To continue from the EDIT part of my last post: I went completely berserk, stomped around the house yelling about, then returned to my room to find the saved file on my computer, edit it and print it out, and yank out drawers to get an envelope.

I promptly cooled off and as yet, have yet to fish out a stamp.

ANYWAY, I'm one day behind on all my work thanks to a lot of laziness on Sunday, and a few other unexpected things that cropped up on Monday and today - mainly having to hop over to the far reaches of Singapore to visit my aunt, and...erm...dropping by Orchard with my mother today.

Yeah well, I wasn't really expecting to go shopping till Friday. (I better not have anything to stay back for; it's about time I resumed my Friday shopping spree...........yeah yeah, it's only been one week... :P ) But since I had the chance, why not?

I went out having dark blue earrings in mind. My trip took me to Esprit, where there was a sale but I didn't have anything to buy; Mango, where I tried this pair of light grey cigarette jeans that looked very nice but were too short (okay, they were 32" but I like this type of jeans to be longer); Zara, where they didn't have that dark blue blouse I wanted but I noticed that my jeans were NOT IN STOCK; and Topshop...

...where their dark blue earrings were all at half price.

Hahahaha. I get so lucky sometimes.

The queue was extremellllllllly long and it was getting dark by the time I left the shop, so we had dinner and took 111 to the Raffles Hotel. Where we happened to just miss 131.

Got home past 7, got the remainder of my genetics notes (hurrah).

And I still have work left to do!!!

Argh. Not looking forward to tomorrow; another 8-to-8 day. Pity there's that guest lecture or I'd go home and sleep. However I will be less whiny about French because it's my last full lesson before two weeks of tests. :P

Jessica wrote home at 11:58 pm

And Christmas.

And my birthday for that matter. Well, a lot more than now anyway.

The good thing is I have the time to get some projects out of the way during the break.

Anyway, I was in a pretty bad mood this morning when I woke up. What did you expect, with calls and SMSes coming in every 15 min or so. Grr.

Had to go to school to pick up the lighting equipment. Why I had to do it, I don't know. I don't live the nearest to school nor do I have the chance to ask someone to fetch me to school and pick it up, and fetch me to Bukit Batok to meet the rest of the group.

And. It was SO BLOODY HEAVY. How many kilograms was that??? 5? 6? So I had to carry it all the way out to the MRT station, up to the platform, change trains at Jurong, arrive at Bukit Batok.

I honestly wanted to catch a cab and charge it to our "production costs".

The filming, by the way, took less than 2 hours. Time passes very slowly when you film, I've realised. I was too tired to do anything other than get home, snack around (my lunch), and fall asleep.

But the more I think about it, the more our film is very troubling. For one, we threw out a lot of our original plans - and it feels like they were thrown out not because they didn't work, but because we couldn't be bothered to film them! I have no idea if the final version will be long enough - or most importantly, if there is any semblance of a story flow in it.

And my stupid script keeps looking stupider.

Grr again.

Off to do my work. Why did I ever choose to be on the features desk???

Oh, and another thing that is annoying me. I'll give them one week before I post a letter, another week before I personally go there and make a scene and get thrown out by the security guards...and another week before I sue. That should do it. I'm already being very kind considering how long they've made me wait.

EDIT: Heyyyyyyyyyyy...they replied! On Wednesday! It was in my bulk folder so I never knew I'd received it. Anyway, guess what they said?

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your email. Your feedback is important to us and we are looking into your request/suggestion.

Have a nice day.

Oh.

I see.

If my feedback is so important, then WHY DIDN'T THEY BLOODY READ THE EMAIL IN THE FIRST PLACE?! MAYBE THEN THEY'D REALISE I WASN'T EVEN GIVING FEEDBACK!!!!!!

Are you allowed to curse on CNY? What the heck.

#$%^&*!!!!!

They are so gonna hear from me about this.

Jessica wrote home at 11:32 pm

But. I. Shall. Try.

2.40 a.m. Erm, more practice as a rotting log again today. What's more I skipped French, so I had quite a bit of extra sleeping time...hehe.

My mother must be in a pretty good mood, allowing me to skip it. Well, that and the fact she knows how little sleep I got on Monday. Anyway as I was standing on the doorstep (about to leave for school and already running extremely late), as usual I was whining about not wanting to go for French.

My mother was all like, "What don't go for French? You pay me back for one lesson ah!"

Me: "Okay lor. How much is one lesson?"

(pause)

Me: "OIIIIIIIII...what pay you back? I'm the one paying for this in the first place!!!!"

Yeah. So maybe that's why she allowed me to skip in the end. :P

DVPA was hilarious today. Other than some instructions on digitising our tapes, we spent the rest of the class in our groups discussing our short film. My group sat in the lounge and worked out that we wanted some death-related story starting from "a pool of blood". So, after being told to work out an actual storyline involving that "pool of blood", we drew up a list of ideas...............which got increasingly ridiculous.

First we decided we wanted a guy to commit suicide. Our tutor was like, "What made him commit suicide?" The guys started on a sad sob story about the character being rejected by his girlfriend or failing an exam or something...then when our tutor told us we would have to put a twist into the story, suddenly the character became possessed and little voices in his head told him to jump off the building...

Our tutor left us to generate more ideas.

The next time she returned, we said we wanted to do a scene at a mental institution where everyone takes turns doing funny faces and lame things in front of the camera, whilst a serious-looking doctor goes round taking notes on us.

