Delivery.

Time for some movie reviews, because that's what I've been doing (apart from eat, sleep, and read 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' books).

Watched 'Men In Black 3' last night, where I met Fatinn, Kevin and the MS SIMC team. Don't remember the previous two movies, but I do vaguely recall watching MIB cartoons as a kid, so I wasn't epicly clueless or anything like that. Funny stuff. Good dialogue, plenty of action, and I loved the aliens. A bit confused about the time travel stuff, but oh well.

It would be so cool if we could co-exist with other planets like they do, but that would be quite unsafe too. At least we would spend more time worrying about other races blowing us up than actually doing it ourselves like we are now.

Then watched 'Snow White and the Huntsman' this morning. It was not as good as the trailer depicted, 'cause we all know (from my workshops, duhh) that trailers that give you the best of their movies really have nothing else to show. I thought since they cast Kristen Stewart, it meant she'd learnt some more expressions than what she showed in the Twilight saga, but disappointingly it didn't. I mean, yeah she's very good at gasping through the mouth and staring intensely, but apart from that, goodness gracious. I've never actually seen Twilight or any of its sequel movies, and now I'm glad I stayed away from them.

It's sad because I never liked Snow White when I was younger, and now I still don't like her. Useless girl. Dialogue was terrible too. Hardly any humour, badly depicted romance. Poor Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth and Sam Claflin (because I liked him in the fourth PotC movie).

Yeah, the scenery was nice though, I admit. But completely redundant. So redundant. Some pretty good CGI-ing, too, but apart from that it really failed to deliver. Draggiest movie I've seen this year. I don't understand why people enjoyed it.

Then watched 'Real Steel' at home, because my mum and brother insist it's brilliant and can't get around the fact that I haven't seen it yet. And yeah, I agree, it was brilliant. I mean, for a movie revolving around robot-boxing, it was quite amazing. And touching, too. Good going.

All right, off now.

Night.

P.S. I have a feeling my years in Media have killed my ability to fully enjoy any movie without wondering about technical aspects. It's hard.

The Lost Hero.

Yeahp, just finished reading the first book of 'Heroes of Olympus', the follow-up series to the 'Percy Jackson' books by Rick Riordan. Now I'm suffering a huge craving for the second book. Ah, cravings.

Should have gotten the second one right away, but I have a strict policy of buying them one at a time, so I don't overspend and don't waste too much time reading when I have other things to do.

Actually, I've accomplished many things in the many days I haven't blogged.

In no order of merit, I have:

- Survived SIMC week, produced an acceptable ending animation that made me proud even though it isn't half as good as the one Ash made for the opening. I was proud 'cause people clapped along to the music and then random people came up to thank me during the farewell dinner. Also, very proud of Media members for taking on their duties so, um, dutifully (for lack of a better word). I love them all. Felt quite empty once it was over, because I spent two months working on the project on and off, and spent so many sleepless nights working and worrying, but now I'm feeling much better.

- Finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. Credits to Nikki for passing me the files. Goodness, there's so much goodness in that series. It's rare to come by cartoons that show so much deepness and meaning and excellence. I loved it when I was younger and now I love it again. Shall watch Korra when the time is right.

- Gone for our class chalet (which happened like, weeks ago). I have a vlog about it, but it wasn't really good and nobody really likes it so oh well. But it was a fun two days, if not creepy. Shopped for food and barbecued and ate and ate and played Mahjong (well not me, because I was working on that video for SIMC) and stayed up super late (I watched the sun rise before I went to sleep). Then spent the second day lazing around and then hanging around some beach. Tiring, but satisfying. I do like my class, but sometimes I miss 405.

- Kbox-ed with Wai Yin, Ivy, Zhen Jie, Wei Ren and Nikki. I love karaoke. It's totally excusable to sing badly and stuff and it's like one of the great joys in life because everyone's doing it with you. Yeahey.

- Visited OCS (Officer Cadet School) for one of our post-exam activities. Quite fun. Shot blanks with guns, played around with camouflage paint, and ate army food. I think the school is really working on preparing the guys for NS in two years, but I have a feeling you'll never know what it's like until you're really there.

- Finished article reviews for English which I am not proud of. Probably wrote terribly and am going to fail this module, but at least I met the deadline, right?

Okay, that's pretty much it. Major events of the past few weeks.

Going to bed now.

Night.

