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Monday, December 25

Haypi Klismus!

Christmas Day. I woke up with a bad throat which hasn't recovered since yesterday. Unsurprisingly, there was a sense of ordinariness in the air. Ah, yes. As expected. Went for a Christmas-y teeth-brushing, a Christmas-y shower, and a Christmas-y change of clothes.
I had a Christmas-y breakfast of hot chocolate and pizza bread. Then I spent some Christmas-y time on the computer. Really, it was such an oridinary day. Resumed my Galactic Empire Campaign on Empire at War. Took control of Aeten 2 and Fresia from the 'Rebel Scum'. Usually I can choose to allow the battles I enter to 'auto-resolve', which quickens the process and immediately shows me the results of the battle, but there were a few instances, where a Rebel fleet ambushed my planet Carida's orbit and destroyed my Space Station, that I sent my Strike Force Navy to hyperspace in and intercept and personally ensured that I eradicated all enemies from my space. I had spaghetti for lunch. Yum.

Oh yeah, at around early afternoon my brother and I headed for our shop at Dhoby Ghaut MRT to get a free haircut (and prepare for school's re-opening. My fringe was already well below my eyes). From there we walked to Bugis Street (Passing by CHIJMES and checking out the Maid Cafe once again, along the way) and went shopping for shoes. We didn't really buy anything (due to our limited budget) and ended up just browsing the shops. I stopped by Kinokuniya for a while to browse through some Japanese - English dictionaries. Even the smallest ones costed over 15 bucks.

We took the MRT back to Tampines, where I got myself a $2 Ramly Burger (special Christmas present for myself) from the night market, and spent a dollar on the DrumMania machine at Century Square shopping mall.

Got back home with the 291 bus. Dad had prepared pizza and salad. I had a few slices, and ate a bit of leftover spaghetti. Then I opened my present, and ate that as well (chicken patty).

And here I am, blogging as I listen to God Knows by Aya Hirano, YOU by YURIA and Fuhen by Rin on Otaku's Dream Mix, one of my few personal favourite sites on the web. It has a Flash MP3 player that stores and can play 500+ anime OPs, EDs and insert songs.

That's Christmas for me. Hope you have a better one.

Thursday, December 14

Jokes galore! (Not entirely SFW)

Jack Schitt

Who is Jack Schitt you ask?

The lineage is finally revealed. Many people are at a loss for a response when someone says " you don't know jack schitt."

Now you can intellectually handle the situation. Jack is the only son of Awe Schitt and O Schitt.

Awe Schitt, the fertilizer magnate, married O Schitt, the owner of kneedeep N. Schitt, Inc.

In turn, Jack Schitt married Noe Schitt, and the deeply religious couple produced six children: Holie Schitt, Fulla Schitt,Giva Schitt,Bull Schitt, and the twins, Deep Schitt and Dip Schitt.

Against her parents' wishes, Deep Schitt married Dumb Schitt, a high school dropout. After being married 15 years, Jack and Noe Schitt divorced.

Noe Schitt later married Mr. Sherlock, and because her kids were living with them, she wanted to keep her previous name. She was then known as Noe Schitt-Sherlock.

Dip Schitt married Loda Schitt and they produced a nervous son, Chicken Schitt.

Fulla Schitt and Giva Schitt were inseparable throughout their childhood and subsequently married the Happens brothers in a dual ceremony.

The wedding announcement in the newspaper announced the Schitt-Happens wedding.

The Schitt-Happens children are Dawg,Byrd, and Horse.

Bull Schitt, the prodigal son left home to tour the world, and recently returned from Italy with his new bride, Pisa Schitt.

So now when someone says, "you don't know Jack Schitt", you can correct them.

Obsessions

A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with three young mothers and their small children.

"You all have obsessions," he observed.

To the first mother, he said, "You are obsessed with eating. You've even named your daughter Candy."

He turned to the second Mom. "Your obsession is money. Again, it manifests itself in your child's name, Penny."

At this point, the third mother got up, took her little boy by the hand and whispered, "Come on, Dick, let's go."

Car in Heaven

Three friends are in a car driving to the ballgame when a big truck runs them over, killing them instantly.

They find themselves at the Pearly Gates being interviewed by St. Peter. "OK, you," he says, pointing to Vito, "How many times did you cheat on your wife? And don't lie, I'm St. Peter you know. "

Vito hangs his head and replies, "Honestly Pete, I was with two maybe three different broads a week."

St. Peter says, "OK, your car in heaven is that used Geo Metro over there, goodbye."

He looks at Eddie and asks, "How many times did you cheat on your wife?"

Eddie replies, "I must admit that in 15 years of marriage I did cheat on my wife 3 times."

St. Peter says, "OK, your car in heaven is that LeBaron, goodbye."

He then looks at Jacob and asks, "And you, how many times did you cheat on your wife?"

Jacob lifts his head high and replies, "I am proud to say that over 20 years of marriage, I never cheated on my wife! In fact, my beloved has been dead for 2 years now and I remained celibate the whole time!"

St. Peter replies, "Very impressive. Your car in heaven is that Ferrari convertible, goodbye!"

A couple of hours later, Vito and Eddie are waiting for Jacob at the park where all three had planned to meet. Jacob arrives a couple of minutes late in his Ferrari, and his friends notice that he is sobbing like a baby.

Vito asks, "Hey! Whatsamatterwidyou? We should be crying! We're stuck with these ugly buckets and you got a new Ferrari!"

Jacob, between sobs replies, "I just saw my wife on a skateboard!"

Oh, and another random thing. If you ever have the time, and happen to be a fan of anime and related stuff like me, check out Darkmirage's Anime Blog. Quite a lot of decent stuff in there.

Cheers.

Tuesday, December 12

12-12-06 (One of the few days which ca never get mixed up between the English and American calendars)

Today was like any other regular Tuesday during the vacation, except I had a whole new bizzare dream (me, being an NCC Sergeant, commanding a squadron of female marionettes (or mannequins, if you like), leading them in a FIBUA (fighting in built-up areas) mission and carelessly leaving my rifle somehwere around (though I was more like unaware I even lost it) (no difference, f that happens in real life I'm a goner).) which ended up with me waking up slightly later than usual, at around 11.

Dad's asked the three of us me, brother and sister) to hit the library this afternoon and borrow some books so we can spend the rest of our holidays doing more worthwhile stuff like reading books instead of whiling our time away on the comp and wasting the electricity bill. I did spend some time forum-ing and catching up on episodes 8, 9 and 10 of Death Note on Youtube, though, before having lunch, then catching some Saber Marionette J to X on Animax channel before setting off.

We headed to the nearby mall first, as it was pouring rather heavily and there would be no shelter during the journey from the bus interchange (and mall) to the library. I checked out my usual spots (my good friend at the Gaming Zone shop wasn't around with his PS2, so there weren't any free games to play today), and when the rain finally stopped to the library I went.

We spent quite a long time there, individually. I read a book about the country of Japan, that explains its geography, history, cultures and other related stuff, followed by one part of a manga series that chronicles the life and times of Buddha, followed by a Tom Clancy novel (Splinter Cell), which I only managed to read halfway before I felt it was time to go. I ended up borrowing the Tom Clancy book, one called "Kafka by the Shore" by Murakami Haruki, "Goodbye Tsugumi" by Yoshimoto Banana, and a non-fiction book on the difference perspectives of Terrorism.

I find Haruki's book rather interesting and inspiring. The main character of the story, Temura Kafka, seems to remind me of myself a lot, somehow drawn back from society, spending time with himself, reminscing about stuff, that kinda thing. It's really a fresh read.

Oh, and all the while I forgot to cancel my jamming session with my friends. Kwee. I bet they're all mad at me right now. Oh well. Deal with it later.

Monday, December 11

15 Fun Things to Do in a Supermarket

1. Get 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people’s carts when they aren’t looking.
2. Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. Make a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the rest rooms.
4. Walk up to an employee and tell him/her in an official tone, ‘Code 3’ in house wares... And see what happens.
5. Go the Service Desk and ask to put a bag of M&M’s on layaway.
6. Move a ‘CAUTION - WET FLOOR’ sign to a carpeted area.
7. Set up a tent in the camping department and tell other shoppers you’ll invite them in if they bring pillows from the bedding department.
8. When a clerk asks if they can help you, begin to cry and wail "Why can’t you people just leave me alone?’
9. Look right into the security camera, use it as a mirror and pick your nose.
10. While handling guns in the hunting department, ask the clerk if he knows where the anti-depressants are.
11. Dart around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the theme from “Mission Impossible”.
12. In the auto department, practice your “Madonna look” using different size funnels.
13. Hide in a clothing rack and when people browse through, say “PICK ME!” “PICK ME!”
14. When an announcement comes over the loud speaker, assume a fetal position and scream “NO! NO! It’s those voices again!”
15. Go into a fitting room, shut the door and wait a while, and then yell loudly “There is no toilet paper in here!”

Saturday, December 9

New Year's Resolutions!

Yes, I know it may be a bit too early for that, but, seeing the events that passed me by the past week, I felt I needed to get a few things straight with myself, and immediately. I've been doing some backtracking of late, and the things that flow through my head isn't exactly stuff I'd like to see myself doing. In fact, it's getting me all EMO. Ew.

I mean, I'm getting all depressed just thinking about it. What better than to blog my thoughts here?

I have been slacking like never before this week. Either that, or I have finally reaised the severity of my actions (or rather, lack of actions) after a deep remniscing under my blankets, as I lie in my bed with my eyes to the ceiling one night. For most of the past days of my vacatons, I've spent majority of my time holed up with the computer, doing what I do everyday, except with more intensity (I hope this word is acceptable for use here), only because I have the time to do it. As such, I've done it to such an extent that whenever I'd log on to my forums I'd find that nobody had replied to my posts yet (goes to show how frequent I 'frequent' these forums), and this in turn gets me all impatient, and whenever I'm impatient I'd go downstairs and raid the fridge for something to eat. And that means hogging all the little tidbits, fruits, milk, juice, and even cold water that's in there. Looking back, I realised I've become no better than a freeloader in the house. And that gets me down. (As you might already know, I tend to be sensitive about these little things.)

