Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Hey blogosphere, guess what?

I went out today. Been planning to go to the Botanic Gardens for a week now, with Kelvin and Insan.

Thought it'd be quite quick and simple, really. Get there, pick a few leaves for our Bio botany project, come back.

And heck, was I proven wrong.

Speaking of wrong, several things went wrong today.

Firstly, we took a bus to the bus interchange, thinking 105 would stop there. But it didn't. So we decided to go to Commonwealth by MRT instead. Talked crap so much, we missed our stop, and we had to waste more time waiting for the train back to Commonwealth. Almost missed our stop on toe way to the Botanic Gardens too, but thankfully we had Kelvin with us (Insan and I are great friends with the words "lost" and "no sense of direction").

When we finally got there, we realised collecting leaves wasn't going to be so easy after all. Spent absolutely ages trying to choose which ones to pick, and since most of them looked the same, we had to spend more time trying to come up with ways to categorise them into our dichotomous key. (They somehow have this habit of not labeling the more interesting and different-looking plants. I wonder why.)

Felt hungry after walking around a bit, so we paid a visit to the food court. Insan was talking about how romantic a place the Botanic Gardens were, and how it'd be great to go on a date there. And then when we discovered the food court gave free drink refills, he declared it the perfect place to go on a date. Can you imagine that? Asking someone out like this: "Hey, do you want to go on a romantic date with me? I know this place with free refills,"? It's awfully failed.

Then we walked around some more, trying to fit in as tourists and not a bunch of idiots walking around with a pencil and a book full of leaves.

Epic trained for NAPFA, 'cause according to my iPod's pedometer, we walked around 9,000 steps in total there (which isn't much, actually, but it's nice to feel accomplished).

Felt super thirsty after our ninth plant species, so revisited the food court.

Bought ice cream and Chrysanthemum flowers on the way back. Looked seriously weird, what with the flower-carrying and ice cream-eating.

Our summary of the entire seven-hour trip is:

- Travelling/getting lost/checking directories/failing in general: 2.5 hours

- Eating/talking crap in the food court/being lame in general: 2 hours

- Sightseeing/checking out the gift shops/sitting on benches and talking/hanging around the Ball of Wisdom/being tourists in general: 2 hours

- Collecting leaves/recording names of plants/discussing Bio/actual work in general: 0.5 hours

Time-consuming and calorie-burning as it was, I had tonnes of fun today. Seriously. We should do it more often.

Okay, need sleep now. Tired.

P.S. Behold, the Ball of Wisdom. Words cannot describe its amazingness, therefore I shall post a link to this here video.

Awkward.

I've got so much I want to say, I don't know what to write here.

Hold on while I recollect my thoughts.

*an hour later*

Okay, I'm back.

Woke up this morning, and tried and tried desperately to go back to sleep, just to hold on to that "it's-a-weekend-so-I-can-sleep-in" feeling we get twice a week. Kinda gave up after a while, so I went online (which is what I always do, so typing this out is as effective as, say, me telling you guys I need to breathe to stay alive).

Going to switch to point-form now, 'cause I'm too lazy to put things in full sentences, and that I haven't done point-form in ages.

So here's what happened today:

- Turned Hero in MouseHunt. Like, finally.

- Went out to Hyatt with Emily, Wardah and Fatinn. Had to be there early 'cause we needed to do some finalisation things that weren't really effective as MCs and performers respectively.

- Was extremely lame on the way there. Imagine what'd happen if Fatinn or Wardah had said "koala" instead of "kaola". Man, I would've laughed. ('Cept that I couldn't if it did, 'cause Insan and I happened to be seated at the VIP table, and that would've just been awkward.)

- Bought some food around Orchard, 'cause we were super hungry (lunch was awful).

- Returned to Hyatt to wait for "beeg important event" to start. (Minister of Education came over, so we're supposed to have dinner with 'im. All the Bruneians studying in Singapore and stuff like that.)

- Discovered I was sitting right next to our guest of honour. Fail.

- Ate. Hyatt food good.

- Killed 'Canon in D'. Screwed up big time. Seriously assed.

- Did pretty well with Emily though.

- Had loads of fun in the van on the way back. Kinda surprised the driver didn't go deaf with our loudness.

- Came back and got dragged into an extremely pointless convo with Jung Min, Chang Yoon, Nazihah and Yee Rou.

Okay, going off now. Need sleep. Though I might read LotR first.

Adieu.

P.S. Monday is going to be very interesting. Have this weird bet with Faiz.

We has pizza.

Hello blogosphere.

It's the official "first" day of CCA today. Which basically means we get to do ice-breakers then probably have free food.

The great news is that a huge chunk of seniors (Year 3s and 5s, including MJ, Rania and Wai Yin) transferred to Media from other clubs that were "not so fun", so our population has increased significantly. And that almost everybody's CCA transfer applications got approved.

The depressing news is that there are only three Year 1s joining us, and that the huge chunk of people who joined Media chose to do photo instead of video (only two joined our side, where we have pizza. And cookies). Now that's just sad.

The video group is terribly underpopulated. There's like, less than fifteen of us (rough estimation, can't be that many), and the photo group is huge compared to us. But we're proud to be part of the minority. (Although it seriously makes me wonder, what on earth did Roslyn say to them that made them all (save two) choose photo over video?)

