Black and White

Memories of Four Years Past

2011-02-11T23:49:00.004+08:00

A short post for myself -

I wonder if it's my fault. Or would it have happened anyway?

Regardless, it's almost like the first time again. Just...

On the tip of my tongue.

But you never really know when to say it

because it's always, 'the wrong time'

yet time itself is running out

it breaks with every word

but they are not those words that are sung of

in sad songs, no.

anyway, it's shattered before, so every break feels familiar

Of wasted potential and the 'what if's and 'could have beens'

those are your words behind your words

but I only have one word.

daisuki.

I wonder, I wonder and I wonder. But I can only care less (not that I want to) when time runs out.

A year truly changeth.

Long Thank You Note is Loooooong

2010-08-18T21:06:00.008+08:00

http://evilisme.blogspot.com/2010/08/long-thank-you-note-is-loooooong.html

18.

Lots of people this year O.O The power of social media hur. Still, I will persevere! But a compromise must be made because I actually have a life. Or prelims. One or the other. This is going to take some time.

So first, this is for all the night owls. Who really ought to get some sleep.

Kia Wee who stalks my wall obviously. I regret our lack of opportunity to work together!

Jun Hao who needs to UNBLUR himself. Oh, and he's the PC for this Friday gg =D

Marcus who needs to stop stalking every NPCC Sec 2 o.o

Darren who still stays in boarding school? Convenient but a bit sad hur.

Shawn Lim who needs to cheer up! At least you have learnt from your mistakes. I guess. btw OI LEARN WEB DEVELOPMENT I DON'T CARE HOW

John who defaults to a 'WTF' face for every single statement the CIs make. For some inexplicable reason.

Jingzhan who needs to get a less creepy smile in his profile pic =D

Derek WHO HAS NOT NIAOED ME THIS TIME SO THANK YOU. You must have mellowed over the years. You are still everything I am not (a genius and suffering from a height/weight deficiency).

Kim Yao who is never afraid to share his thoughts about anything to the whole world. But got his internet cut off O.O

Hongliang who should really accept the bad omens that accompany his Extension =D

Andy who hasn't really changed much in looks from primary school haha! I miss the P4-6 classes...

Daniel Tan who has a long and tough year ahead of him. Be well.

Guo Chen who is scary! (So says the SJI people)

Peng Ning who has a large NPCC family!

Norman who is starting to have good photos occasionally =p

Jia Lin who is from RGSNP and is thus automatically scary because of a certain P/H/Insp's legacy.

Yong Kiat who needs to be a MAN! =)

Shawn Teo who is worse at dota than me and has no right to give constructive suggestions rawr >:(

Joel who enjoys photography too!

Aloysius Loh who is part of the Aloy family in NPCC. And is also a fencer like WAH o.o

Fridaus who is the CI that I have heard the most female cadets have crushes on =D HEH HEH

Hong Kang who must stop listening about me from Chong We, King of A______S.

Kae Yuan who now can macro and thus create even more imba photos ._.

Wei Rong who has owned at art ever since we knew each other. Needs to update his DA moar though.

Lenneth who should cheer up in NP and see his NCO (one of them) as a role model =D

Zheng Hao who has a teal Bag of Weakness

Chong Wei who is more guailan than me (BECAUSE I'M NOT GL AT ALL OBVIOUSLY)

Jordan who is an awesome 10S60 junior. Redundant because all S60 people are awesome.

Wei Zheng who is the ever-reliable right marker for his squad

Zi Hao who went from being called hot-tempered last year to being seen as the Smiling Buddha this year. Truly remarkable, haha!

Jing Hao who is hopefully enjoying the new yellow protractor on his head

Joel Yap who celebrates his birthday one day after mine. Oh, and also wears a Xmas hat on his profile for some reason.

Javan who continues nursing and spreading his hatred for lousy counsellors.

Justin Goh who has an overly fond attachment to many of the inanimate objects he owns

Yu Jia who is a cute boy, but needs to 快高长大 because rifle drill appears physically impossible when you are too short =(

Kelvin who lives to play sports =)

Ren Yan who is an old classmate and the SUPREME INTELLECTUAL among all, for sure

Taylor who is my NCO omg :P

Darryl who is a 'family' member of Peng Ning. Switches moods between daoism and emoism.

Tze Hou who is a potential HCINPCC Inter-Squad Scrabble Championship (coming soon to a unit near you. Possibly.) winner.

Dickson who think I am scary :'(

Shen Yang who has an epic photo with Yeo Jun Hao that will be revisited... soon

Wilford who has grown from awesome to awesome since primary school

Zhi Rong who remains a good character approximation to Chong We! Don't deny it =O

Yong Quan who is the latest CI to return to Hwa Chong. Have fun.

Xiao Qi who has a name I managed to mangle the first time I saw it. Well, I guess I'm not the first =/

Vladimir who has been the protege of Paul Sir =O

Chong We who is still an asshole, but has mellowed since becoming a dad to 46 buggers

Vincent Lo who appears to enjoy Singaporean social commentary

Aloysius Oh who is the youngest person I know to have attained a 'God' status among his peers

Chiran who can cheer like there's no tomorrow

Zheng Qian who is the typical silent but secretly crazily good type

Hong Kee who I just realised knows our one Dota God, LKH! The world is small indeed.

Clement who is yet another one of those godly types who watch over all of us, the intellectually diminuitive ones

Soo Wee who I wonder if can ever escape from being called by his surname ><

Valen who is an utterly shameless weeaboo jkjk

Yuan Wei who does look like he's trying to imitate Abbey Walk in his profile photo

Wei Jie who can get very high-pitched when he wants to

Lum Yi who ought to be appreciated more by the juniors for the time and effort he puts in despite the circumstances

Ebenezer who has a cool profile photo =D

Denise who is a scary cheers fanatic?

Ivan Szeto who is still stuck in his Sec 3 life going from his profile =P

Paul Sir who combines great teaching with great wisdom

Zhen Wei who is still pretty niao

Ding Quan who always has a serious face on

Tian Ci who has gone on a blog hiatus indefinitely, which is =(

Yu Fan who niaos like no other, by which I mean his niaos don't work =.=

Zaki Sir who is half of the unstoppable drill teaching team comprising him and Paul Sir =)

Thank you.

That's all for now.

Incoherence Expected

2010-05-23T17:58:00.004+08:00

Feeling rather dark now.

I always feel I should blog more to catalog my feelings about things for my future self. But then my laziness interupts. Annoying.

Did anyone read about the latest air accident? Air India Express Flight 182. 159 fatalities out of 167 on board. It would just be another statistic to be added to India's aviation industry, but I can't ignore the human element of it.

http://twitter.com/netizentwo

A twitter page that would never be updated again. And you realise she was on the flight to attend a wedding she hated. And she hated the I'M AWESOME spam on facebook. And then one sees her Location and Bio.

These are the sort of events that bring life into perspective, doesn't it? A life just as mundane as most of us, with the same petty worries and complaints, and suddenly it's cut short.

---

And now I'm thinking about school life. I need to find back my past drive to excel and it's worrying how close all of us are to the most stressful exam ever. The KI note tower does not help.

No, that is not the supply of notes for one year in KI. We got that in one day. Notice Kenii still holding the other half of his stack to put on the table. Yes, the pile on the table is per individiual. ♥.

---

Need to find more drive. I wish the Sec 2 Squad wouldn't worry me so often and so much. It's difficult to help those who insist on being parochial indeed.

Sometimes it feels like CCAs are the last bastion of values for youth, since parents leave everything to the school and the school is just blind. Go on promoting academics and sports, school. Put your budget into hiring expensive coaches to train people into specialising. But don't question the resulting pool of youth who can't succeed beyond middle-management.

And that's why NPCC isn't about 'stomping around' or just lots of tekaning. It's far too easy to mistake developing self-discipline as demanding blind obedience. Who realises how much we ask for thinking to be going on; for objectives to be set; for pride in work; for innovation to be rewarded and not trodded upon?

I think it's always forgotten the moment we shout knock it down.

---

Punctuated Thoughts

2010-03-24T20:30:00.001+08:00

I find it hard to ignore the tinge of seriousness there =o

Rediscovered my passion for classical again by listening to Chopin =D
Though nothing takes the place of Bach, and Vivaldi is always welcome to jump off a cliff and disappear >_>

Anyway, the March Holidays left me no opportunity to even start on an extended ranting session. So many things to comment on; so little time to blog. Or rather I would have a lot of time to blog if I has chosen to read my materials less =/

Shall avoid even mentioning NPCC in this post though it is the ginormous elephant in the room. Obviously quite a few things have happened but I'm reserving comments.

I just feel rather disappointed after three-quarters of Blocks has passed. In a rather dickish move, the setter for the subject I mugged the most for decided to test us on an unseen topic. And Economics and Math has really made me feel extremely dumb.

I used to have the passion for knowledge, but I feel now as if other competing, more mundane wants and needs have superseded that feeling. And I'm paying the price.

Every time a major test period is over I tell myself I will study harder next time but I don't. Argh. Perhaps I've become too used to things just going my way, but I doubt miracles happen during the A-levels. SATs are in mid-year and the Prelims are shortly after. I don't think I would call a person who can forget how to do integration by parts in an examination prepared. At all. Or a person who reads books on Economics as an interest but fails to put that across when writing Economics essays?

Terence Tsang, listen to the advice that comes out of your own mouth sometimes =/
Otherwise I would be irrational right? And there's no greater nightmare than that, honestly.

Other than that, life has been great and full of things to like, so far. Though perhaps my mood will sink again when I see the drill of the Secondary Twos this Friday =p

Log One

2010-02-09T22:22:00.003+08:00

I'm really proud of the teams now. I see everyone putting in so much effort; it's difficult to believe they are not going to get their due reward.

I swear, we are going to go straight to the top.

More when I have time.

Log ZERO

2010-01-22T23:59:00.002+08:00

No one is irreplaceable. This applies all the way from the top to the bottom of a team of people. There will always be people who are more capable and willing, but merely lacking the opportunity. Hence this gives us cause to be humble in our actions and dealings with our fellow men.

But nowadays the idea of an objective truth is freakishly unusual to people, which gives rise to all the conflicting priorities in my head. Gah.

Men used to be made of sturdier stuff. >_>

It's time to wake up from dogmatic slumbers.

MMX?

2010-01-01T00:52:00.002+08:00

Happy new year everyone.

I spent the passing of the year attempting to navigate through the housing estate of Tampines in a bid to find the freaking MRT station. Oh, and periodically looking at the full moon, as if that would help.

And it's one hour since 12am and failhub is still not sending my smses through. =/

NPCC OEV HK/Macau - 2

2009-12-06T18:37:00.000+08:00

*looks at gap between this post and the previous post* Ah, I'm such a lazy bastard >.>

Ok not really. Have been coming home really late for the past week, and I was never the type to do blogposts at ungodly times like 2am like I have seen some people do. Imba.

Let's get this over and done with then! Since I'm more eager to start on the next post I have planned for. Haha. I realised I'm not really that eager to write about all the events during the trip since I still don't like Hong Kong. And the cadets have done a much better job than me blogging about it anyway >.>

So - just going straight to serious business. I might not have written much in the reflection logs given to us, but that's only because I hate being asked to do compulsory stuff. Really. A little ironic actually. Ah well. But I do give a lot of thought to all my actions, and I am the king of second-guessing after all. So throughout the seven days I was really focusing on how to deal with the cadets - and suffice it to say I found myself slipping into the Hongliang-esque mindset.

"What is that fascinating-sounding mindset?", none of you might ask. Why, my imaginary attentive audience, it happens when you catch yourself referring to the cadets, in any discussion about them, as "my cadets". Very frightening, I assure you. Especially since I often roll my eyes when I hear it from the other Hwa Chong CI, thinking, "They don't actually belong to you, you know."

Ok, enough sidetracking bitching, attractive to go on and on about it as it may be. The point was, I really was quite afraid that whatever SOI I chose to roll with, it wouldn't work with the cadets. Especially after getting my first impression of them. (I wonder what was their first impression?)
But nah, they turned out be a great bunch of people after all. And Kevin was a great help since he has a different approach with people which works well, so I was continually revising my actions and checking the resulting feedback. And I didn't expect his comments on me on the last day at all, since I was self-doubting myself so much.

In the end I must wonder - how much of my contact of them will help them in any way as cadet leaders (ugh I hate that term, screw it) in their own unit? The quality of a unit comes down to the quality of the NCOs. And even in this trip, I hope they saw the varying SOIs of the CIs and learn what works, and what doesn't, and then conceptualize and apply. Because learning to lead (and not the "Student Government" type*) is, I think, the best thing one can take away from NPCC.

tl;dr - I care for the cadets kk.

Ah well, I really don't know. I'm still aiming to match the person I used to follow. Next year will be the time to strive hard to become closer =)

Oh wait, A-Levels. Damn.

Incoherent babbling over, so I can post a few photos now =D

Police College! As shown on TV. If your family watches Canto-dramas.

We were expecting a display of drill from them but it turned out that they were still going through Attention and Stand at Ease >_> So not much to see there.

Really bad close-up shot, or really bad self portrait? You decide.

Marine Police.

Took a 45min ride on their patrol boat to Cheung Chau island. Extremely enjoyable wind speeds on deck =) Seriously, people were clinging onto various fixed objects on deck just to enjoy the wind in a safe manner.

The sole rollercoaster in Disneykand HK. Oh, the joy.

We were going to make bored faces but I don't know what Ching Na is doing here. If you look closer, I don't know what the couple immediately behind our car is doing either.

Oh yah, some videos from Disneyland.

The First Noel is playing in background =D

And the fireworks, though I think other youtube users have much better videos, so not much point really. It's the only thing in Disneyland even worth seeing. Go to Ocean Park please.

A380!

The basic amenities on board rock haha. Really. I bet Yong Jie wouldn't wait to start hacking the on-board Linux OS.

Finally done with the long-due post! Next post is going to be fun. For me.

*I'm not referring to HCI Students' Council, so don't get your knickers in a bunch.

NPCC OEV HK/Macau - 1

2009-11-27T21:39:00.006+08:00

Oh my FSM, my name only has one R =( Every single place I've seen it written with one R, one goddamn R.

So I don't know why people will inexplicably spasm on the R key when they type my name.

Anyway, it is totally not my fault for the lack of updates since my laptop got mysteriously wiped during the trip to Hong Kong. Blessing in disguise I guess, since I just took the opportunity of having an empty laptop to install Windows 7 =D

Now, I wonder how to even start talking about the trip, considering it was 7D6N. And ok all you other Hwa Chong peeps who went for some overseas trip with an even larger and more ridiculous period of time can boast at your own blog =(

Maybe I should start by posting a photo from the first day?

View from Victoria Peak

Of course, if you are going to look closer you will see a ton of noise >.> Quite sad compared to the imba panorama of the same view on Wikipedia, but it was taken with a compact! So there.

Incidentally the weather was rather chilly throughout our HK trip, and experiencing The Peak on the first day allowed some among us to realise how insufficiently they have prepared their clothing for the trip. Hooray for those heroes.

Er, okay, maybe now I should start on the details of the trip for the benefit of any readers who happens to have a stalker-esque interest in me. Oh, how I wish. The entire trip cost only $150 thanks to the fact that this was one of NPCC's Overseas Educational Visits, and as such ninety percent of the cost was absorbed by the government. So yes, I did just take part of your parents' hard earned money and wasted it away. Feels good to put it that way hur!

But seriously, as one of the four accompanying CIs on that trip, our main role looked like it was to be saikang warriors for the officers =/

And now the post will cut off abruptly! This is because I've read the blogs of other people who are a lot more dedicated than me, and have already finished their posts on the trip, and realized that no sane person is going to see this blogpost with the same freaking topic and same freaking length and think it's a good idea to continue reading.

So, for the next post, I, your ever intrepid poster, will discuss:
- Police College!
- Junior Police Call!
- Shopping!
- Disneyland!
- Macau Flying Eagles!
- A380!
- Thoughts on being one of the four CIs!
- Fake sustained enthusiasm as shown by repeated use of utterly superfluous exclamation marks!

