Ribosomes.

Listening to OneRepublic at the moment. I prefer their first album to their second, to be honest with you. Oh man it is so good.

Probably going to go through our ribosome slides again before I go to sleep. Honestly, I don't know what else there is to say about them apart from how they synthesise proteins from RNA and how they just hang around the endoplasmic reticulum.

Talked about social networking during English today. Yes, I can't live without social networking. I need a life, man. And perhaps the only way I can get there is through the Internet, because I rely so much on it.

I mean, I've got my life written down here since the end of 2007, so if I lose the Internet, I lose what I'd wanted to remember about my past.

GG-ed during the Math graded exercise. Not enough time, 'cause my brain works at probably half the speed of everyone else in class. Yeah, I kinda really suck at Math.

Physics was worse. I think I might be mentally retarded or something.

SLI was okay, I guess. Thankful 'cause it was a pretty short event and wasn't too boring.

So yeah, new year of service for student leaders.

Going off now.

P.S. Three more days to CNY CNY CNY. Whee.

Pouring.

I'm seriously considering showing the lame video on ribosomes and various other organelles for my cell bio presentation on Tuesday, because honestly, there's not much to say about them that I'm knowledgeable enough to say.

Seriously looking forward to Chinese New Year now, because by then, I'll be at home in the company of family and friends and good, good food. Oh how I love CNY to bits.

Shopping marathon is over, thankfully, but it sucks to feel thankful for people leaving me here again.

But no, I don't wish to spend my time here being lonely and morose.

Oh man, I love the weather at the moment. It's been raining ever since I woke up, and it's so awfully cool. I love how we can sit here in our hostel rooms feeling cold even when there's no air-conditioning.

Yeah, naturally cooling weather conditions ftw.

Monday tomorrow, and with Mondays extra sleeping time is required.

Night.

P.S. Was in an M&S this afternoon, and realised they put their lingerie section right next to the food section. Great marketing skills, definitely.

Shopping.

Happily reading up on ribosomes at the moment, because of that peer teaching thing our Cell Bio teacher is making us do.

Out of the twenty-three of us in class, I was lucky enough to get the first topic. Awesomeness. (If you didn't sense the sarcasm there, you're as bad as Dr Sheldon Cooper.)

Watching this epic random but ridiculously hilarious short animation on basic cell bio at the moment. It rocks.

Went out to get CNY clothing and stuff all day, so kinda tired from all the shopping. But yeah, now I have decent enough clothing to wear for CNY and that kind of makes me feel better about myself.

Yes, I'm a girl and I do wear girl clothing.

Okay, short post for tonight because I'm going to sleep now.

Starting to like Cell Bio more that I initially did. It's weird, because I didn't really like it at all.

Adieu.

P.S. No matter how many beds I've slept in in my entire lifetime up till now, no bed has ever felt as good to sleep in as my bed. It's good to have one you can call your own.

Jumpshots.

In a hotel room now, 'cause my mum, brother, aunt and cousin are here and I get to not sleep in the hostel.

Talking to Yos about our Chem proposal, and to Joo Kee about TalentSearch and songs and songwriting and bands and things like that.

It's funny, because when you tell people you've been in a band, people automatically assume you're cool. I don't know why.

Yeah, I tell people I was in a band once. Back when I was young and a complete failure due to my lack of exposure to electric guitars. Fail, yes, compared to all the pros I was with. But you just never forget that feeling, when different people who didn't know each other previously come together and unite with one sound. One song. Different parts, but still one. One purpose, one meaning, one feeling.

I'm guessing it's like being in an orchestra, or a choir, or something. It's an amazing feeling.

And you think, wow, that full song you hear, it's coming from you.

Oh deep profound thoughts.

CCA welcoming today. Wandered around aimlessly for most of the hour.

I think I deserve more respect than I'm given. I need to be like, totally authoritative and scary, but I don't know how to do that.

But yeah.

Had epic break beforehand 'cause Physics got cancelled 'cause of something classmates had to attend.

Chinese New Year is creeping closer. Yay.

Going off now. It's been a long week.

Adieu.

P.S.

Retard.

Oh the decisions we have to make nowadays.

Twitter but no MSN, MSN but no Twitter. Sigh. Each internet connection system has its own pros and cons.

