VJ's Outdoor Rumble.

After last week's Orientation, the J1s spent Monday and Tuesday of last week bonding with their classmates and CT. It was an Amazing Race-styled event. I was at East Coast with Shakura and Laura and some fantastic Arts people =] Apart from the extreme heat in the afternoon and my forgetting my waterbottle and the gaps between groups, it was lots of fun! Most of the classes were energetic and great, I only encountered one dropdead-tired class, and they managed to earn bonus points from me anyway. My station (Protect The Light) was pretty easy, so I made the juniors cheer and sing the Victorian anthem and dance! I think I might have been too generous with the bonuses though =S



Fiona's station, What's My Line, where Laura, Shakura, Phoebe and I congegrated was extremely hilarious! The juniors had to guess the profession (or title) we had in mind by asking Yes/No questions. Some of the more interesting ones were Rockstar, Goal keeper and Unemployed. =D



Despite having less manpower than we'd expected to, things turned out fine, and I think (most of) the juniors had fun. Some classes were smart enough to rent tandem bikes to travel all around VJ to their different stations! It was highly interesting talking to the Arts students too.



The rest of last week was spent watching Inkheart (which I liked!), going to an arcade for the first time, the M4 gathering ( =D), violin classes and violin rehearsals (going alright), class with the CHYKs (adorable new friends), Valentine's at Amu's house (fantastic friends), the start of a job and class Farewell Dinner for Anthony (more fantasic friends).



First (technically second) day at work today was okay. It's probably still the calm before the storm though.



At least I'm not wasting my time anymore.

"You' re the center of adrenaline,

And Im beginning to understand.

You could be the best thing about me."

In General.

Went to school last Friday morning for the CNY concert and to meet the juniors and some of the teachers, it felt good to be back. It's a pity I missed seeing Amelia though.



VJ ICS Night is on the 30th of April, Thursday. Friday is a public holiday. =]



Cycling at East Coast with Saranya and Simran in the evening was fun! Those two were looking for HG and CG (nothing to do with pyhysics), or whatever you called it, sim. Haha. Geetha discussion group on Saturday morning, music class in the afternoon, and finally, a wonderful dinner with Olivia and Shakura in the evening. Tuesday was Shylu/Shalini's housewarming and Uncle's birthday party, at their function room. Playing charades and including the little kids was hilarious! Went to the library on Wednesday, and finally got my hands on To Kill A Mockingbird.


Ever since the A-levels ended, I've been wondering about whether I really want to go to University. I suppose nowadays you need a degree before you can do almost anything else, but I don't fancy the prospect of another 3/4 years studying when I'd rather be doing other things. If I do go to Uni, and I suppose I probably will (assuming I get a place), I'd like to do Literature though =]


You remember how in Lang Arts/ KI we come across the fact that Scientific investigation is limited by the human body's limitations? Like not being able to see beyond three dimensions. I was wondering, we can't see anything below three dimensions either. Perhaps there is a 2-dimensional world. Or am I wrong?

Surprises =]

I've had quite a few of them the past few days.

On Saturday night, everyone went into a cleaning frenzy, and I was told that relatives are coming over the next day. Sunday afternoon, I opened the door to a fantastic bunch of friends. THANK YOU (vaguely in order of appearance) Simran, Saranya, Thiru, Reema, Subra, Abhishek, Rama, Amu, Sneha, Manraj, Serena, Aditya and Dhevy! And my family of course, Sowmya in particular, for liasing with them =]

I'm not sure if it's okay to put photos up here. I guess I'll put up a couple =D

We were supposed to be staring at Serena's imaginary spider on the ceiling.




It was a great day, thank you all once again! From Simran's story about me (plus the poem, hahaha) to Rama and Subra talking in Tamil, to Serena's music, it was all hilarious and memorable. And thank you for the gifts!



And Monday was another surprise. I was expecting to meet Raghav, and Bala jumped out ("like a teletubby") from behind the wall! Thank you so much you two! It was wonderful finally meeting both of you! And the present was excellent!



