seercouncil

Market day!

2010-02-24T19:03:00.002+08:00

Today's market day. For ppl from RI just think of it as Raffles' trail, or an opportunity for the clubs and societies to attract new members. Went around, joined overseas christian fellowship, Singapore Student Society, but not joining Table Tennis Club as of now since the fees are far from what I expected. Pretty much routine day I guess, other than the 2.5 hours of studying in the evening preparing for the lectures next week. Looks like I will be in for a tough ride, the contents which I have to study is... overwhelming, but I know I will get through this, since that's what we always do! =D

Matt

Settling in... I guess?

2010-02-23T18:37:00.002+08:00

Well, I guess I am more or less settled in by now, with the luggage mostly unpacked, going back and forth between the college and the university for lectures.... Speaking of which, a mental note to myself: Make sure that I reach the lecture room 15 minutes in advance. Out of the 3 lectures I went to, all 3 were fully packed, even though I was 5 minutes early.

Well, there's something which kind of troubled me today, which was during lunch, when some of the more senior members of the college were telling us about how people can be "punished" when not obeying the dining rules, such as no "table surfing", having to fill up the tables before starting a new one and such, with the punishment ranging from staring at a painting to being forced to leave the dining hall itself. Looks like the dining rules here are even stricter than in army...

Pretty much nothing else happened today, apart from the fact that I massacred around 10 mosquitoes in the shower room. I have no idea how come there were so many, even though I have been killing them everyday. Tomorrow would be Market day, which I kind of look forward to exploring, and seeing what types of clubs and societies there are.

Matt

Week 0 Starts

2010-02-22T18:56:00.002+08:00

Yes, it's week 0, supposed to be orientation week. Although there are actually places I have to go rushing for, I kind of like it, since it gives me a sense of purpose and keeps my mind off things. It's a welcome change of environment, since it is no longer the 100% locals around me leaving me feeling like the odd one out. The orientation for international students actually made me feel at home, with so many other people being in the same situation as me. Had a small talk with the Warden of the residential college (or hostel, but they don't call it that for some reason), and looks like they have high expectations of me, and apparently the room I currently have is set aside specially for me, since it is quieter and provides a better environment for studying. I hope that I won't repeat what I did during Sec/JC days and let them down =X

I guess today is a fruitful day after all. Got my bank account set up, met up some Singaporeans who are also studying law here, done my student ID, read up the online notes provided... It might sound kind of crazy, and I am sure that I would regret saying this in the near future, but I can't wait for the actual lectures and tutorials to start. Having something to do beats having nothing to do, stoning in the room and emo-ing. And... I got my internet quota extended! It currently stands at 30GB + 10GB the college will be providing me, as well as the usual 400MB per month as mentioned earlier. I guess that lifted my spirits too, since I can surf the net with the peace of mind without the quota running out on me. Maybe my stay here won't be so bad after all!

Matt

In Australia AGAIN

2010-02-21T17:44:00.002+08:00

Yep, I am here again, and this time, I am not counting down the days before I return to Singapore, it would be simply depressing! The thankful thing is that I am living in a hostel, so the 3 meals a day, basic internet access (It's really basic! What can you do with a 400MB quota -_-) and a tiny room. Ok maybe not so much about the tiny, but hey, it's convenient!

Somehow, it seems like I am the only non-local (or if there are non-locals, then I am the only Asian) to be in this hostel. I thought I would be able to comprehend the English spoken by them easily, but apparently it's not the case, and I need to ask them to repeat a couple of times before I get it. This kind of prevented long conversations, and yep, it's kind of lonely here despite all the people around me. Hopefully this will change when I meet up with the Christian fellowship people from Singapore, as well as when the actual course starts.

I guess it's this kind of situation when you really appreciate the things you have around you, and never really appreciated. The simple greeting from friends, your family asking how your day had been, your parents' smiles, chatting with friends... But yep, I guess this is a necessary phrase in life, and I hope that I can get over this soon.

Matt

Last day in this place!

2009-11-23T17:57:00.004+08:00

Yep! From tomorrow onwards I will step out of this place, and hopefully I won't have to come back again! That's what I thought last year, but apparently I was wrong. Only one left in this place for today, since almost everyone opted for the extra day out... at a cost, of accomodation as well as dinner expenses. It will probably add up to around 60 to 70 SGD, and I rather spend that sum on gifts or anything that catches my eye tomorrow. Can't believe that I had spend 33 days here, finally it is over! Can't believe how much I miss Singapore, and I guess it is going to be a lot worse when I come here to study next year, since it would be stretches of 4 months before I have the chance to go back.

From this trip, there will be around 10 days off for me, but I really doubt if I can use them all. Have so many things to settle that I probably can use only 9 days. At least I can inofficially "Oscar Romeo Delta" after I go back! Don't have to step into office and do work for those people =P

Yep, and Caleb, if you are reading this, jiayou! All the best, and you better pray that you won't be returning to this place next year! (Tho honestly if you have to, good luck, 3 frames! Nearly 60 days!)

Singapore, here I come!

Days remaining: 1

Matt

Back soon enough!

2009-11-21T19:09:00.003+08:00

Finally the days left can be counted with just one hand. 4 days! 30 days here, can't imagine how I got by all those days. The last "field trip" out was pretty good too, as the stars somehow seem super bright, and it was also a lot peaceful too! (No leopards running by us) Too bad I dozed off before I could see a shooting star, and only woke up at 4.30am (which the sky was super bright, Singapore's 8am equivalent.)

In preparation for the return I had already set all my watches/handphone timing to Singapore time, I wonder if that will actually help myself adapt to Singaporean time again.

Oh, I have one more day of shopping at the end of the trip, if you want me to buy anything do tell me beforehand!

Matt

Starry Night

2009-11-19T17:05:00.002+08:00

Yep, although we didn't get to watch the meteor shower, it was really a great sight, with the stars covering the entire sky. Totally reminded me of the sight I had last year, with near total darkness, and shooting stars streaking across the sky from time to time. Never fails to remind me of the fact that the universe is indefinitely big, with so many stars and planets out there, and yet God cares for every one of us with his own unique way. Indeed, all the evidences point toward the fact that God is there. Had this heart to heart talk with a new friend I had made, and I had come to realize that there are so many things which I had been blessed, but never been truly appreciated by me. Perhaps there is some good coming to this horrible place after all, since we had so much free time, it doesn't hurt to use the time for some self reflection, as well as knowing more people.

1 more day left before returning back to our tents.

ANDDDD we would be back next wednesday! (Wahahaha finally I get to say "NEXT" wednesday!)

6 more days remaining!

Bridge Madness

2009-11-16T19:18:00.002+08:00

New hobby! One which my colleague taught some of the others near our tent, and ended up wrecking our brains from the game. Brings back memories when we played bridge so often before morning assemblies during JC days. Kinda miss playing computer games, so have been playing those lousy facebook games which I would otherwise not touch. Will be going outside (again!) on wednesday evening, so don't expect any updates from then on till Saturday! All the best to YY for her wedding rehearsal performance (alright, it's her cousin's), as well as the actual performance on Saturday! Will keep you in prayer once again!

And oh darn, missed the free chocolate milk the canteen is giving out again. Maybe it is good for me as well, since expiry date is today (again!)

9 days left! Finally it is single digit! Can't wait to get back to Singapore and away from this horrible horrible weather. A wall clock stated that it was 41 degrees within a tent today at 10am. Madness!

10 days!

2009-11-15T19:54:00.002+08:00

Still pretty much bored in this place, at least our tent is situated under a tree (that allows us a cooler tent to sleep in the morning!) Usually the heat will force people to wake up around 7am but for us, it is still bearable till 11pm. Yep, after today's confusion due to some vehicle problems, I realised that I need to watch my language, especially when my civilian life is just around the corner! I guess I also need to keep my cool as well, or nothing good will turn out as a result (to myself and others around me)

Oh, there's this offer for milk here, buy 2 get 1 free. After grabbing it (like typical Singaporeans) we realised that the expiry date is today. Yep, definitely has a reason after all -_-. After drinking it my stomach feels weird, don't know if it is due to milk or other reason. Never spending money on canteen again. Current expenditure in canteen here: A$2. Total: $9.50. Not bad eh =D

Yep, 10 days to Singapore! =D

Matt

Hot!

2009-11-14T14:17:00.002+08:00

Yep, weather getting undeniably hotter. Makes me miss the rainy weather when you can just sleep the whole day. Now, it is impossible to study/sleep between 9am to 3pm, even in the toilet (which is relatively cooler). Been playing a bit of CS (old times!) using the laptop we brought, but we are getting bored of it already! Left 4 Dead runs pretty smooth, but overheats the laptop too easily to complete a proper game..

And oh, internet is always crowded again, now that everyone is back. I guess I will keep waking up at 5am (like what we did today) a daily routine!

11 days left! Can't wait to get out of here!

Random thoughts

2009-11-12T16:15:00.002+08:00

Yep, so much time here, inevitably you will end up with thinking random things. Today's topic will be appreciation (especially in the workplace), which was discussed with one of my friends yesterday night. Honestly, it is extremely easy to show one's appreciation for another. It doesn't have to be a gift, a treat to lunch, but can be as easy as a personal email appreciation, or even just saying thank you. This is something which I have rarely encountered in my workplace, and those words of appreciation only come from those who are around the same age as us. This can lead to an extremely inefficient workplace, since everyone who are of the same status/appointment essentially get the same salary, no matter how hardworking they are. It seriously bothers me when the treatment I get generally is almost the same as a super lazy colleague of mine, by those of higher... appointment. Bleh. Luckily I would be getting out of there soon enough, so that problem will be up to the new people to solve.

But yep, on a happier note, mass slacking today, as well as a barbecue later! Kinda compulsory, but definitely something different from the usual routine!

13 days left!

2nd post of day!

2009-11-11T18:11:00.002+08:00

Yep, been reading this book, A Case of Faith, a friend of mine (Caleb) kindly lent me. After reading halfway into the book (which Caleb has been telling me repeatedly that's too fast to absorb the meaning of the book =P ), it seems like my doubts on my faith vanished all of a sudden. Previously I had been questioning myself repeatedly about whether I could have misplaced my faith, but now, I am 100% sure I made the right choice. I must have been blind not to recognise the evidence around me which points to the fact that there must be an Intelligent Designer. I must really agree that the Evolution theory threw me off track for a long while, it seems like there was an alternate explanation on the origin of life. However, as the book kindly pointed out, every living organism, even the most basic form (bacteria), has designs so complex (storage, food processing etc.) that it is impossible to create by artificial means. The theory of random lightnings zapping into warm pools of water and creating life in ancient Earth is totally impossible due to the complexity behind each living cell, the lack of proper materials (proven by scientists). Even if amino acids were being formed (shown in Miller's experiment, under the RIGHT conditions, which were not present in prehistoric Earth), to make a cell fully functional, it would require far more than the amino acids randomly produced. The time period required for a cell to evolve into complex organisms such as humans would be far longer than the Earth's age (at least, the time period which supports life) itself. Other things would include the oxygen composition in the atmosphere which I read about some time ago, in which a slightly higher oxygen concentration will combust when lightning occurs (read the book to find out more, guess I am getting tired already and can't recall much =P)

Going to run to grab some nights snack. Just felt like posting this out of impulse, so yep.

Cya guys in 14 days =P

2 weeks more!

2009-11-11T11:07:00.002+08:00

Yep, finally I can smell the end of this! Just 14 more days and I would be out of here! Can't imagine that I already spent 20 days here. At least the internet room/tent is accessible since most of the people here are out! It has been rainy for the past 3 days, so it has been getting really cold, even in the day! I estimate the temperature to be around 20 degrees at the moment, and the strong wind (I guess it is due to proximity to shore line as well as high ground) isn't helping! Only thing good about this camp would be the reception! Finally I get to use the Zone 1511 phone card, and apparently I still have 200+ minutes left! Looks like I am going to spend the rest of the time here using this card!

And yep, L4D 2 is coming out! And I believe Modern Warfare 2 already did! Argh, spoilt for choices! Without income, I am not too sure if I should get both! Temptations!

Countdown: 14 days!

Matt

Back from Days out!

2009-11-10T16:07:00.002+08:00

Yep, back to tents again! That night out was sooooo great, finally getting to sleep on a proper bed instead of a foldable one! We certainly made good use of time to do some shopping, as well as to explore the area, since we heard that there is this last day here which we could go out again! Whee!

Some things I had been thinking of during the shopping trip. Yep, I practically stoned at a corner while watching my friends buy Havaianas slippers, and each pair can cost up to around 40 Australian dollars, which is slightly more than 50 SGD at the current conversion rate. Makes me wonder if paying so much for those slippers, which are evidently made of cheap materials (foam like) is worth it. According to my friends it was supposed to be quite sturdy and can last quite some time, but I doubt if it will make a difference if I buy 10 pairs of lousy 3rd rate slippers - probably can outlast that single pair! Probably some will say quality over quantity, but seriously, I am not convinced! Maybe it has something to do with myself willing to spend 80+ dollars on a mouse, while others won't (but hey, the higher sensitivity and comfort does work wonders for gaming!)

But yep, that place, Big W, had been visited by me the last year, so I guess pretty everything is familar! We also found out that the canteen has been ripping us off, selling 600ml milk in cardboard cartons for A$3.50 while Coles (think cold storage) had been selling 2 litre milk, more than 3 times the volume (same brand!) in a plastic bottle for only A$3.20. Win. Even with transportation costs involved I am VERY sure it isn't that much. Not going to spend a single cent in the canteen this frame. Yep, only spent A$7 on canteen so far for 20 days, and I intend to keep it that way =)

Yep, congrats to the people who ORDed! Do keep in touch and have fun!

Matt

Rain!

2009-11-07T11:29:00.002+08:00

Cooling day today, with a real proper rain instead of one which ends 2 minutes after it starts. Yep, got to sleep quite a bit, so I guess it is far better than the other days which hot weather forces us to wake up at around 7am local time.

Ok, my days out of this place would be tomorrow and the day after, which means I won't be able to use the internet then. So if you want me to get anything for you, drop me an sms! I should have internet access again on the 10th.

Days remaining: 18 days! Rawr.

Matt

A to Z madness? =)

2009-11-06T11:23:00.002+08:00

I guess during my free time I had been playing this facebook game a bit too excessively. Yep, this application called "How fast can you type A to Z". Sheer boredom I guess. Weather can be too hot to sleep in bunk, so most of the time is spent in the canteen, or the neighboring internet room. Or tent that is.

Day out is confirmed, on the 8th and 9th of November. Yep, so if any of you want anything from Australia, remember to drop me an email/sms asap!

Countdown: 19 days

2 weeks here...

2009-11-05T18:44:00.002+08:00

Ok, I was partly wrong when I stated that the weather was turning colder. The NIGHTS are turning colder, but the days are turning hotter. Not only it is getting hotter, it seems to be also getting more humid. I hardly sweated for the last 13 days, but today... different story. Hopefully it will change, sweating in this kind of weather is just plain uncomfortable.

Looking at my friends ORD, looking at my temporary bunkmates preparing to go back to Singapore, I guess it fuels a sense of frustration within. To go through the same thing again, it is just plain boredom. I feel as if being imprisoned within this area, which is partly true I guess, not being able to venture out of this aarea, doing the same thing over and over again. Only bright side is that I won't have to work anymore after I go back to Singapore (depends on whether the boss keeps his promise)

Oh, I guess there's something to break the monotony of life here. There was this possum which was hanging around on a tree near our sleeping area, and we decided to try to catch it due to sheer boredom. A wild possum chase, all attempts to trap it failed. It's actually pretty cute, I will post photos when I come back haha.

Days to go: 20. Fully 14 days here and I am getting tired of it =P

Back!

2009-11-04T13:53:00.002+08:00

Ok, back from this field trip. Or whatever you call it, finally I can type my post with no one looking over my back, since most people in my area isn't back yet, or are tasked to do some stuff. Yesterday night was freezing. I have no idea what's with the weather nowadays, as usually weather gets warmer as it progresses to summer, not the other way round. But overall still the trip is enjoyable, and I feel really guilty for leaving most of the work to my friends. At least the area we set up shop had handphone reception!

Well, I guess the free time during this trip had given me a lot of time to think things over, I guess perhaps this trip to Australia isn't that bad after all, at least it gives me mental preparation for my future university, since I will have to be out of Singapore for at least 4 months at one shot. It's only about 2 weeks and I am already missing my family and friends.

Ok, I am not going to type anymore, the wind is very strong, and I am at risk of getting smacked by this flapping piece of tent, as well as the risk of the whole tent collapsing. Going to make a move first! To those ORD ppl: Congrats!

Countdown: 21 days. So close, yet so far...

Breaktime!

2009-11-02T18:45:00.003+08:00

Yep, managed to get back today! Yesterday night was really cold, and I am so glad I brought my sleeping bag along. The star view we saw, honestly, wasn't as good as the last time, and I am willing to bet that it is due to the full moon's light interfering with the starlight. The moonlight is actually so bright that the picnic lantern we brought wasn't used at all, and my friend actually managed to read a book under that light. It also wasn't so hot during the daytime, as we are on high ground, and for some reason there was a lot of wind (also contributed to a lot of airborne sand).

Due to boredom, the whole bunch of us did quite a bit of stupid things, like trying to cook instant noodles using heat from the sun. Actually kind of worked, but I swear it is unhealthy - The soup was pretty much concentrated - it was contained in that small maggie mee pack. Another thing we did was to hunt for handphone reception, and I have come to the conclusion that my current phone brand is useless - The nokia phone my pal had managed to get 4 bars (out of 5) of reception. Thankfully due to the break in activities I am back to civilization!

On the side note: Water is still out. Unable to shower. Rawr.

