Exam Results (Sem 2 07/08)

Didn’t exactly escape the exams unscathed, but I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and get over it.

CL2102 Chinese Phonetics - A
EL3251 Language Society and Identity - A-
EL3880a Semantics in Generative Grammar - B
EL3206 Psycholinguistics - B+
EL4204 Pragmatics - A
GEK1036 Cross Cultural Communication - B+

CAP: 4.23

On average I did a LITTLE better than last semester (discounting the effects of S/U), so my CAP rose by 0.01. Yet this also means I will not be able to get a First Class Honours. It is technically and logically impossible, not even if I get straight As for the next two semester. Well, sod it. I’m happy with 2nd Upper.

Anyway, I am severely under-performing for my core modules, with a B in Generative Grammar and B+ for Psycholinguistics. Well, I guess for Psycholinguistics it’s because the class is too big (i.e. curve), and we did badly for our project, so there. For Generative Grammar, let’s just say since everyone performs superbly for the weekly CA (since it’s based on assignments that are open to mutual copying), and since I only spent 1 hour or so revising for the paper the day before exams, I deserve it. Given my love-hate relationship with Cross Cultural Communication, this B+ is neither mediocre or satisfactory.

What is interesting is that I got A for Chinese Phonetics. The exam which I finished in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Also, I can’t fathom how I can score A for Chinese Phonetics and only B+ for English Phonetics.  I guess it’s more of a case of practice makes perfect. I didn’t expect the A- for LSI either; I thought I would get at most a B+, seeing how I had abysmal midterm results. I gather it was the group project that pulled my marks up, and possibly the final exam. For Pragmatics, well, I guess there’s not too much to comment considering it’s an Honours module and there isn’t any curves plotted, and I did get 24/30 for my term essay, and 17/20 for a mid-term test.

Oh well. But anyway, I get to buy my shoes, and that’s good news.

For the love of shoes

I am a fervent believer and advocate of retail therapy. There’s nothing better in life, that you can do in public, that gives that rush of spending money on something pretty.

I’ve always been in love with shoes, especially pumps and heels. They say the clothe maketh the Man. I’d say, both the clothe and the footwear. For me, there is a symbiotic relationship between clothes and shoes. We need pretty clothes to go with our pretty shoes, and we need pretty shoes to go with our pretty clothes. It’s a need, not a want. Such complementary relations are motivated by aesthetics, not irrational shoppers’ decision.

Anyway, I’m getting my exam results tomorrow and I just really need therapy to tide me over. Last semester I bought myself a pair of shoes because I promised myself I’d buy myself something if I actually got B+ or better for a certain module. This semester, I’m going to buy myself a pair of shoes if

(1) I get 2 As or more
(2) I get B+ or better for LSI
(3) I wind up with shitty results

Ah-ha. So I’ll end up buying a pair of shoes no matter if my results are good or bad. It’s going to be either a reward for myself, or something to cheer me up. And I do sound like I already know which pair I want, right? Perhaps. If budget allows, I would like one of the following:

#1 Guess by Marciano Carrie8 in Black Poppy. (Photo taken from Zappos.com)

#2 Aldo Prishtine in Orange (photo taken from Aldoshoes.com)

#3 Nine West Medillin in Tribe Natural (photo taken from Zappos.com)

Pretty heels that I can’t wear to go shopping (unless they are so good as to not cause blisters. Which is impossible.) But pretty heels nonetheless that tug on my heart strings. Especially the Guess pair; each time I pass by the Guess store they’re practically going down on their knees begging me to buy them. And did I mention it comes with a matching bag?

Wilde

(Couldn’t find the English poster, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.)

That succinctly and accurately sums up Oscar Wilde’s life I suppose. His obsession with sweet young boys and how he was imprisoned for simply being himself. The tagline of the poster reads “Loved for being unique. Hated for being different.” Two simple words that are so alike yet so different. We often presume that something unique must necessarily be different, or at least stand out in order to be regarded as unique. But in this respect, it shows this ugly side of humanity; we appreciate uniqueness only if you are on the same side.

This movie was banned in Singapore when it was first released some 10 years ago in 1997, and only been brought back by Shaw this year. This movie stars Stephen Fry and Jude Law, and with a brief appearance of Orlando Bloom as a soliciting “bumboy” (ooh this term is simply cute). Somehow, I feel as though Stephen Fry stepped out of being Oscar Wilde and directly into Gordon in V for Vendetta. Same inclination, same accent, same temperament. And Jude Law was being, Jude Law. Imagine Alfie but rich spoilt brat.