"And the twist is that the doctor is the mad one!!!!!!!!!"

"Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

You should've seen the look on our tutor's face.

Hehe. Quite a pity actually; I was already imagining myself having a tea party with my stuffed toys.

ANYWAY. So finally our tutor suggested we do the sanest-but-still-original-sounding idea on our list, which had nothing to do with mad doctors or possessed teenagers or cross-dressing students.

Ahem. Then we had to settle the problem of when to film.

Looks like I'm busy the whole glorious week. :P

By the time it was settled, there was like half an hour to class. Had a cheesy hotdog and went up to the classroom.

The class ended 45 min later!!! When I was still deciding if I had enough time to get to Orchard and back to school! Haha.

And yes, I did have time. Got off at Tiong Bahru, hopped onto 16...halfway to Orchard I decided to take a gamble and alight at Great World City instead. They did have my jeans there!

I feel like gloating about something here but I won't because some people might just kill me for mentioning it. Can I help it if jeans are either too -

I should just shut up.

Well, being officially flat-out BROKE, I went home.

Actually had time to have lunch AND nap a little, before waking up and going back to school - early, for the first time in ages.

I must admit I was so enthusiastic about going back to school (even though I had a headache from lack of sleep) because I was going to skip French. If I had to face another three hours after IPRA...

Jessica wrote home at 2:41 am

Look who SMSed! *is in shock*

And of all days, too, when I was sleeping like a rotting log. Well, what did you expect? I had soooooo little sleep all weekend even after sacrificing my shopping time...then of course I was up last night being distracted by the match, in which MAN U WON. :P (Should have seen my reaction when I heard the radio commentary...)

So now I'm up at such an unearthly hour (3.17 a.m. to be precise) to get some French work done, and hopefully send an email demanding a certain sum of money from a certain...well, you should know what I'm talking about. "I'm 18 now." *hint*hint*

*coughs* Yeah, so I'm still busy. :(

And moving on to the "startling financial news" I promised...let's just say that at the worse of times, I get the tendency to be distracted easily. On Saturday I was distracted enough (actually I was distracted and went to search for something, leading to this) to read through my FE notes. As in, the notes I planned for the story but never got far enough to use them.

So Saturday I was seen "sobbing" over a certain death scene.

And, erm, Sunday I was distracted enough to go make a list of what I've bought since December and how much I've spent in all.

ERM. Do you really want to know how much I spent? Let's just say it's not a pretty sight. My Esprit jacket and that Mango sales spree contributed less than half of the amount (Considering how much I spent...although I didn't pay the full price of the jacket). Oh, and the list is 13 items long or so...

And what do you know...my "to buy" list has another 6 or 7 items...

*is quite glad CNY is coming up*

Okay, have to run off now. Might talk about Monday in my next post.

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, isn't it logical that, since I was interviewing the Story Act judge, that I (repeat: I) interview the winner too?

SHEESH.

Jessica wrote home at 3:14 am

This quick post is mainly in reply to YQ...since a certain other friend is like dead to the world and wouldn't have been online. :P

Anyway, yes, I was online around 5-something to send my notes and interview transcripts (like how freaking hard did I have to strain my ears to hear the answers...) to the editor. Then the com hung so I restarted and used my SP email account to send the same stuff to my tutor.

Then I had my nap.

Yeah. So. That's why you didn't see my online. In any case I won't be ON MSN much these few weeks; if I am it's usually to discuss something or send something. I said "ON MSN" because my MSN does not start when I switch on the com or even go online; I have to log in manually.

So while I most certainly WILL be online practically everyday, I won't be on MSN half as much.

And excuse me now while I continue with econs. I think I won't do Flash because it's open-book. I can just open one of my previous files and copy the ActionScript and stuff!

I am only online now because I'm catching updates on the Man U vs. Liverpool match!!!

Will probably post tomorrow with some startling financial news...

Jessica wrote home at 12:42 am

It was okay. Really. I was on time and spent the next 1.5 hours walking around the second floor, taking down random notes and snapping random pics. Oh, and trying to get my NW tutor on her handphone so I could collect the tape recorder from her, which I finally did. THEN I had to work out how to use the darn thing.

After which I had to go back to the second floor, interview one student, ask the "town cryer" what exactly his job title was supposed to be, blah blah blah.

Oh. And I didn't get a chance to try the buffet.

Bloody hungry all right!!!

We were ushered into MLT 12 not long after; I was assigned to my very own seat. OKAY, not really a seat with "Jessica" on it, but "Attitude". Whatever. It looks official.

I must admit I did not have much fun at the performance. Like how can one sit back and enjoy everything if you're supposed to watch the tape recorder and take down notes the whole time?!

Anyway when the whole thing ended and chaos ensued as everyone got up to leave, I scrambled through the crowd to catch up with the judge I was supposed to interview. Done with the interview, I waited patiently for the crew members to stop taking pics with one of the prize winners so I could interview him too. Whilst waiting my tutor told me that I could leave if I'd finished. Yippee.

So, second interview done, I rushed out the lecture theatre in hopes of interviewing more students........................alas, they had all disappeared!!!! SHEESH.

I went home instead, and spent the whole afternoon sleeping.

Now it's Sunday and I am BUSY BUSY BUSY. Got to sort through my pages of random notes (hell do I write a lot of random stuff), listen to the interviews and type out a transcript (haven't plucked the courage to listen to them...I really don't wanna hear myself on tape)...then send the whole chunk of files to two different people - mainly my tutor and the editor.

