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I am in between zones of consciousness. One moment I feel fine with a nice headache, another moment I am down with a clogged up bronchial sounding cough. I just realised that it's usually during the final weeks of the semester - which is when you have all your 70% - 90% worth of essays due - that the weather suddenly decides to take you on a roller coaster ride. Just two weeks ago it was still mild, witrh some warm days at 28 degrees. Now, we hardly even smell a 15. Most times the temperature hovers between 8 and 12. Sniff sniff.

Had red bean soup and "tung yun" with Homebushers last night. Bliss. Watched Linkin Park DVD on Ediot's computer - Double Happiness Bliss. Somehow watching a bunch of mega talented, down to earth guys living their lives gave me strength and hope to carry on this pursuit. To better days yet!

I am taking a break from the story I am working on and moving on to something exciting - Apple: Commodification, Materialism & Globalisation. Yes, it's more evil than you think it is. Going for some fish food at South Melbourne and possibly a sneak at the library to hoard the relevant books.

Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. Psalms 116 : 7
*chucKie*

Sat, 25 May. 5.25pm. This is wonderful. I have clocked a three day absence. Haven't got a single post since Wed.

I need help. Some drug to keep me from thinking too much. You know you are just simply stressed when you start to think of every assignment in parallel randoms. Even during my time of rest I dream about Apple as a subculture industry, how my characters will relate to each other, who will die in the end or if any death will do, whether the guy from Palm InterPUG has replied my emails for interview or which issue of Wired had that article on Napster & MP3s. It don't make sense to you but this is certainly what is going on in my state of consciousness and subconsciousness. It's like doing 4 thesis - trying to write a little novel, publish a two page spread article in your local national news print, deliver a case study on present day music economy and over interpret Apple Computer as the dark side - all at the same time. I need to reformat my brain, create 4 partitions and reinstall Mac OS 9.1, Mac OS X, Win XP and Linux on each. And start up all at the same time. I hope my hard disk doesn't crash.

Now I'm stuck with my story characters. Only got three characters to work with but I'm just torn and cannot decide who is what - who becomes the bastard, who is the nice guy but turns his back on the bastard and blah blah blah. Sigh.

Listening to: Ryan Adams.

Typing on: My good old mac.

'red bean soup is good'
*chucKie*

New topic in 5 minutes.

I had a bulb light up during Contemporary Cultural Studies lecture today. Well done. I'll be checking out the hip hop scene in Taiwan, particularly Jay, David Tao and that other-guy-what's-his-name-can't-keep-his-shirt-on R & B pioneer. Commodication, Mass Consumption & Production, Diaspora, Displacement, Pseudo-individualism, Consumerism - sounds exciting.

But it's back to my new play/short film script - Recurring Dream. How many words would a 20 min performance take up?

Rove Live was great. Deborah Mailman is now my favourite actress though I haven't watched a single episode of The Secret Life of Us. And yes, yes, I am now convinced that the Canadian Hayden Christensen is a terrible actor. Well, but Canadian musicians rock! Alanis Morrissette, Sarah Mc Lachlan, Nelly Furtado, SUM 41 and the list will go on, I am sure.

Hiccups. Time to stop. Catch your sleep while you can.

'what the...?'
*chucKie*

Monday, 20 May. 5.40pm. Headache, dry nasal passage, sheer dehydration. This prenatural winter is so not welcomed.

Writing Journalism lecture was no help at all. To think that I dragged myself out of bed, braved the strong wind and rain to attend a lecture that basically served to demoralise. We've never considered or critiqued a 2,500 word feature article in lectures or seminars ever. I begin to suspect the validity of this assessment. Anyone who can spoof a distinction with this should really take over the job of the lecturer. After all, The Age is not the only place good journalism happens.

Praying that I don't come down with a flu bug. Although the flooble chatter box is up.

'19 days and what have you done?'
-chucKie

What's going on? Since two Tuesdays ago, almost everyone that I know has started a blogspot and got quite addicted.

Time to change my template again. Everyone's doing it.