23 days. Not too sure if counting down is a good idea =)

Water Supply Cut... GAH

2009-10-31T16:45:00.002+08:00

Travelled in an open-air vehicle for around 4 hours today. Hate the sand -_- It gets everywhere, hair, ears, nose, mouth.... You name it, you have it. But only consolation today is that we could return to our residential area. The first thing we heard when we reached was that there was water shortage and no one was allowed to shower. Sandy bodyyy + no shower = bad morale. But at least I got to wash up quite a bit. Refreshing. Now we finally understand how important water is (but I really didn't need this practical experience)

Yep, tomorrow morning we are setting off for real, and won't be returning until Wednesday afternoon. The water shortage (pipe problem) better be solved by then... Or else... (Nothing happens, since I can't do anything anyway)

Countdown: 25 days (Not to ORD, but to Singapore =X)

Matt

1 day before... working outside

2009-10-30T15:25:00.002+08:00

Yep, have been keeping words with reference to my job at a minimum. Weather has been really crazy. One moment it is super sunny, everyone hanging out laundry to dry, and without warning, it pours. And 3 minutes later, it's super sunny again. And I thought Singapore's weather was bad. Heard from friends that it is super hot now in Singapore, at least it isn't humid here, so we hardly sweat! Yep, already finished packing my bag, everything which is supposed to be fixed on our vehicle done, all we are waiting is for the time to set off (approximately after lunch tomorrow)

I guess it is a bit too early for friends to come on MSN, so I will try to log on later. If not the next time I can come online would be on Wednesday (4th Nov).

And oh, Y3, if you are reading this, all the best for your driving test tmr! Will keep you in prayers =)

Countdown: 26 days! Lost my fight against temptation and spent money on overpriced milk again. Expenditures so far: AU$7. Will try to keep THAT at a minimum too LOL.

Matt

Tiring day

2009-10-29T18:25:00.002+08:00

Yep, after lunch, had been working on some vehicle setup. All the way until dinnertime. Pretty much tiring day, and the worst part is that our own vehicle wasn't here yet. Highlight of the day would be running into this close friend of mine, Yong Jun, who came here with the... branch that flies things. Never knew he was working in this particular place. Was nice seeing a familiar face after so long! Oh, the canteen's internet is down, and some kind soul allowed us to use this secret place to surf the net.

Anddd, last but not least, countdown: 27 days.

Matt

Cold Weather!

2009-10-28T19:17:00.002+08:00

Yep, been raining here and there today. Showers for several minutes, and repeated every few hours. Good weather for sleeping once again. Sadly we had to wake up early this morning to do some work, and thankfully it stopped raining just for its duration. My belief is that due to the rain the day didn't manage to heat up the place properly, and now, it is freezing. Thank goodness for the jacket and track pants. Got my schedule, will be going out on Saturday, so don't expect any updates/calls until Wednesday! It is going to be a long ride, approximately around 8 hours? Sheesh.

Will try to update before Saturday.

Matt

Countdown: 28 days. Arghhh

Sandy updates (Or is it MUDDY?)

2009-10-27T18:44:00.002+08:00

Yep, muddy for once. It is actually raining! It didn't rain the last time I was here, so it is a new experience for me? LOL. But yep, the day was actually cooling enough for me to sleep until 12pm today, unlike the usual heat which makes it impossible to sleep (at least for me, can't imagine how the other people sharing the place do that).

Actually managed to see the most distinct rainbow I had ever seen, but sadly before I can pull out the camera it was already mostly gone. Yep, will post the picture when I get back. Pretty sad to see it slowly fading away, from the darker side of the sky to the bright side.

Tomorrow will be the day when work actually starts. I guess it would be a good change, been slacking for too many days, and it definitely isn't healthy. Friday will be the day I go outfield, so don't expect any updates from me for 5 days from then! Will try to come online/update as much as I can!

Countdown: 29 days!

Matt

30 days more... In this sandy place

2009-10-26T17:16:00.002+08:00

Yep, 30 days more. Getting a bit homesick I guess, not because of the number of days here, but because of the number of days remaining. Still nothing much to do, as the main activities aren't starting yet. Highlight for today would be this heli taking off during lunchtime. Generated this duststorm that forced everyone nearby to run =D

Food has been pretty good, as good as I recalled last year. However good it is I am not coming back again or I will do something nasty haha.

Just started on this fairy tale which a friend of mine recommended, seems pretty good! Will take my time to read to savour the details LOL.

Gotta run I guess, weather forecast is showers tomorrow. My sleeping area is located at lower grounds, so it is probably going to flood. Going to waterproof my belongings. Will try to come online as soon as I can.

Matt

Greetings from... The land of SAND!

2009-10-24T15:45:00.002+08:00

Yep, am calling the place that. Still have 33 days of this... test of endurance haha. Pretty much doing nothing here, except for travelling 100km and back on a 50km/h vehicle to retrieve something... that got lost in transit =) Hereby reviving this blog for the moment, at the request of someone ahahaha!

Over here, it is a different... place of residence from the one I went last year. Totally no handphone reception, except this highly discussed tree which somehow has reception, but is "25 minutes walk away", so I guess I am too lazy to walk there ahaha. The sand (YES the SAND, called Land of the sand for a good reason) is everywhere, in the air, in your shoes, in the tent, (yep, only tents for sleeping). To illustrate how bad it was, my footwear got covered in sand from a single trip (around 30 metres) to the toilet, and back. During a 2+2 hour vehicle journey (mentioned above), the rims of my specs got coated with sand.

The temperature now is currently 25 degrees average in daytime, and can drop quite sharply in the night. Thank goodness for the sleeping bags! In the day, it is almost impossible to sleep, as the tents get heated up, and radiate the heat inwards. It is actually much cooler outside then inside, so most of us avoid the tents during the day. This makes the canteen (which screens movies) an attractive option. Been trying to study but the heat is definitely distracting!

For the next few days, probably will be doing nothing much. The main activities are scheduled for next week, so I will try to come online as much as possible.

Matt

I have moved

2008-09-28T00:58:00.002+08:00

I have moved!

http://smilesintertwined.blogspot.com/

Do Drop by! Or don't. But try :)

Chris

Resurrect!

2008-07-14T20:30:00.002+08:00

Raise Dead! Yes, after being dead for so many months, I am raising this blog from the dead. Just bored and nothing to do, so decided to post briefly what happened over the past few months. Well, NanoSquirrel(heh), despite my previous experiences in UG, is a culture shock for me, and till now, I have more or less got used to it. Learnt a lot of interpersonal skills and politics from it, so I guess it kind of prepares for my future (and gives 2 years of buffer period before uni, so it isn't as stressful for me compared to the girls on uni apps)

I am only going to cover in brief for fear of revealing any... sensitive info. In basic training, I learnt how to face disappointment, and for the physical aspect, got fitter. Lost 10kg! Haha, so for girls who want to lose weight, join the army! Also got used to the weekend only life, which is going to last for the next 1 year 4 months (around there). In spec course, I learnt to get dirty, and don't complain so much! I guess those complaining can get on people's nerve. Put up with people (quite a few) whom were not *very* enjoyable, and I am glad it is behind me. Through this course, I also come to realise how blessed I am, as no matter where I am, someone will be taking care of me (and still is, for which I am eternally grateful). Ended up in signals, which I didn't expect to, due to the small number allocated per cohort, guess that's another sign that God has been taking care of me. Now in good company, and enjoying it there (maybe that might change after Endurance LOL).

Looking back, I still think that Nanosquirrel has more pro than cons. It has also help me appreciate freedom and how much my family mean to me. Have to run, my time is up. Have to go back to you know where. Will try to post as much as possible.

Matt.

Prom

2007-12-07T21:48:00.001+08:00

I finally got around to uploading prom photos into my laptop. In a way I did try to put it off a bit cause of the feelings of nostalgia and slight tinge of sadness everytime i open the folder and look at them. Hmm some of the people I took pics with were folks I didn't know very well, so that kinda defeats the purpose of taking the pics in the first place coz they're supposed to remind you of fond memories after all. But nvm! At least most of them do have some alot of meaning.

(Most of) the class guys. Shuai ge's every last one and almost everyone wore suits. Looks like I'm the only one wearing a tie though... X ] haha i knew i was overdressed but whatever! If there's one occasion where its ok to be overdressed it's prom. X )

That's (from right) Yeeying, Joanna and I. Haha simply dashing! I found it hard to recognize some of the girls during the whole thing. Like the image of them in their sch u and the person standing in front of you just doesn't quite fit, but in a nice way of course.
And that's Zack, Matt and I. Haha Zack's eyes had to go off center at the worst possible moment coz apparently he didn't focus at the camera but whatever I'm so used to it already that i dun even notice it at all. Haha PW group photo! With Jheeva, Benlow, Yeeying and Sirui. Without them PW would probably have been the most tedious mundane task in the whole world but they made it exciting and enjoyable for me throughout. Most bonded PW group ever!

Now I'm looking forward to shooting chalet! Dec 10 can't come fast enough..

Chris

Singapore bans Mass Effect

2007-11-15T23:38:00.000+08:00

Singapore bans Mass Effect

"Microsoft and Bioware's sci-fi action role-playing game Mass Effect is due to be released on November 20 in North America and November 23 in Europe. There will be one country that won't be playing the highly anticipated title, though--Singapore.

Reuters is reporting that the Microsoft game has been banned by Singapore's Media Development Authority due to the much publicised love scene that can occur between a female human--if the main character is set up as female--and alien 'woman'. The gender of the alien in question is actually not quite that simple; while female in appearance, the designation has little significance for the species in question--the Asari--as they are mono-gendered."

Haha kinda unreasonable to ban the game just for this isn't it? For those who've seen the movie, its just 10 secs of 2 moving heads and 1 hand, so it's.... definitely not as sexually explicit as the MDA makes it out to be.

Maybe it's for the greater good, just like the retaining of Section 377A was for the good of the society, to give gays their own space while still maintaining our status as a society with conservative, traditional values. So maybe in the same way, this ban's to protect the sensibilities of the (impressionable, i guess) youths.

But good news! It’s not illegal to play or own the game in the country. So Singaporean players are still free to obtain their game from other sources. And the MDA stated that a new video games classification system would be introduced next year could allow titles such as Mass Effect to be passed and classified appropriately. Yay!

Edit: About-turn! The ban's been lifted. Looks like Xboxers are gonna be able to enjoy Mass Effect after all (:
Chris

A lull in the storm

2007-11-06T20:27:00.000+08:00

There's a lull in the storm. 3 weeks left and 7 papers more to go.

Exam papers always have a way of surprising you. No matter how well you study, no matter how much practice you get, somehow someway there's always bound to be something unexpected in every paper. And it just so happens that some of this stuff comes out during one of the most important exams in your life.

GP was just absymal. Horrendous, absolutely torrid performance on my part. And not that I didn't prepare well enough.. it's just that whatever I studied didn't come out. What a shocking way to start the A levels... In the end I and maybe 1000 other people chose to do the environment question which was like a no-brainer, but I wouldn't be surprised if reading essentially the same arguments over and over again could make the markers decide to "adjust" their expectations a bit. =(

And the past 2 days have just been downright horrible. Chem Paper 3, Bio Paper 2 and Math Paper 2 squeezed into two days. I think it's all Deepavali's fault.

Nothing much to say about Chem, except for the fact that there was absolutely no elucidation. That's always been my forte.. I always look at elucidation questions and think to myself : Free Frag. But not this time nope, just some silly questions on inorg and physical chem mostly. Bleah. And I gotta make a note to myself to never ever study the way I did for bio ever again. Making notes and not practicing. On the eve of Bio and Math with less than 12 hours to go i found my brain shockingly devoid of any bio knowledge. So in the end i had to burn the midnight oil doing other schs' prelim papers until 1, catch some sleep, then wake up at 5 and pia again until 7 when it was time to leave... Surprisingly, both papers weren't so hard. I've got a feeling that 99% of the sch population's gonna get at LEAST 90 for math paper 2 coz it was that easy.

And now we're looking at 1 week without exams, until next Tuesday. Bit of time to catch up on Bleach and ppl on msn. I'm watching Dan in Real Life now. It's a comedy starring Steve Carell, who's this columnist Dan Burns who gives people advice on how to manage their relationships but who's own life is ironically so screwed up. Single parent with 3 daughters growing up with their own brand of teenage agnst, and the youngest of whom brands him a "good father but a bad dad". Then he meets this beautiful lady at his family reunion, and they instantly click and just fall so deeply in love with each other, but she turns out to be his younger bro's (Dane Cook) girl. So... lots of meaningful looks across the dining table, some sad attempts at being a caring father, awkwardness etc.

I'm really loving Steve Carell. It's not that we havent' seen this kind of comedy before, and Jim Carrey's "Liar Liar" comes to mind, but its just not often that you see the bad-parent plot work. But Steve Carell makes it believable and real. Its because he's such a failure at managing his relationships with his daughters and fitting into his extended family where everyone's married/dating that makes him a character we laugh at and sympathize with at the same time. I hope he goes on to make more good movies while keeping up the good work with the Office.

(: Happy Deepavali.. i guess.

Scared

2007-11-03T23:35:00.000+08:00

I'm scared...

'Cause things rarely turn out the way we hope they would

Chris

Wake up your idea

2007-10-01T22:27:00.000+08:00

Going back to school after prelims, everything feels rather refreshing. Same people, but I think after so many weeks of separation everyone's just eager to get reacquainted again. Or maybe it's the realization that we don't have much time left to spend together that's making everyone treasure their time together more.

Got back the last of my grades today. ABBBBA, which is I guess rather good but definitely not something I'd wanna get for A's. If I were still the person I was a few years back, I'd be fervently comparing my grades with my classmates'. GEP mentality I guess, needing reaffirmation of your ability to pwn others in some subject, but I think that I've learnt to be more content with the results I have and compare them with my results in the past rather than that of others.

Some people really let grades get to their heads, getting demoralized when their grades don't meet their expectations. And it's not because of what they fear their A's will turn out to be, but the grade itself. Of course its natural to feel depressed for a while, but I think that it's important to visualize the big picture too, and see prelims for what they really are: A natural step to solidifying your knowledge for A's.

Only 1 month left to go!

Chris

Angst post?

2007-09-15T22:57:00.000+08:00

With end of the year approaching, prelims undergoing and great As approaching, I get mixed feelings over school life as a whole. Looking back, somehow I think that despite having so many... so-called "friends", most of the friendships are... so superficial. Seriously, come to think of it, 10 years down the road, how many of these people will actually bother to say a simple "hi" when we meet on the streets? Some of these "friends" I *had* don't even do that when we run into each other in school. Trying to avoid eye contact, and even after I greet them they ignore me and just walk on. Happened too many times to be accidental, I am quite sure.

Here's something I had used as my MSN nick a few weeks back. "True friends are people who will stand by you, even if they have everything to lose and nothing to gain". And no, true friends aren't measured by that "True Friends Test" somewhere in this blog. Sadly to say the number can be represented by the number of fingers on my hands. How many people are nice to me so for the sake of me able to provide notes, and turning away when I desperately need their help? Indeed, true friends are priceless, and I am thankful to say that I am truly blessed to have them in my life.

Of course, mixed feelings about A levels, end of JC life. After JC, sadly, friendship in future will probably be really superficial. Of course, after the great As, no more insane mugging sessions like we are having now, but how often will we get together in future? With hardly anything in common, in different universities, and possibly even different jobs, I wonder if we would have anything to talk about.

Of course, I must thank these people for being there for me... My best friends Chris & Zack for keeping me sane throughout the 6 years since sec 1(sounds familar? :P), Kai Kok, Zheng Jie, Shaun, Yewen for being there for me when I need you(plus not looking down on me for my sucky grades lol, and Zheng Jie, once again for lending me that Bio file 2 days before Bio paper 3), Gerald Teh *NOT Tay haha* (for being a friend even after so many years since P3, and even remembering my birthday after so many years). And oh, thanks Ackerley, for providing me with the HP book lol. All the little things you do show that you care, and usually don't go unnoticed. Probably there are more, but I just can't recall, with my brains half dead from mugging so if I forgot to add your name here, please forgive me lol. Hopefully I am as much of a friend to you just as you are to me.

Last but not least, sorry for this angsty post heh. Sharp contrast from Chris' post below.

Lim Enwei Matthew (For those who didn't get my name right lol)

A bittersweet farewell

2007-08-25T01:23:00.000+08:00

School's not out yet and it feels like the end of the year already, what with teachers saying it's been fun teaching us and lectures and tutorials winding down. I'm glad for that.. they were getting monotonous anyway.

Reflections:

I went around class today collecting autographs for my class photo. I'm touched by what my classmates wrote for me, thanking me for being a nice-guy, a responsible rep, and a good friend.
If there's one thing I regret, its not reaching out to more people in class. Especially the 4 girls. Sometimes when I look at them sitting together and try to think of things to say about them my mind just goes blank. And I can imagine the expression on their faces as they try to think about things to say about me. It's sad that I'm still at square 1 with them at the end of two years, same as where everyone started.

But I'm grateful to all the friends I have for what they've done for me. They're what I go to school for. Every morning I'd go to my OG table and be joined by li ying, li xing, yonghan and their friends, and I'd always feel blessed for being in their company. And today li ying did the nicest thing, giving us apples with a =) on them and wishing me luck for prelims. Seriously how many people do stuff like this? Its just awesome. Being OGL's possibly one of the best things that happened to me in RJ, and I'd give anything to be able to go back to relive orientation again. Were there things I could've done differently? Definitely. Not being so "admin-guy" and reaching out more would've helped, though some things..can't be helped. If people have their own cliques and friends to be with I'm happy for them.

And the guys too! Can't forget about them. These are the people I hang around with all the time, and I guess that we've become so used to each other that no subject's taboo among us. Eating together in RI, playing chess, ponning (occasionally), struggling to pass NAPFA, making fun of Kevin, HOTA, talking rubbish in class, more chess, DOTS, H3; man it's tough not to feel nostalgic about those times.

