The story continues!

I'm feeling provoked for one reason: GOF movie. Fleur Delacour looks like a Hogwarts student. She doesn't even have the silvery hair. Speaking of hair, did Harry and Ron decide that Beatles 'dos are in again? Ron looks particularly shaggy. There is nothing in the book that runs along the lines of "His locks were so long, he was forced to tuck them behind his ears."
Now although I still think Jiahan is a nerd for liking Simple Plan, I do thank him for sponsoring my first so-called rock concert. (That is a general term. I call them 'imitation punk rock' myself.) I like the crazy-concert atmosphere, I like bouncing in unison with the crowd, and I like the cute Pug Jelly guitarist. The SP gang are average in the conversing-with-the-crowd thing, their "We are nothing without our fans" and "Y'all lookin' hot tonight" had me making WD/KD comments in my head. However, they sure can dish it when they try. My favourite numbers were the (excellently chosen) covers - The Turtles' Happy Together and The Darkness's I Believe In a Thing Called Love. You know that funny rhythm in the line "No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be"? Nicely done. And all the falsettos in the latter song were wow.
I want to go to more concerts. I also feel blah. Here is why:
a) Mel has vanished update-wise, and I'm both concerned for and frustrated with her. You see, once a month of your life passes by without you saying anything about it, it fades in importance, and then you don't want to talk about it anymore. But it mattered.
b) Jiahan says I can be quite bad-tempered, which makes me worry that I will be naggy and short-fused by the time I'm 30. But then again, this could be simply be a roundabout ploy to make me bend over backwards and be Sweetly Tolerant. Well, it isn't going to work, moron. (Which makes me wonder again how many lurkers actually read this blog.)
c) Transition is coming again, and as I have said many times before - I get so tiresomely (because it always happens) apprehensive. I finish work in about two weeks. I always feel like I am avoiding responsibilities. And daydreams, opinions and interests are merely excuses/contradictions. What use is escapism if you do nothing with what you learn from it? As once noted -

I'm on my way
with dust in my shoes
free of mythology:
send books back to their shelves,
I'm going down into the streets.
I learned about life
from life itself,
love I learned in a single kiss
and could teach no one anything
except that I have lived
with something in common among men,
when fighting with them,
when saying all their say in my song.
- Pablo Neruda, Ode to the Book

Things I never thought I'd do

a) Drive a car, without killing anyone
b) Agree to go to a Simple Plan concert

More soon!

A list that was obviously created with the Chinese-American in mind, but at the same time, strangely familiar. Here are some of the funnies off:

You Know You're Chinese When...

There is a sale on toilet paper, you buy 100 rolls and store them in your closet or in the bedroom of an adult child who has moved out.

You go to a dance party, and there is a wall of guys surrounding the dance floor trying to look cool.

You never discuss your love life with your parents.

Your dad washes his hair four times a day, or never at all.

Your mother is strangely obsessed with plants.

White people look at you strangely if you tell them you are Buddhist.

You know at least three people named Alan Wong.

You look like you are eighteen.

(Be offended or amused by the full list here)

The more sensitive you are about something, the more resentfully you react to "the razor-sharp perceptions that cut just a little too deep". Ugh. And you have to pretend to be benign and mature and not care, because that's the best way to respond. Ooh, and imagine if you didn't. Dead-end!
It's been a week since we bounced around Sona's room to hyperactive tunes that matched the state of our poor nerves. Now that's over. When can we do it again?
Realized I have an attention-span the size of a sesame seed. (Not original. Sorry, Jaclyn Moriarity. Or was it a mustard seed?) I cannot do one task at a time. I have to be doing something else, non-work related surfing, such as this, and it will get me into trouble if I don't exercise some discipline and self-control.
I came upon one of those rare SEBs (SuperEloquent Blogs) in a chain of webcomic search. The girl both describes and illustrates a relationship real and so tender, your heart aches when you read that it's over. She stopped drawing The Girl in Black. But can she ever really stop? Did she really stop being a Goddess? You can't tell from reading...

What am I, darlin'?
A whisper in your ear?
A piece of your cake?
What am I, darlin?
The boy you can fear?
Or your biggest mistake?
- Damien Rice, Cheers Darlin'
______________________________

I left this post hanging and forgot all about it, so here I am again three days on. A bunch of small SJI boy scouts wandered by offering work and my mum put them to raking up all the leaves. Later she felt sorry for them and gave them 5 bucks each. I'll bet that's the most they got from any of the households. (Actually, I don't even know how the Scout System works anyway. Aren't they supposed to work for free for the sake of doing Good Deeds? I'm pretty sure that was written in the Brownie protocol.)
I'm worried about Huixin, who is fiercely good-hearted and confiding. After all her brickbats, she took it out on her lasagne. Is it fair that you have to hold it all in in order to be considered 'resilient', a word I hate as it is because it makes me think of rubber (resin?) and are otherwise considered feckless? I will never have her problem because I don't see a friend in every stranger. Perhaps I should. We are two extremes.

I haven't updated in fifteen million years, and I just like the sound of that.
I am happy with my results, really I am, or maybe I just want to be happy, but now I CAN be happy. I am tired of discontentment, and being unhappy when you said you wouldn't be if you got what you did.
So. Aside from the heinous reason for going back to RJ, I had a great time going back to RJ. Everyone was acting slightly tipsy; with the excitement of seeing everybody in the new campus, and the sprightly groups of J1s who cheered "Good luck!' every time they saw us milling with tense expressions, and Yi San who squeaked with fear every five seconds, and being both encouraging and nervous at the same time.
I am so proud of everybody. EVERYBODY you hear? I don't care if you got 4 As or none. You made it through.
And I'm suddenly re-excited about my future, because the NTU English modules sound very fun/useful, and who knows, I'll take a chance every time. I finished Anne of Green Gables again yesterday and bawled like a baby over the ending because I'm ridiculous, and I hope you will be optimistic always, no matter what happens.

"My future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend... I wonder how the road beyond it goes - what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows - what new landscapes - what new beauties - what curves and hills and valleys farther on."
- L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables