The Room

Okayy good evening Amigos! As all of you already know me to be an inhabitant of a hostel, you fellas might be interested to find out about my room and its current state. In my objective opinion, I promulgate that it is of 'live-able' condition, though I anticipate many begging to differ by attaching adjectives such as deplorable and dilapidated in respect to my room. As there is always room for otherwise impressions, I choose to maintain reticence on this and proceed with words of description that would hopefully do justice to its state in the absence of pictures(explicit graphic content). Besides adumbrating the physical situation of this living premise, I'd also express my persuasions and sentiments on why it is like that and why I am completely satisfied with its condition.

In a thousand words: Upon entrance of this room and within the closest of proximities, a sink is situated to my left and directly oppositie it lies a 'makeshift' wardrobe which would probably scare the hell out of the lion and the witch. With further progression (2 steps ahead) lies the main part of the room where clothes and reading material are strewn all over the expanse(a very far fetched illusion of space). The bed is strategically placed at a corner of the room so I can comfortably nestle myself at the corner while using my computer on my bed-in-breakfast table(my purchase of 2007). Unlike the conventional function of a table, which is for work or to support a computer, I use it as a 'convenience depot' where grab and go items like my ipod reside on it. As I don't have a bedside table, I've turned my chair into one. Besides clothes, there're also other interesting items on the floor, such as my telephone, water boiler and electric toothbrush becasue their connecting wires aren't long enough for them to be placed on the table. And for the record, it's also little wonder why my curtains are ever so steadfastly drawn haha.

So as you've read, the bed is the central focus of my room. Nearly all activity is done and operated from my bed(control station). Yes, that includes the occasions where I study too and you might wonder why. First, the chair is just too damn uncomfortable as compared to the bed where pillows and the duvet just pave the way for the ultimate study experience. Yet, as expected, it naturally begs this question: How are these amenities conducive to constructive study since the slumberous effects are pretty much efficacious? Well, I like to employ reverse psychology on myself by emanating the 'positive mental element' of vigilance to triumph over my astronomically high threshold level of lethargy and slothfulness. Empirically, I've succeeded thus far. Next, exists the subject of maximizing space and resource. After converting my table to the convenience depot I earlier mentioned, I also used the 2 seats in my room as tables. So do I use the unoccupied portion of my bed to rest my books. Viola! The total surface area of occupancy has increased by a fair bit!

The vox populi(thanks V for teaching me that term), more relevantly of the parents of the world, is that a disarrayed room genearlly represents the disorganization and disorder that is imbued in ones life. In contrast to that, I'd rather propose that we learn to live practically and do our best to improve what affects us most. Pertinent to my case, dwells these desires of comfort and convenience, which are perfectly rational excellences to strive for instead of a less meaningful 'cosmetic' drive. What I've done is simply to make my life better as opposed to being dysfunctional and disorderly- In essence, I am living in an organised mess. I know exactly where my things are and how to get them in the shortest possible time in this intricate 'mess.' Of course, despite the physical randomness of arrangements(euphemism for mess), I'm nevertheless particular about health as well as sanitariness and I take extreme measures to keep myself from filth. To wit, I use chopsticks to handle crisps or tortilla chips because I don't like salt and oil to take residence between my nails and skin cuticle.

As you might already be convinced, I'm wholly satisfied with the way things are. Yet, there is really more, even so my existing content, to this cradle I nestle in. It is in this medium can I immerse myself in solace in face of the most disconcerting of times and get tranquilized from the pervading feverishness redolent of the maddening crowd. Being in my sanctuary truly grants me the great pleasure of being alone; I'm able to sort out my thoughts and issues without external influences, unrestraint and helplessly yielding to the emotions that pervade me, expounding on revelations learnt throughout the day as well as thriving on an imagination that unfaillingly brings an unparalleled satiation. Superfluous to that, being alone at home allows me to identify with the music i listen to and stuff I read. Above all, taking sanctuary lets me be totally, completely frank with myself. On a personal note, I, for some inexplicable reason, am not in the highest of spirits. Certainly of course, it doesn't give me good reason to directly rant in this blogspace on a whim. This is why I prefer to give vent to these sentiments by binging in philosophical thought and revelations and translating them to words for the carthasis to prevail. Therefore, in penning this entry down, I've also told you another story.

