Danny Boy

So very beautiful.

Random Post

It's hard to resort to the usual shortcuts for research essay writing when:

1. the marker is the writer of the authoritative textbook on that subject, that more than half of your arguments are derived from his writings.
2. the other possible marker is the recently retired High Court judge (coughGummowcough) who was on the bench for the constitutional case upon which your research task is formulated.
3. the other names that feature prominently in your essay work in the same building as your marker.
4. you almost failed your mid-term assessment the last time the marker (see number 1) marked your paper.
5. you only spent a week seriously working for this essay.
6. you stopped being on top of the readings halfway through the mid-semester.
7. there are not many people taking this course, so you know that the papers are likely to be marked by the same person. This means that your sorry excuse of an essay will be directly judged against the others'.
8. the lecturer (see number 1) has told you early on that the course is difficult, and that you have to work hard for any chance of doing even remotely well for the assessments.
10. you're 12 hours away from submission.
11. you have yet to finish your essay and the current state of citations is horrendous.
12. you have yet to proofread it to make sure that it at least makes sense.
13. all you want to do now is watch a pointless video and go to sleep!

A Hard Day's Night

To write that essay or to watch this movie?

To make a responsible choice for my future or to dwell in far-fetched fantasies?

To be miserable now and relieved later or to screw all else and regret later?

To digest mind-numbing publications and put out something that will appear half-assed (they're dead grotty!), no matter how hard I try...

... or to watch John, George, Paul and Ringo in a train and a room and a car and a room and a room and a room?

The latter please!

# I'm kidding. I'm too much of an uptight scaredy-cat to do otherwise. But watching them get chased after by girls will suffice (for now).

I'm Not Crying

This made me laugh more than I should.

Helplessness Blues

Very seldom do you find a song that says exactly what you have been meaning to say.

Zinger

"I usually don't tell people about these things, but I'm telling you because you need to be told about it"

"And the others?"

"I'm not telling them because they're capable of finding out for themselves"

Thanks, mate...

Ouch.

Thoughts From Home

It has been quite some while, hasn’t it?

I’ve been on an unintentional hiatus: an idyllic life, filled with summer readings and catching up with family. In other words, I have little to show for my holidays.

Here we are then, the penultimate third year. Law school folklore usually tells of how changed law students find themselves to be at this period: youthful idealism of public service takes a back seat in favour of corporate ambition, optimistic can-do attitude traded for realistic expectations. 

I’ll have to say that I am not much different in this respect. Mind you that his is not necessarily for the worse. 

I was afraid of changing before. Being a bit of a Pollyanna made me all too glad to use my naivety as a shield from fervent pessimism. This shield was sufficient, apt even, to grant readiness to venture something beyond my sheltered existence back then. But I could not now pretend to being the same person, having been exposed to and internalised beliefs and values which contradict those which I held to be integral to my identity. 

I have not lost my goodwill. I have merely traded it for experience, and I would not have had it any other way.

But those are ancillary matters. In the real world, anxieties about my social passivity as well as the pragmatics of post-graduation are abound. My ire with the former is that spurious thoughts for a more contributory existence are usually frustrated by my innate tendency to overthink and dismiss mental complications, leaving me enervated. As for the latter, I am simply terrified. While part of me is eager to desert theories for practice, I have seen how difficult it is to find a desirable place in the professional world.

But that’s another day’s worry. The bigger question has always been: why does it matter? Why should I bother? Would I end up filled with regret in the end, regardless? While asking oneself the same question might bring some answers one will fervently stand by, those same answers may be to the ire of others - some post-Pollyanna individuals, even. A bleak perspective, isn’t it? You may cherish your mind being your own, but ultimately you’re all alone in there

Ah, but now, three weeks away from end of holidays at home is not the right time to worry about these things. Till then!