This Is Me...

You are a Visionary
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Your imagination, self-assuredness, and knowledge of the world combine to make you a VISIONARY.
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You have clear notions of how things could be, and the confidence to try to make them that way.
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You enjoy having a routine, and prefer comfort and familiarity to risk and adventure.
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Not needing others' approval to forge ahead, you are confident in your designs for the future.
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Your imagination allows you to envision the world as a better place.
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You're better at thinking of the big picture than you are with details, and you can see wonder in abstract things.
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Style and appearances are important to you, and you have a good eye for beauty.
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You are somewhat rigid in your beliefs, which comes from both confidence and an aversion to change.
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You are good at creating works of art in forms with which you're familiar.
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You prefer to have time to plan for things, feeling better with a schedule than with keeping plans up in the air until the last minute.
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You have a strong sense of style and value your personal presentation - friends may even seek your style advice from time to time.

If you want to be different:
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Appreciate the earthly, functional elements of things.
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Your clarity of vision sometimes prevents you from being open to new ideas. Try expanding your horizon of experiences, and experimenting with novel ways of doing things.



You are Attentive
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Because you like spending time with others, understand their feelings, and often know what is best for them, you are ATTENTIVE.
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Some people are merely concerned about others, but you take action, helping people when you have the opportunity.
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Although you care about others, you are hesitant to trust them to act in the best way on their own.
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You don't let your concerns with people go unnoticed: if someone has hurt your feelings, that person will hear about it.
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People energize and excite you—you are able to have fun and be yourself when you're around others.
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You also learn a lot about yourself by talking things out with people, even if you don't always share things that are important to you.
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You have a strong sense of right and wrong, and you're not hesitant to express yourself.
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Understanding the dynamics of a situation is an important skill that you have, and you often intervene to clarify things for others.

If you want to be different:
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You care about people, but finding the ones you can truly trust will allow you to get closer to them.
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While you have strong opinions about what is right and wrong in the world, you risk coming across as judgmental—be sure to consider different perspectives when voicing your opinion.

Death and Rebirth

The death of this current blog is but a facilitation of its rebirth in the following incarnation:

http://lerougeetlenoir.wordpress.com/

Best thing to happen in awhile...

Now that I've had time to let it sink in, let me put it out here.

Yesterday I received a pleasant surprise. My supervisor told me that I did an excellent job with my ISM. This is surprising indeed considering how I felt that I didn't make some of the connections very well. Coupled with Sam's comments that the driving force of the ISM was a bit weak, it's easy to imagine why his comments were suprising.

Then he said something that made me feel damn good...

"If you send this in as a piece of sample writing, I would think that even the Committee of Social Thought would be forced to seriously consider it."

*STUNNED*

Committee of Social Thought?! That's like every S******an wannabe's wet dream. To get into the hallowed halls built by THE idol.

Then he said something even better...

"I'm proud to have you as my student."

It's the best news that I could hear from him. Considering how I kinda fucked up the first paper - yes THAT paper that bordered on plagiarism - I wrote for him I really wanted to do well for him so that I could repay the effort that he had invested in me all these years.

A vindication of my life as an undergrad.

True justice is to be just simply

The Glauconian articulation of the truly just man is for him to be just for its own sake, without having an eye towards its rewards. On the contrary, to be truly just it to lead a wretched life. Why, then, would we want to be just? Is it worth it?

That I can ask this question already presupposes the difficulty of being just simply. Somehow the motivation to be just is always tempered with a utilitarian schema, tempered with some form of rational cost-benefit calculation.

So if it is so hard (or impossible) to be just for its own sake, is it time for us to re-evaluate our conditions of being just?

Because the desire to look towards one's own benefit is always alot stronger than the good of someone else when they come into conflict. Do I look after myself (even though it might be ethically dubious) or do I tend to the needs of others because it is right (but inherently unpleasant to one's self)? It is something that we inevitably have to face instead of sweeping it under the carpet and pretend that it's not there.

The inexorable call to look after Number One grows increasingly tempting indeed.

Finger Eleven - Slow Chemical

The wonder of the world is gone and old for sure

All the wonder that I would have found in her

As a hole becomes another strike to burn
An old flame returns

Every intuition fails to find it's way
One more table turned around I'm back again

Finding I'm a lost and found when she's not around
When she's not around I feel it coming down

Get me what I could never ask for
Connect me and you could be my chemical NOW

Give me the drug you know I'm after
Connect me and you could be my chemical

When everybody wants (the chemical of) your soul

When everybody wants (the chemical of) your soul

Slow and
Everybody wants you
So
Slow and
Everybody wants your soul

Give me what I could never ask for
connect me and you could be my chemical NOW

Give me the drug you know I'm after
Connect me and you could be the chemical

You could be the chemical
You could be the chemical
You could be the chemical
You could be the chemical

Stepping out...

...of one quagmire into another quagmire. What gives?

The temptation is to simply give in and sink...

The disconcerting calm after the tempestuous storm...

"I feel displaced at home so I came to school."
- Denise

Yup I can empathise with Denise. After the hustle and bustle of work with our balls-to-the-wall attitude it certainly feels strange now that there is a short respite before we start studying for our final set of exams. In fact "strange" does not even cut it. Disconcerting is more apt. When all your life there is always something to focus your mind, it is unsettling now that the reality of having finished our *LAST* assignment in NUS has hit home. There is no more next time.