Absolutism in Brandenburg

Absolutism in Brandenburg-Prussia

This presentation covers the two variant forms of absolutism which were exemplified in Brandenburg-Prussia, military absolutism during the reign of Frederick William, the Great Elector, and the enlightened absolutism of Frederick the Great. The key aspects of military absolutism is highlighted and so is that of enlightened absolutism and the significance both variant forms of absolutism had on Brandenburg-Prussia specifically thereby contrasting the differences in these variants with the theories of absolutism.

Timeline of Brandenburg-Prussia 1640-1786

• Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg
• Reigned from 1640-1688
• He was also known as the Great Elector
• Frederick I of Prussia
• He was the Elector of Brandenburg from 1688-1701
• In 1701 he proclaimed himself King of Prussia
• Went on to reign as King of Prussia until 1713
• Frederick William I of Prussia
• Also known as the Soldier-King
• Reigned from 1713-1740
• Brought military absolutism to its height
• Lived simply without extravagance
• Frederick II of Prussia
• Better known as Frederick the Great
• Reigned from 1740-1786
• Anti-Machiavellian
• Based on his ideals and motivations as king, brought upon a kingship of enlightened absolutism

Brandenburg before 1640

Before Frederick William and the concept of military absolutism in Brandenburg, that electorate was under a feudal system based on Treu, or a kind of loyalty, loyalty towards the feudal lord. But Treu was more than simply loyalty, but also a form of unwritten law. It was based on this Treu that the lords governed the peasants and the peasants listened to the lords. However, if there was a breach of Treu on the part of the lords, the peasants would then revolt against the lord. As such, throughout the middle ages there were many such revolts. It has also to be noted that Brandenburg was merely an electorate under the Holy Roman Empire. As such, it came under the kingship of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Elector of Brandenburg was but a feudal lord under the Emperor.

Unlike many other classical European cities, Brandenburg was landlocked and without a major river passing through it. Hence, water was scarce and trading costs were high. Furthermore, at its location in the middle of Central Europe, it was extremely precarious to enemies from all directions, especially from the Swedes to the north, the Habsburg Empire to the south, Russia to the East and France to the West. When faced with warring states from all surrounding, it was difficult for Brandenburg to remain at its size. It also found itself caught up in power struggles between the other hegemonic powers such as the Habsburg Empire, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden and Poland. This became glaringly apparent with the Thirty Years War which caused Brandenburg to lose 50% of its territories and much of its population. It was due to the impact of this war on Brandenburg which moulded Frederick William’s ideology of a military absolutist state as he grew up under the conditions of this sort of ravage upon his electorate. He saw the need of Brandenburg to build up on its military defences to ensure its own survival.

Frederick William, 1640-1688

Frederick William the Great Elector came into power with the death of his father. He was known as the Great Elector because during his reign he managed to heal Brandenburg from the wounds of the Thirty Years War while building up its military might and political recognition among the other European cities. By building up Brandenburg’s military forces, he established a rule which was later coined by scholars as military absolutism. However, this military absolutist rule here was not one which was intentionally imposed by Frederick William the Great Elector but was a result of circumstances and much hindsight by scholars.

What is military absolutism?

Perry Anderson
Perry Anderson argued that absolutism arose in Brandenburg-Prussia after a formal Charter in 1653 whereby the nobility voted to allow taxes to be imposed on the towns and peasants rather than on the junkers themselves. This gave the state total control over the territories, which is a key issue in the theory of absolutism. The difference in Brandenburg-Prussia from other absolutist states such as the France of Louis XIV was that when the junkers voted to allow for the taxation on the towns and peasants, they also voted for taxes to pay for a permanent army which ensured that the army become the core of the state. As Anderson stated, “it was a pact which both increased the political power of the dynasty over the nobility, and that of the nobility over the peasantry.” Hence the key difference between this two absolutist states is that the bureaucracy in Brandenburg-Prussia is made up of the military rather than a civilian body which was the feature in absolutist France. Anderson also brought up the key in Brandenburg-Prussia’s military absolutist state is the focus on war.

Thomas Ertman
Thomas Ertman drew up a comparison between the various Europeans states during the Early Modern Period and classified Brandenburg-Prussia as bureaucratic absolutist, however, he also recognised that the bureaucracy of Brandenburg-Prussia was effectively its military. This was a result of geopolitical competition brought up by Otto Hintze which was seen in the wars Brandenburg fought to protect itself from foreign occupation. Rather than identifying Brandenburg-Prussia as being militaristic from a result of jostling for military supremacy in the region, HW Koch argued that there was a need for Brandenburg-Prussia to turn to its military in order to safeguard its own existence. There was never a choice for Brandenburg-Prussia since it was needed of Brandenburg-Prussia to be militaristic. Based on this argument, it is clear that it was also not due to the ideology of a single leader that Brandenburg turned militaristic, but that it was forced by circumstances to do so.

Prussian Absolutism
JAR Marriott and CG Robertson
The rule over Brandenburg-Prussia was through the unity imposed by the ruler, the crushing of every institution that hampered the absolute control of all resources, human or material, in the state, the interpretation of law as the will of the ruler, and of civic duty as obedience to a self-determining authority. And all this was enforced using the military apparatus. Marriott and Robertson even went far enough to state that Frederick William was the founder of Prussian absolutism and the originator of the machinery that it required and the obstinate champion of the social structure that the system demanded.

Why was Brandenburg-Prussia a military absolutist state?

Based on Koch’s argument, Brandenburg-Prussia was a military absolutist state because that was what which ensured its own survival. As quoted from Koch, it was transformed “from a weapon of the military entrepreneur” into “an instrument of state”. Internally, a strong military was needed to maintain public unity in this fragmented territory. Frederick William the Great Elector and most of his nobility were Calvinists despite the population in his territory being still largely Lutheran. Hence there was a need to safeguard the religious freedom preached by Frederick William the Great Elector within his own territory and prevent disharmony from the other states around as they were mostly Lutheran or Catholic.

Another reason for the need of a strong military and absolutist rule from the external perspective was the lack of free waterways for Brandenburg-Prussia. Brandenburg was a landlocked territory without any major rivers passing through. Hence trading was difficult and Brandenburg-Prussia needed to use its military force to ensure that all its trade were safe. Not only that, any military blockades from unfriendly neighbours could also turn into the cutting off of logistics from entering Brandenburg thus spelling their demise. A strong military government was needed to deter unfriendly neighbours.

Features of the military during Frederick William’s reign

• Heavy punishment as deterrence
• Severe discipline
• Any act of plundering would be punished by hanging
• Any attack on civilians would be stripped of his rank for a year and have to carry the musket as common soldier
• Was issued bibles and had to attend religious service every morning and evening
• Not officered by nobility
• Rigid command structure
• Unquestioning obedience to orders
• High wages

Frederick the Great

From the reign of Frederick the Great, there marked a shift from military absolutism to a form of enlightened absolutism even though Prussia military might was still a force that dominated upon Central Europe. After he came into power, Frederick the Great attempted to put a change in the handling of state affairs from his father by declaring his reign as an enlightened ruler. This was a term he gave himself, so whether he was indeed an enlightened ruler is debatable. Still, in all effort, Frederick the Great was indeed a man of the Enlightenment breezing though Europe during that period.

What is enlightened absolutism?

Frederick the Great’s idea of an enlightened absolutism
• enlightened reason
• power was justified and only justifiable if used to promote a rational well-being
• power as unlimited as reason
• ambition of the Hohenzollerns and the pride of Prussia
• power and prosperity

Why the transition?

The change from military absolutism enlightened absolutism was solely the decision of Frederick the Great, even though he was influenced by the other enlightened philosophes of his time.

One major key reason for the shift towards enlightened absolutism is traced back to Frederick the Great’s upbringing under the stoic militaristic rule of his father, Frederick William the Soldier King. Frederick the Soldier King was as his name suggests was titular of the term military absolutism, and he not only governed his land through that belief but also controlled his son with such. Young Frederick grew up under strict military control with little pleasures. He did not have the freedom to read what he wanted, if he were to read he could only read state documents from Frederick William the Great Elector’s reign. There was definitely no court fanfare such as those of Vienna and Paris in Berlin which Frederick grew attracted to during his time abroad. One of the most defining moments of Frederick the great was when he was still a young soldier, he and a close friend of his deserted the army and was caught. His friend was sentenced to death and himself was almost sentenced to death had it not for the pleading of the nobility around the region. In his letters corresponding with French philosopher Voltaire, he stated that it was since then he realized that he needed to be an enlightened ruler.