To end off:

Ah, such an infinitely useful image.

$21/D HAHAHA

2009-11-16T23:26:00.003+08:00

Wow, seems like a lot of people I know are going overseas at this period of time!

And in completely unrelated news, try not to contact me for the next seven days. Will try to return to active blogging once I've settled into the hotel by the way =)

Overcast

2009-10-22T20:17:00.003+08:00

Sky's choked with ashes,
Snow's deep on frozen ground.

It’s not where I belong;
This was just a stop on the way to where I’m going.

I could go back to every laugh.
But I don't want to go there anymore and I
know all the steps up to your door,
But I don't want to go there anymore.

I’m not afraid because I know
This was my temporary home.

― Don't wait for the sky to clear ―

I'll leave my window open
Cos I'm too tired tonight to call your name.
Just know I'm right here hoping
That you'll come in with the rain.

The sky reflected my melancholic mood while I was going home today. Primarily since today was a day of epic nothingness whatsoever. Anyway, two good albums (okay, so one is technically six new songs added to an existing album) are coming out just five days apart from each other! And it's been a really long time since I planned to buy an album in a legal manner too.

Have fun guessing the source object. No one has gotten it so far.

This is like, a car.

Some photos from the Digital Photography Sabbatical the day after Mountain Biking. It really wasn't that interesting, since our assignment was held in Arab Street and I'm not really a fan of taking voyeur shots of Malay women (I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU YUFAN). Have a few nicer shots, but can't be arsed to post them since they are even more generic shots anyone can go out and take. This is what happens when the Photog assignment is "Yellow" and only inanimate objects happen to be adorned with that colour.

And I really wanted to take some lively shots too.

Anyway, the photo of the car has a short story behind it. The angle could only be obtained at ground level, but there was no way I was going to lie down on a busy intersection, so instead I lowered myself into a drain and started shooting.

Cue the very strange looks from all the passerbys.

Oh ya, and one of the passerbys turned out to be the owner =.=

And that's pretty much it for that sabbat.

By the way, I'm also updating my other blog, so as soon as it's fully up-to-date I'll repost link! If anyone still remembers the address (HAHA YA AS IF) then go now anyway to see the best jumpshot ever =D

Mountain Biking

2009-10-13T22:16:00.004+08:00

Not caked in mud - indicating this shot was taken right at the start

Damn fun sabbatical. And the weather was very agreeable (cycling in the rain!). Though I must say, trying to navigate off-road terrain with my front gear permanently set on low gear - the middle gear was broken - was not much fun at all. Wasted a lot of energy.

But surprisingly, mountain biking required a lot of quick thinking too, and that has to be the fun part. Looking for the line, always looking for the best line and trying to remember to constantly switch gears, since the terrain always changes. Exciting, really.

And really really muddy too.

Tomorrow's... Digital Photography >_>

Blabber

2009-10-03T01:11:00.004+08:00

It is futile to appeal to an external agent or concept in looking to define oneself. An individual being ought to find meaning in his own life by his own actions. Yet then one cannot afford inaction in any circumstance, as the only agent responsible for one's inaction would be oneself. Thus one should always consciously choose to act, and in a manner that would ultimately be directed towards creating a more humane society, with the pursuit of reason and allowing free inquiry. Only then will one's action be self-defined as containing value - to self, and to others as equals.

This is the essence of Humanism.

Actually wanted to make this a facebook wallpost after reading some people's thoughts on the lives they have been leading so far, but it got rather long. So I'm just posting it on the blog, which is probably better since I will be reminded of this in the future.

And yes it's totally not copypasta kk. It's the summation of my thoughts on modern ethics >.>

Sep 09 Sumatra Earthquake

2009-10-01T12:07:00.002+08:00

Witty facebook posts on the earthquake yesterday (and the aftershock today). Local forums going wild with people telling their epic stories of how things in their house shook and whether they felt dizzy. Videos of house objects shaking; I'm going to bet the local news showed some of those too. Cynical Singaporeans claiming we should watch out, don't trust the Government - no building in Singapore is safe!

Meanwhile, two hundred people have been killed in Indonesia. Death toll will mount for sure as rescuers reach into the large number of collapsed buildings.

Contrast people going "I was scared... ... I felt myself swaying from left and right" to a resident of Maninjau describing houses being buried in a landslide caused by the earthquake. Or a resident of Padang reassuringly telling us that he "can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses... ... No help has arrived yet... ... Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely."

Congratulations on surviving the earthquake, Singaporeans.

Don't Let Me Stop

2009-09-29T19:40:00.011+08:00

Zune Software 4.0 (aka the massive eye candy version)

Damn fun to see all the different stuff it pulls out for different artists.

Amazingly pointless day today since Project Work was canceled.
Which meant I had no other responsibility for the whole day, besides attending Math Lecture so the lecturer can further instill into me how dead I am for Math.

Oh ya - and watching S60 utterly trash the other classes during the competitive sports matches. That too.

Amazingly enough I have pretty much filled out my schedule for the days after the Promos, but it really comes down to whether I don't feel depressed enough after next Thursday hur.

Anyway, I'm also preparing my other blog for the good life after Promos (hopefully). So honestly, as for now:

KI is some kind of win. Our latest test paper is only going to be returned tomorrow, and that's a 'probably' too since we have already been disappointed two times. <3 the tutors to the max, absolutely, and I think they take the concept of independent learning too seriously, no? In total I think a grand total of two of my essays this entire year have been given the honour of being commented on by the tutors. Awesome. And they wonder why we keep getting owned.

Math? Don't talk to me about Math. I leave all responsibilities for my results to my godly peer tutor.

Mrs Toh says I'm over-thinking for Economics =.= And I must be the only one in class who does worse for Micro than for Macro.

As for Chemistry, AHAHA. Ok really must own since the Promo Paper is going to be 70% of my final grade. Hopefully structured/essay will spam Organic Chemistry? =D

Wednesday Update: KI Paper, as dreaded, was not returned as moderation is still not yet done. fml.

TD!

2009-08-31T19:23:00.002+08:00

The first time I was caught coming late to school and it had to be Teachers' Day too =.=
I blame my plainly delirious mind which decided 159 resembled 156 enough, persuading me to get onto the bus... to nowhere.

Anyway, no penalties were give out since today was a half-day anyway, though the bunch of late people were held back until all the morning announcements at the terraces were done. I didn't know getting to hear Mr Ang CEO-Principal address us was such a privilege, but since it was regrettably withdrawn from me today I can't have much to say about it.

And so.
ACES Day Workout.

Yeah wtf.
I'm not very sure why I participated in the dances when apparently three quarters of the school were devious enough to stay by the sidelines. I just hope that despite the amazing amount of cameras being seen this morning there were no shots of me >.<

Pretty futile, yeah.

Don't know how to get married now liao.

So anyway, I tell you hor, a lot of the teachers this year zhao damn fast la. It's either that, or they were all hiding somewhere from the delicious cake the councilers were offering everywhere.

But at least we had a good talk with our Sec 4 teachers =)
Especially Ms Choh and Mrs Chua. Who are awesome - and even more so when compared to JC1 life now =(

Happy Teachers' Day, all teachers.

(No, not incld you, John Tan)

Let It All Out

2009-08-24T22:11:00.002+08:00

let it out

This is a placeholder for a blogpost I want to make but don't have the time for.

This week is utter gg.

Anyway, this is the ED02 for Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood, and obviously it owns.
For example, Fukuhara Miho actually succeeds in not mangling the one English phrase in the song =D

Just Another Day Lah

2009-08-17T23:55:00.000+08:00

http://evilisme.blogspot.com/2009/08/just-another-day-lah.html

Unexpected Birthday Present #343: Duck-Shaped Hand Wash o.O

Clement who spelled my name wrong! ><

Kae Yuan whose photos make me depressed because they are too imba

Wei Jing who is one of those people with the exact same smile for every single photo!

Gary It's his birthday too fyi

Hongliang who talked to me first about his NDP plans this morning rather than doing the obvious

Chong We who is an asshole

Zheng Hao who is not an asshole, but unfortunately has a turquoise bag

Ren Yan who makes me wonder how imba he has gotten since we last met

Yong Jie who is sanguine, unlike me

Philemon who is God (with unanimous agreement from the KI class), unlike me

Derek Khu who is everything I am not, like being a genius, or being height/weight-deficient

HO PAUL SIR who has Wisdom in Experience

Shawn Teo who has a buy-one-get-seven offer on Birthday Wishes

ALL THE 09S60-ERS WHO SPAMMED ME AT THE SAME TIME and who are all crazy too

Ivan Szeto who needs a more glam profile picture

Nicholas Tang who needs to stop getting caught in scandalous situations

Kah Yi who definitely appears to be enjoying his life currently (the sand photo LOL)

Joel Yap whose birthday is one day after mine, thus I'm now camping on fb =)

Cyril who applies a crazy vignetting filter on all his photographs

Yu Xuan who did end up giving me free kills in dota =D

Javan whose facebook updates never fail to be mildly disconcerting

Hong Kang who doesn't like people shouting the hokkien word for 'gutter' when bowling

Bowie Chen who used an exotic language I no longer recognize

Kia Wee I NOTICE THE CLEVER USE OF THE COMMA HURHURHUR

Joon Fai who has made me change my impression of him so many times since the primary school days, and always for the better (I hope?) =D

Jun Hui who will always be called shummy instead

Randy who needs to stop being so 'polite' every morning

Kenneth Ler who is a- wait how does one get 763 tagged photos on fb oO

HO ZAKI SIR who has VIGOUR IN YOUTH!

Ning Yu who Yu Xuan would totally be gar for if he hasn't already been "taken by all the great guys and gals", according to Yu Xuan.

Yufan who knows four times the languages that I do =(

Thank You All.

Qualia

2009-07-06T23:39:00.002+08:00

Maybe now I will finally have time to continue pursuing my interests.
When I will have the money to fulfill my photog wish-list (50mm f/1.4 anyone?) is another matter entirely >_>

Oh yea, it's kind of strange how a lot of people that I know are suddenly getting into photography.

Attrition

2009-05-24T18:33:00.005+08:00

Looking through all the photos I took for ARTICULATE! has been tiring as hell.

Anyway, since not all the photos I took were actually incredibly imba I'll just put one of those I rejected here.

Followed by this random panorama I made because I was tired of walking around.

And yes, lousy panorama is lousy.

Dun Dun Dun

2009-05-18T19:33:00.005+08:00

It's strange how when you have been doing KI for some time, everything you read somehow gains a philosophical stance.
Seriously.
It's like mentioning Spinoza, Kantian Ethics, or discussing Induction suddenly became popular among writers.

Anyway, photos. Wanted to upload these on facebook, but suddenly remembered the horrendous compression fb does with photos.

This is why dawn ambient lighting kicks ass.

=D Yes. NPCC totally made a giant watchtower for Open House this year. Sure.

Who cares about the tons of awards, we have a DSP TEDDY BEAR.

The colour of the uniform looks great here.

This shot was not taken by me, and was extremely poor at the beginning anyway. Did some postproc to see if I could make it look nice... as a challenge. Haha.

The photographer becomes the photographed without warning. Be careful.

This is a pretty fun image =)

Wisdom in Experience

2009-04-20T18:02:00.007+08:00

Just before I could manage to pronounce everyone's names correctly (give me one more week, gah), NPCC Annual Parade 2009 ended.

Contingent Five was really a joy to be with, and they were the ones who made me look forward to every day there was parade training. I was quite apprehensive at first in training them, being not quite sure how they would turn out under me.

In the end, despite being trained by me, I think they still surpassed all expectations on the actual day. So I'm really quite happy for them =D

Since this post is the first extensive post I'm creating for NPAP09, I guess I should go all the way back to the beginning?

Parade training for NPAP09 started on the 2nd of February. At that time, none of the roles were confirmed - Guard of Honour Contingents, Supporting Contingents, Contingent Commanders - none of those existed at that point. So the parade trainers were just shuffled around the temporary marching contingent.

In any case, at that time I was hoping I would get the role I wanted in the parade, though it seemed really impossible. Since I had no experience in doing flag drill, I wanted to carry one of the three ceremonial flags that would be flown in the parade. Yet it would be difficult to convince anyone to give me that kind of chance right?

But any role in the parade would have been a new experience for me, so I didn't care much about the allocation. And by the seventh parade training I was the Contingent Commander for Contingent Five, and naturally, also their trainer.

Heh.

Disappointingly, the mistakes I made throughout the training process showed my own level of incompetency very clearly to myself. I know I wouldn't commit the same mistakes the next time, but NPAP09 might be the first and last parade I will handle, due to constraints in the future.

Especially the incident about the cadets' tickets. I still feel sorry for the role I played.

What I hope is that I have changed a bit of them, just as they have changed me. I know CIs can create such a good and lasting impression on some cadets, that they still remember the name years later. What I hope for cadets who were under me is not that (though yah, that would be nice), but for them to remember what I have taught them, and bring it back to their units.

That's not all my thoughts on the parade, but perhaps some things need not be stated explicitly here =)

So, anyway...

Thank you, Contingent Five

On a side note:

Hongliang looks like he want to beat someone up when he does drill.

50

2009-04-13T23:06:00.003+08:00

That was then.

This week's the now.

Repetition

2009-04-09T21:53:00.004+08:00

It's good that tomorrow is a day of rest, because I'm not sure how long I would be able to remain conscious if there were still school tomorrow.

Anyway, I just spent some time clearing out the Friends list on Facebook, since it always bothered me how large it was (Partly due to Mousehunt too =.= which I'm not playing anymore).
Yeah, I'm not comfortable with too large a social circle. Or a faked one.

Incidentally...
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD
If you are a watcher of anime in any way, this is the goddamn anime of note for 2009.
So go watch it already.

Early Morning Surprise

2009-04-05T22:16:00.004+08:00

Apparently all men are born with the innate ability to change a tyre. According to women.

Being stuck in a cemetery because a tyre was punctured (and the car happens not to have the right-sized equipment to take out the nuts) is not the most enjoyable of activities.

Wanderlust

2009-03-31T22:19:00.004+08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

Nineteen million views and I only just came across this =.=
I thought it was a advertisement for Visa or similar when I first saw it. Turns out it just started with one man with a goal to go around the world. And it was when his video became viral that Visa recreated the concept for one of their ads =D

Go watch! In HD!

Dancing in the DMZ was the most awesome. And Singapore is featured (for a split second).

Spontaneous Stupidity

2009-03-30T20:31:00.006+08:00

First ever test in JC I mugged like hell for and I screwed it up in the most hilariously (from a bystander's point of view) absurd way =(

And it wasn't until five hours later when it suddenly dawned upon me.

When the question asks for a discussion on experience, the first thing you talk about is, of course, reliability of said experiencing.

Dumbass.

I might have been too busy throwing in thought experiments.

By the way, I came across a piece of news originating from September last year that I just had to post here.

"Go to hell a hundred times, f***ing Yankees," Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said at a rally, in an order to the U.S. ambassador to leave Venezuela.
In a considerably less colorful riposte, the State Department promptly declared the Venezuelan ambassador "persona non grata."

♥ Diplomacy.

Verily

2009-03-26T21:20:00.004+08:00

The secret is out.

I do hope people don't miss it, what with all the GARYGARYGARY spam on the board =D

Three layers

Today was the first time I was distracted enough to only acccomplish an incomplete Chemistry practical worksheet by the end of the lesson =(

Took me a while of random mixing of the stuff we had to get the layers with suspension too.

Time To Buy Strepsils

2009-03-25T23:28:00.000+08:00

The training was good today.

No Expenses Spared

2009-03-20T20:09:00.006+08:00

...

Actually, the important question is, why doesn't this drive start from Kah Kee Station?
Don't be stupid and ask why this is necessary. 79 hectares very big you know?

And can someone help me find Ong Teng Cheong Avenue, Tiong Ham Boulevard, Lee Kong Chian Lane, Hon Chiew Way or Fat Horse Road? Because otherwise it's obviously unfair to all the other great characters of our times right?

Sacrifices

2009-03-18T22:09:00.005+08:00

Feeling troubled, because I broke two promises to myself today.
One about NPCC, and one about my own character.
Frustrating to start making the same mistakes I made a year ago.