Can't forget the shooting people either. I went down to the range on Thursday to seek some closure. Deep in my heart, I know I'm not going back to shooting in the future. The sport's gonna be the same, but the people aren't. It's awesome to make people feel loved and be loved by others, and these are the sort of things that are only possible when you've got people like Wilson, Ruru, Eme, Leonard, Lala, Anna and all the other people whom I've had fun training and hanging out with.

And last but not least, my best friends Matt and Zack. You guys have kept me sane for the past 6 years, and I don't think there's been a period of more than two days when we don't have three-way convos with each other and talk about games and schoolwork, and all the random things under the sun. I took matt's fren test a couple of days ago and scored 90, which is amazingly enough higher than what his bro scored. Only got 30 for Zack's test though, coz beyond RI i don't know much about his (mysterious) past. Who knew he was from MENSA? Haha hopefully we'll make it through prelims and As together.

Now I think I'm going to embark on a hiatus. It's time to focus all my energies on doing well for prelims and A's. The final stretch. Once again, to all these people. Thankyou. For the love that you give. Keep in touch.

Love,
Chris

A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.

I AM BACK!

2007-08-19T21:33:00.000+08:00

Long time no post. Haven't posted for around... half a year? Things haven't been going well for me lately, with grades all screwed up and myself not feeling motivated to study. Now that prelims (which always seem to be sooooo far away) are right around the corner, I wonder if everything is too late >_<

Got myself a few private tutors who are doing their best to help me, so hopefully, God willing, I will make it.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I want to share with you all something which happened to my cousin. He was diagnosed with liver cancer (which he kept hidden from us till like 1 week ago, telling us it was a case of kidney stone), and underwent treatment to remove tumour as well as chemotherapy. One week ago, during the blood test, the doctor told him that the cancer cells have spreaded all over his body, and he only have at most 2 weeks to live, giving him the option to try for even more frequent chemotherapy and hope for the best, or just giving up (since chances are slim). He chose the latter.

His girlfriend accepted his decision, and got her church to pray for my cousin(who wasn't a Christian). The next day, my cousin unexpectedly felt better. After going through another blood test, the doctor, who was really puzzled, announced there were no traces of cancer cells in his blood. My cousin, who was supposed to have 2 weeks to live, is on his way to full recovery (and is becoming a Christian of course)

Miracle, or luck? For those of you who still insist that there is no such thing as miracles, I will have nothing more to say. If this doesn't convince you, I don't believe anything else will. Personally, I see this as the former, and this has greatly strengthened my faith in Him. All I pray is that my cousin will completely recover from his ordeal, and more people will take up this faith and share His love. If any of you are interested in taking up this faith, feel free to approach me (or any Christians you know =P)

Matthew, signing off...

J2 Farewell

2007-08-12T01:52:00.000+08:00

It couldn't have gone better.

We had our dinner by the pool, which had our names carved out in styrofoam and floating on the surface. Damn nice. And originally all the j2s and j1s were divided and even the j2s were divided by gender; girls sat here, guys sat there. But luckily after much complaining and shuffling, we combined the tables together and sat there munching and reminiscing..

Then after dinner there were like performances. The girls sang SHE's Superstar, the guys and girls sang Breaking Free from High School Musical (more like lip syncing to the song but it was darn sweet), and eunice and huiru did their specially choreographed moves to a para para song (which instantly dug up fond memories of para-paraing at the Yishun arcade) I think that under any other circumstances it would be nigh-impossible to get anyone to do such things. And even though everyone was like laughing out loud, i could tell that everyone really appreciated the lengths to which the j1s had gone to entertain us.

Following that we adjourned to the living room to watch the farewell vid. Hmmm got a sense of deja vu watching this one. Close to the one we did last year (all the ghey themes) but it was hilarious nonetheless. Then ruru and yuheng performed emo songs for all of us, then after that all the shooters got a chance to go up and give a short speech, sort of a reflection on the events of the past two years. yeapyeap suitably emo with lots of teary moments and outpourings of emotion.

All in all i dun have any regrets. I didn't pick shooting as my first choice, and in fact it was sort of like a last resort. But the friends i've made, the fun i've had helping out with events, training with buddies and loving others and being loved, make me feel glad that i joined back shooting in the end, coz it was truly something unique and special. As for the j1 batch, they're as united as one could ever hope for, and i think they've really got the potential to excel and surpass what we've achieved for the club.

Thanks a lot J1s, for making this a night to remember.. <3

International Frenship Week

2007-07-20T23:10:00.000+08:00

I haven't been falling behind in homework but i'm not exactly ahead either, and prelims feel like they're drawing close. The past two weeks i've spent studying H3 bio, and it turned out that only 10% of the things i mugged for came out for the actual test so it was like wth-i-semi-wasted-my-precious-time for this crap. Oh wells at least that's behind me now..

We spent tues' civics walking around this exhibition at the amphi showcasing the different cultures in S'pore, watching the performances by the CO, ICC and dancers. Quite cool, esp compared to the stage play of Ne-Zha the other half of the school had to endure. Heard that it made even the PRC scholars nod off... Haha

And i've been spending a lot of time with the shooting ppl of late. Even though i'm like not obligated to come down for training anymore its still fun to drop by every now and then and watch everyone go about doing their thing. Caught harry potter with wil, anna, leo and tucktuck on thurs. Frankly the movie sucks; i feel like if not for the fact that I had company i probably would've felt like i'd wasted my 8 bucks. Naturally when one reads the book to hype oneself up there's always some stuff that one wishes the movie could've done (better). Cho Chang's kissing scene was super random, I wish the characters could've been more developed and convincing, and there was even one scene when Lucius Malfoy demanded that Harry hand over the prophecy and Neville shouted:

"Don't give it to HER!" lol looks some someone in the editing dept's gonna get fired.

And today we had IHC which was like a huge booming success what with all the councilors bringing the masses down to compete and everyone being so focused on winning. Had some CONTROVERSY though near the end when Michelle and I let the group we was supervising continue shooting even after time was up. So there was some tension between MT and BB over whether the score should've been counted but haha nothing that a shootout couldn't fix.

Now i'm facing this pile of hw that's been left undone coz of my H3. Rawr this is gonna be a busy weekend.

Chris LOLed @

Nationals

2007-07-09T00:12:00.000+08:00

A humbling experience.

Pretty much sums up my nationals. I felt that we did the best we could, but our performance this year pales in comparison to that of last year.

I had a choice; I knew that if i held on to the gun too long i'd start shaking and my shot would go haywire, but most of the time I held on anyway and sure enough, the shot went off. Had to get called back by Joanna half a dozen times throughout for advice on wrist-lock and trigger finger and alignment. In the end leonard shot 532, thanks to his accidentally loading 2 pellets into his gun and shooting a 4 and 2, tuck heng 526 and 527 for me. It wasn't the best of scores, but it did get us 3rd, and miraculously enough, we beat CJC by 1 point. Slimmest of margins.

And afterward everyone gathered around to cam whore a bit. Some funny moments where the j1 exco gathered for a pic, and purposely put eunice and jon koh together. Like poles repel =] Then we went to Fish and Co. at Glass House for dinner. Daniel Randy and Perry the j3s joined us and the 20+ of us sat together and dined and talked lots of kok. I kept asking the waiters to refill my kola tonic for me so in the end the price went down to $1 per glass. Shiok right? And at the end we celebrated Ruru and Vanessa's birthday. 17 years old gulp.

Ack it's just starting to dawn on me that my life at rjshooting's coming to a close. Sure there's still school trainings to go to but now that the j1s are all starting to grow into their roles as shooters and exco and a batch, prolly we'll be seeing and talking to each other less. Then there's prelims and A's to worry about now, so even if I had the time to go down, I can just imagine giving myself excuses to give training a miss.

I'm gonna miss training at safra; even the monotonous lectures with coach had their funny moments, and the adrenalin rush of shooting finals with wil, leo, lala, jo and ruru. I'm gonna miss playing para para at the arcade after training, trading gossip at macs @ northpoint, and slacking on the train home.

And so on 6/7/07 we said our final goodbyes to safra and walked down that rock path for the last time in probably a long time. Man i'm gonna miss that place..

NUSIS

2007-06-07T20:43:00.000+08:00

Just shot in NUS invitational shoot today. Did okay I suppose, but in the end we placed fourth behind NUS, CJC and MJC with scores of 543 (Leonard), 524 (me) and 523 (wiL). Quite funny, wil's last shot was some screwed up 5 and he blamed it on Leonard coz Leonard was standing 5m behind him looking at him shoot and he noticed. Lol.

And after that we went arcade to destress with Para-Para and Bishi-Bashi and some other screwed up game. Jiahui, Samantha, Yuheng, Eunice and Wil Yang come down to support and I'm really really super grateful for that. Like really.. them taking time out of their busy schedules despite Common Tests LOOMING just to come down and ra-ra us. Really touched...

Then we went and chilled at Burger King @ Northpoint. And coz we had nothing I went off halfway to play some arcade game at Northpoint. Quite addictive really its this game where you're supposed to align blocks together to form a platform that's like 12 stories high, and it starts with 3 blocks but narrows it down to 1 so like timing's key. And 2/3 of the way up the machine asks if you'd like to stop and claim a minor prize which is some fei packet of twisties. Like hell no the major prizes are things like handphones and mp3 players that you can see dangling in the glass case. And for some reason the last block is insanely hard to align so i always die there and lose $1. So far i've invested $10 to try and win one of the phones for my mum, but no luck. Bleah should have some cut-off pt otherwise i might overshoot the actual value lol.

Then I went back to BK to watch Jiahui teach everyone how to fold straw flowers and hearts and stars. He's great at teaching: he'd like hold the thing up for everyone to see, then show the next step and undo if anyone was lost or ath, so in the end we ended up having dozens of weird looking shapes all over our food trays, and the counter staff were like O.o at us koping all their straws. And we were trading gossip the whole way through, abt jiahui abt eu-eu about me (!) and it was just quite frank and forthcoming.

On the bus ride home i kept thinking to myself: What if those first two series weren't lousy 83s. What if I had dry-fired more to get myself into the rhythm. What if what if? Bleah but the gap between us and the top 3 teams was still too wide to bridge. What to do? Train harder before Nationals!

I remember last year I was just part of the spectators cheering the previous school team members on, but this year it's my turn to step up to the firing line.

For the past year and a half I've always seen people like Daniel as like the epitome of shooting. Every shot's either a 10 or 9, always cool under pressure, always following through and correcting mistakes. Hence I've always tried to emulate that style of shooting. But what I've probably haven't realised, despite having been told countless times, is that I've got the potential to meet and probably even surpass that, without having to imitate anyone. It's just that I've yet to overcome that mental block that keeps me from being the best I can be.

Random stuff to remember next time I train:

1. It's natural to shoot 10s. Don't get tense and "OMG why am i shooting so many 10s?"

2. Don't be fazed by the competition. There's gonna be 30 other people stressing and thinking the same thing about everyone else. So why stress yourself out?

3. Don't go out of your way in search of that elusive 10. It comes naturally as a by-product of your actions done right.

4. Get used to the rhythm of firing. 1000 2000 3000 4000 pull pull boom

5. Focus on the relationship O.< 6. Keep your wrist locked.

It's our year to shine.

Live up to your potential instead of imitating someone else's.

Visual DNA

2007-06-01T00:32:00.000+08:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I found this on eme's blog. Yeap sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words ever could.

Dreams

2007-05-31T01:42:00.000+08:00

I've been having weird dreams lately. Dreams about random people, me doing random things, random things happening. Perhaps its the side-effect of sleeping late; just trying to make sense of it all.

I dreamt that I got 36 for GP compre and 39 for essay. I wonder if my GP tests could ever score so high (and my essay's probably too narrow in scope to justify receiving 39), but the dream was so surreal that at that point in time i felt as though i was destined to get that score.

I dreamt that I was in the playground near the void deck of my HDB estate, and for the first time, i could do 11 chin-ups, which is like 2 greater than my maximum. Again, it felt so real. Maybe it was the fact that I had already done chin ups the afternoon, but it was painful throughout. Interesting.. that one could feel pain in a dream.

But these two dreams represent two different things. One has already occurred, and there's probably no use fretting about it now. The other has yet to occur, and it's probably within my grasp, if only I could find the time and will to go down and train some more.

And I watched Pirates 3 last week with Matt. In my opinion it's way too convoluted. There were too many characters, so in the end that came at the expense of character development. Granted, Commodore Norrington and Governor Swan did have their touching scenes, but overall there were so many interwoven plot lines that i didn't really care about motivations and whatnot. And the ending was horrible.

NS checkup

2007-05-20T00:28:00.000+08:00

Ah again i digress from chem.

Had NS checkup yesterday. I kinda went into it expecting the worst, but it didnt turn out to be so bad. The people there are strictly no nonsense, don't even say hello, just herded us along the stations with their terse instructions.

Quite funny actually I was sort of imagining that the needle used to withdraw blood from the arm would be like some yakult straw, so i turned away as the guy was fiddling around with his equipment. Turns out the needle was super thin, and it didnt even hurt at all since my vein was quite pronounced. So i didnt even notice that he was done until he told me, so i was like "Har? That's it?"

And for the hearing test you were supposed to raise the hand corresponding the the ear they played a sound in. Trouble was the guy didnt even tell me that the test had begun and i had no idea what the sound(s) were, so i began by raising my hands up and down randomly like some monkey.

The worst part was the behavioral sciences test, where they put you in front of some ancient computer in DOS-mode and you had to sit through tests that evaluated you on your math, physics, memory and rotational skillz. It reminded me of the GEP tests i had to take in PE 3, all the "what no. comes next?" and rotating shapes. Some guy beside me kept swearing during his math test, and the guy opposite somehow managed to run out of time and asked for a restart. They refused him. Haha..

In the end, my grade was PES A, so I'm supposedly "fit" for any combat role. Hehe all that's left is to get silver for NAPFA so that i won't have to enlist early for pre-BMT. Easier said than done huh -.-

Random Blogthing

2007-05-14T23:35:00.000+08:00

You Are Spider-Man

Quick and agile, you have killer instincts (literally).
And that kind of makes up for the whole creepy spider thing.

What Superhero Are You?

lol.

Spiderman

2007-05-01T22:53:00.000+08:00

I wish that Mr Hodge had given us a day off from school so that we could've had a 4 day extended break. But I guess that's a bit too much to ask for. Sigh =X

Some things i wanna say to some ppl:

Wth?:
I stoned in class through bio SPA debrief, after hearing Mr Ong promise that he'd print the model answers for us ( I normally take my own notes ). Imagine my disbelief when i checked my email that same night only to find out that the teachers were not allowed to print answers. Rawr.

Please.
We finished watching a video on the effects of globalization on Bangalore and IMO it was probably much more enriching than anything Ms Lye had to teach us for the past few weeks. It's getting harder and harder to glean useful stuff from her lessons coz basically all she does is makes us read long winded essays by other people and going through each paragraph one by one, asking students what the writer meant by blah blah blah. To me at least, it's just beating around the bush.

Sorry! :
I totally GG'ed Samuel during Chem tut yesterday. KS'ed him (unknowingly) for a qs so he had to take the 2 immediately following it. And his method was wrong so Mr Wong asked him to D.O.T.S, and he couldn't do it and screwed up again, and just made Mr Wong launch into some tirade about answering technique and presentation of answers. Even tho we did learn some pretty useful stuff, i'm still feeling so sorry for Sam.

Thanks:
Had an interesting convo with leonard on the way to SAFRA. I told him about my insecurities and my doubts about getting into the school team. After all i've only been shooting pistol for half a year. So i went "If i screw up during selections and some other guy gets into the team, would you appeal on my behalf?" And he said no. "Dun give yourself excuses to fail. Beat everyone by a convincing margin." That's what he said. o_O

And yesterday we were among the first in Singapore to watch Spiderman 3. Yay! I watched it with yonghan, ian and yuanbo. Quite nice, especially the 2 v 2 battle at the end. I never quite grasped the logic behind some of the scenes, like Tobey McGuire's sad attempt at an emo hairstyle, the bad Saturday Night Fever parody, and MJ's breakup, but kudos to Sam Raimi for squeezing so much into 2h 20 mins.

Haha as always, leave it to us RJ ppl to grossly misintepret scenes that're meant to be serious.

Chris LOLed @

Rock Concert

2007-04-17T00:02:00.000+08:00

Ugly fething Bs. I hate getting Bs. Straddling the line between mastery and mediocrity. Bleah.

Too many things have happened in the space of a week. NAPFA, PW results release, rock concert, CDANs.

Nothing much to say about the first two. Some things you just cant reverse, and sometimes you have to acknowledge that you tried your best.

Rock concert was great fun tho. I remember i was so anxious to get back to school from CDANs in time coz i had yong han's ticket, and the bus driver chose a good time to get himself lost, then stuck in a traffic jam. But I was still early yay.

Mm performances i liked... Li Ying's Brown Cow Entourage haha who else would i cheer for. It takes a lot of guts to stand up on stage under hot lights and in front of 300 people who expect everything to be perfect. It never is, but its amazing how all the performers still managed to pull off that "cool" rockstar look. Some more successfully than others i guess. GJ Li Ying =)

Edmund the guest performer was really talented, and so were Triad and Jia Hua (he knows how to work the crowd). Some things i didnt like... imsure concert at PAC.. haha no wonder the "highness" wasn't there. Some ppl tried to jump from the stage, and they probably didn't expect their friends to duck out of the way. Pain ><

Not much to say about CDANs either. I know i should've been happy to have gotten to use wiL's LP10 but the grip and the trigger just felt so foreign. I couldn't help but jerk up. Today when i returned to SAFRA for regular training and used my trusty old no. 42, the feeling was ... liberating i guess. Grip fits the hand like a glove, no need to check relationship either since everything's perfectly aligned. It's dependable, solid and lightweight. If it wasnt a SAFRA gun i'd kope it for myself.

Final score 518. Decent but hardly something to cheer about. Good job Leonard =) Don't forget to take another copy of MAXIM for yourself after you shoot your finals.

