Saturday, September 29, 2007
Well, before you even realize it, the mid-term break is already almost over.
It has not been much of a break (it was never meant to be), but at least I managed to get some rest and 1 hour and 45 minutes' worth of shopping for an eyeshadow brush in Bugis Junction. Ahaha.
Somehow, it feels like I didn't really get much work done. Up till today, the only Lit text I've read is "The Journal of Mistress Joan Martyn", an unfinished short (perhaps because it was left unfinished) story by Virginia Woolf. I suppose I had better get started reading the Jean Rhys novel tonight if I don't want to be rushing to finish the book at 3am two weeks from now, but there are so many other things I have to do that it's hard to tell which activity should come first. I've been spending a lot of time watching and analyzing films for both the Film Studies essay as well as my Asia Moderns presentation with Minwei on Stanley Kwan's Centre Stage. Studying film is quite interesting (especially weird arthouse films like Centre Stage) but it can be extremely tedious. Imagine sitting in front of the tiny TV set in the library viewing room, pausing and rewinding every 2 minutes to scrutinize the mise-en-scene and camera angles and whatnot in each shot, till a 15-minute segment takes you a whole hour to watch. It's pretty exhausting.
So this is what the infamous "Honours-year stress" is all about. HT research proposals, endless readings to be digested and texts to analyze. I know a few seniors who have had to take one semester off because they suffered from breakdowns. It's scary, but I think I have things more or less under control so far. Not that I'm always on top of my readings every lesson, but somehow, I don't feel that uptight about having to finish all the readings before class anymore. I think I now understand what PK-senpai meant when he said - "yonda bakari" - when I met him before the tutorial on Written on the Body last year, and I've come to accept that kind of "oh shit, I'm reading my texts up to the last minute but what the hell" feeling. Hmm, it may seem like laziness (it certainly does to me most of the time), but I guess it's also a kind of mental survival strategy.
And it is comforting to know that I'm not alone in this crazy whirlpool of schoolwork. I was studying in Central Library on Fri, and all of a sudden QH materialized in front of me. He had come back to school to do research for his level 4000 New Media modules. It did make me feel a little happier to see him sitting in front of me, puzzling over his PH1101E Reason and Persuasion assignment (an argumentative commentary - aah, that brings back memories of the good old days of Adnan helping me out when I was clueless about that assignment, and the not-so-pleasant recent past of writing an argumentative commentary for Research Workshop) while I was puzzling over my film studies essay. I feel that a special bond has developed between the two of us as 'colleagues' who joined the Anime Club at the same time and have stuck it out together these three and a half years. Out of the original four members of our cohort, the two of us are the only ones left in the committee who have continued to play an active role up till now. And now we're both Honours-year students in the same boat and it feels good to have company (though I must admit he's still playing a much larger role in the club than I am at present...)
I also met PY and Diana for lunch in school on Wed. It's sad that we can't meet up more often because of all the demands schoolwork makes on our time, but we should be able to do so now and then and of course, once the term is over. This is our last year together in NUS and we have to make the most of it!
Ok, I should stop here before I get sentimental. To all of you who read my blog, good luck with the rest of the semester if you're a student, and all the best for your career if you've graduated and are already working. ^^p
kaoru said at 1:14 AM
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