I looked through my old blog posts; only now do I remember what I had written in August last year. That was what I had written down so I would not forget my initial motives.
Never forget.

It's a waste of time trying to change preconceived notions.
Rather-
-one spends the time and energy improving oneself.
That's what I will always do, and screw anyone who interferes.
The truth is that even the 'I' cannot know oneself.
Therefore, it is laughably absurd that anyone else can possess the ability to judge others.

Is that in contradiction to what I wrote a few days ago?
Not at all.

I end here, since I'm not exactly feeling at my most sanguine.

Godwin-ed

2009-03-15T23:01:00.005+08:00

1658 items that I have to tag individually is some serious win.

The good thing is Photo Gallery is so nice to use it has a face recognition function.
The bad thing is certain faces (*coughYufancough*) are perpetually not seen by the software.

Besides the IMBA TAGGING job I had to do though, I also made a fullscreen slide show of those 1658 items to view for a while.
And the feeling I got while viewing was... pretty happy.
Nostalgia always remains.

Anyway, here's some writing I came across.

Worst Art Student Ever

I used to be an art teacher at a relatively well-known art school. I saw my share of broody artist types in my time at that job, and at that time a good deal of them actually had reasons for their unusual demeanors, not like the 20-somethings today who just do it to be cool. They were often very poor and perpetually broke, but the school was sponsored by the government and these kids had won scholarships some way or another. These were kids with abusive fathers, whore mothers, some of them had drug problems, and the only way they could express their emotions was through art. They didn't whine on and on to anyone who would listen about how their art reflected their inner torment and spout about how pathetic they were to gain sympathy and social points, they were legitimate creative types.

It goes without saying that there were quite a few applicants who didn't make it into the program. They were more like the majority of art students you find today, the ones who become artists to get sex. They were very irritating on a personal level, and it wasn't just to me. No one liked them. No one slept with them, either, at a time when that was a feat to accomplish. There was one young man who has always stuck in my mind; even though I hated the guy, memories of speaking to him are some of the most vivid I have left of that time of my life. He was everything I didn't want to see in a student: wore horrible cologne, wouldn't follow advice, had mediocre technical skills, and couldn't accept constructive criticism. Sure, he could paint, but it simply wasn't at a high enough level, and he seemed limited in his subject matter. His paintings were downright boring, and he wasn't trying to make an "ironic statement" or anything, although if he had told me that he had, I might have thought a little better of him. But he was just downright rude the first time I told him he had been rejected, and he had the most disgusting moustache. Sure, moustaches were in style at the time, but his was very poorly groomed around the edges. It always bothered me.

He didn't give up. Nearly a year later, he applied again, and I had to reject him. The next day he came right into my studio and pleaded for me to help him get into the program. It happened to be my wife's birthday and it was late and I was in a rush to get home. Thinking back, I was probably meaner than I ought to have been, but I simply think this guy was worth courtesy. I told him that he was simply unfit to be a painter, and he threw a tantrum. Can you imagine it, a grown man acting like a small child? He shouted in those rising tones that grated my ears and kicked over an easel and damaged a work in progress of one of my colleagues. I snapped. I let loose on him. I berated his work, his worth as a human, his greasy, black hair and even his poorly-groomed birdwings moustache. He didn't say anything at all while I was shouting. When I had finished, he turned and left the room with a look of utter shame and a destroyed ego. I was still very upset and not feeling any sympathy towards him at all. He was a nothing, a no good failure of an artist trying to put himself among his superiors and live off taxpayer money. But now, all these years later, I look back and think that maybe I could have done something nice, maybe put in a good word for him at one of the less prestigious institutes and kept him from sending all those jews to camps. Sadly, I learned a while back that he eventually commited suicide. I can't say that I don't feel partly responsible for his death, and it weighs down on my conscience like nothing you can imagine.

I am mighty sorry if you came up to here and did not get the point.
Maybe next time I could include more youtube vids to amuse the populace?

Something Interesting Happened

2009-03-12T20:11:00.003+08:00

So, when I encountered that, I was rather struck by the absurdity of all of it. Amidst the anger that was building up very gradually but surely though, I thought that recently quite a few of the blogs I read had decided to jump on the "pissed off over nothing but a certain something" wagon.

So here comes mine. Some part of it was what I kept since last year. If you have doubts on whether I'm talking about you, it probably isn't.

---

You were the one who gave me that     ing disgusting face, remember? You wouldn't, couldn't, didn't want to understand what I was saying at that time. But now suddenly you 'understand' the feeling of hopelessness and loss, when you have thoughts that you can't pour out.

Stop     ing around.

I really want to know how long you can stay behind that mask. Maybe you will hide behind it forever, since no one is interested in seeing your      face. But don't worry, because everyone who interacts with you long enough, except your     -for-brains 'friends', will see the mask. Maybe that's why the face you have, when none of the people you know are around, looks     ing pathetic, because your subconscious understands what your mask pretends not to get.

Get interested in knowing people for what they are and keep your judgment close to yourself, instead of judging them with your amazing all-seeing eye, because if anyone ever bothered to record all the      you say I would wager even your     head friends would see the hack that you are. It's a pity no one would believe it if I claimed you are the worst kind of person to know too well, a m     f      with no qualms about making callous comments on another person so long as that person is not around to hear it. That's the reason why I'm forced to have a low opinion of anyone who still considers you their friend; they have not thought for once what you might be saying about them to your other 'friends'.

It's impossible for me not to notice how goddamn fake you are, when one day you would criticize and put down a person in front of others, and then the next day still putting up the illusion that you were the     ing bestest best person. Maybe some of the things you said, you said only to keep up with the popular opinion. Sure, build yourself a good social life out of a deck of lies and be the popular person. Enjoy it. Talk about it. Blog about it.

I wish I could record for the ages your face on the day you realise how empty it was in the end.

End.

---

To avoid offending delicate sensibilities I went through the post to weed out excess vulgarities, and then took out the rest with whitespace. But be assured I have a rather large vocabulary.

And yes, I'm really that angry that I started ranting.
I hope I don't feel like doing this again, because it was not enjoyable (though it was cathartic) to truly curse someone.

Since it's been days since the incident which pissed me off occurred, I now actually feel bad for writing this, since by no means am I a perfect example of a shining character. But it does not mean I am blind to what was going on around me, and I would like to think I have the right to comment at least once, on the stupidity of it all.

A Long Time Ago

2009-02-24T18:38:00.005+08:00

The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.

When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes."

- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

By the way, I won't be blogging much for this period of time.
Maybe if something really interesting happens.

p.s.

$32 in 3 months =D

I would like to name this art piece "THE DEATH OF MINIMUM WAGE."

Shuffle

2009-02-16T18:07:00.003+08:00

And so this year's orientation ended on a really good campfire.
Or so I was told anyway. Since I only came back in time to hear a heart-wrenching (for all the wrong reasons) rendition of 细水长流. Yay for mass off-tune which could be heard all the way at the overhead bridge okay?

No surprises that our class didn't get picked to perform our item, though that wouldn't reduce its awesomeness. Whole class does the baby freeze!
Er yes, that includes me and Zheng Hao.
=)

Anyway, like quite a few other people I'm trying to switch myself to a full mugging mode now, since I don't want to be one of those classic cases of people who utterly perform like crap in JC1. But of course at the same time the pace of Math looks set to kill me.

Ahh well.

"09S60 - in the house YO!"

Yes the first time I heard that phrase I mumbled WTF to myself too.

KEBABA MOAR

2009-02-09T22:20:00.002+08:00

Man, just when I was feeling all high and great Yufan had to create a 4M facebook group. Which made me view the 4M Class Video all over again.
...
=(

ATHENA WAS REALLY DAMN DAMN DAMN HIGH TODAY!
I think it was just because our seniors told us the faculty had a history of always being the most successful/bonded and so I guess we kind of exceeded their expectations?

When a group of people cheer so much that ever the councilors give a o.O look, it might be one of the few rare cases of over-enthusiasm.

Haha.

Yah, of course it will feel kind of faked, since we have only been in Athena for one day. But all the cheering and all the laughter really lets one go home satisfied with the day =)

We guys definitely have the most potential for success man.
Just don't lose voice before War Games can liao =D

Burden

2009-02-08T00:46:00.005+08:00

Just came back from HCINPCC's Annual Reunion Dinner, having been driven back by Mr. Ong.
It's not one of the times where I can share my thoughts here though, since they will have to reserved for the After-Action Review.

The trip home was rather illuminating.
On leadership, on training, on character development, on team dynamics and on seeing people for what they are.
I thought the thoughts that went through expanded well beyond just NPCC alone, despite it being just a discussion between two members of NPCC.

Goal-orientation. Audacity. Professionalism. Protocol.
Filler. Ra-ra. Shell. Micro/Macro-management.

Really would like to explain all this... after the current batch of juniors pass out? Sensitive details.

---

Anyway, from Ivan's blog, on Orientation:

stupid "friends forever" shit everywhere you go that makes you think LKH created the entire fucking orientation

A++ POINT OF VIEW LOL

By the way, for those who have a passing curiosity: It's 09S60 =D
Though still not sure if I got KCME =.=

So As I Mug

2009-02-05T22:27:00.004+08:00

Finally put my mind at ease with regards to the subject combination I am going to take in JC, and just one day before the deadline too. Well, it's not like I would know what to take for my fourth subject if I did not manage KI...

Anyway, on to what has been happening for the past few days. ORIENTATION!
First thought that comes right now on this subject is that it is freaking tiring. There is an imba combo of unbelievably brain-numbing lectures in the morning + sudden shift to utter highness + release at 1800++ EVERY DAY.

What happened to free time to do work ah.

And the second thing would be the incredibly jaw-dropping mass dances.
I mean, imagine this, except multiplied by five hundred times ok?

Oh ya, I like my Orientation Group, but I'm not really getting into the spirit when we are going to spend so little time together. Must put in more effort when we are all assigned to our Civics Tutorial groups. (To the PCME/SMTP people, enjoy your Unlimited PRC Works =D)
Sadly, today's my last day with my OG. I'm sure Games III is going to be really fun and 9001 percent more wet, so that's one regret.

But hey, I'm not going to regret missing campfire next week.

Great Expectations

2009-02-02T22:39:00.000+08:00

When two people always agree, one of them is unnecessary. When they always disagree, then both of them will be useless.

This quote just suddenly occurred to me a moment ago whilst managing some things.
However, agreement could just mean one party is giving way. For now.
Don't push me.

This Post Be Random Post, Yarr

2009-02-01T21:59:00.004+08:00

:DGC is the best emoticon ever. Go on, keep staring at it if you don't get it on your first try.
...
Done?
Good.

Damn it, my body really hates any lack of sleep whatsoever. Have been down with the flu, a cold, and a general sense of crappiness since Thursday. Several important things have happened over this period, but I can't really find the spirit to put my thoughts into written form.

One of them was CAPE of course. But it isn't for me to blog about, but rather for all the disappointed cadets to discuss when the results are eventually released.

Reminds me of someone.

Anyway, ending this post with a quote that is decidedly un-Zong Xian-like.

I will kill, I will let live. I will harm and heal. None will escape me. None will escape my sight.

May it be so that you are crushed.
I welcome those who have grown old and those who have been defeated. Surrender yourself to me, learn from me, and obey me.

Be at rest. Do not forget song, do not forget prayer, and do not forget me. I am light and relieve you of all your burdens.

Do not pretend. Retribution unto forgiveness, betrayal unto trust, despair unto hope, darkness unto light, death unto life.
Rest in my hands. Let there be mark of your sins. Eternal life is found only in death.

Ask for forgiveness here, and I, the incarnation, will swear—
—Kyrie eleison.

Purification Incantation, Kotomine. Awesome-age overflows when he says it the way he does.

One More Round

2009-01-28T22:36:00.003+08:00

I'm totally exhausted now from all the back-to-back house visits over the past few days. See, even though I'm not like other people and have relatives in Malyasia (no, I am NOT returning to Hong Kong just to 拜年 thank you), I still managed a rough tour of Singapore from 初一 to 初三. Returning to my house at 4am every day and waking up just in time to bathe and change for the next visit feels worse than anything NPCC has thrown at me so far =_=

Rather unsurprisingly, I gave up on the banluk and daidee sessions since it quickly became obvious that it would be more profitable for me to donate to charity. *wishes my relatives knew the apparently esoteric(to them) game of Bridge >_>*

Hold on, I haven't eaten ANY bakkwa at all this year. O.O
Moving on.

Of course, CNY was still fun, even though my heart and pocket hurt from all the money lost to all the conmen and women I call "uncles/aunties/cousins". I mean, we even did our traditional "toss the shredded vegetables with raw fish out of the plate as fast as you can" game the rest of Singapore still stubbornly calls 捞鱼生. Twice.

And even as I just sat beside the gambling tables (utterly heartbroken) I still talked about recent and future life(career prospects) with a lot of them and it made me wonder how far I can go.

Blah. Well, the upcoming two years would decide where I go. Depending on the predictions for the Monkey is a bad move when you realise it just means your whole batch is going to have the same fate. Yes, I'm totally sure all of us are going to get a lifelong partner by year's end. Really.

THE PERIOD NOW IS 元宵节 MEH?!

By the way, one of the places we went around to was River Hongbao 2009, which really seemed to lack something now that there were zero amusement rides. However, it was held at the Marina floating platform. The same venue as the National Day Parade.
*cough*
Those who know me can hazard a guess as to what I did to amuse myself while down there.

Oh yes, CNY is a really good chance to feel great in new clothes. That may or may not have been bought in a last-minute rush =D

Slight Change

2009-01-26T05:31:00.005+08:00

大年初一！

Once again I'm stuck at my computer during this awkward hour, since it's my custom to not sleep till 9am for today every year.

Hmm. Usually my thoughts while I'm going round the temples would center around my studies.
But this year my mind seemed to be on a different matter.

Well, hope it goes well.

And my horoscope predictions were right on with what I have been reminding myself since the start of the year o.o

Over 9000 Percent

2009-01-21T23:23:00.003+08:00

Ok, I'm doing productive things for once so my will to blog is more than a little sapped.

And my mother just gave me some printed info on MIT and its courses.
YAY FOR SUBTLE PRESSURE =)

Way Up High

2009-01-14T18:26:00.003+08:00

There are people who can't seem to leave the luggage of days long past behind.
I wonder if I'm one of them.

Some things will happen over and over again, and yet still feel like the first time.
I wish I could shake it off.
Hmm.

On a sidenote: "... ... turns away, shuffling to his table."
The last words. A difficult yet impressive read.

Chugga Chugga

2009-01-13T13:10:00.000+08:00

Skype conference calls are a great deal more fun than mass MSN convos =D

Anyway, from the 7th to 9th I had a class chalet at NSRCC, which would explain why the previous post had me awake for such a ridiculous amount of time. The first night I only had three hours of sleep, which was reasonable enough when compared to the next night, which contained none.

Because of this night cycling thing you know.

I don't think we really had a plan of where to go when we set off so the route felt really spontaneous. Fortunately for the five of us (the rest having already finished it the first night), I was not the one navigating, so we didn't get lost too much.

The seven-hour trip was great, of course. Halfway through I reached that all-too familiar stage where your body tells you it can't go any further and you tell it to keep its opinion to itself, and then it respectfully shuts up for the rest of the journey. I've heard some people calling it the 'breakthrough' stage, but every time I experience it, it feels more like an argument between my mind and body. (My mind would get pretty vulgar too, while my face would be doing its best to look like I'm admiring the scenery)

This, to me, is why all these activities are always my favourite. Group hikes, land/sea expeditions... it's a rather curious feeling to get tired and still know you must push on because you would delay your whole team otherwise, who are all dealing with the same fatigue as you.

And at the last stage of the journey I started singing NPCC cheers to myself to distract myself from the pain, which is really not helping my case that I am not NPCC-obsessed.

But hey, I managed to dance upon getting off my bike unlike the rest, so say what you will. (besides the fact that I dance really badly)

We went as far as the area around Holland V/Hwa Chong, and really should have a longer, planned route next time.

