where thoughts materialise.

So we're into the sixth version of my blog after the last version hung around for a year or so.

Now, a bit of info on this image. This photo was taken one lovely spring afternoon, featuring the iconic Old Well from the UNC Chapel Hill campus. I would like to think of this image as a tribute to my time in UNC Chapel Hill, the awesome friends I made and the memories I now hold dear.

A milestone in my life indeed.

I've dropped the tagboard cos its useless and taking eons to load. But thanks to Angela who helped me set it up, I still do like and will miss the pink interface.

So yeah, it's the sixth one you fellas!

Yours.

27 April 2008

you know you miss my older entries

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Friday, February 16, 2007

I am a latte-sipping human geographer. And lovin' it if I may add.

Seriously, as much as I complain about the work I am doing, I love what I am studying right down to the very core, which I feel is an outright privilege. I mean, how many people actually truly love what they study in college?

Any oh how, here are two photos I really liked while I was in Chinatown for a fieldtrip a few weeks back.
chinatown fieldtrip

The snapshot on the left really caught my eye as the juxtaposition was uncanny, especially the tapering tip of both structures, which really serves to bring out the old and the new, the religious and the secular. Add in the chinese lanterns and you get a perfect slice of Singapore. (Note that even the lantern and the street lamp are juxtaposed.) I'm usually wary about this juxtaposing theme cos I feel it is overused and overrated but this photo really does enough justice to that theme.

The photo on the right is just simply pretty. Perfect skies and shophouses busking in the sun.

* *

Well well, some of the perks of this field of study.

Yesterday, my project group went down to the Somerset skate park for fieldwork and man it was an eye-opener for me. Contrary to popular belief, the skateboarders were really approachable and helpful in giving time for our interviews and survey. They did have a thing or two against the government though. Think about it: the skate park, built by the state, serves to liberate the needs of the skaters, yet it oppresses them by containing their mobility by dictating where they can and more importantly, cannot skate. Ironical isn't it?

As one skater aptly puts it when asked if he was happy with the skate park, he said, "Lets say you're the size of Arnold Schwarzenegger but they make you wear a S-sized t-shirt."

Now, that's a priceless statement.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 4:44 PM

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

I've totally maxed out my library loan quota on my matric card and sometimes I wonder what the freak am I gonna do with these ten books anyway but apparently I need more. Which probably make sense cos 5 projects X an approximate 5 books/project = 25 books required.

Any matric cards to spare?

* *

My social life has totally been starved the past 2 weeks or so and its killin me slowly, I need fresh air, I need fresh urban cafe air to nourish my boredsick-worktired lungs. Thank goodness for the cny and the mid-sem break, jx and i are visiting ms lee, and vic and i are prolly gonna do cafe iguana again - this time with more more more people, inviting whoever comes to mind. Macho margaritas y'all, you don't wanna miss that for the world.

Oscar's happening in slighty over a week and I do hope Borat doesn't win.

Okaay, I gotta get through one project meeting and two lectures and one fieldwork trip to the skate park and one assignment today before I can put everything aside (for a while) to enjoy cny.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 9:22 AM

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Friday, February 09, 2007

Life is indeed one beautiful and humbling journey, even when circumstances seem otherwise. And that can only be a statement made through faith and by choice.

That being said, I finally collected my tickets, though I am still contemplating Tristan Prettyman and the local premiere of SINGAPORE - a symphony by Vladimir Martynov supposedly written with our nation as an inspiration until I found out that it was actually commissioned by none other than the state.

I am somewhat unfazed by the number of readings and books to read, or the amount of research to be done for my projects. I must say this semester presented to me project topics I thoroughly enjoy - ranging from power struggles faced by the local skate culture to discussing Clarke Quay's relevance in the state's global city aspirations.

One thing I do lament though. I haven't been making much time for the great outdoors this year. It is probably weird but I do enjoy strolls in the setting sun surrounded by green. I do look forward to doing my readings in the gardens, like I did two semesters ago, sitting by the wooden benches at the Botanic Gardens - iPod to my ears, eyes on my Lit text, wind caressing my cheeks. Last night, nev and i took a lazy ride on the river taxi down Singapore river. It was spontaneous, and really brought to mind how much I missed being out in the physical environment.

One can never live cooped up in a concrete jungle and expect to live life a whole.

What I want to, and should read.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 11:28 PM

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Sunday, February 04, 2007

nimgnoy let the night fall at 11:03 PM

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Friday, February 02, 2007

I woke up this morning, headed straight into my parents room where an old cupboard stood, unopened for years I reckon. I reached into it and knew exactly what I was looking for. Surely, it didn't take me long to pull out my copy of the complete all-in-one collection of The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. I dusted its cover and began reading its yellow-edged pages.

Watching Miss Potter gave me quite a new insight into this all time favourite children's book and reading it in that light totally made sense, now that I understood the significance of her works and the almost tragic love story unfolding behind it.

Then I headed back to that same old cupboard and grabbed my huge ancient album of that good ol' tour of England in 2000. What really struck me was how ignorant I was then. Standing amongst the landscape that inspired the literary giants of all time, I didn't quite appreciate nature and the significance of things the way I do now. I was there, at Bowness-on-Windermere, the Lake District - the very source of Beatrix Potter's inspiration, seeing the rolling hills and the vast greenery as she did, yet I really took the trip for granted. (We were all only looking forward to London at the end of the tour. Ah city life.)

On hindsight, that England trip was really something. We visited Thomas Hardy's hometown at Dorchester, the Roman Baths where Jane Austen wrote Persuasion, Rydal Mount which was Wordworth's home, Shakespeare's birthplace, the Bronte's Parsonage and even stood on the very plains where Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre. If I had the chance, I'll do that all over again and boy how much I would have appreciated it more this time.

So anyway, here's my very own copy, bought no less from The World of Beatrix Potter at Bowness-on-Windermere, Lake District. And beside it, my photos from that UK trip. Top to bottom: The Lake District, Street Flowers and finally, me with Mrs Tiggy-Winkle at The World of Beatrix Potter attraction.

nimgnoy let the night fall at 11:04 AM

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