I don't think I'll send the pics because, well, there were more than enough camerapeople around. Don't know why I even had to do my fair share of photo snapping.

THEN THEN THEN there's no time to rest, thanks to web publishing flash test and econs CA being tomorrow. Don't know how I'll survive, since I usually barely get out of Monday alive without having to stay back for a CA. :P

After which I have to churn some ideas for our DVPA film (my group is soooooo wonderfully organised - note the sarcasm), then stay back on Tuesday for both an econs make up lecture, and...French. Bleargh. REALLY tempted to skip it this time.

Can't even rest on Wednesday because, right after genetics, I have to rush off to whichever PR firm my group is assigned to.

WHY OH WHY is the first half of the week always so hectic???

So it means I can't get out to shop till Friday. Well, there's 3 hours on Tuesday as usual (my nap time) and a risky 2 hours on Thursday...ahhhhhhhh. Will figure something out later.

Once again, not looking forward to this week.

Now please let me go and sort out through yesterday's stuff. Have to zip it off ASAP so I can continue with econs. Fell asleep halfway last night. :P But think I'm gonna be up late again practising my Flash animations. #$%^& Flash.

Jessica wrote home at 2:11 pm

(Pics for birthday post updated)

Can't take too long on this because I have NO TIME. Need to get on with my work and prepare for tomorrow - of which I have to be in school at 8 a.m. Lovely. 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning...

ANYWAY. After going offline, I decided that there wasn't anything important for me to complete by Thursday, so I took the liberty to sleep early for once. Because Thursdays start later, that meant more sleep.

Except...that didn't really materialise. Like I told YQ, first I got all feverish and shivery from the air-con...then I gave in and turned up the temperature...then I awoke again because it was so bloody hot and I couldn't breathe...

...Yeah, so soon it was time to get up.

I had absolutely no intention of going to school, and basically just flopped around until I couldn't delay any longer and had to drag myself off the bed.

As usual I managed to get to class right on time. As expected, snoozed through econs. Told myself that if my headache was going to continue, I'd go home after NW.

NW came and also, as happens on most weeks, I was the first person to arrive at the lab. My tutor was all like, "The class will be doing blah blah blah today... but we have a special Attitude assignment for you. You will be covering SB's Storyfest."

Or something like that. Either way I had a sinking feeling in my stomach - and it wasn't from my stomachache.

So the class drizzled in (eh...I like that word..."drizzled") and got settled down and we were told our assignment for the day - the go around the SB Open House and interview students and take photos and take down notes to later compile into a news article. The class would be split into two groups and the names were flashed on the board.

My name wasn't there.

Er? Eh? Oh yeah, special assignment.

Anyway the class was briefed on what to do, then I got my own private briefing for the multitude of things I have to do for Attitude, which is SB's newsletter - mainly going back to school on Saturday to cover the Storyfest with two other Year 1s, take photos, interview judges, etc.

...Basically, I was assigned something I was supposed to do in Pub but never got to do because Pub was, well, Pub. Thus it is now defunct. :P

So if interviewing judges didn't get me stressed enough, it turned out don't-know-who had the idea to appoint me as leader of my group. The problem with that is the two people I'm working with, are classmates. And I don't know them! That. Is. Just. So. Awkward.

Argh. So had to deal with it. Since my whole class had left by then, and my assignment would only start on Saturday, I had nothing to do but slack around alone in the lab for a bit, then go out for lunch. After lunch I wandered around the foyer, watching all the little kids -

- Oh sorry, I suppose they're only a year younger than I am. :P Anyway, I watched them arriving at the foyer by chartered bus and descending upon the various course booths. As expected the Digital Media Studio was really crowded.

I still do not understand what is so fascinating about filming studios.

I admit I felt pretty sad. It would be fun to go open house-hopping and exploring all my choices again. :(

Fast-forward to about 2 p.m., when I had nothing better to do and had just realised that some of my classmates were in the DMS doing live studio demonstrations, or in the recording studio doing who-knows-what, or just lounging about in the lounge. Spent half of the next hour standing around the lounge pretty much acting like those seniors you see at open houses who aren't on duty to show everyone around - you know, laugh here laugh there and look so at ease in the place that people envy you. Hahaha.

The last half-hour was spent guarding the mac lab. Nobody was allowed to enter it because we had a film editing lesson there at 3 p.m. Basically just played around with the sound effects and text effects and whatever other effects, and failed to listen to anything important.

Fast forward again to today.

I woke up reeeeeeeeealllly late so I only managed to get to class 15 min late. Actually that was a blessing in disguise, because on my way to SB I met my PTN and had to ask him for the sticker to show that my calculator's approved for Monday's CA.

Anyway, I think IVP is supposed to be as controversial as possible or something. The last week of Term 3 we got to watch "15", the first week of this term we discussed pornography, and today we got to watch "Bowling for Columbine"...well, most of it. It was too long.

The tutor left the lab for most of the show, so I spent that time surfing the Net. Hahaha. No, really, I did watch the documentary. Multi-tasking little girl. :P

Because the show was so long, the class ended later than usual - although still more than half an hour before time.

Had a big problem trying to get my team to meet, so I went home instead of sticking around. Left home almost immediately for the doctor's.

No, it wasn't because I was sick.

I had an injection!

Yup. Soon I will FINALLY and OFFICIALLY know my blood group.

Sheesh. A bit late, don't you think?

