TODAY is Halloween! Yippee! well, honestly, i didn't exactly participate in the mass trick-or-treating or the whole house decorating affair. but it sure was a whole lotta fun walking atlas today and looking at the weirdest costumes, and most importantly, the weirdest people wearing these costumes.

of course, there were black-trash-bag ghouls and ghosts, paper-cone-hatted witches and warlocks, several green monsters of varying dye colours and fairies.
why fairies?? why on earth are fairies considered a halloween costume?! erm, fairies MIGHT be scary to wee tots i guess, maybe it's the wings. or the endlessly shimmery sparkles that could cause blindness and dizziness.

and of course, there were bald old men in bright yellow spongebob squarepants outfits. i mean, come on, who isn't afraid of spongebob? and come on, who hasn't seen bald old men wearing spongebob costumes before? yeah you read right, brendan (my brother fyi) passed by a doddering dude dressed as sbsp. oh god. what are we teaching young children nowadays?

but the cool thing was that the whole neighbourhood was abuzz with little kids (and old men) running around the place, chanting scary songs and shouting at the top of their voices, demanding for candy. it is the only time i ever see people (who aren't domestic helpers walking dogs) around the streets in the area. it's like all these people suddenly appeared from nowhere. it's like they appeared from Hell. GASP! imagine if they weren't really costumes! these haunts must be really poor, only can afford a plastic trash bag to wear or a paper wand to wave around.

anyways. the decorations some of the houses put up was really cool! some family probably ran out of pumpkins and carved faces on watermelons instead. LOL! jack-o'-melon. and the carving was really well done too! it had an appropriately lopsided grin, perfect balance of the eyes and nose, and good skin tone too!

here's something from wiki (cut short to spare thine eyes):

An old Irish legend tells of Jack, a lazy yet shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil. Jack was getting chased by some villagers whom he had stolen from, when he met the Devil: it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (the Devil could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet... only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped. Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees never to take his soul. After a while the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, his life had been too sinful for Jack to go to heaven; however, the Devil had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from Hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which was his favourite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-Lantern.

freaky. "endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place" is particularly .... scary. Halloween is a really spooky festival to celebrate, but luckily pple have turned it into a nice cheesy cutesy kinda event, with little kids being the main perpetrators, and pumpkin-carving, costume-designing and decorating being the main highlights.

and here's smt else i picked up on wiki, which sounds downright freaky.

The will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus, or in plural form as ignes fatui ("fool's fire(s)") refers to the ghostly lights sometimes seen at night or twilight that hover over damp ground in still air — often over bogs. It looks like a flickering lamp, and is sometimes said to recede if approached. Much folklore surrounds the legend, but science has offered several potential explanations.

what these explanations are, you'll have to find out yourself. that's because ..... (play spooky, haunting music) but before this, let us go for a commercial break. lol, kidding. i'm going to bed la. you guys probably arent even interested in this, so i won't waste digital space and memory capacity.

I am really tired.
Just exhausted and drawn out, like a ductile metal that's been pulled into a wire.
Feeling really thin and feeble.



My productivity has sunk to an all-time low, just like the US dollar which has hit rock-bottom.
Unlike the US dollar's depreciation, nobody's celebrating any low inflation for me.
Prices still continue to stay high for me because the exams are looming closer, and the opportunity costs of not being able to study and concentrate has risen to an alarming magnitude.




The probability of me failing any subject is a maximum of 1, and a minimum of zero. And between you and me, the range from 0 to 1 is tiny as hell! I could crash and burn, so easily. The odds are stacked against me! And the graphic calculator sketches out my possible fates, a curve that stretches on to infinity, tending to zero. As time runs out nearer the exams, so many outcomes could emerge.




And as the tables turn against me, positions shift. new positions of equilibriums are attained, but how has the yield changed? have i churned out more prelim papers and memorised more notes? or has the yield fallen? only continuous methods to measure rates of reactions, and the rate itself, will deem if the time spent can yield rewards.



erm, what other subject is left? GP and lit? ahh forget it! this is taking up too much time, i'm off to study now.