Had Michelle and Victoria to talk to during our ice-breaking session (which was pretty funny, and then failed 'cause we got distracted by pizza).

Class today was all right. Nothing really special happened. Physics was fun, 'cause we get to watch exceedingly ridiculous video clips and Ryan get owned by Mr Wong. Was falling asleep during the English summary thing. Chem quiz was bleh. And Math was okay. Free food during Malay.

Hey, just realised I survived an entire day on freebies. Cool.

Okay, better go now. Physics online assignment needs some attention.

Adieu.

P.S. I think I've become nocturnal.

"Follow your heart."

Listening to 'Bohemian Rhapsody' right now. My mum loves the song, and she used to play it over and over in the car when I was younger. Ah, good times, good times. (Crap, now I feel old. People should stop making references to my age.)

All right, going to study for that Chem quiz after this.

Do you think it's unfair that some classes had theirs on Monday while we're having the quiz tomorrow? The phrase "Term 1 week 4" is pretty vague, isn't it?

I like it when vagueness is in our favour though.

Been putting off the Chem reading for ages now. (Actually I've gone through the notes plenty of times, but I've grown kinda paranoid because of my apparent retardation).

Spent an hour and a half trying to draw two graphs. I am amazing, I know.

Didn't post last night 'cause of Swine-I mean, Shine (some singing competition Emily, Woan Chyi and Insan joined) and I decided to be there to give some support (and stand around looking like an idiot peering into the windows of Music room B).

And that I seriously had nothing much to say then. Come to think of it, I think there's plenty I could've talked about (particularly ACE) yesterday, but never mind.

Anyway, today's a Thursday, so we finally had Malay after like, a week.

Bio practical was interesting. Bio teacher kept telling us to "look carefully at the structure and follow your heart" for the answers. Had some slight disputes about moss and spike moss and thallose and leafy liverwort, but it was all right.

I woke up this morning, and saw rumours that Apple's new tablet-thing (oversized iPod Touch, rather) will be called the 'iPad". And I hoped and hoped and hoped it'd be "iSlate" instead of "iPad", because it's rather uncomfortable to see the word "iPad", and that "iSlate" sounds so much cooler.

When I got back, I was severely disappointed. Like Hitler. (Good 'Der Untergang' parodies never fail to make me laugh. My roommate thinks I'm crazy because I like to laugh at Hitler shouting angry German. Here's one on MouseHunt that Yos showed me the other day. Damn funny.)

Okay, Chem awaits.

Arrivederci, good people.

P.S. Seriously, why do people not believe me when I tell them I'm not a guy?

P.P.S. One day, I'mma watch the real 'Der Untergang'. Complete with the original subtitles.

Retardation.

All right, I'm not going to sleep until I find out what elements X and Y are.

I have a sneaking suspicion Y is chlorine though. God knows.

Was completely, utterly clueless during Physics this morning. It's like, "Do you understand?" and everybody says yes, despite going "I don't get anything" after class.

Ryan somehow managed to keep very quiet during class, which was a major improvement. Good for him. (The guy usually talks a lot, and by "a lot" I mean a lot.)

Invested in Physics during study time, so Physics and I, we're cool again.

Went to the lab for Chem. Got kinda weird-ed out during the break before that, 'cause I went over to 306 for a while, and all the scholars were sitting down and studying. Like seriously, studying. For the Chem quiz we're supposed to have this week. But still.

Like Faiz said, doesn't make us feel like scholars at all. Apparently "scholars" all study epic-ly hard every given moment of their lives and ace every single test. I don't know. I'd like a life too, you know.

Wow, I don't feel "scholarly" at all. Not the slightest. Is this a fail?

But I digress.

Did some weird practical on compounds A3 and B3 and having to figure out what elements X and Y are. Been doing some severe Google-ing and Wiki-ing while thinking of things to type for this post, so I think I've pretty much found the answer. Some of my results don't really match (I'll take it that I screwed up somewhere), but that's okay, I guess. Better "reference" with other people tomorrow.

Study time randomness and lameness is what keeps us alive through it all. And unproductive. Oh yeah, definitely unproductive. (I kid. We actually get a bit of stuff done. Not bad. Concentration skills improving.)

Okay, night.

P.S. Spent an entire day (and night) at the Laboratory trying to get RB potions, but didn't start getting anything till a few hours ago. MouseHunting fail.

P.P.S. Apparently some rumour has spread that I'm a "she-male". Interesting.

P.P.P.S. The latest, most up-to-date and valid answer to everything is "retardation". "Why does the velocity decrease?" "Retardation." "Why are you so lame?" "Retardation." "You wanna go have lunch?" "Retardation." "Can you stop saying retardation?" "Retardation." Epic.

Ten minutes.

Is there a Chem quiz tomorrow?

I sure hope not.

That would sure suck. I haven't read a thing. (I did ages ago, but can't remember a thing.)

I need more time.

Somehow feeling super tired. Must be the Boarding Games and PE and lack of sleep.

Need sleep.

Wasted study time somehow. No idea how that happened. We were talking about Chem and doing Kelvin's Chinese homework and then suddenly it was half past nine.

Cikgu didn't come today, so we spent an hour and a half in the canteen talking about random things. The juniors were sitting with us, and I bet they they think we're out of our minds. "Idiot seniors need to stop talking about sexual orientation and other stupidly ridiculous things." (Something along those lines, I guess.)