P.S. Oh, and I also caught a flight back. Not very comfortable, considering it was delayed by a total of an hour and I waited twenty minutes for my luggage. Sigh, travelling.

Monaco 2012.

Just watched the Monaco Grand Prix, and man I have to say I do have a knack for picking the best races to be able to watch live. First it was Spain with fast chalet Internet connection for streaming, and now I'm back home with actual television access.

So yeah, this is now my new favourite race of the season. Superb racing, and all the drivers and teams are so on par with each other it's scary. 6.1 seconds covered the top six.

Webber started on pole after inheriting it from Schumi 'cause Schumi had a five-grid penalty to serve, and ended up winning the race. Six winners in six races into the season, which is now an F1 record.

Rosberg earned a second place after driving pretty safely and without incident, although he did push near the end but didn't make it. Alonso gladly on the podium again in third, which means he's leading the Driver's Championship (yay). Vettel fourth, after doing epic catching up with his late pitstop. Hamilton fifth, followed by Massa. Best result for Massa of the season. He did really well in qualifying yesterday too, making it into Q3 for the first time. Yay.

Force India 7-8, then Kimi (I think Lotus made a few mistakes here and there because of tyre indecisiveness).

Perez was ridiculously fast, so he set the fastest lap although he was out of the points in eleventh.

Button spun out, Schumi's car failed, and Grosjean retired too. And last race winner, Maldonado, stopped way early as well. Tsk.

At one point there was a Ferrari one-two, which totally made me happy. There hasn't been such a thing since, well, since.

I swear, Monaco is an amazing circuit. It's narrow but it's fast, and it's never boring.

But yeah, I don't think it's just the circuit. All the teams are improving, and all the drivers are regaining their competitive edges because they're all almost tasting victory. It's tantalising.

Hopefully we can get a seven for seven in Montreal. Fingers crossed. Massa or Kimi.

Adieu.

De Catalunya 2012.

This is long overdue, but I want to have a post with every race of the season as a title.

Finally got to watch the race (in live action) because we were at our class chalet. So it was Pin and I and (surprisingly) Jia Hong, and we were crowding around my laptop catching the action.

And my goodness, I'm so thankful it was this race we were able to watch, because there was so much good racing going on.

Pastor aka 'Pasta' Maldonado won the race after starting on pole (because Hamilton got penalised for not having enough fuel to make it back to the pits during his stint in qualifying). Good start, because Alonso took over the lead, but in the end after pitting and racing and such, Maldonado ending up winning for Williams.

It's insane because five different race winners have won in five races. I really hope it carries on this way. Five different teams, too.

So yeah, results. Maldonado, Alonso, followed by a Lotus three-four. At this consistency I think Lotus might even win the Constructor's Championship, 'cause everyone else has been a bit messed up lately. Lotus was hashtagging all their tweets with #catchthebull, so I guess it's not so subtle.

Now Alonso's tied with Vettel ahead of the standings, and Kimi is fourth. Alonso or Kimi, that's who I hope to win this season.

Ah I don't really remember the details of the race now, and I stopped by to update this blog because it was quite on its deathbed.

All I can recall is the Schumi-Bruno Senna crash, and that Vettel and Massa both got drive-through penalties. Tsk disappointing stuff.

But yeah, still so grateful I got to watch the race, and I'll be watching the next one too 'cause I'll be home by then.

Nice.

Cupcakes.

Whoa spent yesterday just milling around the Internet, on Tumblr and playing Tetris, and on After Effects trying to animate some things. I'm at 17 seconds, and Ash thinks it's quite cool (I'm not sure if my friends are just being nice or genuinely think I'm doing an okay job) so I can safely say I'm on the right track, albeit too slowly.

Anyway, today was a bit more eventful, although less productive. I'm not sure now what this means, because it looks like I'm implying that being productive is boring. Hm.

Woke up at eight-ish, then headed over to Sengkang MRT to meet up with the rest of the people from our cluster for our cluster outing. Made cupcakes, which was quite fun, considering how girly the activity was. Man, cupcakes.

The lady teaching us was super nice, and she let us make a few batches and drink her red wine (actually it was to be mixed into one of the cupcake mixtures, but you couldn't really taste the wine in the product).

And then there was the icing and decorating with cream and chocolate chips and those little sugary beads (I'm not sure what they're called; I'll get back to you on that) and packing our cupcakes into containers to bring them back home. If you can call this home.