The doctor said it wouldn't hurt, but that was a lie! LIE!!!!!

Went whimpering back home. Read the newspaper for 40 min before I realised my mother was not going to go out, so I left instead.

Zipped straight to Topshop to find my shirt. They didn't have 6, but there was 8. Good enough. Wanted to try jeans but damn, they were out of my size. :(

Popped by a few more places, including Borders where they STILL don't have any of the books I want to buy. The new colours at Zara were very nice - lots of mint green (*hint*hint*) but nothing I really liked. But then I stumbled upon a very very VERY nice pair of jeans...

Nice or what? (And no, they're not black - they're not even a very dark blue. Photo quality sucks.) Plus I had forgotten Zara jeans are ridiculously long! Hehehe.

Thinking of getting them for CNY. Actually I could've bought them straight away, but that would've meant going home with $0 left. And besides, I only tried 34 and 36 - 34 was waaaaaaaay too small; I just barely fit 36. Have to try 38...

#$%^&! You mean I wear size 38?!

*cough*

All right. Back to work. WISH ME LUCK FOR TOMORROW. Hell do I need it...

Jessica wrote home at 10:54 pm

Ooooooooooooooooh. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So old.

*burp*

Sorry, a bit drunk...

*hic*

Anyway, school was okay today. As usual I nearly died getting to econs class on time. I swear one of these days the tutorial's gonna end and my classmates will find me dead at the top of the sixth floor stairs.

My tutor had a sore throat so she couldn't do much work with us. In that case we were released early but I had to MUG MUG MUG for my USOL test. Clean forgot the test was due to start half an hour early and had conveniently went to sleep without finishing my studying. :P

Then it was time for IPRA. I admit I wasn't paying much attention at all; just about dozed through the whole tutorial. At the end we got back our group project and were allowed to leave.

Gee. My projects this semester have all been, to put it mildly, TOTAL CRAP!!!

And yes, that's putting it mildly.

Well, after that was a way-too-fast half an hour before I had to run to my genetics class. Nearly ducked out of the classroom after peering in 'cos there was some other lecturer inside. Turned out the usual lecturer wasn't around.

Anyway the test, as usual, consisted of 20 MCQs and took less than 15 min to complete. It was all right except I have no idea what an eucaryotic cell is. Blah.

After that it was time to go HOME!

Seriously speaking I wanted to sleep, but my mother brought me to HarbourFront's Breeks for lunch. Had a big portion of dory fish and pasta, with a tall glass of ice cream. Then we had to find my cake. In the end had to settle for some super chocolatey thingy from Bengawan Solo - apparently most of their cakes had sold out already.

Sheesh. A lot of people's birthdays today huh?

Upon purchasing the cake, we walked past the shop and found another cake shop with much more interesting and smaller cakes! Boo.

The rain had stopped by then so I finally got my chance to go home and nap.

Not long after, I had to get up again for dinner. Travelled to Clarke Quay where we ended up in a classy seafood restaurant.

Erm. Didn't I just have fish for lunch?

So finding a fish-less main course resulted in me ordering some prawn and don't-know-what Aglio Olio thingy. This was preceded by four pretty large appetisers, which left me with little appetite for the pasta. :P

And of course, for the first time I accompanied my meal with a legal glass of white wine! :)

Oh, and guess what? We had free dessert! A wet chocolate cake thingy with a candle on top. Whee.

After that I finished the remainder of the wine and we left.

I spent the journey...well, never mind what I was doing. I just wasn't very sane.

Got home and SURPRISE! Time for more cake!!!

Hehe. Barely finished it.

All right. Now I'm officially eighteen, superbly full, slightly drunk and extremely sleepy.

Eh. There's school tomorrow?!

Jessica wrote home at 11:46 pm

The break was fun while it lasted though. :P

Anyway, I haven't been updating for a looooooong time about my little shopping trips, so I haven't had the chance to mention that I'm BROKE...

*cough* You can see why.

That sweater was particularly expensive (in my terms), but I've got an excuse to buy it...'cos I'm going to Dubai!!!!!!!!!!!

And if you fail to see why that's an excuse, well, too bad.

Anyway now I have to save save save so I can spend spend spend.

Erm. That came out wrong. I didn't mean the last part.

All right. I shall save save save and spend spend spend in Dubai. Whee.

Then again I've got a few books to buy. Kinokuniya very kindly only stocked Catherine: The Great Journey and Knife Edge AFTER the coupons expired.

My mother always says it's a conspiracy. No one brings in new stock during sales.

Boo.

Speaking of my mother, it was her birthday yesterday! Unfortunately it was a Monday so I was away at school for most of the day. I did offer stay at home and celebrate though.

Sniff. So self-sacrificial.

The end of last week nearly drove me crazy. Our filming only ended about 5 min past 7 p.m. on Thursday; got home at almost 8 p.m.

10 hours later I was awake - having slept for only an hour - and preparing to go to school and make my IVP presentation. (Yes, that's why I slept for only an hour...)

Of course that didn't stop me from making a special effort to go get my sweater afterwards. Although that meant I spent the rest of the afternoon snoring away peacefully.

Lalala.

I seem to be running out of things to say. Ah well. Let's talk about today.

