Reporting... The 2007 J-rock Matsuri

I just recently changed my blog URL, for two main reasons:

1. I decided to come up for a theme for my blog. My theme is 'Tokyo in Singapore', and reflects my mild obsession over Japan and all things Japanese. While I don't live in Tokyo, the least I could do is find things similar to Tokyo here in Singapore, while is surprisingly numerous and prominent. All this encompasses 'Our World'

I woke up at 8am this morning after a good 6 hours of sleep (returned from karaoke with my parents at 2am last night), well prepared for today's big activity. Before that, I had to get today's worth of revision done; the new Integration topic in A. Math. I had to get up to speed with all I missed during the times in class I whiled away doing planning work on my upcoming series of short stories (more about that later).

2. While I was signing up an account for dannychoo.com, I realized my old URL was too long to fit in the 'Website' box. :P

Today was the day of the 2007 J-rock Matsuri, held outside Orchard Cineliesure mall. I contacted my buddy for the day, Shaun, only to find that he had been up to something all early morning and was ready to hit the sack by the time I called. Boo him. Looks like I'm on my own.

I contacted Darkmirage too, but he never replied. :P

With the help of Google Earth I drew up a route to get to the venue. Google Earth is a really wonderful thing, it is.

My journey begins like most journeys to the train station, through the park on my bicycle. Nothing out of the ordinary, and I was blasting Muse on my mp3 player as I cycled. Risky, but entertaining. I get the feeling that I'm going to do a lot of cycling if I do reside in Tokyo, relying on my bicycle to get to certain places (work, public baths) as fast as possible while evading the heavy traffic in Shibuya or Akihabara. As I've said on my KH blog so many times before, I enjoy cycling a lot. I'm very intimate with my bicycle, and with so many years of experience I can maneuver it expertly with only my left hand, leaving my right hand free to sratch my back, tinker with my mp3 player, or even hi-five a random person down the street.

From Tampines station I ride the densha to Somerset, of course transferring at City Hall station. A bit of walking later and I've reached Orchard Cineliesure.



Not exactly what I'd expected. It was pretty small, and the band playing when I got there wasn't exactly the best J-rock thing I've heard. That's alright, I've already long since accepted typical Singaporeans as being substandard in all areas, and covering J-rock songs, and even composing original J-rock songs, are no exception.



The actual place is tiny, and hot, even in the shade. Most of the audience was outside the barricade.



(Left)Aiiiii can give you Gatsbyiiiii Gatsbyiiiii Gatsbyiiiii...



The tape is too narrow.



Shaun told me that majority of the Goth Lolita cosplaying community puff cigs. The sign was quite clear to see, and the cosplayers weren't sucking sticks, but the other plain-clad spectators were.



One of the better performances I caught, only because they were doing a song I knew (Dir En Grey's Red Em). They covered it pretty well, and the singer remarkably sounded a lot like Kyo. I couldn't hear the guitar solo though, as the drums were too loud. That's the same problem I always encounter when jamming with my band at Paradise Jamming Studios.



The emcee's got the moe voice down, but not the language itself. She says 'Matsuri' like 'Mat-su-ri'.



They don't do J-rock. Wait a minute, I found something more interesting. Let's take a look...



Ah. Sweet.



Most of the cosplayers there tend to crowd around Orchard Cineliesure's main entrance, mostly for the air-con, a cooling relief from the sweltering heat outside. I really pity them. One of them had even donned a pink snowcoat for the event. Silly girl.

I decided to check out Orchard Cineliesure too, as I never never been in there before. By this time my lousy Amconics camera had run out of batteries, so no more pictures. I checked out this tiny Otaku shop called Rapid Culture at the third floor and found a neat 5-piece SuzuHaru figurine set at $22. If I had that much money on me then I'd have bought it straight away. Oh, the poor boy I am.

I did have $7 though, but I didn't have enough brains, so I decided to dine in the Kobayashi stall at the basement level instead of the Yoshinoya at the first. The Gyuudon they served there had miso soup all over the tray, gravy spilling over the rice bowl, a tasteless piece of cauliflower, and tough chunks of beef.

