.


Also, people should definitely be aware of modern connotations, but these should not be used in every situation. I dare not use the word"gay" in anything I write to signify happiness, because of immediate misunderstandings. And while certain authors purposely intend for modern connotations to be used on their works, a reader should be discerning enough to pick out the most appropriate meaning in each situation, and not, for example, give sexual connotations to everything they read. Though I almost have to agree with Mr Harris (literature teacher) when he says "If you see it (a sexual connotation), it's there," while we analyse The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. Webster and Shakespeare were contemporaries, by the way. But that's different. Those authors WANT readers to pick up on the connotations to contrast different characters' values and feelings.


Perhaps this is just the playfulness of adolescent readers.


It's sad to see people dismiss classics as not being an accurate representation of the lives we lead. Fairytale endings are rejected as being improbable. [Interestingly, did you know that fairytales were originally written for adults? When children started reading them, they had to change the stories so that they were more suitable. (Which is fine because their innocence had to be protected.) I remember reading that Rapunzel gave her secret away not because she compared the witch's weight on her hair to the prince's, but because she asked the witch why her stomach was growing bigger. And the twins she gives birth to just disappear. In fact, I didn't even know she gave birth until I read that article. Which I came across while researching for KI.] Perhaps life isn't as ideal as fairytales say it is, but a deconstruction leaves us with a bleak landscape. Are we now better off than when we started?


This is an interesting piece of prose by Margaret Atwood, There Was Once.




"There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest."

"Forest? Forest is passé, I mean, I've had it with all this wilderness stuff. It's not a right image of our society, today. Let's have some urban for a change."

"There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the suburbs."

"That's better. But I have to seriously query this word poor."

"But she was poor!"

"Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn't she?"

"Yes."

"Then socio-economically speaking, she was not poor."

"But none of the money was hers! The whole point of the story is that the wicked stepmother makes her wear old clothes and sleep in the fireplace-"

"Aha! They had a fireplace! With poor, let me tell you, there's no fireplace. Come down to the park, come to the subway stations after dark, come down to where they sleep in cardboard boxes, and I'll show you poor!"

"There was once a middle-class girl, as beautiful as she was good-"

"Stop right there. I think we can cut the beautiful, don't you? Women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can't you make her, well, more average?"

"There was once a girl who was a little overweight and whose front teeth stuck out, who-"

"I don't think it's nice to make fun of people's appearances. Plus, you're encouraging anorexia."

"I wasn't making fun! I was just describing-"

"Skip the description. Description oppresses. But you can say what colour she was."

"What colour?"

"You know. Black, white, red, brown, yellow. Those are the choices. And I'm telling you right now, I've had enough of white. Dominant culture this, dominant culture that-"

"I don't know what colour."

"Well, it would probably be your colour, wouldn't it?"

"But this isn't about me! It's about this girl-"

"Everything is about you."

"Sounds to me like you don't want to hear this story at all."

"Oh well, go on. You could make her ethnic. That might help."

"There was once a girl of indeterminate descent, as average-looking as she was good, who lived with her wicked-"

"Another thing. Good and wicked. Don't you think you should transcend those puritanical judgmental moralistic epithets? I mean, so much of that is conditioning, isn't it?"

"There was once a girl, as average-looking as she was well-adjusted, who lived with her stepmother, who was not a very open and loving person because she herself had been abused in childhood."

"Better. But I am so tired of negative female images! And stepmothers-they always get it in the neck! Change it to stepfather, why don't you? That would make more sense anyway, considering the bad behaviour you're about to describe. And throw in some whips and chains. We all know what those twisted, repressed, middle-aged men are like-"

"Hey, just a minute! I'm a middle-aged-"

"Stuff it, Mister Nosy Parker. Nobody asked you to stick in your oar, or whatever you want to call that thing. This is between the two of us. Go on."

"There was once a girl-"

"How old was she?"

"I don't know. She was young."

"This ends with a marriage, right?"

"Well, not to blow the plot, but-yes."

"Then you can scratch the condescending paternalistic terminology. It's woman, pal. Woman."

"There was once-"

"What's this was, once? Enough of the dead past. Tell me about now."

"There-"

"So?"

"So, what?"

"So, why not here?"



Interesting, no?

Perhaps classical writers were under the illusion that all's well. But aren't we sometimes under the illusion that nothing's well?

