Respekt - lah
This post is so long overdue, it's old news now.
But that won't stop me from writing, so get some cushions for your behind, make yourself a cup of tea/coffee/Panadol soluble/Ribena and something alcoholic, open that packet of chocolate chip cookies you've been aching to do since last week and take your time. Your time, not mine, really. Will that put you off reading this post, now?
Right, back to the overdue part.
I seem to be one of the very few who haven't actually talked about my college life, and it's already Februarywell obviously. So anyway, I shall now.
First things first: The American education system is way different from the Malaysian, which follows the British system. It's hugely different from A-Levels. For one thing, Americans go by the credit system, like the grade point average (GPA) to evaluate the student's achievement in each semester and the cumulative grade point average CGPA for the whole program (it takes into consideration the GPAs for each semester). Marks for each subject/course is split 60/40: 60% for class work, assignments, projects and quizzes (those detestable pop quizzes in psych) and 40% for the final exam. The passing grade is a C-, or a 55%, so if you do brilliantly well during the semester for your assignments and etc, you've passed before you've even sat for the final exam. If you haven't, then the exam is a last chance for you to scrape some marks.
Semesters are either long or short semesters. The long ones last for 15 weeks, which means my semester break is at the end of April, and my second semester starts in May. The short semesters last for 8 weeks, beginning September to October (or possibly early November). I wasn't quite sure about the semesters until today when a senior joined my usual lunch group and told us the happy happy news. A-Levels people, you ada so nice holidays tak?
One interesting point to note: Many students taking the AUP/ADTP/ADP in Inti this semester are planning to major in engineering or actuarial science. And some people I've talked to - seniors and freshies - mentioned that one main reason why they're doing AUP in Inti is because Taylors doesn't have a good ADP. (No offence; I'm just reporting.) What do you think of that?
So far, things have been pretty fine. Groups are beginning to form...cliques...but on the whole, it's difficult to say which group someone or other belongs in. I meet different people in each of my classes, and almost everyone I've met has a different time-table. Like I said, it's way different from A-Levels in which your classmates are all together in every class.
(By the way, Yuvha and Brian - Brian Seow Han Keat, that is - have been promoting Inti's cafeteria/canteen for the past week. I've heard that some Taylors students actually go there to eat...hmm...)
I've checked out the library...many times. Chea Yii is beginning to wonder whether I plan to stay at the library after classes every day, but it is, I'm sorry to say, a privilege I have to deny myself if I were to get home earlyand without paying an interesting amount of money for transport home. Or I'll have to take the RapidKL bus and walk all the way back from the bus stop - a 20 minutes walk; I'm complaining because my book(s) are heavy! Well...the library. Pretty inconsistent in their fiction section. Well yes, the library is mainly for reference books or textbooks, but then again, after the elation of seeing those fiction books to be read for free, I got kind of disappointed. I tried looking for Sidney Sheldon yesterday (he just died, so I'm now curious to read his much celebrated work) but the library didn't have any. A few Danielle Steele, though. No Sylvia Plath in the sad little literature section. I borrowed Virginia Woolf's The Years today: three to four copies of this, none ever borrowed by anyone. I'm making history.
Oh look, it's raining. After so many days.
I can't go for the Muse concert. Oh...well. Well.
Damien Rice's 9 hasn't been getting too many good reviews. One main complaint is that he's gone commercial; his emotional delivery now seems too engineered, not authentic enough. The best four songs on the album (so far) are:
1. 9 Crimes - right, Lisa Hannigan's voice could make any heartbroken person cry, especially in this song. The lyrics, though, seem to be lacking something; not in league with The Blower's Daughter, nope.
2. The Animals were Gone - My favourite one. This song has been mentioned in nearly every review I've read - besides 9 Crimes - and it's really, really sweet. I love the lyrics, the melody, the cellos...well basically everything.
3. Accidental Babies - Stripped down, raw, minimalistic. Beautifully simple melody, but I wonder how my parents will react if they knew what the lyrics are talking about.
4. Grey Room - A very recent favourite, just caught on to it two days ago. The lyrics are nothing much, but Rice sounds good here, almost as good as in Volcano or Delicate. Simple melody, but worth listening to.
Am I buying his album this time? Still undecided. Very. 9 definitely does not measure up to the standard set by O. Crushed expectations.
Conversations...funny past-times we have. Here's a snippet I got from some movie yesterday which got me laughing:
A: My birthday just passed.