It's on display, da. =D



And then was the meeting with primary school friends Yagnya and Shalini. Yagnya brought Chicago over (she turned 18 in December, haha) and after watching that, we walked to the beach and talked and talked and talked. (We were talking nineteen to the dozen, literally, if I may add, because I was almost nineteen and she behaved like she was twelve. Haha I'm kidding, eggie.) And rushed home in time to open the door for Shalini, after which all three of us and my sister continued talking and talking- we hadn't seen each other for so long!

My face and my favourite Victorian tshirt got cake-smeared =( Luckily the camera's battery ran out of charge. But it was fun =D It was fun overall, I mean, not the cake-smearing part. Haha.

[Just look at my sister (in blue) and I. No stranger would believe we're sisters.]

And a big THANK YOU to everyone who smsed/called/emailed me! I was really touched =]


Probably going to VJ tomorrow to see the ICS juniors dancing for the CNY concert. Exciting times!

"The heat was as heavy as a broken heart."

I've never ever heard it put quite that way. That (the title) was one of the only good lines in that book.



I haven't mentioned quite a few things here, there was the SIFAS gang gathering, we watched the amazing movie Seven Pounds. There were the gatherings the Monday before the last, first with ICS and then with 05V14. It was great meeting so many people again.

And the New Year didn't receive any mention here either. It seems the same actually, just that I'm doing different things.

Met Dhevy on Saturday to go see what Shiva's Geetha class was like. It was an engaging conversation with highly interesting people! =D

Lunch with Laura last Monday! Talking to her was fantastic as usual =] Girl if you read this, I can't wait to read Gathering Blue! And that other book! haha.

Watched Villu yesterday with some of us Tamilians- Dhevy, Rama, Amu and Sneha. It was a typical Vijay movie; lots of comedy at the start and lots of exaggerated action at the end. I understand why his fans love him though- he's got charisma.

I've been reading a lot too, reading to my heart's content. Not forgetting listening to music- Folie A Deux is good! I'm listening to it as I type out this post, and it certainly makes an unforgettable first-impression.

I watched MAMMA MIA! The Movie recently, so those songs are still stuck in my head though.





"Mamma Mia! Here I go again.
My, my. How can I resist you?"

"'Well, blood is dirt,' I said."

Owen may not have given his war poetry universality. Sure, there's poems about the "Greater Love" between soldiers, as well as negative aspects of war in almost every other poem. However, I think the circumstances under which WWI, the war Owen fought in, were different. It was a completely unnecessary war. Owen expresses this by tearing down the romantic notions of war previous poets had held, and glorifying instead the sacrifices of each soldier.

But I believe there ARE other things to be admired about war. Like nobility. I refuse to believe that fear is the only main emotion on the battlefield. After all, not every war in history has been unnecessary. We're definitely better off without war, but if the situation calls for it, it isn't fair to say war is entirely futile.

This picture doesn't justify the need for war in any way. It just made me think that fighting to save other people (or other things, i couldn't resist this picture) is not all glory, as the Romantics would say, but not all futility either.

Facebook and other things.

(Doesn't the title itself seem like Facebook is taking over our lives?)

My sister insisted I join Facebook before the end of last year.

Managed to skive off that one.

I'm against joining Facebook for a couple of reasons. It seems to make connections so.. mechanic. People keep in touch because they happen to be able to, not because they want to. There's no longer any fun in keeping touch, there's nothing special about it. Every friend becomes a number on the list of Friends. Letters became emails which became SMSes, which have now become Wall Posts. No one remembers the excitement of receiving a letter. Or even an email.

And another thing that irritates me is that everything is so public. Even when you restrict your profile to friends, every friend can see what you said to every other friend. I've never been too comfortable with that.

And the photos! I don't like putting up photos of myself (That post some time back was the only time I've done it I think, and that was in a nostalgic fit.) but so many of my photos are already uploaded! But it looks like joining Facebook is the only way I'm going to get all the photos we took.

I give a lot of value to every type of communication. I save MSN conversation and read them when I'm free. I never delete emails. I manually copy out my phone's inbox, every single message. I'm afraid that if I join Facebook, I'll get the irresistible urge to start saving Wall Posts too. And that is an infinite waste of time, but I just might do it.