I've earlier planned to meet up with friends and complete my holiday homework by this week. Till today, I have done nothing of the sort.

I've made arrangements to send all my good friends around the globe a postcard apiece to wish them a merry Christmas. This had been thought of since the beginning of last week. Getting my contact's home addresses were easy enough, but I could never get myself to haul my butt outdoors and find a Christmas tree I could snap a picture of me standing beside with my Canon camera, till only 2 days ago. And my Selphy postcard printer had run out of ink, meaning I've only been able to send 2 postcards off, while I await an opportunity to grab another ink cartridge.

I have a 'job' at my dad's shop at Dhoby Ghaut station, at the far corner of a little junction known as Dhoby Xchange. The sad part to this is, hardly anybody comes by to even browse at the windows of the shop, and that leaves me extremely bored. So bored, I'd lock the doors of the shop and head off to Plaza Singapura shopping mall for nearly an hour, gallivanting and shirking my duties. I feel guilty that I'm even paid to do this job.

You know, when misery hits you, it tends to throw a 1-2 punch. The '2' to all this depression is that, when I look around, I see people who've carved deep niches for themselves, who've succeeded in the things they do, who better me in terms of performance, who are renowned for what they do. Famous voice actors, successful anime creations, forum admins, DrumMania experts, blogger-reviewers. I compare myself to them, and agree that I'm no more than a midget as compared. So, I asked myself, why is this so? Then I said to myself, it's only because the world is unfair. It only offers opportunities for certain people to shine in these areas (and very often these people have the money I don't), and leaves nothing for the rest. Now, I tell myself, it's merely for the fact that I don't got the freakin' mentality to be what they are, to go the miles they've covered, to toil like how they work. I'm a slacker at heart, and a procrastinator, at that. And a lazy ass, at that that.

Procrastination is my biggest concern here. I am very concerned about it, and I desperately want to remove it from my attitude, my behaviour, my character.

Just this afternoon, a friend had asked me to add his Friendster account to mine. I was clearly very free, and I was doing nothing at all in the computer save for playing a casual game of Solitaire, but I lied to him and said I was playing an Online game and I would do it later when he pestered me about it.

When he asked the second time, I finally hauled my ass up, logged into my Friendster, and sent him an invite. WIthin a few minutes.

I was procrastinating over a tiny matter that'd take only a few minutes to do. Damn myself, I'm getting lazy too.

As such, I have made a vow to improve myself come 2007. the 3 most important reslutions, I shall write on a piece of paper and stick it onto my desk, so that every day when I sit upon it I will see it and know, that is what I aspire to achieve for the betterment of myself, and for my value in the hearts and minds of those around me.

1. I resolve not to procrastinate and laze about.
2. I resolve to be responsible, and honest.
3. I resolve to be diligent in my duties.

And I shall start by completeing my NCC Camp blog posts as soon as possible. :)

Thursday, November 30

November Rain (1)

On the 27th, 28th and 29th of November, I attended an NCC (National Cadet Corps.) cmp in school for a whole 3 days and 2 nights. "Nevember Rain" chronicles these 3 end-of-the-month days as I underwent, uh, events and stuff during this camp. So, yeah, here we go.

Woke up at 5am on the 27th, to pack my stuff for the camp. I had received an E-mail from a kind fellow cadet (a junior one at that) listing down all the things I needed to pack. Why didn't I do this yesterday, then? I was at the country club with my family last night, having a great time at the karaoke lounge.

Had a quick breakfast before setting off to school. Arrives at 7.30am, just in time, though I wasn't exactly obliged to do so, being a specialist and all. Yes, I'm very 'special' all right.

After falling in and registration, the camp kicked off with the Part As (the secondary 1s) occupying an empty classroom to take a certain badge test, while the Part Bs (secondary 2s) grabbed mock rifles from the NCC store room for an arms rill training session. I, being an administrative officer, didn't have much of a specific task to do as we had already done our part prior to the actual camp (writing, planning and recording stuff), and as such I was pretty much free to do anything I wanted to. I decided to tend to the Part Bs.

There were a bunch of food packets at the cafeteria when we got there, after everbody had done their stuff. Upon checking what was inside (assorted yet tiny muffins, one in each packet, a tiny slice of raisin cake, a tiny spring roll) (too tiny for my liking, but it's better than nothing), we decided it was a complimentary breakfast from our teacher-in-charge (complimentary yet surprising, since I never expected such a guy like our TiC to give us something like that), and finished them all. Those who didn't want to eat their muffins gave them to me. I felt pretty full after that.

Later on we discovered the food had actually belonged to the school's Symphonic Band, who was having a camp of their own here in school as well. They just laughed it off when they heard about it. Guess that was nothing serious.

Free time! I pull down my sleeves and headed for the school field along some other cadets. While they played soccer, I did the obstacle course (window, parallel bars, vertical ladder, low wall) and leopard/worm-crawled a bit in the grass. It felt good to work out like that. It's not something I got to do everyday.

Lunchtime was the usual hustle and bustle. You can say it's almost like an exchange plaza. People'll be putting up their extra food on offer and the guys around them would bid for a portion of it. I ended getting extra carrots and chicken.

Each one of us also got a tiny cream puff for dessert. They would be passed down from the ends of the tables, hand to hand. And if you knew what us NCC Boys usually do with our hands, I doubt you'd relish the idea of eating a cream puff that had been touched by at least 5 NCC Boys either.

And then it began to pour. Hoo boy. The rest of our time was mostly spent slacking around under the shelter of the school. This went on till dinnertime, where the same food business ensued.

I headed for the showers after that. I was so eagerly awaiting a chance to freshen up and change out of my uniform. Unfortunately, the Band boys had beaten me to it. T'was slightly crowded, the floors of the cubicles were slightly flooded (hey, it rhymes! In haiku!) (anyway, the main reason I try to get to the showers as fast as possble is to avoid having to shower with dirty water slushing about my toes).

Fortunately, I found a vacant shower at the end of the row of cubicles, whose floor was fairly dry.

Unfortunately, there was no shower head, just a tap in the wall.

Fortunately, clean water still flowed through it, and that was good enough for me.

Unfortunately, I forgot to pack my soap.

Fortunately, I had shampoo. I used the foam from shampooing my hair to scrub meself up (ew, you might say, but that's recycling).

Unfortunately, I only had stick deodorant, and you know what they say about not using stick deodorant on your armpits when you haven't soaped them up properly.

Fortunately, I didn't smell much, after my shower. As such I didn't have much of a use for it.

Unfortunately, I had already finished me shower.

(Musings: Don't you find it irritating, when the bathroom floors are wet, it makes your feet wet, and those are the same feet you have to put through your track pants so you can wear them? The mere thought of it feels so damp and dirty.)

The Band guys were preparing to watch a movie in the AVA Room, and their teacher-in-charge had invited us NCC Boys to join in. I don't particularly enjoy horrow movies (it was called 'Fragile'), but I was only in it for the air-conditioning in the TV room. I whiled away my time lying on the cool wax-wood floor, facing away from the projector screen, and listened to the movie audio, and the laughs, chatter ans screams of the audience. It's quite fun doing that; it kept me occupied the whole time I was lying still at that position.

Movie ended at around 10pm. Time for a nightwalk! Us specialists were tasked to numerous checkpoints around the dark corridors of the school (all the lights to the corridors are purposefully left off for this activity). A good friend of mine, Joey, and I were stationed at a 4th floor corridor, adjacent to a pitch-black pathway that ended with a door leading to a stairwell that goes down. Light pours in eerily from the door windows into the corridor; the atmosphere in there was perfectly spooky. To boot, there had been rumours flying round that the bathrooms connected to this corridor were haunted.

Joey and I decided to avoid that place. We stayed a good distance away, where the surroundings were still visible, and awaited the juniors' teams to pass by us and get directions from us.

By the time everything was done, and everybody had had their suppers and had turckered away in their bunks, it was 12 midnight. Next day. Time for post number 2.

Friday, November 17







Which Tomoyo42's Room Character are You?




You're Nayuki! Zzz...
Take this quiz!








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Wow. I'm that lazy. Cool.

Friday, October 27

To Attend a Wedding...

This morning, I headed for school to hand up a consent form for an upcoming NCC school camp. I had to sign in at the sentry post inside the school gate, and noticed that some of my classmates, or rather, groupmates of mine who are working on a certain project with me (tell you more about this project later) have signed in as well, just 2 minutes before me. I submitted the consent form, then went off to look for them, See Wee, Ranson and Samantha.

Sure enough, they were at the canteen (cafeteria). Turns out, a meeting was in progress. A project meeting, whcih I was supposed to attend. Yet, nobody contacted me about it yesterday, or initially. Lucky me, I didn't know about it, yet I was able to attend. I made sure to pass my phone number to the group laeder before I left for my afternoon activity.

My 'afternoon activity' was going with relatives to attend a temple wedding, for my youngest uncle and his girlfriend. Yes, temple wedding, the kind with no air-conditioning. Truth is, I've never attended a wedding before. So I thought this was really cool. I had prepared a set of formal clothing and a tie yesterday night, for the occasion. Boy, did I dress smart.

The temple wasn't very far away. In fact, I even recognized it, passed by it everytime I travel to dad's office or someplace in the middle of the country. This was my first time actually going inside it. The main hall was large, a Buddha statue sat in the middle, the walls were lined with little ornaments that a donor could label his name on, and two tall pagodas of golden ornaments (also for donations) sat at either side of the hall.

