here's a little flower for you

I'M DONE WITH TWO EXAMS!  :DDD  I just have Interactional Discourse exam to go, but that's on the 5th of December, so I'm going to give myself a little break before I start revising.  I really prefer having exams spread out than to have them on consecutive days -- or even worse, like what I had last semester, have two exams on the same day!  It's less stressful.  I don't mind if everyone ends earlier than I do, because they have to wait for me to go out with me anyway MUAHAHAHA.  :x  Introduction to Cultural Studies exam and Reporting Statistics in the Media exam both went alright, I think!  The former was on Saturday and the latter, yesterday.  I've more faith in my own writing now, so I'm less afraid of voicing my opinion in a more direct manner and don't try to remove myself from my essay as much now.  Maybe it's because I'm a Year 4, and the past years of experience have helped?

Bert and Melcher!  This was from Week 12 when we were rehearsing our presentation for Interactional Discourse, a little before our class started.




Messing around with Photobooth right in front of the entrance of the library, hahahaha yes we don't care what others think of us!





This is just absolutely hilarious

Our presentation went well, I think!  We worked on applying Jonathan Culpeper's model to understanding Impoliteness to three scenarios: 1) the quarrel scene from The Notebook 2) one of Gordan Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares USA episode, the one with crazy Abby in it 3) "Rice Wars" argument between tribes Ometepe and Zapatera in Survivor: Redemption Island

It's pretty cool what we get to do in classes.  :D Understanding how the world works around us, and in particular something like Impoliteness is so... natural (when I say natural, I mean, when you gauge something/someone to be impolite, you sort of just know, without really thinking about what makes it impolite, don't you?), that when we try to break it down and apply it to different situations we get surprising results.  Anyway, Bert and I got to swoon over Ryan Gosling and Marlon Brando when we were researching what to do for this project, which was a plus!  When we presenting, Kim Soong actually asked about the Survivor episode, and went "Okay I think I remember this episode" and we were like omg this is from season 22 you are such a fan!


I guess the text says it all!  Our last Language, Gender and Text class with Mie and Huang Hoon was in Week 12.  This is a group photo with trusty Thom propped up on an old and dusty OHP!  While I have cried in many of Gender classes (during, and after, actually) because of the really painful and heartwrenching content we're shown, I'm very very very grateful for the knowledge I've gained from this class.  I have learnt so much regarding women and men, sexuality, sexual orientation, the family and so many other systems around us, and it has really helped me understand the practices surrounding us, and also the inequalities that minority groups face.  Also, my group got to work on telephone sex operators for our group project, which was pretty interesting.

Some of the content we were shown included The Bro Code (Click here for Trailer to The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture creates Sexist Men).  As you can tell from the title, it had a lot to do with masculinity, and how our cultures teach boys to be sexist in very effective methods. These methods actually reinforce each other, and boys (and even girls, to be honest) learn how to be sexist.  I don't say it just because I'm a female, but it was very illuminating to find out the systematic ways in which sexism is learnt.  We always think about the institutions and agents around as simply teaching us the practices of our culture, but we seldom stop to ponder if there could be another way in which "things are done".  Another was Saving Face, a documentary following acid-attack victims in Pakistan. That documentary was filmed in 2010, and the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill was passed because of that documentary, but sadly, according to this article, the laws are still slow in punishing these criminals.  These women were attacked, mostly by their husbands, by ACID and even then their perpetuators get to go scot-free.  Some of the husbands' mothers actually were complicit in the attack, which kind of highlights that gender equality isn't really about females against males.  It's just about wanting the world to be equal on the paradigm of gender, the same alongside race, class and other differences.

If you're an EL major, an EN major, or you've taken EL1101E before, do consider taking EL4253!  (:  I highly recommend it.  Mie is so passionate you will fall in love with her.  (: (: (:


Charlene and Bert matchy matchy in the same top heh!






With Edna and Rophi!  I'm so glad that Edna and I got to be in Gender class together because hey IT'S EDNA.  :D  We're secondary 1 and 2 classmates!  She's a EN major, so we haven't been in any classes together.


Melcher and I attempting to subvert traditional gender roles in advertisements; him with his subdued, defeated pose, and I with my masculine, strong, confrontational stance.  LOL


#epicfail


Zannatul, Arathi, Amanda and Diah with Mie and Huang Hoon!


Two of my favourite professors!  (:  I will forever remember what Huang Hoon said during the first seminar "Why would a boy be killed for his swish, for the way he walks?"


Went to meet Bryan for dinner after class



We ate at the Reedz cafe near the Business school!  It has a pretty good chicken alfredo at a pretty affordable 5.80$.


I just unabashedly sat in front of the entrance of Mochtar Riady Building for an #ootd HAHAHAAH


sunlight always makes for a good picture (:

[I just returned home from a longgggg day spent at Sentosa with Momsy and Grams!  (:  Was really cool to spend some time with 'em and have a nice break from sitting just facing notes.  But I couldn't really sleep yesterday night, so I'm exhausted right now.  Gonna finish this entry first though, else it's gonna be pretty disjointed!]