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Swimming with a raincoat.

I hope Mr Ixer and Ms Wu are ok with my IS cos that means i'll almost be done with it. Finally.
[I did enjoy it though.]

Close to no one's updating anymore. I'm surprised i'm not part of them. I don't even blog properly when it's not exam time.

Not much news, except that Sundar's settling down in BEAUTIFUL Illinois! the campus is really really nice.
I'll put up some of his pictures another time, there's something wrong with the server now.

And Sowmya's settling in at Prince George's Park at NUS. I don't think it's as grand as it sounds. At least it saves travelling time. =]


I found this scribble of mine in my notebook:

Did you ever know?
I love the length of your hair,
Just before it's cut.

I think that was during the phase I kept scribbling haikus everywhere. I particularly like that one.







"Don't wanna reach for me do you?
I mean nothing to you.
The little things give you away."

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Another ditch in the road, you keep moving.

Hello all. Laura i'm updating cos you told me to! =] (and girl you haven't sent me your IS =] )

In other words, things are as hectic as always. Though i still don't think the real pressure's sunk in completely yet.

The workload's getting heavier though. Everything's piling up and sometimes i don't know which to do first. All those incomplete lit essays or maths and physics tutorials or studying for chem and math tests or IS or general revision. Just 2 weeks left! Man.

Raghav, thanks for the study tip =] And if you're reading this, i commented on yours! Didja see?

The J1s' Feeling Fab was so much more fab than ours! They had choices like windsurfing and scuba diving and archery and go-karting and lots more. Oh well. Hope they had fun.

14-ers and 43-ers, we should go ice-skating as a class after the As! It'll be really really fun! (Thanks vy for teaching me how!)

If my KI and lit essays are gonna be as unconnected and disorganised as this post (and most of my other posts, in fact) i'm doomed.

Savage Garden is just as great as ever, even in the light of the ever-popular LP and FOB and MCR and all the new bands that pop up everyday. Not just for the music, but the lyrics as well. And darren's stage presence. Bernadette, an online friend from the US, and I created the Savage Gardeners, a group for Savage Garden fans =D And though she'll probably never read this, thanks so much for the HD video for I Want You, Bern! Savage Gardens songs address different issues and the lyrics are so deep.

Guess i should go study for the chem test.

Gosh i miss cricket like crazy.

Smile, l-aura! Things are probably much simpler than they seem =]



These lyrics are stuck in my head.

"Another ditch in the road
Keep moving
Another stop sign
You keep moving on."

-Two Beds and a Coffee Machine



"Hey
More than angry words I hate this silence
It's getting so loud.
Well I want to scream
But bitterness has silenced these emotions
It's getting hard to breathe.
So tell me isn't happiness
Worth more than a golden diamond ring?
I'm willing to do anything
To calm the storm in my heart.
I've never been the praying kind
But lately I've been down upon my knees.
Not looking for a miracle
Just a reason to believe."

-Hold Me

Sunday, July 27, 2008

My sister's holidaying in California where my aunt and cousin live and yesterday she went hiking and saw HORSES. She's so lucky.

Oh she saw deer and rattlesnakes and rabbits and vultures too.

Happy 18th birthday, dhevy and dev. =]
Dhevy- Sowmya asks me to wish you on her behalf. Ok it's time i sent you another of your birthday message series. See, sms and technology in general doesn't always make greetings seem boring compared to letters and notes. I just looked at a calendar from 1990 and you were born on a Friday! "Friday's child is loving and giving."
I can't think of a title for the post. But you never needed things to be so proper anyway.



"Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,... "
- Robert Browning

Monday, July 21, 2008

Auld Lang Syne

Finally visited shylu and shal at the their new house (3 storeys plus a jacuzzi on top WHOA like a hotel plus they're gonna set up an intercom) to wish shylu belated happy birthday before she flies off back to australia. Shylu, shalini, my sister and I have been really close friends since i was in P1 and it was great to meet up again after ages and catch up on our various stories. We were scaring each other with ghost stories. Pity we couldnt stay over like the old times, but it's a school day today.