Was seriously falling asleep during Geog today. Fought some epic internal battle to stay awake.

It was like, die.

Okay, going to read some Chem now, just in case.

P.S. Give me an extra week or two. I swear I'll finish LotR by then. Hopefully. Not enough time to enjoy it.

P.P.S. Interesting things happened today.

Boarding Games 2010

Finally done with my English journal-writing.

Spent an entire morning looking for an appropriate article to write about on the internet.

Finally found one a few hours ago, after lunch and looking up names of plants (and failed) and Boarding Games and a good dinner.

Boarding Games was fun. Wasn't so failed after all.

Got split into groups again, according to room and bed number. 04-01 didn't win any medal, but it was all right all the same. Managed to beat a few other groups.

Won the Captain's Ball and the hula hoop and rubber band passing (this one with straws) rounds.

Lost the other three rounds, but at least we lost with grace.

Everybody's like, super tired right now, 'cause of the waiting and walking and running around under the sun.

Another good thing about Boarding Games (besides getting to know more people and things like that) is that we always get a "special" dinner afterwards.

Mmm, it was good.

Woan Chyi cheated, 'cause she skipped queuing altogether and took Muslim food instead. Should've said I was Muslim too.

Told the juniors to ask Fatinn and Fatinn alone if they had any problems with anything (and to call her in the middle of the night to ask questions), and Fatinn told them that she'd call me in turn, so my sabotaging kinda failed.

My weekend just went "poof" and disappeared. Oh well. There's always next week. And the week after that. And the week after that (CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY CNY).

Okay, going to sleep now.

Tired.

Night.

P.S. Glitch on espace 'caused a lot of people to turn Faraday today. Interesting. Fibo population was depressingly small.

Not lost.

Highlight of the day: I has new strings.

Oh, and we finally went out to Bras Basah to get GCs and to Bugis to meet up with other Bruneian people studying in Singapore.

And the internet connection sucks.

And my fingers hurt.

And my legs ache from all the walking around.

And I cut my finger on some plastic wrapping. Fail.

Feel really bad for making Insan and the juniors walk rounds looking for the place at Bras Basah (at least we can say we exercised loads and burnt calories). They seem to have an extreme lack of confidence in my sense of direction (or lack thereof), after the Suntec incident around a year ago (people like to bring it up when they talk about getting lost).

Window-shopped for a while around City Hall before heading to Bugis.

Bleh.

Bruneians FTW.

Came back with Emily, Insan and Wan Shen after that. Was pretty much exhausted, so have absolutely no idea how Nazihah and Yee Rou still had the energy to go and catch a movie with the rest of the NUSH Bruneians.

Emily said something interesting during dinner this evening. Apparently the other two juniors were able to jalan some more because "they're girls, and girls are like that."

And then we kinda like stared at her. I wonder what that implies. I'm not a girl? I'm pretty sure I am.

Ah, tired tired tired. And fingers ache. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that. But I'll do it again. My fingers ache.

My new strings are awesome though. Total sense of accomplishment. Normal tension silverplated wound black nylon strings own.

Boarding Games tomorrow. Should be interesting.

Need to read LotR now.

Adieu.

P.S. Asked people for directions six times today. Wootz.

Slacking.

Had awesomely random spontaneous fun earlier on at the fitness corner with Woan Chyi and Emily.

They needed to practice for some singing competition next week, and I just needed to chill for a while 'cause it's become a habit every Friday night. All the music rooms, TV room and games room were booked, and we didn't have anywhere else to go but to the fitness corner, so we figured why not.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Music is a bonding thing, when you do it right.

Wasting time during our non-existent Malay classes always leads to one thing: talking about sexual orientation.

Yeah, we're weird that way.

Had an hour of Physics, Math, English and Chem each. Seemed to go by pretty quickly, 'cause one hour is short compared to the two hours of Sciences we get on Tuesdays.

Was nodding off during Math, probably 'cause of the super awesome rainy weather.

Epic slacked during CCA again. Seriously, they like to keep us in the Mac lab for as long as possible before and after making seriously quick announcements. I'm not complaining though. Nope, not at all. It's fun to Facebook and Twitter during CCA.

Michelle and I volunteered to edit the orientation vids, but apparently there's been some trouble transferring the files, so we don't have anything to do at the moment while we wait for them to solve the problem.

Victoria actually considered joining the photo group, 'cause they got let off early while we had to wait some more to discuss certain things. The video group is terribly sparsely populated compared to the photo people.

New rule is that we've got to wear our CCA shirts during CCA time (obviously) and when on duty.

Okay, gotta go now. Feeling terribly sleepy.

Night.

P.S. Epic saying of the day: "Tinky Winky is purple. I swear it. I swear it on my sexual orientation."

Purple hands.

Slacked during study time today.

Nothing else to do, 'cause of an interesting lack of homework. So we just sat there and tried to read a few things to make us look hardworking and not like we were having fun.

Teacher-in-charge thought I was on compulsory study time. She came up to me when I sat down, and was like, "You came in late and still not studying."

Last I checked, five minutes before eight surely isn't considered late.

No more study time till Monday. It's getting freakishly repetitive. Wake up, go to school, come back, nap, have dinner, study time, sleep (multiplied by four), then wake up, go to school, CCA, have dinner, music room, sleep, then wake up considerably later, do less boring things 'cause it's the weekend, and repeat.