On Thursday I bumped into Ms Neo!  She had on really cute earrings so I insisted on two photos with her, one with her showing each side of her face heh.



ZIPPER EARRINGS!  How cute, right.

'twas the day that we had our Narrative Structures essay test!  I hope I did well for it, I chose a question which no one else seemed to have chosen!


PHOTO WITH MOR AND HER AI XIN PACKAGE FOR US (: (: (:  A bunch of us year 4s were sore about sacrificing our welfare packs for the juniors (not really), but Mor gave us our own lovely packages instead :3  Thank you so much!



MINI MILO AND TOBLERONE were consumed when I was really stressed out over ID paper. Hahahahaha

During the weekend of Week 12, I was honestly stressing out over the ID essay and also Honours Thesis Topic submission.  I had a 0 word count at 2am and I had a 1,400 word count at 6am on Sunday morning.  SERIOUSLY I'm not cut out for doing essays last minute.  It's really, really stressful and I'm really prone to panic attacks.  Lol.  I recall it was raining though, and that helped a lot.  Writing to the pitpattering of rain always helps.  Our essays have already been returned to us, and thankfully I obtained an average score!  Much better than my mid-term, so I'm very grateful.  Now to work hard for the final exam! :D

Monday, Week 13


Here's our Interactional Discourse class photo with Dr Peter Tan!  Seriously he has the best quirky dress style.




Joji, Melcher, Bert, Dr Tan and I!


and a solo shot with him!  Honestly he's a really cool professor.  I think he genuinely tries to reduce the power differential between his students and his position as a teacher, but unfortunately for myself I still feel too intimidated to really address him as an equal (He said we could call him Peter!), and just behave in a friendly manner haha.  I also really learnt a lot from him in this module; it's really well structured and thought out.



Giving Bert a hug after the poor girl received 4 injections O_O



Aly doing last minute work!!!  Hahahahahahaah #thepowersofpeerpressure


Kim Soong and I! (:



#ootd
top, forever21 ; maxi skirt, vero moda; necklace, diva

On Wednesday morning I dragged myself to the last lecture of Introduction to Cultural Studies and this darling doll just happened to sit next to me!


Yanlingggggg is so cute heh.  Throughout class we just mumbling random stuff to ourselves because whilst being highly interesting, the module lacks good lecture slides hence it is difficult for students to follow the classes.  :3  I have grown to really like Dr Phillips though his notes are friggin' amazing.


Lenses... were... giving... me... too... much... pain... so I removed them.  Gang says I "爱美不要命 (death at the expense of looking pretty??  Is that a good translation??)" BUT NO LOR I SCARED FOR MY EYES

Then........ I DECIDED TO GO CUT BANGS ON A WHIM!  I just hopped off the train and went to a hairdresser and placed my faith in her.


WADDUP

Thursday, Week 13



Jun Yong, Jiexin, Jeffrey, Bert and I had to give our presentation on the brand narrative of The Singapore Girl that week!  Jeffrey and I sat out on the presentation; the other three did a brilliant job!  :D  No, we were not clad in sarong kebayas.


Narrative Structures class with Dr Talib!  :DDDDDDDDDDDDDD


AND I HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED DR TALIB AS MY HONOURS THESIS SUPERVISOR!!!!!!!!! :DD  I love doing film analysis and I really enjoyed Cinematic Discourse and Narrative Structures and just Dr Talib's work in general so YAY I AM REALLY GLAD  :DDDDDDD

That is such a shitty photo though I look absolutely terrible in it I have got to ask him for another.



Eunice, Rophi and I! :D


Eunice with her painstakingly made Game of Scandals board she made all by herself for her group's presentation!

After class, Bert, Jan and I went to the Honours room where Melcher and Gang started being mean to me about my bangs.  INITIALLY I WAS VERY HAPPY WITH MY BANGS but after seeing the photos that we'd just taken in class I couldn't get used to. My. Face. -_-" But I guess it was also because I was wearing spectacles??  AH EVS



We spotted a worm hanging in the middle of nowhere LIKKABOSS

FINALLY, WE HAD OUR RAMEN OUTING!!

We went to Tonkotsu King at Orchid Hotel (:


I tried the Red spicy version this time, and I wasn't really pleased with my decision.  ):  I feel that the red pepper is too overwhelming and kills a lot of the pork broth taste!  I prefer the original, or the Black spicy one, when I'm in the mood for a more savoury ramen.  STILL THOUGH, AWESOME RAMEN


Happy kids!


According to Horkheimer and Adorno, every single one of our experiences is mediated O: O: O: What is my taking a photo of their taking a photo of their consumption of food considered??


:D

After dinner, we went to a random restaurant to chill out!


Bert with her latteeee


My Kilkenny and I!  First time I was trying this out, it's an Irish cream ale.  I usually stay away from ales because I think they're pretty strong and cloudy but this was really... creamy and light?  Lol!


