Diotallevi II

Yesterday was the greatest rain in Singapore of the century, and it has driven even me to nuts, as someone who loved the rain. It seems that folks in these parts gets driven mad by anything if it stays on for long enough.

I loved the rain at nights, for its rarity, and because the sounds of falling waters droned me to sleep. In ths storm on Monday night the rain never stopped its assault; the lights from town and Woodlands rose from the horizon like a huge beast, oppressing the nightly darkness with a pale brown glow which disturbed me so much that I shut up the curtains.

Okay a few of those folks here in office really like to breathe out heavily through their noses whenever they pass my cubicle, but let's not get too distracted.

Jin Peng and the others who's rallied to the Astronomy Fellowship Camp from Monday to today are in for some disappointment; the rain for two nights would make any stars rebelliously appearing an impossibility. The astronomy rating for the camp is gone, though if they get together in a shelter they can find in Ubin, I hope it does well for the fellowship. Only I may never know because I couldn't be with them.

It was a long and dismal trip back home, and my poor bag's taken quite a lot of it, as well as some of my drawings for coursework. All had some kind of damage, especially for the icefloe scene. Also, I lost my umbrella cover.

After I got home and smashed the computer a bit, then met with Charmaine and Colin online to discuss the script. They took it up where I failed; to find the bones we have to pick. It was a long day with a lot of rain out there which I guess was why I took such a long time to react to the academic downpour and the critical questions since my trembling fingers threaten to make any response relative gibberish. But I won't discuss them here because it's still faculty secret.

I start to wonder why I had used the name Diotallevi and Leodhas. The name Diotallevi has started to feature in all of my ideas that had something about self-referencing narratives, and I chose the name Leodhas after an island in the Scottish Hebrides, better known as Lewis. I start to wonder if I can choose the name Casaubon, or possibly Watson, so that people can say to him, "Elementary, my dear Casaubon" or so on. Maybe I can use the name Nechtan, a name much easier to pronounce than Leodhas, and Saraband instead of Emillia.

The names are my least concern, though. Oh yeah, I hear you snicker.

For today I might get my hands upon other jobs, such as character development. And development especially for the character Ratt, who is a rat. I've been drawing the pudgy guy (don't confuse it with the Pudgy Guy). I found out that my pencils are effectively stuffed in the warm dry airtight conditions of my pencil case (why do we call it a pencil case?) so I have to go out today at lunchtime (which is now) and buy myself now a working pencil.


I'm quite tired of the old Ratt design way back from 2004, so I might use a new one. I liked the way Banksy rats are drawn, because they remind me of the rats of Chris Baker, whom Redwall readers might identify as Fangorn. I bet you're snickering more loudly this time.

Also I'm beginning to imagine Ratt dressed in a habit and wielding a blackthorn staff in the most suave and lethal manner like a warrior monk. Don't fall off the chair now! I could take that further and name the abbey Schaulin, but anyway that's not going into the actual film.

Lastly I have to confess that I've in a rather dark mood, starting to lash out at people, and all the stuff you usually hear from blogs like mine so I won't repeat them.

If anything has helped to alleviate it, it was the clear skies near Changi Business Park this morning, which was why I took a picture of it with the rail leading in to Changi Airport.