Episode 779: I Think Fees Should Go Up...

A couple of friends were protesting the rise in fees in London today. Unsurprisingly, my views on the whole issue are somewhat detached, since the rise in fees by no means directly affects someone in my position. I mean, come on, I'm already paying fees that are at least thrice as much as what they're paying now. If anyone asks me, however, I'd quite frankly say that I think a rise in fees should happen. I don't dispute that education is a social good, but there should still be a limit to how long the government goes on funding it, and if thinking that way puts me in league with the Tories even though I probably think fees should rise for completely different reasons than they do (not having any vested interests that I need to protect after all), then so be it. I can see why the protesters are angry about fees, but honestly, effectively what they're also protesting for, like it or not, is the right for their fellow students to party and booze their way through three or four years of university at a lower cost. Having walked past many a drunken twat over the past couple of years, I sincerely think that lot deserve to pay more for an education they're obviously not too bothered about anyway. Anyway, my thoughts are more complex than I can be bothered to convey here, largely because the whole issue doesn't concern me. (Somewhat hypocritically, I will totally be singing a different tune if my MA funding from MOE doesn't happen.)

Episode 778: 1310/2000!

Still ill, but I'm making surprisingly good progress on the 2000 words for Friday and I'm really pleased about that. In fact, I've written 1310 words today. So to reward myself, I'm about to watch the episode of Gossip Girl that I've been saving all day, despite receiving an SMS in the morning from Eugene Chan, who apparently makes it his habit to see it in the morning now because that's the only time he can spare. Come to think of it, I can't do any work tomorrow or on Thursday either, so I might actually finish up the rest of the rewrite after the episode's finished. It's mostly just merging what were originally footnotes into the main body of the text, which was one of the things George Ttoouli suggested last year in his feedback. I've left out some of the material from the footnotes, as well as reworked the plot, so I think the final product is going to contain more original material than I'd thought. Once I get this done, I can switch my focus to dealing with my PWP. I spent some free time during the weekend away in Sheffield thinking about groupings, and I've got way beyond Cain/Abel/Seth at this point. Will actually have to start writing the poems before I can decide how successful some of my groupings are though.

Episode 777: Reading Week Woes

Randomly, I've discovered that Peter Outerbridge from ReGenesis has a guest spot on Nikita! The storyline that's been set up seems like there's potential for him to become a recurring character, so that's great news. The new episode of The Walking Dead, by the way, is a bit disappointing compared to the premiere. For starters, the intelligence of the zombies is a bit inconsistent. Why are they clever enough to smash in the department store windows with bricks but not clever enough to climb up the fire escape after Rick? Also, clearly sneaking away from your kid to have sex in the forest is just one of those things you do in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. I suppose it makes some long-term sense, you know, perpetuating the human race, but I can't imagine the pregnancy would be much fun. Have managed to get my French composition done like I'd planned to, and even did the titles for WSC, which is just as well, since it looks I'm going to have to sign up for another week soon if no one else takes more of the empty slots. Still need to write two film reviews by the end of the week. At least I've settled on what I'm going to cobble together for Friday's 2000-word EN236 deadline. It's basically the rewrite of something I showed to George ages ago, since I obviously didn't actually rewrite it back then. (Just as well, or I'd be completely stuck now, wouldn't I?) Basically, there's so much to do and now I'm ill! It's ridiculous.

Episode 776: Church Twice In A Day

First time I've been asked during a conversation which part of the country I'm from, rather than which country. So it has been empirically established so far, after just over two years of university, that I sound American to a mainland Chinese guy, Canadian to a German girl, and presumably, some indistinct English accent to the English girl in question. To be fair, even my 'normal' Singaporean accent when I'm back home is generally a bit more 'classed up' anyway, although it's more like I'm just not being lazy and actually bothering to enunciate properly. (Sorry, this is definitely one of my pet peeves about Singaporeans.) Anyway, I attended church twice today. Was at the morning service in St Thomas', then had a bit of lunch and the drive back to Leamington. Was tempted to just crash into bed after a shower, but I ended up going to the Westwood evening service instead. Couple of my favourite songs in the worship set, so that was nice. Peter's talk about giving quite resonated though, and it echoed something Toby Bassford brought up during the weekend away, so it's probably an area I need to be reflecting on! Quite intrigued by the church model that St Thomas' pioneered, which Westwood has also adopted, because it seems to me like the sort of model that COGS should be thinking about in terms of growth.

Episode 775: Become Day 2

I think tonight was the first time anyone has prayed for me and given me words of knowledge, which I really appreciated. Most interesting part of my day definitely had to be attending the seminar on Christianity and social justice. There was a good discussion going on about how we as Christians need to engage with social issues like the environment and poverty in the developing world, and how this realisation is a comparatively recent thing for the wider church. Not too sure I agreed with the guy who expressed reservations about buying food ethically as a student because of the additional cost. I mean, how much would it really cost? Sacrificing a couple of drinks every week, perhaps? Anyway, I'm playing The Settlers Of Catan in the kitchen area instead of watching Michael McIntyre downstairs, although really, what I should be doing is trying to get more sleep than I did last night. It's a good thing I have all of Reading Week to catch up on my sleep, even if I do still have 2000 words to write by Friday! Nonetheless, I'm definitely glad I came on this weekend away with my church friends.