Routine makes time go by incredibly fast, but sometimes people crave for change.

Give me another month or two and I'll probably be sick to the bone with this.

Put my theory to the test during Bio today. I said yesterday that if I read ahead before the lesson, I'd be able to zone out and return my attention to class completely unaffected, since I'd already know what's going on.

And hey, it worked.

It was all, "And the spores are produced in sporangia blah blah......*hmm I like the weather today. I wonder if...* .....blah blah the gametophytes form antheridium and archegonia which in turn..." and I totally understood everything.

Now that was pretty cool.

We thought we had Malay at one this afternoon, but it turned out to be at two instead, so I spent the extra hour in the hall badminton-ing with Ivy, Cheryl, Wai Yin, Felicia and MJ.

Wai Yin's racket grip turns your hands purple. And clothes. And whatever it comes into contact with.

Then went for Malay. Pretty weird.

Remind me to bring a dictionary next Thursday.

Night.

P.S. Sleeping early feels gooood.

Mandi.

Ran four rounds just now with Woan Chyi and Fatinn.

Now eating supper. Chicken burger chock-full of mayonnaise (don't really like mayo, but I'm hungry). So much for calorie-burning.

Managed to read for Bio and Geog in the library earlier on. Apparently I'm way more productive when I'm not doing Math. That's because I'm not really into Math (okay, I lied. I seriously dislike Math, because I'm incapable of solving simple equations).

School was all right today. Had half an hour of our deputy principal's "scholar-welcoming speech" in the Theatrette, followed by a remainder of ACE, then Math and nothing for Mother Tongue (Malay classes got rescheduled).

Our usual "let-us-slack-and-attempt-to-do-work-but-instead-talk-crap" bench next to the netball court is back, so yeah. We did slack and attempt to do work but instead talk crap while telling everyone who passed that we didn't have Mother Tongue today.

Had an hour for lunch after that, so we moved down to the canteen.

No difference. Still talked crap anyway (it's fun).

Did comprehension for English. Some passage about Switzerland being highly misunderstood. I don't really know. Loved the writing style though. Rather matter-of-fact and with humour.

Went back after that. Planned to restring, but apparently I left my new set of strings back in Brunei, along with another book of mine, so couldn't. I've been using that set since the beginning of July, and I'm seriously craving for new ones.

They've got a softer feel but louder sound. Old strings tend to be harder and less nice to press and play. Must buy strings when I go out.

Okay, need to shower now.

Adieu.

P.S. Bill Gates has a Twitter account. And it caused a major overcapacity. Interesting. I wonder what he'll Tweet about, now that he's got loads and loads of busybody followers who follow him 'cause "he's Bill Gates, man," (including me).

P.P.S. Met Cyrus and Jonathan in the canteen, and the first thing we said was "MUSE". I desperately want to go and see them live, but there is no way I'm going alone. Hope Cyrus is going.

Yeah, I screwed up.

Fire drill.

First one of the year. Pretty interesting to see the new boarders' reactions. It's like, "What?", and we're all like, "Heck, yeah, just another drill, let's just take our sweet time and stroll across the field towards the grandstand at a leisurely pace while we laugh and tell jokes and complain about how we're supposed to be doing homework."

We'll improve over time though. We were pretty good last year, I remember.

Speaking of homework, I accomplished very little during study time. Did a bit of Math, with a few pages left. I hate feeling inferior.

It sucks. My life sucks. Like, seriously.

Being freakishly accident prone lately, I stubbed my toe during the fire drill, and now it feels awfully uncomfortable. Just when my bruises were starting to feel a huge lot better. Brilliant.

Stayed back after school to do a bit of class decorating (which failed, 'cause the only people left started playing cards). Hmm.

Talked F1 with Joshua after giving up on sticking random cutouts onto walls. Haven't had a decent conversation about F1 with anyone for ages. Felt pretty good, 'cept that we all know Kimi's not driving for Ferrari anymore and that Alonso's filling in with near zero experience.

Somehow I feel rather tired.

Will probably write more next time.

Night.

P.S. Managed to survive yet another Tuesday. Accomplishment of the week.

Productivity fail.

Waiting for roll call.

Did close to nothing during study time. Talk about productivity fail.

I think my addiction to Tetris is returning. Not good. Not good at all.

Listening to the Chipmunks' version of "Stayin' Alive". Awfully cute. And catchy.

Okay, roll call done.

As I was telling Syaf in the lift going down to dinner, I died during PE, then got resurrected.

I think I just might die again during 2.4.

Dr Sun has awful counting skills. He goes, "I count until fifty," and then says "One, two, three, three, four, three, four, five..." really slowly. He seems to improve significantly when he gives us rests though.

Had Malay after that. Still very grateful for our air-conditioned Malay classroom. Had to do some things with the newspaper article pictures. Made up a weird story ending with how this lady's botched plastic surgery made her look like Susan Boyle (no offense, Ms Boyle. You are an amazing singer).

Almost fell asleep during Geog. Ms Chua was telling us about all the fundamental geomorphologic processes and I was there nodding off in a corner. Poor Geog. I like you, really.

Went back and kinda like passed out on my bed after that. Heck.

Study time was wasted. Again. Managed to do a page of the Chem worksheet. One. Oh yeah. Just one.

Okay, need to be productive now.

See ya.

Cry Me A River

This is insanely weird.