I removed the chopsticks from the paper cover bottom tips first, then realized, much to my dismay, the top ends were joined together, like they always used to with the older wooden hawker centre chopsticks (I've gotten used to the newer 'two seperate sticks in plastic pockets' version). But, it's all part of Japanese tradition, so I embraced it with pride and love.

What I really did was focus all my energies into break the bond into two equally flat pieces. For the longest time I had never managed to get it right, and one end would always be bigger than the other. Watching Azumanga Daioh has taught me that this is a sign that I'm clumsy. Quite true, now that I realize it.

It came off perfectly, by the way. I celebrated my newfound skill by wolfing down the pathetic $7 Gyuudon.

I'm never eating there again.

I decided not the stick around any longer. After exploring the rest of Orchard Cineliesure and aweing at how grand it all was, especially as I ascended the top few escalators, I headed back home. On the way back from the station I took a detour to the nearby Community Centre to buy a top-up card for my phone and the check out the Japanese Language classes there which would be commencing in August. I plan to take up lessons as I find I'm not going to go very far any time soon at the rate of how my self-learning is going, and I need something that I can unwind from my hectic revision every Sunday.

Then it's back to home. I have never yearned for my own bed so much, apart from those other times when I'd stay outdoors for over 12 hours at a time, which is rare.

That's all for now. I'll update on the Short Story thing later on.

My last publish was March 20th. As I happen to be quite free right now, what the heck. Time to revive this old thing. Gonna get me a new skin too.

Just recently I caught word of this webcomic that's been around for quite some time now. Being a former fan of the Bonus Stage webtoon series, a lover of all things Japanese, and an avid manga fanatic, I decided to check it out myself. This webcomic is called 'MegaTokyo', it is done by a slightly-obese 20-something white (presumably Wapanese) guy called Fred Galla- Ah, whatever. The last name's hard to spell. For a white guy, his knowledge of Japan and its people is quite impressive. He draws really well too. The story was a bit boring in the first hundred or so strips, mainly revolving around two American guys and their random adventures in a fictitious Tokyo, especially with the character called Largo (who is a representation of Fred's co-producer for this comic, Tony Caston. The guy with red hair up there) running around blowing people up, guzzling b33r all day, and modding computers n3kk1d.

My hopes weren't completely let down, though. The protagonist, Piro (with the glasses), is a really interesting character, especially since he was modeled after this Fred guy himself. He enjoys Visual Novels, speaks incredibly fluent Japanese for a White guy, is easily smitten by 15 year-old Japanese schoolgirls, and plays as a female character in a certain fictitious MMORPG. Later on, he even gets to find love in this other equally likable character. I can really relate to him. If I happen to be able to meet him in person, I think we'd be good friends. He's good to be friends with.

Sometime down the road as I'm progressing with each page I realize that Tony Caston had left the crew. I only realized that when I noticed Largo's silliness and annoying attitude died down, and he got funnier. I did read a Wikipedia article about Megatokyo, and it did mention Tony abandoning the project, but I wasn't really sure when that happened. Think it was sometime a year ago, judging from my estimations (I don't read the blog entries underneath each strip. It takes too much time, and Fred/Piro likes to rant a lot). Boo to you, Caston. Piro's version of Largo is way better.

I don't want to spill too much information, so I suggest you go read it yourself*. Mind you, this webcomic started in 2000, and seven years later it's still going strong with just over 1000 strips (of course, the Shirt Guy Dom* and Dead Piro Day* strips did contribute). There are plenty of extras in it too, like side stories, mini drama-series featuring the cast of Megatokyo, even comic artist rants (though not a lot). It touches on the not-so-comfortable lives of Japanese idols, a fantasy-like Tokyo city where potential bad guys sign permits commissioned by the local Police Force so they can destroy the city, |/VCR3D|B13 13375P34K, cute cosplay, the 3vils of Otaku, and anime rip-offs (which pulled off really well).