Right now I'm really grateful Ms Kong is our cluster mentor, because she's fun and we're all about fun.

Had lunch at Compass Point afterwards. Wanted to go for this Swensens deal, but most of us didn't want to wait half an hour to be seated when we were already that hungry, so settled for KFC instead. They were giving out Avengers toys with meals and stuff, but didn't bother because today's model was the Hulk (no offence Dr Banner). I think if it were Tony I'd have paid.

Got new batteries for my watch after lunch, then spent another hour travelling back with Nicole.

But yeah, half day well spent.

Came back past four, but then had to go down to meet Ash 'cause he's going to NS tomorrow and I need his project files (which I can't open) if they need to make any adjustments. Ah, deadline-meeting and nitpicking of already finished projects. No words to express the frustration I expect to experience in the near future.

I don't see how they're able to nitpick, or even have the heart to, when Ash does such amazing work.

It's funny because two years from now when SIMC 2014 comes about, I'll have graduated and left this country and there is no way Ash would come back to help them, so whoever's doing the job instead of us is going to have such a hard time topping our work (because you know, when you do something you always need to top your predecessors) if the school doesn't hire external help.

Hah I just blew my own trumpet. Whoops.

Back to work.

P.S. Yes, I secretly like our hostel's "wannabe pizzas". They're like biscuits, but with toppings.

P.P.S. After like, months, here's a vlog. Which awesomely enough has managed to obtain 110 views already. I swear if enough people find this entertaining one day I'll quit my job (or whatever) and do this thing full time. It's something I know I'm not bad at. Unlike the stuff I'm doing at school, or the stuff I will do in university. Man.

The last train.

So yeah, nothing much happened yesterday except sleep twelve hours from one in the morning until one in the afternoon, and then I went out to collect Russell Peters Notorious World Tour tickets with Wai Yin.

Man, third time to Vivo in three days.

Anyway, today was much, much more eventful, 'cause it was both Free Comic Book Day and the day we get to watch Russell Peters live. Awesome stuff, really.

Went out at eleven with Wee Thean and Kelvin, then met Wei Ren at the Buona Vista MRT station so we could head to the place together. Harris Planerds is at 313 Somerset, but the last time I was there it wasn't really a full-blown comic book store yet. Storewide 60% discount in lieu of FCBD, and man everything was so tempting.

Don't usually post pictures but here you go because I realise the covers are too well-drawn to be left out.

All of our spoils for the day. Fifteen free comics each (the thinner ones), then a bunch of compilations and t-shirts. Yeahey.

Our receipt. Yeahp, this is how much we spent, but then you compare that to how much we could have spent, so yes this was a total bargain. Good for us.

Pile of goods in height. 'Spiderman: Am I An Avenger?' and 'Astonishing Spiderman & Wolverine' is mine, then I have 'Wolverine: Inside the World of the Living Weapon' and 'Legends of the Dark Knight' for my cousin.

Was disappointed I couldn't buy a shirt because none of the good ones were in my size. Oh well.

Came back for a while, then left for Russell Peters' show. There were ten of us, three Indians included.

Basically spent two hours straight just laughing. How is that even physically possible? It's tiring to laugh so long, actually. Like all your muscles start aching and your eyes kind of start tearing and your voice becomes hoarse.

But yeah, funny stuff. I do not regret spending money on that.

Okay, really tired now.

Good night.

P.S. First time I've posted pictures in like, months.

Headfirst.

Currently exhausted, because that's what having fun does to you.

Woke up when Jean texted me saying she was going to be late meeting up at Vivo, and that's when I sorta jumped out of bed 'cause I realise I overslept. Made it earliest though, with Rania and Ji Hyun, 'cause turns out everyone was going to be late too.

Met up with MJ and Jean, lunched, then went to look for something to get Wei Ren for his birthday. Ended up deciding on an iPad case (since the one has is sort of dying) which looks really awesome.

Hung around Starbucks for a while to wait for Nikki. Played some logo quiz game on Jean's phone, which was ridiculously addictive. It's funny how I don't seem to pay attention to brands or logos or anything like that. But then again it is quite sad how nobody seems to stop to notice things anymore too.

Then went over to Wei Ren's house for his birthday party, and it was awesome. Played Rock Band, then barbecued, then repeatedly dived into the pool.