I was quite amazed at the fact that a temple wedding seemed so much like a church wedding. Instead of a priest you'd have a monk; the monk would be chanting stuff and giving the couple his blessings; he would also give friendly advice to the bride and groom on how to treat each other, and stuff like that. And I could watch everything from a seat near the 'aisle', a breadthways gap between two columns and four rows of chairs lined up in the middle of the hall.

Following the wedding proceedings, the whole family transported to the nearby Mall, where my uncle had made a lunch reservation at a Chinese restaurant. Everybody sat round the table, which had an additional turntable in the middle for dishes to be shared across that wide space, and tucked into seafood, find meats, and sweet desserts.

Saturday, October 21

ArcherKnight 's Training Day!






What's ArcherKnight, you might ask? It's just another name I found to fit my initials, AK.

Anyway, those pictures you see up there was taken this afternoon. See, having challenged a certain member in a certain Anime Forum to a Roleplay Duel thread, anf having tken up the new RP Duel title of ArcherKnight, I decided to go out to the archery range with some friends to have a feel of how nocking and loosing an arrow with a bow really feels like, so that I can portray my battle moves more realistically (yes, I incidentally put in that kind of effort). The guys you see in the middle, they are all me. I'm holding a normal wooden Curve bow, without any sights. es, without any sights. So, I didn't know how or where to aim. As a result, I just aimed the best I could. Some of my arrows flew completely out of range from the target (mostly due to me taking fast potshots without aiming), some were lucky enough to hit the outer rings of the target, and a handful were lucky enough to land in the middle spot. The experience was enriching and fun-filled, nonetheless.
If you happen to take notice of the guy to my right (his name is Ron, and he was the level 70+ MapleStory Hunter/ best friend who introduced me, a level 17 MapleStory Bowman, to arrow shooting) and his bow, you'll notice that his is very different from the one I was using. It's something called a Compound bow, and it is so-called as it consists of a metal frame, and system of compound strings, and a special loosing system which hangs off your wrist and you operate with a flick of your finger. You had to undertake a course to use that, he said. And that course costs over a 100 bucks. Meh. (Note: Ron is a left-handed archer, which is rare.)

I went over to the nearby bowling alley afterwards, and found some of my school friends there at the pool tables, and joined in. Now, I have played Pool qutie a few times now, so I'm not exactly a newbie at it. Managed to pot at least 5 balls in a row, before missing my shot at the 8-ball and losing the game. Oh, well. I'll do better next time.

Since I don't have any more space to put up my desktop picture right now, I'll do it next entry.

Thursday, October 19

A Newfound Love...


Hi again. From now onwards, I'll try to include a snapshot of my desktop to accompany each blog entry. This time I'm using a Fate/Stay Night image, the icons are neatly arranged, my Nagato Rainmeter skin was on, I was listening to that famous teriyaki Boyz song at the moment, and my cursor (though you can't see it) was on the 'pause' button of my WMP.

I won't be getting the drums anymore. My geography, Physics and A. Math got 1 B each. I really need to buck up. Oh, well.

But, what's this newfound love I talk about? Look over to the left. There's your answer.

Fate/ Stay Night. I only just recently finished all 24 episodes of it. I loved it a lot. Hell yeah. Haven't seen a series quite as good as it. Originally it was a Graphic Novel game, and I'm still roving around the net looking for a place to download it. I'd tell you more about it, but then this post will become more of an anime review entry, and unfortunately, I always refrain from doing that in my personal blog.

I skipped school today to send my grandma back to the Philippines. She was going back via Tiger Airways, and that meant we had to send her off at the new Budget terminal. Meh, the terminal was good enough to pass off as an airport building. It was pretty modest, for something so budget as 16 bucks a flight ticket. What I didn't find 'budget' there was the Han's Restaurant food. Meal prices nearly hit 4( a plate, and the cheapest soda there was $3.

Hmm... That's all for now.

Friday, October 13

Friday the 13th!

Hurray. Friday the 13th. I woke up this morning with a sprain in my left hip. Mum said I shouldn't overwork it. Thing is, I have to work my left hip every time I put my left foot forward to walk. Guess I'll have to endure the pain for the whole day. Ugh, how dreadful.

Today is Friday the 13th. Judgement Day. The day we get all our exam results. Actually, not all. I only managed to find out a few subjects.

E. Math paper I: A1
Chemistry: A1
Biology: A2
Chinese: D7
Social Studies: C5

My Chinese teacher confided in me after class and asked if I had considered switching to the Chinese 'B' syllabus, which is much easier, and will allow me to spend time I usually use for Chinese revision, to revise for other subjects, seeing that my grades are simply not up to scratch, and won't look good in my 'O' Level result paper. Much as I favoured this idea, I had to discuss it with my dad first. I told her I'll get back to her next Tuesday with my decision.

School ended early today, at 10:15am, as the Sec 4s were having their graduation Ceremony. I don't get it. They haven't even taken their 'O's yet. What's more, Prom Nite (for Sec 4s only) is on this evening.

I hung around for a while till the ceremony ended. Me and a few other friends from class were supposed to be joining a group of Sec 4s as we all went to the Temasek Junior College Open House to check out life in a JC. Hurray, turns out Yi Qin (my newfound friend from a church I don't even go to) was going as well.

It was like attending a Japanese School's Cultural Festival. Booths everywhere, friendly ambassadors showing us around, and performances on a stage. I made friends with one of the ambassadors, Yi Jun (think that's how you spell her name), and realised that she was an IP (Integrated Program, some new thing implemented by the local Ministry of Education so smart people in special schools don't have to take the 'O' Levels and can immediately stream to a college of their choice) student from Dunman High, and was only 1 year my senior (most normal people go to college only when they're 17). Wow. Never thought I'd meet one of them in the flesh. I even used to believe they were nothing but fairytales. Huh.
She later told me that there were about a 100 others like her in this school, another 100 if you count the 17 year-olds. And the Cut-off Point for the school was 7 for Science stream, 8 for Arts. That's a lot to achieve. But I'm willing to aim for it. I liked that school a lot. In fact, my dad had always been telling me to go for that school. Daddy knows best, I know.
Most clubs here in the school are started by the students themselves. There's the MAGIC Club, which stands for Manga, Anime, Games, Imaging and Cosplay, typical Japanese Otaku business. That one interested me a lot. There's another one called the LEO Club, forgot what it stands for, but the club stands for community service. There's a very neat Creative Writing Club, an equivalent of a Newspaper Society, and a Taekwondo Club that seemed to have been started by a Blackbelter in the Martial Art.
I followed Yi Qin and friends around the campus while my classmates attended a talk in the air-conditioned auditorium. There I tried a bit of Touch Rugby, and got to know more about this certain college subject known as 'Knowledge and Inquiry'. It's mostly based on asking questions to the world and the things that happen in it. Cool.
The bus arrived fast, at around 4:30. However, I stuck around a little while longer to watch Yi Jun's Choir performance, and to bid her a last farewell and thanks before I rushed off. She's a really nice person. And I feel even more motivated to aim for this college now.
So, wish me luck. I'll be posting the rest of my exam results really soon. I'm aiming for 7 distinctions this time, cos my dad told me, if I get the 7 As, he'll get me an electric drum set, just what I've always wanted, though it costs about 1K+.
I really want the drums. I can't afford to get another B or less.

Saturday, September 23

It's nearly time for Billy Joel to wake up...

23rd August, 2006. A lot of things have happened to me over the past days of this month. Let's try to recall each one of them.

9th of September. My hard disk, after nearly a year of struggle, toil and endurance (it had to endure all the times I did a forced turnoff of the comp), if finally went corrupt and died. I loaded the CPU onto my bicycle basket and sent it to a nearby techie the next day, to have it checked and fixed. Awesome, I found out that it would cost $160. Now the problem is, because of a certain mum-and-dad argument two nights before, neither parent was willing to pay for the computer. Over the next five weekdays the computer was left at the repair shop to rot (but it doesn't rot so easily, as I found out). It was only on the next Saturday, when things between my parents were finally settled, and I finally got the financial backing I needed to service the computer. Thankfully, some data could be retrieved from the old hard disk, so I tranferred all necessary and useful files into the new, clean disk with the computer and the techie shop. it was a nice computer, very fast and responsive. Overjoyed, I paid the guy, heaved the CPU back onto my bicycle, and headed home.
The computer's performance had improved a lot. It's very fast now. I can't wait to re-install all my programs in.

Today, in school, due to my lack of paid attention in previous Chinese language classes, I discovered that my Chinese oral exam was this afternoon. Gawddammit. Caught unprepared. Even then, I did nothing to prepare, and just bashed headlong through the whole thing when my turn finally came (I was last in line).

Song of the moment: Coldplay - Yellow
Financial situation: Nothing to speak of
What's for dinner: Vegetables and fish
New English word: Risible (formal) - casual, not serious
New Japanese word: Honto (really)

Alright, that's another post done.

Wednesday, August 30

Temporary Chem teacher, Mr. Cha

Class assignment. Write up a summary about one of your teachers. Let's get into the Teacher's Day festive season.

I chose to write up about Mr. Cha, our temporary Chemistry teacher who had left us one day ago (from this blogging date) for further teacher training. Best of luck in all your endeavours, Mr. Cha.

At first glance, one would be unable to tell he has a job in the teaching career. Dressed in smart casual most of the time (a sleeves-rolled-up polo shirt and pants) and sporting a perpetual 5 o' clock shadow, he comes across as chubby, and round as a beach ball.

