pffft. I am the first to be interviewed. At least I'll get it over and done with quickly. Being last means having to wait in agony. I suppose.
The purpose of this post is solely to bump things down, and I hope it will serve its purpose by being empty, but full of purposeful space for my mighty Purpose. I don't like leaving empty spaces though; empty spaces on paper mean wasted paper-> unneccesary comsumption-> climate change. If everyone left a wee bit of empty space on their paper, one entire piece of paper will be wasted, and soon enough, millions, which will result in worldwide forest destruction. Empty spaces on a webpage, however, mean entirely different things, which will be discussed in later posts.

Meet the Austins by Madeline L'engle
This is more family centered than the Time Quartet*, and more suitable for younger readers. As an older reader with a more concrete mindset, and not the impressionable person I was, I approached this book with many paradigms. The Austins believe very much in God and His presence, and this plays a large part in keeping the family together. The theme of religion is more significant in this book than her others, perhaps because God played a large role in L'engle's life, and she wanted an opportunity to showcase this. [Meet the Austins] emphasises the importance of strong bonds between siblings, as well as the trust and respect for one's parents. When the book was written in the 1960s, the family unit was still significant in American history. This is before the advent of modern communications, as well as working parents and overscheduled children, bringing us to an era when peace within a family was more importance than the peace within oneself. An in-depth narrative of life at home, including details one can almost only experience first hand, suggests that L'engle grew up in this kind of family, and her family is part of who she is today. Comparing my life with Vickys', the protagonists' , Vicky, without the influence mass media has on us today, is more innocent, and has a firmer sense of belonging to her family and faith in her religion. However, the questions she has while growing up are not very different from mine, reminding us that self-doubt and a less definite view of the world are not only problems adolescents of today face.

* A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters

I think my clauses are wrong.

I just might have a chance to watch equus. I think. IF I get accepted for the wales trip, IF the teachers agree to watching a play and IF they consent, also considering the price. (the cheapest tickets are 19.50 pounds, around $60) If price is most important, othello/ the merchant of venice is 5 pounds ($15) but you have to stand. I would like to watch the mousetrap, a mystery play by Agatha Christie, Chicago, Fame, Les Miserables, The Monty Python(!) a Misummer Night's Dream, Phantom, Macbeth, Cabaret, Dirty Dancing and so forth. Oh and they have 43 applicants, but only 40 slots, so they are still holding interviews ): Three people won't be hard to squeeze, won't it? I don't know what to say for the interview, but I'll have lots of time to prepare- I'm the last! So you see I'm counting my eggs before they hatch (again) But this time hopefully it's safer because there's a higher chance of getting in. For Boston summer school its on a first -come- first serve basis, (rolling basis) so I'll have to write out my personal statement soon, photocopy my results, and get the financial bit down and send my application. I can reject the application once they reply without having applied for the visa or anything, so I suppose I can decide later. Ohoh and Crystal, charisse and junru signed up- so I know I won't be lonely but then again, making new friends is also very fun if I go to boston. Yes, I am a very undecisive person.
I swear the first thing I'm going to get is a lunette when I get a credit card.
I will be a good and undistracted person by doing math, german and chinese, so that my mum won't nat, and so I have a nice gpa.

I'm at school to watch the tt people and then after that I'm going to go to the library in takashimaya to mug math and german and maybe meet hoongyan. I might have a dairyqueen and then go to moelc for german. I haven't come in a week (to blog) and I suppose you can tell.

