rock/islanddddd~

*

I haven’t felt close to God in about a month now. or more. you don’t exactly note these dates and times but somehow you feel these things – not even overspiritualising here. like a sort of haunting weightlessness and lack of direction. Animal Farm criticises the church for being a false ideal spurring blind fools on to a non-existent heaven but it is true that being a Christian imbues you with this sense of unshakeable spiritual resolve, for better or for worse. and i could stomach all the minor setbacks of the past but being Godless somehow exacerbates everything to the point of intolerance, makes you hypersensitive to exactly the things in the world that annoy you (at the expense of spiritual sensitivity). how can I lead a cell when I’m in desperate need of cell-ing myself??

take it from me: don’t be a librarian

www.nl.sg has this (relatively) new service where you can ask a librarian questions. Sounded interesting so I had to give it a try.

Librarian: Hi how may i help you?

Me: what can i do at a library

can i play dota at a library?

Librarian: dota?

Me: yes a computer game

Librarian: if you are using your own laptop to play games, without using our power source, we can’t stop you.

If you are using our power source, then its forbidden

Me: why is it forbidden? i play it every day and every night it’s very fun

Librarian: A library does not provide power source for gamers. It is a place for people to study and conduct their research.

Games are more suitable at home or at a gaming cafe.

Me: so what can i do at a library? can i sleep at a library? some books have soft squishy covers, it’s quite comfortable.

Librarian: no… you can’t sleep at a library. as i’ve stated earlier on.. the library is a place for people to browse and borrow books or to study

do you have any more questions?

Me: what is a library

She took three minutes to answer this (copied and pasted Longman definition) and hurriedly logged off. Abel, are you reading this?

what the gall

This is very late (and Deanna would disapprove because she thinks boys shouldn’t have blogs and/or “write about their feelings”), but

THANKS GALLBLADDERS <3

Who knew such a stupid name could go a long way? If I’d had my (other) way with things, we’d be called G’astric Pains or G’onorrhea or G’arjun Balasubramaniam – but hey, deep down we’re really all gallbladders at heart.

Six days of inside jokes (incl. weekends) and fast friendships and 21 – um, 22 – friends and carebears. OMG-Man has truly not died in vain.

Okay, enough ponning school – I return tomorrow~

G’talk

Rachael: i know why the j2s dislike the j1s so much
it’s because the juniors remind them/us of how they/we used to be
so recklessly carefree and yes, young
i bet jung has some theory on this
me: i think it’s just because they cut our queues… no deep meaning to it

novelty never gets boring

Orientation feels much shorter now that it’s actually here – it’s halfway gone and I guess on Wednesday night I wouldn’t have expected the success of Storyline / reflected glory from OMG-Man, RJ’s new cult hero two days into Orientation; the coolness of my OG (despite certain demographic qualities that I shan’t describe in detail here) (EA SECOND RUNNERS-UP!! The chances of winning a Swensens voucher over the first two days are a mere 9.75% so well done guys~)

Many soundbites also, which I’ve mostly forgotten. As you age into RJ life you stop being retarded. It’s an unfortunate yet irreversible process. That’s why Orientation’s valuable.

OG: Let’s just ask that couple (sitting in the middle of a long OG-sized row of seats at JustAcia) to zao so we can sit!
Matthew: Better not. What if today’s their 10th anniversary and we traumatise them for life by ruining their experience?????
Richard: …dude, if today’s their 10th anniversary they wouldn’t be at JustAcia.

Touche moment.

Two more days! I miss the clinicality of lessons with 1B (and the classmates also) but till Wednesday the 1300+200 -strong group of Galveans make pretty damned good company also (as long as I’m not trying to sleep)

–

interesting! Conspicuous consumption in action (and quintessence) – http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,398903,00.html (‘I Am Rich’ iPhone Application Retails for $1,000). For the record the guy sold six copies before Apple took it off. Who says novelty got old?

kick some rifle butt

I received this very special letter in the mail yesterday, thus affirming that I am a Singaporean Male. Woohoo! (one can never take these things for granted.

Matthew: Mom! Mom! How come I haven’t gotten my NS notice? Doesn’t everyone get it?
Mom: Actually, son, there’s something we have to tell you…
*embarks on lengthy story of my life which ends with me flying to China to find my true parents*

Matthew: Mom! Mom! How come I haven’t gotten my NS notice? Doesn’t everyone get it?
Mom: Actually, son, there’s something we have to tell you…
*embarks on lengthy story of my life which ends with me discovering why I don’t have a certain body part which all the other boys at school have*

So, yeah. One can’t be too sure.)

