i read through what i wrote last night and cringed inwardly, as always. i should learn to stop writing at night. one of my professors in university used to talk about how she never sent out any emails at night, because something about the night air (or did she say it was the moon? i don’t remember) made her more irrational. she would draft her mails and check them over the next morning before sending them out, just to make sure that she did not write anything embarrassing. i used to think that was utter bull (and coming from a professor! you would think she would have had a more scientific explanation for it. to be sure, she confided this to us when she was half-drunk… but i think she was deadly serious anyhow). still, i am beginning to see her point. i much prefer the (comparatively) logical and rational creature that i am by day. i cannot allow myself to slip out of control – even more, i cannot allow others to see me that way.

but i am all agog and edgy today. i follow the news with bated breath, cheering when obama clinches a state, jumping when he fails to. this may be the first time i have actually followed an american election. i am not sure why. perhaps it is all the ridicule of the mccain and palin camp that has me both amused and sorry for them (yet the truth is the truth). or the thick air of campaigns and elections hovering over new york when we visited. or the financial crisis. or simply a wish to see some change come to a country that could (and has) make or break the rest of the world.

on a separate note…

i can’t believe we are into november!

fell asleep in the middle of a skype conversation last night, and woke up to a chat screen filled with hello? hello? HELLO? how embarrassing.

in between falling asleep on friends, singing, and working on ridiculous assignments (more on that later), i am trying to finish mark haddon’s a spot of bother before i embark on my 56-book project. i might have bought this much earlier if i hadn’t thought it were the same book as the curious incident of the dog in the night-time (which i already own and really enjoyed). they need to stop using the same color schemes on his novels. it is so misleading.

a spot of bother

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

the seemingly endless rains have finally ended (i think), and it is insanely hot out (i can’t let go of the word now…). i had this idea i might faint or do something equally dramatic out there on the streets earlier as the heat from the asphalt and the afternoon sun overhead hit me. but fainting would be an enormous waste of time considering all the work i have to complete today, so i made a quick escape to the cool comfort of home.

oh yes, the work i have to complete today – that insanely ridiculous assignment. i do not get it at all! these people send me something to translate, and a glossary that i have to follow strictly. that is all well and good. but when i got down to work, i realised that just about everything in the document could be lifted from the glossary. why are they spending good money asking me to do a copy-and-paste job?? why?

most people would tell me to stop complaining and be grateful for the easy money, but the fact is, i do not like easy money, so to speak. not this kind of easy money. winning the lottery and all is another matter, but when people pay me to get a job done, it really irks me when i know i am not giving them what they paid for. it would also be silly to point that out to the agency, because they are a profit-maximizing entity. as i should be… i think.

it’s such a strange world. you see glimpses of it as a student, but when you start working… things just leave you… speechless. and not always in a good way.