Teaching-wise, as I sit at my desk at the back row of the class, I can tell he tries very hard, despite his nervousness. He would brighten up each Chemistry session with a refreshing video or activity before beginning with the actual lesson, which would involve him rattling on about redox reactions and related stuff, frequently filling speech gaps with 'okay's and 'alright's. Nevertheless, he puts in effort, and is always eager as a Easter rabbit everytime he comes to class, and that I appreciate.

Mr. Cha was formerly involved in a Japan-made cleaning agent product (that's a plus point for me, since I love all things Japanese) called Arc-Flash. I did a bit of research about Arc-Flash over the Internet, and when what I found wasn't enough for me to understand, I caught up with him one recess time to ask him about it. He gamely sat me down at a bench and described in great detail all about this UV ray-reactive cleaning agent and how it works to kill bacteria, via molecular means, but not without remembering to thank me for looking up on the product beforehand. Aha, so he recognises my effort. Another point to him.

If somebody told me that teachers and students can never get along, I'd disagree with him hook, line and sinker. Mr. Cha is among the friendliest teachers I have known, who would actively engage in friendly conversations with his students. I get along with him very well, thank you very much.

yep, that's pretty much it. Thanks for reading.

*This post was created on the 29th of August 2006, and finished on the 22nd of September 2006. Damn that's long.*

Sunday, August 27

Sunday, August 27th, 2006

Hello again. it's 2:31 in the morning. I've been up all night, browsing Youtube for stuff. Not just any stuff. Haruhi-ism-related stuff. I just finished episode 14 (episode 6), then moved on to check out some Otaku vids of them trying out the ED dance video, piano/guitar versions of the ED/OP, DDR videos of those songs.

Original ED.

Piano version.

Dance immitation, very nicely done, but they wear horrible masks.

AMV, extended version of the ED.

Guitar version.

Opening theme video featuring Aya Hirano, Suzumiya Haruhi's seiyu.

OP for DDR.

ED for DDR.

Stepmania video for Koi no Mikuru Densetsu (opening theme song for episode 1 (episode 11)).

Next topic.

PLEASE, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, IT IS NOT 'ANIMES'! ANIME IS A JAPENESE WORD, IT DOES NOT FOLLOW THE PARADOX RULES OF ENGLISH! THE PLURAL FORM OF 'ANIME' IS 'ANIME'! WHY WON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT?!

Next topic.

The wonderful thing about Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuuutsu (the anime) is the way it is all jumbled up. Edisode 1 is actually episode 11, episode 9 is the last episode, and episode 14 is episode 6. I've been through the whole series once, in jumbled-up order (you know, it still tells a very good story, even though events happen here and there all the time. It's as though we're time-travelling or something), and I'm about to do it again, this time in chronological order, keeping this in mind: Trivia, so I can make sure I don't miss anything special.

One last thing: Visit the SOS Club website! Official site. Also, a secret area in the SOS Club website just for you: Official site secret.

Oyasumi. It's time for bed.

Thursday, August 24

Live Firing!

Today was the day. Me and my NCC mates were going for live firing, at last. Real M-16s, real rounds, real targets, everything real.
We got to leave class at 11.45 AM to change and have lunch, before setting off to NCC HQ.
We got off the bus and met up with some other NCC boys from Macpherson Secc, and I could remember some faces from my Mt. Ophir camp.
We had a safety briefing by our lieutenants, told what to do and what not to do in the firing range. The Macpherson boys were the first to grab their helmets and earplugs and head off for the rangel; the Junyuan boys and I had to wait at least half an hour before it was our turn.
We first fired upon a couple of canadian bull targets. Each firing lane had a target board of two targets, one above the other, and we were supposed to pump 4 bullets at each target, making it a total of 8.
Firing the M-16 was uber-cool. Real recoil! Real shell ejection! Real rotating bolt action! Real bang! Real smoke! It was awesome.
I finished the first phase of the event with 4 successful hits on each target, just a few centimetres below the actual bull shape.
Next was the real firing run, we were to shoot 5 bullets at two soldier head targets, one whilst supposed by the sandbag, the other unsupported. I did well wilth the sandbag, and managed to get all 5 bullets right smack at the soldier's face. However, I made a very close miss during unsupported firing, and got only 4 in. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for the Marksmanship badge, so I went back feeling heavily disappointed.

Yep, that's it.

Wednesday, August 2

My fave Canon in D tunes





I promise to update my blog whenever I can. I'm getting busier and busier with each passing day. If I'm not doing schoolwork, I'm bustling myself with CCA, tuition, and project work. Ugh, this is madness.

Sunday, July 16

11-7-06 (Or, 7-11-06 for the Americans)

Day two. I woke up at around 6 that morning, feeling refreshed. My tentmates and I unpitched our tent, before eating a light breakfast of biscuits.
A small morning exercise later, the group headed uphill for the rock-climbing wall. We were going to scale it today. It was 4 stories high. Everybody attempted it at least once, though only a handful made it all the way to the top. I was belayer the whole morning, and by the time it was my turn to scale the wall, my arms were too tired from all that rope-pulling that I barely reached 4 metres before I gave up, exhausted.
It was mid-day when we were done with the rock wall. Lunch was a simple affair of cake and butter buns. When we had eaten our fill, we set off for the beach, where we began the kayaking preparations. There were 16 of us in the watch altogether, so that meant 8 tandem kayaks. We did a buoyancy test to ensure our lifevests were working properly, learnt how to maneuver the kayak (this I had already learnt before), and practised recovering the craft after a capsize.
As soon as we were prepared, and all our essential items have been packed onto the instructors' motor boat, our watch joined another group and paddled about 500 metres westwards to our next campsite. It was a bit of a mess, docking our kayaks on the concrete floor of the boatyard, as others groups were joining us there as well, and keeping their boats away too. With that done, our tents were pitched up once again at the new campsite, a forest clearing riddled with potholes (presumably dug up by the local wild boar population). It was completely windless there, and I was worried that it would be to hot and stuffy for me to sleep later on that night.
Nevertheless, I went to shower and change into fresh clean clothes, and joined my watch for a sumptuous warm dinner of rice, chicken, cabbage, and vegetable soup.
Following that, the four watches present at the campsite moved to an air-conditioned classroom, where we were briefed by our instructors of the upcoming kayaking expedition that was to happen tomorrow. We were supposed to paddle at least 11 kilometres to our next campsite the next day, then paddle 11 kilometres back the day after. Each watch had one member as the expedition leader; I was Ex Leader for my group. The four of us were tasked with ensuring that the whole pack stays together and keeps out of danger. The left marker ensures that nobody goes out too far left, likewise for the right marker, while the sweeper reminds behind the whole gathering to bring up the rear and help anybody who goes too slow. I, being the navigator, had to be in front at all times, and had to plot the safest and easiest route to our destination. It was pretty straightforward; all I had to do was keep close to the shoreline and not venture into the channels, where the huge tankers and cargo ships would be cruising. Still, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous, as this was my first time leading a group of mostly strangers to a place I don't even know.
Everybody filed out of the classroom after the briefing, leaving the expedition leaders behind to discuss tactics and plans. We planned to maintain a diamond formation and ensure that everybody stays within it, so everybody would be close together.
With that, I went straight back to the campsite to turn in for the night. Realizing I had forgotten to brig a pen along with me to record today's happenings (I recorded all this on Day 4), I disappointedly, anxiously, and umcomfortably, drifted off to sleep.

Saturday, July 15

10-7-06

As I promised, my camp log, from 10th of July, to the 14th.

It's about 10 o' clock now, on my first night of camp. he tentsite is silent; our guys had long since finished with the night activities before the rest of the groups. The full moon is beautiful to look at.
I had an awesome time today. I started the day with a bus ride to the jetty, where we waited a few minutes for the rain to clear before boarding the ferries that would take us to the camp. The ride there took about 10 minutes. Once there, everybody was seperated into the different watches (groups) (that reminds me, I regretted not bringing my watch along with me to the camp). I didn't mind it, since my best friend and two others from the same class as me were also in my group (called 'Nila Utama'). We had an instructor by the name is Poh Kiaw (she insists we call her 'PK'). She seems like a nice person.
Next, we settled the logistics for the camp, seeing that we had enough food rations to last us the nest 4 days and nights, and ensured that our store room had all the equipment needed for the camp activities.
With that done, we moved on to group activities. There was the 'Trust Fall' and the 'Human Entanglement' activites, the latter requiring us to try to unentangle ourselves from a complex knot we made with our arms, there was much to learn here about teamwork, and how one person's actions could affect the whole group.
Following that was a bit of rock-climbing practice. The watch was taught how to handle their helmets and harnesses, and how to play the roles of the two As, the B and the C. The Climber cimbs, the Belayer manages his lifeline and ensures the climber does not fall from the wall to te ground, the Anchorman ensures the Belayer does't fly off when the Climber falls and pulls the rope taut, and the Assistant sees that the loose rope does not get in the Belayer's way. There were a few rock-climbing commands we had to learn too, mostly stuff the Climber and the Belayer have to say to each other before the Climber embarks on the wall.
With that done, we moved on to pitch our tents in a small lowland grass patch known as Sunshine Valley. It was a little valley, alright, but I could tell I wouldn't be able to see the sunrise or sunset from there, consulting my compass.
Dinner was surprisingly delicious. We cooked some rice in a pot and added chicken curry to it, so everybody could have curry rice to eat. Poor Pearl An, she was vegetarian and had to settle for seomthing else (I think she went for the can of button mushrooms).
When we had eaten our fill, we met with our instructor, PK, at the pier, where we penned down our Hopes and Fears about the camp and enjoyed the comfortably cooling sea breeze, and discussed about our fears. My Hopes and Fears? Tell you next time. PK bade us goodnight when she had collected all our little slips of paper, but not before telling us a small bedtime story.
So far, so good. I will be sleeping well tonight. Outward Bound is very much what I had expectedof it, if not more. I remain anxious of the following days to come, when we would have more activities to enjoy, and more values to learn from them. Our instructor is like no other; she knows what to do, what we could achieve from these things, and her methods are nearly flawless whe it comes to teaching us moral values. I respect that a lot.
Oh yeah, I managed to remember a bit of that story PK told us. Here it is.

