Banality

Had lunch with Q on Wednesday to talk about her PhD proposal. I am not very fond of her.

Why? Example: she sat down at lunch and started apologizing for being 10 minutes late, and I said that's okay no worries. Then she said, aren't you cold? I said, no, not really. She said, how come? it's freezing! I said, Oh really? freezing? but you're wearing a down jacket! She then said, Oh yes, and now I'm sweating, it's so hot. Et cetera...

Geddit? She is one of those idiots who like to comment comment comment on others and make attempts at conversation which make fuck all sense. After she took off her jacket, she said

Oh, sorry, I'm looking so indecent!
What?
The strap of my camisole is showing! Ha ha... I hope no one saw that.
Huh?

See what I mean? she's a complete idiot.

Anyhow, she is planning to apply to HKU to do her PhD and since the supervisor she has in mind is fat boy, I felt obliged to give her whatever pointers I might come up with.

Her topic is on weddings in Hong Kong. Specfically, how women (and less so, men) consume weddings. Now, on paper this is all very interesting and in my view has a publication potential of 9.9. But her thoughts are all over the place. She does not know where to begin and where to end, and she lacks some of the basic cultural studies jargon to articulate what she really wants to do. What all this tells me is that, sad but true, our department does not churn out graduates who are equipped to do a PhD. She is analyzing chatroom messages as well and I briefly mentioned to her we should do a paper together since I'm working on something similar. Now that really has potential.

After lunch there was a PCC meeting and it turns out that, somewhat unsurprisingly, turns out I have been oblivious to major departmental politics which has been going on since the retreat in the summer. I'm tempted to recount the whole story, but then again, maybe not.

Yesterday I did some reading, went for a run and had a nap. My mind cleared, my body worked and rested. It felt good.

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Last night O's classmate Wing Kiu called him for a chat. I can't describe how happy this makes me feel. Perhaps happy is not the most accurate description of my emotions then and now, perhaps "moved" is more appropriate. Yes I was moved, I was touched, that someone actually called O for a chat. I was tempted to get it all on tape as it occured last night, but then again, maybe not.

And on a totally unrelated note. How banal is it to declare that something is over-rated?