All in all, this was a not-bad movie. It dramatises the struggles of Oscar Wilde - from how he was first tempted, to how he stood up against the British courts.

The Fantastic Mr Wani

I got this book for my niece for her birthday. The Fantastic Mr. Wani. I guess the reason is obvious, isn’t it? My friend and I always entertained the thought of shouting “WANNI” at me in the middle of a crowded Tokyo street to invite attention. Oh well.

So this book is quite funny, it’s about how Mr. Crocodile is trying to get to a party on time and on the way he falls and trips and rolls and flies about. Eventually he gets to the party on time. I guess the moral of the story is, always leave the house in advance with time to spare.

Nasal sounds

A couple of weeks ago, I was down with a horrible bug that gave me runny nose and sore throat.

So while I was nursing the bug, I went for dinner with my friends (at Botak Jones, that oh-so-sinful place that does nothing to help a sore throat. Photos speak for themselves here here and here. Courtesy of KL). I was telling them I’m going to Hong Kong in July to look for KL, who’d be on a summer program there, and how I am probably going to stay in Kowloon area. See, the Chinese equivalent of Kowloon is jiu-long, with a velar nasal sound -ng at the end of long. However, with my blocked nose, they heard, jiu-lou, which means “9th floor”. They paused, and made a comment about how awfully precise I am. That was then I had a true phonology epiphany, that when you have a blocked nose, you can’t produce nasal sounds. Contrary to what people always say about how you sound like you’re talking through your nose, that is not true. In fact, you’d be producing pure non-nasal (i.e. oral) sounds when you have a blocked nose. I mean, I learnt about this in year 1, but that day was the first time I experienced it for myself.

Now I do thing phonology and phonetics is a fun subject. I wonder why I hated it so much in year 2.

Youtubing “English Language”

I was surfing Youtube, and I came across this video, which summarizes what I said previously about the word fuck.

My favourite line from the video - “out of all of the English words that begin with the letter F, fuck is the only word that is referred to as “the F word”.” (Grins) Makes you think, huh.

And something cute:

Sort of reminds me of that Parts of the Brain song by … Pinky and the Brain. (See below)

One of the project groups showed it in our Psycholinguistics class… and for a person who hates neuropsych, this video was actually pretty fun and interesting! Sort of like a crash course to neuropsych, and seriously, you really only need to remember the song when sitting for a neuro paper.

(Now I have no abso-fucking-lutely idea where this post is going.)

Anyway, just a couple of videos to share I guess.

Lunch at Waraku

Well, I brought the camera out initially to take pictures of my new hair. But somehow I forgot about it and started taking food pictures.

What I had:

Some katsu something. Simply, pork cutlet with egg on hotplate. It comes with rice, a scoop of potato salad, miso soup (fill with onions and pumpkin) and pickles.

KL’s half-portion sumptuously green cha soba.

The half-portion unagi don (I think). Severely lacking in fish pieces. Tsk tsk.

And the Waraku at Central has an awesome view out the window!

I bet this is much nicer at night, where Clarke Quay is lit and booming with life.

And Waraku is now officially my favourite Japanese restaurant!

Yoghurt Cake

(Yoghurt, yogurt, however you spell it. That curdled milk with lactobacillus in it.)

My first cake ever since the exams. I followed and altered the recipe given in last week’s issue of Mind Your Body. This cake is very interesting; it uses self-raising flour and no baking powder or bicarb soda. And it uses milk and yoghurt. This is my first time attempting yoghurt cakes, and sure it split on top (oh yes I slathered some melted chocolate on trying to create a marble effect), but overall it tasted really nice. It tasted and felt like cheap cheesecake, especially the kind made by Japanese. It’s soft and fluffy in the centre and there’s a slight salty taste (from the butter). I like it.

(recipe below)

Fears

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, especially on my personal development and traits as a person.

Maybe to many people I come across as a person who doesn’t fear anything. I thought I was like that too, but now I realize that I have an avoidance streak for a lot of my fears. I tend to go into denial, try to will the problem away, put it off and just hope that by some stroke of luck it’ll solve itself. I think one of my greatest fear is, in a cliche Harry Potter manner, fear itself. I am afraid that my feeling of fear will affect me, and frankly, I am afraid of that feeling of fear. I really hate that split second before fear sets in - that split second when I lose rational thought and some other things take over. That split second where I mentally go “shit shit shit go away”, knowing that it’s coming. It’s usually that split second when I can pull back and tell myself to stop - but sometimes the fear is too great to ignore.