MJ is trying to impersonate me on MSN, down to the same font colour. And so is Isaac. I have no idea what they're trying to achieve by doing this, 'cause people can obviously tell us apart by the different emails we use. It's pretty screwed.

And confusing. It's like I'm talking to myself. Except that, of course, they can't talk like me, but having to talk to another person called "The Psychotic Elven Princess" in the exact same font and font colour with the same display picture is seriously weird.

Listening to 'Waking Up' now. It's good, so far. But didn't really pay attention to it, so can't exactly elaborate.

Spent an entire afternoon listening to Michael Bublé, Daughtry and Alvin and the Chipmunks while writing the English journal thing.

Chipmunks covers are so cute. And surprisingly good. But to be honest, this album just makes use of songs that were really popular last year so we find them catchy. Not much development or originality of the songs, not like the first movie soundtrack.

I love 'Crazy Love'. So Michael Bublé-ish. Great album.

Daughtry's is still very "Daughtry". They've got a sort of established style going on. Not much difference in sound than the last album. But that's all right with me, 'cause I like Daughtry's sound.

Going off now. Need to read LotR and make it past all the "my preciousss"-ing.

Night.

P.S. I was going to condemn humanity in this postscript, but then something made me realise: we're a bunch of selfish assholes full of hatred and judgement because we don't know it and won't admit it. Hmm.

P.P.S. I caught a Hope mouse in MouseHunt. Hope for Haiti. We'll never be entirely hopeless.

Munkeh OWNAGE.

It's past roll call, and I'm sitting here waiting for my turn to shower, munching on a tuna sandwich that's today's supper and typing out this blog post.

Spent at least two hours monkeying around at the track and fitness corner with Fatinn, Wardah, Syafiqah, Woan Chyi and Ly En.

Haven't had that much fun in ages. Man, it was fun. So epicly awesomely brilliantly severely fun. Wish we could do this every night.

Sorta been away from the internet all day, 'cause we (War, Fatinn, Woan Chyi, Nazihah, Yee Rou, Faiz and I) went out to watch "The Spy Next Door", which was pretty funny. Not as cool as the other Jackie Chan movies, 'cause they relied a bit on those fancy spy gadgets, so fighting got reduced.

I love Jackie Chan.

Then bought CDs. Finally. Have Michael Bublé's 'Crazy Love', OneRepublic's "Waking Up", and the Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 soundtrack (don't laugh, their covers are good, okay?).

Fatinn got Daughtry's 'Leave This Town' and Lady Gaga and Akon's albums, so we're gonna do a CD exchange tomorrow.

Plenty of listening to look forward to now. Mmm, good music. Michael Bublé's version of 'Cry Me A River' is absolutely mmmm. Heard him perform it on X-factor, and I loved it. He has the most amazing voice.

Singapore life is good. Like, seriously. Remove all the homework, assignments, tests, quizzes and exams (or school for that matter) and you get some serious fun. And I mean it.

Not that I hate school, but hey, we could do with a little less stress and pressure.

Okay, better go now. It's getting late and I have clothes to fold.

Night.

P.S. Munkeh OWNAGE. Climbing railings is funn. Fitness corner rocked.

P.P.S. Even though it's way past my usual bedtime, I still feel wide awake. Must be what exercise does to you. Haven't felt this way since training. Man, now I feel like I miss training.

Why so random?

Reading news on Haiti.

God, it's so depressing.

Sometimes it sucks to read the news. Reality bites, man. And it bites hard.

Anyway, was sitting here in my 8A pullover wondering what to write about today that wouldn't make this post sound extremely dull and boring, when Nguyen came over and told us to go down to the office 'cause we all missed roll call.

Wow. Now that's amazing. Wouldn't they have thought that something was up with the fingerprint scanner thing instead of getting everyone to go down to the office to have our attendance checked? I find it quite amusing, actually.

Found it kinda funny when we had to knock on people's doors going, "Hey, um, guess what? We all missed roll call," and seeing their reactions. I mean, what are the chances of all of us deciding to not do roll call in the same night? Hilarious.

Found a new bench to sit on during our non-existent Malay class this morning. Sixth floor. Was with Faiz, Aisyah, Insan, Yos and Ahmad, talking crap (again).

Then had Physics, two hours of Math (got to skip Malay, which ended up lasting only half an hour according to Aisyah, 'cause there were only four people) and an hour of Chem.

English got cancelled, and being replaced on Thursday, which is pretty interesting, 'cause we've got Malay then too. Weird Malay class timing. Carefully planned out but somehow coincides with everything.

CCA fair was today, but I wasn't involved in anything in any way, so went for this brief CCA meeting before going back.

Thank God the weekend is here. I needz teh sleep, man.

And do other things. Which are things, that need doing.

Adieu.

P.S. Finally got to part 4 of LotR. All Frodo, Sam and Sméagol, and no Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Aragorn ftw, still.

P.P.S. Saw a picture of Alonso dressed in red today. Now that was weird. Hope Ferrari own this year.

I need Astro.

The internet connection fluctuates.

Might have mentioned this before, but that's the truth. Sometimes it's awfully great and fast, and most of the time it's just plain awful.

Here I am, trying to get a few lines of this post in while waiting for Facebook to spam my hotmail account and for it to be time to go ironing.

Okay, ironing done, now to wait for roll call.

