. . .Yesterday was yet another full day of spontaneity. Which, while was much better than just lazing around, was somewhat unsettling in the sense that I didn't have the mental preparations to be doing so much in one day. Anyways, had lunch with a friend, watched a bunch of friends play basketball (I personally don't know how to play, even though some rich kid from Taiwan tried to teach me once... I'll save that story for another time). Then at around 4:00 I went shopping with 2 friends, an hour of which was spent at the haircut place, where she got rid of her split-ends (yay!). Afterwards, had a quick dinner at home before dashing out again for bbt with my god-sis. Ended up chatting until 11:30pm or so. Got to meet an English major. Yay!
. . .Aside from that, not much happening really. School starts up next week! Ahh!!! I didn't have enough time! *mentally groans* I'll be SO ready to graduate it's not even funny. And then I'll get my PhD, amazingly well-furnished house or condo, maybe get married, and either write or teach for a living. (Well, I guess both are viable options.) Anywhoo... I'd best get back to my novel... I wanna get at least 2 chapters done before school starts up again.
2004/04/28
2004/04/27
Lacklustre
. . .Not sure if this break from school is a rest for my poor little brain, or if it's atrophy for my intellect, but in any case, I've been feeling less and less sure of my ken and artistry. I tried sketching the [small, short, graffitied] clocktower in the middle of a would-be park just outside my condo, but that ended in dismal failure. I'd upload the sketches, but uhh...
. . .And I should be reading more. I've become so "decadent" (in the literal sense) that my English is nothing more than a mere force of confidence than actual merit of fluency. Sure, I know some kooky words. But there's so much more to a language than vocabulary. Sentence patterns, allusions, literary references, poetry - all these can be done without an impressive diction. I don't want to get into yet another linguistic discussion because oh so few people ever have the patience or interest to read it all anyways. In a nutshell, I feel that my English has degraded to a heap of bricks than an impressive architectual achievement.
. . .Everybody already knows that I prefer tersity over verbosity, British over American. Which is an out-right lie, sometimes. Long convoluted sentences are pretty funny, as infamous quotes from the TV character Sir Humphery Appleby [from Yes, Minister!] display. Quote at the end of my post. ;)
. . .On the creative front, I've also had trouble writing and drawing. I can't seem to budge a page in my would-be novel, and anything that manages to be scrawled onto the pages of my sketchbook all end up being mentally dismissed as meaningless drivel. And I'm also to create a card for a certain someone who's flying away in a week. But sby already beat me to it in getting people to sign stuff, so I'm not sure if I should just make an ultra-personal card, or just give up and smile.
. . .Anywhoo... Yesterday was pretty long. it officially ended at around 2:30am, but I didn't get to rest until around 4:30am, since I had to walk home from the person's house to my condo. (About an equivalent distance between McNicol+Leslie and Yonge+Sheppard.) That was... fun. I got to think a lot, and mull over what I was to do for and in my future in terms of school, career, residence, marriage, etc. So with the exception of the minor complication of finding a girlfriend, I'm to graduate in December 2004, work for a year (to make money; pay off OSAP, etc), go into grad school and get a PhD by 2008, marry and settle down in either Toronto-Canada, Vancouver-Canada, Guilford-England, Tokyo-Japan or Frankfurt am Main-Germany. You'll notice the list becomes increasingly impossible. So in most likelyhood, I'll be staying here in Toronto, or I *could* do what my father did and start a family in total isolation from the rest of my family. Though in this case, I've already used the word "family" in two different senses. Hrrmmm...
. . .I briefly got to see a friend today, which was nice. 'Cept that things got cut short and I had to run. But at least I got to rest for a bit -- my lack of sleep from the night before thrust me into a 4-hour nap between the hours of 4:00pm and 8:00pm. Waking up was rather disorienting. And the nap wasn't entirely pleasant either; phonecalls interdispersed my slumber, lending to a constant sense of unrest.
