As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.

King Lear, William Shakespeare

I’ve moved!    ——    http://myrustedtobaccotin.tumblr.com/

Frisbee was full of friendly fun! Even though our team lost eventually, I scored most of the team’s points, and so it’s kind of a personal achievement here And it wasn’t as competitive as playing with the seniors though, and I like this kind of atmosphere.

Zek came back to play FINALLY!! That idiot is still so good lah. It’s a waste that he’s not joining a club outside because he has all the attributes needed to be an awesome ultimate player. It felt really good to see everyone getting better at the game too.

We left early because we had to go to our TG karaoke. Which was a blessing actually because the weather was so hot that all of us felt rather dehydrated. Karaoke was, as I expected, crazy and full of laughter. Ching going crazy, Eddy being his irritating self, Faith and Shaun blowing our pants off with the theme song for Ferrero Rocher. And I bet they were the first pair to sing such a sophisticated duet in Ten Dollar Karaoke!

But now… it’s back to reading Crim ): Gahhh. And the weeks without contracts tutorial just seem to whizz past very quickly. Did I ever mention how much I hate contracts? I don’t like any of the modules but I ABHOR studying for contracts =/

But after considering that that is still highly inefficient, they also threw us an assignment deadline that falls right before the mid-term break ends. So in essence, we have no break.

That’s the difference between them N’ US.

To all those who have wished me via facebook, smses and along the corridors, thank you so much. Because our faculty is such a small community, you feel extra special on your birthday with every other person you bump wishing you on your birthday (: Thanks to Stella (who called me a lao ah pek =.=), Navin, Cherie, Philip, Feng Jun, Frank, Joshua, Tim, Huili, Ernie, Sheng Rong, Mary, Jessie, Angus, Oli, Hab, Clement… And so many more people that I struggle to recall.

Sherlene you deserve a thank you on your own for wishing me twice =D

My LAWR TG – Eddy, Ramu, Shaun, Jon, Ching, Li Tang, Marilyn, Faith, Subhi. Thanks for the NTUC Sara Lee cake, and for being extremely patient whenever I give presentations because my train of thoughts go from A to C to B so i always struggle to express myself. Thanks to TG 15 as well, though I don’t know most of you well.

Songping – for your awesome birthday card. I really really like it a lot! (: the extent of me liking it kinda escalated because there was a free meal ticket attached =D -thinks of the most expensive places to go-
Thanks for always being there for me to bully. And for spontaneously high-fiving me after hitting Litang in her face. Wahaha.

The usual suspects – Pukey, Smelly, Sebas, Ran-Ran. You guys set up an awesome show to convince me that I was totally going to spend my birthday alone in the library, and then surprising me at the Upper Quad with tea light candles lined up to form a mutation of my name, a delicious tiramisu, superb baked potatoes and ice cream, and all from different places. Oh and of course, not forgetting that obscene cup (my mom asked me why the cup(s) so huge. pun intended) And because of me, everyone missed dinner and will be working late into the night for Crim tutorial/seminar. I’ve never celebrated my birthday in this fashion before so I was at a loss for words.

The seniors who were there to smoke me as well – Sheng Rong, Paul, Ernie, Kay Hian, Hao Jin. Thank you so much in putting in effort for a junior. For coming down straight after your tutorial, or setting your work aside just to help in the planning.

Oli, who gave me a cheesecake this morning! Haven’t eaten it yet but i’m sure it’d be yummy!

School really sucks, but it’s because of people like you all who make it that much tolerable, and at times, even enjoyable (:

Praying that my favourite month of the year will treat me better. ):

It was the war that was supposed “to be over by Christmas”. It very nearly was. A spontaneous soldiers’ truce broke out along the Western Front on Christmas Eve 1914, four months after the start of hostilities.

British, French and German soldiers took these usually hypocritical Christmas sentiments for real and refused to fire on the “enemy”, exchanging instead song, food, drink and gifts with each other in the battle-churned wastes of “no-man’s land” between the trenches.

Lasting until Boxing Day in some cases, the truce alarmed the military authorities who worked overtime to end the fraternisation and restart the killing.

Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce
By Stanley Weintraub

[Corporal John Ferguson:] What a sight—little groups of Germans and British extending almost the length of our front! Out of the darkness we could hear laughter and see lighted matches . . . . Where they couldn’t talk the language they were making themselves understood by signs, and everyone seemed to be getting on nicely. Here we were laughing and chatting to men whom only a few hours before we were trying to kill!

A London Rifles entrepreneur, offering large quantities of appropriated bully beef and jam, acquired a prized Pickelhaube [spiked helmet], which was nearly impossible to conceal or cart home. The day after Christmas he heard someone shouting for him from the German side. They met in No Man’s Land. “Yesterday,” his new friend appealed, “I give my hat for the Bullybif. I have grand inspection tomorrow. You lend me and I bring it back after.” Somehow the deal was kept. (86)

[William Dawkins:] “The Germans came out of their protective holes, fetched a football, and invited our boys out for a little game. Our boys joined them and together they quickly had great fun, till they (I believe we were responsible) had to return to their posts. I cannot guarantee it, but it was told to me that our lieutenant colonel threatened our soldiers with machine guns. Had just one of these Big Mouths gathered together ten thousand footballs, what a happy solution that would have been, without bloodshed.” (113)

By now, most units faced resuming hostilities, however unwillingly. When the 107th Saxons cautioned the 1st North Staffs that shooting had to recommence, both sides showed authentic unwillingness. (140)

According to the woman to whom the German sergeant told his story. “The difficulty began on the 26th, when the order to fire was given, for the men struck. Herr Lange says that in the accumulated years [of his service] he had never heard such language as the officers indulged in, while they stormed up and down, and got, as the only result, the answer, `We can’t—they are good fellows, and we can’t.’ Finally the officers turned on the men with, `Fire, or we do—and not at the enemy!’ Not a shot had come from the other side, but at last they fired, and an answering fire came back, but not a man fell. `We spent that day and the next,’ said Herr Lange, `wasting ammunition in trying to shoot the stars down from the sky.’ (141)

During a House of Commons debate on March 31, 1930, Sir H. Kingsley Wood, a Cabinet minister during the next war, and major “in the front trenches” at Christmas 1914, recalled that he “took part in what was well known at the time as a truce. We went over in front of the trenches, and shook hands with many of our German enemies. A great number of people [now] think we did something that was degrading.” Refusing to presume that, he went on, “The fact is that we did it, and I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, that if we had been left to ourselves there would never have been another shot fired. For a fortnight the truce went on. We were on the most friendly terms, and it was only the fact that we were being controlled by others that made it necessary for us to start trying to shoot one another again.” (169-70)

-ball.handling.passing.-

-huck.like.kumar.pass.like.aggie.catch.like.joshua.-

The Queen v Dudley and Stephens

Murder-Killing and eating flesh of human being under pressure of hunger-necessity

=D Sounds interesting! Hopefully that will keep me awake because i have a friggin ass huge number of pages of readings to do…