The food was good, goodness me. It seems like the older we get the cleaner our barbecues become, and we become so much better at it, too. I swear they shouldn't teach stuff like "honesty" or "how to deal with break-ups" for ACE, but instead just teach us stuff like "how to start a barbecue fire" and "how to look cool diving into swimming pools", because these actually apply to real life. The world could do with more people who know how to barbecue properly and stuff.

Need to swim more, I think. It's such good exercise, and I'm terrible at running. In fact, just being in a pool kinda works all your muscles because you have to keep yourself afloat and consciously moving all the time or you'll like, drown.

Walked back afterwards, because birthday boy lives conveniently close to school, and now I'm tired.

But yeah, super fun time with awesome people. Just the type of post-exams de-stressing we need.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. I realise I've been spending a lot more than I'd like to lately, so totally cutting down on expenditure. It's dangerous to fall into the habit of buying whatever you want or doing whatever you want just because you think you have the money.

P.P.S. Diving is addictive.

Commencement.

Going to list out all the things I need to/have to/want to do in my free time up till next sem and see how many I can check off when class starts proper.

- Finish off animation for SIMC. Very urgent, will start tomorrow and work it hard.

- Head out to buy a present and then attend Wei Ren's birthday barbecue tomorrow.

- Collect tickets for Russell Peters' performance on Saturday on Friday, and then attend a briefing of some sorts for ASXC too.

- Attend Russell Peters' show Saturday night.

- Cluster outing on Monday.

- Class chalet on the 13th, 14th and 15th.

- Karaoke.

- Watch The Avengers again.

- Read all the books I've been putting off, especially 'Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero' which I've been putting off for months.

- Finish reading Ultimate Spiderman and then start on the other arcs I have in my hard drive.

- Catch up on television shows. How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Glee, The Voice. Maybe rewatch Sherlock. Who knows. And then start on Dr Who. Please Pin give me whatever files you have I'll watch it all.

- Watch movies/television series starring Tom Hiddleston because this guy is really starting to grow on me.

- Learn songs. Many songs. All the songs.

Yeahh.

Haven't made a list like this in ages. I could keep listing but sometimes you have to stop listing and actually do things on a whim.

Night.

P.S. Oh, and I love this song. I like to apply it to myself, too.

The Avengers.

Before I start this one, first I want to warn you that yes, there will be spoilers in this post, and yes, there will be quite a bit of fangirling, and yes, there will be nerding out too. So if you like any of that stuff go ahead and proceed.

Read this.

Now read here.

Left for Vivo at six after exams ended (yeahey). Not as many as the Hunger Games bunch, but quite a big bunch all the same. Wai Yin, MJ, Nikki, Deborah, Jazlene, Nicole, Pin, Dion, Wee Thean, Kelvin, Adithya, KT, Kendrick, Hema, Joshua Sia and myself, then Adrian Peh and Chee Seng met up with us when we got there.

Split up for dinner. Went with KT, Kelvin, Wee Thean, Adithya and Kendrick to Carl's Jr, where Adrian ninja-ed his way over to meet us. Haven't eaten out non-guiltily in quite a while, 'cause when you go out to eat during exam week it's like you're wasting precious studying time.

Collected eighteen tickets, then oh my goodness oh my goodness we watched The Avengers.

I have been waiting for this movie for months.

All the hype, definitely no hyperbole. Honestly. It was one of the best movies I've ever seen, because I enjoyed every single second of it. There are some movies that are good, some movies that you could call funny, or enjoyable, or spectacular, but nothing really spells epic and badass for me than this one.

Sometimes there are realities you've always dreamed of, you know? Of superheroes and of villains and of heroism and of outstanding people. You read about them and you find yourself so immersed in those worlds, and when someone manages to bring it to life on the big screen for you, and does it well, well, there are really no words for these emotions. I only fangirl really badly about two things, and they are LotR, and the Marvel universe, because these are entire worlds I can totally lose myself in.

The Avengers movie was whelming. I read that in a review and I'll use it because it's accurate. It was whelming. Not overwhelming with CGI like the latest Transformers movie, and not underwhelming where the characters just stand around like empty shells in fancy costumes, but it was whelming.

Yes, yes it was.

I loved all the little things they slipped in (I'm going to watch it again so I can notice more of these things) and how they drop hints of the deep pasts they each have, and yet make it so that anyone can watch the movie and still be able to enjoy it.

