Listening to
The Offspring – The Kids aren’t alright
Kasabian – Underdog
It seems ironic to consider returning to writing here after a hiatus of about 3 months and right before the exam period (has it been that long?). I guess the impetus for returning to writing here was spurned by a sudden desire to send out a whole bunch of emails in a bid to try and get some semblance of order in my life Lord knows how i would addicted i would be organisation if i ever acquired a BlackBerry. i think i would be one of those lifeless drones constantly tapping away and staring at a mobile phone.
Though I guess that’s what we need in our life sometimes, a break, a rush and an effort compartmentalise the various segments of our life. You could compare this to bringing home a new do-it-yourself cupboard from Ikea, leaving it to collect for a couple of months and then assembling it after months of unbridled guilt.
Well i guess for now, i have a new cupboard?
Sort of.
I wil be on Hiatus for awhile. I have a couple of things on my plate. Who knows how long i will be gone. A couple of days, weeks maybe months. I don’t really know.
There comes a time this winter season, where everything suddenly seems dull and life loses it vivaciousness. I have a feeling that it is this time right now. Strange thing though, that instead of feeling depressed over the bad weather and the cold, i seem to adopt this rather laidback attitude amidst all this doom and gloom.
I know i have been absent from this little corner of the internet for a bit, and i attribute it to a decadent week of doing nothing but celebrating the completion of that killer 5000 word essay. Now since i’m on that subject, i have another paper, but thankfully it is a merciful 2500 word on a topic that i can blabber on about.
I guess my neutral mood have been balanced out by the fact that i’m making trips to New York, Detroit and back home to Singapore over the coming two months. Finally, i shall be going back to the American East Coast to re-visit one of the coolest city in the world and see old friends. Right that’s about it for me now, i shall be back again sometime soon. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about my ticketing woes with NWA and Easyjet, that my friend is a story for another time.
“I know why you want to hate me, cause hate is all the world seen lately…“
Commiserating to Rammstein – Sonne
Rammstein – Ich Will
Rammstein – Du
Limp Bizkit – Take a Look Around (Theme from Mission Impossible 2)
Moby – Extreme Ways (Ending theme from the Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum)
I believe that this is a low point of my essay writing, i’m currently going through some sort of existentialist period where i question the futility of the progress of my essay and the quality of it. I’m so worried about my apathetic state that i have resorted to listening to German industrial/heavy metal Rammstein.
The act to listening to angry music is especially ironic considering the context of my essay: Terrorism.
My rationale behind this is simple; if one is writing a paper about terrorism, there’s nothing like angry murderous German music to get the mind inspired or at least keep it awake (since my body has developed some form of tolerance against copious amounts of caffeine). So in order to better understand the Terrorists. Who better to consult than the Counter-Terrorists. Enter theme songs from Mission Impossible 2 and the Bourne series. I would have loved to thrown in a James Bond, but 007 makes counter-terrorists efforts look sexy and child’s play, when’s its anything but that.
On the less morbid side of the world, i realised that it has been about a week so since i last swung at a golf ball, and the itch is starting to get to me. Not to mention, i have been missing meals and exercise routines which leaves me in my worse physical condition ever since i got here. Don’t get me wrong, i’m not sick or anything though plenty of my peers in hall are doing so. I reckon it has to be the miracle vitamin pill (they are even organic…) that i keep taking.
If only there were pills for flashes of inspired brilliance…like drugs to enhance one’s mental capabilities.
Now that would be a drug that would have a ready market. Ecstasy for the intelligentsia.
Music to ponder and ultimately fall asleep to, Harry Belafonte – Day O
Keane – Everybody’s Changing
Kid Rock – Only God Knows why
Recently the Times had an article about the Barber trade and profession. One would imagine with the emergence of the metrosexual mentality, the barber trade will die out as slowly but surely men would switch from going to a barber to a hair salon instead (I should know, i made the switch while still in the Army). However that’s not really the case, some people reckon that the barber trade is actually flourishing as our lives get busier over time.
Some men go out to get a hair cut, not to “get their hair cut”. However, that luxury is not afforded to me here in the UK. Not only am I skint, i can’t afford the bloody time (i still have my incomplete paper to type out), and after two fairly disastrous episodes with the salons here in the UK, i have decided that the marginal benefit of getting a haircut at a Barber was much higher than the economical cost of getting a bad haircut at a ridiculously exorbitant price.
So i did what i haven’t done since leaving Pulau Tekong island (military boot camp), i made a pro-active effort to look for a barber in St Andrews. After walking up and down South Street, i finally found a decent barber that was operated by a father-son duo. There was another barber street operated by two ladies that was offering a shot of free whiskey with every haircut, but i reasoned that any barber who have to resort offering alcohol as a gimmick must either be really bad…or just plain desperate.
Being in a University town, i began to really grasp the idea of how cosmopolitan my school really is. While i was getting my hair shaved off, the barber asked me where i was from, to which i replied i was from Singapore. He then proceeded to look at this big world map behind my chair and go “Oh! We already have it pinned!” and then i realised that the giant world map was filled with pins from customers who might have sat in the very same chair as i did (they had New Zealanders, Chileans and some randoms from Azerbaijan).
Nothing like a barber’s chair to make you reflect on how cosmopolitan a wee town like St Andrews can be.
2 million People are in a Car.
650 million people are meeting.
700 million people are falling in love,
and 5 million people are protecting animals.
2.3 billion people are eating,
while 321 million are flying,
with another 321 million landing.