It's like I spend my entire life waiting. Not really sure what I'm waiting for though, ultimately. There should be more meaning to this.

Anyway, study time was kinda epic, 'cause we took turns doing Hyeon Kyeong and Kelvin's third lang. Chinese homework (it's just copying and writing, so no worries about me being Chinese illiterate), and kinda exchanged bits of homework amongst each other, so it's a bit off a mess.

Wanted to read a bit of Chem, but since we still haven't found a way to keep quiet, didn't.

Need to learn how to ignore people who talk crap and not join in. Next time I'mma seriously move to where Wan Shen (other junior, little boy) sits, alone and isolated and productive.

School today was all right. Nothing big nor interesting happened that I remember, 'cept that Malay class got cancelled, and we spent ages wondering whether we should go and check or not to see if Cikgu wasn't there for sure. Oh, and we had our first Bio class, which was all about plants. Mmm, plants.

It's like, epic brain spam. All those terms.

Okay, going off now. Got things to read.

Adieu.

P.S. Green Day live in Singapore was today, and Muse will be coming Feb third. I feel like crying. And I'm missing out on American Idol 9.

P.P.S. And I'm going to miss F1 too. Sucky, sucky, sucky.

Rumours.

I've just realised. Only just. I can't believe I hadn't realised this before.

I've been depressed all day. I have no idea why. Something's been bugging me at the back of my mind. Constantly. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I thought it was 'cause my self-esteem took this massive plunge a few days ago (it's like my life sucks, man).

And today's date. 13-1-10. It's a great date., because it's like my birthdate, 'cept that the dashes are in all the wrong places.

Then I got back after the Da Vinci briefing thing, and realised, heck, American Idol 9 premiers today. And 'cause of my brilliant deducing skillz, I came to the conclusion that that's what's been the problem with me all day.

Like, subconsciously, I feel awful because a lot of other people I know can sit at home and enjoy AI auditions but I can't.

Either that, or my life seriously sucks right now.

I feel so sad, man.

So, so sad.

And troubled.

I think I need to review life. I'm missing out on something.

Anyway, need to go do some other things now.

Night.

P.S. I do have friends, okay? I think. Most likely. Perhaps. Yeah... I do. Pretty sure about that at the moment.

P.P.S. Kelvin asks, "What have we accomplished during study time today?" And I go, "Two full pages of Math?", and the Indian guy next to me looks at me and says, "Three Math worksheets." Got owned.

P.P.P.S. Man, I'm so inefficient. Though I did manage to do a sketch of a drainage basin identical to the one in the notes in less than a minute. Added an extra line so it wouldn't be so obviously copied. Think it'll work? Doubt it.

Hard drive.

I accomplished a great feat earlier on. I used the stairs.

Usually I like to wait for the lift despite how many people there are crowded in the lift lobby, but somehow I was overcome with this desire to be healthy, so I took the stairs.

Had fun during study time today. Sorta. Managed to do two pages of that Chem worksheet thing by half-copying off Kelvin and read a bit of my Chem notes. Well, it's better than nothing, right?

I personally believe that the new Year 3s don't dare sit with us because we like to talk nonsense most of the time, and about the most irrelevant things, and constantly get "shh!"-ed by the teachers.

Spent the last half-hour trying to convince Colin that I didn't have to bribe people to hang out with me, and that I'm not sexually confused. I don't know where they get that idea from. I obviously sit with guys during study time because I was conveniently the only Year 2 girl in the hostel last year, and we'd sorta gotten used to that arrangement. Or maybe not.

But I'm never going to pay you, guys, and that's final.

Miraculously survived two hours of Physics followed by two hours of Physics-disguised-as-Chem today. Math somehow got cancelled, and the replacement is during Friday's lunch period. Which clashes with our Malay. Hmm.

Feel kinda retarded in class, 'cause I don't really get anything. Bleh. Hope Year 3 won't be the end of me. Fingers crossed to that.

Oh, and since the hair and attire check is over, I'mma wear that question mark (Woan Chyi has the other side, an exclamation mark, since I can only wear one at a time) on my ear tomorrow, to signify my complete cluelessness in class. How about that, eh?

LotR calls to me now. Couldn't help glancing at that picture of Aragorn's face on the cover of Kelvin's copy of 'Return of the King'. Aragorn owns.

Adieu.

P.S. People tend to write less posts when school starts, but that's when I start posting daily again. 'Cause there are way more things to talk about that way.

Bonding Games Fail

The internet connection sucks right now. I think it's all clogged up because everyone back from "bonding" games is attempting to use it at the same time.

Can't load a single thing. Not even MouseHunt (oh wait, I've been having trouble with Facebook for a day or two now. Never mind).

So, about Bonding Games. I don't know what to say, actually. Went there after a pretty ineffective Study Time (back to the usual Hyeon Kyeong, Kelvin, Chang Yoon, Insan and I arrangement, where we don't really do much work and can't seem to be able to stop talking).

Had to split into groups after that, and played a few games. The only thing we can say (if we don't want to admit that it was pretty failed) is that at least we didn't have to sit on each other this time 'round.

Wow, that was a pretty long paragraph, for my standards.

Was honestly struggling to keep awake during Geog this afternoon. Showed up a tad late 'cause we had Malay on the sixth floor (with aircon) prior to that. And we were a teeny bit late for Malay 'cause we had PE before that (and a half an hour break), which we were late for because, well, it's PE, and that's sorta excusable since we need to change.

