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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.