Funny thing happened today, because I woke up exactly an hour earlier than I was supposed to, thinking it was already 6.45 in the morning and I had to get up for school. Turned out I still had an hour left, and man it felt so good. It's like my biological clock's become so accustomed to receiving the same amount of sleep every night, it just has to wake up.

Come to think of it, that's quite sad. I need to sleep more.

PE, Malay, Geog, English, Math. Long day today.

So so so tired. I think everybody is. That's what weekends are for, to recharge. But sometimes, our weekends are packed too. So when a free day finally rolls by, we're thankful people.

Going off now.

Night.

P.S. Chinese New Year is coming. I love CNY.

Frustration.

Having mixed feelings at the moment.

Really bad mixed feelings.

You see, our hostel has set up this new internet system, where we have new passwords and everything. It's much faster, but with two drawbacks: it somehow loads YouTube videos way slower, and it blocks many, many websites. Twitter included.

I don't know how I'll be able to survive without Twitter. That's why I switched back to the old system by plugging out my LAN cable (strangely enough, you only get rerouted to the new system if you use the LAN ports). Yeah, I'd give up relatively faster internet connection for my social networking any day.

I have to Tweet things. I mean, without Twitter, how else can I inform the world about seemingly insignificant things or thoughts that have occurred to me? I need a way to release pent-up thoughts, man.

And on top of all that, if I use the old internet system, I somehow can't sign into MSN.

I feel oppressed. We brought this up the other day over a game of Munchkins. Living here nowadays is like being in a prison. Tighter rules, stricter time restraints, harsher punishments, blocked websites, horrible boarding games, the inability to do anything the teeniest bit out of line. Oh the frustration. Whatever happened to our freedom?

It's oppression, man. I can't stand it. I want to able to access sites I've been accessing here for the past two years. I want to be able to leave my slippers outside my door for the sake of convenience. I want to be able to go back to my room before 1 pm (not that we've got the chance nowadays, what with the packed timetable and all). I want to have to not wait for people to let me in when the scanner at the front gate refuses to remember that I'd tapped out.

But I can't, because it's not allowed.

I'm just sad because I want Twitter and fast internet connection.

Okay, enough ranting for now.

Tired and there's PE tomorrow.

Night.

P.S. It's sad how we can't seem to able to live without the internet nowadays, isn't it?

Hakuna matata.

Just finished writing my karangan, which is ridiculously themed and horribly crappy due to my extremely limited vocabulary.

Oh man, it feels so good to be typing in English again. Oh the relief of not having to pause after every three words in order to think of a way to continue my sentence.

But yeah, it's our last year, so we've just got to bear with it. No pain no gain, and with no epic Malay cramming, no good O-level result.

Skipped my first day of posting of the year yesterday, 'cause we had to endure this time-wasting presentation about our hostel laundry service. It was weird, because we've been using the same system for years now, and we really don't have to know about how the company was formed, or the latest advancements in washing machine technology.

Sigh. Time management blows.

Nothing much to say about yesterday though. Aesthetic Appreciation Programme assembly thing was okay, 'cause the MAs made cute videos.

Chem prac-ed with Kian Wee today. Froze things. Was pretty cool, but now my graphs look all weird and our calculations have (according to Kian Wee) an over 300% percentage error. Sounds fun.

Was supposed to have extra Math after Chem, but Mr Chia didn't show up, so it was a no go. It's funny, because he's hardly ever late, and when he doesn't come to class on time it's quite safe to assume that he's forgotten about us.

Econs was dull. Perhaps we should start really paying attention, but it's so hard, what with the large number of people and our teacher droning on and on and on.

I'll try harder next time.

Okay, going off now.

Need sleep bad.

P.S. It's "puff" night tonight, 'cause supper was some chocolate cream puff and a currypuff. Puff.

Boarding Games 2011

Listening to some Good Charlotte at the moment. I don't have their new stuff yet, but this sure brings back loads of memories of when I was younger.

They just don't write good rock like they used to anymore. Now pop dominates the charts, and it makes me feel as if we're fighting a losing battle. I miss good ol' rock.

Boarding games was today. I have to come out and be honest with it: I thought it was horrible.

Compared to the previous two years, this was just awful. Boring, uneventful, depressing.

The poor Year 5s of this year will have this imprinted onto their minds as what the Boarding Games look like, which isn't what they're supposed to look like at all.