Racial Harmony Day today was a bit of a let-down. Many people forgot all about it cos we were only told last friday and most of the school was in uniform. Except the majority of ICS =D

I've got to go off now and finish stats 5 tutorial and radioactivity tutorial and read The Plough and the Stars again and get more work done for IS. Can't wait for december. And i must finish raymay's letter and sms a couple of people and lots of other stuff. Have a good week ahead! =]

Friday, July 11, 2008

Sisterhood

Mia this is for you. =]






What does it mean to have a sister?



Bursting out into hearty laughter at the smallest things.


Saying the same things at the same time, and pretending to be irritated by it though we secretly love it.



Secret smiles and glances for things no one else notices or understands.



Speaking using secret codenames.


Telepathy.


Buying matching things. I can never understand why people don't like wearing the same kinda thing as another person. My sister and I have worn things in pairs often, since we were young, often coincidentally.


Reading each others' minds.


Just "knowing".


SMSing/MSNing each other cos we have to keep talking even when we're not together.


Hilarious conversations.


Serious conversations.


Normal conversations.


Weird conversations.


Fights that have record times. And by that i mean extremely short fights. 3 seconds is our record. And 10 minutes is probably the longest time we can resist not talking to each other.


Forgetting all arguments in a second if something funny happens. Like a song we both laugh at being played. [remember that one mia? that was gonna be a hard one to ignore =P ]


Teaching me the ways of life. My sister taught me that all living things have to die someday. And she was only 6 or 7 at the time.


Pulling me back to ground when my head's in the clouds. She says i'm an idealist.


Running across roads, she grabs hold of my hand. Cos she doesnt want me to hesitate.


Giving me a million nicknames, none of which are suitable to mention here. I never gave her a nickname of my own accord. Nothing sums up who she is more than her own name.


Surprise gifts. Especially when one of us goes overseas- we spend a lot on the other.


The perfect running partner, cos we have the same stride and stamina.


Being similar in thought but so so different in the way we look.

Singing together. Our voices match, and we always know what phrase the other is gonna sing. And we always forget the same lines of a song, and remember them at the same time too.

Playing badminton at the rear void deck. Or goodminton, as we used to joke when we were young. We have our own terminologies for different speeds, etc, and we always try to keep the shuttlecock airborne for as long as possible, which is why we enjoy it so much. We play FOR each other, not against.


Soulmates. =]



I'm not done with this yet. But then again, it's never possible to finish. Language is limited. The essence of sisterhood can't be put down into words.



sowmya:
how come you're online?
shreya:
cos i'm home. i have research work
sowmya:
oh ok..
sowmya:
MUNCHIE
sowmya:
oops sorry for caps
shreya:
donut?
shreya:
isnt that munchy
sowmya:
how do u read my mind man
sowmya:
i mean, how do you know i feel like eating sth
sowmya:
someone else might have said 'what munchie'
shreya:
i'm your sister, you idiot
sowmya:
ya but still
sowmya:
gosh my future husband should be like this man
shreya:
sth's wrong with you. i think you're on a high
shreya:
but anw yea mine too
.
.
.



for those of you who understand tamil:



shreya:
at the end of the post
sowmya:
o ok...
sowmya:
haha OOPS
shreya:
caught? =P
sowmya:
well some of them have already seen me msning anw
shreya:
tsk
shreya:
and an intern at that
sowmya:
lolo
shreya:
lolo-nnu alaiyama ozhunga velaiye paaru
sowmya:
................
shreya:
actually you came up with that. when we were talking to goki online
sowmya:
IS IT???
sowmya:
haha stop it man... i was grinning away as one of the senior auditors walked past
shreya:
HAHAHA

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Why I can't blog.

Blogging was never meant for people like me. I never was a very public person. Most of the time, I forget that I'm blogging for someone to read. Once in a while I keep it in mind, and end up with a post that doesn't sound like it was written by me. Or since I'm aware someone's reading, it sounds too covered up, too secretive. And makes me feel slightly embarrassed when I read it. Or sounds extremely forced. With short sentences. And lots of stops. Like this one.

I'm not surprised when people say they don't understand my posts. They probably aren't meant to be easily understood anyway. Sometimes I myself don't understand what I mean. But I like the way I post and I don't think it'll change.

I love poetry. Out of all I've written, I personally feel 'Lovers and Leaves' is the nicest.

Oh well I really don't know what else to talk about here. I can't even think of something to put as my personal message on msn. It's been blank for ages cos I just can't think of anything.

SPAIN!! =]