B: I know, I bought you a card.
A: I didn't get it.
B: I didn't mail it.
Why did I laugh in the first place? No idea.
Remember the song meme I stole from Sunny June's blog last year and which several people posted on their blogs after that?
(Oh no, a window just hanged itself.)
Here's a variation of it - same questions, but different answers - books, poems and lyrics. Mish mash random hash.
How am I feeling today?
I want to live where soul meets body - Soul Meets Body, Death Cab for Cutie
Will I get far in life?
Bigger than My Body - John Mayer
How do my friends see me?
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, The Beatles
Where will I get married?
Run - Snow Patrol
What is the story of my life?
Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl - Broken Social Scene
What was high school like?
You Only Live Once - The Strokes
How can I get ahead in life?
Hold fast to dreams
For is dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
- Dreams, Langston Hughes
What is the best thing about me?
The Solitaire Mystery - Jostein Gaarder
The only thing I can fall back on, now...is my imagination. My little imaginary world of living people, "cards", while I observe and nudge them. A sad fantasy.
What was today like?
Oh freedom is mine and I know how I feel - Feeling Good, Michael Buble
What is in store for this weekend?
what a glorious feeling - Singin' in the Rain, Jamie Cullum
What song describes my parents?
Home - Michael Buble
How is my life going?
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
What song will they play at my funeral?
I'll do my best now but you've been gone for so long - The Animals were Gone, Damien Rice
How does the world see me?
Naive - The Kooks
Will I have a happy life?
Jetsetter - Morningwood
What do my friends really think of me?
Like A Star - Corinne Bailey Rae =)
Do people secretly lust after me?
Banquet - Bloc Party
How can I make myself happy?
Phenomenal Woman - Maya Angelou
What should I do with my life?
Apres Moi - Regina Spektor
What will my children be like?
Something unusual, something strange, come from nothing at all - Amie, Damien Rice
What will you name them?
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder
What will the person you marry be like?
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
Do you have a significant other?
Summer Sunshine - The Corrs
Will you have a fulfilling life?
What Ever Happened - The Strokes
How will you die?
Dying,
is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.
Lady Lazarus - Sylvia Plath
Recycled stuff.
Glad you've read till here!
Siapa nak Rice's Grey Room?
But that won't stop me from writing, so get some cushions for your behind, make yourself a cup of tea/coffee/Panadol soluble/Ribena and something alcoholic, open that packet of chocolate chip cookies you've been aching to do since last week and take your time. Your time, not mine, really. Will that put you off reading this post, now?
Right, back to the overdue part.
I seem to be one of the very few who haven't actually talked about my college life, and it's already February
First things first: The American education system is way different from the Malaysian, which follows the British system. It's hugely different from A-Levels. For one thing, Americans go by the credit system, like the grade point average (GPA) to evaluate the student's achievement in each semester and the cumulative grade point average CGPA for the whole program (it takes into consideration the GPAs for each semester). Marks for each subject/course is split 60/40: 60% for class work, assignments, projects and quizzes (those detestable pop quizzes in psych) and 40% for the final exam. The passing grade is a C-, or a 55%, so if you do brilliantly well during the semester for your assignments and etc, you've passed before you've even sat for the final exam. If you haven't, then the exam is a last chance for you to scrape some marks.
Semesters are either long or short semesters. The long ones last for 15 weeks, which means my semester break is at the end of April, and my second semester starts in May. The short semesters last for 8 weeks, beginning September to October (or possibly early November). I wasn't quite sure about the semesters until today when a senior joined my usual lunch group and told us the happy happy news. A-Levels people, you ada so nice holidays tak?
One interesting point to note: Many students taking the AUP/ADTP/ADP in Inti this semester are planning to major in engineering or actuarial science. And some people I've talked to - seniors and freshies - mentioned that one main reason why they're doing AUP in Inti is because Taylors doesn't have a good ADP. (No offence; I'm just reporting.) What do you think of that?
So far, things have been pretty fine. Groups are beginning to form...cliques...but on the whole, it's difficult to say which group someone or other belongs in. I meet different people in each of my classes, and almost everyone I've met has a different time-table. Like I said, it's way different from A-Levels in which your classmates are all together in every class.
(By the way, Yuvha and Brian - Brian Seow Han Keat, that is - have been promoting Inti's cafeteria/canteen for the past week. I've heard that some Taylors students actually go there to eat...hmm...)