From his friendship with Voltaire, it was clear that Frederick the Great was heavily influenced by the arts and philosophy and the wave of Enlightenment spreading through Europe during his time. In his biography, it was described in great detail about Frederick the Great’s first visit to Vienna. It was bright and colourful and filled with an atmosphere of fun and decadence, which was everything opposite of his life in Berlin. In Berlin, under the rule of Frederick William the Soldier King, dinner and balls such as those witnessed in Vienna was considered to be extravagant and a huge waste of money.

How was it implemented?

After he came into power, Frederick the Great attempted to put a change in the handling of state affairs from his father by declaring his reign as an enlightened ruler. However, he was still an absolutist ruler as he had the power to decide what type of reign he wished to rule by. Be it an enlightened one or a military one, there was no doubt that the king had the power to be an enlightened ruler if he wanted to do so. Still, Frederick the Great favoured a benign rule where the ruler uses benevolence to govern his people. Unlike the military absolutist rule of Brandenburg-Prussia under the previous rulers which take on many highlights of Machiavelli’s view upon governance, Frederick the Great opposed that. In his later years, he wrote a book called Anti-Machiavelli which preached a way of governance totally unlike that which was preached by Machiavelli, instead, preaching his way of benign and enlightened rule.

However, despite Frederick the Great’s rule being benign, it was still absolutist due to the geopolitical factors influencing his way of governance. The geo-political factors which plagued Brandenburg-Prussia earlier during the reign of Frederick William the Great Elector were also the same factors which continued to put pressure on Frederick the Great. There was the First Silesian War, the Wars of Spanish Succession, the Wars of Austrian Succession, the Second Silesian War, and the most important the Seven Years War against France. However, victories in these wars came at a price. The surplus from the treasury left behind by Frederick William the Soldier King was drained, and to raise the funds for waging war, heavy taxation under military absolutist control was needed, thereby diminishing the impact of enlightened rule upon Brandenburg-Prussia.

How was enlightened absolutism different from military absolutism?

Because of the impact of the Seven Years War, Koch and Marriott and Robertson argued that in terms of economy, agriculture and military, Frederick the Great’s enlightened rule was no different from the military rule of his predecessors. The Seven Years War accentuated the need for a more centralised control to effectively finance the war effort, hence, there was a need for a more absolutist rule by Frederick the Great. To put the economy in place to withstand the war effort, there was a concentration of all capital and money traffic in the hands of a central authority. Production was planned and regulated. To feed his troops, there was also a need for Frederick the Great to control agriculture output. He forced the expansion of potato farming and promoted large-scale dairy farming in East Prussia. He also took upon inspection of his troops, administration and subjects himself, thereby consolidating all control under himself. Also, due to the numerous amount of warfare being waged and new lands being gained, he took it upon his directive to relocate large numbers of subjects on to these lands either to populate them or clear them away from the battle grounds.

How did Prussia differ from other European states?

Despite France during the reign of Louis XIV often being mentioned as the epitome of absolutist rule, there is a no lacking of such a scale of absolutism in Brandenburg-Prussia, even under the reign of the enlightened absolutism of Frederick the Great. Just as King Louis XIV said “I am the state”, Frederick William the Soldier King once said “I am the Finance Minister and the Field Marshal”. Compared to Austria, which was already in its decline and with the rise of the Hungarians in government in contest with the Habsburgs, indeed Brandenburg-Prussia proved to be more of an absolutist state. Eastern European states such as Russia had yet developed a bureaucracy and much of Eastern Europe remained largely feudal.

This difference was due to the geopolitical difference between Brandenburg-Prussia and the other European states. Brandenburg-Prussia was landlocked and access to ports was limited and was at the mercy of their neighbours hence that played into Prussia having to develop its own unique form of governance that would put it into position with the other European powers. This form of governance culminated in the militaristic rule of Brandenburg-Prussia. Its military was strong and effective but what also sets it apart from its immediate neighbours such as France is its effective taxation system and financial capabilities in sustaining warfare. For Brandenburg-Prussia, it has to be noted that it has an extremely high percentage of its budget set aside for defence.

It is also to Prussia advantage for the strong personalities of its rulers who proved to be capable and effective who were adequately effective in building up the Prussian Empire which started out as an Electorate almost falling into extinction.

Bibliography

Anderson, Perry, Lineages of the Absolutist State, (London: N.L.B., c1974).

Anderson, Perry, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, (London: Verso, 1996, c1974).

Ertman, Thomas, Birth of the leviathan: building states and regimes in medieval and early modern Europe, (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Hubatsch, Walter, Frederick the Great of Prussia: Absolutism and Administration, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975).

Koch, HW, A History of Prussia, (London and New York: Longman, 1978).

Marriott, JAR and Robertson, The Evolution of Prussia: The Making of an Empire, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946).

Miller, John, Absolutism in seventeenth-century Europe, (Basingstoke : Macmillan Education, 1990).

Poggi, Gianfranco, The development of the modern state: a sociological introduction, (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1978).

Last Semester Ahead

Let's see, I'd spent the first day of the semester sleeping, watching videos, watching TV, sleeping some more, and basically only left my bed for only two hours, and the two hours I was off my bed I spent one and a half hours on the couch. I spent the last half and hour off the bed eating, going to the toilet, and moving from couch to bed and bed to couch. What a great way to start the semester.

Tomorrow, the second day of the semester I'll be going out, watching movies, eating more sausages, shopping, and maybe trying out some new food. What a wonderful second day of the semester, isn't it? I'll be only going to school on Wednesdays and Fridays for the coming two weeks, and all the even weeks. My tutorials and labs are only on odd weeks, and I don't think there'd be too many off them, probably only about five of them each, so I'm looking ahead at a pretty slack semester. Yay!

My timetable.


I know I know, we haven't bidded for our tutorials yet, how am I to know if I were to get the tutorial slots I want. Heck, for my tutorial bidding, I'm going ahead with only two slots there, one for each tutorial. I will not let anything ruin my pretty timetable.

EU2217 Politics of Contemporary Europe
Anyone who'd seen my Facebook message or MSN message will know what I did. I threw 4300+ points when bidding that module. I basically showed my hand and traumatised the little little year twos and threes~ Yay! I've been wanting to do that since year one when I was traumatised by the seniors who showed their hand for the modules they wanted. This was the perfect module for me to do so because it was hot! I got the module in the end for 1700+ points.

EU3228 EU and ASEAN in the World
I did half of this module when I was in year two sem two before I flew over to Germany for my SEP. I must say I don't think it's an advantage because it won't be the same lecturer as before. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to doing this module and the Politics of Contemporary Europe one because I did the EU Foreign Policy module last semester, and I got a decent grade considering the amount of effort I put in. Usually people do these two modules before doing the EU Foriegn Policy one, but I did that before these two so it should help me a bit, I hope.

I still feel pretty proud of myself going into a level 4000 PS class with only having done two PS modules before, one's the 1101 module and the other a useless level 2000 module, and I actually went in ahead and competed against this bunch of PS students with truckloads of PS modules and some with one or two level 4000 experience in their bag. wahahaha~

EU4224 War and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe
This like the one of the two EU/HY cross listed level 4000 modules I need to do to fulfil my requirements. Honestly, I'm going in not knowing what to expect. *cross fingers* for me please~

EU4226 Imperialism and Empires
One word to sum it all up, Farrell. Actally, no la, this is the other of the two EU/HY cross listed level 4000 modules that I have to do, so bo bian lor. Anyway, I'm quite looking forward to it because of the two field trips! One to Malacca and the other to Sarawak, yay~ I'll be looking forward to spending my 20+++th birthday in North Borneo! haha, can anything be more cool than this? (Well, yes, like spending my birthday in Europe, or somewhere further away, more exotic, or more luxurious, or more atas, but well, I'm trying to sound enthusiastic here...)

LSM1303 Animal Behaviour
Cool right? I have absolutely no idea what it's about, but it sounds totally cool. Well, wait for me to attend the first lecture then I'll give the real account how the class is like.

But my timetable isn't really a perfect one, just look at my Fridays. So if you see me on Fridays, I'd probably be damn restless and listless and lifeless and whatnotless. Upside, Someone will be with me throughout, so he'd be bearing most of the brunt. But I'm still looking forward to school because 1. I want to buy cheap Twister fries from McDees. 2. I miss Bizad's Western! 3. I missing Science $1.80 Wanton Mee. 4. Can't wait for Munchy Monkey to open again for cheap pasta and desserts. 5. Chezy Mushroom from Coffee Club Xpress. 6. Japanese food from Arts canteen. 7. Beehoon with chicken franks and other snacks from Arts Canteen. 8. Cheap BK~ erm, how come all those I miss of NUS are all food ah? hmm... Something's a bit wrong with little Joan.