Oh God, this is definitely an epic punctuality fail.

But that's okay, because we're allowed a maximum of five minutes. To be late. For class. Though that's not really encouraged. I guess.

Speaking of discipline, we've got a hair and attire check tomorrow. That should be interesting. The rule here is that you can only use "small, simple studs" for your ears, but it doesn't really say where. So yeah, I guess I can get by the loophole.

Yeah, better go now. It's late and I have clothes to fold.

Night.

P.S. Mentor Rep choices not very satisfying. Should've been Ryan. The teachers are against us on this. Too bad.

Randomness.

Read a notice downstairs saying that study time is still on tomorrow night, despite the assembly at nine (for "bonding", you know).

Yeah, forty-five minutes in the library sure sounds helpful. They should start on Tuesday to at least give us the entire one and a half hours. And it's so unfair that Year 1s to Year 3s have to be at the library. Can't get anything done there.

Anyway, my mailbox is being spammed by Facebook as I type this, 'cause we're embarking on an epic search for a China scholar for MJ (it's high time we started).

Don't worry, MJ, we'll definitely find you someone before the end of the week.

Had a pretty uneventful afternoon, because I slept it away in a desperate attempt to get rid of my swollen eyes and leaking nose. Ridiculously retarded flu-thing. Thank goodness it's okay now. Don't want to show up at school looking like a goldfish or something.

Have PE tomorrow. On a Monday. Which means we get to wear ties after running around. Sounds like fun.

At least we don't have Math tomorrow.

Dinner-ed with Fatinn, Syaf, Emily, Woan Chyi, Wardah, Collin, Thao, and Ly-En just now. Had epic conversations about random things.

I miss 8A. Best cluster ever.

All right, going off to read LotR now.

Night.

P.S. It's a LIE.

Sherlock Holmes.

Okay, first off, filler picture of the MRT machine going -.- . Strange that we didn't notice it before.

Still feel like I owe myself more sleeping time, but I'm planning to stay up late tonight reading LotR (haven't picked it up for some proper reading since I got back, stuck at the part where Gandalf leads Théoden to Isengard).

Made a bet with Woan Chyi that if I didn't finish it by the end of the month, I'd owe her pizza.

Fair enough, I guess. Need to be fair to all the other books I've bought but haven't read yet.

Went out today to meet my cousin for brunch/lunch (whichever). He handed me my Alhambra. I've missed it loads, man. Loads.

Then came back to go out again with Fatinn, Woan Chyi and Nazihah to watch 'Sherlock Holmes'. It was good, man. Don't know why we were still falling asleep though. Kept zoning out during the movie. But it was definitely good.

Had dinner out too, 'cause I had a glimpse of the menu and saw the word "squid". Not very appealing, that.

Unpacked my boxes the day before, so I can now say that I'm officially done unpacking. That's a good thing, right? Not looking forward to re-packing, but I'm trying to keep it simple this year so I won't die like last year. But let's not talk about that, because it's just plain depressing.

The internet connection here hasn't really improved much, but it kinda becomes less sucky during the weekends when the Year 5s go home.

Ah.

Going to read LotR before my brain drifts off.

Night.

P.S. Sherlock Holmes has a six-pack. How is that not awesome of him?

FiboNa'vi.

Feeling seriously tired right now.

Dunno why though. Must be 'cause we've been busy all day for the entire week. Wake up every morning feeling as if I desperately need to get back to sleep (you know, as if you hadn't slept a wink at all? Yeah, that feeling).

It's like, you fall asleep, then you dream some randomly wacked dreams, then you wake up seemingly five seconds later (when it's actually been six whole hours).

Was watching 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past' in the level 5 TV room just now, and all of us were nodding off. Now that's sad.

Never felt so relieved to be able to wake up late.

But I need to meet my cousin tomorrow so have to wake up earlier than I'd like to (that's okay though, he's treating me for lunch).

School was all right. Had an hour of nothing early in the morning 'cause we didn't have class, so it was just Aisyah, Faiz, Yos, Ahmad and I at the bench beside the netball court discussing sexuality issues (I'm straight, just in case you haven't realised. Sorry girls).

Apart from that, we had mentoring, nothingness, Physics, Math, Malay (epic misunderstanding here), Chem, and English today. All not so bad. Pretty much elected Ryan as every rep possible. He's so far our Math rep, Physics rep, Chem rep and hopefully mentor rep. It's like, all-in-one. Poor guy. But it's hella funny.

Been using my lego torchlight thing (Cheryl named it Bob, and claims it's her husband) as a light saber. MJ and I were "zinggg"-ing our way through lunch. Bet Rania thought we were complete retards.

Okay, going to go off now. My eyes are like, dying as I type this.

Night, good people.

P.S. I bought a banana today, and Debb, Shi Ni, Rania and MJ apparently think it's hilarious.

Campfire.

I'll give you three reasons right now why it's good to live in the hostel.

Firstly, when we ended the campfire last night sometime past nine, a lot of us were online some ten minutes later while everyone else was on their way home.

Secondly, when you forget to bring anything you have the option to simply run back to get it before school starts (usually we're too lazy to do that, and we're not allowed back before one, so not as effective).

Thirdly, you don't really need to use the lockers 'cause the distance you travel to carry things to and fro is freakishly short.