MAYBE ONE DAY, MALAYSIA? O.O That will be awesome and full of too many dangers to count at the same time.

Ok so anyway, I went to the chalet mainly because night cycling was mentioned, so not really going to discuss the other things that happened. Heh.

Back

2009-01-10T01:02:00.002+08:00

Spent 43 hours awake already.

NPAP trainer selection in a few more hours.

Good game?

Good night.

Jubilee

2009-01-03T01:50:00.001+08:00

Eh, I seemed to have missed the all-important dates of 31 Dec/1 Jan to do a blogpost. So I guess I better hurry up.

This would be the time when you look back at whatever nonsense your stupid self wrote back a year ago and respond to it.

"Let's try to drop that uncaring part [of me]."
I like to think that I did for the first half of 2008. In the later half... things happened, and my character changed. Not that I became uncaring again, certainly, but maybe I have learned the value of being subdued in one's actions.

"... set an example to my juniors..."
HAHAHA. Ok damn. I don't think I even remembered this part. Looking at the current most senior squad's general opinion of me...
But then, there were external factors leading to that anyway. Heh.

"Bye bye Unit Website 2009!"
OH MY GOD. Least accurate prediction ever. Ok, so the Pub Dept still fails at graphic design but the webmaster is competent at web programming. And has fulfilled most of Mr. Ong's requests for the new website. Which means the site is full of cool and useful features that will be really impressive to any visitors, haha.
Now if only the colour scheme can be good >_>

And... that's it! Ok so I don't really make a lot of any demands on myself for the new year.
I like it that way.

Hmm, now, because I'm sixteen and that's like really old and shit according to a very wise person. So I must do what old men do and indulge in reminiscence.

...
...
Ok reminiscence over.

What, were you expecting me to type all those personal things out? Go fly a kite.

THAT WILL BE ENOUGH NONSENSE FOR NOW KTHX.

Let's do the proper post I had in mind.

Year 2008 was a year of regrets for me. Some plans I had in mind obviously did not go well, with some a bit more obvious that others (say, THE STAFF SERGEANT TEST IN TERM ONE? Yeah, that.) But well, the obvious things aren't the ones that hurt the most.

I didn't manage to make much in the way of personal achievements as well, and the reason is pretty dumb. When most of the opportunities came, I shirked from them, and looking back it really was quite cowardly of me. Of the things I chose to take though, I made sure I did it well with full commitment, so I can be happy for that.

In the first half of the year, that would be SYFOC. But whatever I had to say on that I've already mentioned before. Oh, and RMUN in May too. That rocked.

Still thinking of other stuff I really should have opted for though. And I'm not sure that I will be granted enough time this year to pursue my interests anymore, given that a certain one interest of mine is going to take up quite a bit of time (50th anniversary yo!).

Second half of the year was very... very interesting. I drifted through the majority of it, since I was incredibly disillusioned with myself after a personal failure. I don't recall any time I could smile when I was alone, simply because I didn't possess anything to be glad for. Yes, that's probably called "being an emo bastard", but I got better, ok.

But well, I only managed to put the past behind me during December's CIBTC. That's just a training course for CIs, you would say, but one of the things you realize during the course is that the syllabus goes beyond the skills in NPCC.

The important thing in this rambling, barely coherent post of mine is that I have changed, in time for the new year. It isn't for me to judge whether it's for the better, but it isn't very important to know either.

I feel happy.

A Slippery Slope Of Obscenity

2008-12-29T20:57:00.004+08:00

Eh post cheers ah, I also can =D

Here comes the unofficial group cheer of the Knights.

Upon her head ah!
She wears a yellow ribbon.
She wears a yellow ribbon in the merry month of May ah.
And if you ask her
For who she has to wear it.
She wears it for the fighter who is far far away.
Far away!
Far away!
She wears it for the fighter who is far far away ah!

Upon her neck ah!
She wears a yellow necklace.
She wears a yellow necklace in the merry month of May ah.
And if you ask her
For who she has to wear it.
She wears it for the fighter who is far far away.
Far away!
Far away!
She wears it for the fighter who is far far away ah!

Upon her chest ah!
She wears a yellow uh-hum.
She wears a yellow uh-hum in the merry month of May ah.
And if you ask her
For who she has to wear it.
She wears it for the fighter who is far far away.
Far away!
Far away!
She wears it for the fighter who is far far away ah!

Between her legs ah!
She wears a yellow g-string.
She wears a yellow g-string in the merry month of May ah.
And if you ask her
For who she has to wear it.
She wears it for the fighter who is far far away.
Far away!
Far away!
She wears it for the fighter who is far far away ah!

Behind the door ah!
Her father keeps a shotgun.
Her father keeps a shotgun in the merry month of May ah.
And if you ask him
For who he has to keep it.
He keeps it for the fighter who is far far away.
Far away!
Far away!
He keeps it for the fighter who is far far away ah!

The actual Knights one unfortunately has too many in-references to post.

D08 - We Reached That Dream Together

2008-12-23T23:25:00.004+08:00

For me, it always has been quite hard to organise my thoughts and feelings after an event has ended. When I start to write, conflicting thoughts will ring out in my head, and I just have to stop and mull it over for a while.

This time, it isn't procrastination. More like a loss of words.
In a good way of course, just to clarify things up.

Anyway, I'm still not feeling too well, even though the fever started the last day (18th) of the 4D3N camp.

Hopefully I will recover before the next time I have to go to school otherwise I can't shout at people =)

Oh yeah, cheers to myself for becoming A PAID PROFESSIONAL.
With a $104 annual salary.

D08 - Every Little Piece

2008-12-14T16:20:00.006+08:00

will be fine if you just remember to breathe.

The gradual, creeping feeling of fatigue on Tuesday probably caught everyone on surprise.
Most of us were working really hard to meet the instructors' expectations over the weekends and might not have gotten the break we needed. So I guess it must have been rather frustrating to see everyone not getting our act together, when assessment was only one day away.

Well, at least day one of the second residential course had a larger focus on lectures instead of requiring us to revise on our hard skills.

Also, .38 classification shoot! Recoil and report of the revolver was a new experience for me, so when the first shot went off my expression probably spelled out WTF, since a officer gave me a strange look >.>
In unrelated news: I fail at shooting. =(

Oh, and on Thursday we finally got to do the drill we had all been eagerly anticipating: Sword Drill! I have to say that switching from the Carry to the Recover really needs a lot of practice, and it really isn't easy to do it in one movement. Bleh. And returning sword looks positively scary when you see someone else doing it, since one is supposed to use the back of the forearm to guide the sword into the scabbard without looking. Besides the fact that it looks like the wrist is going to get cut any moment (won't happen that easily when carefully examined actually), the next step involves forcefully and swiftly returning the sword once the opening has been found.
For now I'll do a quick glance before I actually stab down into the unknown, thanks.

And of course, once again quite a bit of unhappy things happened and tempers were frayed. But I tend not to write such things down so I start forgetting them over time. But I guess they will return starting from tomorrow, which is the final stretch before receiving our ranks.

Well, let me try to survive the rush.

For now, busy and away till the 20th of December. Mostly in Ubin.

Don't have enough time to process all pictures, so I'll just post some of the important/nice ones.

Charlie Squad!

Bunkmates: Sleeping, changing, crapping and getting caught by instructors after lights out together

Part of Training group

A simple shot of Changi Point.

Most of the flowers in that area looked like they were withering already. Not this one.

Well, it was a hot day...

First time playing around with panoramic shots =D

D08 - Reveille

2008-12-08T22:11:00.005+08:00

There's still so much work left that it's really quite hard to give a written account of my feelings for the past few days. Yet, I still abandon all that behind for a short while, more out of utter sianness than a dedication to blogging.

I guess I should first explain what I have been doing. Since there have been some people thinking I'm overseas for some reason o.O

Right now, I'm at the end of the first break of the 75th Cadet Inspectors' Basic Training Course. Think of it... as a very much scaled-down version of BMT, in some respects. Heck, we, the trainees, even occupy the same home as the NS recruits for the SPF. And yes, it isn't really much fun at all. Probably not something I would use in the future to convince someone to become a CI.

Well, that explains why I didn't know about the CIBTC until after I passed out of the unit >.>

It really is quite a bit of a hectic experience, with the residential courses (at the Home Team Academy) being overnight affairs (5D4N for RC1) and when I say that, please try not to conjure the image of sleepovers, with fun, laughter, and comfortable modes of locomotion. Because they don't exist in an RC.

Did I mention walking is banned in HTA? Honestly, not a big deal. But always a good fun fact.

But enough whining, since I kind of bought into the whole thing when I aspired to be a CI.

I thought the course, up to now, has been conducted really well actually. The instructors are anxious as hell to get all of us proficient in all skills, not just the standard drills and outdoor training aspects but also the leadership part. And of course, being a person with virtually zero on-the-ground experience of leading cadets, I can really appreciate that.

I'm not really sure how much I will match my own expectations of myself when I'm a CI. I have idealistic visions, but at the same time I'm rather afraid that I will lose sight of them when I actually have burdens placed on me. I can say that the course has strengthened my resolve somewhat, since the values they are teaching us to have and impart have already been something I was planning to do.

Early on, one of my squad's instructor asked us not to imitate others in teaching cadets in the future. Not repeat what has already been done. Not just to continue be an NCO (for those who were NCOs, anyway =.=).

Have you found yourself?

And yet after asking this I still found many around me still doing the same thing over and over again. Maybe it's too deeply ingrained.
Maybe I do it too, except I don't notice it.
当局者迷，旁观者清
还是让别人回答这个问题吧。

It's a good thing I didn't start writing this post immediately. I remember having a lot of negative feelings when we were dismissed. Feelings of frustration and anger. But they dissipated over time.
It's for the best that this post did not end up as one long rant about various less happy things during the course.
I won't mention the stupid, petty things again.

D08 - Reprieve

2008-12-06T21:09:00.003+08:00

Tired.
I guess that would be the first feeling I have after the dismissal for a two-day break today.
The course isn't tough, but it sure is strenuous. And there's the expectation to be constantly at one's best from waking up till lights out.
More, before I leave again.

D08

2008-11-30T22:48:00.001+08:00

Off. Whoops. Forgot to blog.
Hooray for procrastination.
Back in... who knows?

赤

2008-11-25T20:05:00.004+08:00

Red sky at night, shepherd's delight

The sky was ruby red this evening at my place, bathing everything (and I do mean everything) in a beautiful glow. Though since it lasted only for a few minutes, I didn't have time to go outside to get a better subject :/

Something to behold, first hand.

Good Starts and Ends

2008-11-24T10:04:00.003+08:00

Epic week finally ran its course, which means no more freaky consecutive THIMUN + NPCC sessions =D

A little disappointing that I couldn't attend Dinner & Dance though, since I was told the food there was actually quite good.

Looking back, THIMUN was definitely more enjoyable than I was making it out to be during the days of the event, but probably for all the wrong reasons. Still, I guess someone has to do the boring, sit-on-ass-for-nine-hours job.

And no, I didn't enjoy THIMUN because I was using the laptop for the nine hours of my works there.

Anyway, for now the hectic schedule ends, which means I finally get to rest a bit.
For one week.
Basic Training Course starts 1 Dec.

CHARLIE, WE WILL MAKE IT THROUGH.

P.S. Let me rest more before asking me to resume blogging substantive articles =D

Service With A Smile

2008-11-19T22:40:00.005+08:00

This week is epic week.
Full of non-stop action and exciting stuff. Or so it was promised anyway. >_>
First day only and and I'm nearly knocked-out.

Unrelated note: It can get hectic when two schedules collide, but three?

Click

2008-11-11T18:52:00.003+08:00

Finally had a chance to use a DSLR for event coverage today =D There was a Youth Olympic Games event being held at Hwa Chong International, so I was tasked with a Nikon D90 to walk around with. The only problem was the 18-105mm lens it had, which possessed terrible auto-focusing speed. And there wasn't another lens to replace it with >.>
Apparently it's too much to ask for kit lenses to be prime instead of zoom.

Capturing people in motion with a camera that goes whirr whir for three seconds is a pain.

And something funny happened before I started walking around trying to take photos. One of the people from the YOG new media group, Amanda, was briefing Yufan and me. She first decided to inquire, "So, ah, you guys are friends I guess?"

Yufan, never one to allow misunderstandings to continue among all parties, quickly interjected, "Classmates."

And finally...

OH YES

71 More Days

2008-11-10T11:39:00.004+08:00

Donations. Serious Business.

2008-11-08T22:31:00.002+08:00

Ok, one fun tidbit about Obama's campaign =D

At the end of August, as Hurricane Gustav threatened the coast of Texas, the Obama campaign called the Red Cross to say it would be routing donations to it via the Red Cross home page. Get your servers ready—our guys can be pretty nuts, Team Obama said. Sure, sure, whatever, the Red Cross responded. We've been through 9/11, Katrina, we can handle it. The surge of Obama dollars crashed the Red Cross Web site in less than 15 minutes.

From Newsweek, Secrets of the 2008 Campaign

A Blogpost We Can All Believe In

2008-11-08T11:33:00.003+08:00

Heh, I do seem to perennially not have enough time to update my blog. The last few times I tried to, mass MSN convos would pop up at the same time.

Just to show how much I about the Chinese O-Levels, the day before I went ahead and attended the Hwa Chong NPCC Chalet. I was definitely planning to leave before 7pm, but faced with an opportunity to view Chong We's amazing dota skills I had to stay slightly beyond that.

CAN YOU FEEL THE SKILLZ

Well, didn't really affect my performance the day after by much.
Anyway, now that we really have absolutely no stress at all, the holidays have been really great. Photography continues to be awesome, though I'm rather surprised by how many shots saved in my computer have people as the main subject. Really more of a landscape/object person. Besides, I get highly tempted to to do weird photoshop tricks on my photos, which isn't easy when people are involved.

Like poor Yufan, who claims that his, uh, facial imperfections are made too obvious by my camera.

I'm now throwing about one-sixth of my shots away, which isn't really a good fraction (I really should be aiming for one-third), but the main point here is that I went to look at some of those rejects in an attempt to do something with them. Got rather inspired and edited some of them in an attempt at mild humour. Heh.

Saving lousy photos, one at a time.

Oh yah, remember the EMB message asking us to watch McCain's concession speech? Here's a point to note. If the video was watched carefully, one important lesson in life can be learnt.

Don't be a retard.

Evidence from the video? Sarah "let's give Obama a landslide victory" Palin sulking away.
Here's a quote from Newsweek:

Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.

Reportedly she had even prepared a speech before she was rejected, despite vice president nominees traditionally not speaking at concession speeches.

Other information from the post-election reports made me really sympathize with McCain, since it appears that he was actually rejecting many of his campaign's negative moves, and was trying to remain honourable. Unfortunately...

Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

Well, I do hope that's the last we will hear of her. Palin 2012? Goddamnit no.

Lastly, for your consideration:

A Little Exercise Never Killed Anyone

2008-11-01T15:43:00.003+08:00

Bleh, I was concentrating so much on getting the timing right I lost the original composition I had in mind. Could crop, but don't really feel like it since I like the sky.

Anyway, this photo was one of the last few taken at the end of a long day involving a lot of cycling. I guess the cycling was enjoyable until the last two or three km when it really became a struggle for me -.- After all, the normal advice when you start seeing the onset of tunnel vision is to probably stop cycling, but since we were kind of rushing to return the bicycles I was just forcing myself to go on.

Definitely would be greater fun with more people on the trail.

As the realisation that school is not coming for a really long time starts to fully set in, I see more people becoming bored with what they are doing. Heh, turns out Hwa Chong people really cannot do without school work and exam pressure o.O
Last year, I thought that at this time I would be getting a job. But somehow... the circumstances are difficult. Besides - photography project =D Feels pretty weird to travel around Singapore (and not just the mainland) to take a single shot of one place. But I will mention it again here only when I'm done.

Shall not talk about other things occupying my time to avoid niaos lolol

Lastly, for your consideration:

What?

Not Goodbye, But Au Revoir

2008-10-28T18:36:00.005+08:00

The holidays. (Ignoring O-Levels)
Some days I feel like I'm going out too much, and then some days I feel like I'm killing my brain via the computer.