. . .With the weekend over, I'm now planning for myself certain things to do so that my week away from school doesn't end up being a total waste. I'll try to finish reading at least three novels, and write up at least 5 more chapters for my story. If I'm feeling satisfied with my work, I might even post it on dA. But in all reality, I highly doubt it. The most I'll do is probably just give it to a few close friends to read. And maybe, out there among my fantasies, I'll get it published... ^_^
. . .Anyways, below's a quote from the show Yes, Minister. Sir Humphrey Appleby is the scheming civil servant (Permanent Under Secretary of State), and James Hacker is the Minister. I couldn't find the quote where he really abuses the run-on sentence to say a simple thing, but this one's still fun to read! ^_^
Sir Humphrey Appleby: You see, the British foreign office has had the same basic goal for at least the last five hundred years, and that is to create a disunited Europe. In that cause, we've fought with the Germans against the French and Spanish, with the Turkish and French against the Russians, and with the French and Russians against the Germans and Italians. It's the old divide and rule, you see, that's why we want to break up the European Union. We tried to break it up from the outside, but that wouldn't work. Now that we're inside we're free to make a complete pig's breakfast of the whole thing. We can set the Spanish against the Germans, the Germans against the French, the French against the Italians. Foreign office is terribly pleased, it's just like old times.
James Hacker: But if that's true, why is the foreign office pushing for higher membership?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: I'd have thought that was obvious. The more members an organization has, the more arguments it can stir up. The more futile and impotent it becomes.
James Hacker: What appalling cynicism.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes, minister. We call it diplomacy.
. . .And I should be reading more. I've become so "decadent" (in the literal sense) that my English is nothing more than a mere force of confidence than actual merit of fluency. Sure, I know some kooky words. But there's so much more to a language than vocabulary. Sentence patterns, allusions, literary references, poetry - all these can be done without an impressive diction. I don't want to get into yet another linguistic discussion because oh so few people ever have the patience or interest to read it all anyways. In a nutshell, I feel that my English has degraded to a heap of bricks than an impressive architectual achievement.
. . .Everybody already knows that I prefer tersity over verbosity, British over American. Which is an out-right lie, sometimes. Long convoluted sentences are pretty funny, as infamous quotes from the TV character Sir Humphery Appleby [from Yes, Minister!] display. Quote at the end of my post. ;)
. . .On the creative front, I've also had trouble writing and drawing. I can't seem to budge a page in my would-be novel, and anything that manages to be scrawled onto the pages of my sketchbook all end up being mentally dismissed as meaningless drivel. And I'm also to create a card for a certain someone who's flying away in a week. But sby already beat me to it in getting people to sign stuff, so I'm not sure if I should just make an ultra-personal card, or just give up and smile.
. . .Anywhoo... Yesterday was pretty long. it officially ended at around 2:30am, but I didn't get to rest until around 4:30am, since I had to walk home from the person's house to my condo. (About an equivalent distance between McNicol+Leslie and Yonge+Sheppard.) That was... fun. I got to think a lot, and mull over what I was to do for and in my future in terms of school, career, residence, marriage, etc. So with the exception of the minor complication of finding a girlfriend, I'm to graduate in December 2004, work for a year (to make money; pay off OSAP, etc), go into grad school and get a PhD by 2008, marry and settle down in either Toronto-Canada, Vancouver-Canada, Guilford-England, Tokyo-Japan or Frankfurt am Main-Germany. You'll notice the list becomes increasingly impossible. So in most likelyhood, I'll be staying here in Toronto, or I *could* do what my father did and start a family in total isolation from the rest of my family. Though in this case, I've already used the word "family" in two different senses. Hrrmmm...
. . .I briefly got to see a friend today, which was nice. 'Cept that things got cut short and I had to run. But at least I got to rest for a bit -- my lack of sleep from the night before thrust me into a 4-hour nap between the hours of 4:00pm and 8:00pm. Waking up was rather disorienting. And the nap wasn't entirely pleasant either; phonecalls interdispersed my slumber, lending to a constant sense of unrest.
. . .With the weekend over, I'm now planning for myself certain things to do so that my week away from school doesn't end up being a total waste. I'll try to finish reading at least three novels, and write up at least 5 more chapters for my story. If I'm feeling satisfied with my work, I might even post it on dA. But in all reality, I highly doubt it. The most I'll do is probably just give it to a few close friends to read. And maybe, out there among my fantasies, I'll get it published... ^_^
. . .Anyways, below's a quote from the show Yes, Minister. Sir Humphrey Appleby is the scheming civil servant (Permanent Under Secretary of State), and James Hacker is the Minister. I couldn't find the quote where he really abuses the run-on sentence to say a simple thing, but this one's still fun to read! ^_^
Sir Humphrey Appleby: You see, the British foreign office has had the same basic goal for at least the last five hundred years, and that is to create a disunited Europe. In that cause, we've fought with the Germans against the French and Spanish, with the Turkish and French against the Russians, and with the French and Russians against the Germans and Italians. It's the old divide and rule, you see, that's why we want to break up the European Union. We tried to break it up from the outside, but that wouldn't work. Now that we're inside we're free to make a complete pig's breakfast of the whole thing. We can set the Spanish against the Germans, the Germans against the French, the French against the Italians. Foreign office is terribly pleased, it's just like old times.
