Famous Last Words

I'm completely in love with the intro to 'Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back'.

Spent my afternoon watching the DVD from 'Life On The Murder Scene'. Kinda makes me miss Bob Bryar, 'cause when I first knew MCR (which was in '07 when 'The Black Parade' was released) he was there. He's a great drummer, yeah.

Went out for dinner with Shar, Manda and Stel (it's tradition).

We make it a point to do it every time I come back, and it's probably the last time we'll ever be able to do it again 'cause Stella's leaving tomorrow for Malaysia and we don't know when she'll be back to visit.

It's kinda sad, huh? But you know, with new places comes new opportunities and new experiences and things just open up before you, so it really doesn't hurt to leave old places no matter how heartbreaking.

So yeah, wishing Stel all the best for the future. In fact, I wish everyone all the best in the future.

For my batch in Brunei, O-levels have just ended and now people have to make decisions whether to remain in their schools to do A-levels or to leave, or which sixth form institution to go to, and what subjects to take.

It's funny to watch all my friends go through this while I'm still stuck here. Yeah, I'll be here for quite a while, and will have to make my own choices eventually, but that's not anytime sooner. (Well, I did make my decision to leave SAS for MS and to leave MS for NUSH so I guess I have been doing some decision-making myself, in a way.)

The future is so hard to plan for.

Anyway, have a video of us eating up on Facebook.

For memory's sake.

Need sleep now.

Arrivederci.

P.S. I think it's quite unfair when people tend to refer to covers as "Sam Tsui's *insert song name here*", because then they don't give any credit to Kurt Schneider.

P.P.S. When I read 'Anna Karenina', I don't want it to end because it's so brilliant.

Foresight.

Still listening to 'Danger Days' (okay, not continuously, but as in I've been listening to it every time I type out posts).

Just finished watching the third season of The Big Bang Theory. Ah, it feels so good to have free time and just relax.

Come to think of it though, we've had free time ever since the exams ended. And by "free time", I mean "time where I didn't feel guilty about watching television shows because I had other more important things to do" time.

Makes you almost miss school (no, not really. I lie).

Was getting my hair re-straightened today, so had plenty of time on my hands to read 'Anna Karenina' 'cause all I had to do was sit there for a few hours and wait.

I'm not even a quarter way through, but I have to say it's one of the best books I've read this year (I haven't read many this year, but man, it is good). I love the way it's told and how all the characters seem to be able to capture your heart and you become so enraptured in 19th century Russian life and the feeling is simply amazing.

Oh, and the reason why I bought 'Anna Karenina' in the first place was because I remembered it from 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' (and the genius of Daniel Handler) and that it was super cheap.

Funny how one thing leads to the other.

Met Nadhirah on the way back home. Talked about MS and about what's going to happen in the future.

I've realised that the MS I miss is the one that existed years ago, and not the way it is now. I don't want to go back, that's for sure. Sometimes I miss the way things were and all the fun we had back then, but there's no guarantee it would've stayed the same two years down the road, but I have to say I'm completely okay with school the way it is right now.

And yeah, I miss the people.

Those were good times, good times.

Okay, going off now.

Adieu.

P.S. I love the fact that television shows are available online. It makes life so much easier for us people who've been unable to watch television normally like regular couch potatoes.

Mon Dieu!

Watching 'Ratatouille' with my brother right now. He loves this movie. He loves it so much, and has seen it so many times, I know how to spell "Ratatouille" without needed spellcheck.

But I'm okay with that, because I like Ratatouille too. Remy is the cutest rat ever.

Tokyo trip is over, and from it I've managed to learn two things: The Japanese only use two types of phones; some kind of flip phone, and iPhones (or phones that strongly resemble iPhones in appearance), and that sightseeing alone is horrible.

It's like when you go sightseeing in a foreign country, you often follow a tour, or someone who is familiar with the area, or with family and friends.

But I totally went alone, man. My dad had to work most of the time, which gave me plenty of free time to wander around Tokyo and check out some places.