"It is Monday. I walk down a street. There is a hole in the floor. I do not see it. I fall in. It takes me forever to get out.
It is Tuesday. I walk down a street. There is a hole in the floor. I pretend not to see it. I still fall in. It takes me a few hours to get out.
It is Wednesday. I walk down a street. There is a hole in the floor. I see it. But I still fall in. It takes me a few minutes to get out.
It is Thursday. I walk down a street. There is a hole in the floor. I see it. I walk around it.
It is Friday. I walk down a different street."

Tuesday, July 4

Happy July 4th!

Yay! Hurray for America's Independence Day!

School this morning was pretty eventful. We had another timetable change, and, as it turns out, I haven't got al the books I needed for today's classes. There was phys Ed today but I didn't have my PE attire, so I had to sweat it all out during a basketball match, in my school uniform. Remotely pleasant.
During English period, the last lesson for today, our form teacher had asked us to think of ideas for a song parody. We had to modify an original song to highlight the theme 'Racial Harmony', and it was to be presented during the school's Racial Harmony Day (we celebrate this is Singapore once every year). I thought of doing something from Simple Plan's 'Crazy'. Meh, this is gonna be hard...
I skipped NCC Land today as I had to meet the guys at Club Rainbow with my group, concerning our YMCA Entrepreneurship project. The place was quite far from school. We discussed things about our initial business proposal, and made changes here and there, together with the Marketing Assistant for Club Rainbow.
And now, I have four A. Math asignments due. Gotta pass them up tomorrow. Gonna rush thru them as fast as I can. See ya.

Thursday, June 29

And Now For Something Serious

I just got a new keyboard, exchangeed it since the last keyboard had a spoiled Spacebar key (can't press it properly now). The keys are kinda smooth to press, the Backspace button has effectively shrunk to allow space for the Enter button (which now occupies two rows of keys) that I am not accustomed to yet. Sometimes i make typos here and there, only because I wouldn't be able to enter a letter if I half-press the Shift key, that wasn't used to either. Oh, wel.

But, I'm not happy about something else. Time to blog it here.

As you all know, I am actively invovled in my CCA, NCC Land (for those who still don't know what that is, it's an extra-curricular activity that does Army schtuff). Just recently I went for a camp-course, and got promoted to Sergeant rank; this meant I was a specialist, and I was in total control over my juniors.

One problem. Ever since that Specialist Course ended (which was two weeks ago), I have never found out my rank, whether it was 2nd Sergeant, or 3rd Sergeant. All my fellow NCC mates, who had gone to Specialist course before me and had already attained (and sewn on) their ranks, had constantly pestered me about my rank; I culd only say I was a 3rd Sergeant (the less-better rank betwee the two), judging from my performance in my Specialist tests. Worst of all, I found out I had lost my Specialist badge on the way home from NCC Headquarters, the day the course ended. Without that badge on my Uniform, I was effectively powerless (that is, if my superiors are around during training; if not nobody would care), and this was quite a blow to my pride. Damn, I have to fix things fast. Starting with me getting used to pressing the Shift key with more firmness when I type.

Okay, that was just another story. I'll tell you all about what happened in Spec Course next time. Now let's talk about the thing I am not hapy about.

NCC Day's coming up (it's tomorrow), and we've been rehearsing for it over the past few days. As usual, our so-called Company Sergeant-Major, 3rd Sergeant Fawwaz (at present, he is among the majority of us Secondary 3 Junyuan NCC cadets who are 3rd Sergeants, only two lucky buggers emerged out of Spec Course with the 2nd Sergeant rank) is in charge of all the happenings that are to take place during the morning assembly. We were to arrange ourselves in a formation (that's the whole of the NCC company, which, seriously speaking, comprises of not more than 30 people at most) around the Parade Square. It was supposed t be a simple affair, nothing more than telling a few people to stand here, another bunch of guys to stand there, and so on.
Thing is, he was just making things confusing for everybody. I expected that, knowing how incapable he tends to be when it comes to dealing with major situations. Heck, I could've done a better job than him, if only I had the chance. Well, there he was, arranging everybody around on the Parade Square, trying to get them in order but in vain (I couldn't blame him, the Part As and Bs were being rather uncooperative that day). We were in that Parade Square and all that, the supposed 'Holy Ground' for us NCC cadets, and there was Fawwaz, swearing and cussing at the junior cadets as though he owned the place. We finished training that day with a 'light workout' that involved 50 push-ups and 20 sit-ups for the juniors.

Anyways, yes, that was what I disliked. seriously hope things would turn out fine during tomorrow's event...

On a side note... I bought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with my book vounchers just this Sunday. I finished the book last night. It was really awesome, and as much as I'd like to talk about it more here, I have to go to sleep. Sorry, guys.

Oyasumi.

Tuesday, June 27

The Importance of English

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Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
This is why English teachers from the West are high in demand in Japan.

Tuesday, June 6

5/6/06

It's a Monday, on the second week of the holidays. During the whole of this week I'll be busying myself at Dunman Secondary (my former secondary school), doing stuff in the Lifescience Center located there. You see, me and two other friends signed up for a genesis program that would've costed us $500, and learn all about Genes and stuff. Today was the first of five sessions, each session is from 9AM to 3PM.
We were taught by a sciende professor called Dr. Yeo. He looks like Andy Lau, has spiky hair, a rather dry sense of humor, and a strange British-like accent. We learned how to handle a micropipette, and studied DNA and RNA coding, transcription, and a whole lot more genetic stuff I won't mention here. It was really fun and exciting, during lunch I even got to meet my old friends of the Dunman Sec NCC. They've all gone for their Specialist course and gotten their sargeant ranks, I still have to wait till 12th June though.
After that, the three of us, Li Qiang, Yong Keong and I, decided to walk all the way back to Junyuan, from Dunman. It was approximately 5 kilometers away. On the way we stopped by a fitness corner and did some exercises, and encountered dizzles that tended to come and go. We headed for school to look for our biology teacher, only to realize she had already left, and that we were trapped in the school building with heavy rain pounding outside. Li Qiang and I passed time playing Chinese Chess, but we didn't have any pieces, so we used 'imagination' instead. It was really funny, and it was crazy enough to work. Yes, it did work, and it trains my memory.
Yeah, Li Qinag won in the end. I was never a pro in Chinese Chess.
Rain stopped, we headed home. Whee!
Haha, that's all for today! Oyasumi!

Saturday, June 3

3rd June 2006

Whew! I've been really busy over the past couple of days, mainly because of this Biodiversity two-day course I (and nearly the whole of the rest of the biology class) signed up for. It was an incredible experience; I got to see first-hand how biology reseachers do field work in natural habitats all around us. I learnt techiques and methods the researchers employ to help them in their studies, and I even got to do a little field-studying myself at the beach. I found many animals and other organisms I had only seen in Discovery Channel, it was awesome for me to actually look at hermit crabs and sand dollars with my own eyes.
Today I followed my dad to the office, as we had to prepare for this new shop that he was opening at the Buona Vista MRT station. There we unpacked boxes of soap products, and my dad handed me a piece of cloth and a bottle of spirit and told me to wipe off the ink-printed expiry dates underneath the packaging, as they was all at least one year past the printed date (he explained that all European products, not matter how long it takes for them to expire, require a printed expiry of one year after the production date, so it was okay to still distribute these products).
Ah, that was it for today. If you hadn't noticed, my Internet activity, or computer activity for that matter, has been decreasing lately, mainly ue to the fact that I have to share the comp with my siblings. Oh, well. See how I cope with it.

Tuesday, May 30

Blast, so many things happened to me over the pasy few days, but I was never free to blog about it. I just feel like kicking myself right now...

Anyway, today, I (and me only) watched a screening of Mission Impossible III. I used the complimentary tickets for it, so it was completely free. The movie was awesome, there were a lot of thrilling moments in it, and it was just chock-full of edge-of-your-seat action, and featured and sorts of espionage (yes, I think the word 'spy' is too overrated) gadgets and gizmos I never thought was possible to invent, but proved to be very useful for all sorts of situations. I swear, if I had enough money for it, I'd buy a mask Customizer and impersonate my friends.
Also, I found some good news today. Okay, over the past few days I was dealing with this NCC problem. I was trying to get my name for this course (which I absolutely had to attend, I'd been wanting to attend it for ages) which was supposed to happen tomorrow, but I was unsuccessful in doing it. Well, I felt very discouraged after that, and blamed my teacher-in-charge for being so adamant about not letting me in due to unforseen implications (and because it was too much of a hassle for him, that lazy bugger). The good news I found today was that dad had found out about the problem, and had helped me out by calling up the teacher and speaking to him, and arraging for me to go for the course at a later date. Yeah, I was elated.

Okay, that's all for today. I'll try to update again as soon as I can.

Oyasumi
AK

Sunday, May 21

Bleh...

Konbanwa.
Looks like I didn't make it to the Ceremony. It was in the morning, and I spelt through it. The school's Cross Country was also held today, at the nearby reservoir. I wasn't there to spectate, either.
I spent most of the afternoon napping, not before catching the season finale of the Amazing Race on AXN. I'm really glad the Hippies BJ & Tyler won, I'd been rooting for them right from the start. I was really surprised Tyler was qutie adept at communicating with the Japanese people in their language; makes me even more determined to pick Japanese up myself, heheh.

OMG something's happened to my blog! One click of a button (at the right side), and they all disappear! Maybe it's because I copied this template out for my bro to use and customize on his own blog. I'm not sure, but you can check it out at http://crapiest.blogspot.com/. But, even he has his own troubles with his tagboard.