Episode 774: Become Day 1

Spent just over two hours squashed in the back of Harri's car, travelling to Sheffield. Most amusing part of the trip was probably taking an accidental detour and winding up having to pay the M6 toll twice within 15 minutes. Oh well. These things happen, I suppose. Pete James was leading worship tonight, and man, that guy's voice is good. Was genuinely tempted to buy his CDs, but ultimately decided that it wasn't crucial. I can always pay a little bit more to get them some other time! Toby Bassford's talk was really interesting, especially the part about the tension between the mindsets fostered by American and British societies, as I think it partially informs some of the contentious issues faced by the church in Singapore, specifically with regard to the rise of the megachurch movement and the current criticisms being levelled at those megachurches. Incidentally, our sleeping quarters are better than we'd expected. We were supposed to have been in a large hall of some sort, with a huge heater roaring away, but instead, we've wound up on cushions and couches in a quiet room. Sweet!

Episode 773: Massive Win In Seminar!

Am incredibly sleepy, but I've managed to finish the last post for Incwriters! Now it's time to pack for the student weekend away in Sheffield, which I'm pretty excited about because a lot of my good friends at church are going to be there. I think I'm in a pretty good place at the moment work-wise, and whatever areas I'm behind in, Reading Week is definitely going to give me time to catch up. Like finally finishing Richard III, damn it! (Or him, I suppose.) I'm a bit pleased that I managed to get through the whole of today's EN236 seminar, despite not having read Robinson in its entirety. My contribution to the seminar was also one of the few that Michael Gardiner did not express any reservations about at all, so I was immensely pleased with myself. Just think what I could've said if I'd actually managed to finish the novel! Yeah, probably wouldn't have said all that much more, to be honest. I only spoke today out of self-preservation, like say something I know is correct before he asks me about something I know nothing about. Clearly paid off, so I'm going to carry that moment of triumph with me to bed. Just for tonight, I promise. I'll be back to my humble self tomorrow.

Episode 772: Rebound Procrastination Strikes!

I just Googled how to sign off an e-mail to my French tutor because I was pretty sure that 'Veuillez agréer, Madame, l’expression de mes salutations distinguées' was not only much too formal, but also pretty ridiculous since it would be longer than the content of the email, which was simply 'Voice ma présentation sur l'économie de Singapour', so I finally settled on 'Bien cordialement'. Anyway, was actually kind of dreading LL251 today, but it turned out to be just fine. The three hours actually went by quite quickly, considering that there were less people than usual in the class. My private opinion is that it's because quite a few of the French department first-year students weren't around. I know it's really uncharitable of me, but I just find their accents so annoying. I'm now sitting in front of my laptop, watching ReGenesis and eating chocolate, when what I really should be doing is making a last-ditch attempt to read Muriel Spark's Robinson. If I'm honest with myself, I don't care about Robinson. I'm just slightly intimidated by Michael Gardiner, although before today's EN301 lecture, I was standing beside someone who professed that he was his favourite tutor at university because of his intelligence. Fair point, I guess?

Episode 771: Ramping Up The Productivity!

Just randomly watched Serenity with my housemates, so now obviously I have to watch Firefly too. Finally finished off Fahrenheit 451 today, and damn it, that book really gets to me. I mean, I've always been fond of Ray Bradbury's work before, but reading this novel has taken things to a whole new level of respect. Down to just two more posts for Incwriters that need to be written, and it's good because they're going to be on topics that I find easy to write about, so hooray for that! Might get it all done tomorrow if I get back early enough from cell, otherwise it's going to have to be on Thursday, possibly during that ridiculous stretch of free time between my two seminars. In keeping with the title of this post, I'm actually going to make the effort to finish reading that chapter by Harold Bloom on John Ashbery. Bloom's being a snob, unsurprisingly, and I feel slightly embarrassed that I was once upon a time in awe of him as one of the canon-definers of recent times. I mean, be a critic, but come on, don't be nasty about it. I'm also going to try and read a bit more of The Wild Boys, with a view to finishing it by Thursday. Would be a good idea to finish those Shakespeare plays too, I suppose. Am already going to have to restart Richard III for the fourth time because we've got a task to do for after Reading Week that would involve looking at the text in fairly close detail. Sigh.

Episode 770: Progress In My Reading!

It seems like I'm only really good at reading books weeks after I'm meant to have read them. Fahrenheit 451 is the book I'm on at the moment, and the only thing keeping me from finishing it is the fact that I'm watching the premiere of The Walking Dead. I mean, who doesn't love zombies, really? Now back to the book at hand. I just wanted to say that it's quite possibly the first occasion that a work of fiction has made me desperately angry and sad for its characters. Specifically, it's that moment right after Montag has revealed to his wife that he's been stealing and hiding books, and he's trying to convince her that it's important that they read them, at least just once. I literally stopped reading for a few seconds at that point. Anyway, a flash fiction I wrote as part of an exercise last week has received quite a good reception when I've read it out to people. Of course, maybe they're all just being really polite, but I'd like to think otherwise. Someone asked me (I've no idea why) how much of it was true. Well, none of it. I just thought it was a fun idea. I've got a thing for ironic stories. You can read it here, if you like.