And it's sad when people ask me if I've been to this place, or that place, 'cause I spent most of my time traveling and getting lost and trying to find my way across the city, and therefore spent very little time actually being at places of interest and shopping (I can't shop, anyway, even if I wanted to).

But yeah, I like to tell myself that it's all about the experience itself, and not just about how much stuff I buy. And I totally agree with myself. It was all for the experience.

I think I managed pretty well there, because I didn't get robbed, nor hopelessly lost. So congratulate me.

Spent all day yesterday in planes and airports. One great thing about air travel is that I get a lot of reading done. Managed to finish 'Sense and Sensibility', which was awesome. Tried explaining the plot to my mum earlier today, and left her all confused, 'cause I went "So there's this old dude, who has a son who had two wives and was rich then died then left all his money to his son's son's son, who was the son of his son's first wife," and ended with "...and basically they got married."

But yeah, it was a good book. Colonel Brandon > Willoughby, definitely.

Started on Leo Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina', so going off to read it soon.

Adieu.

Look alive, sunshine.

Listening to 'Danger Days' now. (I've been wanting to say that for months.)

Already gone through it once, and it's amazing.

Because you know, MCR is my favourite band of all time, I probably won't be able to do anything else but SING praise about the album. (Did you catch the pun? It's the only song in the album that's easy to make puns with.)

Even with my atrocious navigational skills and my almost non-existent sense of direction, I somehow managed to make my way through Tokyo's super confusing subway system to Shibuya, where it took me ages to find HMV (at least that's what I think it was) and see this:

I haven't posted pictures in posts in like, forever. So here you go. I think Gerard Way's hair looks good on him, to be honest with you.

I remember when he bleached his hair for 'The Black Parade'. No matter what his hair looks like, Gerard Way will always be awesome.

But yeah, verdict of new album is: I still love My Chemical Romance.

Continued wandering around after that. Didn't buy anything else, 'cause I can't shop and I'm hopeless that way.

Had a nice stroll in Yoyogi National Park. Pretty place. Love the weather, too. Great for walking in.

And yeah, went there yesterday. Tokyo Tower. Have a vlog about it.

All right, be off now. Need to watch the latest episode of Glee.

Adieu.

P.S. I kinda like, really miss Bob Bryar though.

P.P.S. Fatinn has this thing for Sam Tsui, but I'm more of a Kurt Schneider person.

P.P.P.S. Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon. Talented artists? You bet they are.

Transit.

Haven't posted in like, forever, but you can't blame me, I've been busy procrastinating and packing and going on flights.

So, yeah, Danger Days is out today and I'm stuck here in Changi waiting for a flight to Narita airport, 'cause my dad's on a business trip to Tokyo and I'm tagging along.

He's somewhere reading a book now and I'm here 'cause I needed a power source.

Hoping I can get Danger Days in Tokyo then. They'll definitely have it, won't they? I mean, I know for sure that MCR's been to Japan before, so there are most certainly MCR fans in Japan.

Which means that they're bound to sell their latest album there.

Fingers crossed.

Okay, gotta go now.

Need to board plane.

Adieu.

"This is how we like to do it in the murder scene." -MCR

Exhausted, but still need to pack. Man, I need to become more efficient.

Last day of the school year today. Which means the highlight of the day was getting our progress reports back.

Did okay, thankfully.

Went down to the library afterwards to edit our SDMA video. Managed to finish it before our CIP started.

I have to say, despite filming it in one day, and coming up with a completely random script last-minute, and having a one-minute time constraint that made the video look really rushed, we did quite awesomely.

Yeah, it could've been better if we were allowed longer than a minute, but it's actually not bad at all.

Fingers crossed the judges will be able to understand our (how do I put this) "message" and "meaning" of the video.

Ah well. We had fun either way.

CIP was okay. Taught kids how to use compact cameras (because us video and PA people aren't so familiar with DSLRs). Went to the Botanic Gardens, and I filmed swans for five continuous minutes (I have no life).

Also took footage of us interacting with the people we were supposed to interact with.

