Sky Day
2005-06-30 @ 10:42 p.m.

Dinner at NYDC, and I bought Kundera's first novel, The Joke, and three Barnes novels today. It was so good to just bum around town, slouching from place to place and probably annoying the hell out of all the salespeople. Going Holland Village tomorrow! Oh yeah, I find shopping with girls very tiresome. Nothing personal, but why must they shop like they're never going to see a nice dress again in their entire lives? Anyway, I've concluded that Barnes is clever, which Mr Purvis agrees with, but his writing doesn't lend itself easily to sustained analysis in the way Cunningham's does, and I'm actually quite weary of Oliver and his in-your-face erudition. (Okay, I am fairly jealous too, and please don't tell me it's stupid to be jealous of a fictional character. I am. Tough.) Going to read Talking It Over to put Love, Etc. in perspective. Mathematics went better than expected. I might even get an A if I don't drop too many marks due to carelessness. English 'S' was okay, I'll be happy as long as I don't get a U. I need to rethink the poems that I'm going to use if I want to avoid carrying stacks of anthologies into the examination. I'm seriously considering using more classic novels, or at least switching to something with more depth than Barnes. Like I said, very clever and witty writing, but still a cut below authors like Cunningham and Hardy. Thinking of studying Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, which Thong says is not half-bad. Far From The Madding Crowd? Maybe. Yesterday, I sent what I consider my two best poems off to QLRS, so we'll see what comes of that. I'm going to start writing that story now. Must be more disciplined in the second half of the year, if only because I think I've cut myself enough slack to last a long time. Time to get my act together! I've been invited to some talk about the Education Merit Scholarship, so I hope my dad's back in Singapore by then because I don't want to take a train all the way to Buona Vista just for a talk. No, not even if my future is potentially at stake. I'd just take a cab! Haha...