Mum wants me to go to Boston University's Summer Challenge Program during the june holidays. I 've printed out the application and everything and mum is really bent on me going but it might clash with trainingcamp, and I'll miss a bit of school. But even after I send in the application I still have to see if they accept me or not, so. Plus it costs US$3000 excluding spending money and airline tickets, compared to the Wales trip which is $3000 sing (around US$2250) with everything included, and which I also signed up for. But the summer challenge thing sounds really fun- you have 2 seminars in a day, get to stay in a real dorm and even get to see fun things like Shear Madness and explore Boston yourself. There's a lot more autonomy and space to do your own thing, get to know other people and experience what university might be like. But for the Wales trip I'm with people I already know (no one would know me if I went to boston) The topics of study are more relavant to what I'm doing in school, and there is a lot more fieldwork and out of classroom exposure involved. Of course, mum would prefer me to go to both, but that= a lot of money. She doesn't usually pay any consideration to this in my argument. Also, she thinks that Boston isn't safe enough to be on my own, so she, my sister and my dad are all coming along if I go. This is an incredible statement that is all encompassing and I feel my wallet burning as I type this. Oh jeez I sound stingy and miserable but they have to pay for accomodation, food, plane tickets etc and it adds up. I should get the estimates and maybe she'll relent. But I can't help planning for my trip ( if I ever go) - planning where I'll visit, what I'll do, what I'll bring; what it would be like staying on my own for two weeks. I don't want to get my hopes up and the more sensible half of me says no anyway, but if I get all psyched up or psyche myself up, I'll be really disappointed if I don't get accepted. ( you have to write a personal statement in your application)

it's been 12 days. 12 days! procrastination gets the best of me at times. And it is not a good time when my printer is throwing temper tantrums. i.e. now D: aop

Mass swim today was fun! I forgot how great swimming could be- I haven't been swimming in ages, unless you count kayaking in obs. There were little flies all over the place- they buzz around and land on your shirt in masses. Especially on my bright green buckle shirt- somehow they didn't land on the new dark green one. They are tiny brown dots with even tinier wings, and some have developed enough to become red and have wriggly legs. When you dust them off your shirt, they fly a distance away and come back, so you have to pick them off individually and squish them, when they subsequently leave yellow slime on your shirt and fingers. But it was okay after mass swim, because they all drowned in the pool and left little fly corpses floating around. I stayed for mass aquarobics, which was relatively easy to get a representation point :D and we did a lot of splashing! The people who participate in house activities are usually house comm members, and not many non-comm people were seen. (except sec ones) :(
[pfft. I want to SLEEP. stupid printer.]
drowsiness-> lack of vocabulary-> excessive use of smilies; although I've been up later and written a more credible blog post. lousy stamina.
The Worthing Saga was very lovely and very human; more so than ender's game. It, apparently, stemmed from one of the first SF short stories that osc wrote. It is more science fiction than fantasy,but I still like it lots. It was also the only decent osc book (besides ender's game) that the school library had, besides this long series about american beginnings or something like that. The Saga explores issues of human ethics, especially in the case of Jason Worthing's, the protagonist's, mind-reading abilities. I plan to borrow xenocide from the library after school on friday to keep me alive and sane, and will probaly lend the worthing saga to charisse. This review significantly diminishes in quality compared to luna's, even though this is thicker.

July 21st 2007!!!! omfg *hyperventilates and possibly ceases breathing* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released at 12.01am (new york time I think, so around 12 noon the same day in Singapore) in addition to the release of OotP on July 13th Friday (in Canada, the US and in the UK), = a harrypotter summer! It's on a Saturday so I have the weekend to read it. But it'll probably be in term3 with lots of pts, SAs and whatnot so I have a feeling it wouldn't be such a good idea. And harrypotter fever would practically end by 21/7 , for good )): All the hype would be from friday to saturday of that week, and it would ebb before the next week is out. I honestly did not expect it to be so soon, and I have a feeling I would miss listening to theory discussions on mugglecast, and what would happen to editorials?! I actually wanted it to be around june 2008 so that jkr would have sufficient time to do it up properly and we would have lots and lots of time to postulate. Also, I'm not sure if this is a wise publicity stunt by the publishers, because once the hype dies down, it would be difficult for sales to rise again. The sale of the book would have to compete with sales of the movie, as well as publicity, so there would be less net sales of the book even though there is greater hype. Some might argue that the movie would instead promote the book, since the movie is released earlier, and maybe persuade non-harry-potter readers but harrypotter movie-watchers to buy a copy.
I don't think I'll pre order; the last time I did it, the book came 2 days late, and I was spoiled by then ): I should get to writing an editorial, if I want to, really soon.