O2

2007-03-08T23:38:00.000+08:00

Orientation 2's over! Hmmm it feels kinda liberating and saddening that my "official duties" as an OGL have ended. No more dancing under hot lights and 70 other sweaty ppl; no more taking attendance and spamming smses. But bleah now that we're not gonna have any official excuse to get together anymore, hopefully we can still find time to hang out with each other in the future.

Yay there's a new addition to Limone and that's Shanti, who crossed over from VJ to RJ. Yes i can see you've made the right choice *nods nods*. AH but its so sad that at the same time of my juniors Chen Xi's leaving coz her O's prolly werent good enough. Sigh well you cant always get what you want. Good luck in all your future endeavours yeah!

But looking on the bright side we had a amazing good time at Paragon today. We went on this scavenger hunt for people and things to take photos with and all the requirements were either bound to cause us to embarrass ourselves in public or pose in camwhorish ways. Its so amazing how we went and ahead and did most of those things anyway and still laughed about it afterwards. Some glam pics!

Hoho us spelling out our OG name (Limone) in front of the HSBC building. I was damn scared that the security guards would come out and chase us away but they were nice enough to let us take our time getting the pose right. We actually took some shots while lying down but they sucked so we redid it standing!

LOL horror shot tot take. I think we redid this 5 times coz ppl were lagging or not lifting their feet off. But it still turned out damn nice: Ian (mid) looks like he's levitating and Li Ying (4th from right)'s being dragged up ^_^

This pic's gonna be etched deeply into my mind for the rest of my life. Two dudes (ian and yonghan) doing their best impression of Brokeback Mt. outside paragon. Reputation down the drain yoho.

Random wall hugging in Paragon while waiting for gen.

Yoho recreating the classic batch dance that we've done a million times before. From left: Mr and Mrs Smith, Lambada, Love and Sway sway

Wahhh cam-whoring in the lift. Kudos to Ian for coming up with this idea! We look super dao yes? Like the cast from some american tv show or smth.... How's my make-up darling?

And the coup-de-grace! What-the-man-walking-down-the-street-with-BK- bags-over-our-heads. Haha most OGs didnt even do this one. And in the end we won the award for the most no. of scenarios completed!!! WOOT. Haha the prizes were some mix of cheap snacks and LOL the strawberry-flavored sticks with the best name eva... JOCKEY (rip off of POCKEY) haha it's got low-budget written all over it but hoho its so satisfying to know that all the effort we spent taking all those pics didn't go to waste after all. wahhh I'm super proud of Limone!

Zomg we rawk. i love you guys..

Chris LOLed @

Quotes of the moment

2007-02-26T23:18:00.000+08:00

CNY's over! At last there's some normalcy restored to life. I dunno i kinda like going to school more than stoning at home... In sch at least i can hang out with my og, my class and my shooting buddies and juniors. But at home there's only the four walls of my room staring at me. Such cruel isolation...

Random Quotes of the moment:

Bio Teacher: "Can anyone explain why the blood glucose level of the patient rose after 2pm?"
Random Classmate: "Sir, i know, coz he slept"
Bio Teacher: (amused): "But how come the glucose level can rise when he's not eating anything?"
Chris: "Coz he's having sweet dream sir""

LOL

Time flies like arrow, fruit flies like banana.

LOL

Leonard (to iw): "You say that again i smack your face, damnit"
Ms Chua: "Tsk, leonard, mind your language"
Leonard (to iw): "Okayyy... you say that again i tap your face, damnit"

LOL

Today was like my first day instructing the j1 pistol guys and girls, in wil and joanna li's absence. It's such a bad time for both leonard and wil to be sidelined by recuperation from ops. Hopefully we'll buck up soon and start training really hardcore. Otherwise can just forget about facing HCI.

Feels really odd to be giving instructions coz on the one hand you want to get the message across and not seem too flippant, as though you're just saying something because you can't think of anything else. But on the other hand, you don't want to stress anyone out too much by overloading their brains with info. So in the end i just said everything in a matter-of-fact tone and with a straight face. Haha always happens when i list out everything i want to say in my mind beforehand. Then one of my juniors samantha pss pssed that i looked a bit scary when i was giving instructions. OMGOMGOMG u...Nah jk =))

And something else interesting happened too. Solomon was like going around reading everyone's palms and giving predictions about what was, what is and what will be. Profound. I received comments like "you're honest, the springiness of your fingers means you're flexible", and mie got things like "your fingers are quite fleshy, so that means you enjoy creature comforts like food, sleep etc etc." Haha some of the stuff's really simple common sense, but hmm things like heartlines, love lines, and travel lines are really inexplicable. Worth reading up on!

Chris LOLed@

CNY

2007-02-19T22:07:00.000+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Welcome to the year of the pig.

This year's CNY seems more subdued for some reason. For one, i didnt go visit any relatives this year; they came to visit me instead. So i didn't get the chance to find out more about aunt/uncles/cousins i never knew existed. Moreover, I realise that i'm really out of touch with some of them. Other than the customary greetings and blessings i really can't think of much to say to them. Age barrier perhaps? haha the only interesting convo i had was with my cousin, who kept kachiaoing me to get World of Warcraft (never)

Ahh but it feels good to be blessed by elders. And money's nice too :)

Chris LOLed @

Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T22:31:00.000+08:00

AHHHHH Valentine's Day's here! Can you feel the love in the air? The school canteen was abuzz with activity the whole morning. Shoo'ed all my juniors away coz i felt that they should have been spending more time with their class or *cough* significant other *cough* if they had one haha. Then i amused myself watching a J1 pump out flower balloons for her friends. Econs was bearable too. We spent like a third of the lesson celebrating valentine's day with the girls coz Nazirul and Benlow and Aswin (?) were generous enough to sponsor a cake for them. Wooyay.

And we had more junior class bonding today! Frisbee ftw.. Originally we were playing a 7 v 7 with another aspiring j1 team consisting of 6 girls and 1 guy la. So OMGWTF pwnage. Then our junior class showed up and we played a friendly against them too. We still won by quite a large margin tho, and i don't think its coz of the height diff (if there was much diff in the first place). I think when ppl trust each other and communicate the whole team just becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Hopefully we'll get to see more of that during take.5 haha...

But i think the highlight of vday was like the gosu performance by the guys of rjshooting. Haha coz we wanted to put up something nice for the shooting girls, so solomon came up with a whole list of songs with their lyrics edited so that they'd be relevant to shooting, and he and i were the "lead singers" WHAHAHAH pro right *hehe* The standout one was to the tune of Eminem and Akon's Smack That:

I feel you shaking. Don’t forget about your right cheek
Why don’t I check up on your stable relationship
Baby don’t slip just put your elbow on your left hip
I’m guiding your trigger finger
Look back and watch me
Shoot that, all on the lane
Shoot that, score ten again
Shoot that, through sun or rain
Shoot that, oooh

Haha seksy right? The whole repertoire was complete with actions too, and I really gotta thank the J1 guys for being so sporting and agreeing to be our supporting singers, even tho some of them were like quite shy/forgetful. It was damn farnie the way 10+ guys were like moving in sync with each other and facing the classrooms. Think all the students directly opposite us at blk A who looked at us were like super stunned and amused O_o.. In the end some of the j1s even impromptu'ed "Its all about you" and i tot that really showed how much they cared for the girls la. Haha i hope the girls enjoyed it as much as we did rehearsing the moves.

[rant] But hmm something (or rather someone) that really riled me for a short while. Sometimes it's bad enough that some ppl dun really "get" the idea of something like this.. think it's stupid or whatever. Fair enough i respect your right to have your own opinions. But when others are trying their best to learn and giving their all and you spread that negativity by mumbling the words half-heartedly and not making an effort its just... demoralizing. Think solomon was pretty frustrated at one pt too. [/rant]

Butbut hahah that was the only blemish on an otherwise near-perfect day. Think i'll prolly just forget about that rant in a day or two. Thankew to all the shooting girls for their penned thoughts and sweet sweet gifts. We love shooting girls! No really. Truly a Valentine's Day to remember.

Chris LOLed@

Bonding Days

2007-02-09T23:50:00.000+08:00

Argh firefox wouldnt let me access the blog for days.. so i'm ending up having to use dreaded IE instead. Brrr...

This week's been quite hectic but fun. A taste of things to come? Probably. I'm starting to feel the pressure of the tests and spas piling up, and only a couple of days ago mr wong sent out this email saying that we've only got 6 weeks left to mug all our core topics, and today we got our common test timetable. Olay...

But haha even amidst all the tests going on its surprising that we can still find time to have some fun. Oh yeah 3H's signing up for frisbee for take.5 and we're gonna rock! Had some funky training session at HOHOHO get this - Harvard Green - where we were just experimenting with all sorts of wacky throws. Some glam pics:

And after that we had senior-junior class bonding and it was teh bomb. Turns out that one of my juniors Priscilla Ong is in 3H too, and there're two Chris' (me and the junior CT rep), two Prises, and two Graces.. haha how odd. Funny convo between me and Pris:

C: "So there's another Pris in your class?"
P: "Yeah, her name's Priscilla Fu."
C: "Oh. How do you spell her surname?"
P: " F. U."

LOL... shouldve seen it coming. Anyway we played this uber GL game where ppl are supposed to pass a pose Yeehaaa from one person to the other, and in between there're Undernehs! (reversals), Heybarns! (Skips) HoodyDoodies and Fourshiftedgearboxes, and the lagger gets booted out! Wahahaha too complicated but it was super fun and addictive once we got the hang of it. Gotta thank plan for getting the ice broken so quickly =)))

Gogo 3H! 08 and 07.

That day mam vivek and benlow's band "the irony of it all" performed at Talentime too, but i'm damn sad coz i wasn't there to cheer them on.. had to go for training shucks. But but! Despite the acoustics sucking, they made it through to the finals! Yay vote for them pls!

And today's the day the J1s went and got their O lvl results... talked to some of my limones and i'm just glad that none of them failed, altho a few are considering retaking. Hmm got this general feeling of sadness/frustration coz apparently some of their friends cried coz they got A2 instead of A1. Hmm i think it's all depends on how high you set your expectations bah; its natural to feel bummed if you dont hit your standard. But ANW! If one tries his best, then there should be nothing to be ashamed of =)

Random fact: Hmm i've been noticing that i've been dozing off more frequently during lectures recently. But hmm i found out that its got to do with my breathing... I think i'm subconsciously holding my breath or just breathing really shallowly sometimes... Wonder if it's cutting off oxygen supply to my brain... LOL

And its matthew's bday today! 18 liao pro loh can go get your driving license and drink alcohol. I like.

Chris LOLed @

18 years of age...

2007-02-09T18:51:00.000+08:00

Coincidentally 2 people I know have the same birthday as me, so... Happy Birthday to Linlang and Yi Hong as well! Well, my birthday this year is generally enjoyable (even more enjoyable if I don't have a maths test AND a GP essay test on the same day). Many thanks to all the birthday wishes from my class, Chris, Lossy, Xavier, Yap, VD, Gerald Teh (NOT Tay) who managed to remember my birthday even after 8 years, Felicia, Michelle, my parents (sry if I left out anyone) and I would like to thank Kai Kok for that stylish knife (now I have something to kill people with bwahahaha), Cherie for the card and the tarts (sry for forgetting that them during GP lesson >_<) and my parents for the table tennis bat and cake(Have to slim down again arghhh) =P.

Sadly, unlike some lucky people, whose birthdays are after A levels and such, I have no time to celebrate and relax completely, and with so much work due next week, I have to start doing my homework now. (Lesson learnt during civics: Never procastinate)

Matt, siging off.

PE

2007-01-27T20:27:00.000+08:00

Haha yesterday was fun. We were late for PE in the morning and so we got some sarcasm from Mr Koh our PE teacher for being tardy. Walk some more walk some more. Since it was raining we got to play in the Indoor Sports Hall, and haha it was quite a relief to be able to play soccer for once rather than do circuits. Fun match, one bookended by me getting tackled accidentally by plan and failing to deflect benlow's shot. OWNGOAAALL.. Haha at least i can find some consolation in the fact that it was still a goal! ^^

And econs lesson was a bummer for me.. Mrs Ng owned the class for not handing up work on time, and i sorta got part of the blame coz i didnt collect from Qing Yuan, Mam and Shane even tho *i think* they finished it on time. And Qing Yuan was like "Well Done." in a sarcastic sort of way which made me feel like bursting out with some insensitive comment.

Like wth you're blaming your rep for not collecting your essay even tho the teacher SPECIFICALLY TOLD everyone that it was due after school, and he shouted it out a gazillion times to the class; if thats the case then anyone can like "forget" to hand up his math assignment and blame it on the math rep la. Blardy take the initiative.. But in the end i chose not to. It takes more courage to keep silent ._. Got some flak from mie and charissa too.. so haha i guess i'll take their advice and ask around more next time.

But the rest of the day was great. The first ever official training for the new j1s, and i think they're quite a colorful batch. Really guai and nice as opposed to our rowdy ever-quarelling-amongst-themselves-for-the-fun-of-it batch. Haha guess every cohort is unique in their own little way. Was watching the pistol guys struggle with holding the gun up for 1 min+ haah so i decided to join in to demo or correct their mistakes or man the 1 min with them. And lulu wasn't helping by "groping" their shoulder muscles to force them to relax or taunting them for not being steady enough, althoo hahaha mental strength is always good =)

GOGO j1s.. Hopefully i wont be so lazy that i forget to add them all to msn!

And one last thing... Happy 18th Bday Wilson! It's been a great 1 year getting to know you, in the truest sense... Hope you like the card, and the extreme room makeover.

You may only be someone in the world, but to someone else, you may be the world.

Chris LOLed @

2007-01-19T21:59:00.000+08:00

How time flies… the first 3 weeks of school are already a blur in my mind. And orientation seems like something that happened so long ago. I think that things have started coming so fast and furious that it’s been real tough trying to manage them all, but for some reason I’m coping. Coolio.

On about orientation! This orientation IMO totally rocked my own… I think that things really went smoothly since everyone knew what they had to do and everything was like rehearsed and set up properly. Ah what to say about my OG. Haha they’re a really nice bunch, all super duper likeable. I had a lot of PAE people so I was kinda worried at first that the RG and RI people wouldn’t mix with them but phew luckily my fears were unfounded. Obviously there’re cliques, but I’m really proud that they took the initiative to mix around with each other.

They were super super GUAI during dance prac and games too, no complaints and everyone was eager to learn, as long as we demo’ed to them first how to play/dance. HAHA that’s human nature isn’t it. And there were some really quirky people too! Like these two girls Eugenia and Sarah who wouldn’t dance with the guys and Clare and Li Ying whose names I always mixed up coz they looked sooo alike, and Lixing and Rui Lin the two troublemakers who like would’ve totally destroyed everything RJ stood for during External Activity if we hadn’t all been wearing the Laudeamus shirt. And I won’t name any names here, but one of them had a gf who was in my buddy OG, so everytime during the activities they’d like run to some secluded corner and lol…gao man but nvm its not nice to get into the specifics. ^^

I remember the nights before orientation when I was preparing the little gift cards I’d be presenting to them on the last day… wondering whether I’d be able to live up to my own expectations of what an OGL should be. And looking back on orientation now, I think somehow I fell short of the mark. Maybe an OGL is supposed to be this hyper-ball of fun and enthusiasm and brashness mixed with daring rolled into one, but I frankly don’t think I fall into that category. Thankfully Gen was (sometimes) there to save the day; I don’t know what I’d do without her seriously. She’s always the topic starter and the loudest, so most of the time I was content to let her handle the socializing while I took care of the admin work. And since I was with games comm, which was practically running 2 days of orientation, I was constantly away, so she’d be left to babysit. Thanks for riding 4 days of highs and lows with me. But HAHA I think I’m much better at the mano-e-mano aspect… hopefully long after the j1s have settled in I’ll still be able to chit-chat with some of them now and then.

Much love for Limone. I don’ think I could have asked for a more endearing OG than you guys. Watching you guys blast your way through the activities we took two months to organize still makes it worth all the blood sweat and tears that we put into making them. Seriously, thanks for making orientation 07 one to remember… <3

And after orientation it seems like the whole world was upside down. I felt so upset taking down the structures for war games that we'd painstakingly put together using poles and twine, and stashing away all the logistics for good. Past 2 weeks i've been trying desperately to fit back into class and lessons and shooting and catch up on school work. No easy task. I had to borrow notes from classmates and see tutors for clarification all the time, and the past 2 weeks I’ve been sleeping on average 4 hours a day. So everyday when I turned up at the OG table in the canteen I’d look like some zombie. And I’ve been having trouble staying awake in lectures, esp. if its math. But hmm somehow I still manage to survive. =)

First PE lesson of the year, and the teacher makes us do sprint training (leap-frogging across the sports hall, sprinting to and fro) and right after that both my legs cramped thrice. I remember I was walking to the gym when Simin walked past, and I cramped in front of her -.-. GJ chris. And outside the gym preparing to step on the weighing scales to take my wt measurement when I cramped again and fell off. Thankfully Lawry Kenny and Samuel were there to help massage my calves till I could stand up again… I’m beginning to think that my mind and body are starting to be affected by this hectic lifestyle.

It’s been just one angsty day after another. Last tues, we were having a regular GP lesson, then Mrs Toh interrupted her own lesson 20 mins before break and we were like “OMG, we get to go off early?” Then she dropped this huge bombshell on us when she told us she wasn’t going to teach us anymore. Sigh… and to tell you the truth, I don’t much like our new GP tutor. She’s nice enough, but her style isn’t concrete at all and she always goes on about this philosophical stuff that sounds good when you hear it, but is totally worthless when I’m trying to write an essay. Sigh… there goes one more reason for why I enjoy going to school. RESPECT for Mrs Toh. You know you respect a teacher when you don’t call him/her by their full name, or when you make an extra effort not to be late for their lesson, or when you actually voluntarily raise up your hand when they ask a question. She’d always come for every lesson fully prepared, and we’d always have plenty of laughs in between all the heavy stuff. She was sort of a guiding light for me after my horrendous experience in RI getting humiliated and dissed by Eng teachers (stuck up a$$es), and without her, I probably wouldn’t have done as well as I did for promos. Hope to cya around in school Mrs Toh.