Though one may always seem to be in his cold, logical stupor, it's only a matter of time before his uncompromisable, final inch of humanity surfaces. The title of this entry is 'The Room,' and I'd dare say that it's impossible for one to always keep the door of his room closed to the lurking outdoors of vulnerability and susceptibility.
-Kenneth Wong

The Time of the Year

My one week mid-term break (or rather what was left of it) flew by in a flash and once again I'm hurled mercilessly back into the frenetic cesspool of smu. During the next 4 weeks, I've 4 presentations and 1 speech to deliver into the gaping, razor-lined jaws of smu to avoid incurring her venomous wrath. 2 weeks following that, I've my finals to sit for.
It is time to ready my panoply and psyche myself to blaze the trail.
One thing that's making it all worthwhile is anticipating fervently the impending yuletide gay.
In such times, to my fellow amigos who are also facing these surmountable challenges, God speed.

Justin

The Impending Christmas

Too early to write about Christmas, you say? I beg to differ, having started playing Christmas carols a couple of weeks back and having already bought my first Christmas decoration for this year. I have had to tone down the anticipation a bit though.. cause i still have my exams to do.. but soon i will be back home and forcing my mum to decorate the tree and make Christmas cookies... Anyway.. This Christmas, I hope we all keep in mind how blessed we are and that there are many people around us who are not as lucky as ourselves... Some people won't have homes to sleep in this Christmas... Some people won't have loved ones to share the season with.. some people won't have any presents to unwrap.. and some won't even have a decent meal... While we get swept away in the joy and merriment of the season, I think we should spare a moment to think of these people who are less fortunate than ourselves, and hopefully do something about it... It doesnt need to take any money or even much time... All it takes is to show love and kindness where you see it is in want... Also this season, lets save a prayer for all those whom we can't help ourselves.. Surely we can squeeze in one prayer for these people among all the prayers we say for ourselves. Let's do what we can to spread the happiness of this time of year before it is too late. Love and Joy to all. =)

-Luke

The Tutorial

As part of the natural, rhythmic flow of events in planet Earth, the fallowing season has just ceased and with no intermission in between, I've just faced off with my nemesis- the academic term. Although this might very be the first day of the rest of my life, I certainly am not intent on allowing this medley of impediments to mar my varsity life, detract the potential my future holds and in essence, orchestrate my plight. Anyway, as pertinent to the title, this entry would entail the tumultous events which've led up to the tutorial as well as a few indiscriminate issues related to school.

My foray into this academic arena after nearly 3 years of intellectual vegetation has been nothing but daunting and tantamounts to 'tumult' in every sense of the word. First of all, I had a tutorial today which naturally implies adequate or at least decent preparation. Being once uninitiated and for the benefit of the current ones, gearing up for a mere 50min tutorial embodies the reading of extensive cases compounded with completing a couple of related questions which require painstaking effort and exhaustive analysis. Though I'm probably only fired up on one out of all my four cylinders, I found myself further handicapped because I lacked prior knowledge to law and was expected to deal with legal cases where everything seemed foreign and I knew I couldn't count on my superficial extrapolation of meanings as well as arguments at all. However intimidating, I just bit the bullet and took practical measures to combat this behemoth of a problem by forcing myself to actively read despite feeling so sleepy. I don't know if you believe it, but work is most definitely the most potent of tranquilizers and its somnolent effect perniciously lingers to the point where when you wake up from that dream, you know you're screwed beyond belief. For the record, I spent 3 hours reading and answering questions pertaining to this case which contained convoluting paragraphs that constantly required inference; in the sense, I have to constantly succinctly describe in my own words what the hell the judges are trying to say because they hardly contain topic sentences.

In retrospect, the aftertaste of my first 2 days at law school has left my confidence levels of my abilities in the balance because i did feel stupid and lacking when I had to re-read certain portions of my case just to comprehend its facts. I hope that my confidence levels would pick up in the near future, where I'd be able to actively think as I read while already being adept at basic comprehension.

