It's Official

Yep, that's right. It's official. I cannot cook, bake, do anything that is remotely edible.
We had a little potluck get-together turned impromptu Thanksgiving meal today (it's not really a holiday here but whatever).

So there I was trying to make some apple turnovers the shortcut way i.e. buying premade puff pastry. At least the apples were real I guess...well as real as you can get, who knows what they grow them with these days considering chicken are fed steroids.

Anywho, so in the interest of saving time I thought I was smart by using baking paper because theoretically it shouldn't stick to the food goods right? Wrong. Twenty minutes after the oven, I was surgically removing the bottom layer of pastry as the paper has decided to not only adhere to it, but indefinitely marry itself to the pastry. Wonderful.

It didn't turn out too bad I guess..we still ate it. It's just not the most aesthetically appealing apple turnovers ever. Huh.

So there you have it. I'm a twenty-first century girl.
I'm quite sad, seeing as I believe in chivalry and therefore, should also subscribe to the woman-kitchen mantra. Don't get me wrong, I'm not supporting the domesticating of women because hell no, we're still trying to break the glass ceiling and I fully support that. I still think it's nice in awhile to play out traditional roles. For old times appreciation sake I guess.

Then the plan this holiday is definitely practise the cooking. Wish me luck!

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Love This City

So we've finished our exams and decided to hit the beach and engage in some good carnivorous meal. One of the best dine out I've had in a lonng time!

We strolled along the harbour with gelato that night and it dawned on me. I love this city. Wouldn't live anywhere else in the world..well, I guess that's a bit pretentious seeing as I haven't seen a lot of the rest of the world. Still love it though.

It's slower than NYC but not boring.

It's buzzing with people but you can still see the blue sky.

The beach is 20min from the CBD. Bah, I sound like an ad but here, a picture says a thousand words. It was taken by my friend, Shihui.

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The Anomaly

So for some reason the thought of old family photographs crossed my mind today. I found a whole bunch of old black and white ones complete with creases and yellowed edges pictures of my grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts. The ones I know, and the ones I've never known. Photos with friends, ones in military uniforms, portraits, family gatherings. It's a whole other life. It is strange to see them when they were young. It feels very far away. Maybe it reminds me of the fleeting passage of time.

Now, here's the anomaly: You ever notice how black and white photographs always lend themselves to great stories? There is a lingering nostalgia, a yearning for the past. There seems to be so much more to the story of a black and white photograph compared to a coloured one. Why is that?

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Nostalgia

Stuff I grew up with. 'Twas an awesome show!

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When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

You'd think it's kinda creepy to name a children's novel with a reference to Hitler, but hey, I remember it to be a fantastic book about a Jewish girl growing up in Germany in the 1930s, having to relocate to France, and then only to move to Switzerland. All so that she can be alive.

We read it in sixth grade and it was probably the first time I learnt of modern European history and WWII. Thus, it begins my love for history. I'm not sure why I've always had a fascination with this period of history. Maybe it's the glorious military uniforms, maybe it's the combat stories, maybe it's Churchill's powerful speeches. Yet, let's not forget that Hitler was a great orator too.

Or maybe, it's the atrocity of the human capacity for hatred that has surpassed any comprehension and have always made me seek to understand how and why did this kind of carnage ever occured? And still, it happened. Because people became conditioned. Because good people did nothing.
I wonder if much has changed since then.

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"In Germany, first they came for the Communist, and I didn't speak up, because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionist, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
--Pastor Martin Niemoller (Nazi victim)

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Universal Truth In An Age of Reason

One of the things that really frustrates me about the modern popular philosophy is taking relativism to extreme. Yes, sure everyone have their own preference for dessert and what I like may not be what you like, but this doesn't mean that we live in our own vacuum of social and moral construct. If this was the case, who'd abide by traffic rules, or pay tax, and on the more scary level, what right does the court have to convict a man of murder if he personally believes this is the 'right' thing to do?