Man… I’m just glad I’ve caught up with school work. It's like the only ray of light in a tunnel we've been traveling in for a year. A fresh start: let’s make the best of 2007!

Chris LOLed@

School reopens

2007-01-11T19:26:00.000+08:00

1 week (+-1 day) after school reopens, and homework is ever mounting. We actally had 5 essay outlines to do over the last weekend. And, the new aircon installed proves to be both a blessing and a curse. Blessing coz we don't have to go library/LT to enjoy aircon in hot weather, and would help keep us awake. Flip side of the coin is that we would be unable to adjust the on/off and temperature (virtually all functions except fan speed-_-). They had our timetable keyed into the main system so everything is automatic. I wonder which idiot's idea it is, totally stupid. When we have to use the aircon (before/after sch, breaktime etc) we won't be able to use it, and when we are using other locations for tutorials, the aircon will always be on. Talking about saving electricity -_-. And, even when it is FREEZING in class, we won't be able to turn the temperature up and end up dying in class. Perhaps we should set it to RI style, where switch is controlled by us but not the temperature settings. Still have homework to do, so got to go.

Matt, signing off.

New Year

2007-01-02T19:00:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year *woo*.. wow another year has come and gone. 1 more year and we'll all be in army sigh..

Every single year before this i've always made resolutions that included getting decent grades and losing weight... Hehe for some reason the latter has never come true for me ^^. This year i resolve...

To be a good OGL. In some respect I'm kind of surprised that I've actually made it this far, since i didn't expect to become OGL in the first place. And like being upgraded from a 3-man OGL team to a 2 man one, Gen and I. Wow talk about surprises...

And sometimes i wonder to myself whether by earning this privilege, i may have deprived someone who perhaps had more passion/energy/ability of the chance of serving the school. Yeah like Mam...saw him in the canteen today and he said he regretted not going for befriender's. I think he'd have made a great OGL.

And we had this OGL training camp thingy some time back where we sat around with teachers and asked ourselves questions about our goals for orientation and ways to reach out to the j1s. (I keep thinking sec 1s -.- like they're so innocent haha) One of the questions really stuck out and that was "How are you gonna be a role model?" Am I a good role model? Academically? Emotionally? Am i gonna be able to keep the OG spirit burning bright long after orientation? I rmb my OG like died after 1 month or so coz the OGLs didnt even turn up sometimes, whereas hehe some OGs are still gathering for lunch nowadays. Or maybe the OG spirit wasn't strong enough to keep everyone together in the first place so after a while we kinda drifted apart. I don't want that to happen again...

Sometimes i feel something along the lines of resentment (so strong a word) for my guy OGL (even tho i appreciate all he's done) coz after orientation he just let the whole thing drop, like orientation was orientation and after that it'd be (chop) the end. Wasn't really enthu about stuff, just very sui bian, as tho he was just fulfilling some duty or obligation. And to top it off, he couldn't dance well haha.

SO! Hopefully I can find the strength to rise up to the challenge; hopefully everything we've prepared so far goes according to plan: the food, the presents, the activities and games... Haha after all, if one fails to plan, one plans to fail right? Comon Chris, it's all you..you can do it.

Here's to tomorrow. Cheers.

OGL training

2006-12-29T22:20:00.000+08:00

Woo today was eggciting! I went to sch quite early today to pack all the orientation packs for next year's J1s. It's quite a good deal of stuff they're getting there; haha i can't help but be envious. The packing itself was quite xiong had to make sure that everyone's accounted for, then throw in all the stuff and make sure everything was labeled.

I remember Gen whining about how our opacks seemed bland compared to others' coz some people were writing their OG names on the bags with fabric pens or hiding secret stuff inside. Hmm in my opinion, if you put stuff into the opack ppl just tend to take it for granted. Makes more sense to present it to them personally so they appreciate it a bit more!

Then after that we sat down to tie poles together to form the foundation for our flag. I feel quite proud of myself, haha learning from Jung How the proper way to tie a Clove Hitch and frapping and such. I think i pulled too hard on the twine tho in trying to secure the poles together, got myself rope burn. Now there's a blister on one of my fingers. Ouch Ouch. ><

And afterwards Gen and I headed out to vivocity to buy stuff for our OG coz we were both like feeling a little guilty for not having like the best opack HAHA so we decided to shower our OG ppl with food instead! Leaving sch was quite risky for gen given that she had storyline rehearsal in an hour's time but in the end it was postponed SOOooo ^_^ WOo she could put her guilty conscience to rest!

So we spent like 2 hours at Vivo (my first time there lol) wandering from Candy Empire to Giant to Mini Toons buying candy and eating stuff. LOL Gen's like some food addict she was like sharing her "expertise" with me by commenting on what was nice and buying chips and korean satay. Kind enough to share with me too. Thanks..

LOLz and after that i still had enuf energy to go training with leonard. While we were training we overheard some errr HMMM convo between some RG girls about one of our seniors. Everyone was like wondering why two guys who were like standing quietly in a corner minding their own business were suddenly ROFLTAO. But hmm on hindsight the joke was actually in bad taste so hmm dun think i wanna repeat it here. Then when we were trying to make it to the arcade at northpoint to slack we had to go the long way round coz leo saw his mum and aunt standing at the entrance to the shopping centre and promptly made a U-turn lol think his mum would have told him to go home had she seen him ^_^.v. Cunning.

Wahhhh still gotta design the OG card and paint the OG flag. Sleepless weekend here i come!

Chris LOLed @

Dry Run 2

2006-12-23T23:47:00.000+08:00

My gosh theres <2 weeks left before sch starts! OMGOMG. Anyway DR2's over at last! Some down time for me to get started on hw. Haha 2nd day was quite routine got the other ppl to play through all the games again.

And the 3rd day was the first time we tried out Ext. Activity. Oh yeah we got to go Little India while some group went to Yishun which is like a super hippening place /sarcasm. And we had to do all this silly stuff like eat lettuce with a whole lump of salted veg and drink water from holes poked in paper cups and use our mouths to pick up and eat super rings from a plate full of flour. And lewis got himself a shirt full of it after his botched attempt at attacking the stationmaster.

LOL... And yesterday night we had shooting xmas party! WoO it was part celebration part final farewell for the j2s before the guys go NS. Aiyah I was a bit sad that not too many ppl turned up. After all the more the merrier but oh well the atmosphere was more cosy and intimate that way so i guess it was alright. Played lots of lame games and WIL DRESSED UP AS SANTA CLAUS and gave out presents!!! how amusing lol. LOL i got soft toys again!!! Someone buy me something i can use please! Bye bye j2s! You've been a great inspiration for all of us! If it wasnt for success stories like daniel and wee wee i prolly wouldnt have make the leap over to pistol HAHA. Best of luck with NS/uni and rmb to come visit us sometime!
Chris LOLed @

Taiwan!

2006-12-16T17:52:00.000+08:00

HEYOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I'm back from taiwan! FINALLY!

Opens email inbox *laughs and dies*

Haha my gosh i really really really didnt want to come back at first. Wanted to just forget that i'm Singaporean, from some sch called RJC and from oteam and shooting and just stay in taiwan FOREVER and eat and sleep. But haha that needs money....

Dont wanna bore everyone with some stoopid day-by-day account of my trip so might as well just write down random stuff that i find really interesting!

Fun Facts about Taiwan:
1. Everyone there speaks Chinese to some extent, but their chinese is traditional, not simplified. SO even if one's chi is very guat, one must still be prepared to ask for "translation" sometimes ^^.

2. STARHUB CABLE TV SUXXX. Long live taiwan tv. There're like 10+ news channels alone. Really enjoyed watching Xiao Qi Da Cai Shen and star movies everyday! There's even this show where 2 girls get sent into haunted places to be freaked out by scenes of tables and doors falling and moving violently. Creeepy...

3. Taiwan isnt the urban metropolis that some ppl make it out to be. In fact many of the buildings in the capital Taipei are actually quite run down coz there's no restructuring scheme like S'pore. Things get worse in the rural areas where haha some flats still have to make do with zinc roofs!

4. Ok la not abt taiwan but random! Chris left S'pore weighing 65 but came back 64! :P Amazing isn't it? ^^

5. Do you know that A-Mei is actually from the A-Mei aboriginal tribe? It's true! They have the complexion of malays and they have their own traditional dances and garb!

ChrisTang's guide to taiwan:

WHERE DO i GO?

That really depends on what kind of person you are! Muahahahha if you're a devout Buddhist, like my family is, you can go visit the various temples scattered throughout the country!

There's the Wen Wu temple, which commemorates historical heroes like Guan Yu and Yue Fei!

Theres the Martyr's Shrine, which commemorates the officers and soldiers who fell during WWII and the anti-communist movement.

There's even Fo Guang Shan, which is the centre of the Buddhist movement in Taiwan. you can tell coz there's a gargantuan Buddha Lvl 100 with brilliance aura mounted on the top of the hill with 500 acolytes around it!

If you just like history in general you can go visit historical sites scattered around the country like the Wu Fong earthquake museum, which depicts the scenes of carnage of the 921 earthquake as well as the more recent 1999 earthquake!

Or if you're just there for the scenery, theres plenty to see just driving up and down the winding mountain roads or along the coastline! Some kid in my tour group threw up twice in the same day coz HE WASN'T MAN ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE ROADS ^^.v.

And lastly theres always the night markets! Its like Chinatown X10 + tons and tons of students with their bf/gf (xingfuuuu) and bargain hunters on their scooters! The stores are open till past 10!

What must i bring?
1. Number 1 MOST MOST IMPT THING is mp3 player. If not you're gonna be bored to death during the traveling. There was one day where we covered 300km in 7 hours. Thank god i had my iPod with me just set it to shuffle and went to sleep! YAY X ]

2. Jacket. I made the stoopid stoopid mistake of assuming the weather would be clear and sunny throughout, then on the last day i wore a short sleeved shirt and bermudas VS 9 degrees temp. Guess who won? ><> last you the entire trip worrzz! Enough for plenty of food, souvenoirs and presents for yourselves and your loved ones!

What do i eat?!

They dont call taiwan the kingdom of small eats (xiao chi wang guo) for nothing!!! Esp when you venture into the night markets, OMG for $20 (NT 400) you can buy one of everything and eat and eat and eat and eat until your stomach bao zha! Just have to be abit more adventurous!

Stuff like
Smelly tofu (didnt try coz i make it a rule not to eat anything that smells like shid)

Bittergourd juice (they use a special white colored bittergourd+pineapple+apple and the drink's actually very shiok! Closest thing to alcohol you'll find. Cooling and got slightly sweet and bitter aftertaste!)

Black Pearls (taiwanese equivalent of apples! Looks like an oversized strawberry with the complexion of an apple and the flesh of a starfruit! Soft and sweet)

Liu Ting (taiwanese equivalent of orange) Looks like an orange, but its flesh is yellow like a lemon, but the taste is almost always sweeeeeet..

Coffin Board (didnt try but from what i know its this giant piece of toast with meat and veggies buried in it <---- get the joke notnot?, almost like a burger)

What do i buy?

If you wanna buy stuff, stay far far awayyyy from Taipei 101. Seriously that place is a sad excuse for a shopping mall, only has 5 levels and most of the brands there are like stuff that 99.999999% of ppl cant afford like mont blanc, gucci, prada blablabla. The real gems are hidden in the night markets and places like the mountain side city of Jiufen.

Seriously the ppl there really know how to do business. Food vendors will like put out tons and tons of food for tourists to sample, and as you know Singaporeans <3 free stuff! In the night markets themselves you're like GOD, seriously the hawkers will send out ppl with placards and menus to wooo tourists over to their stalls, and as long as you're nice, they'll give you SPECIAL PRICE (LOL Chinese ppl must look after their own mah RIGHT RIGHT???)

Haha i only bought music albums there. The rest of the money i spent all in my stomach right now ^^ got Joi Chua, Fish Leong and Zhang Xin Yu! TOo bad dun have Elva's 1087 RAWR went there at the wrong time X ]. Buy from s'pore shop not authentic haha. WOOOOO Taiwan ROXXORS! Chris LOLed @

Freaky

2006-12-10T16:48:00.000+08:00

The last dream I had was about the end of the world (See previous posts). Guess what? Today's topic at church was about the end of the world too and why we should look forward to it. Coincidence?

And oh, goodbye to Chris, who is going off for Taiwan today (plane departed at 3pm). Hope you have fun and meet new friends (instead of entirely old aunties in your travel group) and do say hi for me if you run into Ah Bian ;)

Matt, signing off

CIP @ Marymount!

2006-12-09T18:46:00.000+08:00

Zomg CIP's finally over. I'm feeling so nostalgic and relieved at the same time. Relieved coz i won't be punched in the back/dragged by my shirt/asked quirky qs for quite a while. Nostalgic coz hmmm.....

Day one was like horrible. I got upgraded from co-group leader to solo group leader the day before. Me, lol, someone with zero experience with handling children. And the intro period was traumatising. My kids wouldnt talk to each other coz some were lower-pri and some were upper-pri and some games the younger ones wanted to play the older ones wouldn't play.

At that point in time I was feeling like I was the most incompetent GL in the whole world. Like "why are the other groups having so much fun and my kids don't even want to talk to each other? WHY am I so failure?"

And to top it off one of my Imps was one of the most introverted kid ever.... Her name's Amanda. She had some inferiority complex where she'd be sad when ppl did things she couldn't (like do a split or cartwheel) and think negative thoughts all the time ("We LOSE! We LOSE!!") and wouldn't mix with the other kids. Just kept tugging on my hand and whine haha. Thankew Ali for helping her warm up!

So when we finally got to the ball games i was uber-relieved. Finally got the kids to start opening up by egging them on and getting them to communicate with each other.. But whoever brought basketballs instead of soft balls should be SHOT. Little un's kept getting whacked in the head by them and crying.

Then there was origami making in the afternoon. OMG hell for me.. no one in my group could understand what Elvina was talking about when she was gesturing to her piece of paper and they'd just give up on their piece and toss it to me. I hated it coz I wanted them to learn on their own rather than relying on other ppl but at the same time i didnt want to dampen their enthusiasm. So hahah no choice just fold all the origami for them. X ]

Second day was soo much better. Got to know my kids much better and they warmed up to me as well. Always on the lookout for a silly qs (Do you have a GF?) or tickles. We played station games with them in the morning and treated them to a movie (Narnia!) in the afternoon while the GLs gathered in the neighbouring room and chilled out to silly songs while discussing campfire programme.

Thanks to Mie and Jiahui for volunteering to be station masters!

And the campfire at night was the most impromptu thing ever. You could hear the kids remark on how our sad excuse for a campfire was dying at the start.. and Wil flipping feverishly through his album to find songs to teach =))

Thank god for Mie and Ali our emcees who entertained the kids with songs and dances. lol the impromptu Rain Dance was DA BOMB all the non-oteamers floundering at the back and the kids were like ????

And in the end we sang Rippy the Gator (went CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP) with Kin Wai sacrificing his shirt (and dignity) for the kids, and Voices that Care, possibly the greatest song of all time. In the end i think everything went better than expected considering the time we had to work with! ^^

Mie and Alison, our two fabulous MCs who kept the kids pumped out throughout our campfire!
Andrew and Jiahui our lead guitarists!

And on the last day, we went to Bishan park. OMG I was praying so hard that it wouldnt rain coz the weather report said the whole of Singapore would be engulfed by rain in the afternoon. Thankfully Singapore's meteorologicial system SUCKS. And the kids had fun under the sun, playing Hunter Fire Earthquake, Ice/Water.

Catch!

And the most awesome game of all.....

*drum roll*

What do you get when you paste masking tape all over 4 GLs and set the kids loose on them in a bid to rip all the tape off?

...
...
...

Chaos. LOL we originally intended for Leonard to be the only christmas tree.. See all of us wearing brightly colored shirts and he's the only one in black? Thats how the kids would know who to chase. But in the end ahhh everyone felt sorry for him so Ke Zhong, Kin Wai and I decided to volunteer to be (chris)tmas trees too. I never knew i had so much energy in me.

And Kin Wai did his Gator thing again! I almost feel sorry for him.... xD

And when it was time to part, hmmm I think I was more emo than the kids LOL. Gave them chocs with personal msgs addressed to them. Hopefully they'll take something away from this camp. X ]

Go Go Imps!

Chris korkor will miss you all!

Going taiwan tml yay!

Chris LOLed @

Weird dream

2006-12-08T18:57:00.000+08:00

Ok, enough of ranting. Well, had this weird dream last night (I seldom have dreams). Dreamt about the end of the world, when everyone, no matter dead or alive, have to face judgement, and those whose names aren't in the book of life are to be cast into the hell. It just felt so real. Perhaps the end of the world is closer than what any of us can imagine.

Perhaps it will serve as a good reminder for me to control my own emotions, and to live by His commandments everday. For those free thinkers out there, feel free to approach me if you want to understand what Christianity is all about, or if you want to see how church service is like etc.

Matthew, signing off.

OGL

2006-12-01T21:29:00.000+08:00

Yay glad that matt's back from holiday!

Just got back from the last Oteam meeting before the official block out period. And training. A lot of ppl are discussing the rule about "couples" not being allowed to become Co-OGLs.

Hmm frankly i think that the rule's quite booshid. Firstly, why are the teachers so kaypoh? You mean they've actually done bg research and know who are couples? Or just using the oteam i/cs to identify the dangerous ppl and forcibly separate them? Asked the i/cs themselves and they thought the rule was BS also.

