June

June finds me at a disadvantage. What with having to balance the twin plea(res)sures of homework/revision and the playing of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which, upon perusal of Der Faschist's blog on Diablo II, I have little inhibitions admitting to.

So far, at least, most of the mundane homework has been dealt with. History IA practice is painfully underway. EE has been shamefully shoved into a corner very temporarily. Once I get more reference material, I'll start. The pressures of the CTs are but a distant dream, imperative though they may be. Revision will resume...soon. 16th June is my preferred date.

Oblivion is compelling, despite less-than-ideal computer specifications, combining an interesting multi-threaded storyline with a large portion of freeform gameplay. Although gameplay invariably gets dull after the thousandth dungeon-sweeping. Frequent sword-swinging may just render my mouse inoperable sometime.

But the dull weather beats on and rest evades me. If only the common tests were before June...but wait, they were.

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Two thoughts have been gravitating in my mind recently.

1

I was rereading Foundation after a long long hiatus of non-Foundation-ness and Hari Seldon's character struck me with a new...familarity. Who else in the world of fiction, I thought, was an athletic, highly intelligent but naive provincial academic flanked by a younger but more discerning female sidekick cum guide who goes on a travelogue-ish romp through disparate locales in pursuit of an intractable academic problem that has applications beyond the mundane pursuit of knowledge, chased by forces who are not exactly what they seem?

Why, Robert Langdon, of course. It probably is a sort of literary formula 101 archetype, because it basically covers the three essentials of exciting fiction: danger, romance and hilarity.

2

I don't think Singapore produces little or no talent relative to its size. Its just that the system here works in such a way that the only way to get a stable job and a good life is to join the government. Or to make a career of opposing it. Or to leave. So the emigres and the government are the talent of Singapore, and as for the budding entrepreneurs of billionaire destiny and unconventional Warhol wannabes and Picasso potentials are few and far between, their kin having removed themselves to the time-consuming task of running the country. In other words, perhaps, the talents of Singapore mostly go the political path, rather than the economic or artistic path.

***