(Speaking of rants, I found that Piro (the character and the actual person) seems to be quite t3h Emo. He has very little self-confidence in himself, thinks too lowly of himself, and this tends to hinder his admirable ability to support a trice-a-week webcomic series. It took the biggest toll in the beginning, where there'd be several days when he couldn't work out a proper script for the next strip and would just leave us with a message saying, 'can't do anything, sorry, am taking a break, will continue next week...' It's really good for him that his fans are (as quoted by him) "the most patient fans in the world". And I think he really deserves it. Keep up the good work, man. It's worth the wait.)

Back on topic, the thing I liked most about MegaTokyo was that Fred did it with a strong sense of bearing and a clear awareness of what he had to do. He effectively touched on certain sensitive issues, like how one's low-self confidence could ruin the life of the person closest to him, and how the 'Otaku effect' affects the idols they worship to the point of insanity and ruthlessness. Besides that, the storyline itself is compelling. Compelling and complex. So complex I don't know how to summarize it for you.

That's all for this 'revival'. Just a little extra info, I took 3 days to cover all 1000+ strips from day one-2000 to the one done some time this afternoon. In total I spanned not more than 8 or so hours. Even I never knew I had such m4d5ki11z.

20-3-07

Lots of things to blog about, but right now I don't have much time. So I'll summarize.

Today was my last Physics tuition at the CDAC Student Centre near the mall. Got rushed by my parents to go early. As such, I had time to bring my Sangokushi Taisen cards out to play another session at the mall arcade. Sangokushi Taise is fn. If you don't know what it is, I'll show it to you. Soon.

Cycled there as usual. Cycling in cool nights are really refreshing. It feels absolutely awesome, the wind brushing past your face, and you get a good workout out of it too. I didn't need to sweat it out, though.

Haruhi Suzumiya of KawaiiHeavens has gone off to deployment. I'm gonna miss him so much. He brought so much life to the forums, and to me. ^_^ I'm wishing him all the best.

Got a new tune for my old blogskin. Hope it works, I haven't tried it yet. :P

Chinese New Year was great. We had Monday and Tuesday off from school to go about doing all our CNY stuff. On Sunday we had relatives to our place. I've never had to play so much Mahjong my whole life.

Monday was free for us to do anything. My brother and I decided to hit the streets, more specifically Bugis Street, to see if any of the shops were open. None, of course, but it was a picture-perfect moment, seeing the street market completely vacant, and snapped photos of it.

Tuesday, I had my classmates from school visit. It was totally unexpected, but nonetheless I prepared the mahjong set again. My parents liked some of my friends, but not a few of them. Possibly because of the way they behaved. I notice it too, and I agree with my folks.

Wednesday, back to school. As usual, a few sets at the pull-up bar with lag assistance. I gotta train up to do at least one. And that includes cutting down on my fats too. I have fats? Sure.

Saturday. Jigsaw Puzzle comptetition day. Signed up for it a few weeks ago. Woke up early in the morning just to ride a train all the way to the west side of Singapore just to attend. It's at a place called Ngee Ann Ploytechnic. Met school alumni Sean there. His band is still going okay, and he's taking a course in photography. Nice choice.

Anyways, as it turned out that event wasn't all about the jigsaw puzzle competition at all. It was more of a presentation by the Nature Photography Club (a boring one at that) about nature, and photography. The Music Conducting club who performed there weren't that entertaining either.

The hall was pretty chilly by the time the competition got going. y fingers fumbled on the pieces, but in the end our team secured 3rd fastest to finish the 90-piece puzzle, all in a span of 15 minutes. Sounds noobish, but it was harder than it looks. First place? Pioneer Secondary, team [insert number here]. Second Place, Pioneer Secondary, team [insert another number here]. Third place, Junyuan Secondary Diffusion Boyz (I came up with this name. That's what we call our foursome of science brainiacs.).

