NEW YEAR SAMPLING, ANYONE?

Universe, hello.

Happy Chinese New Year, human beings of planet earth! Well, it is not that time of year yet, but I thought I'd beat the rush and wish everybody a good year ahead.

I am utterly and entirely perplexed that there seems to be NOBODY interested in sampling New Year food at Taka with me, can there be a better way to utilise our time? It only comes once a year, my fellow humanoids, and it is one of the rare times people will politely stuff food in your faces for free.

IF ANYBODY IS INTERESTED IN SUCH PECULIARITIES, DO THINK OF ME.

(To be honest, I have already been there once. My dear sibling and I went around sampling all the stalls, well we were just being POLITE, considering how many people were shoving boxes of samples in our faces. It would have been rude to decline.

It was short-lived, however, because Mother decided to drag us away to sample some awful nuts. NUTS. I despise nuts, so "squirrel" can possibly be cancelled out of my list of probable past lives.)

So anyway, I'd like to dedicate a post to confess to the world how I am doing in school right now. I thought I should get used to talking about how my schoolwork is coming along, considering I will have relatives lining up to badger me with such questions in a few days.

ANALYTICAL SKILLS: The prof is interesting, amusing, a little bit shocking at times, because he calls on you just when you are about to drift off to lala-land. Or at least, that only happens to me. Plus, he adores ManYooooooooooo, not a very likeable trait in people. Muahaha.

BUSINESS, GOVT & SOCIETY: Dodgy course name. And as most business courses, it's quite a dull one to me. I was never entirely fascinated with the business and commercial world so this class serves not much purpose to me (I suppose I have mentioned before that "cow" is number one on my list of probable past lives, because I have a secret dream to move to a farm or some random countryside in the future. I am not as insane as I sound, really).

Plus, people participate VERY eagerly in class. It is as if they plan what to say the night before, I do not understand where people get all these rebuttals from, I suppose I am the sort who thinks from A to B and stops, but other people would think from A to Z.

POLITICAL SCIENCE: Oh. My. Word.

What else can I say?

And I wanted to major in Political Science. What a joke.

INTRODUCTORY ECONS: I dropped it in JC for a reason.

I remember the day when I sought out my Econs teacher in JC to inform her of the good news. I was afraid that she would not allow me to do so, because it was about a month to the Big A's -----> I was that stupid, how could I have pushed on for Econs that far? I suppose I had this idealistic image of myself intelligently musing over Econs graphs and holding wise conversations with people about economic theories, but I never did get anywhere NEAR that.

Besides, I spent lecture time coming up with weird lists with Chelsea.

Pearlyn: Mrs ***, I...I...I....(tried to give my most forlorn expression, with regret welling up in my eyes) I think I might drop Econs (looked into the far distance thoughtfully, but with a sense of purpose in eyes).

Mrs ***: Okay.

OKAY?!

WHO SAYS OKAY JUST LIKE THAT?

Of course, at that point I was so stunned I dropped my entire "regretful" act, and just stared at Mrs ***. She then patted me on the back or something somewhat friendly like that, and said something like,

"I think you should too."

I THINK YOU SHOULD TOO!!!!!!!!

There goes my speech. I had planned a very emotional speech the night before, about how it saddened me deeply to even ENTERTAIN such SINFUL THOUGHTS ringing thru my non-economics brain. I planned to TEAR at the right moment (I was in the drama club for a reason after all, and I had perfected the art of tearing at appropriate moments over the years). I was going to tell Mrs *** that it was a hard decision, it broke my heart, I spent countless nights tossing and turning in bed...

All of which was bull of course. I took about 30 seconds after I had gotten back my Prelims paper to decide that I was dropping Econs.

And I didn't recall what else I said to Mrs ***, probably a "thank you" and a semi-curtsy or something. I'm a dweeb that way, whenever I'm shocked I'd do stupid things like that.

Of course, Mrs ***'s face was glowing a bit too much, and she looked like she was going to tap dance all the way back to her seat and click her heels.

So anyway, back to present times, I am unfortunately doing Econs yet again.

Now, I hate Econs purely because there are all these graphs, and I like drawing and all that junk (I LOVE DRAWING BY THE WAY, I carry a "sketchbook" everywhere I go to frighten people with), but drawing graphs is a whole different matter. I tend to label graphs according to my preferences, so if I feel like writing "WAGES" on the x-axis, then there it goes. Which is obviously wrong but I do that just to piss the Econs teachers off sometimes for random exercises.

