The joys of writing

Although I've considered myself to be a very good student in the last couple of years I was in school (in Vancouver, not here), I still had some pretty bad habits. Although I'd think about my term papers as soon as they're assigned, and I'd come up with a broad topic a couple of months before they're due, and I borrow and read dozens of books on the topic, and I start writing a few weeks before the due date, and I try hard to come up with an argument as soon as possible.. I always ended up writing the bulk of each paper in the couple of days before the deadline. I'd stay up all day and night, get bloated on snacks and drinks, nearly go insane at times with extreme fatigue, but can still manage to do decent work. The problem is that I'm so damned indecisive when it comes to picking a stance, picking the best evidence, picking the best quotes, etc. But when I'm finally forced to choose, I normally make sound choices. Then comes the task of cleaning up. Even though it can be tiring, this is a part that I truly enjoy. While sculptors chip away at their work with progressively smaller chisels, I replace and rearrange words (and sentences and paragraphs and even entire sections) until either I'm satisfied or until time runs out. It's usually the latter. I don't think I ever come up with any brilliant ideas, but I know damned well that I can make a point damned clear and damned convincing by the way I arrange and rearrange words.

Anyway, my paper is going okay, even a bit ahead of schedule, for once. I have no choice. Who knew that so many things would be happening in the few days before this damned paper's due? I'm bringing Graduate House residents on a day-trip to Macau the day before the paper's due. In the 3 days before that, an old friend is coming to visit Hong Kong (arriving in a few hours, actually), and I'll show her around a bit. And there's also the bore-a-thon High Table Dinner tomorrow, but at least there's free steak in it for me.

There is one distraction I wouldn't mind having, and that is a girlfriend. Too bad I don't have one of those at the moment. Doesn't look like I'll have one in the near future either. More on that another time.

I really really want to post here more consistently. It's not that I haven't been writing anything for this blog, it's just that I haven't been POSTING anything here. In fact, I've written at least a dozen half-written entries in the last couple of weeks. The problem is that I don't have the energy or the discipline to finish writing them. I'd think of something clever or interesting, quickly jot it down (can I say "jot down" if I'm typing rather than hand-writing?), but then be too lazy to write the background information or to structure anything properly, or to take out superfluous words, to simplify complex ideas, to elaborate vague ones, and to.. to.. finish incomplete thoughts.

And here I am at 7:00am, writing this. No, I didn't wake up early. I'm up "late". Too worked up by arranging and rearranging. Not this blog entry, though, as you can probably see.