Episode 151: Working Well In Advance, For A Change

After I got home from Varsity, I briefly entertained thoughts of reading Shakespeare and Spenser in bed. I even went so far as to take out all the material, before deciding that it just wasn't worth the loss of sleep. So I went through another seminar without saying anything. Thank God for people like Alex and Dan who always volunteer something. Haha! I just came back from a Warwick Skills Certificate session. I'm doing the weekend intensive for CM1 Getting Started On Skills Development, which is interesting, but still not the kind of stuff that I couldn't pick up by reading a few books or surfing a few websites. Bits of the module sound really familiar though, like stuff I've facilitated for when I was working at High Achievers. The assignments look really easy to complete, and I've had good practice with that sort of stuff while doing WITS project reports during NS. I've also started doing my French homework really early this time, as I've got no major looming deadlines and can afford to spend time catching up on work and reading. So I will probably start on the portfolio for CM1 well in advance of the April 24 deadline! Randomly, Walkers Sensations chips have been half-price at Costcutter for really long! I'm so happy because it's letting me stock up on snacks. Especially Thai sweet chilli chips. Yay!

Episode 150: Put Your Boots On, Baby, Get To Work!

Have succeeded in finishing my commentary on the Spenserian sonnet before heading to Varsity! You know how sometimes you don't notice stuff, but then when you do, it becomes all you can think about? I'm like that with pilling on my clothes, so much so that I've decided I should try getting a cheap fabric shaver to see if I can reduce some of the worst pilling. Anyway, today's lecture on The Buddha Of Suburbia was like that. I don't particularly care for the book, and was terribly amused when Adam Putz showed us his ripped up and chewed on copy of Kureishi's novel during Tuesday's seminar. I described it as 'episodically entertaining', which is quite true, given that I read the first two chapters, and felt like it was just a waste of my time. It was funny, but I didn't feel particularly amazed at the language, or at the message of the novel. Today's lecturer didn't do much to improve my impression of the novel, especially since from the way that she put it, it sounded to me like the terrain Kureishi treads has been done before, only in far more capable ways. Didn't help that every other sentence of hers was peppered by 'uh'. It's like once you notice something like that, you can't help but be hopelessly distracted by it. The Waiting For Godot workshop in the afternoon was fun though, and now I really, really want to watch it in London!

Episode 149: Learning Grid Blues

Goodness. I'm in the Learning Grid now, and I've totally turned into one of those people who stay up late and actually intend to get work done in this place. Temporarily, of course. I blame all the other Singaporeans, who were the reason I came over anyway. I still hate what I've written of my commentary so far. It's okay when taken in little bits, but together, the whole thing feels like it's meandering, and when I feel that way, it usually means I'm waffling. I need some sort of focusing principle to justify my somewhat facetious analysis of Spenser's sonnet. That said, I can't really be bothered about the quality. I always say that, but this time, I really mean it to a large extent. I'm just trying to get this done because there's no time to procrastinate until tomorrow night and stay up late then. Varsity is, obviously, more important than a Renaissance poem commentary! Seriously though, I'm just trying to get into the habit of finishing work more than 12 hours before it's due, as it can't be healthy to put myself through that kind of stress on a regular basis.

At least Weird Fiction today was fun! It was the last session, and for the workshop, we had a mock session where four of us pitched our ideas for a novel to the rest of the participants, who played the role of publishers of various sizes. China Miéville acted as literary agent for all of us. I got an advance of £8000 for my idea from the smallest but very respected publisher, and I took the offer, which he later agreed was the move he would have advised. In real life, I would probably have acted in a similar fashion anyway. I have very clear ideas about whom I would like to publish my work in future, but I'm not going to be choosy when I'm first starting out. (I will try to avoid turning into one of those writers who annoy me by having their work scattered across multiple publishers. Makes the books look bad on the shelf!) In a twist of events, the biggest publisher walked away with no new authors signed. It was a really fun session, and a sort of primer into how the industry really works. It's scary to think that tonight's decisions were the sort I'd have to make if I want to be a published writer, except real life isn't all fun and games like tonight fundamentally was.