Secondly, why keep the couples apart? I can understand where the sch is coming from when they say that such ppl might project a bad image for the school, but surely you can trust young adults who've actually survived the selection process to become befriender, open house, and Dry Run 1 to be responsible and be able to toe the line between working and personal relationships...I think that if they work well together, why not?

Haiya i dunno la. Can't understand why the school is so anal about this kind of stuff.

Sigh feeling so angsty today. I wish. I always wish that i could have a decent conversation with people that doesnt devolve into an argument or a teasing session. Was on the train home today with wiL and Leo and they just wouldnt stop ticking me off. Then i got off at Dhoby Ghaut and bumped into Teddy who was on the same train home as me. And we just talked about the OGL grouping, the rules, Casino Royale and it was just great. No one got put on the defensive, just plain cheerful talk. Why guys.. why do you keep pushing the limits? -.- Next time i might as well not say anything since it's gonna be used against me later...

Haiz so frustrated. Still need to think about OGL grouping. Don't have enough names to fill up the list whenever it comes. I guess it's punishment for not knowing enough people outside my own social circle. Sigh >_<

Chris SIGHED@

China Trip ^_^

2006-12-01T20:34:00.000+08:00

Well, got back from China on 29th Nov, at 10pm. A bit not used to the warm weather, after getting used to temperature below 10 deg. You can buy stuff(most of them) really cheap there, such as original DVDs for S$5 or less and pirated ones for S$2 or less.

For the first day, we arrived at the airport at 3.15pm (their local time is the same as ours), and we left the &*@# airport at 5.30pm. Lesson learnt: Never queue behind middle eastern people when going through the customs. They had to check every single detail of their passports, and could take up to 15 minutes per person -_-. (It is less than 1 minute for the rest). Dad queued behind around more than 10 Iraqis. Win. Went to try out themag-grav train. The max speed is 431km/h! Too bad the trip only lasted 7 minutes.

Had dinner after that on a floating restaurant before returning to hotel. Found out that a bottle of beer there is half the price of a bottle of pepsi, and the drivers there (called shi fu, coz they feel that those guys there must have skills and techniques in order to drive well) don't give a damn about pedestrians.

Went sight seeing and visited the bridges and ancient gardens the following days. Visited 三国城 and realised that 唐城 in Singapore was modelled after that. Watched some performance of a battle scene from 三国演义 there.

Visited the silk factory on the 3rd day. Tour guides are really good at talking; managed to convince my parents to spend a bomb on silk blankets and pillows. You can practically tell where we are going by just hearing what product they promote on the bus.

Visited 长江 and found out that the bridge built across was funded(still is) completely by the commoners and hence, there is no toll needed to cross it. Therefore, they encourage us to buy the crystal art created by some local master, claiming that all profits will go to the maintainance of the bridge, which is in pretty bad condition.

Crystal ball art... Pretty? Had to be painted inversely in its interior to appear so.

I seriously doubt their words. The price tag on the table read 400 RMB. However, the price tag attached to the base of these are 640 RMB. After my mum showed some interest in one of those, and felt that it is too expensive for her liking, the salesgirl told us that she will go ask her boss, and returned 5 minutes later, saying that she will make a special discount for us and sell it at 400 RMB. -_- Didn't buy it in the end as we felt that we have too many ornaments in our house already.

Visited a workshop manufacturing 紫砂壶. Parents bought a teapot that can float on its base, and which lid is airtight. Got it for S$50+. Turns out that not all stuff made in China are cheap after all. Ever seen tea leaves sold at S$200/500g? Turns out that there is such thing, and parents bought more than 1kg of those.

Tea plantation...

Also visited a pearl workshop and a place in Shanghai that sells traditional medicine. Tried to sell ME S$1000+ worth of stuff that is supposed to “remove toxic stuff from my liver” and “to make me grow taller”. Well, with that money, I can buy like a ton of those stuff listed in Singapore -_-.

On the final day, visited this feng shui master. The truth is I am quite im pressed, able to tell one’s character and how he fare in life by just looking at the person’s face. He said that I am an introvert and too soft-hearted. He even suggested that I convert to Buddhism to open myself up more (?!). Already have a religion, so that is just out of the question.

Visited the Shanghai tower the 2nd last night. Supposed to be 400 metres+ tall. Imagine the lift breaking down when you are at the top.

Final evening and final morning was spent browsing the shops. Got some good bargains, and got quite a bit of souvenirs. The Carrefour there sells original DVDs at S$4+ and original CDs at $3+. Bought like 10+ movies there. Who cares if it is in Chinese, I can understand it pretty well =P

Well, in short, I enjoyed myself there. Drank beer (muahahaha) for all non-breakfast meals and even tried out “Burn Heart Wine”(directly translated) which is like around 35% alcohol. In China, when you bargain, remember to start out at a price that is 35% or less of the price stated, since the PED is really elastic (hundred of stores selling the same good). All you have to look out for is the traffic, which is like shit.

Dry Run 1

2006-11-29T23:43:00.000+08:00

At last.... Dry run 1's over! OMG the past 3 days were busy like hell, but quite fun! We had a blast stoning around the council room, OD'ing on fast food, carrying out the games we planned and being station masters and commanding all the other peons *ahem* oteamers around hahah! There's still a long way to go, and some of the games arent perfect or fun for everyone but that's what DR is for right? Soooo plenty of time to tweak everything!

And tonite we had an oteam gathering at lincoln luk's house. DAMN FARNIE! 100 people sitting in a circle in the basketball court, shouting out their names to introduce themselves. Then this indian boy came over and asked us: "Ermm.. can we like use half the court to play soccer? Or your best 5 against us?" LOL omg everyone just died on the spot. And the games and forfeit were entertaining/embarrassing! Haha that's what i like about being the unofficial cameraman for games comm. I get to capture all those moments through my camera lens!

Afterward we adjourned to the swimming pool for dinner. 4 pizzas and tons of KFC. The pizzas were like instantly devoured, and everyone just groped around for food in the dark haha didnt care whether it was chicken or nuggets or whipped potato. And there were some.... interesting incidents hahah like lincoln, yang, nazi and reuben 'falling' into the pool and nazi losing his specs in the water and ppl pulling prank calls on daniel ong and kartik fracturing his arm after being tackled by pason during soccer in the dark O_o

And afterr everything games comm + timo, alex and zhang rui headed for swensen's to celebrate nanett's bday. OMG it was hilarious stuff like ppl making fun of the word "insert" and "topless" and me getting owned by Shin Bin's Chilli + ketchup exothermic prank and slapping lawry on the face with my hand after he LOLed at me. Sorry!! Caught red-handed hur hur. And in the end we brought out this huge ice cream cake for nanett and sang bday song for her.

Stuff i learnt from DR1:

We make lousy station masters. Must learn to crowd control otherwise j1s sure overwhelm us.

Dancing is tough, but the satisfaction that you get when you get it right is..... ahhhhh...

Games comm has this veri bad habit of misplacing wallets and hps. Must be carefulll...

Don't get too close to the water's edge/ try to pull someone in if you have specs/hp.

Chilli + Ketchup exothermic prank does not work twice ;) <---- Shin Bin "Bai Zi" (white chicken) said backwards is not Chicken White. <----- Vivek I'm really enjoying myself lots in games comm. First time we met everyone was like shy and hung out in small cliques but now i really feel like for once, i'm part of a group. Most dedicated, saikanging SOBs in the whole oteam i daresay haha. Games Comm. Don't Play Play. GG x 10.

Chris LOLed @

Concourse

2006-11-24T23:00:00.000+08:00

Today was seriously fun! I met Wil, Chay Ling and Simin (SIMEI ahhh) at Lavender today to go concourse and buy supplies for games comm. Doing lame stuff along the way like waving to passing cars and discussing the consequences of illegal dling of movies and songs. Haha all you guility ppl watch out hehe.

The shopping was just pure madness. There weren't too many shops and the shops themselves weren't huge like mini toons or action city, but the ones open were selling omggxx amt of party supplies and kid's toys. There were pinatas and costumes and balloons dangling from the ceiling and every inch of the aisles were like chock full of party stuff and sweets and stationery and toys.

We went from store to store trying out everything, saying how when we were young we used to play with this and that all the time. Stuff like coloring boards, toy guns, inflatable paper balls, styrofoam airplanes and kuti kuti. Ah funny how nowadays we're entertained by things like ipods and movies and anime but such simple things can still keep the child in us occupied. And Chay Ling kept exclaiming how she was damn excited and how she would drag all her thailand CIP frens over to check everything out. Seriously everything's soo cheap and good!

Chay Ling, WiL and Simin

LOL then we went BK for lunch. Feel seriously cheated of my money. Only after i'd paid for my meal did wil tell me there was a student's meal. Grrrr....hehe then he got stomachache. Revenge! And we called him while he was in the toilet. Haha damn funny you could tell where he was by the echooooo.... (: And halfway through i got a serious shock when Sam who was super late called me and said:

"Oh my god. I'm mega lost!"
" Where are you now? What are the landmarks around you?"
"Umm I see Hong Wen Primary Sch" <---- LOL

My gosh we were so scared for him if he hadnt called when he was lost he'd have ended up in Bugis. LOL and it'd be all my fault for giving him sucky directions. Haha and after he joined us we wandered around some more and sat down outside one of the stores, and talked and threw the balls we bought around and teased each other about BGR and laughed until the manager had to come chase us off.

Sam and his church fren stayed behind to shop and leonard and wil went to buy pellets for safra whie i got the dubious honor or sending the girls to mrt -.- Exciting haha. Haha at least it was easier for me to go training afterwards. So ends another day where i did nothing but stone. Haha its nice to ZAO HUI TONG NIAN.

Goodbye!

2006-11-21T22:28:00.000+08:00

Goodbye to matthew who's going to china with his family for a well-deserved holiday! Hope you have fun, meet lots of nice people and maybeeee bring me back something to eat. Hahahaa!

Chris LOLed @

iPod Nano!

2006-11-20T00:17:00.000+08:00

I was flipping through the newspapers this morning when lo-and behold! A 2 page advertisement for apple products going at fantastic discounts! 30% off to starhub and DBS customers! I've been eyeing the iPod nano 2G for the longest time, and when i saw the ad i just couldnt help but succumb to temptation...

Dragged my mum down in the afternoon to the iOne Club 21 store at Orchard Cineleisure. The place was crowded like hundreds upon hundreds of ppl descending upon the store to get ipods. Very loud too what with Glenn Ong shouting on the microphone for contestants to come up on stage to win prizes and music blaring thru the speakers. Haha there were even DBS employees dressed as Santalinas (female vers. of Santa) giving out candy canes! And it's not even the christmas season yet..

Anyway I couldnt get my hands on the 30% discount, all those sold out already... Such a pity we couldnt have come in the morning. So in the end i had to settle for the public discount @ 20%... still quite good. And what a wait it was lolll almost one and a half hours. I asked my mum to queue while i buzzed around like a kid in a candy shop (pun intended) looking at accessories. Ever so often i'd take one, then cradle it for a while, then do cost-benefit analysis on it and decide it wasnt fancy/useful enough and then swap it for another... Oh man i so wanted a blue protective case but the stocks were all snapped up by kiasu people in the queue. Luckily in the end i spotted an abandoned one and pounced on it.

Quite happy in the end i got a blue 4gb nano and the blue protective case for a steal... Now i wont have to lug around my psp if i want to listen to music on the go liao!

Ahh sexy photopictures:

Shooting Camp!

2006-11-14T20:19:00.000+08:00

Went for shooting camp today! Decided to pon that BW goldmember thing in sch coz it's kinda lame and matthew told me they didnt do much in the end anyway :P

Met leonard at yishun MRT and went for breakfast together at macs! Talking kok all the way... I think i'm like the dumbest a$$ in the whole world. The last time at macs i accidentally drank from eme's coke, this time i unknowingly reached for leonards' and drunk his instead >_< Had to get him another straw. I gotta learn to suppress this dumb habit of not looking at things in front of me.

Anyway after that we headed back to go pick up mie and joyce. Then couldnt find ian wern and solomon. I called solomon, and then he said: "I overslept. Sorry. I'm at Harborfront MRT now." LOL so for punishment leonard made IW wait 40 mins for him. He sent leonard an sms that read: "WTF i need to wait 40 mins? Solomon is taking 10 years to arrive". Ack sorry ian wern! X ] Turns out we were early in the end, since safra only opens at 9.30am. But haha it was all good since we were the first to queue and book all the denker lanes and enough lanes for everyone, or so we thought. Trained until coach zhang arrived, and gave us some talk on correct posture and steps when using pistol. Actually quite educational lol compared to some of the talks she gave us back at RI; really helped me identify my problem areas (GRIP!!!).

Then wil came and some of the ppl went out for lunch at BK while the remainder of us bought stuff from the coffeeshop opposite and sat in the lobby and ate and talked. Didnt really have much to say coz i was just so tired (had to reload my cylinder twice = 250 shots rawr) but hmm it's fun listening to what other people have to say. And halfway thru mie ran out and told us something was wrong with eme's p700 >_< Totally taken aback such a priceless treasure spoil liao going to cost us a bomb. Turns out that something was wrong with the dry fire mechanism and the red plasticky thing that was holding it in place snapped -.-U. In the end Coach Lijie took it away for a while, worked his magic on it and it came back good as new! No worries eme! ^^.v.

And finally we ended the day off by attending some 2 hour long presentation by coach zhang about her adventures to finland to attend some coaching course and demonstrate how her methods helped shooters dramatically improve their scores. Lots of graphs and long winded explanations. The demonstrations were like the same she'd shown us in the morning, but then she just launched into this 1h 30 min slide show with photos of her and her proteges receiving prizes. It was so dark; must've dozed off a few times. X ] Haha what to do she's the coach, and to be honest, it's only normal for her to feel proud of her accomplishments (((:

Ahh some photos!

Leonard over breakfast

Anna, Rucha (blked), Lala and Joyce

Ms Chua drops by to wish us well! Ahh people with cars are so blessed...

Training Hard We Are!

.....tut tut tut.....

Chris LOLed @

7% GST. Yay.

2006-11-14T19:45:00.000+08:00

I apologise for the lack of posts. I have been posting in my other blog.

Today, when I picked up the newspaper, and guess what is the first thing I saw? GST being raised by the PAP, AGAIN. So, they expect that the increase in tax to help the poor more, and stating that other countries have much higher GST or value-added tax or whatever it is. Other countries have higher GST and such, but the trick is that, food and other necessarities are exempted from tax. When they raise the damned tax, those hawker centers, grocery stores will also raise their price accordingly. How is this going to help the poor? It is a wonder why poor people still vote for those guys -_-

Let me suggest a much better way to help the poor. Just cut those Members of Parliament (MPs) salary. You would be surprised at how high their salary is. The Prime Minister's salary alone is more than that of President Bush from the USA.

Why didn't they mention this tax increase before elections? As I had mentioned to many people before, they will probably raise tax or take away some benefits after the election. See what happens. And guess what, when the next election comes along, they will give us some stupid bonus, or some free shares to "bribe" the people. And oh, not to mention the defamation of some opposition politican. Francis Seow, Chee Soon Juan, Gomez... I wonder who is next. This has been going on for years now. I guess you can expect the same old thing for the next elections.

My rant will stop here. Still have some mugging to do >_>

Matt, signing off

Oteam

2006-11-11T19:58:00.000+08:00

Past few days quite xiong >_< haha just glad to have some time to myself.

Been discussing ideas for station games and war games over the past two days. I have no idea why the school is so anal about some stuff. No water, no food, no this no that. I know i know that SINGAPORE GOT NOT ENOUGH WATER (thanks to Paul Yap of all people for drilling that into us) but still, it's an annual event! Cant have war games without water! (: I still can't believe that the admin people are actually MAKING the new J1s attend talks at hippening places like the library. This is orientation man it's supposed to be a time to have fun!

Anyway lol we were running through 50+ pages of war games, station games and icebreakers. One by one..in a classroom with no aircon. Everyone was dying after the first 3 hours yesterday. Thankfully today Rng came in and saved us with the aircon remote xD

And on the way back today we saw the Song and Dance team in action, learning the rain dance with....*drum roll* Wu Chiao! WTF apparently he deferred his NS and came back to teach as a relief teacher / dance instructor while serving his medicine scholarship. There's just no stopping him he's that dedicated to RI/RJ. XD And Johnny's TEH MAN trying so hard to learn the dance. First words out of my (and Xue Yang's) mouths: He's the next William Hung.

Maybe its the selection process to become oteamer that puts all the crazy ppl together, but just after two days i feel like i've known some of them for a year. LOL granted some of them yeah i knew since start of year/long ago like wil, christine, lawry, vivek and sam, but some of them lol i've hardly even seen them before but haha we've become friends like how fast. People like Chay Ling, Xin Ying and Simin like just bash through the barriers. :P

Haha this really makes me think about friendship. Matthew and Zack are the only 2 who've have been with me for 5 years straight liao. Friendship can really stand the test of time! Still get together and play bridge, tok kok and game ever so often. Prolly not one day goes by when i dun think of funny things to say to them. Of course besides them i've made many many much more friends in shooting, oteam and 3H. What a difference 1 year in RJ makes huh?

Ahh i would just like to say that i treasure friendship a lot. Lots of people are lovers but aren't friends. Lots of people are relatives and aren't friends. Lots of people work together who aren't friends. You can appreciate or admire someone, but that doesn't make them a friend. I'm really really really really thankful to everyone who made an effort to reach out to me... ^^

Chris LOLed @

OP

2006-11-06T21:07:00.000+08:00

Today was the big day! Went to school early in the morning to get some final rehearsals in with my group. Haha i was so nervous that i didnt even see eme waving to me from the amphi until she shouted out my name. So embarrassing.

Wah so touched by all the effort my group mates made to come down early and rehearse with me. They didnt complain when i gave feedback about eye contact, body motion etc. So patient! I <3 my pw group.

