Today was the Penitential Service. Have I ever told anyone that I don't like going for confession? But today wasn't so bad...I think the priest was rather amused that my confession was only 2 sentences long AND that I didn't know the Rite of Contrition...oops. Anyway, when I sms-ed Sing and told her about going for confession...she replied, "What are you going to confess? We confess for you la.." Hmm....I'm still wondering what that's supposed to mean....

Yay! My comp is finally up and running! I'm so elated! I've got my private comp back! NO more lagging comp...i get to enjoy my kick ass sound system again!!! Woot!

I ate durian on thurs, sat and yesterday...I ate durian fudge cake, durian cream puffs & sing's dad's durian birthday cake. I've eaten my whole year's worth of durian. I was burping durian like madness yesterday. Didn't help that I had 3 glasses of wine while eating durian either. I need to buy liang teh already.

Oh, let me recount an incident with a taxi driver yesterday. This taxi driver first said that I don't look local....that I looked Malaysian. AND almost immediately, he commented that I looked more mature than my age!!!!!! NOT only that, he started talking about University degrees and he insisted that an Arts degree is useless. His basis of argument? His niece who is an Arts graduate. And then later, he said that for an Arts graduate, one has to work overseas in order to go far. Furthermore, he predicted that Singapore will become a finacial hub within the next 10 years. Therefore, an Arts degree is useless and it's better to graduate with a Biz/accounting degree. I told him that an Arts degree can be used to enter banking and finance too. However, I think he didn't "hear" it. He insisted that Chemistry or Chemical Engineering degrees are the best right now because of the chemical industries that Singapore currently has. He claims that he says so due to the fact that many of these chemical companies hire several foreigners and pay them very high pay, indicating a lack of local talents. I told him that it depends on the companies because some companies pay their expat employees on local terms. In other words, these foreigners get the same pay as their local counterparts within the same company. I added that I've got a friend who is majoring in Chemistry and my friend has spoken to chemists working in pharmaceutical companies and chemical firms. All these chemists say that there are more chemists looking for jobs than positions available. The pay isn't that fantastic either. Well...as the "debate" ceased in the cab, he had to continue saying that I looked older than my age before I left the taxi. Damn him.

Baileys whined like mad last night and this morning because I refused to let him sleep on my bed. This morning, he couldn't wait for permission and flew onto my bed. I was too sleepy to push him off. My mother walked out of her rm and Baileys flew over my head and onto the floor when he saw her approach my bedroom. Hahahahaha....flying doggies....Baileys ought to join the circus. He's now giving me the horribly adorable look while he rests his whole head onto the floor. He's occupying the whole corridor. Nobody can walk past him. Everyone has to walk OVER him. Haha...corridor rug. =P

I went to the dentist on Sat. He said that I have to remove my wisdom tooth. And the best way to correct my crooked tooth is to remove it and then wear braces to straighten everything out. That's 3K a pop. Yikes. (Baileys didn't have any more patience...he pawed me just now.)

Well, Sing & I will be conducting porcelain painting classes this 22-23. $45 per course. We took out an ad in the Classifieds. That's $34.65 a pop. Her phone's not ringing off the hook. Damn. We need more ads. I've put a bulletin on my friendster page and sms-ed friends. I hope Kewei has enough time to add this new ad onto our website. And I also hope that we've got enough time to print out flyers and dump it into our neighbours' mailboxes. The extremely stupid thing about my condo (and the new management) is that they don't allow any commercial ads on the condo notice board. The only commercialism allowed is if the management has something to gain OR it's a large commercial entity like PacNet. Poo to the management. In the past, many people read the notice board for ads like tuition, baby-sitting or garage sales. Now, all of us are pasting ads on the sly. The security guards then have to walk around the whole estate removing those ads. Silly of the management. If they allowed a notice board for all these "commercial" activities, people wouldn't resort to pasting them all over the place AND the security guards need not go around removing them. Non?