I was technically about 2 minutes late for DVPA, but the class was still waiting in the media studio's lounge when I arrived, so haha. It was a very entertaining 2 hours, save for the first part when we had to find our project groups. Ahem. Other than that, the whole class was spent learning about all the gadgets that we get to use for filming our short film. And everyone was being very lame. Like at one point the lecturer brandished a microphone and exclaimed, "This is a MICROPHONE!!!" and the whole class went, "WAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! MICROPHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And there was this big cyclindrical container for the microphone on windy days, so the sound of the wind doesn't get recorded while you film. Apparently you're supposed to cover the container with a furry grey cover (much like a dead animal) to muffle the sound...and when the lecturer asked us what it was for, we were all suggesting stuff like, "To keep the microphone warm! To dress the microphone up! To make the microphone look pretty!"

You get the point.

Our next class was IDEA, in which we had to get in our groups and plan our business proposal. It was only when we sat down together that I realised we hadn't yet had the chance to talk about our presentation two Tuesdays ago. Apparently, all of us thought the people from the other class (I won't mention the class) asked us soooooooooooo stupid questions. Like for example, one girl who REALLY seemed to love the sound of her voice, kept interrupting with stuff like, "What if you fumble while trying to open the umbrella?" (Like how many times do we have to mention the NON-SLIP SURFACE?) and "So this alarm, what sound does it make?" (What d'you think? That it plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?)

Like do us a favour and SHUT UP for goodness' sake. And of all things, there was no time for US to question THEM when it was their turn to present! Needless to say we were still very disgruntled about that.

Anyway, we made quite good progress with the business proposal at first. Man are business proposals long. But finally we got to the last few pages, which required us to write down how many production staff, sales staff, etc. we have, and to plan all of their SALARIES.

Like HELLO? What is the point???????????

So we left it at that and went out of the classroom. I went home to sleep.

Well, you know what I found out this morning? The lift outside my house was out of order. And since there's only one lift in my part of the building, I have to climb up one floor and walk down the loooooooooooooooong corridor to the other lift. And when I get to the ground floor I have to retrace my steps again to get to the bus stop.

And I was already running late when I left the house for my last lecture of the day.

Guess what?

Surely I don't need to continue. I missed the bus, 145 didn't want to come again, and by the time I got to school I was more than 20 min late. I couldn't go for my lecture, so I tried to find the room where the study trip briefing was being held.

I was late for that too. I stepped in, sat down at an empty seat, looked up and heard the lady say, "...And that's the itinerary."

ERM.

But there's gonna be another more in-depth briefing later on so it's okay. The only other things I gathered were that we were staying in sort-of service apartments where they have cooking areas - for what, I don't know - and bunking in twos, like I have anyone to bunk with. Oh, and that the water there's expensive, the weather is about 27 to 28 degrees but the desert may be cold...

...wait. Aren't deserts only cold at night? We're staying overnight in a desert???

Well actually that's kinda cool. As long as I don't get trampled by a camel or something.

And we get to shop! One of the places we're visitng is a souq. When I heard "souq", I immediately thought of the Souq Chase game in Death In Sakkara. I have to admit that when I first played it, it was more than enough to put me off souqs forever. Haha.

Yeah, anyway, then we went to pay our deposits and hand in our passport photocopies. The lady said she needed my blood group. I DON'T KNOW MY BLOOD GROUP!!! Argh. And I'm soooooooo not gonna take a blood test to fnd out just for this! I mean, it's either B or O. You want the genotypes? It's either BO or OO. And I only know this 'cos I had to work them out myself. I can't get anymore specific. Go blame genetic diagrams. :P

After that I wandered around a bit before heading to the lecture theatre in anticipation of my newswriting CA. It ended at nearly 7 p.m. and there really wasn't enough time to write a proper article. My ending was a bit off. And it was soooooooo messy because I kept crossing paragraphs out. Sheesh. Do I have to make it clearer that I CANNOT produce a proper news article without the use of a computer?

Then it was time for the Great French Hoax, in which I was gonna pop into class at 7 p.m. (1.5 hours late), say sorry but I just finished my test and I'm busy on Wednesday and Thursday (*nose grows longer*), and spend the next half an hour or so in class.

But guess what? My lecturer didn't even get all "annoyed" and ask me why I turned up so late! I even had to mention on my own that I'd just finished my test. Haha.

And even more surprisingly, we finished on time! WOW!

Hehe. So I went home, had dinner, and have been on the computer whiling away the time and waiting for an email.

Gee. I have that genetics test tomorrow you know...and speaking of which, I hate Wednesdays. They're my second shortest school day but they feel the longest. Two consecutive tutorials and an amazingly boring genetics class to follow can seriously kill, especially when you've just had two 8-to-5 days, not to mention the extra French lesson...

Thankfully because of tomorrow's test I get to end school at 1 p.m. instead of 3 p.m. And even more lovely - the econs make-up is postponed to next Tuesday because some groups have to visit PR firms for their IPRA project this Wednesday...and my group's scheduled for next week.

So it all worked out in the end. ;)

Now I shall go off to study.

...Oh. Did I mention that I turn 18 tomorrow?

Jessica wrote home at 10:38 pm

Lovely weekend.

Saturday was a good day. I woke up on time to find I had to sort out A LOT of things whilst being highly inconvenienced...so I missed my bus...had to wait 15 min for the next...missed the MRT...had to wait another 5 min...took another 5 min to run from the MRT to the DMS...arrived 15 min late...had to apologise to the whole class...starved through filming, which I admit at least ended on time...but was so hungry I had to go home for lunch...after which it started raining...went to nap whilst waiting for the rain to stop and thus allowing me to go out for dinner...my mother (who was suppsoed to wake me up) also fell asleep and by the time we woke up it was too late to go out...