Ok, here's the deal. I am here right now in Homebush. Sarah's playing around with her blog, so is Egene. And in a few moments, I would be out of here to buy some Gelati. Pigs we are. We're going to watch a DVD; The man who wasn't there.

Righty, Joy's ready. Should we go now? Alright gotta log out.

'growing fat - diet next week'
*chucKie*

One last attempt.

2.45pm, Sat, May 18.
I have to keep this short. Don't know why but the collective of us have been more interested in churning out words on this blogspot than saving them for our essay word count. Yes, it is piling up by the minute, I assure you.


And guess what? Winter is here. It's 12 degrees right now. Perfect weather to snug up into bed and sleep away the essays. 1 hour won't kill right?


Started the day with breakfast at Fruits of Passion at Kensington. Superb potato pancake with bacon, scrambled eggs, ham and cheese sausage & black pudding. Gourmet. Now just too stuffed for lunch. What lunch? Another serve of extra strong Cafe Latte would really do the trick.


Nah, i'd like to sleep one more hour. Someone tie a rope on my head to the ceiling, please.


'droopy eyes'

*chucKie*

It should've rained today.


I just got back my radio writing assignment. It was a miserable P (pass). I am devastated.


Came home, didn't even change, tossed myself into bed and slept for 4 hours.


See, this module is known as Writing Journalism. Already I got two Ps for the radio piece and the film review. And now, the big one - Feature Story - where I have to find some product, person, trend, event or a combination of these to write a 2,500 word news spread. Might as well peanut butter spread.


Stayed up till 4am last night, pacing in and out of my room, picked food from the fridge, made instant black bean soup, devoured two packets of prawn crackers, one packet of egg rolls and a massive mug of Milo - to finally come up with an idea. Why don't I just do a story on Palms? You know? PDAs? Thought I had the best idea. Typed out a one page outline and dived into bed. 5 hours later I was in class, ready to pitch my idea to my "editor-tutor".


You guessed it. She didn't think much of it. "Can you write 2,500 words with that?" is as good as saying, try harder.


ARGH!!!!! I suck at writing. Why did I ever do journalism for? Two Ps is telling enough and I think I'm gonna just score mediocre again for this final big one.


Well, after all that hit the roof and create a din outside Sydney Myer Asia Centre. I have to make myself believe that it is not the end yet. But the idea is just so appealing. After a good 4 hour recovery sleep, I have come up with some concrete ideas. Yes, I even dreamt about it in my sleep.


Good journalism they say, is all about pitching the story, giving it an angle, making it interesting, appealing and relevant to the masses. Oh, the sad sad masses of Australians who wouldn't have an idea what Palm is. That's going to be a massive task. While Palm Users are a shit load in Asia, Australia still has 5 years of lag time to catch up.


I have decided to angle the story in as a subculture feature. I think I will make Palm Users look like the new cult. This is the new hybrid of gamers, magic the gathering card exchange, special interest group. See, there are already Palm User Groups all over the world. I am familiar with SPUG (Singapore Palm Users Group) and I can definitely find people to interview. Auspug (Australia Palm User Group) has only just begun with less than 200 members I think. And it is not very active yet though there had been two Palm Beaming Gatherings.


The hard part will be trying to unpack the ideas and jargons associated but this will be a worthy special interest group/trend piece wouldn't it? Email me your comments & ideas, if you have any. I need all the help, chicken soup, essence and whatever brain food I can get. I am going to email my tutor once I have a new pitch and see what else she will say.


Want to say a BIG thank you to Jacintha for being my punching bag and listening to me out in the cold today. You're a living proof that good Singaporeans exist. Thanks for listening =).


'click to safe mode'


*chucKie*

Intrigued, I am.


Yes, I just got home from a movie. Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones.