So, today was D-Day. I had my very first tutorial and had 6 other students with me seated in a round table with my prof. Though my understanding of the case was not completely thorough, I'm pleased enough I got the questions I did right. The other students were pretty competent in their knowledge of the case but i've really yet to meet someone who is so insightful in thought, discerning of the most similar of issues and trenchant in opinion or critisism. Very frankly speaking, I'm actually quite relieved that I managed to escape unscathed. Thank God!

Since embarking on this path of education derives so many issues a normal man would shun, why stay on it? My opinion is that many people in this world repel challenges and thus always fall short of their expections in life. Despite the existence of a possibility that I may alter my current intransigent stand, I'd dare say that I'm gonna stick to this path I've chosen by continuing my walk off the beaten path where denial, failure and quitting don't exist in my vocabulary. I guess the most common and convenient reason I'd provide for studying is the pursuit of excellence which is an end to itself. I personally don't think it's an entirely wrong or unfair statement but more importantly and relevantly, the following 2 questions have surfaced. Do we study just FOR the exam or do we study to SHOW everyone that we're better than them? I believe that at this stage, you readers might be perturbed, especially with the latter, but despite the depth of life one's got, is it even possible that the presence of a superficial motivation is totally obliterated from him? I vaccillate.

Venturing into this once-familiar realm of academia comes with a plethora of challenges yet it can also bring the delectations that accompany success. So far with hindsight, I've resolved not to allow a day to slip by me, no matter how surreptitiously, without an immediate goal in mind. This means that I want to wake up every morning knowing
distinctly what I have to do so that I'd emerge triumphant on a daily basis by acting on them. Finally, not only out of pure neccessity but from which it stems from the much vaunted quality of ambition, I hope to muster sufficient discipline and resilience which parallels to an iron grip, and pilot my life through the cloudy and unpredictable skies ahead. Like I always mention in the game of bridge, 'taking control' is important because it really is a much better bet than leaving the success of events to stem from fortuitous opportunities and arbitrary means. Okay, this is the end and I hope that you amigos will excel and say 'ditto' or 'snap' to this!
-Kenneth Wong

The Nothing

ok ppl... i dont really have anything interesting to blog about but i thought i would just add an entry to fill up the time and space before an inevitable entry from kenneth about his sexcapades with some hostel chicks, which i am sure are in progress... My exams are coming up soon, starting on the 6th of november and i will really have to do some massive amounts of work before then... On a much brighter note, I will be watching U2 on the 18th and returning to sg on the 20th. eh.. the word, "note", there makes a pun when perceived in a musical sense... not a very good one though... in early dec i will most probably be heading to europe for a holiday... and hopefully, crossing over to las vegas to wrap up the trip... eh elvin.. can u pls update us regarding your amorous attempts on anastacia... ok.. thats it from me.. back to work.. cya guys!

-Luke

The entree

Hello from afar! I believe it has been more than a distant moment since I made my last post and since then, the events that ensued weren't far off the high extremes of the 'havoc' and 'interesting' scales. Before I begin proper on broaching the intended content of this entry- my impression thus far- you might want to checkout my philosophy of the day; nothing in this world comes for free. In conjunction to that, I've caved myself this opportunity to stray from the maddening crowd and pen my thoughts down , albeit in retrospect, by giving the possibly truncated next 1 and a half hour introduction to Law Faculty a miss. With the preceding apprehensions and ambivalence abandoned in Singapore, I departed for the United Kingdom and I've been consistently psyched up since!

Indeed, despite having only resided in Bristol for 3 days, the hostel experience has left but an indelible impression on my mind. In direct contrast to the common restraints reminiscent of most social environments in Singapore, the residents at my hall overtly engage in free spirited and intense interaction with one another, especially at our resident bar- The Three Horses. And for the best of everyones interest, this merit of concentrated intermingling has permeated through the various levels of South Wing and might I say, the entire hostel. This undoubtedly is pleasant because of the variation of gender it adds to the segregated floors of my wing HAHA. For informative sake, I live on 'G' level which happens to be the 'Cellar' for more than one reason and is concomittantly christened as 'G-unit.' Notice the incongruous language used in the previous sentence with intended sarcasm.