I have a headache. I wince. I cry. I massage. I love Baileys. I smile. I pat him. I think. I regret. I spent $. I try to make $. I think. I massage. I hurt to think. I hate. I try to relax. I take panadol. I cramp. I have an urge. I answer.

*sniff* My nose has been blocked for a week
*cough* Phelgm rages at my throat
*ahem* It tickles and my throat feels dry
*gulp* Yet another mouthful of water to soothe
*blow* I managed to get some snort out
*cough* I can feel that the phelgm is really from the mucus from my nose
*ahem* Die virus die....
*sniff* I've been sick for a week

This is what the moose wrote to me regarding my essay:

"With some hesitation, I gave your paper a B-. It is really on the borderline between a C+ and a B-.  The standard of papers I received in JS2227 was pretty low, with the very notable exception of Geneva, who of course is a real native speaker and comes from a real English-language university with a top-class world reputation. [I did not get the papers written by some of the good students in the course, like Qiu Nan].

Melissa's paper was somewhere in the middle between the totally useless papers and the reasonably good ones. It was a survey account of the influence of China on Japan in the ancient period, and it reads like a chapter in an introductory textbook. It is not really a research paper in that it only gives widely known facts and has no tight focus, nor does it offer any original analysis or question (or compare) existing scholarship regarding a certain clearly defined historical question. Thus this paper is worth somewhere between a B- and a C.

More faults: (1) no title; (2) definition of "ancient Japan" incorrect;(3) the writing is OK to read, but there are a lot of elementary grammar mistakes, like "did" in place of "had" (before "not adopted"), "root to[Chinese culture]" instead of "root of," singular/plural subject-object agreement problems (like "the Japanese was" instead of "the Japanese were"; "still mean" instead of "still means", problems in the use of tenses -- like present tense where past tense is needed -- and so on).

There are some serious factual problems, such as the ridiculous statement that Confucianism became the dominant school of thought in Japan in the ancient period, and the statement that because of that their government adopted a meritocratic system.

The only reason you squeaked through to a B- is because this university's grading standards have been dropped, the writing level of students is generally very bad, and because your paper was pretty good in terms of readability and interest, even though it was not really a focused inquiry, contained no analysis or questioning, and proffered no new perspective whatsoever."

You decide what you think of him and let me know at the comments chat. I'm still amazed at how he can be insulting to me, to the class, to Singapore AND complain about things all at the same time. I feel that he doesn't teach. A real teacher tells a student where he/she has gone wrong and tries to mould the student into producing better work. A teacher also imparts knowledge, whereas for him, he churns out disorganised facts. Ah well...I'm avoiding his modules like the plague.

Stupid idiotic Canadian moose of a professor. HE hasn't marked my essay which I've sent him ONE month ago! Damn him! And he can't find it in his mailbox and this is what he wrote: "if you wish to have a grade for it, please send it IMMEDIATELY. I have to give the grades by tomorrow." He is such a disorganised arse! What's his fiaking problem? And he should have marked all the papers WAY before today or yesterday for that matter because he has to mark exam papers as well! Arse. Stupid canadian moose. He had better give me a good grade because of all the hassle he put me through. It's NOT my fault that he hasn't marked my paper or that he can't find it in his mailbox. *sigh*

Anyway, he's not going to dampen my mood to think of my Christmas wishlist. Haha...I was thinking of working as a student assistant for USP. For 10 days of work, I would get $700. However, if I do go for it, I can't go for the bazaar at Ngee Ann which is from the 22-24. BUmmer....$700....*dreams* Ok...back to the topic of Christmas wishlist. 'Tis the season of giving and receiving...so to make my family and friends' lives easier, here's my wishlist:

1. MP3 Player (if it doubles up as a thumb drive, it'll be my idea of perfection)
2. Sony Ericsson S700i...I'll settle for the k700i too but my dream phone is still the S700i

There it is...this is my super short list. These are the only 2 things in life that I can safely say I want but don't really need. I don't really need much though. Haha...don't you just love the frills in life???