Anyway, we were paired up with amanda's group. Their presentation was super on form and well rehearsed! And all the while i was feeling sick: must be that sticker with my name that they pasted on me. After that i couldnt breathe and my chest went numb. Must be allergic to glue or smth. Thankfully i didnt get stage fright and stutter during my presentation or anything, and everyone said i was ogay, but i felt that my Q& A could've gone better. Oh wellz! Dun get A also nvm... =)

After that my group went out for celebration at S11. Treated benlow to wanton mee and yeeying to oolong tea! Haha just my way of saying thankew for all the kindness and support. I think without them (and sirui and jheeva) our project would've been DOOMED. But yay we managed to pull it off against all odds! Well done us! *Pats everyone on back*

Then after lunch, i ran over to J8 to meet my other group of pigfren-dogfren, wiL anna lala and leonard. Set off for safra but stoned at coffeeshop coz it was drizzling -.-. Training was quite fruitful as always i shot until my cylinder ran out of gas. But today was different. Today i got it i actually got the position correct for once and managed to shot 90 x2. Must be the guy standing next to me who inspired me, he was like some S'pore Shooting team champ, and every shot he made was like 10 10 10 9 10 10 10 9. Leonard was so stressed that he called ian wern to complain.

Leonard: Hello?... IW? Why you never come down train? ....Busy? Eh *hushed voice* do you know Chris Tang shot __ twice today?...Chris Tang shot __ leh.. TWICE LEH....Why are you so indifferent? Do you know i'm damn stressed now?... Okay BYE.

LOL. Ahh so happy i copied down the steps too just in case i forget in the future:

Stand leg perpendicular to shooting lane
Head turns perpendicular to target. Don't slunt
Lift pistol up, don't stress shoulder
Made sure body is extended (chest slightly forward)
Relationship must be correct, slow progression downwards
If past optimal pt, put down gun, don't force self

If i'm lucky someone might take notice and actually take away something useful from this =)

And after ending for the day, still couldn't go home coz some MANGIRL refused to leave until she shot to her heart's content. Shall not say who she is so we'll just call her A*. So everyone waited and waited for A* for 1 hour+ - one for all, all for one!- while she complained about not having BRAND NEW target cards to shoot and sulking about being forced to dry-fire. Haha can't see how she could've concentrated anyway with all the chattering going on.

Was really touched by something that wil said: "This is like the first time we're training as a team". Hoho teamwork teamwork makes training finally pay off. Monthly shoot Nov 26th. Bring it on!

Chris LOLed @

PW

2006-11-04T00:24:00.000+08:00

Sigh what a long day...woke up extra early today to go to sch for our final dry run. Was going to sit down in the canteen to eat breakfast when I suddenly got a call from yeeying asking me to come up quick... sucked up all my teh ping in 5 secs and chionged up 6 stories thinking I was late. And the teacher wasn't there yet. Grrr...

Anyway the OP itself went quite well haha <3 my PW grp! Even tho Mdm Fadilah was kinda mean and said stuff like we were disjointed, some ppl didnt have X-factor blah blah whatever. I still feel like we can pwn on the day itself! Yup just need more confidence! And perhaps a few jokes :)

Haha then after that spent 1 hour playing bridge in class with Leonard, lawry and Kevin while it rained outside. Luck damn good today won like 8 out of 10 games. LOL if only betting on 4D were this easy. Leonard can become insurance agent next time he managed to trick all of us, even ME HIS PARTNER, into thinking he was Lawry's partner. Too cunning liao..

Anyway after going home for lunch, chionged off to safra for training. Alone. With no cards. Haha was angsting about how to steal some cards: lala not at home, TGO out at work, wiL not going, in the end just borrowed the safra key open the locker and kope one biggg stack. Enough to last me the month! Hope everyone dun mind!!! ((:

Training itself was ogay I guess. Shot okay but hmm the most impt thing is following wiL’s training plan. Must must if I'm to catch up with the rest. Shot and shot and shot until my cylinder ran out of gas and I didn’t know whether my shots were dipping down coz "bo hong" already or too tired to carry on.

Ahhhhhh training's fun. Tiring but fun ((:

Chris LOLed @

TNS GEP 01 reunion

2006-10-31T00:05:00.000+08:00

I attended my Tao Nan School GEP '01 reunion today. It was really cool. Had to travel all the way to Changi Village from Tanah Merah MRT, then i found out that .... it was the EXACT same place we went to for our shooting chalet. -.- except coming from the opposite direction.

Haha at first i thought the BBQ was going to be damn failure. Jed bought these charcoal pillows (briguettes? damn you frenchies) that wouldnt burn properly, so we were pretty much turning out uncooked chicken wings until the real charcoal arrived.

Had my face attacked by Felicia who was holding face paint. Ever seen a sad clown before? (: While playing bridge somemore. I will never forget that maniacal laugh. Anyway the turnout was quite good. Nearly 30 ppl, mainly from RJ ACJC and HCJC. We were all sitting around recalling the good ol' days, complaining about lousy teachers, poking fun at Paniel for losing his way, and generally just laughing away.

One topic that came up tho was about GEP. Hmm i feel kinda sad that GEP's being abolished, cos we'll be losing a special type of people. I couldnt have imagined myself getting to RI and RJ if it weren't for GEP, cos i wouldve been stuck in my old neighbourhood school rotting away. Maybe it was the change in environment, the teachers, the different teaching methods, but definitely being with people who thought like me helped me excel in my school work.

I'm really grateful to have had, and still have them as my friends. Haha some of them have really changed so much over the past 5 years. Some have matured, others mellowed - I nearly couldnt recognize Xue Ying when she arrived - but to still be able to get together after so long and felt that same connection that we had: really means something. <3 TNS GEP 01

[Edit: Ah got some flak from mam so i guess i shud clarify this =)
1. I'm a slacker. I prolly wouldnt have been pushed to excel if the env. hadnt been so competitive. Don't get me wrong my pri sch friends were so bright and the teachers were great! But i didnt have any motivation.

2. I didn't want to leave my neighbourhood sch either! But my parents forced me to >< And looking back, i dont regret it because it was like venturing into a new world. It never was about escaping from a so-called "lousy neighbourhood school"

3. (thinks of Wee Shu Min incident and shudders) There was never a GEP vs non-GEP thing going on. I think those who got into RI/RJ on their own merit deserve it. Worse off? Definitely not. But i guess the GEP ppl were just taught differently and that's why i don't regret being in GEP (:

Peace]

Chris LOLed @

Haha, best class outing ever

2006-10-29T20:20:00.000+08:00

Haha best class outing ever! 3H rocks my socks!

Woke up on Friday at 9am to meet up with the rest of the class at Orchard mrt. Was feeling sick for some reason, feverish, diarrhoea but haha small thing small thing.

We watched Deathnote at Lido afterwards. OMG the movie is sooo smart, and faithful to the manga from what i've heard. Quite dark though, the way the protagonist ends so many lives just to evade caputre. The ending kinda sucks but it leaves it totally open for the sequel thats coming. Maybe can ask ppl go watch with me ((:

After that we all went to Bedok central for lunch. Bought this giant watermelon kachang for mie, lawry, yeeying, kevin and leonard. Haha thanks to wil for introing it to me, this thing can feed 6 ppl!

And then we all set off for marine parade. Walking past Tao Nan (my old pri sch), suddenly rmbed that there's a TNS reunion on the 30th. Dunno whether will have time to go... Anyway, we decided to go play pool first. Only my 3rd time lol, holding my cue like ..... Agassi. Mie was the pro one, she like won all the games we played. Close tho haha it usually just boiled down to who got the 8-ball (:

Then after that while some ppl went off to buy food, the rest of us decided to go cycling! Havent riden a bike in 10 years, but somehow haha you can never unlearn how to ride one. Cycled with Kevin and the two Bens to and fro along the trail, and kena bomb by some (*$@(!! bird along the way.

Whee and after we returned the bikes, time to BBQ! Most successful BBQ ever, all the food was cooked (for once) and edible haha thanks to Kaswin and Nazi who slaved to keep the fire from owning the chicken wings. Lots of flying ants buzzing around tho, and this pregnant cat who wouldnt go away since mie gave her some food to eat.

Later we were joined by Mrs Toh and her cute cute daughter! Mr Wong couldnt make it coz he (couldnt afford the $10 for the food -the miser!-or) was busy so hmmmm haha shan't say more coz my chem spa's coming up. Nothing better than playing bridge after a meal, and thats what we did while others talked kok, haha until it was time to leave....

Ahhh best class outing ever. I love 3H <3

Chris LOLed @

Class Outing!

2006-10-29T00:49:00.000+08:00

Haha best class outing ever! 3H rocks my socks!

Woke up at 9am on Friday to meet up with the rest of the class at Orchard mrt. Was feeling sick for some reason, feverish, diarrhoea but haha small thing small thing.

We watched Deathnote at Lido afterwards. OMG the movie is sooo smart, and faithful to the manga from what i've heard. Quite dark though, the way the protagonist ends so many lives just to evade caputre. The ending kinda sucks but it leaves it totally open for the sequel thats coming. Maybe can ask ppl go watch with me ((:

After that we all went to Bedok central for lunch. Bought this giant watermelon kachang for mie, lawry, yeeying, kevin and leonard. Haha thanks to wil for introing it to me, this thing can feed 6 ppl!

And then we all set off for marine parade. Walking past Tao Nan (my old pri sch), suddenly rmbed that there's a TNS reunion on the 30th. Dunno whether will have time to go... Anyway, we decided to go play pool first. Only my 3rd time lol, holding my cue like ..... Agassi. Mie was the pro one, she like won all the games we played. Close tho haha it usually just boiled down to who got the 8-ball (:

Holidays!

2006-10-26T19:58:00.000+08:00

Yay, holidays are here! Well, not so much for relaxation, due to my horrible promo results. Will be working hard to make up for the time I lost slacking since the beginning fo the year. Must get myself to exercise more, getting really fat lol. Sekali die for NAPFA next year...

New Cam

2006-10-24T22:36:00.000+08:00

Wheeee past few days have been so exciting!

Yesterday we all stoned in class for all the tutorials and lectures. No one paying attention coz hols coming haha brains all getting into the holiday mode. I slept for 20 mins during econs (haha and i'm supposed to be econs rep) coz there was nothing much to do anyway.

Lol wide awake during chem tutorial tho. Mr Wong screwed us for messing up our chem mock SPA and gave us lengthy civics lesson on being responsible learners and good teammates. I never knew it was actually possible for a person to sweat in an air-con room but he sure proved me wrong. Total respect for him struggling so hard to control his temper.

And then after that we still had h3 bio. Got back my test paper 49.3%. My first thought was: Can round up? Haha fortunately can so i pass! Yay. Must work harder for next test yes yes more reading up during hols.

After everything, Plan, Charissa, Yee Ying, Samuel and i went to support Ben Low's band Eden Sol at The Third Place @ Outram! OMG best performance ever on top of singing and instruments still had skit! And ben had the most memorable line in the whole skit

"How could you do this to her?! She trusted YOU!" ROFL most out-of-character line ever. Supposed to be quite angsty but everyone was laughing. I cant imagine how long they had to rehearse for everything. Ben told me 2 and a half weeks. O_o gosu!

And today morning Ben still had to join us early in the morning at Yeeying's home for PW. Respect! LOL he thought we were meeting at Potong Pasir macs, fortunately Jheeva saw him walking in. Phew. Rehearsed 3 times and made so many corrections to the script and ppt. If we dont get A for OP i'm going to.... hmmm maybe sigh :P

At the end of it all, i went to funan with my mum to buy my cam. Ha i know i listed out 4 cams i wanted to buy, but in the end i didnt buy any of them. Bought the Fuji Finepix F30 instead, even tho it looks like a rectangle -.- ISO is damn high 3200 woot and best batt life ever 500+ shots! Haha i'm going to carry it around wherever i go! No more lousy hp pics for me (:

Chris LOLed @

Weird day

2006-10-22T23:22:00.000+08:00

Everything seemed to start off on the wrong foot today. Was attending wil's church service yesterday and had dinner at Changi Airport. Came home all cheerful and satisfied and went to sleep. Woke up this morning to a barrage of scoldings from my parents, about how christians are out to brainwash ppl and my grades would suffer if i one day decided to become a christian. My dad was like the most p**ssed off one he just barged into my room and BAO ZHA (explode) in front of me. Didnt know what to feel after that. Somehow i feel that i'm not communicating enough with my dad. He just flatly refuses to see things from my point of view and is never calm enough to reason. Sigh.

Had a long chat with my mum about what i should do, since she's always the more open one. Told her that i'd made some new friends at church and that the lessons i took away were helping me become a better person. She said that there was no rush to get involved in Christianity and haha must san si er xing (think thrice before acting). Totally agree. Must think this over carefully, haha maybe wait a few years and see. Was quite touched by wil when he said that he and the rest of cell group would be praying for me ((:

Oh well after that went to funan with my mum to check out cams. Haha her way of rewarding me for promos i guess. Walked all the way from the top to the ground floor checking out all different sorts of brands. Apparently competition is really heating up in the digicam market, prices falling like crazy; manufacturers offering tons of freebies to go along. haha consumer welfare increase!!!

And after some walking, i managed to narrow down to four choices:

Olympus miu 740 (7mp, weather proof)
Canon Ixus 850 IS (7mp, wide angle lens)
Samsung Nn10 (10 mp, smart touch)
Sony T10/T50 (7 mp, 3 in' touch screen)

Whee all soooo good. Any opinions on which one to buy? Haha

Chris LOLed @

Yayness

2006-10-18T21:38:00.000+08:00

I feel extra happy today. Got like 3.5 extra marks for GP coz the marker missed out some of my points in the compre. Boosted my score from 69 (LOLOL) to 72.5 Whee B to A now at least i achieved my goal of not deproving in any of my subjects *pats self on back*

Gah to matthew and all those who didnt do too well, don't worry there's still a year left, work hard during holidays, practice and recap what you learn so that you don't bring any baggage into J2. All the best man.

And today's shooting training was just pure saikang. Havent touched a pistol in 2 months. I could only shoot like 20 shots before my arm gave up and i had to stop. And was damn sad lar only 3 ppl turn up for training, me leonard and mie (who later zhaoed for PW -.- lol and was subbed by iw and rucha) So much saikang the decorations from open house still lying on the floor.

The system works so much like feedback inhibition loh

Wil who is sick calls ---> Anna who cmi and calls --> Leonard who pushes to --> Ian Wern who leaves for scout stuff. Guess who had to paste all the photos and paper on the wall by himself -.-
--> Rant to wil about saikang (feedback)

zz tml still got mock spa. Study study

Chris LOLed@

Dark Crusade

2006-10-17T22:30:00.000+08:00

Woot, got Dark Crusade at a discount at Sim Lim. Thanks Chris! Without him, we won't be able to get it at this time and at such a low price. Campaign is pretty unique, but the difficulty is... unexpected. Gameplay changed quite a bit with some new rules, and the AI is much much more aggressive and intelligent. Necrons build strat is also pretty unique. Would recommend everyone to buy that, lol. Well, got to rush I&R now.

Matt, signing off...

Linked to previous post...

2006-10-15T22:16:00.000+08:00

In case you all can't view the video I attempted to post, here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myqyKZsknmw&eurl=

Thanks.

Matthew, signing off...

Funny Video...

2006-10-14T19:04:00.000+08:00

Yep, saw this in my friend's blog. Thought it would be good to share ;)

Raffles Rendevous

2006-10-13T20:41:00.000+08:00

Yayness open house is finally over, dun have to worry about knowing travel routes or making videos anymore!

I think the turnout today was actually quite poor, what with RI having common tests, and schs like HC holding their own open houses on the same day. Rawr steal our customers will you!? Anyway haha it was quite obvious that the number of befrienders > number of befriended, so ppl had to fill in at the amphi during performances, otherwise it'd have looked quite sparse.

I found out that it's quite tiring having to shuttle to and fro between befriender booth and shooting booth. Everyone looking so sian since there was no one to introduce shooting to. Haiz all the girls worked so hard on the souvenoirs and decorations, in the end not many ppl came down to admire! NVM NVM! the process more impt than the product! Right right? ^^

Yeap yeap so basically was running around bringing ppl on tours and answering their questions when i could, but mostly just ferrying goodie bags from the raffles rooms to the booths. Then Wil had this fine idea to use wooden poles to ferry the bags. OMG genius. Pity he had to break his hp screen. Haiz good people always the ones to suffer.

I consider myself quite lucky to have gotten like 3 tour groups, mostly parents, coz when i talked to eme's friends (zhi ying and xiao ting i think) they told me that some ppl avoided them like the plague, as tho they were trying to harrass them. LOL can there be such a thing as being over-friendly? Dunno dunno hmmm

Whee and i danced like 4 times, 3 of which were totally unnecessary but i had to coz otherwise all that preparation would've been for nothing and i would've been so sore at myself. I suppose thats why my arms are still aching now ><

And after everything, we got together and celebrated ian wern and lulu's bday! Hooray finally the bday presents and gifts were long overdue! I like how leonard for all his talk cant even draw the middle finger properly. Thing looks like a paw -.- Haven eaten blueberry cheese cake in like forever the taste is like heaven! ^^ Bad for the diet i know but good for the soul.

And i prolly can't put open house behind me without talking about all my new friends. Haha junyang who's from lala's class is like hanging around ever more often and he's a really nice guy, helping us carry goodie bags and all. Thanks to onyee who was my (damn pro) dance partner, thanks for leading and looking over my screw ups. To Alison for her gosu dance performance (body wave woo!), and Xiao Ting and Zhi Ying for introing themselves to me and chatting.

Tired but happy!

Chris LOLed @

Preparing

2006-10-13T00:31:00.000+08:00

I woke up today with a splitting headache. Must be coz i only had 2 hours of sleep. Couldn't rest easy until i was satisfied with the open house video. Went to the benches by the Theatre Dance Studies and dozed off promtly, and like woke up in heaven. Actually no la heaven's not that cold but i had like 3 angels beside me Eme Anna and Joaana.