Anyway, I'm really glad at how much I've filled up my schedule for the end of this year. Committing to so many different things when it's the end of Sec 4, when there's so much time, is AWESOME. I told myself that I would improve myself before next year. Apparently I'm grabbing any opportunity along the way.

I'm not going to do a long review of the years spent in Hwa Chong here, as seen on other blogs. The real feelings I'll keep to myself, thank you very much. But what I can say is that I will still leave high school with some regret. Too many things I failed to do or did wrongly, and I could only see my mistakes in retrospect.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Also, 4M has been a wonderfully eccentric bunch of people. I must say that we truly are the rojak class, with people of such diverse leanings all forced to undergo torture in the same room. The class spirit was never truly there (class t-shirt, production of class video >_>), but I believe it was more due to our different ways of expressing ourselves.

I might as well call the years spent in 3M and 4M unforgettable. Because first and foremost that is what they were.

Thinking about it, maybe I can fix some of my mistakes in the next two years. We will see. I'm still waiting-

Right now, I have to start preparing for tomorrow. -Don't forget me yet.

Standing Orders

2008-10-23T21:35:00.004+08:00

The Internet does not forget. The Internet does not forgive.

And with these words I pause before clicking the 'Publish' button.

Three thousand words, forever in draft.

Its fate was to be seen only by two people. Now to start anew on something else less controversial to write about.

One day I will finish the story. But it cannot end here.

Formalities

2008-10-19T19:01:00.010+08:00

I refuse to upload the batch dinner pictures on facebook first since all quality goes out of the window there.
o.o I don't have much photos at all since I was quite tired of using my camera after exhausting myself on a project.
But then again, I hate taking photos in low light conditions.
[First half of photos taken by Wei Rong]

People sitting on my table!

Jingjie

Justin

Kenii

Jiajie

Yufan

IVAN THE SCARY with Ning Yu

It's OMG Kiawee.

Our Mr. Handsome gets two pictures.

Derek

The Food!

Fish looks depressed. I wonder why?

And finally...

Dedication: Without Reason

2008-10-18T18:58:00.002+08:00

Sleeping extraordinarily late for one whole week is draining.
And I'm a person who's used to sleeping at ten every night >_>

Continuity

2008-10-12T19:15:00.005+08:00

Shall resume blogposts with this most wondrous mother of all blogspam.

Edit: I just realised I missed out a few questions -.-

70 Questions

1) Where is the person you want most right now?
Nowhere to check, and it's not like I can ask... Singapore?

2) What are two things that mean a lot?
Rational thinking and close friends.

3) Where will you be 12 hours from now?
Bedroom.

4) Who has your heart lately?
It's on the ground somewhere, stolen and torn in half a year ago =D (vague references ftw)

5) When did you last cry?
Aww screw this.

6) Can you make yourself cry?
No.

7) What are you planning to do today?
In forty minutes there might be a mass MSN convo inviting everyone to a game of dota which will take another thirty minutes to start.

8) Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?
Well, this is difficult, seeing as I believe in the many-worlds interpretation - which I came up with independently, gosh I'm so smart - so I suppose the only purpose I would have in going to the past would be to view important historical events in true colour.

9) What are your favorite colors?
All except hot pink.

10) Have you ever kissed someone with first letter F?
No.

11) Have you ever fainted?
Yes, when I was reading a book for nearly three hours, and then decided to stand up quickly.
Note: Do not try this.

12) What are you doing tomorrow?
Going back to school for the first serious curriculum time since the end of EOYs.

13) Are you easily confused?
No.

14) Do you think you would make a good husband?
Well, I can cook, do housework, love children and am completely against masochism. Also, I am desperate, so any females reading this, contact me.

15) What’s your favorite kind of cream?
Ice cream.

16) Do you like coffee?
Only with milk.

17) Do you like summer?
No.

18) Have you ever liked someone who treated you like crap?
Yes. It can seem futile, but the old cliché stands true - I am satisfied when the people I care for are happier than me. I can't find it in me to dislike a person just because they don't like me.
Hey, I don't like myself all that much.

19) Is your current hair color mostly your natural hair color?
Yes.

20) Where were you at 8am this morning?
In the land of Daeregor, fighting fifty demons with my trusty transparent protractor, whilst walking around the classroom of 4M and wondering where all the people were, seeing as the class was covered in algae.
In other words, dreamland. And yes, that is the actual dream. Except for Daeregor.

21) Do you fall for people easily?
I FALL ON COMMAND.
More seriously, no.

22) Everything happens for a reason?
Irrational behaviour is quite possibly the greatest achievement of the human race.

23) Who have you texted in the last 24 hours?
No one.

24) How was your day today?
Merely a prelude to the excitement of tomorrow.

25) How was the week?
Illuminating.

26) Is there something you wish you could tell someone but can't?
Definitely.

27) What are your biggest turn offs?
Hypocrisy. See also psychological projection.

28) Favorite to wear
The most comfortable, so I'm not getting any points in the fashion department or even the socially acceptable region any time soon.

29) Do you prefer being single or taken?
Let me try both and I'll come back to this.

30) Have you ever felt replaced?
Felt? I was, goddamnit.

31) Are you only friends with the rich?
No.

32) Has the opposite sex been in your room before?
Yes.

33) What do you do when you have a bad day?
Scowl for the rest of the day and sleep whenever possible.

34) Do you believe ex's can really ever be "just friends"?
There will always be some tension. Though I have witnessed examples of both scenarios. Yes, but it take a lot of work.

35) Is cheating ever okay?
No.

36) Do you get shy around the people you like?
Very, very awkward. I don't usually stutter when I talk at all, unless there are people around that I feel self-conscious around.

37) Do you dislike liars?
There is such a thing as a white lie...

38) Does anyone want to ask you out right now?
No.

39) Would you get married right now if you could?
No.

40) What will you do on Sunday?
What is there to do on Sunday that I cannot manage on other days?

41) What’s your least favorite food?
Almond milk.

42) What are you most afraid of?
Deep water.

43) What sounds good right now?
That #@*$! torrent that refuses to go beyond a 1kbps rate finishing now sounds good right now.

44) What was the last thing you drank?
Wheatgrass juice.

45) If you took a drug test would you pass it?
I TEST POSITIVE FOR PURE AWESOMENESS.

46) Are you a really understanding person?
It's a two way street.

47) What’s tomorrow?
The 13th of October. Possibly trick question? Must investigate further.

48) How are you feeling?
Impatient, thanks to the speed of the previously mentioned torrent.

49)A fact about the person you don’t like?
The person has a good nature.

50)What happened at 10:00 am today?
I was wondering whether to shower and risk the irritation of low water pressure or to simply wait until no one else is using the water.

51)Are you wearing anything you borrowed from someone?
No.

52)Something you just don’t understand?
How people with a basically good nature can direct so much hate on individuals under the influence of peers.

53)What is the last thing someone bought you?
A novel.

54) When was the last time you saw your third best friend?
Roughly, last Friday.

55) Where did you last eat?
Sheraton Towers.

56) Name someone whose name starts with the letter “K”?
Kenii Takashima.

57) Who’s the person you miss most right now?
Not Kenii Takashima. Damn, who's going to give a direct answer to this question unless they were reasonably confident of their current relations status?

58) Do you plan on moving out in the next year?
No. Though if any overseas institution finally notice my brilliant mind and deign me worthy of an invitation, ignore this answer.

59) What were you doing at 11:30pm last Friday night?
I think I had just reached home from a certain class BBQ at that point and was preparing to shower and sleep, blissfully unaware of the two hours of photo editing I was soon to be in for.

60) Honestly, how many people have you been in love with?
Honestly? So it's, like, SERIOUZ TIMEZ NAO? Three.

61) Do you have a job?
Class fishball.

62) What are you doing besides this survey?
Checking the download status of that #@*$! torrent.

63) What are your plans in the future?
One of them is to make SGT FCW regret niaoing me.

64) What is your current problem?
That the success of the plan mentioned above ultimately depends on wild rumours and personal accounts of doubtful reliability. Also known as final results.

65) What’s your hobby?
One of them? Photography.

66) Who was the last person you saw?
My mother.

67) Who is the last person you freaked out on?
I have no idea what this question means. Uh, ok, last Friday I went "OMG YU XUAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO NING YU", I guess that counts.

68) Do you like someone right now?
I like many people. Many people like me. More don't.

69) Do you regret anything that you have done?
Only one thing I always wish I never did.

70) Do you get pissed off easily?
No.

Guide To Success

2008-10-02T17:55:00.003+08:00

1. Conflicts among countries
a. Ideological reasons (Korean War)
b. Over scarce natural resources (Iceland-Britain, Israel-Jordan water issue, S’pore-Malaysia fishing rights)
c. Territorial disputes (China-India)
d. Ethnic conflict (Sri Lanka, Israel-Palestine)

2. Terrorism
a. Reasons
b. Consequences
c. Counter-terrorism efforts

3. Diplomacy & Deterrence
a. Diplomacy
i. Bilateral, regional and international relations
ii. ASEAN – Roles, Successes and Failures
iii. UN – Roles, Successes and Failures
b. Deterrence – Military deterrence
i. Case study : Singapore
o Defense strategies
o Role of government
o Role of citizens

Nothing to say...

If Looks Could Kill...

2008-10-02T16:29:00.004+08:00

I think it's rather bad form to tag along when one obviously isn't welcome.

On a similar note, if you have a problem with someone you should just be bold enough to say it to his face.

I should tell that to myself since I obviously haven't done that.

At least I asked once.

I enjoy how I'm being less affected by the actions of people who dislike me and feeling more of a sense of... disappointment, perhaps.

I hope it signifies some maturity in my life, finally.

Full blogposts after paper checking =)

End

2008-09-21T18:25:00.002+08:00

There's nothing else left to say but sorry.
I guess this is the end.

And so many things I wanted to say but never dared.
Even at the last moment I gave up.

The things I did say - I didn't know you saw it that way.
I think I just wanted to hear you.

So this is it.
对不起。
Goodbye.

How very appropriate that I'm making the post on this day.

Teacher's Day!

2008-09-01T22:42:00.002+08:00

This is the photo story of one class's journey to send six epic cards to the hands of our teachers.

The six cards for our teachers - was hell to make for Wenhao and Wei Rong

蔡娘 ALWAYS COMES FIRST.

Many last minute well-wishers gathering around the cards to search for scraps of paper to write on.

The cards suddenly filled up with messages after all the performances that we were made to endure ended.

Moving right along to the next picture...

Yay it's Cho!

She is pleased with our offering.

Jay valiantly puts his hand in the line of fire to prevent 杨老师 from eating our hard work.

He is successful. Hmm, I wonder if 杨老师 has realised what the cupcake means yet. Probably not.

For Jay's steadfast adherence to duty, he is allowed to present the gift for our greatest and favourite form teacher this year (who looks surprisingly more handsome in this picture than he usually does).

Interesting depiction of Mr. Lee.

Creepy.

Creepier.

...

No, The Badge Can't Stay On My Pencil Box

2008-08-27T23:33:00.001+08:00

It's finally time for that collar pin to come off. The last few weeks of being in NPCC was unsurprisingly uneventful, since as a non-NCO/non-important ExCo member I did not have any pressing duties to attend to.

Still, my name was mentioned in the Passing-Out Parade appreciation video. Quite unfortunately the person who mentioned it was Chong We.

I thought it was also quite sad that our squad did not stay very long at the Ep3 Shed, since after all that was where we had trained for half our time in the unit.

But then, how many in the Sec 4 squad were really sad to have left? I don't know.

I still remember when I first joined the unit I was probably one of the most arrogant. I did have the most hard skills, and was unwilling to share them or to volunteer my services to the squad.

By the way, I have never taken the role of a squad IC, despite (if anyone remembers) Taylor and Wei Rong taking that role consecutively in Sec 1, and me being expected to be the next. But I was never really cared enough about being prominent until it was too late I guess.

I also remember how I missed one of the biggest opportunities in the early days, the first chance to participate in a parade for the squad, because I was not able to achieve the Lance Corporal rank like everyone else. I'm really quite tired of recalling the whole story behind the reason for my failure, but suffice to say from then on I was always behind many people in the squad.

Come to think of it, I have never been picked for anything during my time in NPCC. All the participartion and achievements I am proud of I had to volunteer for, and at times fight for.

So I'm not really a role model for NPCC. I'm inexperienced in handling ExCo work, clueless at teaching cadets, and probably came in dead last for the Peer Appraisal.

But yet I still will try and come back to help the unit.
Why?
I can't really say, but maybe it is because I really do not want anyone from the junior squads to be like me.
Maybe it is because I still want to have a chance at passing on what I know to the rest of the unit.
Maybe it is because I have never being an NCO/important position and so still haven't become jaded of NPCC.
Maybe it is because I'm a failure.

But I like to think that it is because the four years in NPCC has taught me, if nothing else, that anyone with some feeling of commitment in their heart is capable of a lot in NPCC. And I don't want our unit to waste these people like we are doing now ( a fault of such high recruitment?).

There are many things I still believe in about NPCC.
Passing out does not change anything.

Moments in Time

2008-08-11T19:36:00.005+08:00

Photoblog is now up! Because Dah Wei asked me to use the monotone theme.
Will try to find a regular schedule to post photos when I can determine how often I can take my camera out.

I was attempting to do a quiz Shawn tagged me for when I gave up because it was so open ended and demanding... ... like a woman.

And from Kah Hong's ongoing literary masterpiece...

... ...A small band of skilled mercenaries attacked the Fouranus troops and owned them. And leading them was a smiley boy.

o rly?

Shine On

2008-08-10T22:31:00.003+08:00

Apparently the NDP organizers recognized that no one gave a damn about this year's theme song, so to avoid playing it too often they gave us alternate versions of past songs instead. And yeah, they are good. Veedu, being Tamil, has the virtue of not allowing the majority of Singaporeans understand the lyrics, so naturally it sounds like a great song when you just listen to the voice.
The Chinese version of My Island Home has a great interlude in the middle, as I'm sure all those who watched NDP yesterday know.

Veedu

My Island Home

Also, see what forum-browsing gets you these days.

Besides showing that China is leading the world in replicant technology, the opening ceremony of the Olympics demonstrated that less than a third of all nations on Earth know how to dress themselves.

Look, Netherlands, I get it, your national color is orange. Ireland's national color is green, but they didn't sacrifice their dignity just so they could say "We wore our national colors." The Dutch look like they bought their suits from an outlet mall that specializes in surplus suits from The Prisoner. And is that a caveman they have in their procession? How progressive.

Saudi Arabia is the human incarnation of a sausage fest. I've seen gay porns with less dudes involved, which is odd considering that having a limp-wrist is punishable by death in that country. Way to go, Saudi Arabia. Leave it to you to make the Chinese government look like a smoke-out at Haight and Ashbury.

Then there's Niger, which was literally one man holding their flag. He's got the body language of a guy called up to the front of the class to solve a math problem. God speed, dude.

Italy looks like the rogues of the Olympics already, proving that you can travel five-thousand miles and assemble in front of a viewing crowd of millions and still look like you were scraped off the bottom of the Euro-dumpster.

The Swiss look like they took advice from someone's mom on how to look cool. I bet they got dragged to Sears to try on outfits, too.

Britain doesn't look bad at all. They look like they're holding their heads up high with the knowledge that they're the best tanned team in the whole joint.

Germany looks like they're having fun, but as my grandpa said, "If there's anything I learned from the war, it's never to trust a smiling Kraut." Which is a strange statment because he never actually went to war.

Spain looks like they're exiles from a theme park I would never want to visit.

It must be embarassing to be French and have the Americans kick your ass in the fashion department. It's like the retarded kid in class beat you in the spelling bee. I mean, I love America and everything, but fashion isn't exactly the most accomplished industry we've got. France, though, France looks like they rolled out of bed and into a suit my grandpa rented.

What's with all these screwy countries I've never heard of. I swear to God, some crazy rich person like Richard Branson is just buying islands so he can run an Olympics team out of them. My college has a larger population than some of these places. And Portugal? Who ever heard of fucking Portugal? Sounds bogus to me.