James Hacker: But if that's true, why is the foreign office pushing for higher membership?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: I'd have thought that was obvious. The more members an organization has, the more arguments it can stir up. The more futile and impotent it becomes.
James Hacker: What appalling cynicism.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes, minister. We call it diplomacy.
2004/04/24
Saturday Salutations
. . .Had lunch with a friend, then hung out at said friend's place for the remainder of the afternoon/early evening. Barely got any work done. heh. But I got access to the savory scanner, which means 6 new updates for dA! Check it out! And if you've a dA account, feel free to leave me comments; I'm always eager to learn how I might improve. =)
. . .Meanwhile, some more quiz fun stuff. Ah, so funny, these meme quizzes. :P
. . .Meanwhile, some more quiz fun stuff. Ah, so funny, these meme quizzes. :P
2004/04/23
Day of Thor (Thursday)
. . .Wow, such a full day. Got up at 8:00am, just to rush in the morning to get picked up to go to Waterloo at 8:10am. That was exciting. A certain blood-sister was supposed to wake me up at 7:20am, but anyways...
. . .Friend had architecture program interview at UW, and her mother didn't really know the way there, so I tagged along. (That and I also had some books I forgot to bring back with me.) Friend's mom and Augustine watched a movie while I tried to clean my room. Meanwhile, Friend spent $3.90 on a payphone to try to reach her mother's cell... Just to discover that there's no reception in my apartment. Ha-ha... In the meanwhile, I managed to access bittorrent and got to watch the raws for Naruto 80 and Chrno Crusade 20. Almost finished... and FF7:AC is almost out!! XD
. . .Afterwards, went to karaoke as a sort of farewell party for Daisaku. Met some new people. That was fun. My inadequacy in Chinese reigned once again... Just sorta encourages me to study harder. ^_^
. . .Friend had architecture program interview at UW, and her mother didn't really know the way there, so I tagged along. (That and I also had some books I forgot to bring back with me.) Friend's mom and Augustine watched a movie while I tried to clean my room. Meanwhile, Friend spent $3.90 on a payphone to try to reach her mother's cell... Just to discover that there's no reception in my apartment. Ha-ha... In the meanwhile, I managed to access bittorrent and got to watch the raws for Naruto 80 and Chrno Crusade 20. Almost finished... and FF7:AC is almost out!! XD
. . .Afterwards, went to karaoke as a sort of farewell party for Daisaku. Met some new people. That was fun. My inadequacy in Chinese reigned once again... Just sorta encourages me to study harder. ^_^
2004/04/21
Crap!
. . .Note to self: never make phone calls when you're tired. I just left a msg on a [male] friend's cell phone saying sth. like "...hoping we can get back together before I go back to Uni..." when I really meant sth. more like "...hoping we could meet up before the summer term starts..."
. . .Greeeaaat. So that's yet another person who's gonna block me. Whee... Gosh, being at home is depressing... I want out of here. NOW! The rain seems to have stopped, so I guess I can go sketch that clocktower... hrmm...
. . .Greeeaaat. So that's yet another person who's gonna block me. Whee... Gosh, being at home is depressing... I want out of here. NOW! The rain seems to have stopped, so I guess I can go sketch that clocktower... hrmm...
The Epithet
. . .Just saw a pretty powerful movie - The Browning Version. I cried 3 times!!! T_T Such a powerful movie. And the ending was so much better than I thought it might have been, given the beginning, and where I thought it might be going. I guess I should have read the backcover of the cassette jacket first before going into the movie. Not really the point of the movie, but just watching it makes me want to learn Latin again. And *maybe* even read The Agamemnon...
. . .Meanwhile, I'm finally back in Toronto, and hating it. Everybody's not done exams yet, which is quite frustrating. And it's horribly cramped here in my condo, so I don't have a lot of freedom either. Sister's studying for her exams, so I don't have access to her computer (hence, no dA fun stuff, no MSN, etc), whereas my alternative is to use the out-dated P-133, which while powerful for its day, is severely outdated and virtually an antique in the electronic realm of computers.
. . .I don't really see myself surviving here for more than 2 consecutive days, so unless people are offering me a place to stay for the night, I'm just gonna go back to Waterloo after this weekend.
. . .Gosh, I hate this world. Not only are we forced to live in it, we're also forced to live by it. Either that or live in the simplistic ways of the Amish. Grr... Anywhoo...