I have not enjoyed a movie as much as this. I was holding onto to my seat as if I was going through a roller coaster ride. George Lucas has heightened his sense of tension in his storytelling, strangling us to the neck of our guts, having us worry if the good guys will ever lose it. He brings us to the edge of the cliff, dangle our heros by their limbs and even attempts to let them fall, only for some miracle "in the nick of time" space ship, army or our favourite little green man to come to the rescue. Don't you ever get it? The good guys never really die. Especially the ones who have more than 5 lines on the script. Perhaps this bastardization of sci-fi movies given in to hollywood jump shot sequences and snap cuts is Lucas' way of moving on - towards a more relevant image; typical of present day spectacular mass produced big screen wow-factor. Think Hong Kong movies. Think Arnie. Think Demolition. Even, think Playstation (or Xbox or Gamecube, if you like).


I came out of the theatre with a throbbing headache. The images were flashing so much, moving so fast and the soundtrack was of such seismic volume that I believe my brain must have quite badly charred. Perhaps the theatre was simply cranking it up, or the film sound engineers did such a good job with a mind-blowing dynamics of compression that succeeded in inteferring with our organic system. Steven would scream pain. I did. Bring ear plugs if you want to remain sane.


Interestingly, Shawn mentioned that in outer space, there is no such thing as sound. So what's with the loud explosion man?


Still I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. Would watch it again in the cinema and DVD. My personal joy came in the middle of the movie, when an army of Jedi's joined in the battle to fight the evil forces. It is quite a sight to see so many light sabres going off at one instance. And it's politically correct too. Whites, Asians, Afros, Aliens and sea creatures - Jedis in all shapes and sizes but all having one thing in common: the designer cloak and canvas and the invincible light sabre. Man, wish I had a light sabre. No, I mean a real one!


If there is anything worth watching, it has to be my favourite Yoda. In this Episode, the little green man shows more than just wisdom, insight and bad sentence construction. Yes, some of you, like me, would be pleasantly surprised to see Yoda with a light sabre. And wait till he shows you his years of martial arts training from the shaolin temples of the wushan clan. Ok, that was a bit far fetched. But you get the idea.


I wonder if they still sell Yoda figurines. I'd like a giant one, please.


Alright back to reality. 4 essays, 21 days, hay stack research, 11800 words. Agony.


'erase pain, love and hatred'

*chucKie*

Pathetic. Woke up late for class again. It was supposed to rain today but I am staring out into a sweet blue cloudless sky complete with a happy sun beaming away. Such is the Melbourne weather. But the 70% chance of rain could happen in the later part of the day. You never know. Might as well enjoy the light while I have it.

I'm feeling really vexed right now. Guess when things don't go well, such as a broken glass, high rental, budgetting, problems with shipment and the ever erratic account balance. Not very good on the heart though. Right now it has just sunk way below the knees. Don't even know where it is. If we all had a better life, we'd not have to fight so hard, bleed so much and dry ourselves out. And I seriously mean it when I say it.

"would this infernal struggle ever come to anything? I question the effort and the inevitable battle that goes round and round. And I like an unwilling soldier put on my armour to fend off the poisonous arrows and flames that come charging. Might as well lose my grip on this body, release the bones that have for years strangling firm the flesh, muscle and tissue. If that was what I could do, I'd be a forgotten happy foe by now. Yet trapped I am in this cage, this binding membrane stubbornly clamping my inner being; I am breathless. I am squeezed. I am frustrated. I say too much and I talk too little these days. You shake your head in amazement. Perhaps that's why genres make so much sense. Its beats, pound, roaring snarl and audacious expression of form finds its way into this sealed vaccum. Fills it with aural colours, red, yellow, orange and warm rushes of the sun. Like a light it pierces, liberates, brings hope and inspiration to this dark dirty cell, which for so long has been infested with rotting roaches from the deep burrows of hidden habitation. I'll wait no more but this soothes me much. I'll let the world carry on its foolish revelry. Get up. Get on. Get away. Shut up." - 11 May 6.05pm: While talking to Daniel Johns.

-mind over matter.

*chucKie*

this is just a demonstration post. more invasion will take place. for now go to my mac friendly webpage, |chuckie's dreamscape|.

-someday you'll see it all.

*chucKie*