Oh gosh, this is so "in your face". At least non-hostel people get nice, home-cooked food and air-conditioning. And a dozen other comforts of home.

Anyway, this post is going to be dated yesterday's, 'cause I wrote a few lines then decided to go to sleep 'cause I couldn't keep my eyes open or my brain processing properly.

The campfire was pretty awesome. (Green Ambassador fail though. Say bye to the ozone layer, kids.)

Had this epic FiboNa'vi idea for our performance thing. Avatar-crazed people.

And the Visa ad song is still stuck in my head.

Our mentor won't let us name our class mascot "Stonebob Nopants". She says she thinks "Nopants" will cause some offence. But I dunno, man. A lot of cartoon characters don't wear pants either. Besides, since when did rocks wear pants?

Oh, and class photo location was interesting. Kinda disappointed nobody fell into the pond though. That would've been funny.

Okay, this post is long overdue enough.

Adieu.

Zombie killers.

Second day of orientation today.

Had this "Amazing Race" thing around the NUS campus. We're epic, man. The story line was like this: Apparently some zombie infection thing has spread around the world and we've got to somehow run away from/hunt/get to some place free from zombies (braiinnns).

Pretty sure we had plenty of fun though, getting lost and walking and doing our really lame cheer and walking and completing the stations and walking and not taking buses and walking. Did I mention we walked a lot? Well we did.

Zombieees.

Didn't see any though.

Since I really need sleep, I'll just put this link to a Red Bull article on Kimi Raikkonen and an excerpt from said article here.

"Who’s going to win snowboarding Olympic gold in the half-pipe?

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the Finns, but it’ll probably be hard to beat Shaun White.

Who’s going to be the next World Rally Champion?
Loeb or Hirvonen. Loeb.

And MotoGP?
Have the teams changed much? No. So – Rossi.

Formula One?
Hard to say. I don’t know what Ferrari’s plans are. Mercedes will probably have a good car, so will McLaren. Red Bull Racing probably will too. So I’m going to have to award the title based on who I like: Sebastian Vettel. He’s so down-to-earth. "

It's like most sports are dominated by one or two (sometimes three) guys nowadays, except from F1. Not very comfortable with Ferrari's lack of everything right now. Will elaborate sometime sooner.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Briatore's lifetime ban from motorsport got lifted. Interesting.

P.P.S. Shaun White owns.

Munkehhs.

Okay, quick one for tonight, 'cause it's late and I want to get a few pages of LotR in before sleep. I love LotR.

It feels like I've been here for a week, although it's been what, three days?

School today felt like it dragged on for a week. Hadn't had such a long day since the holidays started. Usually just slept and lazed my day away (not really, but I didn't have to sit for hours on end listening to lectures then).

So today's the first day of school, and orientation's officially begun. And I think we can call it "Technical Error" day, 'cause the system during the assembly this morning seriously failed.

Basically all we did was sit around (till butt numbness or ass-aching) listening to talks and things like that. Then we had really messy breaks at our canteen with new vendors with apparently less satisfying food (I don't know myself 'cause I haven't tried anything yet) and new people to sit with. Keep wandering back to old classmates though.

Won't say much 'bout new classes yet though. Should be pretty all right, I guess (still quite lame).

Plenty of other changes though, like staff and the canteen. And that orange wall (the one at the hostel with "hidden mickey" circles on them).

Had Rania for company during the super long house meeting. Then we mass danced like idiots. It was pretty fun though, I admit. It's okay to be lame sometimes (those coloured visors are like, seriously cool, man).

All right, better go off now. Woke up really early today. Some form of semangat, I guess.

It'll definitely wear off after a few weeks.

Night.

P.S. It's Nazihah's birthday today. Happy birthday, man.

P.P.S. The lame joke that came into existence as a result of being high on birthday cake late at night in our room: "Why did the monkey cross the road? To commit suicide because it got dumped by bananas." Talk about monkey cruelty.

Unpacking.

All right, I'm back.

Back to blogging. Back to Singapore. Back to school. Whichever.

A lot of people are moving in today (definitely more than half of the entire hostel), 'cause school starts tomorrow and stuff like that.

We've got like, three days of orientation before school really starts to look forward to.

I personally think three full days is a lot for orientation (and for the entire school). But I dunno. Whatever postpones lessons gets my favour, I guess.

Anyway, I've got a box left to unpack, which is full of books and other random bits of things. Had the help of Woan Chyi who borrowed the trolley to remove our boxes from 8A. I'm gonna miss 8A, man. It feels really weird getting into one of the lifts and not pressing the number eight.

Some of us are in 5B (and get the level 5 TV room, lucky them) and some in 9A, and some really, really lucky people get to stay in 8A. No fun.

That means no more simply knocking on other people's doors for dinner. Now we've got to like, make phone calls and contact each other through MSN.

Met the juniors at noon. Was heading downstairs to meet up with Ly En for lunch (and to eat out of trays again) when they got here.

Went out with Woan Chyi and Nazihah (one of the juniors) after that, 'cause I needed to buy credit for my phone, Woan Chyi needed to buy food, and Nazihah needed school shoes.

It's pretty lonely here, 'cause half of the Bruneians aren't back yet, so it's just me and Woan Chyi (and we're in different clusters, so that sucks big time).

The internet connection is still suckish, by the way.

Going down for dinner now.

See you guys when school reopens.