Eat A Pretzel Day/Make A Difference Day/Used Car Day
2005-10-22 @ 10:02 p.m.

Felt that my poem comparison wasn't as good as it could have been, which is pretty much how I feel after every English paper anyway. Duana called because she needed to talk about the test with someone else who'd done the same paper, and I totally understand where she's coming from. It's reassuring to know that you're not the only person who feels that way about yourself. She sounded like a really nice person, which is a rare species of person. Or to phrase it in terms of what I was chatting with Eugene about a week ago, good vibes. Or to put it in terms that competitive Singaporeans will understand, the sort of person you don't mind losing to or resent for being better than you. Nonetheless, the question about banning poets in Plato's ideal society was just crap. They gave it to the SPS people too, except they got two choices for their essay question and we didn't. Come to think of it, I'd much rather have taken the TSA. Less uncertainty, but then again, the link to English is somewhat tenuous. Bought a collection of the Marquis de Sade's stories, which I was quite surprised to find in a bookstore in Singapore. (Come on, we banned Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses for religious reasons, so why not Sade because he definitely offends the conservatives?) Also found The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes, which has a nice cover and which I hope is as clever as Talking It Over and Love, Etc. I'm a bit bored with The Porcupine though, which just feels draggy. If you really want to read about stuff in a vaguely communist setting that also happens to be readable, pick Kundera, seriously. Barnes is just tedious in The Porcupine! Brilliant in Love, Etc. though. Right. Back to the French Revolution...