The very idea of 'justice' would become obsolete, amongst other things. In our very core, we know injustice to be wrong.
The notion of "what's right for you isn't what's right for me" does not apply always.
And yet, people subcribe to this mantra of moral relativism like some kind of revolutionary enlightenment in the history of the human story.

No, I am not saying that one should forcibly impose ideals at the expense of personal freedom as I have no wish to be a bureaucrat. I am saying that on a person-to-person level, I hope that we all care enough to realise for ourselves that there is something noble and honourable in pursuing and standing up for a cause and to reflect on the universal truth that all men are created with equal dignity; including the frail, the weak, the marginalised, the sick, the poor, and the unborn.

What's brought on this tangent? I came across this article. It's an interesting read.

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Twenty-somethings Angst

My two best friends came by today. They bought cakes. Yummy ones! It was nice to have dinner with them and have a mini-break from my current cram sessions. I don't even know WHY we have seven written exams when I really only do two "subjects" because of the integrated nature of the course. And they're long too!

Now before I slip into whiny undergrad student mode only to look back in four years at this post and get embarassed from the sulk fest, better stop self. Yes. Must.

So we had dinner and reminisce about how much time has passed. How everything's changed and nothing's changed at all. Heh.
Bunch of twenty-somethings 'reflecting' on life after high school. Deep. Classic.
What a Dawson's Creek-ish episode.

And yet, I cannot help it. I am older and now that I think about it, if I had gone back in time to ask my fifteen year-old self where do I see myself in _____ years from now, I realised that I am exactly where I wanted to be.
Still at uni. tick
Doing what I enjoy. tick
..and a few other ticks that I won't mention here.

I'm looking forward to summer. Not so much the heat and humidity we witnessed today, but just more the thought of lazing around knowing it's the holidays. There's nothing like Christmas Eve on a summer's night. I love this country. Iwant to see more of it.

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Ear Candy

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O Happy Day

So I received an email from a good friend today containing happy news. Beautiful news!
Every once in awhile, one hears of some selfless deed, sacrificial love, an immense act of courage and it really brightens one's day, one's outlook on an arguably bleak situation that the advanced telecommunications of our time churns out for us every day on TV or the radio.

The good news have nothing to do with me directly, yet I am elated nonetheless. :)

On another note, I have started reading Utopia again.
I wonder why people often fail to see that philosophical mores of our time are hardly new, nor groundbreaking, nor revolutionary but mere confirmation of ancient ideas and predictions that have shown to be farcical.
We have so much to learn of history, if only we made the time to look.
And then perhaps we will be awaken with what we find.

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NOPLACIA was once my name,

That is, a place where no one goes.

Plato's Republic now I claim

To match, or beat at its own game;

For that was just a myth in prose,

But what he wrote of, I became,

Of men, wealth, laws a solid frame,

A place where every wise man goes;

GOPLACIA is now my name.

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Yes We Can!

Perhaps it's just me, but all the recent Obama rhetoric have only reminded me that his now infamous catchphrase has been done here.

Cute.

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Academic Pursuits

So, after a period of AWOL not long after I initiated this thing, I'm back. Yes, it is now STUVAC.
As I keep reminding myself of the contribution to society which I shall make lies in me actually learning stuff, I can't help but be drawn into tangents from events of the past few weeks.

So while I begrudgingly start on my lung cancer case for the week, silently sulking to self about the pains of reading AN ENTIRE chapter on neoplasia, I was greeted with the news that someone close was living out the reality of it all.

Lung cancer. Stage 4.

This started my existential contemplation for the week. In between two funerals and the aforementioned news, I ponder the solitude of being human. We are such communal creatures, we live in villages, aggregate in towns, build cities, establish governance and write constitutions. We gather to celebrate successes. Yet, the most defining moments in our lives, are experienced alone. Birth and death.

It's a mystery. An inexplainable truth.

What's a life if it is not pursued with love and meaning, none at all.

And so it is reminded to me one Sunday: death is change, a new beginning to our eternal end.
It is so easy to be told when it is detached from our own lives. In the confrontation, we often forget and fear take precedent. It is not until we are reminded that peace replaces such restlessness.
How good it is to have a constant in one's life!

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