Apparently there's a country called "Kiribati" somewhere out there. If I'm not mistaken, that was a critically acclaimed Stan Lee comic from the early 1970's.

America. . . Looks daper as Hell. Call me biased, but America looks damn good. The stupid caps they're wearing almost ruins the ensemble, but luckily they've got those sharp navy blue blazers to back them up. They look like more friendly marines, the kind that help old ladies across the street instead of the screaching in at the speed of sound, turning stone age nations into Oliver Stone movies kind of marines.

And, that leaves us with China, which is a scarf short of being the largest assemblage of House Gryffyndor alumni in world history. It's a shame that most of the athletes are going to be melted down into low-grade cattle feed and affordable automobiles.

All of this spectacle and celebration of countries is almost enough for me to stop being afraid of the upcoming century of oppresive Sino-hegemony that will surely bring us all to our knees. Almost.

-Penguin Incarnate

One World

2008-08-09T22:34:00.009+08:00

Click for amazing pictures

Yeah, I watched the whole thing through, even through the introduction of all nations. Was trying to test myself by thinking which countries had been left out. Besides Brunei Darussalam of course haha.

I wish the commentators would SERIOUSLY SHUT UP. They have no sense of timing and and were just plain annoying with their stupidity and ignorance. Go on, listen to them again.

"Ah yes, I think it means environmental protection you know, woah." - When referring to the painting in the middle
Talking about how wonderful the song is... when it was playing.
I want a option to turn off commentary only =(

By the way, some thoughts going through my mind during the first part of today's NDP.

A Red Lion just tumbled (screwed up) and they switch camera to the crowd so fast - IMBA
Stop the corny feel good music omg
Why all the commanders so high-pitched one
TENTERA YAY
Imba GOH as usual
Colours party = <3
My favourite song is now in Tamil o.O
OMG WHY ECHO DURING 'WE ARE SINGAPORE' CAN YOU JUST LET HER SING
lol lol the whole nation saw you wipe your lens Mr. Cameraman

Anyway, the school's NDP was an excellent photo-taking opportunity, only I missed most chances because I had to put documentation first >.>

But I liked the one below a lot =D Super high in detail leh in its original size.

SSG Nicholas Tang, looking less sian than he usually does for some reason

And of course Jeremy Ang was irresistible haha. He smiled instantly when confronted suddenly by a camera instead of turning away; what a natural model o.O

Maybe if I smile enough this annoying guy will go away

However, let's not forget about the perennial crowd-pleaser.

GOGO!

:D Enjoy. The other pictures from the school's NDP are at the usual place, of course.

Reverb

2008-08-07T20:07:00.004+08:00

I suddenly realised that I can find an easy excuse for my unwillingness to blog recently. I only revived my blog last year because I had a very interesting form of motivation.
But now?
It's long gone.
But still here, somewhere.

Maybe I'll just let the blog stay as a photoblog.

I wonder if there is a specific term for the feeling of schadenfreude you get when you offered to help someone out of goodwill, only to get rejected, but then you get to watch the person screw up? Highly uncomfortable to feel for too long, I tell you.

In the meantime here is one of the best pictures you will see of Kia Wee, like, ever.

Titled

2008-08-05T18:07:00.002+08:00

Damn, I hate mood swings. Maybe I should confide.
But it didn't work out the last time. Not at all. Sec 3. Immature.
Damn this. And I'm tired from doing work that didn't need to be done.

Serious Stuff Is Way More Fun To Write

2008-08-01T22:43:00.009+08:00

Just a crop of some scenery I took

Guess where this particular patch of sky is located and get a prize! Haha. I'm not posting this because it looks particularly nice but because I just felt like pimping some sky today.
Mouse over the image to see how boring it was before pimping >.> And you can see how lousy my camera is too. Vignetting and blur is obvious on the right side of the picture, which shows how much Sony cares about giving good lenses to cameras. *Sigh* Such a waste of the advertised "larger-than-average" image sensor on the W300 :/

Smile!

Obviously I'm not the one who took this picture. But it's a pretty fun image yeah?

Anyway today is the start of the month of my birthday, which led me wondering how many birthdays of others I have forgotten. Really sorry to everyone when most of the time I'm oblivious until the end of the day. It feels quite bad to receive gifts and not have reciprocated yet... But I have a really bad memory for dates - Currently I can only remember three birthdays, none of them which are my father's. Yes, it's that bad. Crap.

By the way, do the following quiz because it's fun and has pretty pictures =D (Shawn did it first)
Note: Only ninety percent of the following is accurate about me.

Which Chess Piece Are You?...

The King's Knight

Congrats! Only 5-7% of the population score this!

The King’s Knight is spontaneous and active. They get great satisfaction from acting on impulse. This usually means thrill and risk can be quite exciting. If they are stifled by rules, they may end up feeling ‘dead’ inside. They look for the ‘tick’ behind the clock without the need for verbal cues. Oddly enough, this Knight deeply respects and admires anyone who can best them.

The King's Knight is a 'do-er', naturally impatient with discussion. They seek to live in the moment and are great improvisers. Because of this they are quite capable at bringing ideas or concepts to fruition. They often prefer practical organizational issues. Because they seek to make things happen, they may act too quickly with the appearance of not thinking things through.

They are the best at manipulating others. This usually means that they can convince others to a like-minded position and thus the King would love to have this Knight by their side. They are concrete with their form and speech and are seen as smooth operators. They could be seen as self-promoters and great salesmen of ideas. They are gifted at earning trust. But they are also gifted at applying common sense to any issue. They will maintain acute awareness of factual information during discussions and will guide tangents back on course. The King's Knight is outgoing, charming and fun. They know the 'who's who' and where the socially sophisticated reside and play. They are action oriented and deplore unnecessary diplomacy. They want life to be simple, but realize it isn't.

Take Which Chess Piece are You Test? at HelloQuizzy

Decolourisation

2008-07-30T20:17:00.004+08:00

You probably won't get this without the context.

Been feeling pretty horrible these few days - seriously need sleep and less worries about not being able to go to HCJC. I wonder how do the other people with worse cases than me in class handle it.

Recently, there's been some talk in the NPCC ExCo about a certain individual, and Wen Wei had this to say on his blog:

Many times in life, we tend to look at things from our own viewpoints and only want the end result to be what we want... ... There's no point in having the Cabinet if the President of Singapore can just make his own decisions. Similarly, there's no point in coming up with "possible reasons" why someone you favour failed a test even though you had entrusted the job of assessing to another group of people. Again, trust.

I wanted to tag in response, but it turned out to be a little too long, so I'm just writing it here.

By now there is no dispute over the reason for the failure of that test, but I do wonder why there is so much mistrust of that individual just based on his performance during one test. It would be ridiculous to reconsider everyone who could not make it, but this case is clearly quite unusual when the past record does not match with the analysis after just one test.

Mistrust and doubt goes both ways, and I hope that it is not a personal issue with the individual or the person who pointed out the anomaly that is spurring such quick refusal. After all, those who are in charge of assessing are ultimately judging what the three years of hard work or three years of slacking deserve. From the support that his peers are giving, and from the Peer Appraisal results, I think it is hard to argue that he truly deserve the deal he is getting now.

I do agree that the attitude presented was utterly wrong, but the possible causes responsible are so complicated I don't want to get into them because I am not a psychologist. I must ask if increasing the evidence to back up his cynicism is really the way to go here.

Lastly, will this have an impact on how the junior squads view the the current ExCo?
I can only wonder, because it is none of my business in this matter.

Counting On Forever

2008-07-26T19:46:00.002+08:00

Finally watched The Dark Knight yesterday =D And I believe everyone already knows how much it surpassed the hype surrounding it so there isn't a need to review it. The thing that really stood out for me was the fact that I was on a high the whole hundred and fifty six minutes as there isn't one single point of climax.

Random stuff I just went to check on: Just A Dream is the next single. I CALLED IT.

Good time for blogspam now, I think.

1. List four fandoms you have.
Reddit, Halo, Mousehunt =D and a certain American country pop artist

2. Have you ever slept in the back of a car?
I try, but it's nothing like sleeping on a comfortable SBS bus with the round air-con vents so they can be directed straight onto you =D

3. Have you recently dyed your hair/cut it?
"I had to cut my hair. Because today... ... must look good with the beret." - Swee Kiat
So yeah, must often cut hair.

4. List four people that you look up to the most.
Douglas Adams, Richard Dawkins, Dennis Kucinich and Carl Sagan

5. How many pets do you own as of now?
I used to have two turtles, which disappeared when I moved another house o.O

6. Which do you prefer white or black?
Fluctuates with the months really. I'm going to start leaning towards black again in a few more months. Needs shoes that can go with black attires >.>

7. Who is your most played character?
In Hwa Chong, I usually attempt to play a bumbling, foolish idiot, incompetent at his studies and ultimately, his life.

8. Choose one or the other, not both: Being stuck on an island with a friend, or being stuck on an island with 5 acquaintances?
This brings to mind a rather vulgar joke I came across today... which I shall not place here.
Anyway, with just one friend, though my mind can't narrow it down to just one at the moment.

9. Name three aspects that tell who you are.
I'm the person you want to look for if you need to find someone who fails at anything he's good at.
Also, the guy with 'that face' when he's getting insulted, which is not an uncommon occurrence.
And also incredibly socially inept.

10. If you could have a power what would it be?
Space-time manipulation. In other words, I would be able to teleport you to Hiroshima on that fateful day, disintegrate the atomic bomb right before it exploded, and then create two H-bombs in its place. Because I'm awesome that way.

11. Who was the last person you talked to?
Xuan Cheng

12. Who was the last person you said “I love you” to?
Don't remember, since the last time I used it was when I was six maybe; I don't think I have used that phrase in that form for a long time.

13. Write down the first five words that pop into your head
The pink elephant flies like

14. What’s one thing you wish you could do better?
Eh, slimming down?

15. Do you like the way you are?
No.

16. Choose, summer or winter?
Winter, every other season is too bloody hot.

17. Rain or snow?
Rain. I like the fuzzyness generated from a thunderstorm.

18. Water or ice?
Ice is so much more fascinating to play around with.

19. List two odd things about yourself.
1. I'm incredibly introspective and tend to actually plan most of the seemingly spontaneous impulsive things I do.
2. There's two people I hate a lot in class, though up to now I've always only said it was one when I'm asked. I wonder why? It's odd even to me.

20. What are two of your bad habits.
1. I use the computer quite a bit.
2. Don't have the 'three-minute enthu' problem, but instead I have the three month version, where I'll embark on an exciting new hobby/project and then give up on it after completing three quarters.

21. What’s 1 of your biggest pet peeve?
People who cut queues. If I can learn to throw away the restrains at my temper, Hwa Chong would be a nicer place to buy food in.
But would also be mysteriously missing around say, three hundred people.

22. Now list 6 people who should do this quiz.
NO, THE EVIL STOPS HERE.

Thumbs in Overdrive

2008-07-23T20:19:00.004+08:00

See, so I just got a new table which promised me new and revolutionary ways to work on both my homework and mice-catching at the same time, but it just ends up in hugely fragmented essays and math worksheets that I stare at wondering what I just did. But whee it's kind of fun and amazingly stupid to swivel in my chair to both sides of the table again and again.

*swivels*

*serious time*

I guess I have to address some issues that came from the previous post - though most I hope has been dealt with one-on-one. The inevitable feeling of being left out of the larger group - I admit, I feel it. But it has no relation to the point I was trying to make in my previous post, and unfortunately I had not structured it with the thesis in front followed by the topic statements to start each paragraph with, so the central idea might not have been clear. So here it is in bold this time.

Members of the Secondary Four Squad do not feel a sense of duty to Hwachong NPCC. (This is different from loyalty to a specific indivdual *cough**fakecough again*)
The cause of the apathy differs, but it all boils down to events that had started in motion since the Sec 1 years.
For some, existing in an isolated, highly bonded group for four years creates the feeling that "this is all I need".
For some, always being left on the sidelines (not without justification most of the time actually) would create cynicism within the individual, and that is hardly encouraging him to make an effort to contribute back to NPCC.

Hugely simplified. Note again that all these are my own assumptions and viewpoint (probably biased), so you will not be wrong if, with your own experience, think I'm a retard for having these thoughts.

As for "EP3 politics", I think that's another issue altogether.

*swivels again*

Oh, scavenged from some of my old scraps I re-discover the the music video from Eppendorf.
POSSIBLY MOST EPIC MV FOR...
AUTOMATED PIPETTING

Also, most amount of closeted homosexuals in one boy band, ever. =D
Go watch the whole video. And then sing along with the provided lyrics.

I wish I watched The Dark Knight already -.- Don't really want to get low quality version of it when it's supposedly so good. In the mean time, I await Watchmen to get finished.
Yes, in 2009. One of the more disturbing comics to read, actually, so it should be quite entertaining how they will present it.

Hmm. I wonder who I will be watching it with when it comes out.

How Many More Days?

2008-07-19T21:35:00.005+08:00

The only energetic thing in my house right now is the 840kB/s download going on in my bittorrent client. For some reason I'm feeling pretty lethargic these days, probably due to the lack of engaging work right now? Or maybe because I find myself pining for that sometimes.

How should I describe it? One analogy one would relate to easily I guess would be McDonald's. Everyone knows it's bad and unhealthy for you but most still can't bear to be without it for too long.
Still, I better find a distraction for it, because every time I indulge, it kind of screws up my concentration regarding schoolwork.

Hmm, analogies. Apologies to Zong Xian for not fully using my intellect on Bad Analogy Day to do the required task because I was emoing. ... I can't remember whatever I was depressed about. Weird.

Anyway, Hong Liang just related to readers of his blog that he was feeling moody because it was Service Day yesterday and "hence there's nothing for the Sec 4s".
Well, of course, except for me. But yeah, I suffer no illusion with regards to how I am viewed among my squad.

Still, I have no idea why Hong Liang would claim that, since there was nothing prohibiting the Sec 4s from coming back to assist the unit during Service Day. In fact, the squad recieved an email stating the opposite, that we were "invited" to participate. I knew our physical squad probably won't bother, since there's a reason why the juniors keep niaoing the physical Sec 4 squad. But the NCOs?

They probably had other pressing concerns on that day that they had to deal with (besides going home and playing video games, as Hong Liang stated), but I wonder if they are related to why our squad has so few wanting to become CIs, to come back to the unit.

Sorry, did I say few? I mean two.

My mind drifts to the possibility of The Great One disillusioning the ExCo. But there is a greater problem, I think. And herein comes a confession that some already know: I hate my squad. Ever since Sec 1, there has been the existence of a clique that has since expanded and I think everyone knows it exists, thought I won't mention the name that was thrown about during the initial years. Until now, there has never been a squad spirit and what is the cause of it? I am not denying that other squads have cliques of their own, but I can safely say that there has only been one clique I have witnessed that had such destructive powers.

I sense that some people, if they ever read this, and I hope they do, because I will never say all this to their faces, may become uncomfortable with my scathing remarks towards the squad. Again, I suffer from no illusions of grandeur; I am an outsider, an outcast, the sterotypical "weirdo" in the group who will never understand the grand master plans of those "in the know". And I may be wrong on my suspicions. But outsiders tend to have a horribly uncluttered view of what's going on.

I digress, but I go back to my main point. The only existent squad spirit in the Sec 4 squad is one of isolation, a tribal mentality which is afraid of interaction with the unclean, heathen "juniors". At this point of time someone should find it about due time to point out to me that, hey, the other squads don't interact much between each other either, or that hey, we do interact with juniors, we even play videos games with them. At which point I would sweep it aside as irrelevant.

The whole defense of other squads not interacting, also known as the "Hey, they did that too" argument, is pretty popular, so I think I will examine it. Firstly, all groups keep within themselves to a certain extent. That much is accepted. However, to have a startling indifference to helping other groups, especially when we are talking about your juniors, takes some conscious effort. Secondly, I think the lack of initiative from the junior squads comes from our lack of effort in connecting with them. The senior squad has always kept to themselves, and it seems to be working out, so why bother trying to move outside of my comfort zone when obviously nothing is achieved from it?

