280801, 2100hr, illinois time.

by the way, while cooking the cream of celery soup just now [campbell lah, i'm too lazy to cook my own soup today.] and this housemate came in, and suggested i cook cream of potato next time, and put in some chunks of the chinese chewy dried scallops i have - apparently it tastes like clam chowder. hahaha...ok ok...after my vege phase, i will try. heh.

alvin decided to take the communications course with me, which makes me happy. hehe. yippee yeah, at least i won't be completely alone in all my classes then. i'm pretty much on my own for all my other classes. tk was supposed to take jap with me, but he decided not to take jap this semester at all. shaun used to take the same psychology class as i do, but he dropped it. we share the same instructor for our international relations class as well, but heck, i don't foresee us doing our homework together for that. at least now there's alvin i can do my communications homework with. we used to take so many classes together, that's how we became good friends. during my most stressed up days, he was the one who always patted me on my back and said, "it's ok, you're smart, you can do it." though eventually i'll still end up screwing up, his unflinching faith in me was always so comforting.

ah, enough mush about alvin.

and i finally managed completely clear my 1 month old email debt. god, i've become so bad with emails. and icq. i don't even go on icq anymore, ever since poachie left for italy. suddenly, since all the people i should theoretically need to talk to on icq aren't in the same timezone as me anyway, and hence not likely to be online the same time as i do, i feel so unmotivated to go online.

i crave for handwritten letters now though. i remember the days when i used to write letters to adoree, lysa, and wanqing. and then more recently, agnes and cheryl. the rush opening the mailbox everyday. the slightly worn corners of the envelop that has travelled the distance. the stamp. the cute little stickers. the intimate words and personal handwriting. ah, i take this as a sign of becoming old...reminiscing about the past. sigh.

there's only so much technology can do. the rest still has to have the personal touch. when i send emails, i try to create a special greeting, something special just for everyone, whether they realise it or not. only a few friends can call me cin. only a fewer number gets a response from me as dar. [y'know, as in darling] these are personal touches that try to make up for the lack of warmth of the electronic mail. but once in a while, i get into a sentimental mood, and i send letters to my friends. usually they don't quite work as surprises, cos i always had to ask them first for their addresses before i could send the letters out, and by then, they would already be expecting something from me. oh well, but the sweetness, sincerity and warmth of a handwritten letter is not lost, i hope.

oh, lest i sound like some old-fashioned hag, i'm still more tech-savvy than not, i still like technology. despite the frivolity of these demands, i still want an MD player. a webcam. a digital camera. a big flat monitor for my desktop, when i finally go back to singapore. a super hifi set. an intelligent car that will tell me how to get from A to B. ah, so many new technologies i want to play with.

so i can rave about them to my friends, through my emails and letters.