quickie V

after a rather continuous streak of good luck over the years (in fact, almost all my life - though maybe it's just low expectations), it takes quite some time for the cold hard truth to sink in when you suddenly find yourself, after rolling steadily with the blows in the almost childlike belief that things will definitely turn out ok ultimately, with no more room to manoeuvre, where the locus of possibilities have all but coalesced into the one which you optimistically dismissed as being the unlikely Worst Case Scenario.

so despite my earlier fantasies of a final, frentic, heroic showdown in the lab, the fyp machine remains stuck at customs, and the detached black humour of the situation is quickly giving way to dread and a dull throbbing panic. my parents are being really great about the New Worst Case Scenario though, and for that i am grateful.

quickie IV

just for posterity's sake; a documentary on CNA's forecasting global warming to raise earth temperatures by 5 degrees celsius in 25 years' time. apparently apart from the greenhouse effect, which serves to raise temperatures, there's an opposing effect (which, i conveniently missed out on the name and details..) that serves to actually cool down the earth; this cooling effect is (allegedly) often neglected by climatologists, and serves to show that the 0.6 degree increment in the past century downplays the actual impact of greenhouse gases. and so the usual doomsday-on-the-horizon yada yada. guess we'll know for sure in 20 years' time.

edit: the apparent "cooling effect" is actually global dimming.

quickie III

even as we head into the elections, let us take a little cold comfort in how our glorious leaders, authoritarian under(over?)-tones aside, at least spare us from such embarassment (local tv, on the other hand, is fully capable of achieving it singlehandedly, though this doesn't serve to negate the few gems that occasionally surface).

personal favourite: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

crazy week ahead, and the dark humour of it all is killing me (as if i needed anymore help in that department). it is only in these presumably (and hopefully) final days of studenthood that i realise one of the biggest lessons nus has taught me is: never bitch about how you're having it bad, cos someone is definitely worse off.

quickie II

1. so my fyp machine's stuck in customs, and the i-should-just-fling-myself-off-a-tall-building siren just keeps blaring every now and then. i'm not panicking (yet), but i think it's more of my danger-ahead-turn-back-now synapses being completely decoupled rather than a seated it's-all-going-to-be-alright faith.

2. being spiritual without being religious; sounds good to me. and while we're on religion, this is some food for thought.

3. i guess i'm rather slow to catch onto this, but do go watch this if you haven't; eye-opening, compelling, chilling. not quite your garden variety of hare-brained conspiracy theories.

4. didn't really achieve the i-want-the-truth-you-can't-handle-the-truth smashing victory i'd hoped for at the trial, but well at least we won. i'd flirted with the fantasy of how i'd make a rather hotshot lawyer prior to that, but given the lockjaw-ummm-ahhing that suddenly gripped me on that morning, i'll revise that fantasy to "propaganda man" (not quite david e. kelley stuff, but i thought my closing was preeeeeetty hot. go go big ego.) now i just need to find some third world communist state with good tv to migrate to (i think our glorious leaders have our island pretty well covered).

5. boston legal, grey's anatomy, lost; tv's worth watching again.