For the second point, think. The clique mentality still exists, and other people are still being pushed out as an unrealized side effect. And again, we are still showing off our squad's special ability to form destructive cliques, because I notice certain interactions have recently created a hole in the Sec 3 squad. I wish I could be more specific on this, but it really is impossible without giving names and going into detail, things I do not wish to do publicily.

Why are the Sec 4s so reluctant in helping the unit these days? I hope my reasoning is wrong, and it is simply lethargy from having so many heavy responsiblites since taking over. But looking at current statistics for people who dare to claim they will try to come back as CIs, hope seems futile.

This post is prone to contain lapses in logic, missing content and explanations. I think the topic at hand has such overwhelming factors that half an hour just isn't enough to fully espouse on them all. I won't mind, and fully invite actually, reasonable discussion on the issue of the Sec 4 squad privately, because really, I don't know a lot. All I know is the intense dissappointment that comes from seeing countdowns to POP.

But I think most of you will just glance upon this post and ignore it. I would expect that, seeing as ignorance has been mostly comfortable these four years for many of us.

I know I have been overly negative in this post and it is on purpose. There have been many good times too, and I don't regret joining, but ignorance to problems we may have is still not desired.

This post contained many suitable vulgarities that would have made for entertaining reading, but they have been stripped so as to not incur Derek's wrath.

Philosophical Crap Will Resume In A Short While

2008-07-10T21:11:00.005+08:00

Sometime, even when you don't have time for blogging, you still have to.

Otherwise how will the world be exposed to material like this?

Serious.

2008-07-08T22:12:00.002+08:00

From http://0at.org/summer-2008.html

=D

Black. White.

2008-07-07T00:36:00.001+08:00

Yay, a change that's been long overdue. I have been trying to switch templates for a while because the old one was getting a little bloated and slow, and I wanted something more clean-looking.

However, this is not that template. This one - a one hour job essentially >.>

Sorry to disappoint you xc but I'm going to use black on white for all my current templates because that's my mood =D And the one in development is taking so long because I work in one-hour spurts once month so I can't really be bothered to look at the html code.

Not because it's going to be AWESOME. But yes, it most probably is. Come back and see after our ORDs ok?

Of course the whole point of this post was to celebrate my new black and white based template by showing some black and white images I made a while ago.

Subject is Randy Chua, taken while I was trying to cam-pimp people during UGBC =D
He wasn't posing for the camera at all, so I missed a better shot while I was taking out my camera. He was looking up at first, and I thought it was an attractive shot in a silent contemplative way.

An usual emo shot that is totally posed, obviously, since there wasn't anything to emo about in SYFOC. Taken with someone else's camera phone, so quality was non-existent. Subject isn't me (duh), but the other Sergeant from Hwa Chong who was repeatedly niaoing me throughout training because he was my junior and had the same bloody rank.
SGT(as of 7/7) Feng Chong We, watch out next year. Grr.

This one was really totally unplanned haha. One of the few images of Baifeng after Chansons du Vent that were of actually ok-ish quality. I was looking through the collection at home when I stumbled on this one and went 0.0, since he looked quite like a serial killer in the original.
Not a true black and white - but care.

Ok now everyone know I'm a failure photographer. :(

To Always Face The Back

2008-07-01T20:38:00.009+08:00

Sorry. I have a lot of half-done posts but currently I am trying to clear up my screwed-up life that's going to prevent me from accomplishing certain far-off dreams.

MIT FTW?

I just settled one important issue

like goddamn finally

that has been harassing me since September last year.

21? haha

I will wait just one more week. changed.

Derek, don't niao lol.

It's My Parade

2008-06-28T16:05:00.006+08:00

GOH! Pity I didn't bring my camera at the time.

Unsurprisingly visitors to my blog have decreased over the past few days, but the amount of weird search terms used to find my blog has been increasing o.O

Anyway SYFOC for this year has finally ended, and I have learned and gained so many new things during the intensive one week training up to the final day. So, I guess even though I usually hate doing reflections, I do have to list many things down here so I can remember them.

First time seeing an officer cry because he was leaving the SPF and this was the last parade he would be taking charge of. For the first few moments we thought he was just looking down while addressing us but then his voice started shaking. The hundred over of us from the GOH sat in silence and listened.

First time working with so many people committed to NPCC, regardless of whether they were Sec 2, 3, or 4. Unlike some others from the current Sec 4 squad who have already taken part in many major parades in Sec 2 and 3, this is honestly my first time. It was fun to have the chance to do drill with so many people who were enthusiastic and good at it.

Not for the first time, I saw the uglier side of Hwa Chong NPCC when I was notified by a person what some (limited to a few indivduals, I hope) in the unit thought of me, a Sec 4, having the gall to take part in SYFOC. All I can say is, have enough courage on your own to talk to me and we can discuss exactly why it is so abhorrent for me to try something I have always wanted.

Of course the comments were not restricted to being made by members of NPCC, but I don't want to get into that.

It was also quite disheartening to note that our performance for actual day wasn't as good as some of the rehearsals. A few small issues added up; the lack of warm up we had, as even though we were in the stadium for six hours before SYFOC started we only had one rehearsal; the new gloves we received which were really smooth; the amount of screens showing off our performance, which many of us made the mistake of looking at momentarily when marching; and of course our nervousness.

The CIs for this parade were great, and they really made the training for all a lot more light-hearted and more engaging. I don't think anyone in the GOH can forget Alan's absurdly lousy jokes and the resulting funny comments. Many jokes were of course made at the expense of er, other uniformed groups (mainly just one other uniformed group actually).

Inside jokes! (Must list down for posterity =D)
"Cute sia."
"Wah sibeh jialat"
"Somewhere, over the rainbow..."
"Hwachong! What you doing?"
"Question mark question mark question mark. Stupid stupid stupid."
"Give me the four styles!"

The CIs have reminded me of my two remaining medium-term goals: To get a below 2.5 MSG, and to pass the CI course. I haven't forgotten that I have completely failed the other goals I set for myself, such as NCO-ship and NDP participation.

Adding to my determination of course is that fact that I also gained yet another person who niaos me upon sight. I do seem to attract these sort of people like... flies. And it looks like the only way I can get revenge is to become a CI.

The post stops here, because it's getting really long and distracting from the pile of work I have to do. And might raise questions on the whereabouts on Hainan Part 2.

Friday night; Let's cram the only bus home!

Well actually this was the second bus that came, since the first bus rapidly became an orgy of sweaty smelly people upon stopping at the HTA bustop.

Unlike the boys in green...

2008-06-24T22:31:00.002+08:00

9pm on a Tuesday and still wandering about Choa Chu Kang.
SYFOC training rocks :D

Homework's going to be a problem though.
Maybe Derek can just do all of them and give me on Monday.

Hainan; 10/5 - 17/5 [Part 1]

2008-06-15T20:19:00.000+08:00

Let me just start by saying that this camp was bad. No, it was horrendous, boring, mismanaged and utterly aggravating. However, I took care to take pictures of only the better moments. This explains why there are so few pictures on some of the days >.>
Also, I'm avoiding mentioning all the stuff that pissed us off about the teachers I/C as it would fill up quite a large block and have no purpose.

I suppose, in the end... just enjoy the memories :)

Day 1

Woah. This recount starts with me looking around the Budget Terminal, being a little peeved that I was the only one as far as I could see wearing the school uniform. Well, as long I as didn't stare in the general direction of Akilan or Max. After we did come straight from RJC after the rmun content presentations. This was highly unlike the rest coming from RJC, who took care to make a detour to change into the coolest casual attires they could find before entering the terminal. Hubert, I'm talking about you.

Anyway, I met up with the rest of the 4M people going ,including Derek unfortunately, before going off to check-in. I mention the check-in only because something exciting happened while I was waiting in the queue!

Yes, the McGriddles had arrived, courtesy of Ms Tan? (I guess)
Nothing else exciting happens during this period of time (come on, we are checking in, lower your expectations), except my desperate maneuvers to assure the staff that no, I am not a terrorist despite my foreign passport.

For some obscure reason, there is a mandatory period of 'really freaking long' between the time when you are supposed to check-in and the time the plane actually starts accepting passengers into its maw, so in the meantime I had to put up with eating really bad food in the waiting hall and restraining Derek before he could spam anymore on my blog.

When the plane finally took off, the seating plan for the four 4M-ers going (no one's counting Jay) was as follows:
Jiajie with Taylor
Terence with Derek

Well damn.

I forgot to mention that I was anxious to get a seat beside the windows, because after all we were on a budget airline, and on such an airline there are really only two things you can do to entertain yourself with: Looking at clouds, and wiggling your toes. The third form of mild entertainment came when I took out the bag of potato chips, stared at it for a moment, and eagerly waited for it to explode. But it didn't. By the way, Taylor and Jiajie (was it?) would go on to repeat the experiment in reverse when they crush an empty water bottle on the return journey.

AND I SUDDENLY REMEMBER JIAJIE STILL HAS MY BOTTLE. I keep forgetting zz. Well, now it's here in bright pink.

The first experience most of us had of Hainan when we touched down was not exactly going to defy our expectations. It smelled smoky. Cheers to China's bid to finally prove that mankind can win nature.

If I had to guess, I would say that Haikou would be a beautiful city. Unfortunately, we had no such chance to appreciate its many wonders as we were quickly packed into buses and sent on our way to Xinjing Village.

Once we were there and had finished calming down our hearts from the multiple near misses the buses had with other vehicles, the villages celebrated our arrival by setting off firecrackers. You know, the things villagers used to use to chase away Nian, the monster who would come over once every year to devour their foodstocks and disrupt their normal way of life? Times change.

We had out first proper meal there, a dish of eggs with flies, vegetables with flies, chicken with flies and soup. Truly, they still maintain the concept of 四菜一汤 over here. After we were done with our meal of soup with rice, we embarked on the trek to our mainhouse, which was a convenient one hundred and fifty meters through bloody darkness from the main area.

The first night, we (me and Taylor) spent it teaching Wenchi and Xiaoyang how to play Daidee. Afterwhich they proceeded to wipe us with their imba skills.

For a video of the firecrackers: Visit here.

Day 2

Well, this was meant to be the most exciting day. And it was, and it also created a meme that would last for the rest of the seven days.

We woke up (to the sound of NICONICO DOUGA), refreshed that it was now daylight and there wouldn't be flies in our breakfast. Also, there would be kaya toast!

There were only minor problems with the kaya toast, the first being that contrary to its name, it was not toasted, and that also the spread did not taste like kaya. But really, just small issues. The milk tea was great though. I would continue to have a fascination with milk tea in Hainan, and there would be a lot of opportunities to buy bottles of it, and also multiple times for me to realize over again and again that that tea was a diuretic. But that's later. Right now, we had finished our breakfast and were going back so we could change into proper attire for the next activity: rice harvesting!

At this moment I ask: What should a teacher in charge of this camp, a teacher accompanying the group in understanding the lives of the villagers, do when the group has reached the field?

Go on, try and find them.

Quite obviously, the answer is to stand really far away, under a parasol (for the delicate skin), valiantly protecting belongings, and responding to insinuations that they *might* want to come down and help with 'no la I will stay here'. Ok.

We were told not to waste any grains of rice, so obviously the bundles of rice stalks had to be handled with care. However, the instruction was pretty much all but forgotten when it started to rain and people shuffled quickly back with the bundle over their heads, presumably to offer some protection against the light shower because as we all know a Hwa Chong boy dissolves when hit by rain water. Stalks of rice that dropped into the shallow water were simply stomped on by the next person, as oblivious as they were when we manged to ruin many of the villagers' crops when we walking into the field. We had taken care not to step into the water that ran through the field, most carefully stepping on the only dry things around, the crops, so that our feed would not be dirtied. I only realised that when one of the villagers suddenly sneaked up behind us from nowhere and started mumbling while she straightened the crops, attempting to repair the damage we had done. I would guess that she was not mumbling prayers for our safety.

Next up, rice threshing; because rice stalks just don't fit into a rice cooker. The villagers demonstrated for us the basics of this seemingly simple operation, then invited one of the students to try. Just as he started, he was immediately remonstrated by the person. I might not understand the dialect, but "YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG" is apparently an universal expression. After we went though a few times we seemed to be doing fine, until another villager took over and seemed to produce more rice grains from one bundle than we had from threshing five. Bloody noobs we are.

After lunch, which was the first truly satisfying meal we've had, we were divided up into groups for the farm visits. Our host farmer was friendly and affable, often talking to us to let us understand her life. It was unfortunate that we were all unacquainted with the local dialect in Hainan and so could not understand a single word she said. Fortunately, we had Taylor.

Yes, Taylor our savior. Taylor the person who immediately realised that what she was speaking was a variant of Cantonese and so used his awesome Cantonese speaking skills to communicate with her. After watching five minutes of Taylor and the lady using a variety of hand signals, warbling and pointing, we summoned him back so he could tell us what he found out.

"Well, um..."

Moving right along. As it turns out, the family we were visiting had a small goat farm and also owned frogs. A lot of frogs. The three members of the family present were hospitable, and all was well until they wanted to get a watermelon for us.

Fast forward fifteen minutes later and half of the group was busy on the run from the self-contained whirlwind of pure terror. The little boy had a surprising amount of stamina, stopping only to pick up sand to throw at us, for reasons that are not at all clear. In those fifteen minutes he had proceeded to do the following:
Throw sand at us
Pee in front of us
Throw urine-soaked sand at us

It was quite horrifying really. And so we made a quick exit while realising that other groups were actually busy having fun, like helping their hosts to do some work.

At night, we were treated to a demonstration of how to make the famous Hainan Kue. Oh, you never heard of it? Me neither. The demonstration took place on a single table with the tallest guys in Hwa Chong surrounding it, so I never got a chance to see it. But of course Taylor the always intrepid had struggled his way to the front, so he was able to show the rest of us the skills required to make a Hainan Kue. It's quite complicated, of course, seeing as the Kue is steeped in tradition and has been developed over many years. First, you take a ball of dough and roll it till it is spherical. You then flatten it and boil the whole thing.

Yes I was amazed too. I tried only a little of it before deciding that no matter how much it resembled Chwee Kueh, it tasted nothing like it and I didn't really like coconut anyway. So I went back to the mainhouse to play Bridge.

Ah! The bridge sessions! Truly, the Hainan trip was a chance for all of us to heavily train on our card skills, with so many intermittent breaks between activities and and the totally-caring teachers. How much did they care? Mr Jeffery Lim, who was the IC for discipline, was sleeping in the same mainhouse as us. When he walked into the mainhouse only to see a table of us playing, he reminded us to keep the noise level down. Taylor even invited him to play a game, an offer he kindly declined to accept. In fact, the card playing was so brazen that just ten metres away from where we were playing cards, there was another table just next to the showers, where they would play various cards games topless as they waited. We called them the 'uncles'.

Tomorrow promised us even more dirt and mud. This night, nobody in our room showered.

Day 3

Knowing very well the conditions we would be going through during the irrigation activity, as half of us had already gone through it the previous day, I had decided not to bring my camera. And thus there are no pictures of the activity.

It proved to meet our expectations entirely. We had gotten advice from the earlier group that it was best to be the first batch digging the irrigation canals, and it was with this advice in mind that I had quickly volunteered when we reached the fields.

Well, it makes sense. How do you dig an irrigation canal? By taking the shovel and plopping soft mud right where you are standing of course. Which is fine when you are the first person and there's hard ground at first, but I do pity the rest that have to shift every twenty seconds or so to avoid getting stuck for eternity.

Again, looking at the work we did at the end of the session, I thought that the farmers would have a lot of work to do fixing all the mistakes we made digging. It's sad really, that we must barge in here eat a lot of food and spoil their work and then abruptly leave, only to come back next year.

Up next was the making of the Kong Meng Lantern! We had a really long time on the schedule to make it, so that should have warned us that it would be quite hard. Bit still I first went in with the expectation it should be a piece of cake. Only paper folded around a bamboo frame what.