Sunday has been even better! I slept at 5 a.m. so it was hard trying to get up at 9.30 a.m. in order to go out early...managed to wake up like an hour later...guess what? It was raining! But never mind...it looked like it would stop soon...so I decided to wait...and wait...and wait...

I'm sorry but it's been raining for more than 10 freaking hours straight.

That's okay. There's Tuesday. Monday'll be easy. Just starve through class from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. - with only an hour break.

Then after Tuesday. Wednesday's always nice and short. Sort of. It'll be even better this week since Tuesday's a holiday so I have to reschedule my French class.

Hey wait. Isn't Thursday SB day, the day where we don't have classes but have to go to school anyway for who-knows-what-reason? Well, can't skip school on that day I'm afraid. Have our live studio show directing CA from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

But it's still all right! Because no one pays attention on Friday anyway. I mean, it's less than 3 hours of class. There's always the temptation of not turning up...except that if I recall correctly, don't we have a project presentation to make on that day? The one that my group hasn't even started working on?

Hmm. This is gonna be one great week. I can so tell.

Jessica wrote home at 8:26 pm

1 h 45 min later, class had ended. Although that was mainly because the room was booked from 11 a.m. onwards.

Anyway I just want to say I had A LOT of luck with 36 today. *hint*hint*

Got to my destination (the bus ride was actually quite fun) in extra-quick time.

Firstly I have to say I actually tried the mint green sweater thing. It's sooooo nice and soooooo soft and soooooo NOT ON SALE!!!!!!!!!

*kills Sam*

Blah. So since it wasn't on sale I didn't see any reason to buy it. In the end I bought some Bailey green blouse instead. ;) Strangely enough they actually had a size 6 left.

And for that matter, my size is not 8! It's 6!!! Eek...

I went to U2 and like everything was 50% off - even the jackets. Tempting I tell you. Plus they had the pants I wanted last week, in size 26.

Couldn't be bothered to try.

And of all things, they finally restocked the lacy shirts in green and yellow!

Except I couldn't quite decide which colour to get so I didn't get either. Hahaha.

I found Mango pants in my size. A little long though, which is a nice change. :P Too bad I couldn't tell if it was dark blue or dark green so I didn't get that too.

You realise at this point how pointless my shopping trip was.

Anyway I got back to Suntec, walked around a bit, then made my way back to Raffles City whilst searching out certain CDs. HMV and Tower Records = expensive. And they seem to be out of stock in Sembawang. Boo.

Speaking of HMV, I think there are some new under-$10 VCDs...although a lot of the others seem to have disappeared. Like The Parent Trap for example - haven't bought it yet! ARGH.

Although I had been out for barely four hours, I couldn't stay awake on the ride home. Had my lunch, my bath, lay on my bed for a while...

...and fell asleep.

*yawn*

Now I'm afraid I can't hold off any longer and I have to find my own dinner. Problem is I already cooked instant noodles for dinner yesterday and lunch today. I don't see anything else there is to eat here! (Plus I finished our last 4 slices of ham in the morning...)

UPDATE!

Well it seems the only thing we have here is cornflakes. Unless I wanna fry an egg. :(

In other news, I don't know what this is doing here...but guess what I found below!

Jessica wrote home at 8:46 pm

And I have pictures for you!

But before I post them below...gah. This stupid computer is annoying me. Someone set it to 600x800 resolution, and I can't change it back to 1024xwhatever, like all the other terminals here! Everything looks so bloody big here. NOT good when you're not supposed to attract attention to the fact that you are NOT doing your work.

Then again I don't have any work to do. Lalala.

Oh yeah. Thank goodness I redid the whole media audit, or else I'll have to redo it now. :P Apparently we can still make changes and resubmit by Monday...

...Now, why would I ever want to look again at something that took away 4 days of my holiday?!

Boo.

Oh, and there was an announcement about the change of venue for tomorrow's IVP class. Such a pity; I had high hopes the announcement was about a cancellation instead. :( Well, just have to slug it out for the 3 hours.

About yesterday. Like YQ knows, I actually wasted 1.5 hours in school (1 hour of break, half an hour of waiting) before being told genetics was cancelled. BLAH. If I had left 1.5 hours earlier I would've gone shopping, I tell you. Then again I forgot to bring extra money. So I went home to sleep.

Never mind. Friday.

I slept for more than 4 hours! And you know what? When I woke up all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. :P In the end I managed to force myself to stick around till 4.30 a.m. (the last one hour or so being spent on a fashion show of my own...erm...*cough*) And speaking of clothes (will post pics if I'm happy, since Sam is always mentioning how she can't keep track of what new clothes I have!), I found out what the mysterious Esprit receipt in my wallet was for - the fencing club shirt! :)

The last annoying thing I'm gonna mention has to do with that long game post. Remember that one? ;) Anyway I purposely timed my next JK "assignment" to arrive by email when I got home yesterday. But up till 2 a.m. it still hadn't arrived! Found it in my inbox during News Writing just now. Grr. Shall go kill time with it after this. Of course I should read through this morning's econs notes, since I was sleeping half the time, but...nah. It will send me to sleep again anyway.

What?

Oh. Right. The pics. :)

See? I tell you I don't make you read long posts for nothing...

That's YQ and I (as if you didn't know), pic courtesy of Vanessa's amazing camera FINE, I slightly photoshopped it when I had free time in the DMS on Tuesday! (The most obvious is how dark YQ's eyes look)

Aww, don't we look so angelic like that? This is the same treatment I gave that Clay bookcover!