'G-unit' is the name of our faction and I believe it's underlying intention is to create an identity that would hopefully attract a stream of girls to our floor. Like in the many social scenarios, displaying ones defining trait or identity is rife. Two instances of such would be the night of escapades to the Carling Academy where we were donned in long sleeves and loose ties in fashion of a drunk hobo, as well as the emblazoning of 'G-Unit' across our chests in last nights pub crawl. Not surpsrisingly, others from the different floors started getting themselves branded. The culture among G-Unit is pretty interesting; we often congregate at someones room for a host of occasions such as pre-party gatherings where we unfaillingly immerse ourselves in goodwill and spirit(pun intended). Also, despite the association of idealism among 2 of my dormmates who're pursuing theology and philosophy, they've exhibited hints of pragmatism- using knives as door stoppers. To provide you with slightly more than a glimpse of what's happening, we played pictionary at Nick's room while en route to intoxication. Being 21, I'm pretty familiar with all this high school bravado and therefore simply enjoy the superficial entertainment its pursuers can offer.

In closer and less general terms of this social element, I'm selectively outgoing and made friends with a handful thus far. Not that I usually make distinctions, but in this case and for specifics, I made a whole lot more of acquaintances. My current infinitesimal sphere of friends is a confluence of folks that are of german, italian and cheifly british descent and extraneously, our interests are tapped from the common resevoir of booze and merry making. At this age, i believe i'm adequately wise and discerning to realise that hanging out with the faction or Clifton Hill House at large cannot always replace friendships as individuals. Therefore, on my first day, I perused and sized up the various personalities and decided on those whom I reckon are trustworthy. I hope the future won't detract and taint my judgement, but the few friends I made are plausibly reliable and hopefully these friendships would be based on integrity as well as the mere pleasures of one anothers company, rather than just arising out of propinquity.

Theories aside, I've mingled with pretty interesting characters. Mike the theology undergrad who has a penchant for issues pertinent to religion or the lack of believe in it, has a havoc room where his collection of books on Christianity is effortlessly juxtaposed to his mega-poster of 'The Periodic Table of Mixutres' on the perpendicular wall. This again, illustrates the incongruous concoction of sanctity/holiness and decadance that is prevalent throughout the university. Integrating into a foreign community can be pretty daunting, but with knowledge of social dynamics, the simplicity of heart as well as humour and wit off hand, these situations can be managed. Oh and not to forget, I've met with the Singaporeans on few occasions hitherto and for good measure, I should gather with them more often.

As most activites are held at the Junior Common Room which is actually a hall with a bar, consolidated gatherings have made it easier for me to conduct adequate and unbiased visual sweeps of the herd and more specifically the lasses. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it's my considered opinion that the appearances of girls leave quite alot to be desired. Contrary to my more extreme view, my brit friends think they're reasonably good looking and that some merit the title of 'fit' which is synonymous to 'hot' in vernacular British. Fortunately, despite the widening disparity in the looks department, there arre the few who constitute the saving grace and redemption of the overall quality. Most distinguishably, this asian girl whom I reckon brought only a havasack of clothes because everything she has been cloaked in seems to be downsized. You know, it's cool to take micro to the next level, which is nano HAHA. As I've yet to know her, I'm waiting for the opportune moment to get acquainted, trade numbers and know her real name other than what I refer to among my friends as the short skirty girl.

All the events to this point have gone according to script- in the sense every day was filled with more sensible activities such as city tours and nights that were alcohol fuelled and brimming with heathy interaction. However, lessons begin next week and if we don't haul ourselves out of the illusions of varsity, we're only doomed to a path that leads downhill and to hell. I guess that we're of good, a more ripe and matured age to recognise that our immediate actions dictate the paths of life we trod. I believe it is our duty to take active and practical measures to prevent ourselves from wavering and instead, walk the line.. to the end point of excellence. My hope extends to my fellow amigos to persist in your journey and keep your eyes focused on your purpose of studying at university.
-Kenneth Wong