I'm gonna have to find a way to fix this. But I gotta wait till tomorrow to do that.

Oyasumi
AK

Wednesday, May 17

Hurray! My blisters are subsiding! Hopefully I'll be able to make it to the YFC Disbursement ceremony come 20th May. That's right, our group had been selected to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime event all about entrepreneurship and such!
Also, I'd asked my teacher to get my a copy of the exams papers so I could try them for myself at home, and see how I fare. He reminded me that these papers would not affect my mid-year results at all, and that I could only retrieve them after the exams, when I'm feeling good enough to report to school.
Heheh, that's all the updates from now. Can't believe the Da Vinci Code is NC16, I was so intent on watching it!

Oyasuminasai,
AK

Saturday, May 13

PangYa SEA

I just installed a new game in my comp today. It's a gold-themed game called PangYa, with very cute Anime graphics. I was hooked immediately, and it made me forget all about my Chickenpox woes (speaking of which, it's healing very well). Download it @ http://www.pangyasea.com/, and we can play together, yeah?

Monday, May 8

ITCHY!!!

Missed school today, thanks to the pox. Also missed Social Studies and Physics exams. Also missed my classmates.

Saturday, May 6

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My worst fears have been confirmed. Only 2 days left till the exam week, and I'm down with Chickenpox. Only 7 days left till the class outing, and I'm down wiith Chickenpox.
Life isn't fair, man. All that revision, all that gruelling work...
People have said I looked like Urashima Keitaro. Now they're gonna say I live like him, too. Ultimate bad luck.

Thursday, April 27

It's been too long...

Wassup guys, it's me again.
I haven't been around ever since that last blog entry I did in school, I was only REMINDED about it recently when my friend asked me about it (thanks Russell). I visited it again, gazed longingly at the wonderful Love Hina wallpaper (I've been isolating myself from my manga collection these days; it's so nice to see these familiar characters again), and listened to its quiant music (which I didn't even know it had as I heard nothing when I previewed it on blogskins.com). I don't even know what this particular song is titled, but it moved me straight away (yeah, that's me being Emo, I hate Emo).
I simply love this song. It made me forget all my worries of the coming exams, all the pressure from my activities (including the NCC stuff), and it even made me forget what I wanted to write here in the first place.
Oh yeah. My school life.
My class timetable had changed since the start of term 2, that's some time after I stopped updating here, so we have different subjects every day of the week. All I could remember was today started of with Chemistry; the teacher revised covalent and ionic bonds with the class, also periodic group properties of Halogens (the group VII chemicals). In Physics we covered rafraction of light, in E. Math we revised Variations, in A. Math we did Indices, Surds and Logarithms (I had a huge headache after that, I completely forgot everything I had learnt about these topics before). As before, there was Biology on Thursday afternoons, today was no different, we spent time doing a small class test on Nutrition in Mammals, then completed some revision work on cells.
Oh yeah, there was a fire drill in school today. I was halfway through my Math revision when the bell sounded. Dang, just when I was really getting into the mood for study. We left the classroom and headed outside casually, like we did in every fire drill. It was fifteen minutes later, when it had been checked that everyone was presented and accounted for, that was returned to class.
Oh yeah, there's been a few updates with my NCC today. Recently, due to numerous unforesen circumstances, I had been rather flawed in doing my job as the Administrative officer of my platoon, thus it had been decided, just this afternoon, that I step down as the Admin-in-charge for a while, and let somebody else take over. That's a relief; I didn't think I could manage all that work while keeping up with the class in terms of grades. After all, I'm the only NCC guy in the pure-sciences pilot class, everybody else has more free time than me, I think it's only fair I don't be given such a large portion of work to do.
Then again, I wasn't too happy about my stepping-down. It meant that I had been irresponsible and incapable (unforseen circumstances or not), and that other people were better than me. I hate knowing that there are others out there better than me. I always liked thinking that I was better than the rest. He can I prove that now with this 'demotion'?
I've made a resolution. It's no more procrastinating and lazing around for me anymore. If I want to be the best (because I CAN be the best), I'll have to work and do something about it. Just wait and see.
Tsukaremashita, oyasuminasai.

Friday, April 7

I'm back, with another school assignment!

Damn. I haven't been around here in a long time. All of a sudden, my life seems to have changed, for the busier. I barely have any spare time to blog, and whenever I have time on in the Internet, which is by now very little, it's solely spent on forums and school assignments. My apologies to bigpenguin for not updating and keeping him in suspense the whole time (I bet he comes here everyday just to check for new blog entries), I promise I won't be away so long next time.
Anyways, I'm here in the school comp lab, I've got another English assignment on 'Happiness' to do, if I have time I'll probably change my blog skin again, so let's carry on.

The writer sat slouched on his chair, gazing blankly at the monitor. On it was a empty Blogger text box, waiting patiently to be stacked with witty words or intelligent phrases.
He was supposed to complete a narrative about Happiness. Happiness. How does one define happiness? Is it merely emotion, or something more than that? If the latter is so, what more can one find in Happiness?
The writer thought hard. Trying to remember the past times when he felt happy. He was reminded that those very times he had gone through simply could not be generally defined as 'happy'. He dropped both hands down on his lap, and heaved a sorry sigh. This was going to be harder than he thought.
he remembered his birthdays. Yes, birthdays were always happy occasions. His parents would invite all his friends over for parties when he was a ten-and-below child. There were games, food, liveliness, cake, and presents. The adults would be in their best of moods, cheerily mingling with each other and exchanging news, while the kids would run around and play hide-and-seek, shouting and chattering to their heart's content.
He remembered his early years in school. His grades then were marvellous; everybody thought he was a prodigy of sorts. His parents would constantly reward him for his excellent academic results, bringing him out on family excursions or dinners. They were proud of him, and he was proud of himself.
In his preteens, he recalled his times as a swimming ace. He would fly gracefully in the water, easily overtaking his competitors and reaching the finish line first. The testament? His collection of trophies and medals arranged prominently on his study table, till this day.
The writer smiled briefly. The good old days. He raised his arms again, and floated his fingers over the keyboard. Sure, he's stopped celebrating birthdays with fancy parties, his grades are good albeit not fantastic most recently, and he's not been in a pool for a long time.
His fingers began dancing furiously on the keys.
But, for now, he had finally found something good to write on his blog.

Wednesday, March 8

Tears
When I was a very young toddler, at around four to five years of age, my dad would usually take the family out for picnics at the beach, and we would usually stay there till late at night, to enjoy the breeze drifting by from inland.
We were there again one uneventful evening, dad, mum and I. The family had finished a wonderful roast turkey dinner (bought from a nearby supermarket), and was taking a leisurely stroll down the seaside. I could see distant lights out at sea, shining from countless vessels and tankers moored in the deep water. The kind wind flowed through my hair, blowing past my scalp, carressing my skin, and massaging my senses.
I felt a tap on my shoulder, and looked up at my dad. He was looking down, beaming at me. I smiled back, and saw him bring up a finger to his lips. In the same motion, he stuck out that finger to point at something up ahead. My gaze followed the indication, and peered at the dimly-lit surroundings before me.
At first, all I could see was the sand meeting with the rising and falling waves. Upon closer observation, I made out a short, rounded figure shifting around in the ground. Curious, I approached it carefully, my parents in my wake.
The figure began to take further definition and detail as I closed in. It had four flat legs, a cylindrical head, and a stumpy tail, all surrounding a dome-shaped shell. I was astounded. A real-life turtle, just like in the storybooks!
The animal was definitely aware of my presence, but it did not look to mind me coming over. It just sat there, being the silent reptile it was supposed to be, merrily minding its own business.
I patted its shell when I got close enough to it, which felt hard as rock and moist from the water. The turtle's head withdrew into its shell apprehensively at my touch, but then relaxed when it felt I was not causing it harm. It even seemed to be enjoying it.
Dad tapped my shoulder again, this time asking me to look at the turtle's rear. I duck-walked over eagerly. What I saw next was intriguing. It had dug a shallow hole in the sand, and was depositing numerous off-white, spherical eggs into it. The turtle was laying.
"Look dear," mum whispered to me, from beside the turtle's head. "The turtle's crying."
So it was. Fresh tears were flowing freely from its glossy eyes. I was even more amazed.
"It is because it is laying eggs?" I asked. Mum gave me a "could-be" look and half-nodded. I thought seriously for a few seconds, before asking her another question.
"So did you cry when you were giving birth to me, too?"
Mum raised her eyebrows in surprise. She looked up at dad, who smiled and shrugged.
"Well... Of course I did. That experience was painful," Mum replied frankly.
"But... The more important reason I cried, was because I had given life to somebody I know will grow up to be just like me," she added with a warm grin. I grinned back. I liked the way that sounded, and could still remember it till this day.
Mum and dad cried the day I was born, bacause they knew they now had someone to be proud of, someone they could love, someone they would cherish for the rest of their lives. I felt lucky to have such caring and loving parents like them, and made sure I was going to do the same when my time comes.
The eggs stopped dropping, and the turtle used its hind legs to cover up the hole. The three of us watched as the animal slowly made its way back to sea. Tears were still dribbling profusely from its eyes.