This was right after the countdown (note to self: why do I always appear shorter than WH in photos? Must make it a point to tiptoe beside him next time just to be annoying...)

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!! More filter effects!

And...er...OH CRAP! I transferred the fireworks pics from the camera to the computer, but I forgot to transfer them to my thumbdrive! Bleargh.

Check back tonight. :)

UPDATE!!!

The following were all from my phone. It's not ALL the pics I took that day; just the best. 'Cos a lot of the fireworks pics looked like I was capturing a huge fire. :P

*killing time in the dinner queue*

Same as above...

This was when the strobe lights first came on...it was annoying at first but I guess the silhouette makes it nicer

Right before the fireworks came on

Doesn't do much justice to the fireworks, but whatever

This one just looks interesting...

Jessica wrote home at 1:22 pm

Like how many times must I tell everyone I DON'T have enough people in my address book. Sheesh.

Then again I've received more than enough of these "you'll die in 4 hours if you don't send this to 10 people!" messages.

I reckon I survived more than 4 hours after deleting those.

But oh well. If it saves me from tomorrow's FUNE lecture and DVPA directing...

Jessica wrote home at 11:51 pm

And no, obviously it didn't happen 'cos

1) I wouldn't know if one of them went blind right?

2) And if one had really fallen and gone blind, would I be stupid enough to stick around and watch the other one get a fright and lose its tail?!

3) Oh. And I don't collect the mail 'cos I don't have the keys. Back at our old house I used to stuff my hand through the slot, but apparently now those slots can be locked and my mother has locked ours. :P

ANYWAY.

I now know it is humanly possible to rush from level five of the business block to FC5, purchase a CD-RW, rush back to level four of the business block, book a computer terminal, figure out how to burn files into the CD-RW, burn said files into said CD-RW, log out and rush to the staff offices on the same floor and hand my WP work - in 30 min flat.

And in case you don't know, FC5 is not very near to the business block!

So I guess the stupid project is done now. I even included my lovely little flash file in the CD-RW since, after all, we have to hand in both this week to the same lecturer. Such initiative.

*sniffs proudly*

:P

Well, then I had a quick "lunch" and went to the library to redo my econs report.

ALL DONE.

Now I can go home and sleep and put up the countdown pics on my blog.

...What?

Oh yeah. Genetics first.

Please let me stay awake. Amazingly I managed to last through FUNE, but IPRA was quite hopeless. I don't even know if I slept last night (this morning); went to bed at 4 a.m. and was still tossing around a long time after that. I can't remember if I had been sleeping when my mother said goodbye. Then it was time to wake up.

Gee. I need sleep.

Jessica wrote home at 12:31 pm

1) zip up my Web Publishing files, 2) listen to some piano recordings for my live filming, and 3) find something to wear for school later!!!

But first I would like to say I was soooooooo tired during the IPRA lecture (I was completely not listening, just copying from the slides) that I seriously contemplated skipping French. Finally I gave in to my good little voice and had dinner, then went to the classroom. It was like 5min to the start of class and no one was inside...

I placed my stuff at my usual seat and sat down. Then I realised I could take advantage of the situation. So I got up and went around all the air-con controls, turning the temperature up by like five degrees.

Then I went back to my desk, lay my head on my arms, and rested.

After what seemed like ages (probably only ten minutes), I heard the door open and somone say, "BONJOUR!"

The lecturer. And I was still the only one in class!

Haha. So I replied and he was like, "Are you tired?" (in French)

No, no. I was just sniffing the table. :P

For some reason all my French went out the window and I forgot how to say "Yes". Then he said, "Happy New Year!" in French and I mumbled the same thing back.

Which of course led him to ask if I even understood him.

Now now. My French may be crap but it's not that bad. I only can't...speak.

:P

After that a few more people arrived. All in all there were only eight people in class, including me.

I realise that the less people you have, the faster the lesson progresses; we were let off only slightly late. Damn, I wish every week's class was this small! In fact if it were this small, I'd even consider taking French next year...

Ahem. So I went home and on the way to open the door I came up with a song.

To end off...

Jessica wrote home at 2:41 am

My eyes hurt. Can't...stay...open!

Not my fault I only got to use the laptop past 2 a.m.

Not my fault I couldn't find an excuse not to go to school today.

Just finished the presentation.

I think this module might just give me my first C.

B L A H.

Oh, and we have to come back on Saturday again for DVPA. I've got quite enough of Camera 2, thank you. Seriously.

Well, since we were the second batch to present today, I don't have enough time to go home and nap.

I want to be a grump about that.

GRUMP GRUMP GRUMP.

No, really. I seriously considered skipping IPRA.

But like what's the bloody point. I'll still have to drag myself back for French.

I can't wait for next year. NO MORE FRENCH CLASSES!

I got started with my econs report already, which is due tomorrow. A little lazy to continue it now, but I still have 1.5 hours to kill. At least if I finish it by 4 p.m., I get to have a nice long nap later.

I WANNA GO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME...LET ME GO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME...

Oh, and is this school rich or what. They just replaced ALL the Macs in the Digital Media Studio with wide-screen monitors, and spanking new, pure white keyboards and mouses...er...mice...er...whatever!!!

Anyway, perhaps I really should be making a New Year's resolution.

Stop typing in short paragraphs...