Okay, have more CIP to do tomorrow. And packing. Loads of packing.

Night.

P.S. Life On The Murder Scene is teh love. Why did I wait so long before buying it?

P.P.S. I now have Late Night, courtesy of Kelvin. Need to start playing once I'm done packing.

P.P.P.S. People have gone back, but I keep telling myself that's okay, because I have more time to pack.

Disappointment.

After so many years, I've finally figured out why I've been avoiding Harry Potter.

Finally.

After reading the Deadly Hallows out of curiosity back in '07, I made the decision to not watch any of the movies, nor touch any of the books ever again.

It always seemed unreasonable to tell people I thought it got crappy. Because maybe it didn't. Because maybe I was too young to understand what was going on at the time (yeah, a few years ago, I actually was young).

Anyway, it hit me a while ago. I know why I've been boycotting Harry Potter.

I used to love Harry Potter. And when I say "love", I really mean it. I knew the first four books inside out and couldn't be more obsessed.

And then when the characters started dying, I just couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle it because it was one of the things I held closest to my heart and I hadn't really grasped the concept of death yet.

It's like I was so immersed in the world of wizarding that it hurt me when characters died.

It was horrible.

And so I shut myself off from Harry Potter because I couldn't bear it. I don't want to hear people talk about it because it just reminds me of the bitter heartbreak I had to face.

So I'll just go on avoiding it for the rest of my life.

Man, I'm such a pathetic loser.

Action.

Oh hey blogosphere.

It's that time of the year again.

That time when I complain for days on end and yet still get close-to-nothing accomplished.

Yeahp, it's time to start packin', baby.

I promised myself last year that I wouldn't keep that much junk, but I think I've broken that promise. I have loads of junk.

Planning on throwing away most of my notes from last year (kept all of last year's notes 'cause I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of them) and this year too, 'cause I've come to a realisation that I probably won't ever read them again.

Isn't that sad? It's like I put so much effort into filing and adding little annotations (to keep me from falling asleep in class) and I just throw them away.

But no, I am a person of the present, now, and I do not need to dwell on the past. Oh no I don't. (So I tell myself.)

No school today (thankfully), so I spent my morning watching 'The Big Bang Theory' (awesome show; makes me feel nerdier than I already am).

Then spent my afternoon filming for our SDMA vid with Ash around the hostel.

I don't know why, but despite all the hard work, I find filming rather addictive. It's like I actually enjoy figuring out the right camera angles, and getting people to act and telling them what to do and how to do it and they listen to you.

It's awesome.

What's more awesome is watching the finished product afterwards, because it's just so rewarding.

We won't talk about the finished product yet, 'cause we've just finished filming and haven't started on editing yet. But I assure you, we had fun.

Huge thanks to Fatinn, Adithya and Wee Thean (and two year 5s) for agreeing to do random typing and skyping on camera for us. And a bigger thanks to Mr Wong (the hostel one) for being sporting enough to act for us and constantly repeat scenes.

Okay, better go now. Tired and have to wake up early tomorrow 'cause I need to be at the Year 6 convocation rehearsal to take some footage.

Night.

P.S. It's like my life nowadays revolves mainly around CCA. Hm.

Midlife crisis.

There are few things more annoying than the school internet connection.

It's horrible.

Can't get anything done, have to wait forever just to Google something, can't do things I want to do.

Had our post-exam games thing this morning. Couldn't really do anything because I probably suck at every sport imaginable (and some people think I'm actually afraid of balls I wonder where they get that idea from) and that I don't know how to play chess, chinese chess, monopoly deal, hearts or bridge.

Man, it's like I live a sad, meaningless existence throughout which I never picked up any of these life skills.

And so I just sat around with Rania 'cause she was on PA duty. Played a few songs in the hall, watched people in the concourse and drank a cup of free Milo. Nothin' much.

Fibo ended up in second place behind Faraday, 'cause we sort of lost almost every single match imaginable for tagball, frisbee and soccer (heard we got first for floorball though, that's nice).

Had dinner out with Kelvin and Adithya.