Rushed off afterwards, all the way back to Bugis, to attend an unofficial Sangokushi Taisen tournament. Met a lot of sgcardgames.com forum people there. Got knocked out in the first round, due to my inexperience (literally, my account had lesser experience and thus my Heihou was weaker I think I was the lowest-ranked guy in that tournament). It was fun, though, and I hope to attend it again.

That's pretty much what happened over the past few days. Man, suddenly I'm getting better and better at doing summaries.

After collecting dust for an extensive period of time...

The last post I made was on the 2nd of January, 2007. Today is the 16th of Febraury, over a month later. Yep, time to update my blog.

A lot of things happened over the span of more than one month. My uneventful birthday, my situation with a certain Chinese syllabus, all the new anime and stuff I've been watching, and new developments on my computer. Let's see if I can go through...

12th Jan was my birthday. Incidentaly happens to be the day before our school's CCA (interest club) Fair. Being in the NCC's marching contingent, I spent most of the afternoon under the hot sun, followed by the cold rain, practising my footdrills with the rest of the guys. Not the best birthday, as hardly anybody greeted me, there was no cake, there were no presents. Not like I was expecting anything.

CCA Fair. The marching contingent thing went quite well, after that the contingent was pretty much free to do whatever they wanted. I wandered around the milling crowds in the school compound with my precision drill rifle, ocassionally doing a few rifle moves, swings and gyrations with it, while meeting up with parents of Secondary 1 students and talking to them about the NCC.

My band's been doing fairly well. Fairly well. Cassis by Gazette has been covered, the drummer and vocalist is touching up on Baretta. I've already mastered my guitar solo. We were going to have an upcoming performance for the upcoming Chinese New Year concert.

I upgraded my 256MB RAM for a 512 one. And got the computer corrupt because of it. Turns out I forgot to remove the 126MB RAM as well. The differences in RAM size broke my comp. Had to get it fixed at the computer shop. Spent a long time waiting for Hitachi to send a replacement for my corrupt hard disk. Got the computer repaired in the end, but now it can't make sounds. It still can't make sunds. Really fsked up. Shaun couldn't do anything about it. I better send it back to the repair shop soon.

Release of the 'O'-Level results for the graduates of 2006. A tearfest, it was. I promised my teacher I'd set the record this year, and achieve 7 distinctions in the exams, one up from the current record at 6. Now everybody, even the principal, is holding me to that promise. Ugh.

Today was the day Hachigatsu (my Visual Kei band) got into full VK dress and performed Cassis live on stage in the school hall. Everybody loved it. My solo was perfect. I had a great time. Video and pics should be up soon. I'll show them to you.

And I'm having a running nose right now.

See ya guys later.

Akemashite Omodetou Gozaimasu!

Happy New Year peeps! Yeah. Joy. Hurray.

Alright, let me tell you how my December 31st went. Jan 1st comes later.

December 31st, 2006. Woke up at around 9AM, which was quite early in my usual vacation standards. Today was a special day; the family's going to the airport to meet a friend of my mum's from the Philipinnes, Aunt Gay (as in 'happy'). Mum's been telling me all about her, especially about her husband, who happens to hail from Tokyo, Japan. I was psyched. At last, a living breathing Japanese specimen I can converse with, in (broken, extremely basic, with bare honorifics special to 'gaijin' picking up the lingo) Japanese. All throughout the journey there by car, I was practising my "yokoso", "hajimemashite" and "watashi no namae wa..." 'introductory speech'. Aunt Gay (as in 'happy') has a son too, whom I later learnt was a trilingual 9 year-old with a strong Philipino accent named 'Kent'.

We watched through the glass walls as the family picked up their luggage at the belt and approach us at the automatic doors. I was the first one to greet them, with a cheery 'yokoso!'. The husband responded with a polite 'domo, domo'.

It was refreshing, to say the lest, to even be around their family. Aunt Gay (as in 'happy') and Kent were quite adept at the language too, obviously, and I listened intently to their conversations despite having a zilch clue of what they're talking about. I didn't note that Aunt Gay (as in 'happy') address Nodo Kunio-san as 'tousan' and Kent as 'nisan'. So these addresses are universal in the family, I figured.

