Episode 220: Lacking Inspiration

Skipped French to attend the Isobel Dixon reading, which was a good decision on my part, since I really enjoyed the poems that she read. Feel like writing some of my own now, although the best I've got are fragmentary ideas floating about in my head. Perhaps I should write something about Singapore. Lots of potential angst in that direction, I would imagine. I want to do something thematic, as that'll help to generate work, I think. Went for the sonnet-writing workshop, which didn't actually happen because no one other than the Ugly Cousins turned up! So we sat around and were deliciously random. Came back to my room and bummed around on Facebook for a bit before heading to Varsity. For a change from the usual, we actually walked Sophie back to her room tonight. It was kind of fun to be weaving about on the pavement, and although I had twice as many drinks as I normally do, I'm still feeling fine. I just microwaved sausages and mashed potatoes because I randomly felt hungry, so now I'm eating that while catching up on Charmed. I've made it past the point when Prue dies, which I'd forgotten was so undramatic, and actually is a rather bad way to bridge the transition between Season 3 and 4. Still, watching people die on television is a little upsetting nonetheless...

Episode 219: Options Market

Have realised that if I get all the modules that I want (which I expect to), I will only have to be on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the next academic year. Isn't that amazing? I'm assuming that all the lectures and seminars will more or less stick to their present timings, so if everything works out, next year is going to be awesome. It's a shame about the Wednesday though, but I suppose I could figure out something to do with that odd day in the middle. This doesn't include the Arabic course that Chernise and I have been planning on signing up for, which was on Mondays this year. Might have to change my mind about that, since it seems a little silly to come all the way down just for that on a Monday evening! We'll see. Learning Arabic would be cool, but I'd much rather find an Open Studies course that fit into the Tuesday/Thursday timetable. Now I'm all psyched up about Year 2, but I still need to get through the rest of Year 1, including that awful EN121 examination. Must read some poetry tonight, and get started on my portfolio, if not actually finish a few short poems. The clock is ticking! Also foresee that essay on Heart Of Darkness is going to sacrifice depth for breadth the way I'm going about it, so hopefully a bit more reading over the next few days will sort my thoughts out.

Episode 218: Canley/Earlsdon Cell

Slept till about noon today because I was so tired, and then I headed out to meet Mel at the Library. Was supposed to help her out with printing something, but she got it sorted out in the end, so we just caught up over lunch instead. She went to hand her work in after that, while I went back to the Library to borrow some poetry, to hopefully inspire me as I get started tomorrow on my 4000-word portfolio. Was struck once again by how little I actually read, even just within the genre of poetry, so I decided to take a chance and borrow something more contemporary: Chris McCabe's The Hutton Inquiry. I'll be sure to let you know if it's any good. Then I went back to my room and basically wasted my life away until it was time for cell. Yeah, I've finally joined a cell group at my church. I've missed that, the whole having this smaller group of Christians to meet with. I think I'm one of those people who pretend like they're fine being alone, and sometimes it's actually true, but at other times, it's kind of a lot better just to be around people. So I guess in the same way that I was grateful last term for the formation of the Varsity crew, this term, I'm grateful for finding a cell that I feel comfortable in. I really suppose I should thank Chernise when I next see her, since if I'd never gone to New Word Alive, I probably wouldn't have met John and been invited to join the cell.

Episode 217: Graduation Glamour

I finished, and even had time left over to read through the whole essay again and attempt to spruce it up a little, which resulted in me adding over 200 words that hopefully made my line of argument clearer. Am convinced that the essay is going to be a disappointment compared to everything else I've written for EN122 up to this point, but I suppose if I get some outrageously low mark, then it's a lesson to me, and one that I truly deserve. It's funny how all my academic life, I've been getting these little reminders that consistent work actually pays off, and I'm not really one of those people who can always produce great work at the last minute. Not that it doesn't happen, just that I shouldn't rely on it happening as an excuse to slack off! Graduation Glamour was fun, and I'm pretty glad I decided to go, even though I was ridiculously tired by then. I mean, I basically spent the EN123 lecture dozing off, although the screening of Beckett's Come And Go was intriguing. That and Laura and I scrawling out a conversation on my lecture handout was pretty amusing. I don't think I've done something like that since primary school, when we used to pass around pieces of paper and have conversations that way, so that our teacher wouldn't scold us for talking. We were obviously anticipating the era of MSN Messenger and its kindred. So I've uploaded all my pictures from Singapore Day and Graduation Glamour, as well as tagged the appropriate people. It's time to crash...

Episode 216: All I Have To Do Is Dream

I am totally on track for a sleepless night. Will definitely be able to finish, but I'm vacillating between confidence at having enough words and insecurity at not having words that make sense. It's a little too late to care, and I probably should have thought about all of this in a bit more detail, but I'm just going to have to trust that I'll reach 3500 words and that at least some of it will make sense, so that I won't fail this essay. It would have been nice to get a First, but hey, I guess it's not going to happen. Sucks to be me, right? The rest of the day has been lovely though. Made it to church and my new favourite worship leader was leading. Made plans to attend a cell meeting on Tuesday, which is good news because it means, well, I finally am going to be attending a cell regularly. It's about time, to be honest. Had lunch at Mike and Dorinda's place, and I had a lovely time there, in the little village of Burton Green. That's one of the things I like about bigger countries, that they have all these little towns and villages scattered across the country, between the cities. Urban sprawl is probably going to swallow up many of them, as it has in the past, but for now, they're still there. Can you imagine living in a world that's turned into one big global city, literally? Scares the hell out of me.