Was awesome 'cause we managed to find a place that'd buy a copy of Civilization V from me.

Less than a week till I get home, but I haven't started packing yet.

I should start, huh?

Okay, tired, should go now.

Adieu.

P.S. Bloody hell, I'm old.

Abu Dhabi 2010.

After a series of completely uneventful events, I went out today with Fatinn, Nicholas, Wardah and Zeh and watched 'Megamind'.

Been wanting to watch it ever since it came out, and man, it was awesome.

Funny, great story line, lovable characters, cute minion, brilliant soundtrack (AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Michael Jackson, to name a few), animated, you get what I mean.

I can honestly say that I love this movie.

Great movie aside, I'm kinda mad at myself for missing the last race of the season tonight. Had other things to do, but I can't believe I totally forgot about it.

I feel kinda depressed now.

History was made and I missed it.

And I call myself an F1 fan. Shame on myself.

Congratulations to Vettel for becoming the youngest F1 World Champion ever (they just keep getting younger and younger, don't they?). I like the guy.

I need details of the race, but the internet connection is being slow and troublesome, so perhaps not tonight.

Okay, have Deeparaya stuff tomorrow.

Sleep first, F1 later.

Sigh.

Night.

P.S. I bet it's become this trend for supervillain minions to appear cute. If it really is a trend, I sure hope it lasts.

Decorations.

Script-checking day 2 today.

Geog was great (and I should totally be thanking my lucky stars, 'cause I, along with loads of other people, only started studying on the day itself). Malay was horrible.

My love-hate relationship with Geog continues.

Went to the library with Aisyah afterwards, just so we could sleep in there. I mean, the library is like the perfect place for sleeping. It's cold, quiet, and full of books (there's just something about old, thick, nerdy books that just make you want to fall asleep).

Hey, we're tired people. Don't judge us.

Did stuff for Deeparaya rehearsals all afternoon.

It's great that we're raising awareness of other cultures and religious celebrations and all, but I don't like that it's been made such a chore for all of us.

And it's sad that all the effort and work and time we put into all this will be over in a few hours and will hardly be appreciated by the rest of the school who weren't involved in any way.

It's kinda depressing, really. To come to that realisation. We could always make the decision to not care about anything in life, 'cause it only lasts for a fleeting moment and then there would really be no point in anything.

But we do stuff anyway.

There's something so cool about the human race. We're totally aware of this and yet continue to strive.

Went out for sushi after rehearsals. Yum.

And had cake with chopsticks, courtesy of Emily and Wardah (thanks, guys).

Okay, going off now.

Adieu.

P.S. I like to see people's reactions when I tell them that the guy who plays Scooter from How I Met Your Mother is actually Neil Patrick Harris' real life boyfriend. It's fun.

Inferiority.

Listening to Lifehouse at the moment.

There's just something about Jason Wade's voice that makes anything he sings sound really good.

Feeling tired right now, but life goes on.

Script-checking today. They always cram majority of the subjects we take on the first day. I don't know whether it's for the sake of convenience, or that they just want to see us succumb to nerves.

But yeah, logic says that once a paper is done you can't do anything about it anymore, so there's not much point in worrying about getting results back.

I'm guessing the scary part is finding out how badly you did.

I like to lower my expectations so I don't feel disappointed or anything. Passing subjects I suck at is good, and anything beyond that is great.

It's totally scary that some people can get ridiculously high marks while I kinda like have to scrape my way through. It's insane.

Yeah, just feel so inferior.

CCA meeting-ed later on in the afternoon. Listened to Ash talk about our CIP for a while, then had pizza. Loads of pizza.

And because hardly anyone showed up, we had a surplus of seven boxes of whole pizzas. Never in my two years of of NUS High has there ever been a surplus of pizza. Like, it just doesn't happen. To have seven whole pizzas leftover just kinda blew our minds for a moment.

Went out to WCP to have ice cream at MOF for our cluster outing.

Just realised that it was probably our last outing as a cluster. Wow, that was fast. Seems like only yesterday I was leaving 8A.