I wanted to ask the good 'nihonjin' of his opinion of Singapore's international Airport, Changi. I made a slight blunder with 'airport' (I didn't know it was 'kuukou'), as he didn't understand when I asked him (even the way I asked him, was suck), "Changi airport suki desuka?" When Aunt Gay (as in 'happy') explained to him, he understood, and gave me quite a decent reply, one I didn't understand and made my mum comment on how little of the language I knew, and how ineffective it was in normal conversation.

We saw the family off at the car park (I greeted them "dewa mata desu", and got another reply from the whole family that I couldn't understand), and went home ourselves. We had to prepare for tonight's Countdown party at Changi Beach Club. At least, my folks had to. Me and my bro were just tagging along just to get out of the house a bit.

Meanwhile, I decided to play PangYa on the computer. I haven't touched it for a long time now, and I just picked it up again yesterday, after a certain incident with me and a PangYa figurine Gachapon machine at the nearby Gaming Store. I had also checked that I was entitled to receive a Christmas sweater for my Kooh character, as a free gift from the PangYa staff for the Christmas event (man, I'm so late, aren't I?) Sure enough, we I logged in I received a message saying that 'my gift has arrived'. But, upon checking the Gifts section, I got a pleasant surprise.

Somebody by the name of Cyprel (female), who happened to have a very nice game of golf with me the day before, has gifted me with a new character (Arin, whom I have been pining to own for ages now), two caddies, Xuexue and Bruela (no images available), whom I've not a high enough level to employ, a chocolate brown blouse and skirt set for Arin to wear, also too high a level for me to equip, and a set of Mach 4 Rocket Booster clubs, also which I am not 1337 enough to use. I am eternally grateful for the Arin she gave me, though. Then again, there's always the possibilty somebody has hacked into her account and given everything she owns to me. I managed to test her out a bit (I was thoroughly impressed at her stylish and adorable way of playng golf) before I was rushed off to the car, bound for Changi Beach Club.

Dad and mum were participating in a 'Retro Night' event. And I had nothing to do. However, I made myself busy greeting the folks there, and spent a bit of time in the Karaoke room, before heading back home out of boredom.

I had to take the 29 Bus from a nearby bus stop to the Tampines Bus Interchange, wrom where I can transfer to another bus that would take me home. The street was completely deserted, save for an occasional passing of a vehicle. The area around it was eerily dark, too. A dimly-lit park downhill to my right, a derelict WWII building to my left, and nobody at the bus stop but me. There had been rumours of 'sightings' around these parts, but I couldn't care ush for that.

As I sat there waiting for the bus (which always takes a very long time), I decided to chat up with Him up there. No, I didn't pray to him, I didn't confide in him. Shameful as it is, I do not possess the Faith. I hold a very scientific viewpoint towards Life. I do not Believe. That said, It was only idle chatter. I told Him about my problems of 2006, and how I resolved to avert all of them in the coming year. As He quietly listens, I explain how I've always been making New Year'S Resolutions every year, but I usually forget them before February ends. This year, I have vowed to drop my procrastinative attitude. If you're like me, I suggest you make that resolution too. Before it's too late and you get too lazy.

I reached home at around 11:15PM, and played a bit of Family Mode PangYa (1P/2P gameplay on a single machine), whilst admiring my new, absolutely beautiful, Arin.

At 11:57, I turned on my TV, and prepared my digital watch. I do this every year: Synch my watch with the New Year countdown. That was when I made the startling discovery that Gurmit Singh, JJ Lin and Jun Yang all play DOTA. Anyways, yes, in the end, I did get my watch synched.

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.

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.

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.

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!”

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. :)

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.

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Wow. I'm that lazy. Cool.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

The Importance of English

This is why English teachers from the West are high in demand in Japan.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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?

ITCHY!!!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?