In fact, I think we'd rather spend our afternoon in the sun like last year than what we had to do this year.

Played Munchkins afterwards. It was awesome, 'cause I won a game and Woan Chyi won the one after that, because we epic collaborated.

It's such a horrible game. You have to like, backstab people in cruel ways if you want to win.

Okay, going off now. Tired tired tired and tomorrow's a Monday.

Arrivederci.

P.S. Is it just me, or has the weather become more humid over the weekend?

Hot gay men.

Is it bad that I've got Justin Bieber's 'Baby' stuck in my head?

I mean, the tune is, but the voice is of Kurt Schneider's, because he did a parody with HuskyStarcraft concerning Starcraft to the tune of 'Baby'. I don't play Starcraft, but I do like Kurt.

Went out today, because Wardah owed us lunch for losing a bet we made last year. I love it when people are sporting about bets they make and don't back out on the conditions when they lose.

I don't know why, but it's like our bet-making has sort of defined who we are. Like when you play any game, you've got to have certain goals in life or you'll just wander around aimlessly, which isn't as fun. We know our goal in life right now is to get through school and hopefully pass, but we need some fun goals too, or we'll probably collapse from the seriousness of it all.

Wandered around Marina Square with Fatinn while waiting for this movie we were going to watch to start. Bought a book (my first book of the year, hopefully I'll be able to find the time to read it soon. So many unread books makes me feel horribly guilty about buying) and found that heart-rate monitor-watch hybrid thing my uncle wanted.

Gotta gotta exercise, man. Why am I not doing so?

'Burlesque' was great in some ways, but I kinda found it a bit draggy in some places. But yeah, the soundtrack was good, and the actors were all attractive (and there was Cher, too). Man, Cher's voice. You can't say no to that.

I think Cliché story lines can be pulled off if it's shot well enough. And yeah, I thought it was shot pretty well.

So yeah, if you've got the time, and want an eyeful of attractive guys and hot chicks, go watch it.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. The internet connection we have is making article-hunting a real chore.

Oovoo.

So yeah, starting off this post with a filler charcoal experimentation I finished a few minutes ago.

It was supposed to be a fox, but turned out to look more wolf-like instead. That's because the forehead isn't raised enough, and mistakes made in charcoal are less reversible than those made in graphite.

Overall, I think it looks pretty weird. I swear it was at least twenty times more pleasing to the eye and more accurate before I drew over my pencil markings.

Had four hours of class straight today, because we had Econs to go to after Math after Bio after mentoring.

Totally like our cell Bio teacher now 'cause he showed us a picture of the battle at Helm's Deep. Being a Lord of the Rings fan definitely earns my favour.

Economics was strange and awkward, because there were only ten of us (or something) and Ryan wouldn't stop talking.

Super tired right now, so going to sleep.

Night.

P.S. Skyped with Stel, Shar and Manda after dinner. Kept having to hang up because of the lack of improvements in teleconferencing. Sigh.

Compulsive.

Waiting for the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother to load, and watching other people die of last-minute Chem-proposal-writing rush.

It kind of makes me thankful for having Yos in our group, because he's so compulsive and has to like, do things like that.

Joined 07 for PE today, 'cause our new teacher will only be here in February (replacing Dr Sun. Man, we're going to miss him). Body feeling ever-so-slightly sore right now, and it feels good, because I dunno, maybe I'm masochistic like that (no, it's actually because it sucks to feel fat and unexercised, if that's a word).

Did three rounds, and I have a feeling I'm going to be in big trouble for NAPFA if I don't do something about it.

Malay after that, and it's funny because somehow I'm unable to forget peribahasa phrases. It's weird.

Managed to find our class in time before Geog started (we're now totally okay with moving five floors down to the humanities room, because we discovered it was air-conditioned).

Talked about population census. Funny thing, population census.

English was fun, because we had to go down to one of the computer labs to look up quotes and make lame jokes. I have to say, our English teacher officially rocks.

Math weirded me out, because Mr Chia was especially high. He was so nice, he let us change the answers of our graded exercise after showing us the solutions. Which was awesome. Free marks, everybody.

Which reminds me, I have to pass him the camera tomorrow (which I hope is still in the library, untouched). Ah, Media privileges.

Okay, going off now. Need to watch HIMYM.