Utter Waste of Time

Have you ever wondered how much time we actually spend in writing out our essay that is actually our essay? Not much actually. Instead, most of the time is spent on formatting the essay, choosing the right font and and the correct font size, another major portion of the time is spent on doing up footnotes and writing the bibliography, which are the most tedious things in the essay.

But what is downright ridiculous is that there is a 'correct' format in doing up the footnotes, and the bibliography. And they are both different. I spent like one whole afternoon doing my footnotes and bibliography for this essay because my prof criticised my previous essay for having the wrong footnoting style. Which is utter crap! For four years, I've been doing my footnoting and never once has anybody said it's wrong. The only time which came close was when Farrell marked dots and circled them after every one of my footnotes. I forgot that I needed to put a fullstop in there.

A couple of my other friends also kena that wrong footnoting criticism by that same said prof. So to play it safe, I went to ask another friend (not doing that module, but who did a module under said prof some other semesters ago and learnt the correct way of footnoting directly under that same said prof) about what is the correct way of footnoting. But looking at the way he wrote his bibliography, I saw immediately that it was wrong wrong wrong. For every period that should have been, he used a comma instead.

So why can said prof use and teach a wrong bibliography but criticise on our correct footnoting? Double standards...

Anyway, let's get straight into the point of why must we footnote. It's basically because we need to acknowledge the author about it, isn't it? So does it really matter what format we use? I don't think so. But one of my profs (not the earlier mentioned one) explained that it's also to make publishers happy. Well, then so be it. As long as we know the key essence in footnoting and bibliographing, then everything should be all right, so why should we still waste tons of time making sure something is correct?

This is why I prefer writing exams than writing term papers. There isn't a need for footnoting and bibliographing in exams. And this is also why I think anal profs really have too much time on their hands.

A couple of my friends and I are extremely unhappy with a particular prof. First he took too much time to grade our papers, only for us to find out that our papers were badly graded. Not because we received bad grades for it (we did), but more because we didn't believe we deserved the grades we received.

Okay, for me, on the grounds that my argument was badly expressed and deserved that grade I got, I accept, but that was not the case. Out of all the comments that I received, there's only one which was valid, all the other were really crap comments which were just being plain anal and contradictory. I'm really starting to wonder if this said prof is indeed as credible as his reputation or that we're just at the wrong end of the spectrum on a wrong day of the wrong side of his books.

Anyway, I'm really glad I decided not to do an ISM, and even gladder that I didn't ask him to be my supervisor. wtf...

Einstein's Universe and Quantum Weirdness

Last semester I took that module and hated it deeply because I didn't understand a single thing despite going for lectures and tutorials diligently. I studied quite hard for my first test but got back a big fat D. Well, while doing the test I knew I was going to be screwed because I didn't know how to answer the questions at all, so the D wasn't a surprise. Then because I understood less for the second test, I thought I might as well not study and not waste my time. And indeed I could feel that I was doing worse while doing the test.

Other components of the total grade included daily work, which I didn't hand in one out of five, got less than full marks for another one or two. I didn't take part in the forum participation too. And it was non-examinable. I thought I was quite jialat le. Then there was the short story we needed to do as the last component of our total grade. *cross my fingers* that that could pull up my grade to at least a C so that I can get my S. I SUed that module so I just needed the bare minimum to pass. And luckily, as I thanked my lucky stars, I did manage to get that S I needed.

I've been quite curious to exactly what grade I got for the last test and my short story because I thought I'd have got a U for that module. Although I must say, I thought that the short story was quite well written.

Anyway, fast forward a couple of months, due to the change in the structure of the SU system, we now get to know our grades. I went to check my grades for this module and found out that I got a B- for it. A B- might not be that good a grade for most folks out there, but bear in might that I skipped the assignment, skipped a tutorial, got a big fat D for my first test, didn't study for my second test, and not participated in the forum, and worse of all, I understood nothing from the module. Getting a B- would most probably mean that I did well enough for the short story to pull up my total grade.

Thank goodness~

Here's my short story for all to share!

Harley Upp and Holden

This is a world slightly different from what we know. In this world, people have a great speed range; they are able to move in speeds so close to the speed of light with each passing action. However, even at such great speeds, nobody can yet surpass the speed of light.

This is a story of two very different men, Harley Upp and Holden, each with very different ideals and very different backgrounds.

Ever since he was four, Harley Upp has been a speed freak. His father was the thinnest, fastest man about town. How proud he felt to be the son of such a man! Alas, for all the admiration he felt for his father, it was a deep sadness for Harley that he could never get close to his father. It was a poignant childhood memory, standing by the doorway in the mornings, watching the impossibly thin silhouette of his father rush off into town.

His mother was a slim woman herself. Sitting by the breakfast table,
having his oatmeal delivered before him by his mother pottering around at high speed, he once sighed, "Will I ever be as fast and thin as Father?" His mother would shoot him a cheeky smile, "Well, child, you'll always be chubby if you marry a fast woman."

Perhaps it was because of his childhood memories, Harley Upp had built up this dream to be fast, faster than everyone else. To prove that he was the fastest person in the world he wanted to be the first person to break through the speed of light. That would be the evidence he needed to prove to the world, and also to prove to himself that he was really very fast.

Holden on the other hand grew up alone. Growing up alone gave him the freedom to indulge in everything he wanted to do and allowed him to expand his creativity without being hindered by anybody. As such, Holden was a curious man, always wondering about his world. He had an
active imagination, fascinated by strange ideas, and especially
curious about the possibility of worlds unlike his own. He likes to
play a secret game of changing the sizes of people by adjusting his
own speed, and chuckling at the results of what he saw. People usually left him alone.

Unlike everyone around him, Holden liked to live life at a very slow pace, well, at least it was considerable slower relative to everyone around him. He liked to spend his time thinking up new theories about life, trying to come up with alternative explanation to everything that was happening around him.

One day, Holden took a walk down the countryside away from the bustling activities of all the fast paced people in his world. He sat by a river, thinking to himself, when he saw a beer bottle float up to the riverbank. He sauntered over to pick it up. Of course the bottle would contain a note. Holden unrolled the piece of paper containing the crazy message:

Long remains long as long as it is compared to short
Short remains short as long as it is compared to long

Since Holden was generally considered to be a little strange himself,
he didn't think the note that came to him via such unexplained sources was doubtful. Instead, he sat by the riverside and thought about this message all day long. By the end of the day, he came up with his own version of the theory:
"Fast is fast beside slow.
Slow is slow beside fast.
When people are faster they look narrower,
But when I am faster, they also look narrower.
And side by side is thickest."

Night fell, and it became too dark to head home, so he slept by the
riverside that night, pondering over these new ideas.

The next morning, as he lay on the patch of grass thinking about his findings the night before, he spotted another bottle being washed up. Excitedly, he hurried over to the riverbanks and grabbed the beer bottle wondering what more new ideas he can be inspired by from this new finding.

He was not disappointed as the second bottle opened up to another note. This note said:

My love bade farewell to me from a moving vehicle
And my love moved away from me.
I bade farewell to my love from a moving vehicle
And my love moved away from me.

Why are things always moving away from me! Why! Why!
I see the river flow away from me, I let the bottle flow away from me.
But I drank the beer, so the beer will stay with me in me.
At least the beer would not move away from me.

Holden was stumped with this message. Even the craziest of all
scientists was bewildered with this message. Holden thought hard
about it, but still could not see the light behind the message, taking a cue from the beer, Holden went down the riverbank, scooped up a handful of water and drank it. As the water trickled down this
throat, a sense of revelation suddenly overwhelmed him. The water was with him in him just as the beer was in the person who wrote the
message.

"When people move away from me, they are narrower. I move away from people, but I do not move away from myself. To me, it is still them who are moving. So when either of us moves, the other appears narrower." Holden thought.

With this new revelation, Holden decided to head back home for a good rest and hopefully after being properly rested he would be able to understand more things better.

Another thing about this world of Harley Upp and Holden is that in this world, people greet each other on the streets with, "How old
are you?" because one could never be sure. Everyone ages at a
different pace, depending on one's lifestyle and one's own biological
clock. As people moved as faster speeds, time expands for them and they age slower while people like Holden who tries hard to move at a slower speed would find themselves aging as a faster rate.

Holden and Harley Upp were born on the same day. They had played
together as children, went to school together, and shared a similar
interest in science.

However, on this day that they met, the first signs of grey had
appeared in Holden's hair, and his forehead was streaked with
wrinkles. Yet Harley Upp was still a vigorous young man.

"Hey, Holden, looks like you've been moving slowly."

"I prefer to take things easy. I've been pondering over some puzzling
questions about the way our world works. What have you been up to?"