Tuesday, March 7

I developed a cough and a cold last Saturday, and kept it over the next few days, up till now.
That meant I did not do anything enjoyable on Sunday other than sleeping and swallowing Panadol, skipped school on Monday and caught the Academy Awards on TV (congrats to Crash for winning Best Picture), and skipped school again today, including NCC training later on in the afternoon.
During this long period of absence from school, I managed to take some time off the seriously think about my position in school. I concluded that I wasn't really that popular and well-liked, usually despised and shunned (to some extent), and found it hard to make friends.
Yesterday afternoon, as my dad was driving me home from a visit to the doctor, he asked how I would be notified about the homework I might've missed during my absence. I told him a friend would most probably drop by the house and pass it to me, knowing that a lot of my friends knew where I lived. Turns out, nobody came that afternoon. The next day, dad asked me about it again, and I told him what happened (or rather, what didn't happen). At this, he muttered blithely, "You have no friends."
I am in the Science class. The class that was supposedly the best in my level. And I came from Dunman Secondary, a school of higher quality than this here Junyuan Secondary.
I was supposed to be smarter than everybody. I had a PSLE aggregate score that way surpasses all of them. I was supposed to best the best. Yet, I am not.
I had become one of the worst. I was still lazy, irresponsible, irritating, and unpleasant.
My homework is rarely done on time. My work attitude is like crap. I tend to do things without thinking of the consequences and stuff. And the list goes on...
Even my NCC career isn't going as planned. I'm beginning to shirk my duties as Admin officer, a position so low yet does the most taxing and tedious jobs, and apparently my "senior" CSM wasn't too happy about it. That bastard had threatened to demote me if I continued this kind of servitude. How do you demote someone who's already at the lowest position of the hierachy?
He really pissed me off, and I felt like quitting the NCC for good at that time.
Then I thought back, and realised, it was all because of me. Fawwaz wouldn't have threatened me with a demotion if I hadn't been slacking off and not attending meetings. Yeah, it all boils down to me once again.
I questioned my existence. Why am I alive? Do I live to wreck the lives of other people? Do I live to ruin my own life? Do I live to fail?
Only time will tell. It's too early to seriously consider anything at the moment.

Friday, March 3

Another school assignment. One about 'Flight'. Done in the school comp lab. Let's get started.
Flight. Six letters, whuich could form words like 'Light', 'Fight', 'Fig', 'Lit', 'Hit', 'Fit' and 'Hilt'.
Flight refers to a controlled movement and navigation, in air. Attained for the very first time by mankind in 1903 by Wilbur and Orville Wright in Pennysylvania, USA. Since then, it had been redefined over and over again with each passing improvement, innovation and construction.
Flight was initially a idea of a faster, easier and breathtaking form of travel. A method of achieving dreams and touching the skies. A way of seeing the world from a whole new perspective. During World War I, it changed to become a weapon of control. A gadget of destruction, dogfighting, sabotage, and annihilation. Fighters, bombers and dropships were invented to sweep the skies and protect the airspace.
Now, in the peaceful world we live in, Flight had become a form of exhibition. People build and own planes to impress others. Flight is studied in specialized Academies. Flight demonstrations are held worldwide, not to mention in the upcoming Asian Aerospace Exhibition that is going to be held in Singapore soon.
When I think of Flight, I think of control. I think of power. I think of myself being able to achieve what others cannot. I think of gliding through the air, energized, feeling the calming breeze ruffle my hair, and the cold atmosphere caressing my body. I think of relaxation, and therapy.
I've been on quite a number of plane rides in my current lifetime. While the worry of the possibility of a plane crash clings on to my mind, I would still feel that sense of eagerness in riding a jet. I look forward to each ride with much longing, for the marvellous views through the window, for the food I am served, for the DVDs I could watch, and for those special adrenaline-pumping moments when the plane rockets down the runway at breakneck speed, just before takeoff.
Flight a a form of combat, I suppose, is quite useful too. It provides strategic support for an Army or Navy, and adds a tactical edge to their country's defence/ attack force. I've played games like Battlefield 2 and Coman and Conquer, where missions are never complete without planes to count on to destroy ground forces like tanks and turrets that could overpower smaller, easily surmountable troops. They can do almost everything that has to do with demolition, from mass bombings to precision strikes, and that can prove very helpful in a difficult ground-based slugfest.
I would most certaining want to learn to pilot a plane someday. My eyesight might not look so fit for that at the moment, but I absolutely wish to take control of air navigation one day.

There you go, one more class assignment done. I think it's a bit sloppy, though. What say you?

Monday, February 27

I just wish my friends would post more frequently. I'm bored.

Watch this space, anyway.

Thursday, February 23

(Seriously, am I the only one in my class who actually updates his blog as frequently as possible, even to the point it is day-by-day? I've been going around visiting my rest of the classmates blogs, and all they have are Mr. Jae's English assignments. How boring!)
A lot of things happened yesterday.
And I didn't have the time to tell all of it to you all.
And now I've forgotten everything.
Pathetic. Simply pathetic.
Downloaded some rocking DoA 4 videos from gametrailers.com. Not gonna put them here, your IE would die trying to load it up.
Today's happenings...
Put up a notice on the NCC notice board early this morning, requesting to meet the Sec 2s and 3s so I could finish up a nominal roll for my Lieutenant. I wasn't sure if my handwriting was legible enough, though. It seemed pretty readable to me.
Today was Thursday, and there was supposed to be an activity in the hall, but all that was cancelled and everybody assembled in the Parade Square instead, due to a nation-wide tragedy.
No, it's not terrorist bombings or whatever. A former member of the Singaporean Parliament, Mr. S Rajaratnam, had passed away yesterday afternoon. I remember sitting at home last night in front of the TV, watching the news and other Parliament members speaking their thoughts about him. He was an important figure in Singaporean history, as the man who wrote our National Pledge and introduced Singapore to the world. he built a Foreign Ministry from scratch, built close relationships with other countries, and brought a lot of fortune and attention to our nation.
It seems that nobody in this world would really understand exactly how much a man or woman had done and contributed in his or her life, until that person has deceased. I never realised just how much he meant to us Singaporean citizens, how important and valuable he was to us, or even if he was still alive or not. At that period, the only times I've ever seen that man is in my History books. S Rajaratnam, pioneer of modern Singapore. God bless him.
Anyway, back to reality. The school and National flags were flown at half-mast, as a show of respect and mourning for our former Foreign Minister, everyone was unusually eager to take the Pledge today, and we left the Parade Square with a message from our Principal, reminding us to be solemn and serious about this matter throughout the schooling day. I ask you, must we really? I mean, I know Mr. Rajaratnam's important and all, I've paid my respects to him, can't you let me concentrate in my studies now?
A. Maths took up the first three periods. We went on to a new chapter: Indices and Turds Surds (oops!). I had to apply what I had learnt in Indices (E. Maths chapter) in this topic, which was a thad bit challenging, but nonetheless fun. I had a good time racking my brains to solve those exercise questions. I enjoy it when I get the right answers all by myself. It sorta gives me something to be proud of.
Physics for one period was next, Nasal Neo turned up with a worksheet on Thermal Capacity for us to do. The worksheet involved heat capacity and specific heat capacity formulas, not to mention even more Math figures and stuff, and that was the best part of today's lesson. I completed the paper and handed it up way before my fellow classmates. Yep, never before have I been this enthusiastic about Physics.
After that was Chemistry to take us all the way till recess (which was 1 hour). There, we had more Math-related activities.
We were doing Chemical equations. It involved adding numbers in front of Chemical symbols so that both sides of the equal sign have the same amount of elemental atoms. I had a blast solving the questions. They were simply so fun to do.
After recess was English for three periods. Mr. Jae took us to the comp lab to discuss about our Entrepreneurship project proposals. One person from each group had to give a brief speech about his or her group's ideas and plans. Our group was going to smoothies on a CCA day. Others wanted to sell finger food, still others planned on marketing ice cream, and one group had even wanted to make crepes (slurp!). Very nice. After that, he spent the rest of the time with us planning for our next essay assignment. The topic was supposed to be a botu a friend who had made a huge difference in my life.
Now, I have no such friends like that, so I decided to write a fiction story in the first-person. Lessee... That "friend" is going to be someone by the name of Ruth, she's supposed to "make the difference" in my Primary 6 year, and that difference was going to be about... Argh, why am I telling you this?!
Chinese was next. The class went downstairs from comp lab 4, which was one the fourth floor, all the way to our classroom, which was at the first floor, right at the edge of the school compound. From there, our Chinese teacher, Wang Lau Shi, told us that she wanted to show us her blog (done in Chinese) and that we were supposed to leave a comment (in Chinese) there. And all this had to be done in... Where else, but comp lab 4. So we walked right back up, to the comp lab that were in just a few minutes before. There, I went to her blog, read my fellows friend's comments about it (which was in Chinese), and decided to write one myself. Just as I was about to do so, the comp I was using lost Internet connection. Fack.
We were supposed to end the school day wtih yet another A. Math period, but as Mrs. Tan was busy, Mrs. Low came in to take over. We continued with Chemical equations all the way to the end-of-school bell.
Bio was after classes, at 3PM. Mrs. K hadn't finished marking our Bio test papers yet, so our suspense had to continue over the weekend. We spent the 1 and a half hours in the air-conditioned classroom studying enzymes and how temperature affects its activity. Nothing short of interesting. The lesson was absolutely fantastic, though we didn't get any candy.
Today was wonderful, and I hope for more schooldays like this to come. Dewa Mata!