And then there are the things that invoke fear. I think I am a coward when it comes to non-resolution; in books, in movies, in life. I cannot stand not knowing how things go from a certain point. That’s probably why I say I don’t like TV serials because they go on and I don’t like cliffhangers and knowing I have to wait till the next episode. It kills a part of me. So that’s why I like shows like CSI, Bones, Numb3rs where issues get solved, and resolved in one episode. So, I guess that’s where my avoidance streak comes in - I avoid things I fear and I claim I don’t like them.

Maybe I can’t deal with ignorance. I fear not knowing things, be it scholarly knowledge or general knowledge. I used to fear telling people “I don’t know” because somehow I thought I should know. But over these recent couple of years, I’ve begun to finally realize I can’t possibly know everything there is to know in this world. So I haven’t been so afraid of telling people “I don’t know” and asking people for help. But this gives rise to another fear - I now fear that “I don’t know” will become my excuse for ignorance and not attempting to learn. While it is all right to not know things, I just don’t like it too much.

Another one of my fear is the fear of underachieving and regrets. I fear that I wouldn’t become who I should be - not like there is a preordained path for my life, but the achievable position in life for me. I fear regrets in life, they haunt me and that’s why I try hard to lead life with no regrets nowadays. For some strange reason, I know for a matter of fact I will not leave this world fully satisfied in what I will have had achieved, and yet I don’t seem to be doing very much to change that. So there’s a conflict in what I fear and what I am driven to do, and it drives me insane at times.

Yet it seems that I’ve been pretty good at managing my fears, be it fear of physical things like insects and birds, or non-physical things like those mentioned above. Few friends know that I actually fear things, lack alone know that I fear fear itself. Perhaps I can hide my fears pretty well, and appear unfazed. Yet I struggle within myself. A lot. Forcing myself to overcome them, to overcome whatever problems come my way. A friend once questioned why I never seem to tell people my problems, or whether I don’t have problems at all. I think my response was along the lines of how if I can solve them myself, why tell people about it. I guess it’s precisely this habit for self-reliance that gives me more fear - even though I know I can possibly rely on the people around me, but I myself am my first and last defence, which means ultimately I have everything to fear.

I used to hate admitting my fears, because obviously I saw it as a sign of weakness. But then again, who is without weaknesses? I guess only those who do not admit their own weaknesses are the real cowards. I am likely to continue to be self-reliant and try to handle and vanquish my fears before they take over my rational self.

Red Cross Appeal for donations

(Stealing KL’s post

If you are in Singapore, this is how you can donate towards the quake in China:

DBS/POSB Fund Transfer 1) Insert your ATM card and enter PIN. Select “More Services” 2) Select “Credit Card/Bill Payment” 3) Key in “99″ Other Corporation 4) Key in “99″ again 5) Key in “18″ for Red Cross China Earthquake 6) Indicate your contact number as the Bill Reference Number. 7) Select account type 8 ) Enter donation amount 9) Press “Confirm” to complete transaction

DBS Internet Banking 1) Log on to DBS iBanking, 2) Go to “Payment Services” 3) Under “Bill Payment”, 4) Select “RedCross China Earthquake” 5) Indicate your contact number as the Consumer Reference Number

UOB Internet Banking 1) Login to UOB Personal Internet Banking 2) Click on “Bill Payment” on the left menu 3) Click on “Pay Bills” on the left menu 4) Click on “New Bill” on the main screen 5) Select “Red Cross China Earthquake” from the drop down menu of the payee corporations list 6) Enter telephone number as the Bill Reference Number 7) Enter the debiting account to debit donation 8 ) Enter the donation amount 9) Click on “Confirm” button to approve payment

UOB Cheque Donations Donations by cheque can be dropped at the UOB’s cheque deposit boxes. Cheques should be crossed and made payable to “Red Cross - China Relief Fund”.

It took me less than 30 seconds to donate, well, a measly $20 via Ibanking, much faster than setting up an online transaction to an online shop. So instead of buying some more clothes and accessories that you don’t need, why not donate and help by donating?

For more information, visit www.redcross.org.sg.