Note to self: Get outside and get some fresh air. Will help maintain sanity.

ok i FINALLY found a picture of the elusive cemetery, and even then, they must have forgotten to name it. see that humongous light grey patch above the University? yep, you got it. and whoopee dee, the residential college i'm applying to lies along that yellow line Royal Parade, in between the cemetery and the campus.

wow, talk about exciting campus life!

but anyways, it's still cool to be able to stay in one of the residential colleges! esp since i'm applying to International House, where 60% of the population are from countries other than Australia! i can meet people from ALLLLLL over the World! heh, i can imagine ah meng thinking along the lines of hot guys from which countries! HAHA, just kidding! (not).

and here's something interesting, i bet us gluttons have very different ideas on which countries GENERALLY have the best-looking guys. ok this is purely recreational and definitely superficial, but it sure is interesting!

here's a list of what i think the GLC members have in mind:
Hongyi - Korea, definitely!
Meifen - France? Spain? surely some European country!
Melho - hmm, this is hard.... but i'm thinking, maybe US, bcos of Brad Pitt. haha!
Mengyuan - definitely a latin american country! or maybe France too
Siqian - this is hard too... er.... Asian? maybe... Japan or Korea? lol, i'm not sure!

glutts, please feel free to flood my tagboard with numerous protests.

alrighty. i went down to idp again to apply to submit my application for the residential colleges around University of Melbourne. and the rep passed me this map of Victoria, which OBVIOUSLY, is where Uni of Melbourne is located in.

and lookee what i found.

there is a GARGANTUAN christian graveyard opposite the road from the residential college i applied to.

yes. you read correctly.



A GRAVEYARD.



OPPOSITE.



THE ROAD.



FROM THE



COLLEGE.



they conveniently omitted it from an earlier map i saw, but i saw it in the map of Victoria. i swear i saw it! and it's really big. about the size of the university campus itself! and the best part is, when my mom went to the campus last year, she said the buildings there looked rather old.


oh boy. i can just imagine all the types of stories passing from person to person within the walls of the university campus and the residential colleges. ohhh boy. but anyways, the rep said the graveyard's quite nice, esp if you're into Gothic stuff. rrrrright. oh well, i guess if it gets to noisy students could always pop by the cemetery to mug for their papers.

yeah, that was just a little bit of trivia for you.

urgh....must.......have...............coke.

seriously. this squirrel is in the middle of the African desert, probably wandered around in circles for days, getting lost and lost-er, and finally STUMBLES across a miraculous bottle of coke (still cold) with a straw conveniently inserted in, positively begging to be drunk.

and THAT, is an example of how i'm so bored i can write the most retarded things.

Wow, this is the first time in a long time i'm posting something. i almost forgot the url to get here.

fortunately, i didn't!

which is why i'm here, to announce to the World that....

and i shall quote:

"Dear Miss Chua, Congratulations! I am delighted to offer you admission to the University of Melbourne as an International student. Course: Bachelor of Science (Veterinary Science), leading to Bachelor Veterinary Science."

WOW. THIS IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY UNBELIEVABLE! WOOOAAAAH. UNREAL.

this piece of (WONDERFUL) news made me unable to concentrate on work the entire day. haha.

which is also partly why i'm here now. instead of hiding under my desk mugging like some psychopath obsessed with books and notes. you got it, that's what i've been like these past few days. wake up, eat, study, eat, study, eat, fall into unconsciousness (which only serves to use up time that should be spent on more studying). and a little bit of toilet-visitation in between of course. but before you think i must be making great leaps of progress through this mass of notes and papers, i will, heh, admit that time spent on studying is not directly proportional to productivity in absorbing and learning.

you see, let me write out the rate equation over here - rate = k[mugging]^0.05.
so if you increase the concentration of mugging, the rate of absorption of data only increases by 0.05 times. this, as you can probably tell, makes life very difficult for me. i increase mugging by so much, only to improve so little. sigh.

AAAAAnyways, i'd better be off to do something productive now. like looking through hostel applications and scholarship applications. haha. i'm not in the mood for studying just yet.

WOOHOO!! Hallelujah!! Wonders befall this Earth!!! It's a miracle!!! ok forgive me, i'm still excited.

alright! i found another current favourite song of the month! yes, i can have more than one favourite, despite whatever Oxford or Cambridge write in their dictionaries. don't get misled by them, you can have ANY number of favourite things you want. 3 favourite drinks, 17 favourite colours, 89 favourite bands and 9885 favourite things to do after waking up in the mornings.

anyways, i digress.