Adieu.

P.S. And no, when I go to the girls' toilet, it doesn't mean I'm a pervert.

P.P.S. American Idol premiere? I'm actually totally okay with missing it this time, because there's no more Simon Cowell, and it will never, ever be the same without him.

Definitions.

CCA fair vid part 2 is up for viewing here.

I think I might've found the key to uploading videos without frustration: leave it uploading before you go to bed, and when you wake up, it'll be there and ready to be titled and commented on.

Although I must say, it's not very environmentally friendly.

Sorted pasta during Bio today. Went through some phylogeny things, and then got to work with classifying pasta according to cladistics. I have to say Jon Ang and I did pretty well, considering I spent half the time drawing an angry, Italian chef with the caption "This is pasta!".

Ah, pasta evolution. Makes one wonder, huh.

Math and Chem were quite ordinary, so nothing much to say about them (but we did manage to finish off our Chapter 1 notes for Math, so hurray for us).

ACE was depressing, as every single "meet-the-deputy-principal-to-be-briefed-about-conduct-and-expectations" meeting goes.

Yeah, we're on it, don't worry.

First Da Vinci session in ages (for me, that is) went by pretty slowly. They really shouldn't hold mass lectures for our year, because we're just completely lame retards.

Okay, going off now.

PE tomorrow and I want sleep.

Night.

Options.

Waiting for CCA fair part 2 to be uploaded, 'cause I finally took the initiative to edit it.

Part 1 is here and totally available for viewing.

It's been ridiculously cold these few days, which is awesome. The cooler the better, I think, because I kind of dislike hot, humid weather.

Played Munchkin at school today, with Insan, Faiz, KT, Kelvin and Yos. I think it's cool that they've got it for loan at the student lounge. Had only an hour, so we couldn't finish the game. But totally regret my decision to help Faiz (sorry, dude) and to not use 'Mate' on Kelvin's monsters. It's every man (or woman) for himself out there.

Agh, decision-making.

Been a bit troubled lately, because I still have no idea what I want to do with my future. There's only one path you can take, and I don't want it to be the wrong one and end up regretting my decision on my eventual deathbed.

I've always known I want to be substantially wealthy and totally enjoy my job, but I don't see myself doing that at home. But then we met two of our MoE officers earlier this afternoon, and I've been feeling quite bad ever since.

Yeah, I'm Bruneian. I'm indebted to my country. I love my country, and I want to see it grow and prosper and to help it develop, but there's a huge chance I wouldn't be able to have the opportunity to make that change. If I tried, I'd probably then just live my entire life stuck with one job that I don't really feel satisfied with.

And if I don't stay and work there, I'd feel awful all my life.

I don't know what to do.

I'm a confused soul.

Maybe I'm just thinking too much.

Gotta chill.

Cancer ribbon.

Waiting for the CCA fair vlog to be exported by iMovie now. I still have the interviews to filter through and edit, and I feel really bad for missing out ODAC. Maybe they won't mind.

Anyway, even though it's such a pain to constantly have to render footage in Final Cut Pro, after you've gotten used to the controls and interface and such, you find iMovie ridiculously simple. But it's sort of faster to edit on iMovie, and I don't need anything special for vlogs, so that's okay.

So yeah, editing's kind of addictive. It's like I'm always looking for new footage to edit. It's fun (except when the footage is really dull, of course).

Monday Monday Monday today.

Had English, and I have to say I love our English teacher's sense of humour. He kind of rocks, actually. Although the ridiculous paraphrasing requirement still kind of annoys me.

Math, Math. Math. Maybe one day I'll be able to do Math. Like, totally grasp concepts the way other people are able to. Either that or I just really, really, suck.

And Physics too. So many numbers. Numbers.

As Jason Mraz put it in 'You And I Both', "You see I'm all about them words/Over numbers/Unencumbered/Numbered words."

Words over numbers, definitely.

Made a bet with Insan and Woan Chyi during dinner earlier on. Man, I hope I win. Stakes are high, and my fingers are crossed.

Okay, I'mma go off now.

Night.

P.S. I would love to try out a theremin.

Purple with yellow stripes and a heart.

Is it sad that I spent most of my day voting and checking out the pics on this website?

Man, I think it's quite sad.