270,000 are exploring,
while 900 million people are studying (i don’t know whether i count…),
at the same time 3 billion people are walking.
6 milllion people are signing autographs,
and one bloke is sitting in a cold library procastinating on his research paper.
Songs (in the vein of some badly needed sleep) Grand Archives – Sleepdriving
Editors – Lullaby (Cure Cover)
The Chemical Brothers feat Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) – Asleep from Day
Swirling round, the light above
Outside the crows were waking up
It’s nearly dawn
Motel home was nearly gone
No sleep at all
Isn’t it funny how life deals you an ironic hand with a wry face and a crooked grin. Today or rather i should say, yesterday, last night and this morning have been nothing but a daze in which i just stumble from one academic article to another, one frivolous activity (going to the toilet counts as one of them) and from one corner of my hall to another.
You see I had in me the bright idea that yesterday (or rather last night) was the night where i would make my final stand. My epic battle, my attempt at facing the Ragnarok (norse day of reckoning) that is my dreaded paper and enter into the Valhalla of completed assignments along with my brethren (Leslie…) who finished their assignments on time. Well as of 7am right now, i have been awake for the good part of about 18 hours and counting, and Ragnarok is still bloody well going on.
You see it all started with a package.
My friend in America had kindly sent me a package with a Stanford t-shirt and some golf balls. Embolden by an artifact from some distant west-coast school, i had it in me to be even more geekier and take a shot at trying to at least make some substantial headway into my essay only to discover to my chagrin that my original essay choice would be a suicide mission. Hence, i spend the following night/morning re-reading up on a totally different field of Terrorism studies aided by the consumption of various *ahem* stimulants (yes, i know… Redbull & Kick! is bad for my health).
The moral of the story?
1. Never think you are smart enough to attempt a question all your peers avoid like the plague (well maybe in Exam time).
2. Wearing a Stanford t-shirt (Go Reds!) doesn’t really make you alot of smarter, if anything, trying to complete 5000 words INCLUDING reading is quite of idealistic and dumb. Though i got to say, that damn t-shirt looks freaking good on me!
3. Wearing a Neil Armstrong “Live Strong” band, a Stanford t-shirt, and drinking copious amounts of Redbull is never never inspiring enough to indulge in sadomasochistic all-nighters.
So that’s all from me. I hope i can at least squeeze in a few hours of sleep after i meet with my tutor.
Songs Thunderclap Newman – Something in the Air
Erykah Badu feat Pharoahe Monch – The Healer
The Prodigy – Climbatize
“Call out the instigators
Because there’s something in the air
We’ve got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution’s here, and you know it’s right
And you know that it’s right “
Introduction.
I guess many things have occurred since i last blogged. The American public has voted in a new president, one that promises change and reform. Since this is reading week, and i do have a little bit more free time on my hand, i too would like to propose change to myself. I know it has taken me a little bit more than a month to get up and blogging more substantive content, but here i’m right now. Like some people i know who would love to say; “There’s no time like the present”.
A Bit of R&R (Revolution & Resolve)
So yes. Obama promises change. I too should change at least a modicum of my current lifestyle. My life here in Scotland isn’t too bad. Third year in a British university is panning out well. I have the same room albeit with alot more junk in it (Golf Bags, Free weights and Laundry basket). I have become a little bit more of a cleanliness freak, often packing up clothes and miscellaneous items off the floor in order to walk unperturbed from my desk to my bed; a luxury which i didn’t afford myself last year.
I have also embarked on a highly ambitious and not entirely wholly successful fitness program where i try to enhance core muscles required for golf. Yes, my unseen audience, the laughter can begin now. I have sorted out my finances (FINALLY!). Bought slippers (FINALLY!) and postcards (FINALLY!) all in the span of one day. I have restocked my little hoard of snacks, supplies and food items and i finally went to watch a real life football game! I know this all might sound a little ludicrous, but some of the items of aforementioned agenda has taken the better part of two months and for the football game, two bloody years. So i’m quite chuffed when all i needed to do was just settle down and complete said tasks within a week.
Reading
In line, with my new found efficacy, i have now embarked on a self-imposed reading regiment which is supposed to aid me in my endeavours to finish a hellish 5000 word essay on the intimidating subject of Terrorism and Conflict Resolution. I’m definitely sure after i’m done with the reading and my essay, there will not only be a Pulitzer Prize but also a Nobel Peace Prize in it for me. Or… i think i can just treat myself to a few pint of ice-cold Tennets.
So there you have it.
My first substanial post since i got back to school.
I do promise to whoever does actually still read this stuff, that i will blog every few days now of the lurid details of my hedonistic life in school which encompasses such depraved acts and topics like walking to school, the weather, golf practices and the occasional foray out to town.
Godspeed.
And Vive la Revolution!
Or Live la vida loca (if you fancy a little of Ricky Martin)
Or Viva la vida (or if Coldplay is your kind of thing…)
So i’m back from the dead.
Or rather i fled the nest once again.
Yes, i am once again back in my other homeland of Scotland, UK. Where the air is not only cleaner but colder.
Its always hard to blog after a long absence, so i’m not going to be terribly ambitious and start off cautiously here to ensure a continual flow of entries.
There really isn’t nothing much to blog about, school has started. I have been playing alot more golf here in St Andrews (more about that tomorrow) and that’s about it.
But i shall blog more properly tomorrow and throw in pictures too. How about that!
Somehow Nick manages to scrape through 22 years of life on Earth relatively unscathed, save for two tormentous years in the military. He's kind of a doofus and hopes you like his weird musical choices and entries regarding his relatively normal life.