I loved the little quips Tony Stark makes and I loved it when it shows so obviously that Stark is a weapons manufacturer and I loved all his little gadgets and his suit, oh his suit. Various versions of his suit, actually. Oh goodness. I'm a huge Iron Man fan, in case you haven't noticed. Just had to get that out there.

Everyone's relationship with everyone else was quite well played. Thor and Loki, Steve and Tony (oh God so canon), Natasha and Clint, Bruce Banner with everyone else.

Steve and Tony. Polar opposites. If I didn't like Pepper so much I'd ship more, but I do like Pepper and was glad she was in the movie too. Iron Man does need some anchoring, it's just that when it's at home or in the office it's Pepper Potts, and when it's with The Avengers it's Steve Rogers.

Not making sense right now.

Totally had chills all over throughout the movie. And there were funny moments too, which made it all the better.

Especially loved the bit at the end where they all got together, and when they looked to Captain America for instructions. That's the First Avenger, all right. That's him, right there. So fitting. So what if he can't fly, or summon lightning, or is out of date with technology? This man was the one who started the superhero business. He's the soldier and the commander and the one who people will fight to the death for because he literally overflows with niceness.

Mark Rufallo as the Hulk was a good decision. He's not just the guy who can turn green, you know? He's genius, and so full of self-doubt and self-loathing but has such a great heart inside.

Everyone else was well cast, too. Chris Hemsworth is Thor and Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark (heck he doesn't even need to act; all he has to do is be himself), I don't see anybody else playing Loki but Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans has that quiet, boyish look that only Captain America can have, yet have such a strong presence. Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury was the badassness, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson was a genius decision, and Scarlett Johansson looked so good kicking ass. Jeremy Renner didn't get as much character buildup as the others, which was sad, but maybe in the future. Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill didn't quite work for me though. Maybe because we see her too much as Robin Scherbatsky.

I think it just gets better now that they've all come together from their separate movies. You kind of associate the actor more with the character now.

Anyway, thank you, Joss Whedon. Awesome job.

I imagine it's going to be so much worse when we watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in December.

Loki. Just, Loki. Tom Hiddleston is amazing.

Disappointed.

I've got a lot of posts lined up right now, so I'm going to do them one by one (probably not, my mind jumps around a tonne and that's why I can't write essays well because I have trouble focussing sometimes).

Exams are finally over, so this post is going to be a sort of wrap-up about the horribleness we had to go through the past week.

I don't think I want to talk about it, but oh well. Let's get it out.

I'm not going to do well these exams.

Not even an "I think". Because it's fact, there and bare, naked and true.

I'm not going to do well. I can't do well. I don't see myself doing well.

Didn't finish the Physio paper because I didn't manage my time properly. Left five marks blank, and then hurried my blank MCQs by shading in 'C' for everything, and then I filled in the last two pages of questions in three minutes. It's not that I didn't know, you know, it's just that there wasn't enough time. I don't know if I should be bashing myself up for this, because I think a huge majority of us didn't finish the paper either, but it still kinda kills me inside. It was the only paper I thought I could do well in. I enjoy Physio and I understand it more than any other subject we've been taught this semester, and I thought yeah, if I had any shot at an A it would be this paper. But looks like that's down the drain and I was depressed for a while.

So then having learnt my lesson, I worked it for Mol Gen. Thought that even though everyone was afraid of it because it made absolutely no sense during lessons and that it was all new material we had to get used to and nobody really knew what the teachers wanted us to know, if I studied I'd at least manage. But then the paper happened and hardly any of us knew what was going on. Honestly, I didn't understand a thing. I'm mentally prepared to fail this paper.

Sometimes I get the feeling that it's not that I don't work hard enough, it's just that I'm not smart enough. Full stop. Maybe it's just not my thing. I'm not smart. It's sad. I honestly had never felt so demoralised over a paper than I was that day.

And it doesn't help either to hear (or see on Facebook) all the so-much-more-intelligent people discuss answers and throw in complicated terms you've never heard before and include other things that make you feel like you have the knowledge of a child compared to that of, say, Einstein.

Thankfully Chem was okay, so now my morale isn't so low. Although I'm not going to like, get full marks or anything (I know a couple of people who will, and I try hard not to be envious), but maybe just maybe I can scrape an A. Please.

So yeah, that was exam week. Time passes by really fast when you're working your ass off. Glad it's over, but then again I don't want to see my marks because I'm scared it'll make my failure a reality.

Sort of like a reinforcement of my stupidity.

Damn.