Haha we avoided assembly by sneaking up to A78, my classroom, then plonked all our stuff down. I continued working on the video, and the girls did the souvenoirs, which are these uber-cute paper replicas of AK-47s wrapped up in alu foil! By noon our posse like swelled up to 10 people, with Wil, leonard, iw, lulu, lala and joyce. Haha one whole assembly line of workers cranking out sourvenoirs. It's funny listening to girls talk to each other. They say the most nonsensical stuff, bicker then make up in 2 secs, crack the lamest jokes.

I refuse to do any more of Wil's math teacher's saikang. He's like the most acerbic math teacher i've ever met, and his name shall go unmentioned for fear of backlash. X ]

Mr. T (to wil): You're the vice-capt?
Wil: Actually... i'm the capt...
Mr. T (with a look of incredulous surprise): You're the capt?! *narrows eyes*

After that lala wil and i went down for befriender's meeting. WTH have to meet at 8.30 am tml because Mr Hodge couldnt brief us today. @(*#(!! thanks la. And then we had final dance prac. My dance partner is possibly the most gosu one i've ever met outside of dance, coz she took it upon herself to perfect her dance steps with her friends, so i was like being led all the way until i committed the whole repertoire to memory. We're going to have fun tml.

Then dance prac ended and we chionged back up to A78 to finish up the math saikang and the souvenoirs, then brought everything back down to ground floor. Big hassle setting up the booth la have to pin black paper to cover up the board, then draw stick men and guns, panda heads etc. Covered the whole floor in styrofoam snow :P Then i took some time out to go check out the other displays. Cyber gaming has like the most ULTIMATE display for open house. 1 piece of vanguard sheet showing achievements, members and games. *Clap clap* i feel sorry for matthew.

Whee then had to hurry and finish up and clean up. I feel damn proud of our display booth and its like the amalgamation of all our efforts. (Proud) Can you identify the orange things poking out the top and the side? They're actually pellets, but they look like thumbtacks to me XD

Then mie turned up just as we were putting the finishing touches on. Seriously la haha whenever she's around there's no work to be done, then when she not around got avalanche of jobs to do. :D:D:D Gotta thank the council for making the place look so nice; cant wait to see the crowds tml. Hopefully haze wont like keep any people at home!

Chris LOLed @

Johari

2006-10-10T01:31:00.000+08:00

Yo yo everyone please help me do this!

Tell me what you think of me and help me improve as a person! ^_^.v.

Haze

2006-10-10T00:56:00.000+08:00

Ha first day of school after promos. Seems like an eternity, all the knowledge leaked out of my brain. It must be the haze; seeped into my brain and replaced all my thoughts with polluted air. It was almost incapacitating, i can actually look at the sun without my eyes exploding O_o. Haze please go away so that i can exercise XD

Well had a really fun day at school for a change. Watched Crash during GP/Bio starring Don Cheadle, Ben Fraser, Sandra Bullock. Really great film depicting the manifestation of racism in LA. like almost a dozen characters whose lives have been irrevocably changed by racism and how some embrace and others fight against it. Really dramatic and ironic in some cases where stereotypes are actually being enforced by the discriminated and how stereotypes that have persisted for years can suddenly be overturned. A cop who molests a woman while frisking her saves her the next day from her burning car. A women who thinks her white friends are her pillars support finds a confidante in her mexican maid in her time of need. Makes me treasure our racial integration even more.

Haha and we slacked around at mini canteen for econs! I think the heat/haze is getting to me. Shoo shoo. All hot and bothered when i went for h3 bio. Listening to that NUS professor talk nonstop for 2 hours is like (a) getting killed. (b) then revived. then (a) (b) (a) (b).

Rawr and coz of h3 i missed the first day of dance prac for befrienders nuuuu. I'm going to be some robot at prac tml. Oh wells at least i got this coolio befriender's shirt! yellow! go BW! And at the canteen wil (re)introed me to his church cellgrp mate alison. O.o had no idea that she was from RJ too so awkward had to ask for her name again. LOL shes just so enthu and funny great at making jokes and teasing ppl haha. Hope to get to know you better!

Shoo shoo haze!

Chris LOLed@

After exams...

2006-10-07T11:36:00.000+08:00

Spent too much time playing for the last 4 days. Must get myself out of that gaming mode. After exams still have to do Chem SPA practice as well as to prepare for Bio H3 lecture test. And oh, PW OP to prepare for too. Can't wait for holidays to begin...

Matt signing off @

Thankew!

2006-10-07T01:55:00.000+08:00

Zzomg i love you guys! Haha going to such expense to celebrate my bday! Im sure leonard lulu and ian wern all feel the same!

Thanks for the humongous bear bear (lol) its going to become a permanent fixture in my room ((: Haha really really to Wil, Eme, Ele, Jia Hui, Leonard, Cherlyn, Lala, Anna, Solomon, and all the rest of the ppl who wished me happy birthday: Thanks! <3<3 Put you all on my christmas ipod nano list haha! + photos for you all!

Haha i'll always remember TGO's unique Drunken Monkey Bowling Style! Just chuck the ball down the lane. And the OMGWTF spam noodles. Evidence that RJ ppl are thinkers, leaders and pioneers. Think of new and innovative ways to own noodles, lead in accidentally poking holes in the aluminium foil, pioneers in fighting over and spilling noodles on the table X ). Haha last one under pressure to take. Sorry sorry instigated by others haha.

Thanks too to matthew, carol, jheeva, yeeying and all those who wished me happy bday! haha used to feel so insignificant, but its heartwarming to have so many ppl to care for you. Haha i dun ever want this day to end...

Chris LOLed @

Games

2006-09-30T17:38:00.000+08:00

My aunt said something to me today. I had the laptop on and a game loaded up while i was revising bio, and i was just about to take a break when she came back from work. She saw the game and said bluntly to me, "Boy, are you addicted to computer games? I think you are," and then some crap about how hundreds of people are warded into hospitals for comp game addiction.

I know too much of a good thing can be bad, and how addiction can reduce the best of us to spastic balls of irritability, and anger, and how the common perception of comp games has been that it's a way of escape and too much of it makes people do drive-by shootings and school killings and such.

But still what do ppl expect me to do at home? Mug all day? Chat on the phone with friends? Would be nice if i had a sibling to at least argue with, but haha you can't have everything. So yup i'm not afraid to admit that my passion is for video games (and shooting of course haha thats why i joined shooting in the first place.) But i like to think that i know when to stop, and where to draw the line between reality and fantasy. I keep my grades up, I have my own social circle, I still find time to engage in meaningful things. Why can't i play games? I can't recall the number of times i've heard people say "Comp games are childish. Grow up". Harlo, the average age of a gamer is 26 and rising. Who the hell are you?

And that was a really hurtful thing to hear, coming from my aunt. I always thought she was the only one in the household who ever respected my privacy and left me alone to my own devices. I think i'm the sort of guy who can put up with rubbish and insults from just about everyone, but hearing a family member put you down like you were the most fei person in the world with totally no future and no potential just sucks. No words to describe it, but it just sucks. To even assume that just because i had the game on means that i did nothing but play all day, it's belittling and it's painful. And i can't and won't ever talk back because thats me, i soak up all the shit people can throw.

But just because i don't say anything doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. I'm only human.

Chris SIGHED @

Promos...

2006-09-26T20:47:00.000+08:00

2 down. 3 more to go. 3 more content based subjects to be precise. In my opinion it went quite well so far, but I don't think I can say the same for the next 2 subjects. Back to Maths. And maybe a bit of chem.

Matt signing off @

1 week war

2006-09-25T22:29:00.002+08:00

Recount of p**m*s survivor Chris: Just in case i dont make it till the end of the week. Writing this for posterity. (:

Day1
Always good to start off fresh and energized, and comon its GP; if you screw it up it probably doesnt bode well for the rest of your subjects XP I think i was the only retard in my class who did the first qs on counter terrorism lor. Dunno why everyone else picked qs 9, 10 and 12 (easy way out? (:). lol hopefully i didnt mess the essay up. Rmb last time in RI i wrote an essay on globalization for my EOY exams, and it was singled out by the teachers for being A for "Atrocious", B for "BOMBastic" and C for "Confused" @_@. They even read it out in front of the whole GEP cohort. freaking embarrassed. I hate RI eng dept.

Oh wellz hope that doesnt happen again. And its time to leave GP behind for econs whee. More essays >> Rawr was studying in my room today when the aircon started dripping water on my table. Tot meh just a few drops. Then suddenly the air con went all rambo on my a$$ and leaked water all over my table. All my notes and cables nearly ruined. Lucky i had moved my laptop out of the way, if not i'd be blogging on a piece of paper now XD.

1 down, 4 to go!

Day 2

Whew that was tough. Writing 2 essays and a case study in 2h 30 min. No bs no time to rest. Hahah ppl say RJ students are like the smartest of the lot, but its surprising how ppl like me are so retarded that they dont even know how to poke a hole through the cover page. Just sit there looking stunned waiting for Lagman to scold. XP

2 down, 3 to go!

Day 3

I'm beginning to get the feeling that the promos paper was dumbed down for ppl like me, esp after math. It's almost as if they... want us to pass... so we can... get promoted or smth. LOL. Actually this was the only paper i actually felt like i could ace. Had 45 mins before the end to twiddle my thumbs, look at what ppl were doing (not at what they were writing mind you XD) and check through. All in all, pretty confident in passing math. But tml's the killer! Chem!! Run home to mug.

Day 4

Zomgg Chem is over and done with! I tell you this was the hardest paper of the 4 i've done so far. 3 hours long just like math except there wasnt any time to check, just to frantically try and answer the last question. 3 questions to choose 2 from and i wisely avoided the stoichio, coz with the standard of my math, i'd be surprised if i even got past the 1st subqs. Still tho, got that feeling i'm not going to do so well. But haha i tried i tried! Really! LOL parents cant blame me if i screw up.

1 more! BIO! the zisha subject. Notes are 4 inches thick and i havent even started yet! 4 days to piah can i make it? the amazing race is on. Who part of my brain will be eliminated NEXT.

Die.

2006-09-17T22:48:00.001+08:00

7 days. Enough said.

Matt signing off @

16 days to promos....

2006-09-09T18:57:00.000+08:00

Whee. 16 days. That's a lot isn't it.
Still getting distracted by so many other things. After trying out that chem revision test, I realised how much I HAVEN'T mug. Sheesh. Only 16... 4 days per subject, excluding GP and H3... When school reopens homework will start pouring in. I wonder how I am going to find the time to study...

Matt signing off @

Potato

2006-08-22T19:47:00.000+08:00

Rawr i never want to touch another potato in my life. Curse you stoopid potatoes!!!

Next time i see you i'll whip you and mash you up and boil you alive X]

Edit:

Hmm now that i'm recovering from that traumatising experience.. can recall what happened today.
Think i was frantically studying for bio spa from morning until the spa itself. During civics, when Mr Wong was talking about social etiquette and various scenarios, we cunning ppl decided to discuss spa right in front of him. Draw table somemore.

Jheeva: So like each has 2 replicates..
*Mr Wong walks over*
Jheeva: .... and of course i would expect Jasmine to respect my privacy
*Repressed Laughter*

I think the past few weeks have somehow taken their toll on me. Been trying really hard to stay awake during the later part of the day. Heck, even during math lecture today was trying to cram more bio into my brain while trying to at least pretend i'm getting what the lecturer was saying. And i think i'm getting short term memory.. even left my wallet and handphone behind in the lab after the spa. Thankew C&C for helping me take (:

And i think i'm going to have to stop blogging until after promos. A lot of distractions stopping me from really getting down to doing serious revision. Shooting, guitar, games, blogs, PW. After doing a cost-benefit analysis and taking into account all the private costs, i think its best to concentrate on mugging first and foremost, then after promos i can degen. Yup so its gonna be my last post here for some time. Cya all and best of luck for your promos!

Chris LOLed @

Stress

2006-08-17T21:19:00.000+08:00

Stress. "The sum of physical and mental responses to an unacceptable disparity between real or imagined personal experience and personal expectations." Wikipedia .

I think now that exam time is looming, a lot of people are succumbing to this syndrome. Not just students, teachers too! Mr Wong himself didnt exactly have the best chem lecture today, coz ppl were just dozing off and giving half-hearted responses to his questions. Then when he came to class and tried to go through elucidation questions with us, some ppl couldnt balance the eqns properly. And i think the frustration in him just kept on building up until he couldnt take it anymore. Bao zha. Don't worry Mr Wong we still luv you :P.

And the councilors still call this Relax Week. BS haha what with all the teachers setting tests and quizzes at the same time, its a miracle most ppl can still keep awake throughout the entire day, much less find time to meditate >< Thankfully my class got an hour off coz our econs tutor was absent, so we spent the time playing music, chess and interestingly enough, hopscotch. Yup sometimes simple is fun!

And hohoho i managed to snap a pic of Matthew parade commanding. Yes i know it's awe-inspiring. Look at him tower above the rest! All shall tremble before his might! ^^

Chris LOLed @

Spirit of Competition

2006-08-15T23:26:00.000+08:00

Hmm was having this rather interesting convo on msn with one of my good friends tonight, and the topic inevitably turned to the school.

I guess the issue here is about sportsmanship. Speaking on behalf of my friend here. Is there something wrong with the sch culture? Are we becoming so focused on winning that we're making losing out to be a bad thing, when in fact the process is just as, if not more impt, than the result? Case in pt: Annoucement of House standings. Did it really have to be: "There had to be a champion"? Couldn't it have just been "Hi all, hope everyone had fun at IHC, here are the results"?

Are we, as Rafflesians, not winning with humility anymore I sort of get his pt. I think recently a cca announced that they'd laid the SMACKDOWN on the opposing teams during a compi to emerge champions. Are we winning and glorifying ourselves at the expense of our opponents? And comparing RJ's facilities to those of less well known schs, we're on an unequal footing to begin with. Does it really even matter in the end? The winning?
Just some food for thought.

Long time no post

2006-08-11T23:13:00.000+08:00

Long time since I last posted... Too much stuff to work on... Summary of week:
Monday: Boring day. Chem SPA. Flunked royally, class average is like 3.61 to 3.62, while I got 3.66. GGXX.

Tuesday: National Day celebrations. Marched in with a stupid sch flag behind the national flag party. As Gerald Tay kindly pointed out, "If you people raised the flag higher I can't see Matthew". Poor Ann Liang has to stone at the steps because of the handing over ceremony. Had a "class breakfast", but I suspect most people zhao halfway. Chris showed me the farewell video he and his shooting club made. It was real funny, and Leonard... *cough cough*. Nvm, if you have seen the video you know what I meant.

Wednesday: National Day, wanted to mug and such, but in the end too slack to do much. Did a bit of Maths practice paper and watched TV etc.

Thursday: Boring day, stoned at home. Did homework, and slacked for the rest of the day, despite promos being only 47 days (or was it 46?) away at that point of time.

Friday: Went quite well. Table tennis session was pretty fun, and I managed to control the ball while smashing, more or less. Got a 50%-75% chance of getting the ball in, a far cry from my 10-15% rate last time. No more complete dependence on chopping, hah. Econs... timed essay, and surprise surprise, most of us can't finish in time. Ate into lecture time, and luckily the lecturer isn't the mean type.

And here I am, trying to do work, and failing miserably as a result. Must get that sense of urgency into me.

Matt signing off @

My Way ;_;

2006-08-11T20:38:00.000+08:00

Sighness was just tidying some of the stuff on my laptop when i suddenly had the urge to look through the photo slideshows that Wil did for the farewell again. Listening to the song and admiring the photos, i can't help but feel a sense of nostalgia well up in me. (even though farewell was like 3 days ago)

Maybe it's cos of the realization that those are the good times that we might soon never experience again, or the gratitude i can't express to those who have gone down this road with me. Maybe i just need to find someone special to share these memories with, maybe 5 or 10 years down the road i can still look back with this person and say "hey do you remember when we used to...?" or say "you still haven't changed one bit".

Sighness. I think this song really expresses that sentiment. First listened to it almost 7,8 years ago and the tune has always stuck with me from pri sch till now. I think i might have dropped a few tears listening to it tonight.

Goodbye 18

2006-08-09T18:22:00.000+08:00

Now that i'm reinvigorated i can type coherently ^^.
Well we weren't sure things would turn out exactly as planned, and sometimes they never do, but thankfully everything went off without a hitch.

Thanks to the J2s for being the enthu bunch that they are, bringing cakes down and all to celebrate with us. At first we were all like concerned with how some ppl would sit with each other in cliques than with others, but haha everyone was lively everyone was walking around and chatting so yay i'm sooo happy to be proven wrong.

And games! Haha we spent like soooo long preparing the games to play and gifts to give out...like 4 hours in advance...:P so thanks to ppl like leonard who went with Wil and Eme and I to Jo's house sooo early to prepare the wheel of 7 deadly sins.

Haha i guess some people noticed that i wasnt looking at my best, maybe a little groggy or irritable even. Not just my shooting buddies, but my classmates. Sorry if i might have flared up or rawr rawred at someone (i cant rmb), haha i know there's no excuse for that, but editing is really hard work! X)

To the J2s i'd just like to wish y'all good luck with your A lvls and all your future endeavours. So much to say but haha so much that i can't put in words. You guys have weathered storms and all kinds of setbacks with us that i feel that even a farewell party can't possibly make up for all the things you've done for us. I'd Also like to thank Perry and Hongwei (birthday boi) for being my seniors for 5 straight years. I think they really shaped me to be the person i am today, and taught me how to be honest, responsible and passionate about shooting. And i feel like i've still got so much to learn.

All in all i think the party was some mega bomb success, and i'd like to see any cca try to top that. Haha jk but i think what our club has is something special, a burning passion to be the best, and a special bond that brings out the best in everyone. Goodbye 18 <3.