Also, round two was Erdinger dunkel for me, always goooooooooooooooood

We had a funny conversation about toasted lizards, lizards stuck in doorframes, and lizards in rose syrup.  I LOVE YOU YOU BUNCH OF SILLY PEOPLE


(: (: (:




Silly lovely kids


I went home and I slept for approximately two hours before I woke up.  I don't know why but I couldn't sleep!  Maybe it was the beer.  But anyway I plopped myself down in front of the laptop and had a good long look at our Cultural Studies project -- I had missed quite a few group meetings because I was ill quite a few Fridays and hadn't really properly done anything for it besides the introduction because the deadlines for my core modules were so late -- and I realised that the entire thing was really incoherent  ):  We were also over the word count by a terrible mile and didn't have a clear argument running through the essay.  So I started to edit it!


Got myself a nice Oreo cheesecake at 5am, just because I needed a reward for working hard. :D

Went for Cultural Studies tutorial the next day and told my groupmates that I was going to change the project thoroughly!


Had lunch in school before going home!



#ootd
grey slouchy tee, asos ; plaid skorts, ohsofickle; necklace, camden town market; timepiece, solvil et titus; boots, dr marts

I was getting ready for school, putting on makeup, when a parcel arrived for me!  My younger brother answered the door for me and I just wore the skorts and went out LOL


Thanks B for taking this photo for me, and also for hailing a cab for me!  My right contact lens was really giving me so much pain that I plucked it out and threw it on the ground.  SNARLS.  I paid 20$ for my vanity hahahahahahaha.

Returned home and worked MY BUTT OFF for the Cultural Studies project.  Our group chose to work on hashtags!  As I said, I'd only written the introduction so while editing I had to pull everyone's points out from their paragraphs and had to rework a lot of shit to make it more an analytical essay than a descriptive one.  I wrote quite a fair bit of new stuff and to be honest I never thought much of hashtags until I did this group project, so it was really interesting.  It really reflects the language and culture of this age of current social media users!  In any case, it was handed up and sent back with a big fat A!  It's worth 50% so I'm fucking glad my Friday and Saturday spent on it paid off.  Special thanks goes to Joachim and Zhiwei, because honestly y'all helped so so so much (though y'all aren't my groupmates hahahahaha) (:

I went off to celebrate my Saturday with Flea, but I think I'll leave that for another time.  Hope y'all had a nice good long read from this entry, and that your days are going by awesome!  (:  Imma be starting my revision for ID tomorrow!

Love,
Pamela


PS Someone asked me "So tell me what it takes to become more than your FB friend."  Initially, I was taken aback, because, who asks such questions??  Then I gave it some thought.  I truthfully answered "I really don't have an answer."  Honestly though, if you're a cool person and someone whom I really want to know better, I'd actively be asking you out to hang out with you.  I mean, if we have similar interests and I feel like we can hang out, I'll ask you out man.  That's not to say that I automatically think that those whom I haven't asked out aren't worthy of my time, it's just that I haven't had enough time, what with school and all.  There're so many EL majors whom I want to know better..................... ):  TIME TO START ASKING PEOPLE OUT ON DATES DURING THE HOLS!  :D


PPS Speaking about hanging out, I recently hung out with two really cool persons.  One was a friend (a girl), but not a really close one, and the other was a close friend's of hers (a guy).  Toward the end, my friend exclaimed about me to him, "Oh, she's the really feminist kind"

To which the guy replied "Huh really, you don't look like leh"

And then we proceeded to talk about some other related event.  After which, he concluded "Oh well, just as long as you don't take it too far"

I really enjoyed our chill out session.  That was a really cool time, spent talking about exchange, school and shit.  But this final remark of his really stuck with me -- I don't think he actually intended anything negative in his remark but excuse me, but how does one take feminism too far?  How does one take believing in the equality of all genders TOO FAR?  ):  I was upset by it for awhile, thinking about how much hatred women receive for standing up for their rights.  I sincerely believe that their work should be appreciated, and more people should be brave and stand up for equal rights.  It's because of negative portrayals of feminists in the media and negative stereotypes that have led people to think that feminists are man-hating butch lesbians.  For that question, how does one even look like a feminist???

Because I am very sleepy now and unable to be fully coherent, see here the opinions of two other persons who're way more eloquent than I am --

From an interview with George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, from which the television drama series Game of Thrones was adapted:


from Upworthy: Why it shouldn't be difficult to write believable female characters

And a speech by Joss Whedon, who wrote the screenplay of and directed The Avengers, and is the man responsible for creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer (novels which I always borrrowed from the public libraries when I was in secondary school!!):



PPPS Of course I'm not hating on that person for that single remark; I genuinely think he's a really cool person.  It's just that that one thing he said really stuck with me and made me ponder over some issues.  That's how this blog operates, most of the time -- my thought process gets triggered by a friend's words, and I write them down here.  So yeah.

WITH THAT I BID THEE GOODNIGHT! (:

Labels: a few tears, a little laughter, a long read, Feminism, FIGHTING, gender issues, hair experiments, happyphotos, I LOVE MY FRIENDS, NUS, Outfits, Ramen Keisuke, school, teachers, thankful, thoughts

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