"I've been inventing speed machines and riding around in them trying
to find a way to go as fast as possible, hopefully surpass the speed
of light. Brother, looks like you need some help. Hop in!"

"Well, it isn't my usual practice, but I need the time expansion."

Holden gingerly steps into the speed machine. "It doesn't feel like
we're moving at all," he said. This was the first time he had seen a
vehicle, since the people in his world usually had no need for such
machines as they could travel at great speeds naturally. It was only
Harley Upp, constantly obsessed about pushing the speed limits, who would think of inventing speed enhancing devices.

Harley Upp left the machine on autopilot and invited Holden to the pantry for a drink. Holden looked around appreciatively.

Grinning, Harley Upp asked, "Like it? We're moving at 98 percent C, without having to lift a toe!"

Holden was pensive. "This is a huge machine. I wonder how we look from the outside."

"Probably much smaller. Half the actual size?" Harley Upp shrugged.

Holden walked towards the window and peered out. The people sitting on the benches in the park looked much narrower than before.

Harley Upp suggested, "If we had a similar machine moving at the same
speed in the opposite direction, what do you think we would see?"

Enthusiastically, Harley Upp continued to propose, "Look, Holden! What if I move as fast as possible in the same direction as this machine, in the machine? I'll build my speed on top of the machine speed!"

Holden said, "Mathematically, 2 times 98 percent C… Physically, do you think it is possible?"

Harley Upp asked, "Why don't I try it out for you to see?" He then moves at 98 percent C within the confines of the moving vehicle. "So, what do you see, Holden?"

Holden scrutinises Harley, and said pensively, thinking back about the second note he found at the riverbank, "From my frame of reference, Harley brother, you're not moving any faster, it's still 98 percent C to me."

"What's wrong?" Harley wondered.

"I will have to observe you from the outside."

Holden parted from Harley Upp after their short discussion over the possibility of breaking the limits of the speed of light. Even though they parted, Holden still continued to think about Harley Upp’s problem hoping to be able to help his childhood friend while exploring his interest in this field of science.

Before he realised, Holden ended up yet again at the countryside, just by the river where he have been picking up beer bottles with queer messages in them. Remembering that he has not picked up any beer bottle that day, Holden scurried around the river looking for one.

Not being disappointed, he finally found a bottle lying under a turf of reed under a stump of a tree. The note that day was more zen-like than previous ones. It read:

There was a runner who never reached the finish line. Every step he
took, he halved the distance between him and the finishing line. In a
100m race, the first step he took covered 50m. The second, 25m; the
third, 12.5m, followed by 6.25m, 3.125m and so on, but he was never
able to take a step that could cross the finishing line.

Holden, more familiar with people running at faster speeds, thought, "On the contrary, what if there was a runner who doubled the distance of each subsequent stride? Sooner or later, he would be able to cross an infinite distance with a single stride."

"How about for the speed of light? If I move for an infinite distance
at a constant accelerating speed, wouldn't I be able to eventually
cross the limits of the speed of light?"

Later at night, Holden decided to keep the notes he found by the
riverbank in his notebook. Lying on the table was a pair of scissors.
Picking up the pair of scissors, Holden absent-mindedly made some cutting motions, still pondering on the possibility of breaking through the speed of light.

"If I had an infinitely large pair of scissors, and the rate at which
the blades meet is constantly accelerating, would there be a point at
which the speed of cutting is faster than the speed of light?"

Unlike how Holden usually travels, this time he moved at his fastest speed to Harley Upp’s house to share with him his latest discoveries with his friend. Hopefully, one day, the both of them can together discover a way to break the barrier of the speed of light.

ISM or Modules

There comes to a point in the mid-semester when every fourth year student has to decide on Honours Thesis, ISM, or simply just do enough modules to earn credit. I am sadly, no exception, other than the fact that my CAP and my SJAP doesn't qualify me to do Honours Thesis. So, here I am, pondering over the costs and benefits of ISM, independent study module.

Because of various reasons at the beginning of this semester, I found out to my horror that I haven't enough EU modules to do. The only way to get around this problem is to do an ISM, that would mean that I exceed the minimum number of level 4000 modules I need to take. This is already on top of me exceeding the minimum number of level 3000 modules I need to take. But I need the modular credits to graduate.

During the beginning of the semester I started formulating topics that interest me, topics which are viable ISM topics. I even surfed the Linc to look at the numberof material I have in the library which I can use for my bibliography. It's really no point doing on a topic that there's no material in the library that I can use. In the end, I decided on Kaiserreich Deutschland as my topic. I was planning to use the British Prime Ministers seminar style module to conduct my ISM, ie examine the leaders and conclude their successes and failures. And so, I decided to approach Prof Murfett if he's interested in being my supervisor.

Sadly, he was full already. He did try and intro another 19th century historian to me, but I didn't know him. I don't think it's that easy to work with someone I've never worked with before, and I don't know anything about him. The other alternative then for me is to find another prof, maybe Dr Kelly, or something, or that I do my second choice topic and look for another prof.

Unable to decide between the choices, I went to the FASS page to check out next semester's time table. And lo and behold, there were two EU/PS modules which were previously not listed. Politics of Contemporary Europe, a level 2000 module, and EU and ASEAN and the World, a level 3000 module. I don't have to do the philo module of Hume and Kant anymore, and now, there are lower level modules for me to choose from. Lower level, I'd think as easier and less work type of modules. I don't have to pull my hair out over the level 4000 ISM.

The catch here is that Politics of Contemporary Europe is on Fridays, and if I take it, it would mean that I'll have classes from 9am-5pm straight without any breaks at all. A bit the shiong sia. But the good news is that I can have a two and a half day week including tutorials. Then again, even if I do ISM, I can fit in an effectively one day week, and another alternate week tutorial on another day. Quite an effective one and a half day week. Sounds crazy? I think so too...

Also, Politics of Contemporary Europe and EU and ASEAN and the World are both Dr Reuben Wong's classes. I'm quite surprised that he is able to take on so many classes. And both modules are very intrisically tied in with what I'm doing now in his European Foreign Policy level 4000 class. In a way, it's damn weird for me to do the higher level class before doing the lower level ones, when most people do the lower level ones before doing the higher level one. Anyway, if I can cope with this module now, I can cope with the other modules next semester, isn't that? But then, seeing Reuben Wong for so many times a week, erm... a bit sian leh... hehe~

Yup, so what should my decision be? If I decided to do ISM I need to confirm it quick and chope a prof. Prof Murfett is already full, I can't imagine what's the statuses of the other profs.

Four Weeks of School: A Roundup

With today's class, I've rounded up four weeks of school in this new term and first time as an honours student. I just found of the perks of being an honours student is that I can now borrow up to 14 books for up to 4 weeks. wahaha~ I can hoard! Okay, I don't like to hoard because books are heavy, I print them copy them instead. Lighter to carry. A new habit of mine, I now print double sided because it's lighter. I'm accustoming myself to the whole new life of an honours student! wahaha~

I did the back to school post already but haven't given an in depth discussion about the modules, so that shall be it tonight.


Introduction to Cybercrime
I regretted taking this module, but then since it's not examinable and I need to go a breadth, then no choice. This module is pretty boring, at least to me. I tried so hard to stay awake during the first lecture, then the second lecture I had to bring in tons of sweets and chocolates to entertain myself. The third lecture was the ultimate, I had my laptop with me, so well, you can guess what happened. The fourth lecture I was worse, I was playing handphone game. But at least I did try and listen, multitasking.

Europe of the Dictators
The scope of this module don't seem to be what I expected, or at least for the part on Russia, I thought that there's too little talk about Stalin, and his whole regime. Much of the lectures went on about the Civil War, Lenin, and the Communist Party on the whole. And there isn't anything fresh to be learnt of it, everything seems to be stuff that I've been going through in various different modules. But the tutorial discussion was not bad, with my only gripe that the lecturer talked too much and gave less airtime to the students when I think my tutorial class was filled with very vocal people, especially the year fours, there were plenty of them.

One thing bad is that I don't know why but everytime during the lecture I'd be very tired and doze of a bit. Not much though, just a bit. I don't really want to use coffee to keep me awake because for a 12pm class, coffee doesn't really sound that worthy to be wasted. I must think about other means to keep myself awake. Maybe get Aikhui to poke me or something. haha~

Historiography and Historial Method
The module is very dry. I know it might be useful to me if I intend to do an ISM, but being the only non-history student in the class does sound pretty sucky on paper. But some topics within the Histo class isn't really as bad as the module on the whole, so it's still quite okay.