Actually, imagine if Harry Potter had been born under slightly different circumstances. The first book would have been written slightly differently.

Dudley: Mom! Harry’s got a letter!
Harry: It’s mine! Don’t snatch it away from me!
Dudley: *snatches it away from him*
*a million letters fly in through the windows, the chimneys, out of Vernon’s toupee, Dudley’s porn stash, the toaster, Harry’s iPhone, etc. Harry gets one and inspects the logo on the envelope*
Harry: What’s this MINDEF thing?
Vernon: No you don’t! We knew you were one of them, but we tried to stamp it out of you!
Hagrid: GIVE HIM THE LETTER, YOU PES F GOOD FOR NOTHING!
Dudley: *whimpers* Papa says I’m not obese, I’m just big boned!
Hagrid: Harry, y – you’re an NSman.
Harry: …knn, all the trouble to get a letter for this?

overhypernomics

I have to say Superfreakonomics hardly lived up to my expectations, which were justified by the sheer awesomeness of the first book. The economic keenness is back, as with the remarkable level of statistical detail one wouldn’t find in the average newspaper – but the structure of the book was woefully confusing/confused unlike the first. There are five chapters broadly covering – I’m not sure what exactly. Where the first book was segmented into different fleshed out and interesting case studies with accompanying economic tenets to be gleaned, each chapter in Super is a hodgepodge of tangentially related anecdotes segueing without warning into the next. Devoid of fresher sociological insight this time round, far less engaging topics are chosen. No one wants pages of justification for seat belts or quirky solutions to global warming, though.

Maybe this is unfair since sequels to bestsellers are mathematically predisposed to fail (regression toward the mean); in any case, it’s a tough job speaking economics and being a fun read at the same time – most books can’t even manage either of the abovementioned criteria on their own – but there’s no doubt that Superfreakonomics is guilty of Overhype. Go sit in that corner beside Avatar, you!

first orientation, then the world!

sigh are we human or are we J2 rj students? I’m not sure what we are or why we have to make that distinction. Thank God it’s Friday and thank God there isn’t Friday cell anymore, I love Jesus but Friday nights should be well-deserved breaks. Hopefully my blog should be entertaininger as school goes on – it has been proven that my social life interferes with any entertainment value inherent in me

thanks for tonight, I think we’re old and senile now, after long days I’m not sure we listen to each other as much as half the time, but sometimes mere presence is enough. These are the times that try men’s souls (these words were penned, aptly enough, by some guy called Paine) but I’m glad we’re spending them together. Thanks for pretending to listen to my loopy (I like the word, it’s assonant with mooty~) ideas with a patronising ear! Someday you’ll see them put in place and you can tell your grandchildren that you first heard them from an as yet inconsequential guy on a Friday night, traipsing in the vicinity of Raffles City with no purpose, no destination

but yawn what am I talking about

seniority life

Open house was a very happy affair – met the odd wide-eyed junior and caught up with her, endorsing the school/Council/humanz in ultimately inconsequential efforts. No one needs to sell Raffles after all. Consigned to be back gate ushers for three hours (the point made here being that no one uses the back gate), Willette and I fooled around in other more prominent locations, looking befrienderly and usherly.

Me: Hi! Are you here for open house? I’m Matthew!
Girl: *bemused*
Me: *notes with abject horror that girl is wearing Befriender’s shirt*

Parents are rude and the RI juniors are screwed up and prone to vulgarity.

Game theory is, despite popular opinion to the contrary, super fun! It’s the best part I like about economics mixed with the best part I like about math (yes, there is something I like about math), thereby exciting my hitherto deadened GEPperness and amping it to the max. The thing is that I have been and will be willing to Wikipedia game theory in my own spare time, so that I’m now taking it as a H3 denotes some sort of consumer surplus. I’m not sure what I’m talking about but I feel excited nonetheless.

he who masters the classics rules the world!

Having read The Revenger’s Tragedy, I’ve now read all my A level lit texts! For the benefit of any lit students reading my blog, here are brief summaries with close reference to certain themes I feel are salient to all five texts. Even if you’re not a lit student, you can pretend you’ve read these books to impress others with your mastery of literature.

HAMLET – Two people fall in love. Everyone dies.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS – Two people fall in love. Everyone dies, except two peripheral characters who fall in love, to little consequence.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST - Four people fall in love. No one dies. Everyone is engaged to be married.

THE REVENGER’S TRAGEDY – Everyone either wants to have sex with or murder everyone else. Everyone dies.

JOHN DONNE’S POETRY – John Donne falls in love. John Donne has sex. No one dies.