Jessica wrote home at 2:25 pm

(New Year's update in post below)

In all honesty I'm not looking forward to 2006. I don't get a six-month break. And I'm getting old. I'm even older than the World Wide Web! Sniffsniff.

And you know what 18 means, don't you? It means I can go to jail!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Boohoo.

I haven't really made any New Year's resolutions. I usually make two recurring ones, one being to "become more hardworking" (it says a lot that I've been making this resolution for the past 8 years and nothing has changed!), and another one that's more a New Year's wish but I've since decided I need to be a little more realistic.

So instead of a resolution list, I give you:

5 Weird Things About Me!

1. I have a very bad habit of sending attachments to people via hotmail, then being told that I forgot to include the attachments. Although it's not really my fault since hotmail sucks and I only use it for schoolwork.

2. My favourite way to get rid of stress is to make a trip to my room and bounce up and down on my bed. Needless to say it was my favourite hobby in November 2004.

3. The nails on my right hand are smaller than the nails on my left.

4. My right eye is higher than my left and they're both slightly different shapes. (How deformed can I get???)

5. In 2004 my desk calendar was from 2003...I just used the back page where they have a tiny little overview of the 2004 calendar. And right now my desk calendar is still at 2005.

Yes, I know. That was a completely random excuse to finally list those things down. So now YQ is happy and I can leave and never do one of these lists again. :P

Jessica wrote home at 1:44 am

Firstly I wanna actually thank Ana for reading that post, 'cos she's probably the only one who did. (And yes, Elena is annoying. She eats and eats and she never gets fat, but she still has to go to the gym...sheesh.)

And there is a reason why that post was so long! :P

Like actually read it and find out.

Now back to updating.

Erm. It was a weird New Year's Eve and Day. I had a grand total of 3 hours of sleep when I woke up early for lunch at City Hall on the 31st. After walking around the area (to answer Sam's question, I was admiring all the jackets in U2!!!) for the next few hours, I was dying to go home and rest at 2 or 3 something.

Unfortunately for some reason my mother insisted on walking around some more. And when we finally started walking to the bus stop, it started raining so we ended up having waffles and wedges at Cartel.

As you'd imagine I was quite dead by the time I met YQ before 7 p.m.

Didn't help that I still had lots of work to do, so I did the courageous, noble thing - to turn down a movie at 3something a.m.

Sigh.

Well actually not like I wanted to watch that movie. And I was running short of money. Lalalala.

Yes. As I was saying. We met Vanessa and Andrew upstairs, then WH in CityLink.

I think. I can't really remember.

Originally we had settled for Kenny Rogers for dinner, but the queue was superbly long so YQ and I queued whilst the others went to check out Fish & Co.

They called to tell us to come over...

...Then as we were halfway there, told us to go back because the food was too expensive!!!

By the time we rejoined the queue, there were 7 more people in it! :P

However the queue moved pretty fast so it wasn't a long wait. Or maybe that's 'cos YQ and I were too busy taking photos.

Anyway I had a bit of YQ's order so I just got two corn muffins and an iced lemon tea. (People still very full after Cartel!)

After dinner we met ZY at the entrance to Suntec, and promptly retraced our steps to the cinema. Along the way we stopped to admire all the movie memorabillia, then they bought tickets whilst YQ and I browsed through VCDs.

Then we made the BIG mistake of leaving Suntec too early. We spent the next almost-3 hours squeezing (and I mean SQUEEZING through all that sweat and smoke) from Suntec to the Esplanade to the riverside to Fullerton Hotel to the riverside again, where YQ and Vanessa actually managed to sneak into a bar to use the bathroom. Thankfully I could occupy my time with watching match highlights outside. :P

And then it was back along the riverside and to the Esplanade, where, with about 20 min to spare, we arrived back where we had originally exited the Esplanade - right in front of the amphitheatre (or whatever that sail-like place is called).

Gee.

The long 20 min was spent taking photos, chatting, and blocking everyone's way. Hahaha.

For some VERY weird reason, right before midnight the crowd in front of us cleared, so we managed to race all the way past the amphitheatre to get a full, unobstructed view of the river and all the lighted-up balls floating on the water.

When the strobe lights were turned on, everyone (around us) started screaming. Took some pictures and waited for someone to do a countdown.

Except that never happened. First YQ and I were commenting that our watches were already showing past midnight, and all of a sudden the sky was filled with colourful explosions.

The next 9 min saw me alternately taking pics and videos of the display, whilst the crowd screamed whenever new bunches of fireworks bloomed overhead.

(pictures if I'm free)

When the fireworks finally stopped, everyone got out of their trance and some remembered they hadn't yet used their spray cans. Foam burst out above our heads and although we ducked, it didn't work 'cos the foam just floated down the space we'd just deserted.

Brilliant. Managed to make our way back to City Hall without anymore trouble, although the crowd congestion was really no better.

Said goodbye to the others at a traffic light junction, then ran to catch my bus whilst YQ headed for the MRT station.

Well. Let's just say I missed the last 124, 145 never came, and out of the 5 NightRider and 2 or 3 Night Owl buses, none went to my house.

Thankfully I found a solution. ;)

Got home, had a nice bath. Was walking back to the bedroom when I heard faint but distinctive popping sounds outside. Paused for a moment and then rushed to the window to see more fireworks lighting up above Sentosa at 2.30 a.m.

After which it was back to my work. :( Didn't get a chance to sleep before 6 a.m.

Jessica wrote home at 12:17 am