There are quite a number of gripes about the class, one thing is the lack of discussions, at 60 people in a class, it's not condusive to hold class discussions if there were any, and the lecturer has the tendency to talk too much and go on too long and the students' airtime is then limited. There was once we had group discussions which I enjoyed, but it was only for one week, the other weeks were so pressed for time.

British Prime Ministers
The introductary lessons were a bit of a drag but I must say that they were necessary since I don't bother too much about British politics, but if the presentations to be held every week were to be like what we had last week, then I think the class would be so much more fun. My group had the honour of being the first group to present. It's not too bad a thing other than I was dying in the third and fourth week of school, but clearing that major hurdle would be to ease up my time and space in the future weeks.

The presentations were fun. Okay, I had fun even though I was too rambly and lengthy and didn't get the opportunity to conclude, but I thought it weren't that bad. The Q and A session was a riot man. 4000 classes are indeed 4000 class, everyone has something to say and everyone has something useful to share and everyone discusses. I like discussions! I can voice my own opinion, learn from others' opinions, and better still I can keep my mind working by thinking and talking and not fall into auto-pilot mode. Just a bit of a whine, I got shot left right centre during the Q and A. Either my essay's filled with holes, or my topic's just too interesting, or people hate me.

European Foreign Policy
It's quite funny that I'm saying this is one of my favourite modules. I'm learning a lot from this module which I can't say quite the same for the other modules I'm doing. There's a lot of new things being brought up and I'm interested in knowing more, and I feel like I've gained something when I walk out of the classroom. Perhaps another reason for me to think this way is that we started the presentations on the second week, so presentations means more fun in the lessons. Another probable reason could be that I don't have much pre-knowledge of stuff about the contents of this modules to begin with, so everything is new to me.

Okay, with one essay down, one presentation down, one critique down, next up would be more essays, more presentations, more tests. Jiayou Joan, keep the pace and be a guai guai student this semester!

The essay wasn't that bad even though I sounded like I was dying when I was doing it, in between moanings and groanings, joanings finally completed it almost in time, well, the others were late too so it isn't that bad. The critique was quite a surprise, I actually finished it withing two hours, with footnoting and bibli and formatting. But it's 800 words only la. But I read both pieces of material each twice, and some time before I had already mentally mapped out what I wanted to touch on, though I didn't pen the thoughts down. A bit wasted that it's only 800 words and I found it difficult to be really analytic and go deeper, but I'm still pretty satisfied with my work. At least it's over and done with.

The engine is running for Joan~ Jiayou!

Year 4's No Joke

I'm dying.

Face it, I'm really dying from school work and it's only heading into the third week of school tomorrow. Year 4's been really crazy, crazy. I don't have time to read my daily dosage of blogs much less to blog. I don't even have time to sleep much less to blog. I don't even have time to slack much less to blog. I don't even have time to do my work and I don't even know why am I even writing this blog entry now.

My daily routine now is wake up, bathe, go to school, school, come back from school, check emails, check IVLE, go sleep. And I don't even get 7 hours of sleep each day! Most of the time is spent in school, printing readings, trying to read, going for classes don't even constitute too much time. To think that I still thought that school would be a breeze now that I've ridded of my commitment to German. I've only 15 hours of lesson a week, compared to a few more hours put into German, and I don't have the need to study for something I'm clueless about. But the three level 4000 and one level 3000 modules are enough to kill me already.

For the level 4000 modules there are presentations and readings to be done on a very regular basis, and there's no way I can don't read them. And the 3000 module is also quite shiong. hai... Luckily I still have one slack module, but it's non-examinable so I still need to piah for the tests if I want to pull my CAP up.

I'm slated for presentations for one of my modules soon, so that means that I need to start early, I'm less than 10 days away from the deadline and I'm knee deep in shit. And there's another critique that needs to be done from another module but with the same deadline. Good luck to me if I manage to stay alive by the end of the semester.

Then there's also the sausage blog that's been taking up much of my blogging juices. Okay, I don't write too much for that, but I've been spending quite a bit of time on the photo editing so much that I don't have the time to edit the pictures that I want to put up on this blog. I've quite a lot of material to blog about lor, just that I've no time to do so, and when I've the time I don't have the energy to do so. grr... I want this semester to end soon! But that would mean that the semester would pass by quickly which I can't let it happen because I don't have enough time. ahhh... I don't know what I want!

Imagine Joan, for the first time in her six semesters in NUS she's starting to do her readings regularly. This must really mean something lor. It's amazing how much a little reading can propel me in terms of knowledge. I know I'm a smart person, but because I'm also extremely lazy, I usually only am able to do the bare minimum to get by. But I also know that if I bother to put in some decent effort, coupled with the bit of smartness I have, I can do way better, but the problem is that usually I don't bother. However, this semester being a crucial one to me, I really need to put in some good hard work if not all will be wasted. hai... *stressed*

On the other hand, a good news is that my SEP transfer credits are finally through, after more than one year and a couple of weeks back from my SEP. Finally. Granted, much of the lag was due to the late deadline I had for one of my papers, in October, when I'm back in NUS already, and also because the professor there forgot to go through my papers, and it took me until the beginning of this year that I finally got everything from him, and then there was also the problem of getting the history department to endorse my UEs because I didn't know that the person in charge was changed from Clancey to Kelly. Then I thought all was well, but the credits were still not through, and it had to take me calls and emails to Ruby when I was told that there were some problems. grr... And nobody called me to ask me about the problems. Anyway, whatever it is, it is finally over, and I'm finally a full fledged year 4 student with 120MCs in my bag. Heck, I can even go and alter the GAPS thingie and file for graduation now. wahahaha~

Oh, and a little thing to share, another thing that's taking up my time is my driving lessons, yes, I'm starting to learn to drive after much much procrastination. *cross fingers*

Okay, sorry for the haphazard bad post, I promise that if I've the time I'll do up a proper one with nice pictures, I have been taking quite a bit of nice pictures recently. But well, that's if I've the time when I've the time. Jiayou to all those who are still studying, jiayou~

The Obligatory Back To School Post

I'm suffering from a highly acute case of Monday blues, back to school Monday night blues because Monday is my free day, so I start my week on a Tuesday! The good thing is that I can procrastinate my Monday blues to Tuesday, but the bad thing is that I've a four day week. I've five modules, four on EU modules on four different days, thank you very much FASS.

I'm now almost officially an honours year student, to make that officially a full one, I need Ruby to faster get my SEP credits transferred without anymore hitches. *cross fingers* Looking at the list of modules I'll be taking this semester, I'm proud to say at the very little bit excited. Seminar style modules are now 3 hours long, which means no tutorials, no need to ballot, no need to come back to school on another godforsaken day. But that also means that I'm going to sit in class until my butt pain. The 3 hour German classes I previously took was a practice, and in those classes, time went by very slowly, and by the one and a half hour mark I was dying to stop myself from fidgeting in my seat. This semester I've three of those classes. Wish me luck! And I've another three hour lecture for my cross fac module, wish me more luck.

Okay, a little run through on my modules this semester.


Introduction to Cybercrime
I suck at cross faculty modules, so I pick them as with what is easy and what other people are doing, and so this was a module that stood out. Another plus is that there is no examinations for this module. Previous semesters saw me doing only three to four exams each semester thanks to my German modules being non-examinable, hence I'm quite used to not having too many exams, so I needed a non-examinable module. I'm contemplating on S/Uing it, but because I paid so much bid points for it, I don't have much left, and next semester I might end up with a difficult module which I need to S/U, so I'm not so sure if I should S/U this module. I'm not aiming for too high a score, perhaps a B would be sufficient.

It's cool that I'm doing a cross faculty module with someone I know if not I'd hate going for classes and absolutely abhor stepping into the science faculty. The only downside to doing this module is that it's at 6-9pm which means that I've a 6 hour break in between my classes on Wednesdays. I'm thinking if I should put my tutorial there to narrow it to a four hour break and/or put my duty slots there to cut another three hours away, or I should just go ahead with the six hour break and perhaps hit Vivocity for a mid class movie session. hahaha~ I've until Friday to think about this.

Europe of the Dictators
This is the module I have been waiting for for years, six semesters to be exact. Finally! I can't wait to frolick with Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and Franco. I think this is really one hot module because there are 90 students in this cohort. I wonder how we are all going to fit into that tiny AS1 seminar room suited to hold 60 students. Another reason why I can't wait for this module to commence is to finally meet Dr Kelly in person. I've been hearing a lot of good things about him, and was so kind to help me validate my SEP credits because of some problem with the change in manpower, the person who was in charge when it was my time used to be Prof Clancey, blah blah, and Dr Kelly's specialty is European History, just the kind of stuff I enjoy.

