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Friday, 21 March 2014 // 11:48 pm
First post of 2014. I can't believe I didn't even post anything in January - first miss in four years, dating all the way back to 2009 (this blog started in December 2008). This basically means that right here, I have - attempted to anyway - documented various events of my short life from Year 7 onwards; beginning to high school to now the upcoming end. Six years.
I am embarrassed of the immaturity that flows through the entries of my early blogging years but I don't want to go back and delete them. It'll be the equivalent of editing or removing parts of the flaws that underpins the foundation of developing you into the person with the identity you have today, and deep inside we all know that's not humanely possible in real life so why do it here? I'm more than happy to embrace those cringe worthy lines. Maybe six years from now I'll be reading this very post and think "heck, why was I trying to be so deep?" or maybe just a "WTF" moment but you know, we all have to work with our ever changing expectations, it wouldn't be fair to judge the past with the current standards now would it?
Year 12 started last year and so in theory I'm reaching the end of Term 2 already. Year 11 passed like a breeze - a good, comforting, warming breeze. I hope I can say the same thing for this year.
Officially finished with my half-yearlies yesterday. The two last subjects were English Extension and Modern History. As usual, I try not to self-evaluate after exams so I didn't really think much about them afterwards. I have a general idea of what I want to do after high school but what you want to do is different from what you can do. For now I'll just have to try my best and ensure everything's done to the best of my abilities.
Mum came back with my brother from their one month and a half holiday trip and she brought back some of the best presents: books -- a lot of them, good ones too. I am waiting diligently for the translation of Haruki Murakami's newest novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage to be released, scheduled for sometime in August (birthday month, coincidence much?). Murakami is also publishing a new short stories collection so it'll take a while before the English translation is available but nevertheless, I'm excited because my appreciation for short stores is growing day by day. Personally I think they should be more difficult to nail than novels or novellas. Since it's a short, meaning limited in the volume of words, it also has to be concise. To have a great short story you really have to judicial about what to write. That's why short stories that manages to leave behind a long message always amaze me.
What else? Picking up a copy of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Hollow City. Starting Battle Royale , The Marriage Plot and finish off the rest of my Murakami collection. Before all that though, I should really finish Memoirs of a Geisha for my History Extension project and Wuthering Heights (in this case, actually open the book). Frankenstein was surprisingly good. If I have to list a list of the books school has made me read in a order of preference, it would probably be third, after The Great Gatsby and 1984, then you have Fahrenheit 451, Utopia and Northanger Abbey.
Initially I was angry with prescribed texts for assassinating the joy of reading. It's just less fun when you are forced to read a particular work. The worst bit is when you know you can't read it for pure enjoyment, rather you have to do an "in-depth analysis" and later write an essay about it. It just kills reading. Of course, I shouldn't complain because it has introduced me to some great authors, like George Orwell and F. Scott Fitzgerald, now my favourite author after Murakami. Fortunately the joy is coming back.
As the HSC is sneaking somewhere around the corner and getting closer every second I've rediscovered my appreciation for books. Don't get me wrong, I don't really have time to read them (we are well into March and the only book I've actually managed to finish so far is 160 170 180 by Chen Chen) but I've been ordering various books and crossing them off my wish list. It releases my stress -- not compulsive internet shopping -- but when they arrive in the mail and I place them onto my own book shelves, knowing they're there, waiting to be read. It also encourages me to do well, so I won't feel guilty when I do get through them after the big exam in November.
Phew, that was a long post. Perhaps it'll make up for my absence in the past three months. Till next time.
Listening: XO by Beyonce
Reading: A Journey, Through Time, with Anthony III by Anthony
Addicted: good books and short stories
