diary

None

At twenty-five, a developing teacher, aspiring to be a writer and a good artist.

I went CD-hunting today. After going to many places, I finally found a copy of Wang Jie's new CD which I bought at an impossible price of $27, with very low expectations of his singing since we all know he croaks more than he sings nowadays. Let's see...There are actually a handful of nice songs in the album, but he rendered them somewhat poorly. If I had his kind of voice, I'm sure I would have sung them better. Anyway, some of the songs are so bad I think I really sound better in every literal sense of the word. That kind of sound should not have been heard anywhere outside the recording studio. Nevertheless, because my expectations of the album was so low, I wasn't at all disappointed at all when I tried it. At least the two or three listenable songs were not too bad. Perhaps I can add them to my KTV repertoire.

That's the latest excitement anyway.

I've been thinking of where I'm going from here. I do not really hate classroom teaching that much (in fact, the Express classes are lovely)...but with CCAs and all the admin work, and the meetings and the NT kids, teaching is not really my cup of tea.

The truth is, I see myself as someone who creates. I see myself doing many drawings and paintings and writings...but for all practical purposes, I need to keep my teaching job. I cannot rely on art or writing for a living. In addition, I don't see how anyone can live on creative work anymore.

I would love to read or re-read the following to become a good writer:

1) Strange Pilgrims by Garcia Marquez
2) Collected Stories by Garcia Marquez
3) The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Garcia Marquez
4) News of a Kidnapping by Garcia Marquez
5) Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
6) Don Quixote translated by Gregory Rabassa
7) Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
8) Self Portraits (?) by Osamu Dazai
9) The Cinnamon Peeler by Michael Ondaatje
10) Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
11) Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
... ...

The great Li Keran once said, 'He who is below forty years old should have a ten or twenty year plan for his creative work.'

I shall heed his advice.

Hopefully, one day, I can be say the same as he did: 'The East has dawned.'

posted by sin @ 7:44 PM