I know whether or not someone was going to take this module with me, I still have to take this module because it's been my calling since six semesters ago. But because this is also the kind of module I know people would take, I'm not surprised to see quite a number of familiar faces in this class. I really hope I get to learn some serious stuff for this module~ Another amazing thing is that the textbook Dr Kelly chose for this module is a book by one of my favourite historians, Stephen J Lee. This gives me an excuse to purchase the book!

Historiography and Historial Method
This is like the only module out of all that I'm going into class quite reluctantly. Seriously, if there were enough EU modules going around, I wouldn't want to do this module, it just sounds so dry and boring and difficult, even though I really hope it won't be the case. But really, historiography isn't my cup if tea. In the field of history, I like learning about stories, stories of great men, stories of great triumphs and/or downfalls. I have pictures of grandeur in my head and histo just plants an image of a shaggy haired historian in my head, something like Eric Hobsbawn. *shudders* As much as I enjoy his writings, I think he looks really ugly, there's no way I want to turn out to look anything remotely like him.

Another thing about this class is the idea of being stuck in a class filled with history majors and they are all so zai, and I'll look so bad comparatively.

Special Paper in Modern European History
The title is misleading because the scope Prof Murfett chose is Britain, contemporary Britain. Yes, two things wrong about it, anything from 1945 is not called modern history because modern history is 1978-1945, another thing is that I don't consider Britain as part of Europe, Europe to me is always continental Europe. But well, after doing Victorian Great Britain during my SEP, this module is quite a good continuation of my study of the Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, or whatever you want to call that little piece of island off the coast of continental Europe.

And it's great to do a module with Prof Murfett once again. He's one good teacher, and a funny bloke, even though his allegiences in football is quite disturbing, but anyway, I'm quite looking forward to the module already.

Last week we had a briefing session for the module, and I unfortunately had the dishonour of arriving to class late, like half and hour late, and I was laughed at. boo~ I cannot be late for the module again. I need to be up early, at least early enough to reach and have enough time to get a cup of coffee from Coffee Club Xpress. grr... I hate 9am classes, and this semester I have two of them. super sian...

European Foreign Policy
This is the other 9am class. Actually I'm quite apprehensive about this module because it's a PS module, and I haven't been doing that many PS modules. The other module that's linked to this module, EU and ASEAN, was the module which I hadn't complete during the semester I left for SEP. I really need to put in a lot of effort to be on par with those muggerish, competitive PS student. grr...

This is also another module I am taking alone, but luckily a scan through the list shows a couple of familiar names so I hope it won't be too bad on me. Yup, bring on the coffee and I think I'm sort of, kind of, somewhat ready for school already.

I also can't wait for next semester's modules, they are quite interesting, and cross my fingers that I get to do ISM then it'd be really fun next semester.

Meeting Mr Thompson

This title sounds like some B grade action flick, I don't know why. haha~ But anyway, the point is that I met Mr Thompson today! Mr Thompson was my European History teacher back in TJC, and he's the main reason why I'm studying European History currently, and he's also the main reason why I'm so in love with Otto von Bismarck.

I met Mr Thompson at the MOE Teaching Award Ceremony this afternoon, and no, I'm not going to sell my soul just to break my bond. I'd be damned three time over if I'm ever going to be a teacher, either that or it's just that I'm in dire need of a job or cash. bah~ I was there as a spectator, and sitting there and watching the overtly pompous ceremony made me even more determined that MOE is indeed a place where they get their priorities all screwed up, but I'm not going into that today. The main man of the day is Mr Thompson.

I wasn't quite surprised to see Mr Thompson as one of the invited teacher-mentors of some awardee because Mr Thompson is one dedicated, interesting, caring and kind teacher. There aren't many history teachers around in TJ, and anyone with an interest in European History would definitely love this man here. He was kind of surprised to see me there because he knows of my disinterest in teaching, and in fact he was the one on hearing that I was pursuing an education in European History shared his disencouragement to join the teaching profession. It was even more ironic that the reason why I was at the ceremony was because I was watching someone receiving a teaching award for history. Mr Thompson did raise his eyebrows regarding the choice of profession. haha~

It was comforting to know that Mr Thompson still remembers me despite me having graduated eons ago. But I think it's also because I still do see him around now and then that I can jot this memory of me. haha~ I still meet him around like once a year under various circumstances, like today's award ceremony. I once met him in NUS where he was attending a seminar while I was hanging around in school doing stuff for my then CCA. Then there was me going back to TJ with the girls for a little outing . Then there was the other instance when I went back to TJ myself to request for a favour from him because I needed a testimony to include in my SEP application stuff. I first thought of him when I needed to find to mentors to write a cover letter for me, him and Prof Farrell of course, as I said earlier, this was the teacher who awakened my deep interest in European History, and my love for Bismarck and the German History. If I ever need to invite a teacher that I admire, or helped shaped my interests, I'd also definitely be inviting this man here. But course, you can be sure that it won't be anything to do with teaching, or MOE.

I still see Mr Thompson sometimes when he's walking home from school, but those times I'd be on the bus seeing him walk by so I'm unable to say hi to him. Yup, he stays very near me, confirmed by his disclosure of his address while talking.

It's quite sad that European History has been removed from the history syllabus, so now Mr Thompson has turned to teaching Knowledge and Inquiry, whatever that is, I'm not from that era one. Yup, he's the head of that department, supposedly teaching H3 students, I don't know who they are, but Mr Thompson says that they are the smarter ones, probably those who would go on to do their studies overseas, and well, Mr Thompson is still the teacher in charge for application of overseas colleges for TJ.

It's a pity I didn't get to take a picture with him just now, erm, I'm not an awardee anyway, so take picture for what. This is a picture of that time when we went back TJ for a visit. Oh wait, I think he wore that exact same shirt and pants when I met him just now. wahaha~

Good luck and all the best to Mr Thompson, and whatever's left of his history profession here in TJ, and hope that rental prices won't continue to rise. It's a pity I didn't get to talk more with him because he was rushing off to play tennis. How cool is that? haha~

Paikia

The Obligatory Union Camp 07 Post

As I was away for the whole week last week, this that follows is evidence of myself being away from the computer and away from the internet and away from other distractions. For that whole week, okay, six days, I was with this bunch of people having fun and making new friends. It's not just among the councillors, but also the freshies, and the other groups' councillors. It's been great fun.


Group Pictures.

Truth be said, I'm nowhere near a very good councillor nor a good senior to the freshies since I take great delight in kajiao-ing them a lot and I'm not really the kind who can talk to everyone and make friends with everyone. I bitch a lot and whine a lot and complain way way too much, in short, I'm just not a good person to be around with. Not just that, sometimes I talk before processing and often find myself biting my lips for something I said wrongly or shouldn't have said.

I'm still learning to be a better me, with each very little very small steps, I'm learning and growing and bettering myself each day.


The girls.

The girls are a cool bunch of people, more of those kind slowly warm up to. Since six days is a rather short period of time, I hope that with time, the bond can slowly continue to grow. The pretties and the lovelies, and the paikia eh chio chio eh zar bor kias.


The guys.

The guys are a really interesting bunch of people, almost like wolves, they stay in packs, they bond, they develop some form of brotherhood relationship among themselves. Comparing to the other guys in the other OGs, our group seems to have the better guys of the camp. haha~ And the most memorable out of all these people, the inside jokes shared among the female councillors... hahaha~

Lao Da!!!

All the wait I had to join Union Camp as a councillor finally did not come to a naught. I'm really glad that I could share my last chance with this group of Paikias, at least now I can graduate with no regrets. Union Camp/Arts Camp as a freshie, summer 2004. Immersion, summer 2005. Exchange Programme, summer 2006. Union Camp as a councillor, summer 2007. Summer 2008 will see Joan walking towards the next stage of her life.

Ciao, my fabulous summer vacation, the last one I can have as a student~

Will I Be Able To Graduate?

After the release of the time table for European Studies modules, I pored over it for a couple of hours before I realised, dang shit, I do not have enough modules to do if I want to graduate in time. In a scurry of emails seeking advice from Prof Turner and Prof Farrell, somewhere between those I tried to sort out the problem to see if it was solvable. Then along with that flurry of emails, I received my grades for this semester in the mail, and realised that I'm 16MCs short, which means that my SEP credits have yet been transferred. In disgust, I made a couple of phone calls here there everywhere to the Dean's Office and the Registrar's Office to get hold of somebody, some physical person to help me see what can be done.

Amazing shit! How I can be easily screwed left right centre by some weird administrative system.

