I guess, it being the new year - a few days after the new year - I should at least acknowledge it. 2009 wasn't a bad year for me, really. I had eight months of slacking around after A's, and Semester 1 of uni was pretty okay because for the first time in my life, I can plan my own timetable.

Anyway, New Year's was spent at the Tanah Merah Safra Resort chalet with Vonne and the gang. I love that place. It's literally a stone's throw away from the sea, and recently I've been addicted to the sea, maybe because my current WIP is set there. Speaking of which, I REFUSE to let Red December Skies be eaten up by the mid-story goblin. I'm at page 144 now, and it's starting to slow down, because of some details I didn't consider when I first started writing the novel. Triv and I were discussing them yesterday. You'd think that after three novels (one abandoned precisely because of the lacking of detailed planning halfway through the story) I'd learn my lesson and do more intricate planning before I plunge into a Shiny New Idea. But I've always thought the beauty of creative writing -especially novel-writing - is that the story can embark on one of the millions of possibilities and take you anywhere. Too much planning can kill the spirit and essence of a story, and take the fun out of writing it. So with a relatively solid idea, I always go straight into it and let it work out the kinks itself later on. I'm not completely stuck for Red December Skies; there are just some details I have to consider that I hadn't thought were so significant before.

School's starting in less than a week. Here are the modules I'm planning to take, the first three of which have already been allocated to me (successful bidding):

1. EL3254 - Media, Discourse and Society
2. EC1101E - Intro to Econs (to fulfil my exposure-module requirement - we're required to take 5, including one for our Major)
3. SN1101E - South Asia (another exposure module, to fulfil the Asian Studies requirement)
4. PC1322 - Understanding the Universe. I planned to take this as a GEM (General Education Module, the university requires everyone to take one Arts and one Science). It's like Cosmology and stuff, sounds cool. Unfortunately for me, many FASS students think so too. The other Science modules are too science-y for us, like Nano-whatsits and Bio-whatever and Quantum-whotheheckcares. So this is practically the only module left for us to take. I was considering some Math module, but it was too much like A'level Math. I'm through with A'level Math. I believe I barely scraped by that A, because I still struggle with H2 Math when I revisit it now. So anyway, I was outbidded for Understanding the Universe (GEK1520), so I have no choice but to take it as a Breadth module (which also requires us to take 2 modules not from FASS - it can be from Business, Science, Computing, Design, etc).
5. SSA1203 - Singapore, Asia and American Power. Singapore Studies - requirement module. Enough said.

My intention is to clear all my requirement modules asap, so I can concentrate on my Major and Minor modules, as well as my Unrestricted Electives (we're required to take 7 modules (or more if you have time and money to spare) that we're interested in, like language modules, or Intro to Creative Writing, Intro to Prose Writing, and many others). The good thing is, there's no project work required for EC1101E, and the exam is not essay-based. Also, there's no exam for PC1322 (but bidding hasn't started for it yet). And, there's no tutorial for EL3254, just a three-hour lecture once a week, so I don't have to go back to school so many times or worry about bidding for the tutorial timeslot.

Plus, if anyone needs secondary-level English/E*Math/A*Math tuition, or knows anyone who needs them, drop me a comment and let me know. Thanks.