Reflecting on things tends to make me unhappy, or at least pensive/brooding. with december being the month of reflections for me, i guess you can see why i'm not at my cheeriest at this time of the year. nevertheless, there have been several events happening over the past few days to keep my spirits up, which is a good thing.

previously, i told you all that i got an iphone 4s. after playing with it for about a week, i'm happy to say that (1) there have been no accidents so far, and (2) i really like it. calling and messaging are easy, and i have yet to be embarrassed by atuocorrect. internet is fast on both 3G and wi-fi connections, and apps exist to circumvent most of the problems i've faced so far. sad thing is that some of the apps i want aren't free, so i'll have to see when's a good time to get them. siri, surprisingly, has been quite (~80%) accurate in recognizing my speech. impressive, considering i don't have an ang moh accent. while it is smart, i'm a little annoyed that it can't do some things the way i would like. but that would be a bonus already. after all, i can manually do those things to my liking if there's an urgent need.

so far, the one thing i am mildly unhappy about is that the battery drains a little fast. a full charge lasts me less than 2 days. but considering i use email, facebook, games, siri, and some other random apps, i suppose it's reasonable. and i wish we could set snooze times, too. but it's a minor problem again. if there's no snooze, use multiple alarms!

yesterday, i met some of the chem kids for dinner at vivocity. we ate at modesto's, where there was a promotion. $9.95 for selected items if you have the discount card. i tried this spinach cannelloni thing (at least i think that's what it was called)...basically spinach wrapped/rolled up in pasta rectangles with white sauce. i'm so tempted to recreate it. only thing stopping me is my lack of an oven to finish the dish off. maybe i can use a different cooking method or something? only experimentation will tell.

before going to vivocity, i was in school to buy microsoft office. i had to make the purchase before 4:30pm, while dinner was scheduled for about 7:00pm. NUS is, at most, half an hour from vivocity by train. see the problem yet? if you don't, i got to vivocity about 2 hours early. so, i killed 2 hours by walking around. managed to cover the entire mall in that time. the pet shop, daiso, tangs, toys-r-us, and the sky park thing were among the more memorable locations.

at the pet shop, i stopped to look at the puppies for sale. every time i do that, it just makes the desire to get one so much stronger. but common sense still wins at the end of the day. at present, i can't give it a fulfilling, meaningful life. so no point getting one now. it has made me think about what kind of dog i'd want, though. at present, i know small dogs like chihuahuas are out. there was this medium-sized type of dog which i thought was pretty cute. too bad i can't remember its name, though i seem to recall a spaniel of some sort. in general, i favour wolf-like dogs. they just look so nice! but enough about that for now.

visiting daiso made me feel accomplished, because i managed to read the katakana for a great number of products. so now i'm a little less clueless, and can make slightly more intelligent guesses as to what weird-looking products' actual functions are. that one trip just highlighted the relevance of taking japanese 1.

walking around the open park thing on the mall's roof made me get all philosophical. maybe it was also because of the timing. the sun was setting and as i've said before, i tend to do most of my thinking at sunrise/sunset. i remember thinking of a great many things, most of which i have forgotten, and will only recall sometime into the future. the one thought i remember having was, 'i'd like to be immortal'. not necessarily with other strengths or vulnerabilities, but just to not die. resisting all illnesses, recovering from all wounds. kind of like the mummy in Anne Rice's book. i think it would be fun to watch the world evolve for a couple of centuries.

that leads me to another thought. in all the stories i've read, immortal characters (or characters with a long lifespan) seem to be much richer than the people with normal lifespans. i guess it's because the former have more years to accumulate their wealth, and even if they were poor, the poverty wouldn't kill them. just a random tangent.

coming back to the main story, my trip to tangs actually comprises of 2 locations. first was this little (relative to the main store) area selling christmas-y stuff, then the main store itself. at the christmas shop, i managed to buy this year's christmas cards. the front depicts a brightly-lit christmas tree in a dark, snowy landscape. it's a bit hard to explain, and i know i didn't get all of the details. well, you'll see for yourself if you receive one this year. P.S. for people i know in real life, you might want to consider emailing me your mailing address. just saying.

as for the main tangs store, i went to check their cooking supplies out. maybe it's because it's tangs, but prices were way too high! i can understand a knife set costing upwards of $200, because they have to be forged, hardened, and all that other labour/machinery-intensive stuff. but why should a whisk cost about $30? compare to a similar product from NTUC, which goes for about $5. i probably wouldn't buy a $30 whisk, unless it had a 120rpm motor attached. even then, i think i'd buy knives from tangs when i move out and live alone. they actually feel pretty comfortable. and i saw the coolest storage block for knives. you know how the normal ones just have small slots to fit the knives? the one i liked has large slots which are filled with many thin plastic rods. think it's not as bad for the knife edge. so cool!

my friend also passed me his japanese 2 textbooks at the dinner. so far, i've casually glanced through them. that casual glance was already enough to intimidate me. i wonder if i'm being a little crazy, taking level 2 language in the same semester as UROPS...whatever the case, i should survive.

today, i went to meet a couple of prospective tuition kids. it's the first time i've been asked to give group tuition, so it'll take some getting used to. the weird thing is that the kids are at different academic levels. one of them is sec 3 going on sec 4, while the other is sec 4 going on J1. based on first impressions, i think the younger kid will be ok. he just needs some pushing in the right direction. but the older kid is a bit more problematic. in our conversation, i found out that he has no interest in the subject, and may not even take it up when he goes to J1 next year. so, the tentative plan is for me to see if i can rekindle his interest over this holiday. if it was entirely up to me, though, i probably wouldn't take him. but we'll see how things go.

lastly, my to-do list. i've got the cards, so that's one thing down. still have to go to east coast, and do area cleaning. the latter will be done tomorrow, but i don't know when i'll do the former. depends on several variables, mood being one of them as well. in the near future, i have to finish reading my library books, and depending on when the UROPS starts, maybe go back to school. good that there are things to keep me busy, otherwise i end up thinking about (someone), thinking bout me; thinkin bout us (us), what we gonna be? too much and making myself sad. but right now, i suppose i should get some sleep. for some reason, i've been sleeping about 8 hours every night, and i still feel lethargic halfway into the day. odd.

-random thought of the day: Feeling mildly unsettled.-