I guess there are advantages of using Facebook too. It's good for keeping in touch with friends you WANT to keep in touch with but are otherwise unable to do so. If you've lost their number, for example, or if they're overseas. And Shiva once told me it's good for networking and sharing ideas.

I suppose it boils down to using it with discretion, but I've seen it's addictive powers in so many of my friends. Perhaps I'll have to join, whether I like it or not, not because of peer pressure, but because it has become a medium through which even important information is passed on. Perhaps I will join, but not yet.


I changed the template because that monotonous brown was getting boring. And I added some things. The Calvin and Hobbes comic and the horse pictures have to go right at the bottom of the page, unfortunately.


Books I'm reading now:

-Oliver Twist
-Romeo and Juliet
-Macbeth
-Anne of Avonlea
-Emily Climbs
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (THANK YOU for the early present, Ser En!)
-The Lord of the Rings
-The Beethoven Medal

I really should start reading more non-fiction. It's quite embarrassing when most people I know are reading philosophical arguments or biographies or something equally non-fictional, or have read them, while I'm reading The Lord of the Rings again.

But I love fiction for passages like this:

"She does look lonely," said Diana softly. "We must come often to see her."

"I think her parents gave her the only right and fitting name that could possibly be given her," said Anne. "If they had been so blind as to name her Elizabeth or Nellie or Muriel she must have been called Lavender just the same, I think. It's so suggestive of sweetness and old-fashioned graces and 'silk attire'. Now, my name just smacks of bread and butter, patchwork and chores."

"Oh, I don't think so," said Diana. "Anne seems to me real stately and like a queen. But I'd like Kerrenhappuch if it happened to be your name. I think people make their names nice or ugly just by what they are themselves. I can't bear Josie or Gertie for names now but before I knew the Pye girls I thought those names real pretty."

"That's a lovely idea, Diana," said Anne enthusiastically. "Living so that you beautify your name, even if it wasn't beautiful to begin with... making it stand in people's thoughts for something so lovely and pleasant that they never think of it by itself. Thank you, Diana."

The Kite Runner

That was one of the first books I read after the A-levels. Do go and read it if you haven't already, it was fascinatingly genuine, and realistic in it's portrayal of harsh Afghanistan, a country ripped apart by internal strife, set on the fringes of the 21st century. Made me grow up a little too. The end is far from a happy ending, but it's a hopeful ending. And that beats a bleak ending any day.

I borrowed the book from the National Library, and it was in quite a bad condition. What irritated me further was that one of the previous borrowers had left pencil marks all over the book. I was about to erase them, but I realised that most of the marks were indications of words that reader didn't understand. He or she had underlined and/or circled words unknown to him or her. I was curious to determine the age of the reader, but it was puzzling.

How old could the reader be, who borrowed a book meant for teenagers and adults, who didn't know the meanings of "retaliate", "blemished" and "hippie", but knew the meaning of a certain ugly little word which sounds like the first syllable of the word "country"? *

(That reader stopped reading the book after the first few chapters, or gave up marking words; the pencil marks disappear completely and I doubt it was because there was no other difficult word.)

Perhaps swear words are common even in primary schools. Or, perhaps the reader was familiar with swear words rather than other words (then why borrow such a book?).

I definitely wasn't the second person to read that copy of the book, judging by its condition, so I was surprised to find a spelling mistake no one else had noticed, even though the same word appears twice in that paragraph, once spelt correctly, once incorrectly. The word that was meant is "aisle", and it appears right the first time, but a few lines later, it's spelt "isle". I triple-checked, but "isle" made no sense in that sentence.** This surprised me, surely discerning readers would have read this copy before? I hate vandalising books, but this disturbed me.

I added in the "a".



* I didn't think of this myself, it's all thanks to a certain Literature teacher from England, who told us that in some contexts, a description of a girl as a "country girl" has sexual references.

** This really is true. I returned the book quite a while back so I am unfortunately unable to quote the page number and paragraph. The other single-word quotes are accurate, though. I remembered those.

Simmer!

Special mention for SIMRAAAAAAAN!

Cos I couldn't find a picture of her earlier, except the anteater picture hahaha.