In a nutshell, examining the next academic year's timetable, I'd HAVE TO be doing the following modules:
(for Semester 1)
- EU3212 Europe of the Dictators (no complains here, since this is the module I have been wanting to do ever since forever)
- EU4214 Special Paper in Modern European History [Political Leadership and the Fate of Modern Britain: From Attlee to Blair (1945-2001)] (I've marked it down to do it, so no complains here either)
- EU4228 European Foreign Policy (it's another possible module even though I had yet to do the two Reuben Wong's modules I wanted to do, Politics of Contemporary Europe and EU and ASEAN in the World)
- HY4101 Historiography and Historical Method (I hadn't wanted to do it, but seems like I'd be forced to do it, but it's still okay I guess)
(for Semester 2)
- EU4224 War and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe (I want to do this)
- EU4226 Imperialism and Empires (I want to do this too)

The problem now is that I can do only 6 modules when I NEED to complete 8 to graduate, the other two modules I'm lacking are the two dumb cross-faculty modules. I absofuckinglutely abhor the idea of doing crossfacs. Anyway, the problem now lies with me missing two EU modules. Preferably two level 2000 modules since I've done more than the minimum of 5 level 3000 and 7 level 4000 modules required. One thing good about EU is that the minimum number of level 4000 modules is 7 instead of the usual 8 in most other departments, but anyway, it doesn't really matter anymore in my context because there is not enough lower level modules for me to do.

After the discussion with Prof Farrell, the best out of the worst circumstance that I'm in now is for me to do ISM and a lower level PH module PH2207 Hume and Kant. But Prof Turner on the other hand mentioned a possibility of there being the module EU and ASEAN in the World, so if there is really EU and ASEAN, then there would not be a need for me to do ISM. Then again, I must think of how much is it that I would like to do ISM and how would it benefit me. As much as ISM allows me greater flexibility, I'm unmotivated and probably will end up way behind deadlines, and that would suck. However, I can always get my personal secretary to help me with the remembering of deadlines, and possibly to help me to much of the collation stuff and boring nitty gritty stuff, leaving me to do the research and learning in great peace. Oh well, I guess I'll have to check out how would it be regarding the EU and ASEAN module, and if I can come up with an interesting topic and get a nice sup to help me.

Anyway, my timetable is sort of already planned out for the next academic year with me doing four EU modules in each semester and the crossfac modules in each too. Looking at the modules and checking around with friends, there is a very high possibility of me being able to do all my modules with at least somebody I know personally. *cross my fingers that things will work out neatly* Same for the second semester.

The only trouble is that for Sem 1 I'll be saying goodbye to a three day week. I already have a four day week with four modules each occupying a different day. And worse is that there are two 9am days. Maybe I need to get my daddie to send me to school. Hopefully by then the arts canteen would be ready then I can go have beehoon for breakfast, or maybe make it for the McDees breakfast. Can pull Someone to come down to school early, well, he has to, at least for one of those days, since he's also doing one of those modules. haha... I am so evil. oh crap, karma's biting me in the butt now, I'm feeling so hungry just thinking about have breakfast.

Sem 2 sounds like a nicer timetable because two modules fall on the same day, but it sounds very shiong. 9am-12nn War and Diplomacy, then 2pm-5pm Imperialism and Empires, so effectively i'll be dying in history seminars for the whole day. And if inclusive of lunch, it's a 9-5 thingie! Someone will have to bear the brunt of me getting cranky and restless on a so certainly not TGIF day. The only thing interesting about Sem 2 are the field trips Farrell mentioned for his module. wahaha~ Can go overseas on field trips, even though it's only as far out as across the causeway, but then, can fly over the seas to East Malaysia also, so that's a slight bit more interesting. haha~

Hopefully over the next two semesters, with one more S/U in my cache, and no more pulling my CAP down language modules, I can work and pull up my CAP. And graduate in time. Farrell says my priorities are wrong, I should be worrying about graduation before I worry about my CAP, but well... bah~ Okay, maybe it's because it's totally out of the question for me to extend a semester since there are no modules which I can do in AY 2008/9 Sem 1, nor Sem 2, so I can't pull a Terrence and extend semesters and not graduate. haha~

All these planned forth, and *cross my fingers* that my SEP transfer of credits get through. I still can't believe that when there was a problem, no one contacted me to settle the problem, and I needed to wait till I found out about the lack of initiative that something gets done. *pulls hair*

German Class Jokes

This will be a short one, and the jokes are in German, so the bulk of you out there can just ignore me. I just want to note it down because it's really very funny! And I've some time to spare.

In class just now, I was writing a short passage for an advert for a chair. I described the chair as being comfortable and healthy to use, "bequem und gesund". Shawn the clown looked over at my paper and said "ungesund" which means unhealthy. diaoz...

Frau Niemann heard me protest to Shawn and asked what happened.

Then she told us another joke from her other German class. She was discussing the difference between the akkusativ and dativ "in die" and "in der" with a student. "In die bibliothek gehen" means going to the library, but "in der bibliothek bleiben" means staying in the library, there's a difference in position and direction.

Then came another student who cut in and said "Inder und Inderin". Oh man, even as I'm typing this I'm laughing out lor. Inder is a male Indian and Inderin is a female Indian.

Then I shared with Frau Niemann what happened just before the class. Shawn came over to class while I was sitting outside waiting for time to pass and he asked me if he was late, so I said, "Niemand ist hier." He rushed into the room straight because he thought that I said "Niemann ist hier", he thought I meant that Frau Niemann had arrived before him.

Then Frau Niemann was like, this isn't the first time such things happened. She said that she often received emails greeting her as "Frau Niemand". diaoz... If you don't know, "niemand" means "nobody".

And she also said that some students mix her up with Frau Neumann, another German tutor. She gets emails for Frau Neumann and Frau Neumann gets emails for Frau Niemann. diaoz...

Horror in the Library

I hadn't wanted to blog this out actually because I was afraid it's quite incriminatory to guys, but after relating my horror tale to two guys and the both of them gave me the same horrifed expression, I thought perhaps, it's not really that incriminatory to guys in general. Just to that inconsiderate person I had the unfortunate chance to come across.

I was in the library that day, waiting for time to pass. I brought a couple of my own mangas to read, but it seemed like everyone in the library was mugging which really freaked me out since I'm allergic to studying. I decided to find a nice quite corner so that no one can notice that I'm not mugging but reading some frivolous stuff, I didn't want anyone to be jealous of me.

So I picked out one of those single tables to rest upon. Most tables in the Central Library are double tables which can seat four people in a square, but the one I picked was at a corner, and it seats only two people. Usually when a person occupies a table, not many people would want to squeeze with them, it's like an infringement in space, unless the library is really packed, then really got no choice. So I thought no one would share the table with me. But honestly, I didn't mind someone sharing the table with me. Just that I hadn't expected it...

I was happily reading my manga, totally engrossed in it, not lifting my head up to see much of the surroundings. Then suddenly, the table shaked. I ignored it because I was too wrapped up in the fictional world. Then the table shaked a bit more, and there were knocking noises, then the table started vibrating continuously, then a loud windows start up tune rang. Unable to control my curiosity, I looked up. This guy set his computer infront of me and started using it. Really, even though I hadn't expected to share my table to anyone else, I didn't mind it, so I went back into the manga world and ignored his presence. I sat back on my chair so that I didn't touch any part of the table and not be affected by any movement on the table. It was also more comfortable leaning back.

I went on reading my mangas. Suddenly, I smelled this wave of stinkiness. It smelled like stale gym socks. I tried to ignore it, and concentrated hard on my manga. But after a while, I really couldn't stand that smell anymore. Although I knew it was rude to look around and search for the source of the smell, I lifted my head up and wanted to look around. I needn't have to seach far, once I lifted up my head, I saw this guy right in front of me.

His hair was all wet.
His face was all wet. I could see all the droplets of water, on his forehead, sides, all over.
And the most horrifying thing was that his eyes were closed and he was breathing hard.
He was sweating like a pig. Really. And that's still an understatement.
He was sweating like a pig!!!

I freaked out la, but I couldn't do anything. I went back straight to my manga and buried my head in it. But the smell because worse, I think also partly because of my psychological reaction, and I couldn't concentrate on my reading.

Then I tried inching away from the table and slunk down as far back into my chair as possible and tried to position my head as far away from that guy as possible. I got so far away from that guy until I could see the bottom of the table. And guess what I saw? I saw his feet!!! He took his feet out of his shoes. OMG... I almost puked.

I won't be that bad if he was wearing slippers since slippers can air out the feet a little and there isn't much difference in a feet with or without slippers, but shoes? Without socks, and taking them out? Oh gross. I almost puked when I saw it. I tried to hide my gaze from the feet and leaned forward onto the table, but the sweat smell was too strong, so I tried to rest my head on my arm hoping that I can smell my washing detergent smell instead of other weird smells, but it was useless.