Tuesday, February 21

Cosplay. Nice game. I want a Darth Vader suit. I dig chicks in FFX2 costumes. Also, it's kinda Wapanese Weeaboo (slang term used primarily on some Internet message boards to describe a Caucasian person who either wishes s/he were of Japanese descent and/or who has a heavy interest in Japan or Japanese culture), too.
I love Rikku more than any other video game character in the world. I think about her everyday.
Kasumi from DoA is second. Same as above, except it only happened last time.
I sure sound like a pervert, don't I? Going for girls in skimpy outfits and hot bodies...
But, forget that. I've here to blog.
Tuesday. Woke up at around 6:30AM, thanks to my bro for not waking me up earlier. Conscience was telling me... Nothing. He's dead and locked up in my bowels. I shot him. Somehow, I still managed to get prepared within 15 minutes, I even got to school earlier than usual.
Watched the news at the hall (auditorium), just like every other Tuesday. Topics (that are the best of my memory) were about: How the government would deal with people skipping National Service, and Japanese Kimono makers getting Japanese women young and old to put on the Kimono once again, using modern methods and strategies.
Social Studies took first two periods. Newty made us do an easy mind-map about Singapore and Malaya's Merger. For once, I didn't feel apprehensive, or bored at all. But I didn't have fun, all the same. For some reason, the Newt had called for Ranson and Faez to meet her after school. I have a feeling it was about the test.
Physics was next, did something about thermocouples and stuff with the Nasal Neo.
PE after that, Badminton again, and Fad wasn't in my team. I was on a court of different players this time. Had lots of fun with them.
Chinese came after recess again, this time we had spelling. And I sucked at it.
English next. Mr. Jae wasn't there, so some Jack Black look-and-sound-alike took over. He brought us to the library as we had to complete a certain proposal for a certain project, about entrepreneurship and selling stuff in school. Me and my group worked together pretty well. We had a lot of brainstorming, came up with a few good ideas, and completed the proposal, all within the designated time. And yes, still no EMI, and all the journals were still with Mr. Jae.
E. Math session was after that, we had our TA (term assessment) test. Went pretty smoothy, initially I had a lot of problems, but I solved them all later on as I progressed.
Chemistry was last in line. Went through our Chem workbook. I never realised that the Oxygen 'O' symbol always had to be last letter.
After school I had NCC. Did a lot of PT, also did some commanding of my marching platoon. Not gonna specify, only cos I don't have time. In a nutshell, today's training rocked.
Okay, that's today for you, I gotta rush off. Bye bye!

Monday, February 20

I dreamt about Rikku last night.
Wait a minute. No, I didn't. Damn.
Anyway, woke up to another early Monday morning, earlier than the Sun, as usual, and suddenly got hit by something with a force as massive as a sledgehammer blow.
It was my conscience, screaming a good-morning greeting to me.
" YOU HAVE A FREAKING BAD DAY AHEAD! GOOD LUCK!"
Thanks, my motherloving conscience. Thanks so much.
With that, I packed my bag, had breakfast (an egg sandwich, with a whole sunny-side-up egg inside), bade a mental goodbye to Rikku, would would be waiting for me here in this very blog till I come back home, and left for school feeling like crap.
Physics first up with Ms. Humongous-nostrils, once again. Forgot what she was talking about, though. Something to do with a thermal capacity worksheet which I forgot to bring. The start of my bad day.
A. Math next. Continued with... I don't know. E and A Math seem so similar the more I try to differenciate both of them. I had thought we were doing Inequalities for Advanced, but I also remembered doing that topic for Elementary. Then again, maybe it was simultaneous equations.
Geography next, Mrs. Ramos didn't come wasn't around (I think you should know why I censored those seemingly harmless words), and that meant one free period for us. Wewt. Spent my time on a power-nap.
English next, poor Hao forgot all about his EMI thing (for those who don't know and weren't paying attention, EMI in this case means 'encouraging, motivational, inspiring'), so he didn't come up to give his motivational talk to the class. Come to think of it, my turn is fast approaching, and I haven't even prepared a single word for my script. Better do that soon, or I'll be left scraping crappy stuff of the top of my dome during my speech.
Chinese was after recess. We got our newpaper review thing back from the teacher. I fared okay enough, it wasn't a fail as I expected.
Social Studies next, with the Newt-4-a-teacher, Rossana. I hadn't done my weekend assignment, I didn't have my folder with me, the Newt was all frog-smiles and taking pleasure in bullying our poor class chairperson -cum slash (yes, I have a very good reason for striking out that word too)- Social Studies representative, Ranson. Good thing all that only lasted 1 period.
E. Math took up the last 3 sessions. Did Inequalities, as mentioned earlier. Had a lot of problems doing number lines and all that crap, got many wrong answers, and that made me feel somewhat down.
School ended, but there was still Bio to go. Bio Term Assessment, to be exact.
Now now, don't worry, I wasn't worried about it. Spent half of my free time in between end of school and before Bio class eating lunch, spent another 1 quarter of it doing some last-minute cramming, and the last quarter talking with Shaun about FFX2.
Went to class and felt to tense atmosphere in it immediately; everybody was there, fervently revising, discussing with friends, Tiff and JX were even writing on the whiteboard, facts and figures that they could remember from their textbooks and worksheets. I helped correct some of their work, went around talking to others about stuff that might appear in the paper, trying to be as oblivious as I could to the suspense clinging all round me.
Mrs. K came (why do words like these have to be associated with sex? Why?!) arrived, was even more surprised at how her 'zaniest' class was reacting to the test, and got us all to calm down by giving us an EMI speech of her own. How thoughtful. I went through the test paper rather confidently, with not a single worry.
Test ended, went home, did blog.
Dewa Mata.

Thursday, February 16

Today was somewhat normal. How'd you find my 'Song' assignment, by the way?
Thursday, woke up thirty minutes past 6, went to school still half asleep.
We gathered at the hall for Councillor activity time, or whatever you may want to call spending morning assembly trying to appreciate what our student councillors have done for us. Watched a supposedly motivational Powerpoint slideshow. I liked the pictures.
Chemistry for two hours, as with all other Thursdays that have passed and Thursdays within Semester 1 that still have yet to arrive, kick-started to schooling day. Did stuff about electronic structures and atomic grouping in the periodic table. I tried as hard as I could to soak it all in.
Physics for one period, next. I don't understand, why we have to be in the class with that woman-teacher four days a (five-day) week. She puts people off with her style of teaching, she puts people to sleep with that nasal voice, and it puts my Phy grades at the verge of failing miserably. Dang.
Good news was, she wasn't around today. Woot. Spent a whole period doing nothing.
After reces was English. Headed for the comp lab once again to blog. That was when I did the 'Song' post. After that, we were supposed to review each other's posts on their tagboards, which would explain my friend's posts on the Troll-board.
Chinese next, did a newspaper-review sort of composition. I actually did better than expected, though usually that results in suckage grades that are lower than my expectations. Only time will tell.
A. Math next, continued with simultaneous equations with remainder and factor theorem. It just gets more and more fun as we move along. Very enjoyable and challenging Math it is, indeed.
I was supposed to have Bio afterwards. Realising that I have so foolishly forgotten this fact, and that I have signed up to help collect the NCC uniforms for the new cadets today, I immediately went... Back home, for lunch and some homework. Came back to school, Mr. Sin let me off and told me I needn't go for the thing, and hurried off for Bio.
Today was all about enzymes. Tons of new stuff I learnt today, and I even did a pictorial graph to remember all of it. During a five-minute break, I took the opportunity to hone my public-speaking skills, with the excuse of 'explaining with came first, the egg or the chicken'. I thought I did well enough, though the topic seemed a bit 'lamified' by my explanations. Never mind.
Finished Bio class to find that a jamming session with Raihan, a good friend of mine, had started on the canteen stage. I jumped at the chance to join in, and learned how to play Bass for the very first time. I got to rock on with him as we played Sum 41's 'Hell Song'. Total coolness.
Went back home, life reverted to normalcy once again. What a day.
Tsukaremashita. Oyasuminasai.

Song. School asignment. Let's get cracking, baby.
Song. Four-letter word. Mr. Ong, minus the 'Mr.' and added with 'S'. Can make 'son', 'sog', and 'snog'.
Song. Music. Pleasure. Peace. Sanctuary. Bands. Supergroups. Solos. Orchestras. Instruments. Crew. Studios. CD. MP3. Radio.
Just a few words that are associated with this noun. Despite its rather insignificant existence in the real world, where money's our first priority, it could still strike such a massive chord to the brain, showering it with its charm, massaging its every crevass and trench, rendering it to a state of collection and tranquility. Whether it's heavy metal banging at our eardrums, the gentle soothing voices of recognised vocalists, or the sweet svelte singing of violin strings, songs let us forget where we are, what we are racing for in life, and allows us to stop, rest, and enjoy.
Song has been in this world longer than anybody could have known. Some estimate it to be born at around 2000 B.C, more than 4000 annals ago. Others guessed it to be earlier than that, and that stonemen used to gather in cave campfires at night, beating animal bones on stone or wooden drums, if not against trees and other physical landforms. whatever it is, Song has definitely been serving us well since that time.
Song has spawned a humongous and successful worldwide business. Record labels, famous singers, arrogant managers, relentless paparazzi, prestigious awards, and even idolization, all these make up the music industry.
Song is like water. Song is like food. Song is essential for life. Without Song to cheer us up and liven our times, we are tense, short-tempered, easily angered, downcast, withdrawn, and dissatisfied with ourselves. We feel huge, gaping holes in our lives, as though something deep inside ourselves is missing something, and is crying out pitifully for it.
Song is praise. We praise the Lord our Father, our Maker, with joyous music. Through Song, we communicate and show appreciation. Sometimes, even God needs a little bit of music once in a while to relieve his mind and soul after a hard day's work of life-granting or life-saving. At least, that's what I think.
Songs convey thoughts. People write music to express ideas, feelings and emotions. They write songs that are sad, uplifting, motivational, cheery, or have tons of swearwords in them, depending on how they feel. Take Eminem as an example. Being a proud owner of his newest album, Curtain Call, I have heard all kinds of music, some that are hilarious and cracks jokes about events or stuff people do in real life, some really moody and defines how he feels about his career or family( especially his daughter), while others were simply for the Emo dudes in this world, those who have additive needs to listen to sad songs with heaps of curses and bad words. In a nutshell, Eminem serves everybody who listens, including himself.
Song. School assignment. Completed. Caused a sigh of relief.
Tsukaremashita. Dewa Mata.