i found it really coincidental that one day after i decide to change topics, an article highly relevant to my new topic appears in the NY Times... =) printed like at least 6/7 papers to read, and 2 of them seem somewhat dubious and crappy but i can't tell if it's cos i dun understand what they are trying to do, or are they really kinda crappy? sigh anyway hav to go revise my 171 stuff in order to make better assessments of all these things. and so i'm going to have a nerdy weekend.... =P

and it's starting to get cold... and heater's not on except for like 15 min in the mornings... i'm so tempted to get a down comforter to snuggle under... well not like my bed isn't comfortable enough.... but it's even better to have a comfortable AND warm bed right. =P but they are ex. =(

a morning at the Center for Chinese Studies Library made me pretty convinced that it's probably impossible for me to get hold of any statistics on unrests and things of that nature from official statistical yearbooks... and i prob have to switch topics.... there seems to be data however on rural and urban stuff and i foresee myself doing something on rising income inequality in China instead... prob focusing on the hukou system that dates all the way back to the decade after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. sigh. but that's still pretty vague and i'm starting to read up on a totally new topic. luckily it seems pretty interesting, and more econ-ish, less poli-sciencish. i now officially have 1 month to the deadline for turning in my 20-30 pg thesis prospectus... and given that everyone has abandoned me (my fault!) and that i prob irritated half the profs i tried to get help from for being so vague..... i'm really left on my own =( but somehow, my new topic seems more tangible than the one i was stuck with the past couple of months or so... so hopefully that's a good sign? and hopefully a sense of impending doom and failure would pressure me to be super disciplined =P

Happy Halloween

hmmm. ok a quick post then i'll have to get out of the house before all the trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood all come knocking on my door =P just gave some cookies away, but then shall be left speechless when i'm left with no treats for these enthu kids...
baked cookies for Halloween yest cos 1) saw these really cute orange and brown choc chips and 2) decided that I had enough of work for a while.... =P hmm.. still have things to say but sadly i really need to get out of the house for a few hours..... will continue later.

CONT'D

so i wanted to give some credit to Kai for trying very hard to be useful while i was baking. while at times i got really exasperated, (cos he's really not the most obedient kid...) he also got me into quite a few laughing fits... so when i told him to pour the brown sugar into the bowl, he wasn't very successful cos the brown sugar was kinda clumped tog. so i wanted to make a bigger opening to make it easier for him to pour. but he wanted to do it. so ok let him do.... then just like how sometimes when we try to open packets of titbit with a little too much force and prob 2/3 of the contents end up on the ground, the sugar packet kinda 'exploded' in his face and he ended up with a lot of brown sugar in his face and shirt... on the table.. on the floor... but he was so nonchalant about it and then proceeded to scoop up all the sugar, with all the dust and what not on the table back into the bowl.... at this point i had no idea how much sugar we had in our mixture already but was just like heck lah.. whatever =P then he wanted to crack the egg... ok so let him crack. but he practically crushed the whole egg, tried very hard to get its contents out later, then at the end of it all, absent-mindedly thrust all the eggshell into the bowl of batter.... dunno.. i just couldn't stop myself from laughing he prob thought i was a bit kuku. well, anyway, with a little salvaging, everything still turned out fine in the end, with Kai and I (and even my landlady) "pigging out" on bits of the delicious uncooked batter.. and yes, so ends my slightly traumatising but pretty erm... refreshing experience of baking with Kai.

Dinosaur Mugshot

Height: abt Shi Min's handspan
Weight: abt 80 grams?
Age: unknown
Crime: Scared Shi Min twice by lying in her path on the night of 10/28/05, by resembling a giant lizard
hahaha. poor thing. it's innocent lah. imagine committing a crime just cos you look scary, or cos someone is just blur...

Giant lizard hallucinations

i got scared out of my wits TWICE yesterday night, by mistaking Kai's inanimate brown dinosaur toy lying in my path on the bathroom floor for a giant lizard each time i entered the bathroom. it was extremely silly (the 2nd time, especially) but perhaps pretty telling about my mental state last night. was rather panicky cos was frantically trying to do the readings required for writing my paper... hopefully i can emerge happily from a week of work tonight...