this week

Lots to do this week... and next..

Spent the last 2 days making love letters.. now, my body aches, especially my butt (for sitting on a small round stool for more than 5 hours each).. Really feeling my age.. :(

Anyway, we'll be making a few more types of cookies in the weeks to come.. plus some spring cleaning and decorating expected of CNY.. As I wasn't home for the last CNY, some of the stuff was not done last year.. so time to make up for it..

On top of all these, I need to complete my weekly translation quota and do my research readings.. and there's the usual US dramas to follow up and magazines to read.. not to mention quality time with my family, especially shopping with my sis.. :p  so time is definitely not enough..

Sunday Serenade: wide awake

This week, let's enjoy a song by one of the best selling female artists.. I like her MVs as they always seemed to have a story-line of sort which made them more fun to watch..

Wide Awake
by Katy Perry





Have a great week ahead!! Be safe and stay happy!! :)

Poetry Solace: Of song

Another poem from Adrienne Rich...

Song (1971)
You 're wondering if I'm lonely:
OK then, yes, I'm lonely
as a plane rides lonely and level
on its radio beam, aiming
across the Rockies
for the blue-strung aisles
of an airfield on the ocean

You want to ask me, am I lonely?
Well, of course, lonely
as a woman driving across country
day after day, leaving behind
mile after mile
little towns she might have stopped
and lived and died in, lonely

If I'm lonely
it must be the loneliness
of waking first, of breathing
dawn's first cold breath on the city
of being the one awake
in a house wrapped in sleep

If I'm lonely,
it's with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in the last red light of the year
that knows what it is, that knows it's neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with a gift for burning




Enjoy your weekend! Be safe!!

3rd sem.

My semester officially ended Jan 11 with the last week being final examination week.  I took 5 subjects this semester with a total of 14 credits. There's no final exams for me but I had to submit 2 reports. They were both pretty rush but I did manage to write around 1,500 words for each. :p

Anyway, the results were out last week and here they are..

For those who can't read Chinese,
Methodology - 93
Strategic Human Resource - 91
Management Academic Paper Writing - 95
Applied Statistics - 93
Seminar - 90

My feelings for these results are mixed. I'm happy that I've managed to secure high grades for some of them but felt I deserved higher marks for the rest of them.. Somehow my getting these low marks fed into my paranoia of intra-departmental squabbling between faculty members that has sorta spilled over to us students.. In any case, all these are just my personal perception which may not be true.. So all in all, I'm moderately happy that all my grades are above 90.. :)

Updates - Jan 20

Sorry for not updating for so long.. lots have happened and I shall (hopefully) catch-up with entries about those happenings..

Anyway, I am now back in Malaysia. Yep, it's winter holidays now and with CNY in mid Feb, I will be home for at least 4 weeks.. :) Have yet to buy my ticket back to TWN, as the prices are insanely high. Already told my adviser about the possibility of my missing classes for the first 2 weeks of school and he was ok with it, so no hurry for me to get back.. :P

Even so, I've promised to read 2 books and do my own research on my topics. Thus no REAL holiday for me.. but it is good to be back and be with family.. not to mention nice WARM weather..

Shall write more in the weeks ahead.. that's all for now.. take care..

Sunday Serenade: dark side

Let's think about our dark sides which I strongly believe every one of us possess, this weekend.. as sang by Kelly Clarkson.. :)

Dark Side
There's a place that I know
It's not pretty there and few have ever gone
If I show it to you now
Will it make you run away

Or will you stay
Even if it hurts
Even if I try to push you out
Will you return?
And remind me who I really am
Please remind me who I really am

[chorus]
Everybody's got a dark side
Do you love me?
Can you love mine?
Nobody's a picture perfect
But we're worth it
You know that we're worth it
Will you love me?
Even with my dark side?
[end of chorus]

Like a diamond
From black dust
It's hard to know
What can become
If you give up
So don't give up on me
Please remind me who I really am

[chorus]

Don't run away
Don't run away
Just tell me that you will stay
Promise me you will stay
Don't run away
Don't run away
Just promise me you will stay
Promise me you will stay

Will you love me? ohh

[chorus]

Don't run away
Don't run away
Don't run away
Promise you'll stay





Have a great week ahead! Be safe and stay healthy!!!

Sunday Serenade: we will rock you

The theme for this week's song is GIRL POWER! Here is Beyonce, Britney Spears and P!nk's rendition of the classic, We Will Rock You, as one of PEPSI advertisements.