Episode 148: Procrastinating, As Always...

Oh, the irony. I listened to a podcast today by some guy on the importance of isolating sounds from your native language that don't appear in Spanish when learning Spanish pronunciation, so as to achieve a more authentic accent. The irony comes from his own English pronunciation, which fails to make the distinction (that doesn't exist in Spanish) between 'b' and 'v', at least not consistently. At least he acknowledges it himself at the end of the podcast. I find accents and phonology fascinating in passing, although most of it is really just a desire to correct my own accent away from the laziness of a Singaporean tongue. That makes me sound just a tad snooty. I am though, when it comes to things like speaking correctly. I am very aware that my accent changes when I speak to my British friends, although not as drastically as some people I've encountered, which in part is due to the fact that unless I'm slipping into Singlish in conversation, I tend to adopt what Kelly once remarked was a 'educated Singaporean accent', i.e. educated in a certain type of Singaporean school, so it takes very little effort to get myself understood anyway.

Episode 147: Sleepy...

Managed to finish the essay around 7 am, so I went over to the Learning Grid to get it printed, together with the fiction portfolio. Then came back to my room and crashed for about three hours. Woke up just in time before the cleaner came around to collect my rubbish! We went to view four houses in Chapelfields this afternoon, all of which had rooms around the same size. The first one was a complete wreck though, even with only one tenant. I liked the last house we saw, although it was also completely unfinished. The landlord seems okay, if somewhat verbose, and more importantly, the letting agent doesn't feel suspicious. Still, we shall see how things work out. I'm too tired to think about it right now, so I'm just going to sleep soon. I probably should read The Buddha Of Suburbia, but I doubt I could concentrate beyond five pages anyway. Need to start doing the commentary on the Spenser sonnet soon, especially if I plan on keeping the usual Thursday night Varsity appointment. Damn it. Still need to do the final Weird Fiction assignment for the workshop. Sigh...

Episode 146: Another All-Nighter

Submissions meeting in the morning. I thought we did really well, but we didn't get the green light in the end, so that's rather a shame. Was kind of looking forward to it really. So I came back and started researching my Stoppard essay. Didn't really have a thesis in mind this time, since I'd totally put off thinking about it until today. Had to hunt through articles and essays for a while before a coherent plan formed itself for the essay, which I am currently writing while listening to the entire Café Del Mar discography on my laptop. My aim is to finish before I reach the end of the music, which seeing as there are 601 tracks, is entirely possible. I will almost certainly be pulling another all-nighter again, which is just insane. One can only hope the quality of the essay this time suffers only as much as the previous one did! My friends think I'm crazy for forgoing my sleep, but well, I kind of can't help it. The whole perfectionist thing and all. I'm expecting a 2:1 for this essay, although I'm quite hopeful my fiction portfolio will be a First. So the marathon essay-writing session continues...

Episode 145: Kitchen Woes

Have finished my portfolio, inclusive of commentary. Am now going to continue reading Travesties after I finished watching the latest episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I also just finished eating a really late lunch. While making it, I discovered to my consternation that people have been using my large pan and they've scratched it really badly. Seriously, what the hell? They've also been stealing my cooking oil and salt. Later, when I go back into the kitchen to microwave some potatoes, I'm going tie everything up in a plastic bag, and if they still open it and take the stuff out to use, I'm bringing it all back into my room. I mean, I don't mind if people borrow stuff occasionally, but at least leave it in the condition that you found it. Is that too much to ask? Am not that upset because I don't really cook that often, but I did pay good money for my kitchen implements, and I don't appreciate having them damaged by people who just can't be bothered. Maybe it's just a different culture here? In which case, it's not a very nice one. I doubt Singaporeans, even strangers, would have behaved in this fashion.

