Good day
There are bad days, there are good days.
There are good days, and then there are good days.
(Inspired by my Argument module tutor Ms Peggie Chan's favorite expression)
Today, as luck would have had it, was a good day. And it's just terrific.
I'm half-asleep already, but I'll blog it anyway. I had breakfast with my suddenly-mugging first-floor neighbors, had a productive revision in the Science Library till noon, had a good chat with long-time-no-see friend Victor from KE7 Hall during lunch, sat for my mind-numbing 3-hour Molecular Genetics class beside Malaysian labreport-mate and friend Claire and survived the open-book, open-laptop, go-google-if-you-wish, discuss-with-your-friends-all-you-want midterm test what turned out strangely not brain-twisting, rode the bus with the bridging kids, went for a "surprise" fire drill which everyone was expecting at 6:30pm.
After a sumptuous meal of Singapore's favorite chicken rice, I watched American Idol, and woohooo the rockers just.. rock.:D Anwar was terrific as usual, I didn't like Vonzell's performance too much because it was too.. eightyish? Carrie unfortunately did a bad job attempting to play the rock chick, and Nadia Nadia, I like you a lot, but you have to get back that oomph. :D Please let it be Scott to go next.
The big highlight of my day came after AI show ended at 9:30pm. Haha the good thing about living on-campus is that what else, the school's just so nearby! In fact, technically I live in school! And so, after reading my Literary Studies tutor Ms Wang's email informing us to get our graded answer scripts for our midterm test in the folder outside her door, I knew I could easily go to the AS5 building at 9:30, and be back before the Amazing Race started at 10pm.
AND WOOHOOOO. 9/10 baby! That's at 9% of the 10% of the final grade. Haha, come to think of it, that's not too much. Hehe, but think this: some even got 2, or 1, or 3.5, or 5 or 7, since many of my classmates' papers were there (haha sneaky me). So it has to be at least 9%. My God, I'm back to being grade-conscious. Hahaha.
It was the Intro to Lit in-class test, which I (dorkily) posted here some time ago. I chose the Macbeth question, and lo and behold, my answers seemed to make more than enough sense even to me (I thought I was just scribbling nonsense, as I didn't quite study for it, and woke up late for the test). Dr Susan Ang, one of the fastest speakers on the planet and with that Cambridge (not British, as Karen emphasizes) accent, checked it, and I'm just awed that she found what I scribbled down sensible.
Haha, to the question of imagery on Macbeth's "If it were done, when 'tis done.." soliloquy in relation to the speaker's state of mind, Dr Ang had an interesting comment on one of my points: "hmm.. a bit over-imaginative but.." Hahaha, I found that nice. See, I found a connection from Macbeth's soliloquy to the bloody sea in the Biblical story of Moses. HAHA! Blame it on Macbeth's statement "bank and shoal of time", the recurring imagery of blood and the actual multiple gruesome deaths and some other clues. Quite far-off, now that I think about it, but I myself am quite convinced by how I presented my case. Come on, even Dr Ang poses some imaginative interpretations as well, sometimes falling prey to "overreading" the text (or maybe I'm just a shallow reader?XP). But really, that's part of the beauty of literature, as she and Dr Yeo say: there's no fixed answer, it all boils down on how you read through the symbols and support your interpretation. Woohooo.
I read through what seemed to be one of my more sensible ramblings, and happily noted the small ticks that Dr Ang made (yey), and at the bottom of my back-to-back answer, she wrote a "good", and a "5.5/7".. which she scratched and changed to "6/7". Coolness.
On the second part of the question about how sound helped to convey the atmosphere and mood, I was particularly worried since I failed to include several points that she mentioned in class, and which she even scribbled at the bottom of my corrected answer sheet: "Alliteration? Sibilance?" Haha, I've never even heard of the word sibilance before this (maybe she mentioned it when I was late for class), and now, after googling, it turns out to be an important aspect of the soliloquy. Now I know.
Just the same, I'm incredibly elated that I found some other interesting stuff to compensate for the big stuff I missed. Apparently, my detailed observation that the rhyme was breaking down as the soliloquy progressed, and my claim that there were "sounds that seemed to attempt to rhyme, but didn't quite match, like against & horsed, air & eye, babe & air", which all indicated a "mounting chaos and deviation from the 'frame of things', foreshadowing the coming catastrophe of Duncan's death and the resulting disorder" had enough merit for her to scribble "interesting" at the margin.
Finally, beside the mention of "Alliteration? Sibilance?" at the bottom of the page were the words I haven't seen in my essays for a long time: "Very good" and beside it, "3/3".
HAHA! I was so happy I was laughing and smiling alone in the empty corridor, and continued to do so as I walked/ran down the slope back to Kent Ridge Hall. "Woohoo", I had said aloud when I reached the first floor corridor, and I'm sure I heard a "woohoo" response from my neighbor Yishu, the guy who says woohooo all the time. :)
Amazing Race was great, and I enjoyed all two hours of it. Rob and Amber I still do not like, but I have to give them credit for their effective tactics and for just stepping up the excitement level of the show (which has drastically been reduced due to last season's suckiness). Ahh.. I love The Amazing Race. I'd kill to get in the show.
I checked my Yahoo! Mail manually (since my email client POP Peeper has problems connecting with it), and wow, another surprise. TY again.:) AND, the D-block night cycling photos were up! Haha nice nice. They were reduced in size (dimensions) though, sayang. In any case, I'll upload them sometime.
Then, at midnight, I checked the IVLE and learned that the results for my Molecular Genetics CA were out. Panic panic. I knew I didn't do too well, partly due to my commonsensical math approach in attacking the problem, and partly because I'm not a life science major! In any case, I opened the Excel file, and it wasn't a good grade. Barely above the mean. Sad. Never mind.
Haha, yet another addition to the series of signs that I should be in the Arts and Social Science Faculty and not in Science. As of now, I'm listed as a Statistics Major, minoring in English Studies, but I don't know, maybe I'll do a double major instead? Or transfer totally to Arts Fac? Haha ramblings ramblings.
Funny I always get the feeling that Arts is more for me than Science. Maybe because the PRC and Vietnamese students are blooody brilliant in Maths, and it's so easy to fade into the background. Arts, well, I think I have a shot at happily sticking out like a sore thumb. ;) And I enjoy it more, really.
Hmph. Decisions, decisions. Let's just see what happens. :D
Should be out of my room today! No more classes, but I must get into intense revision for exams up ahead!