Enjoy!






Have a great week ahead! Be happy and stay healthy!! :)

Poetry Solace: Of sending love and narratives

In the next few Poetry Solaces, I will be sharing poems from Adrienne Rich.. I kinda stumbled upon her works while browsing the racks of my library looking for poetry..

As these poems came from her published books (in hard copy), I will not copy the entire poems as this might violate her copyrights and put myself at risk. So I will only share portions of her poems instead of her full works..

Sending Love (1992-1994)
......
Sending love is harmless
doesn't bind you         can't make you sick

sending love's expected
precipitous      and wary

sending love can be carefree
Joaquin knew it, Eira knew it

sending love without heart
---- well, people do that daily
........

Six Narratives (1994)
(6)
You were telling a story about war      it is our story
an old story     and still it must be told
the story of the new that fled the old
how the big dream strained and shifted
the ship of hope shuddered on the iceberg's breast
the private affections swayed and staggered
So we are thrown together      so we are racked apart
in a republic shivering on      its glassy lips
parted      as if the fundamental rift
had not been calculated from the first into the mighty scaffold.




Have a fun weekend! Stay safe!

Sunday Serenade: guardian

Let's start with a song from Alanis Morissette in this brand new year.. so happy to see/hear her new songs.. :)
p/s: I like her angel wings..

Guardian
You, you who has smiled when you’re in pain
You who has soldiered through the profane
They were distracted and shut down

So why, why would you talk to me at all
Such words were dishonorable and in vain
Their promise as solid as a fog

And where was your watchman then

[chorus]
I’ll be your keeper for life as your guardian
I’ll be your warrior of care your first warden
I’ll be your angel on call, I’ll be on demand
The greatest honor of all, as your guardian
[end of chorus]

You, you in the chaos feigning sane
You who has pushed beyond what’s humane
Them as the ghostly tumbleweed

And where was your watchman then

[chorus]

Now no more smiling mid-crestfall
No more managing unmanageables
No more holding still in the hailstorm

Now enter your watchwoman
[chorus]





Have a great week ahead! Be healthy and stay safe!!

2012 In Retrospect - Five Things (II)

Don't want to start the new year grumbling, but I think I need to get some things off my chest.. so here the first of many "Five Things" lists..

Five things that I wanna say out loud to my classmates but didn't..
1. I'm not your personal English translator/interpreter/dictionary!
Just because my English is better than yours doesn't mean that I'm obligated to 'help' you with your bad English. My time is valuable, and people have to PAY me for my language skills. So you either be (very) nice to me and hope that I like you enough to help you for free, or you'll just have to pay me for my time.

2. Who I choose as my PhD advisor is none of your f**king business!
People kept asking me who I will choose as my advisor not out of concern, but more of a "kaypoh"* nature. So what if I decided not to choose one yet? Or if I decided to choose Prof A instead of Prof B? What is it to you? One thing is for sure, I bet my advisor is more than happy to have me as his student than he is with you!

3. No one put a gun to your head to do PhD so stop complaining!  
Seriously, I don't wanna hear you grumbling about your job/family/children/illness/whatever! If doing PhD is such a pain and torture for you, then quit! Don't come complaining to me every single bloody time we meet in class. I'm not interested in your troubles and rest assured I won't bother you with mine.. So quit moaning!

4. Leave me out of your petty gossiping/bad-mouthing!
So your classmate is graduating soon.. so your classmate has managed to publish in a journal and you haven't.. Don't go bad-mouthing him/her every chance you get.. Don't b***ch to me about how your classmate were cutting corners or has an unfair advantage.. Be gracious enough to admit that your classmate managed to one up you!

5. If I really wanna work in TW, you don't stand a chance against me! 
Almost all my classmates and seniors I've talked to 'advised' me that it's gonna be difficult getting a lecturing job in TW.. but frankly, I don't think so.. if I could publish in a couple of well-known academic journals, I think I won't have just TW universities offering me jobs.. so thanks for the heads-up, but I think you should worry about yourself more as you're the one with very limited options..

Honorary mention: 
Although I don't work 9-5, I am busy too!
Just because I don't work in an office doesn't mean that I've plenty of time to spare.. Even if I have lots of time in hand, it doesn't mean that I have to spend them doing things for the department or class. My time is as, if not more, precious than yours!

* "kaypoh" is a Hokkien word used in SG and MY to denote busybody or meddler.