Episode 144: Vote For Us!

Please vote for this video that my friends and I made! You can find it here. Just comment on it with 'YOU HAVE MY VOTE'. Thanks! So I've managed to finish one of my flash fictions, the one that's been stuck in my head for the past few days. I expanded it from a winter setting to all four seasons, in order to sustain the narrative interest (for myself). I think the ending is particularly nice, so I've posted it up on my LJ here. Eugene thinks I should switch from poetry to prose, since he thinks this piece alone is better than all the poetry I've ever posted here. I find it very hard to agree with him, especially having written something like this and getting it published. I freely admit that nothing written before or after it reads quite as effortlessly to my ear (I wrote most of it during a Mathematics lecture in JC), and while there are moments when I've come close to replicating that level of ease, like here, I have this gnawing self-doubt that I will never be a poet who has anything really important to say. Until recently, I've always felt like all my writing was overshadowed, at least in my mind, by that one poem. The experience of writing 'Three's (Not) A Crowd' has taught me that I am pathetically incapable of judging my own creative writing if it has to be longer than say, 200 words. Now I'm just procrastinating by updating my blog and talking to Alex on Facebook chat, although the latter has helped in giving me some ideas throughout this whole arduous process of writing two flash fictions. Once again, I find myself wishing for Monday to arrive, except this time the feeling's hitting about a day earlier than usual. Ah well...

Episode 143: Why Work When You Can Drink Instead?

The title about sums up my attitude, it being Thursday and all. Cheap drinks at Varsity are obviously more important than a flash fiction portfolio, Travesties essay and Renaissance poetry commentary. French wasn't a total waste of time, but increasingly, I don't think it's even remotely challenging, especially not if we're allowed access to a dictionary during examinations. My two weaknesses in French are a lack of oral facility and a grasp of French vocabulary to match my English one. The latter is remedied by a solid dictionary, which allows me to express in French what I'm thinking in English, complete with fairly impressive linguistic constructions. Actually speaking is something that I still have to work on. My accent is no longer as good as it once was, although pronunciation-wise, I am still fairly decent. Anyway, I have managed to bang out about 250 words so far, and I've got some idea of where the remainder is going to come from, at least for this flash fiction. The other one exists only as an idea. An intriguing idea, but still only an idea nonetheless. My head is still pounding slightly, so I've been watching the latest episode of Skins before going to bed. Can I just say that I'm damn impressed that the writers managed to have Effy and Pandora quoting the opening of Larkin's 'This Be The Verse', and without it sounding forced? I mean, I only picked up on it because I've read Larkin's Collected Poems. Otherwise, the reference would have completely slipped past me. Loved the choice of music in this episode! Trashy pop music. I liked seeing Effy fall apart at the end. She and Freddie totally need to get together. Seriously.

Episode 142: The Dot Is Hot!

Got back from London and did a bit of shopping at Tesco. The driver had quite the sense of humour. I tried to read a bit, but I was sleepy, so I napped for quite a while instead, which is bad news for my Travesties essay. Trekked down to Benefactors in the middle of the afternoon to meet Michelle and Marc about the video we're making for the Contact Singapore competition. We had a brainwave or two, so Michelle and I went to get the footage we needed. It was quite hilarious in a way, as we had to walk from the multi-storey carpark all the way back to Benefactors without saying anything. Fortunately, we didn't bump into anyone we knew along the way, or we'd probably have had to start all over. In any case, we made it back and she started editing it, while I procrastinated on my laptop. Wanted to go for Twelfth Floor tonight, but I forgot about it until like half an hour before it was starting, so now I'm thinking of going down to catch it in London. Crazy, I know. Am still trying to get started on the portfolio for EN124. Have ideas, but nothing concrete beyond a few hundred words that don't look like they're going to shape up into anything decent, at least not without some radical change of direction. Sigh...