so sad....i come back from a prolonged hiatus from blogging and my cute little kitten is gone!!! arrrrghhhs!

so anyway, i have been rather busy with schoolwork and all, tryign to see where my life is heading. plus, it is the nightmare time of the semester when all the tests descend, threatening to suck the life outta my poor body. I am currently in the library taking a mandatory (for me that is) study break. The saddest thing is that i have lost my love for learning - thus my ineffectiveness in studying...

i look back fondly (almost) on the days when I was inspired and motivated by my work and the things that were taught. I wonder what happened to that passion - is it burnout?

instead, i now want to invest my time and energy in other things - more hands-on practical stuff. danae and lester for example are slowly growing to like each other . I think i take good care of them - this is what i mean by doing hands-on stuff. not necessarily just the small things like this, but i want to get involved in the things that I used to love doing - i want to be singing with a group again, i want to have the time to go to the university museum to sketch the wonderful objects.

I shouldn't be complaining actually - my life is good. and i recognize that. i need to get off my butt and start kicking some serious ass. i want to reclaim my little kingdom.

whoo hoo....vday and the profusion of pink and red is over....and i have survived! (so has danae and lester - danae has the most beautiful flowers right now i think she is blossoming under lester's gaze)

i've been busy with work and doing nothing much else besides. Here's a little part of my readings to share with all of you - i personally find it hilarious. From Jean Baudrillaud's The System of Collecting, It is about collecting and why people collect objects. In it he says,

"The active phase of collecting seems to occur between the ages of seven and twelve, during the period of latency prior to puberty. With the onset of puberty, the collecting impulse tends to disappear....later on, it is men in their forties (this can be read as MID-LIFE CRISIS) who seem most prone to the pass [for collecting]. In short, a correlation with sexuality can generally be be demonstrated , so that the activity of collecting may be seen as a POWERFUL MECHANISM OF COMPENSATION during critical phases in a person's sexual development. Invariably it runs COUNTER to ACTIVE GENITAL SEXUALITY"

now...the words in bold are my own emphasis - but thsi is hilarious. it truly is.....this is the result of Freudian analysis applied to the practice of collecting.....the rest of the article talks about the practice in similar terms, though not so overtly. I personally feel that Baudrillaud is reading a bit too much between the lines here.....and to think that i am studying this for an upper-level seminar class.....:-P

isn't life wonderful? 

whoo hoo! it is friday! it was a marvelously mild day and all the snow is finally melting! it feee-eeels good! I am staring sullenly at my room....it hasn't gotten cleaned up, but oh well...:-P

am gonna watch traffic tonite i think - will review it on xanga when i get back! spring is coming spring is coming!!! i've heard good things about it. can't wait!

roses are red | violets are blue | spring is sweet | and so are all of you

btw, ZaraD, i am letting my homework rot as i vegetate this friday nite! what a bad influence i am!

warrrrghs....i think i have stabliised my orchid, Danae....at least her leaves have stopped turning yellow, except for this one leaf that is dead beyond recovery. !!! i hope she gets better so that lester has company for valentine's day

haven't been on xanga for a while - been trying to organise my life...my room is a mess and unfortunately i am not one to live in slovenliness....i am a slob who can't function in her own messes....i think i need someone to pick up after me

there's all this talk on blogs about valentine's day. it's so weird - the most amusing thing about v-day is the fact that suddenly, all the couples get extra mushy and this sends shivers down my spine!!! some of the things that they do, especially what i term SUCKING FACE....!!!! i know it's their business what they do and i am somewhat happy that they want to share their affection with the world, but arrghs...YEARRRGHS...:-P

then there is this proliferation of horrible candy and dorky looking toys - who buys these things??? i have to say that this ain't sour grapes - i have been the recipient of some of these things. i appreciate the thought that went into them at the time, but seriously....:-D!

i totally agree with ZaraD's log - don't wait till v-day to tell someone that they are special. besides, you save a bomb on flowers and chocolates and can buy more of them

i ain't bitter about v-day, but i do resent the fact that prices go skyrocketing and it has become so commercialised - oh all the lovely business opporunities there are to exploit romance. so sad when you think about it. v-day has lost its meaning for me in the deluge of plastic "sacchariness".

i like things sweet and simple. i don't need the candy or the wining and dining - they are nice - but i like the hugs and kisses more.

thank you for the plant tips! lester is looking better and happier. i think he really really missed me. poor thing.

the orchid is blooming, pretty pretty pretty!! i think she looks like a danae - her name is now danae - she's looking a bit sad still though. i hope the coming spring will cheer her up!

i have a plant at home....his name is lester and he's really cute, with deep green, spiky leaves that poke in all different directions. i got him a couple of months back, and i got really attached to him because he was the first plant to not just survive, but also thrive under me. i think it's coz I try very hard to take care of him.

it used to be that i killed plants, yes, even cacti which i have been told are impossible to kill....don't ask me how i did it, but i did. lester had been sitting on my window sill for the past few months, looking radiant, healthy and happy, that is till i asked my friend to take care of him over the vacation....

imagine how upset i was when i was greeted by the sight of a plant that looked more like dried vegetables instead of a living thing. i don't know what happened, but lester looked so bad i was ready to cry my poor baby!

i think he missed me though - i was certainly thinking of my baby lester when i was away - coz he looks so much better now. He looked half-dead when i got him back, but he now looks half-alive , which is much better - phew!

I think he probably also likes the fact that he now has a female friend - i was gifted with a pretty orchid plant a couple of days ago, a cheer-up gift (thank you, Mons, *MWAH!*) and she is beeee-yoo-ti-ful! I haven't thought of a name for her yet though. (yes - i am kooky for naming my plants....i've heard this all before). i am going to make sure she thrives just as well as lester.

oh yes - don't ask me why i named him lester though....he just looks like one.

yarrrghs....my link is down@!!! now the whole world can't see the cute little video that i was playing with. don't worry...it ain't smut

and why oh why does my picture keep disappearing???

Stress Reliever

This one's kinda fun! go play the little video - you don't need Flash. what i like about it is the twist at the end

oops...i forgot to say that the title is the link to the video