The physical smell wasn't that much of a significance anymore since the psychological trauma already affected me very badly and I was imagining the smell to be worse than it actually is. I couldn't read any more. And I still had some time to waste before I can leave the library and head to my next destination.

After sitting there and struggling through two more pages, I finally decided that I've reached the threshold of my limit. I gathered my stuff, walked three tables away and plonked down at a new seat. I didn't bear to look at that guy there anymore. But the girl I sat opposite to saw me walk over and sit down. She gave me a weird stare. I didn't know how to react to that and just buried my head back to my books and breathed some cool stale air-condition air.

Fingerprinting

Forensic Science is now becoming one of my most fun module for the semester even though I'm struggling to cope with the continual assessments. Other than the written work part, the class is fun and interesting, the group of people I'm doing the module with is also funny and cute, a far cry from other modules which I do alone, and most importantly, all the optional stuff organised by the lecturers and tutors make this module so fun to learn. Indeed, rather than a studying module, this has been a learning experience for me.

Until now, I've been to both the field trips organised by the class, and yesterday morning, I went for this lab session to do a hands on experience with fingerprinting. I'm quite lucky to be able to be slotted into this lab session because I didn't sign up for the class through conventional means. I missed the deadline for the IVLE groups signing up, also because there was a screw up with the IVLE groups. I wasn't that all enthusiastic then so I didn't bother to address the problem. However, later I realised that Shuyi was going for the lab session alone, so I thought maybe I could join her, and also because A/P Stella Tan said that the session would be very useful so I emailed the TA and got myself a place covering some other person who backed out at the last minute.

To cut the long story short, this session was a blast. I learnt so much that can't be taught by books. And through the speaking with the tutors there, I learnt more about the topic on hand and the rationale behind fingerprinting. I think not just the students got to learn a lot more about the methods of the collection of fingerprints but the tutors learnt a lot too. The fun part of the photofest started with the lecturers documenting our learning process, but as we went on, my group started taking out our handphone cameras and taking pictures of all our exhibits, then Prof Stella started taking group pictures of us and the exhibits. This is called having fun while learning. Quite a pity the last semester people didn't get to do such interesting stuff. hehehe~

We went through four methods of collection of fingerprints in lab today. The first one is the use of Ninhydrin, some sort of weird chemical. First we sprayed the colourless liquid thingie on a specimen, then we microwaved it. It came out after microwaving with purplish prints on the specimens. This is a very effective method in the collections of prints which have been around for a very long time, it can apparently detect prints from ten, twenty years ago.

This the Ninhydrin thingie. The class was split into groups of 25 then sub divided into groups of 6-7. My group of 25 used up like half the bottle of that thing. It's like finally seeing where my school fees were going to. Previously in Arts the school fees seems to be wasted on paying for lecturers only, but now, in this class, there's at least some use of the school fees, like the gloves we wore, the disposable lab coats, all these materials.

This is magnetic dusting. Inside that can is magnetic powder, the magnetic rod can stick up the powder onto the tip and it looks a bit like a brush. I first thought that it was a brush instead of merely a rod and the magnetic powder were the bristles of the brush. haha... Suaku me... So we use that rod to dust the surface of the specimen to locate the prints.

The print taken from that method is very clear and distinct. But of course, since the magnetic powder is black in colour, it's best used for materials which are light coloured so that we can see the print. Personally, I prefer this metod the most because it's the least troublesome one and can detect the clearest and most distinct prints. Wonder if we can get a can of that magnetic powder and start dusting my stuff on my own anot. hehehe~

This is the dusting of normal fingerprint powder, the one I took a picture on is the white powder which can be used on dark coloured surfaces, but there's also the black fringerprint powder to be used on white surfaces. It's something like the magnetic powder just that it's not that cool. hehe... The brush is like some normal brush to dust lightly over the surface of the specimen. The print would then appear. But these powders can only detect fresh prints. Actually, we can also do this at home with normal powder and dust for prints, just that the prints we get might not be that clear because these fingerprint powders have been optimised to the best effects, whatever that it. I only know that the powder is supposed to detect the oil off from our fingers onto those surfaces, to leave the ridges of our fingerprints.

To document and keep these prints, we use a sticky tape thingie to stick onto the powder of the prints and keep it as shown in the picture there. The prints of this method however is blurry and not that clear, couple with the fact that most criminals when committing the crime don't bother to leave us with nice clear prints in tact, I personally thing that this is quite useless. hehe... But to the police, it can help to narrow down suspects.

The last method we tried out was superglue fuming. The picture shows some weird chemicals that can help induce the fumes of the superglue which can leave marks on specimens that has fingerprints on them. Apparently, it's one of the more common methods used by the police because that can fume the whole room at one go. However, we of course can't fume that much, only on our specific little area of created specimens. It's quite lame since our prints are very nicely marked because we were careful to make sure that we left our prints all over.

This the set up, it's quite blur because we were the last sub group to use that set up and the plastic bag has been fumed by all the other sub groups before and everything's a fog. It's so funny because after all the years of being an arts student in JC and Uni, I forgot what's that stand thingie called. When I asked my group mates, they were like "It's a (edited for spelling mistake)retort stand.", momentarily I really felt very stupid. Oh well... More proof that I'm definitely not made out for Science.

This the specimen. I thought that it's very clear that a print has been detected by the ridges of the print isn't that distinct, so I don't really think that it seems like a very efficient method. But of course, it's probably that my group didn't do it that well, the police might be doing a better job than us. hehe... Some of the prints on other materials also didn't really come out to be that obvious.

It was fun la, the whole session. BUT THEN HOR, what we watch on TV is like so different. There's no such thing as getting clear distinct prints on every possible thing, and also, apparently the matching of fingerprints detected to a person is very labourious and difficult. Because our database only contains thumbprints of every Singaporean, and the ten fingerprints of everyone who has been detained before, so if a clean criminal comes about, it's very difficult to identify him based only on the fingerprints. Also, the software system of matching fingerprints is bullshit. The tutor said that on a normal day, an input of a print can come up with 40-50 matches.

So, really, if we want to commit crimes, there isn't really a need to wear gloves. lol~ Just make sure that our hands are dry and not oily, maybe can put powder or some drying agent. hehehe~ And also, don't be a good citizen and volunteer your prints for database purposes. lol~

Test-DaF

Should I take the Test-DaF? Deutsch als Fremdsprache.

Being a student of the the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, I tend to be seen as someone among a large group of people, not so academically inclined as people from other prestigious faculties like Medicine or Law. To make my field of study seem more interesting than it is, I prefer to tell people that I'm studying European Studies, instead of saying I'm an arts student. Being a European Studies student really sounds me chi chi than it really is.

The total number of European Studies majors are about as many as our fingers in the whole university. This very small number gives my department a slightly more exclusive feel to the whole idea of being a European Studies major.

That day I was talking to my grandfather's specialist when he asked me what I was studying.
doctor: So what are you studying?
joan: European Studies.
doctor: wah... So cheem ah?
joan: no la... hehehe~

Imagine if I say some other kind of studies, I think the reaction won't be the same lor. Think, Southeast Asian studies. Probably think it's like politics ot geography or something boring. Think, Chinese Studies. One would first think of their primary school Chinese teacher man. Think, Japanese Studies. I don't know about you, but the first things I'd think of is Manga, Anime, Porn.

I think the only other kind of Studies that might induce a "wah..." reaction could be American Studies. In conclusion, I think, people all have some form of white superiority, neo-colonism mentality.

In actual fact, there isn't anything wow wow about European Studies. It's just mainly history and political science. The only maybe a bit wow wow thing is that I learn a third language. Learning another language is always some interesting and difficult and very envy-inducing. Maybe that's where the wow wow factor comes in~

Anyway, to improve my German, to do well for the Test-DaF if I decide to take it, and to improve my German grade and in turn pull up my CAP, I went down to Kinokuniya and bought two German books.

I bought a picture-word book and a krimiroman, a Donna Leon one. Hopefully my command of the language can improve. I think the most interesting part about reading the Donna Leon book is to spot the difference in the usage of "you", see when are "Sie"s and "du"s used.

I have a little dream which I shared with the daddie once. I'd really really like to have a chance to be able to work in Germany for a couple of years. Work in Herzogenaurach, work under adidas, that would be a totally fun experience, especially if I can work in the publicity or public relations or events departments, then I can travel about and meet big big football stars. That would be the ultimate cool job. Maybe I'll get to met Frank Lampard even, although he's in London.

Well, how things will work out will be dependent on what I consider as my options after I actually graduate, maybe I should work real hard and have something else in my pocket to review my options.