And plus I tend to make up theories as I go along, coz I hate memorising stuff so I rely mostly on my imagination to come up with things. I suppose I do not put in effort in things I am hardly interested in, because Econs was a sore subject for me compared to my other subjects (Lit, History and Math ----> all of which I were passionate about).

Now that is not good of course, because making up Economic theories is quite blasphemous really, but I had to fill up those essay sheets didn't I?

So now I am doing it again. I don't mind it that much I suppose, and it is not as if I am completely overwhelmed by all these theories, I do understand them but I hardly bother remembering them. So I tried incorporating football examples into Economics.

Example 1:

If Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso are dumped outside Anfield for sale, they will be looked upon as COMPLEMENTARY GOODS, because they go well together.

Therefore, if Stevie G's price rises, Xabi's demand would go down as well, because the demand for Stevie G would go down.

Example 2:

If Fernando Torres is displayed on the streets of Liverpool for sale, as well as Wayne Rooney on Manchester streets, they will be looked upon as SUBSTITUTION GOODS, because they both play in the same position but belong to different "suppliers".

Therefore, if Fer's price rises, Rooney's demand would go up because nobody would want that expensive whore Fernando Torres.

Example 3:

Iker Casillas used to ride a UNICYCLE to Real Madrid for training.

However, his income steadily INCREASED over the years, because he has not been a clumsy goalkeeper.

Now, Iker Casillas rides a HOT-AIR BALLOON to Real Madrid for training.

The UNICYCLE is now an INFERIOR GOOD.

The HOT-AIR BALLOON is now a NORMAL GOOD.

Example 4:

Cristiano Ronaldo has two hobbies.

He likes to play football and he likes to mow people's lawns.

Playing football would give him 120,000 pounds a week as well as fame, which is an intangible asset.

Mowing people's lawns would give him 12 pounds a week as well as weeds and grass patches for his very own botanic collection. Also, he gets to feel good for contributing to society, which is an intangible asset.

This week, he chose to mow people's lawns instead of playing football.

The OPPORTUNITY COST of mowing people's lawns is 120,000 pounds a week and fame.

(However, if he sells his historic botanic collection, he can easily earn back that 120,000 pounds AND become famous for doing so, so the study of Economics actually makes us all miserable and calculative.)

Sigh.

So anyway, I have already started planning what to say to relatives during this period. They have no originality and creativity anyway, always asking the same questions, as if I can change that much from the previous year.

Relative 1:

Hi, what is your name again?

Pearlyn:

Oh, I am Pearlyn, the last of the clan. The rest of my family are over THERE (will helpfully point out where everybody else is, so they can bugger off and leave me to talk to myself).

Relative 2:

Hi, Pearlyn right?

Pearlyn:

*Thinks to myself* DARN. First method cannot be used on this person.

Relative 2:

So, where are you studying now?

Pearlyn:

SMUSOCIALSCIENCEANDPOSSIBLYBUSINESSASASECONDMAJORWOULDYOULIKEADRINK?

Relative 3:

I heard from your mother that you are doing Social Science in SMU and that you might be majoring in Political Science. Why?

Pearlyn:

*Thinks to myself* DARN. Second method cannot be used on this person.

*Gives a big smile* It is important we understand how the voting process works, and how we have a say in what government comes to power. If not, we would not be living in this stable country today where we have a myriad of New Year goodies to feast on. Speaking of, would you like some pineapple tarts?


I am almost always the one stuck with the relatives, mostly because my dad would push me to the frontline so the relatives would stop asking him about his various TV interviews. And my dear siblings would always be pretending to look useful and busy around the house while I am naturally not very good at pretending to do that, because relatives would always come up to me anyway.

This year, it is going to be somewhat quiet because so many relatives are going away for the long weekend. That saves us from eating quite a number of steamboat leftovers, because some relatives are quite keen on doing that to my family when we visit.

Well, either way, I am quite looking forward to this break. Again, what break, I have been breaking the entire semester.

Anyway, I am going now. Farewell.

BY THE WAY, NASTIC AND CORDOBA DREW MUAHAHA. Nastic was losing until Adrian came on. So he is not that unnecessary after all.

Signed,

Sincerely, me

Pearlyn SILVA