Episode 215: Dream A Little Dream Of Me

I did manage to finish reading The Magic Toyshop on the way to London. Even marked out all the pages that I may be able to use in the essay. Anyway, Singapore Day was fun, even though our coach driver was a total bitch! Ate a bunch of local food, which I haven't missed terribly, but it was a nice reminder of home, especially the Katong laksa. I really think the quality suffered as the day went on though, since the laksa wasn't as good the second time that I got it. Walked around with Samantha until Eugene came along, and then we hung out together for a bit before she became otherwise occupied. Kept seeing Yi-xun in the queue next to mine, so we never actually got to talk. I actually saw a lot of people around, so much that Samantha was complaining after walking about with me. All I can say is that we can't all be social butterflies all the time. The entertainment was pretty good, especially once the Dim Sum Dollies came onstage. My only problem with the likes of them is that their humour really appeals to the lowest of common denominators, at least for Singaporeans. So it's forever in danger of crossing the line between class and crass. Not to be snobbish or anything, but there's more in life that's amusing than poking fun at political figures. So after an afternoon of the requisite camwhoring, I spent the trip back trying not to fall asleep while reading some of my secondary sources. Have written about 300 words so far, but I don't think I'm going to continue tonight. Randomly, muruku is seriously addictive.

Episode 214: I Dreamed A Dream

Thank God for Fridays when my only lesson ends at 11 am and I can spend the rest of the day trying to do work. The more hours there are, the greater the chance that some of them will actually be spent being productive. Spent the day reading Freud's The Interpretation Of Dreams and On Dreams. The former is quite useless for purposes of my essay, while the latter will need to be tweaked to become relevant. Brilliant insight has occurred already though, which should speed up process of getting essay started tomorrow night. Have read nearly 50% of The Magic Toyshop, which is probably going to have to do, since I need to wake up at 6 am and given my current speed of reading, it's quite futile to continue. I'll just be sleep-deprived tomorrow and not be able to stay awake to write the essay after getting back from Singapore Day in London. I'm hoping that the other readings I photocopied, which I haven't read through at all, will prove to be more useful for the essay. Otherwise, I'm royally screwed and will have to resort to making up pretty much an entire essay from scratch within 48 hours. Even I don't have that much faith in my own powers of reasoning...

Episode 213: Just One More (And I'm Not Talking About Pints)

'Short People' for Charity Night went well. So now people know that I can actually sing. Haha! Got my French test results back today and I was very pleased with them. 88% for the listening bit and 90% for the written stuff. If only the rest of my degree were this easy! I am so doing a French language module for credit next year. I did end up leaving the rest of the essay till this morning, and I only got it done because whilst chatting with Laura on Facebook, she reminded me that Jim's seminar was at noon, when all the while I'd been thinking I'd only have to be on Central Campus at 2 pm, which is actually the time for my French class, not the EN123 seminar. Can't imagine what I was thinking! So out of desperation, I dashed off the remainder of the essay, and now I'm all set to begin on the EN122 essay tomorrow. That I will hopefully complete by Sunday night, even if we all know that's wishful thinking and I'm certainly going to be doing it right until before the EN121 lecture at noon. Don't you just love deadlines? I could have made a start in the evening, I guess, but that would have meant missing Varsity, and that's just inexcusable. To me, anyway. Will have to be more disciplined about the next set of deadlines in May. 10000 words!

Episode 212: The Elusive Sunshine Of The Sullied Mind

I'm meant to finish this essay by tonight, but it seems unlikely that it's actually going to happen. I haven't got the willpower to see it all the way through! Will probably leave a bit of it for tomorrow morning before Jim's seminar. Can't be arsed anymore really, need to get on with the EN122 essay on Carter and Freud, and I haven't got a lot of time to read the texts and write the essay. Plus I don't trust my brilliance enough to hand it in a day late and get marks docked. I do so want a First for this essay again. Would be such a shame to break the streak in this module, especially since I've pretty much figured out what Adam regards as good argumentation. I did get to have a lovely picnic with the usual suspects at Heronbank though, despite showing up late because of rehearsing 'Short People', so at least my day wasn't a complete failure. The sun kept getting hidden by the clouds, unfortunately, so the second half of the picnic was spent in the cold, with the only heat being generated by our saucy conversation. Lucy, we love you dearly, but you say the most outrageous things sometimes!

Episode 211: Someone Needs To Allegorise My Life

Despite having gone through two years of NS, I still lack a sense of urgency. I managed to avoid touching my EN121 essay all day by working on, get this, my French rédactions. So I've got three of those done, just needing to be printed. What I do not have is 2000-2500 words on the role of Prince Arthur in Spenser's allegorical schema in The Faerie Queene. That said, I have some key ideas that I mean to explore, so perhaps all is not lost yet. Yeah, I might even write the first paragraph after the introduction tonight! This is after messing around with the introduction turned the original first sentence into something that I'm going to end up saving for my penultimate or antepenultimate paragraph. Writing essays without drafting beforehand is quite an exciting experience, as you can see. The following Latin ditty is going to contribute to a significant point in my essay, but I'm not sure if I want to quote it in full:

Littera gesta docet,
Quod credas allegoria.
Moralia quod agas,
Quo tendas anagogia.

Seems much too pretentious to throw that in the essay, even for me. Plus it looks like a cheap attempt to pad the word count. Anyway, it's talking about the fourfold interpretive method of Biblical hermeneutics. If you understood the previous sentence without resorting to Google, please leave a comment. I want to be your friend and eat your brain. Thanks!