Loving the weather right now. It's so cool (literally).

Better go off.

Night.

P.S. I love the a cappella rendition of Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' on Glee. Darren Criss is amazing.

Gambit.

Watching "Hi, I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC" vids on YouTube right now.

Man, they are hilarious.

Best thing of my day.

I love how it's so witty and how the jokes are so obscurely funny.

Ah, comic book universes are awesome.

It would be so cool if I could somehow dedicate part of my life to reading Marvel and DC comics, and watching their movies and animated adaptions.

Anyway, started Wiki-ing X-Men (again) 'cause tomorrow's the start of script-checking, and I have this bad habit of doodling comic book characters on my papers. That scratching of pen tips against paper is so addictive. And everything looks so much cooler in green ink, for some reason.

Also, I kinda like to doodle just so I can take my mind off the results I'll be getting.

It makes me appear nonchalant and totally cool with whatever I get.

Man, the pressure is on.

Spent my morning doing Malay O-level papers, and my afternoon in the hall for a Deeparaya rehearsal.

Hmm.

Better go off now.

Sleep is needed.

Arrivederci.

P.S. Just started on 'Sense and Sensibility'. It sad that the only chick lit I read is the chick lit of the nineteenth century.

Interlagos 2010

Hey blogosphere.

It's funny how the more free time I have, the less I feel like blogging. Probably 'cause I don't really do much when I'm free.

Had some trouble waking up this morning, 'cause we went out to Johor yesterday and had this lack of sleep.

Yeah, our Johor trip was fun. It doesn't really matter what you do, or where you go, as long as you like who you're doing it with.

I mean, it's all about the company. It's like if you did something awesome with people you hated, it'd become less fun.

Anyway, watched 'Jangan Pandang Belakang Congkak 2', which was, unsurprisingly, not as funny as the first (it was a drastic degradation, from extremely funny to just meh). Well yeah, we all agreed that sequels are rarely better or as good as the original.

The only reason why people make sequels is because the first was successful enough, and the only reason why crappy sequels make money is because people assume it's as great as the first movie, or that they're just curious to find out exactly how crappy it is.

Today's not much fun to talk about 'cause I spent my morning down at the Mac lab with Ash and Victoria randomly watching YouTube videos and trying to gain inspiration for SDMA, and I spent my afternoon watching 'How I Met Your Mother' (still).

Didn't catch the race early this morning (Interlagos, you know, starts at midnight), 'cause I had to sleep or I'd KO today.

Congratulations to Red Bull Racing for wrapping up the Constructor's Title with a one-two at Interlagos, and to Vettel for winning the race. It was horribly obvious that the Red Bulls were in way better shape than the other teams for this track.

Massa had horrible luck, that's all I can say. Poor fellow, home race and all, and having to pit unnecessarily because of some loose tyre because some dude made a mistake during his first pit stop. I feel for him.

Okay, one more race to go, and to be honest with you, I don't really mind who wins the Driver's Title. The only two drivers I truly supported were Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. Schumi's not doing really well this season, and Kimi's in rally now. What to do.

May the best driver win.

And forza Ferrari.

Night.

P.S. Oh, and congrats to Hulkenberg for pole. I totally forgot about that, 'cause I was so caught up in the whole "Massa-qualified-badly" thing.

i Light.

I'm currently waiting for two things before I go to sleep tonight.

The first is for a video (of a few I compiled into one) I took today to upload onto Facebook, and the second is for qualifying to start.

Didn't really have time to check out the practice times after I got back, 'cause I thought qualifying was over before realising that this was Interlagos and that everything would start hours later.

Ah, living in Asia has its drawbacks.

So here I am at midnight, waiting for qualifying. Fingers crossed to Massa on pole and Ferrari front row.

It's funny how for the past few years, the Driver's Championship has boiled down to the final race or two. Shows just how tight and competitive the teams are nowadays (if you take out the new teams like Virgin, Lotus and HRT, everyone else is totally within range of each other).