Stronger by Kanye West!! THAT is my new fave song now! my aim is to upload songs like Stronger, The Great Escape, Time After Time, Shut Up and Drive, What I've Done and other songs that are perfect for running to, ALL into a teeny mp3 player for use when i go running. surely i can run longer and faster this way! now all i have to do is get a light mp3 player......

and in the short 3 minutes i've been typing, i discovered another 2 fave songs!! 1973 by James Blunt and Ayo Technology by 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake!

by the way, i usually dislike 50 Cent. YES it's true. no matter how many times he was shot and still survived, i don't really like him. no matter how brilliantly intriguing and wonderfully creative his name is, i don't really like him. but unfortunately, he collaborated with THE justin timberlake to produce a great track like Ayo Technology. sigh.

anyways....

nothing else to type. so i'm off now.

i'm melting!!

which kinda reminds me of ah meng's lame joke about sugar. i will not repeat it here, in order to protect the poor eyes and brains of the good people out there.

anyways, today is super super SUPER hot!

ok i shall go bathe in a tub full of ice now, goodbye! see you again in several days time when i have thawed and regained consciousness and mobility.

today.

is

one

of

the

most

suckiest

day

i

have

experienced

this

year.

end of story.

ok not really. i still have much MUCH more to gripe about. this very day has earned a rating of 1.93. in other words, if it weren't for my not having to go to school, i would probably be sucking my thumb and rocking myself to sleep beside the toilet bowl while i weep my eyes out over how terrible life is.

and of course, being the fabulous joker i am, i was OBVIOUSLY just pulling you leg.

but honestly, i'm feeling really low now thanks to my mysterious ailment. it all started when i woke up yesterday with a weird feeling in my mouth and throat. this benign "weird feeling" later developed into a "weird feeling" of PURE EVIL, threatening to seize control of my mouth, tongue and throat by dispatching little sores to command and conquer! as you can probably tell, the use of military and war imagery is really appropriate for situations like these.

anyways, i can barely taste food, and eating or drinking is really uncomfortable. mrt trains will be so glad to have me as a commuter (Eating or drinking is NOT allowed).

if you wanna gain first-hand experience of my malady, i shall tell you how.

first, run out to the DIY store and purchase 2 sheets of 1m X 1m heavy-duty sandpaper. by "heavy-duty", i mean REALLY heavy-duty, like the type of sandpaper that will make the most unyielding bits of scrap metal quake in their soddy shoes, and turn them into meek little balls of metal with bottoms as smooth as a baby's, well, bottom.

second, cut out 4 strips of 3cm by 1cm, as well as one in the shape of a tongue. if you do not know what a tongue looks like, please go to your primary school science teacher and give him/her a good dressing-down. put aside the rest of the sandpaper, you won't be needing them till your next art lesson.

third, place the strips in between the lining of your mouth and your gums, with 2 strips for the upper jaw, and 2 for the lower. then, place the tongue-shaped piece on (guess what?) your tongue.

fourth, raid your kitchen and take any edible substances out of your shelf or fridge.

fifth, attempt to chew and swallow these substances. please note that this step should be carried out preferably in private, because at this point, you will probably be making funny faces, as you grimace and wince during the uncomfortable process of following the above instruction.

and that, my friends (with sore mouths, tongues and throats), is how i feel.

but anyways, i went to 2 doctors to find out what the bleeding hell is happening to my mouth, tongue and throat. the first doctor looked at me and said solemnly, "I have never come across anything like this before.". i swore i could've fainted on the spot. then he went on to say, "Give it a few days and see whether it develops into something more serious." Yeah, and by that time i might probably be unable to open my mouth and possibly half-dying of starvation and dehydration.

the second doctor spent a whole lotta time telling me what i DIDN'T have, but somehow failed to tell me what i DID have. he said," it's not cancerous, because the white colouration is a different shade. it's not hand-foot-mouth, because there aren't any blisters on your hands and feet (hallelujah!), and also the sores look different. and it's not a fungal infection.". fortunately, he told me that it SHOULD clear in a week, and gave me some antibiotics.

so here i am now, wishing that a week would pass faster. feeling absolutely shitty cos i can't really taste much or chew and swallow well. and i think my throat's starting to swell. you know how a bullfrog looks when it's croaking? its throat swells impossibly large and then subsides. my throat COULD perhaps be looking like that right now. so i'm hoping it subsides fast. humans aren't meant to look like frogs you know.

anyways, at least i think it's starting to heal slowly. it was worse in the morning. ah well, i will appreciate eating and drinking more in future. once this sodding week passes.