. . .Blogging on this computer isn't blogging at all. Maybe I'll see some of you while I'm still in Toronto.
. . .Meanwhile, I'm finally back in Toronto, and hating it. Everybody's not done exams yet, which is quite frustrating. And it's horribly cramped here in my condo, so I don't have a lot of freedom either. Sister's studying for her exams, so I don't have access to her computer (hence, no dA fun stuff, no MSN, etc), whereas my alternative is to use the out-dated P-133, which while powerful for its day, is severely outdated and virtually an antique in the electronic realm of computers.
. . .I don't really see myself surviving here for more than 2 consecutive days, so unless people are offering me a place to stay for the night, I'm just gonna go back to Waterloo after this weekend.
. . .Gosh, I hate this world. Not only are we forced to live in it, we're also forced to live by it. Either that or live in the simplistic ways of the Amish. Grr... Anywhoo...
. . .Blogging on this computer isn't blogging at all. Maybe I'll see some of you while I'm still in Toronto.
2004/04/17
Voyage
. . .And I don't mean it in a French sense either. Anyways. Did some heavy-duty phone time again. Well, it wasn't *as* bad this time, but yah. around 11:30pm-2:50am? Just shy of 3.5 hours. Ah well. Then I did some heavy-duty midnight wandering. Everything's closed... and all the 24-hour supermarkets are far, far away. So yah. Didn't get back 'til around 4:15am. It was a fun walk. Sorta. Got to think a lot. A lot about nothing. heh. But it was refreshing. And *some* sort of good exercise, I'm sure. But next time, I'm either gonna do my midnight shopping before 12:00am, or I find out where the closest 24-hour supermarket is.
. . .I worked a bit more on my novel today. For the first time in like, 2 years! Thank God I actually made those idea/bg files; majorly helped refresh my memory on what exactly I was writing, what sort of ideas I had, what direction I was going in, who the characters were, etc. :P If I'm semi-satisfied with my work, I just might even post it on dA! But that's not likely to happen, so ehh.. yah...
. . .I worked a bit more on my novel today. For the first time in like, 2 years! Thank God I actually made those idea/bg files; majorly helped refresh my memory on what exactly I was writing, what sort of ideas I had, what direction I was going in, who the characters were, etc. :P If I'm semi-satisfied with my work, I just might even post it on dA! But that's not likely to happen, so ehh.. yah...
2004/04/16
Tetelestai!!
. . ....Or, "it is finished!!!" Heute Morgens scribt ich meine letzte Prüfung~!! And yes, it was German. Oi... I probably lost 30/40 marks for the essay part... the entire thing was out of 144 marks, so I guess losing 30 marks isn't the worst, right? I'd rather not think about it though.
. . .So now I'm free... ... to work on my essays. But yet I don't really feel like it. I guess I could work on some dA stuff... or work on that novel that I've been meaning to write for the past two years now... I don't even remember half the ideas I had for that thing anymore... I think I titled it "Ascension" but eh... yah...The mind of an 18-year old me... Hrrmm...
. . .I have cash now! yay! I think I'm gonna order pizza. lol. That should last me at least a day. =]
. . .So now I'm free... ... to work on my essays. But yet I don't really feel like it. I guess I could work on some dA stuff... or work on that novel that I've been meaning to write for the past two years now... I don't even remember half the ideas I had for that thing anymore... I think I titled it "Ascension" but eh... yah...The mind of an 18-year old me... Hrrmm...
. . .I have cash now! yay! I think I'm gonna order pizza. lol. That should last me at least a day. =]
2004/04/15
Food...?
. . .Whoa... I've been averaging a meal a day for the past week or so. ...With the freak exception of Toronto, in which I maybe had 2 meals a day? It's a wonder I'm still alive. Probably 'cuz sby just wants to watch me go through the torture of every exam instead of just killing me now!! :(
. . .But at least I got meat this time! About 120g of canned tuna. And that's all the protein that's supposed to last me the week. I don't get to go back this weekend cuz I need to do some heavy-duty essay writing for the monday. But hopefully after that, I'll get to start on my translation or dA fun stuff. Cuz yah, dA is always fun. Even if its servers can't handle its popularity. ^^;
. . .But at least I got meat this time! About 120g of canned tuna. And that's all the protein that's supposed to last me the week. I don't get to go back this weekend cuz I need to do some heavy-duty essay writing for the monday. But hopefully after that, I'll get to start on my translation or dA fun stuff. Cuz yah, dA is always fun. Even if its servers can't handle its popularity. ^^;
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