zeekie: take two.

So. "White Teeth" and "White Fang"? Totally not the same book. Read the former, people! It's great. I'm only sorry I had them confused for so long.

I am officially the only sibling who doesn't have a university degree.

..in other words, wish my sister a happy graduation!

1) I'm about to start Act II of the script; my mode of working seems to be: scribble on a notepad in a cafe, and transcribe when I get home. I can't seem to write directly on the computer; something about the white screen makes my writing muscle seize up completely.

...I just realized this doesn't happen (a lot) when I'm in the newsroom. Bizarre.

2) The whole online LGBT video idea has to be shelved. It's a pity, because I found a user-created Wordpress template that fits my needs perfectly. But what with the YouTube crackdown, a lot of the videos have been disappearing, and I don't want to create a website where the links are likely to die.

3) I'm quite happy with the amount of reading I've done, even if some of the books have titles like "Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America". I think my favourite new discovery is Scott Westerfeld; I've read three books by him now, and they've all been fun. He's a bit like John Scalzi (and the two are friends, which doesn't surprise me), and I highly recommend "So Yesterday", which is a standalone novel.

I've started watching Liao Zhai (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio) on tudou.com. Why? Because I saw bits of an episode while having dinner and the male lead was like zomg cute.

Why yes, I can be that shallow.

On the bright side, I am (re)learning a fair bit of Mandarin. Now I just need to find a society that speaks Ancient Scholar Mandarin.

Edited to add: Oh, my god. I'M TURNING INTO MY MOTHER. I just watched the most crap-tastic movie because it stars the same guy from the Liao Zhai story. When I start buying DVDs because of the guy the transformation will be complete.

Picked up Milan Kundera's "Immortality" from the Seng Kang library, and this was in the blurb:

"This is one of those unclassifiable masterpieces that appear every twenty years or so."

It's the "every twenty years or so" part that completely trips me up. Where did this statistic come from? Is it an average? Is it not? Is there some clandestine publishers' agreement to put out an unclassifiable masterpiece every twenty years?

Questions, questions, questions...

Outline for script: check.

40 short films downloaded for eventual website: check.

Part I of getting my visa in order: check.

New bermudas: check.

Waaay too much shopping: check, check, check, check, check.

Now waiting to hear from NYU about who my mentees for the fall are, and working on a sooper sekret project.

If all goes according to plan, I should be back in New York by August 4th, NY time.

There I am, reading Scott Westerfeld's excellent sci-fi book "Extras", when:

Udzir nodded, smiling. "You are very good students, I see. Let me reward your cleverness: We will soon land on an island the Rusties called Singapore."

I believe this is the fifth modern sci-fi book I've read that name-checks Singapore as some mysterious alien homeland. Viva Singapura!