I remember back when people used to make jokes about Force India being the new team after Vijay Mallya took over Spyker, and now they've won a few podium places. How awesome is that? (My dad and I totally root for Force India, 'cause we're Asian and all, you know, gotta support the "local" team.)

Speaking of F1 and how much I hope Ferrari wins this race, we went out today and walked part of the Singapore F1 track and got rained on. Which was awesome fun.

I'm not kidding.

Sometimes I find myself thinking, yeah, nothing's cool about living here. We work our asses off and hardly have time to spend time out and enjoy ourselves without having to stow away thoughts of schoolwork in the deep recesses of our minds. It's not fun at all.

But then you get the weekend off after exams and go out and then totally change your mind.

Checked out that i Light thing at Marina Bay with a couple of the Bruneians and Yanni.

Really wanted to be able to see all the exhibits, but couldn't 'cause it started pouring and we had to seek shelter and stuff like that in case we got all wet and cold.

One thing I like about this newfound love of vlogging of mine is that I don't have to bore people with words depicting every single excruciating moment of my day, 'cause I find that no matter how much I type, it still doesn't beat video.

I also like that Singapore keeps looking for new things to show and new events to host and exhibits to pull off. That's why it doesn't seem like such an utterly dull and monotonous place.

Okay, better go off now. Have to sleep early tonight 'cause we're going off to Johor Bahru tomorrow (this trip with Bruneians).

Adieu.

P.S. I love saying "I'm a tourist" out loud in Singapore, and I love saying "I'm local" out loud in Brunei. That's just the way it is.

SINGle.

Listening to MCR's new single right now.

To be honest with you, whenever they release any new stuff, I get kinda nervous, 'cause I'd probably be really disappointed if I didn't like it.

But heck, I love it.

Anyway, no matter what happens, or what decisions MCR decides to make, that's okay with me because my favourite album of all time has been and will always be 'Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge'.

It was probably the first album I've ever listened to from start to finish. And it was brilliant.

I remember being thirteen, on The Sims 2 forums (yeah, I used to hang out there a lot 'cause I totally didn't have a life back then and still don't but that's another story), when someone posted this link to this music video they made to Welcome To The Black Parade. So I went, and I fell in love.

Then I realised that I was missing out on a lot in life. And from then on I discovered that this music thing was something I couldn't spend a day without. It was like being on drugs. I got addicted, and I totally don't need rehabilitation.

Anyway, went out today with Wardah, Fatinn, Emily and Syaf. Watched 'Due Date'.

Thankfully no chick flick.

I think Robert Downey Jr's a great actor, 'specially 'cause I've seen him in Iron Man 2 and Sherlock Holmes.

But I digress. Movie was nothing spectacular, but it was funny and that's what mattered to people who needed to get out and have fun after spending a few weeks thinking about exams. It was a bit sick though (NC-16 and like, a tonne of disgusting sexual references).

Okay, going off now.

Have 'How I Met Your Mother' to watch. Love that show.

Night.

P.S. Oh it feels so weird to not have school on a weekday.

Greenscreen.

This sem's exams are over, I should be feeling elated, but man, my eyes just can't focus anymore.

It's like I'm just really, really, tired but don't want to go to sleep just 'cause I want to savour the "exams are over" moment.

You know that feeling, when you walk into the venue of your last paper (in our case, the hall) and find yourself smiling even though it's one of your worse subjects and you're feeling extremely nervous?

It's like you know that exams are over once you step into the place. It's not when you finish writing, because to me, the part of exams that make them such living hell is the studying.

The not being able to do what you want, to sleep earlier, to go out and have fun. It's horrible.

So how were our exams this time round? I can't say brilliant, sadly. I can't say horrible either. Average is more like it.

Kinda felt like I could've done better for subjects I like, and was surprisingly able to answer questions from papers of subjects I suck at.

It's interesting, really.

Dreamt I failed our English paper last night. Man, I'm paranoid.

Anyway, better go off now. Feel like I'm dying of exhaustion.

Adieu.

P.S. The weather is currently really humid and I hate it.