Well, we soon saw the first problem when we saw the demonstration. Apparently a Kong Meng Latern is harder to make than a paper swan, with so many steps and precautions to take note of. After the tenth fold or so people started to get bored and look somewhere else, which assured much confusion later on what to do. The second problem was that the paper used of course had to be light, which makes it bloody easy to tear. How easy? Like just kneeling on it for a short while and then you stand up only to see a huge hole in it. Or lying it on the clean ground, and noticing that all your care has been screwed over by a little shard of cement under the paper. Aha! We said at first, no problem there, we will just take the spare. But of course, the other groups were facing the exact same problems as us. The amount of spares we collectively needed would probably have exceeded the national consumption of EasyTear Rice Paper normally. Compounding all the above with the fact that the village apparently only had one bleeding pair of scissors to spare for us, our lantern soon evolved into what would be its future name for its short life: GREAT SUCCESS

See the picture of Derek nonchalantly lying on a billhook? Yeah, since it was the only sort-of-sharp object lying around we had to make do with it to do any cutting related activities. Seriously, using a blunt billhook to do delicate cuts for this masterpiece of origami condemned our lantern from the start, as if our own sheer incompetence wouldn't have sealed the deal.

After completing our travesty we named it, and wrote well wishes for people we didn't like very much, as traditionally wishes on a Kong Meng Lantern would be granted if it managed to fly off into the air without becoming a giant fireball.

Moving straight into the night celebrations, where we would finally witness the sight of multiple Kong Meng Lanterns flying off into the night. We witnessed our Kong Meng Lantern finally find the liberation it had always wanted, and lift off... for twenty centimetres, after which it crashed and gave a minor injury to one of the the villagers helping >.> Great success indeed.

The way to make a Kong Meng Lantern lift off is really inspired! You first have to light a small bonfire on the ground while you hold the Kong Meng Lantern, everyone in a circle (presumably so we can chant magical spells to prevent our hands from frying), right above the fire. When enough hot air has entered the Lantern then you take a small ball of mysterious combustible substances and put it on the frame under the Lantern. After that you pray really hard and together throw the Lantern upwards hoping the ball (which is on fire now) doesn't fall off and land on you.

Once again, our band of happy adventurers to this strange land managed to turn this innocuous festival into a highly dangerous affair. In a startling example of just how destructive we are, one of the lanterns managed to float just enough to graze the power lines. It was quite interesting watching our collective expressions as we at first thought, "Haha! Look at how close the Lantern is to the poower lines lol, later strike how ah?", and then it suddenly became apparent that YES IT WAS GOING TO HIT and all the villagers panicked. -.- But luckily there didn't seem to be any ill effects.

We burned our Lantern, then proceeded to lie down to watch the fireworks show. It is at times like this when you appreciate the villagers' efforts, as they had round after round of fireworks, fired just metres away from us, so we could actually feel the shockwave as the round exploded in the air. It was also an angle I had never viewed fireworks with, and it really was quite a great experience just lying down and watching the show. Look at the pictures I took and please tell me they look nice =D It took a lot of timing to get the streaks just right.

For a video of one full round of fireworks: visit here.

Day 4

Ah, we were finally going to actually see some signs of modern civilization today. Today, we were leaving the village for the whole day to Wenchang City and the high school over there. Their school was really big, which can be easy to understand as Hainan might be an island, but it really has quite few people. So there isn't a space problem.

Read the text, cute right?

So anyway, the school visit turned out to be more or less an intense exercise in fingers-staring, as we were quickly ushered into a lecture theater to be shown the virtues of 绿色海南 and how their school totally, you know, owns us. The important thing that happens during this time is that we were given a HUGE packet of coconut sweets. This fact will become important later.

The guy representing the school then proceeds to challenge us to a game of basketball. Naturally this got us excited. Finally we would witness something that is sure to incite nationalistic fervor on both sides. Singapore versus China. Who would win? The match would be played later, in the evening.

For now, we were whisked away after the presentations to view the mangroves of Hainan, because as you know there are totally no mangroves in Singapore at all and none of us have visited Sungei Buloh about five bloody times to do a study on the mangrove trees. So naturally we have to be kicked out of our non-mangrove comfort zone and be sent to the dense forests of Hainan to experience the breathtaking sight of half-submerged tree roots. It was no surprise that most of us had a daoist attitude to the trek, especially as the guy leading us was doing his very best in ensuring only the people next to him can hear whatever he was talking about. Thus was the stage prepared for MASSIVE SWEET DUMPING.

See, sweet dumping was invented just before we had gotten on the buses by Yi Yong, who had used the many coconut sweets that were left over to play a game of surreptitiously inserting the sweets into anyone's pockets who looked appealing at that time. More intriguing than it sounds, particularly when you were faced with such a boring day. The sweet dumping craze soon continued into its peak during the walk, as friend turned against friend and all trust between people was eroded. Truly, that was a time of fervent suspicions and high anarchy, as you would reach into your pockets, only to find that once again there were five sweets in there for no reason.

Examples of Sweet Dumping in progress

These photos were really hard to achieve so give some credit to the photographer ok? It had to be made whilst dodging volley after volley of attempts to insert more sweets into the photographer's own pockets.

Soon people had become sane again and most of us could feel safe. It was time for the basketball match and we were worried. Would the ones the school had picked to go against those Wenchang High School players good enough? We had already formed a crowd around the court, and awaited the arrival of our representatives, who must know the burden they carried, not just representing Hwa Chong but also representing Singapo- wait, what? They are P.R.C. scholars. Oh just dandy isn't that. China vs. China. Whoever wins...

Anyway, after the match, we proceeded to their hall to watch the cultural performance. At this point I would like to make a note to the Hainan performers. Skimpy clothing and overdone makeup a good performance does not make. Seriously, nearly every performance we had from them in the following days seemed to a be distasteful mix of Chinese Dance, Chinese Drama and Gymnastics with subtle Communist messages and seemed to capitalize on females to heighten some excitement. Really boring, which is why for the performance I mainly only took pictures of our star, YAO WENCHI.

Wenchi loves you too.

The real star of the show, however, was Aik Hwee, whose yo-yo performance at least gave some glory back to our school. He even gained a group of fangirls at the end of the show who desperately wanted to follow him everywhere as we were walking back to the bus to take us back to Xinjing Village.

As for Wenchi? He had me and Derek to give further 'comments' on his commendable effort.

Hmm, I can't remember which day the chicken slaughtering happened.

Of answers and the lack of them

2008-06-08T20:29:00.003+08:00

TAG: Anyone else who has spare time/spare brain/inflatable plastic elephant.

As everyone knows, I am secretly an inflatable homicidal plastic elephant. Who just went to Shawn's blog. Therefore I take some time off the three minutes I spend working on the Hainan blogpost (which is approaching Duke Nukem Forever status apparently) to write some blogspam.

Yay for blogspam.

1. What would you be doing at 11pm?

Attempting to slaughter Physics's Lawful Evil character by throwing all sort of memes at him on MSN. At least, that was one of the things I was doing yesterday at 11pm >_>

2. If you could wish for 10 things, what would they be, and which would be the most important of all?

Well, obviously my most pressing mid-term concern now is to get into Hwa Chong JC, which is not at all a certainty considering my interesting results. But when you think about it this kind of wishes are so individualistic, and really a waste of ten perfectly good (and free!) wishes.
THEREFORE I WISH FOR:

Google to change their favicon back to the old one
Singapore to colonize Malaysia (and Indonesia after that?)
Polar bears to migrate to the South Pole, because that would be AWESOME
Barack Obama, after achieving the presidency, to reveal that he in fact does not really care about promoting Israel interests
The Colbert Report to be broadcast by MediaCorp
Bears to start evolving the ability to fire lasers from their eyes
China Studies in English to actually improve its scope to include ancient Chinese history -_-
Just A Dream to get a music video (about damn time)
National Service to suddenly place more attention on drill and drill display IMPOSSIBLE, THAT'S WHY IT'S A WISH =(
Most importantly, for reciprocal.

Wow, most of them are impractical except for the Obama one. Depressing.

3. What would your dream wedding be like?

Replace the mobile bar with a mobile LAN PARTY.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?

Uh, buy half a billion double cheeseburgers?

5. What's your ideal lover like?

I WILL TAKE ANYONE COME ON. Ok, seriously. Looking at the trend I would say I'm always attracted to people who are more intelligent than me.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?

Loving someone is painful.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?

Uh? Wait? Wait for what? Until she reaches the proper age or until she finally walks into a dark and secluded alley?

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?

I would consider doing unspeakable things to the rival. But that isn't always possible, so I'm content with being good friends :D I think I would be friends with the rival too just to screw around.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?

Are you kidding me? I contemplated suicide a while ago, just like a typical hormonal teenager. Bleh.

10. What cheers you up the fastest?

MSN conversations of a certain kind.

11. Where do you see yourself in ten years time?

Well actually I always wanted to be an MRT Driver... But I'm starting to gain an interest in politics. o.o Oh no, no future for me here if that happens, better immigrate.

12. Who is currently the most important person to you?

No, Who IS SO NOT the person of my life. But you are close there keep going.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

Multi-talented. Possibly more intelligent than me (damn). Kind of bad at aesthetics.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?

Married but poor.

15. What's the first thing you do every morning?

Wonder who I am, where I am, and what am I going to do to these people who trapped me in a dark place. After that, realization. Pretty surreal every morning.

16. Would you give it all in a relationship?

Yes.

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?

"Ask each person to pick a class from the Good and Evil side. Put on your robe and wizard hat. Use a d20 to determine damage done to both persons. Whoever wins is clearly a superior partner."

18. What type of friends do you like?

Again, intelligent ones. Honestly, I feel pretty bad every time I instinctively shy away from people I deem "stupid", knowing it is probably hypocritical, but I can't help it.

TAG: Stupid people! Unite!

2008-06-01T12:03:00.002+08:00

Ok this blog is dead for the following reasons:
Still writing my Hainan post (Yes, I live up to my name >_>)
Have been freaking busy going to different events and places for this week
Have been having suicidal thoughts due to various developments

So yes, you can't really blame me eh?

In the mean time, I guess I might as well just release the photos and videos from Hainan.

http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc72/ArtStrom/Hainan/
http://www.imeem.com/artstrom/video/

Return

2008-05-17T22:13:00.005+08:00

Damn my phone in Hainan. What happened to roaming -.-

Back. What more is there to say?
Quite a lot actually. But the compiled recollections have to wait.
I realized it's so easy to forget about a person when you are away for just a while.
I look back at all the pictures now, and there's this heavy feeling in my heart.
I tried not to take pictures of bad memories.
I'll just put a few of them, unedited, on now, I guess.

Oh, and I came home to a rather nice surprise. :D

Not too bad for a compact?

I Love the World

2008-05-09T22:59:00.003+08:00

What a beautiful background. I know, I designed it :D

Gosh I hope the presentation tomorrow goes well. I haven't been handling Q&As too well.
And I'm still so tired I'll probably sleep through the first day of Hainan too.

And in the end I didn't say it. Stood at the wrong end waiting ><

Oh yeah, Yi Yong showed me this video. Feel good =)

Erm okay, lastly.
I'm going to continue (mini-)blogging from Hainan using Twitter. Hmm. I wonder how much this will cost...

豪情

2008-05-08T21:45:00.003+08:00

Today I had a short chat with Ms. Teo over my choice to give up History. It's really sad, because I like the subject a lot. But honestly, I have enough subjects that I'm getting low marks in. And it seems that no matter how much I tried, I didn't improve from Term One to Term Two.

I hate it when I have to be pragmatic.
And tomorrow's the last day to say what I want. Will I? I await.

Anyway, for some reason this week I've been seeing a lot of the dead look. That look in the eyes that seem to say they have almost had enough, but yet somehow still determined to survive whatever is coming.
I think that look is really creepy personally. And I think I've been getting it too, since my situation is a little desperate now.

*Goes back to rehearsing*
I'm still really tired...

Pros Unite

2008-05-06T20:42:00.002+08:00

Oh, oh, Digital Life featured Hatsune Miku today. Yay. Reminded me that everyone should listen to this rendition of Pachelbel's Canon because high-pitched voices rock.

In other news, RMUN is going perfectly fine, except that there are meetings everyday. Which is fine too, except that I have an impossible math test to take on Thursday.
Argh I'm stressing myself out over that 35 marks I need to get.

Let's all revise Math today. (Turn down your volume? The sound isn't necessary.)

Largest room in the world, haha

2008-05-05T21:01:00.003+08:00

Today's horoscope in the Straits Times for me:
"Watch what you say today -- you may get a reputation for conceit without actually feeling that way! People are all quite wary for any stray signs of ego and you don't want to give them fuel."
Oh yay. I don't think I can get rid of that habit where I start sounding arrogant when I get passionate on a topic.

Anyway, in the midst of all the work today, I seem to have forgotten something.
But snacks during meetings are great nom nom nom.

I'm really freaking tired. Freaking tired.
Wednesday is NPCC Day so Derek cut down on the niaoing during Flag Raising >_< I think everyone knows the Sec 4 Squad's drill... has room for improvement.

ecosoc3japantt?

2008-05-02T21:11:00.006+08:00

"Hey... hey wait I'm on the phone. Hello? ...rmu... come room b10..."
"What? What? I'm kind of busy."
"How long more?"
"5 min."
"Ok... Ok.. *mumblemumble* Just come later *moremumbling*"

And just like that my workload increased o.o

I must say the schedule for RMUN is unrushed at all.
Hopefully with all the material at hand perhaps I can actually submit something of substance?
But wait, I'm not even sure which committee I'm in since they were talking about a swap or something before I left. Great.

Still, I'm the Delegate of Japan :D
Oh, and Akilan's postings on the forum for RMUN are hilarious, personally.

"If it was the comment about your nation's 'virginal sanctitiy' that offended you, i reassure you, your virginity has never been questioned. We do not propose to violate your country, nor penetrate your national borders."

ecosoc3usaas.

Through The Madness

2008-05-01T21:46:00.002+08:00

Yesterday LAN and today movie. I'm running out of money -.-

CSM as everyone has been saying was basically a super stoning session. Maybe the only thing of interest was the band? But then their performance was nearly inaudible at certain parts of the terraces. At least we had LAN later, and wow, unsurprisingly, there were already quite a few people I knew there when we reached the shop. Yay for Hwa Chong lifers.

And then I spent really quite a lot today. Ten dollars since it's a public holiday. Great.
And Liu Yifei's role in the movie was really awkward, it's like they signed her up then realized she didn't have a place in the script.
"Hey let's just put her in, playing the pipa while people fight. The audiences will all come to watch her anyway."
Really wish there were more scenes with Sun Wukong/fighting and MORE SCENES IN CHINESE.

Look, can I go watch Iron Man now? Or What Happens in Vegas. Or Made of Honour. Or Get Smart.
Well, I have a list of movies I can search for to download later now.

In other news I am now(no, not now) playing Runescape, LocalMS and OdinMS. I feel freaking lame.

Also, I need to get 35/40 for my next math test to even have the possibility of getting below 3.0.

Hey, I'm a winner. We are all winners.

Still need to learn, definitely

2008-04-29T21:18:00.003+08:00

Today... quite a bad day, though the only uplifting information I got was that Jay is not in the same group as me for the Hainan camp.
Stop asking, it was not about the Physics paper. Just something more.

说了又不听,
听了又不懂,
懂了又不做,
做了又做错,
错了又不认,
认了又不改,
改了又不服,
不服也不说.

Chinese internet forums are weird.

Burn It

2008-04-26T19:56:00.002+08:00

When I post a two-liner, suddenly everyone comments on it. People are strange.

Anyway, following the advice of my friendly neighborhood psychiatrist I went out to do various outside activities to try and take my mind off certain things. Curiously enough, it feels much more enriching to involve myself in the community, when I know that at the end of the day I won't be getting any CIP. Maybe it's because there's no danger of feeling like such a bastard for hoping the activity would end just so I can get the points.

Oh, and I started playing Runescape again, what the hell. Thanks stupid Ning Yu and Jiajie for even suggesting it. Still remember last time how I played it until no life ah. Now the cycle is going to start again.

Trying to Turn

2008-04-24T20:35:00.001+08:00

Erm hold on ah.
Have been depressed for the last few days.