I've checked out the library...many times. Chea Yii is beginning to wonder whether I plan to stay at the library after classes every day, but it is, I'm sorry to say, a privilege I have to deny myself if I were to get home early
Oh look, it's raining. After so many days.
I can't go for the Muse concert. Oh...well. Well.
Damien Rice's 9 hasn't been getting too many good reviews. One main complaint is that he's gone commercial; his emotional delivery now seems too engineered, not authentic enough. The best four songs on the album (so far) are:
1. 9 Crimes - right, Lisa Hannigan's voice could make any heartbroken person cry, especially in this song. The lyrics, though, seem to be lacking something; not in league with The Blower's Daughter, nope.
2. The Animals were Gone - My favourite one. This song has been mentioned in nearly every review I've read - besides 9 Crimes - and it's really, really sweet. I love the lyrics, the melody, the cellos...well basically everything.
3. Accidental Babies - Stripped down, raw, minimalistic. Beautifully simple melody, but I wonder how my parents will react if they knew what the lyrics are talking about.
4. Grey Room - A very recent favourite, just caught on to it two days ago. The lyrics are nothing much, but Rice sounds good here, almost as good as in Volcano or Delicate. Simple melody, but worth listening to.
Am I buying his album this time? Still undecided. Very. 9 definitely does not measure up to the standard set by O. Crushed expectations.
Conversations...funny past-times we have. Here's a snippet I got from some movie yesterday which got me laughing:
A: My birthday just passed.
B: I know, I bought you a card.
A: I didn't get it.
B: I didn't mail it.
Why did I laugh in the first place? No idea.
Remember the song meme I stole from Sunny June's blog last year and which several people posted on their blogs after that?
(Oh no, a window just hanged itself.)
Here's a variation of it - same questions, but different answers - books, poems and lyrics. Mish mash random hash.
How am I feeling today?
I want to live where soul meets body - Soul Meets Body, Death Cab for Cutie
Will I get far in life?
Bigger than My Body - John Mayer
How do my friends see me?
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, The Beatles
Where will I get married?
Run - Snow Patrol
What is the story of my life?
Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl - Broken Social Scene
What was high school like?
You Only Live Once - The Strokes
How can I get ahead in life?
Hold fast to dreams
For is dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
- Dreams, Langston Hughes
What is the best thing about me?
The Solitaire Mystery - Jostein Gaarder
The only thing I can fall back on, now...is my imagination. My little imaginary world of living people, "cards", while I observe and nudge them. A sad fantasy.
What was today like?
Oh freedom is mine and I know how I feel - Feeling Good, Michael Buble
What is in store for this weekend?
what a glorious feeling - Singin' in the Rain, Jamie Cullum
What song describes my parents?
Home - Michael Buble
How is my life going?
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
What song will they play at my funeral?
I'll do my best now but you've been gone for so long - The Animals were Gone, Damien Rice
How does the world see me?
Naive - The Kooks
Will I have a happy life?
Jetsetter - Morningwood
What do my friends really think of me?
Like A Star - Corinne Bailey Rae =)
Do people secretly lust after me?
Banquet - Bloc Party
How can I make myself happy?
Phenomenal Woman - Maya Angelou
What should I do with my life?
Apres Moi - Regina Spektor
What will my children be like?
Something unusual, something strange, come from nothing at all - Amie, Damien Rice
What will you name them?
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder
What will the person you marry be like?
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
Do you have a significant other?
Summer Sunshine - The Corrs
Will you have a fulfilling life?
What Ever Happened - The Strokes
How will you die?
Dying,
is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.
Lady Lazarus - Sylvia Plath
Recycled stuff.
Glad you've read till here!
Siapa nak Rice's Grey Room?
posted by Lynn at
5:25 pm
3 Comments:
HEYA... R u absolutely sure that all the Muse tickets have been sold out? Cos they're still promoting it and there's no SOLD OUT notice there. I recommend u check it again. OH AND REMEMBER 2 WATCH UGLY BETTY AHAHHAHAHHA.... Till then (next lunch... like DUH) Adios Amigo.
-X2- Ugly is in(2007). Wanna know more? Contact ME!
I called two ticketing outlets, and both said that the tickets are sold out.
I don't want to go through the heartbreak again...
Watch JAMIE OLIVER instead! =D
oh yea... Jamie Oliver starred in a motoring show that I love... TOP GEAR! ahahah... I just watched it a few days ago.
-X2- Ugly is in.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home