Also spent all morning trying to look for a suitable article to write about for our English current affairs portfolio thing. It's funny how every other interesting thing doesn't fit the school criteria, and you have to keep on searching. Which is hard because you kind of get sidetracked by the articles you find interesting which you won't be able to use.

I was really tempted to write a review about this article, since "RIP Justin Bieber" is trending. It seems as if celebrities people hate keep like, dying, or something. And then miraculously come back to life. How interesting.

But I didn't, and wrote about Haiti instead. Said some things about how we think things are over but they're actually not. I mean, we avert our attention from one catastrophe to another, and when we do that we forget about the former, and it's quite sad, really. Situations have not yet been resolved.

And at our current rate of helping other nations, how are we supposed to be able to keep up if this onslaught of natural disasters just goes on?

It'll take forever, man.

Watched 'My Name Is Khan' (well, half of it, but even that was pretty long) earlier on this afternoon with a few of the Bruneians. Shahrukh Khan is a great actor. I thought it was a brilliant movie (after all, it made a few of the girls cry).

I love the message it brings, too. It's like, there's no need to discriminate against religion or race. The battle is between people with warm, open hearts and those who are close-minded assholes.

Okay, going off now. Start of another week tomorrow.

Night.

P.S. I realise that if I set my alarm tone to a certain song, I'll become conditioned to dread hearing it. Therefore I'm going to start changing it every week or so.

"If you could see it then you'd understand." -Coldplay

Watching this video at the moment, and it's making me feel a bit down about missing out on Michael Bublé's performance here in February.

It is indeed quite heartbreaking, and it makes me wish I'd known about it sooner and had gotten tickets. But I don't have tickets, and it's making me miserable. I'd always admired Michael Bublé, from the moment I heard his smooth, jazzy voice and saw his charming smile.

It'd be amazing to hear him live. Definitely.

Woke up today feeling much better than last night, 'cause that's what enough rest gets you.

So I edited and uploaded some videos, including our SDMA vid with shameless advertising, last week's vlog, and last but not least, Ahmad rickrolling in one of the skytrains at Changi airport.

Have forty-five minutes' worth of CCA fair footage to edit, and since I want to get my priorities right, I won't be doing that any time sooner.

Sometimes I wonder why I agreed to come to this school. I mean, I love it here and all, but it's just that I was never and probably never will be a math (or science) enthusiast. I'm not keen on it, and I don't see myself ever being the least good at it, and hence I wonder.

My heart's not in it. It's sad. I don't know what I'm doing with my life. I don't know where I'm going. I don't know what I want to do. I don't know where I want to be.

Maybe I should just let life take me where it wants to take me.

But then that would be succumbing to non-greatness, huh?

Because people who make a difference in life know where they're going.

Advertising.

Feeling horribly tired at the moment.

It's been a horribly long week. The first week of school is usually like that, but with added CCA fair work to do, it's like it took forever.

And now my brain doesn't function right and I don't feel like doing anything at all (and just collapsing and going to sleep).

Which is what I'll do now.

CCA fair was awesome fun though.

Make up for the short post with vids tomorrow, if our internet connection will allow me to do so.

Night.

P.S. Why is it that the more times I try to upload a video, the longer it seems to have to take and the faster it freezes up?

Chroma key.

Okay, short post for tonight because I'm tired and need sleep.

Spent almost an hour in the pantry earlier on talking to our new cluster mentor. She's nice.

Anyway, we're finally done with our CCA fair video thing, and all we can do is hope we're not an epic fail tomorrow with our booth.

It's not that we're desperate for members, but I think it's just 'cause we want to impress all the other CCAs. Yes, Media is awesome.

Super long day today. Started off with PE. Height and weight is depressing. Yes I'm short. Yes I need to lose weight. Yes, I'll get started.

Did close passages during Malay. Wow, it's like we're finally getting serious for once.

Got lost afterwards because our entire Geog class moved classrooms without telling or even missing us at all, so we had to ask the History people where on earth our class went and then make our way to our Geog class. How sad is that?

But yeah, I like Geog.

I think I might've taken a liking to our new English teacher too. He's cool. And knows how to ignore Ryan.

And Math was just Math. I don't know how people just instantly understand Math. I think our brains are wired differently that way. It's depressing. I wish I could do Math. Then I'd seem way cooler.

All right, going off now.

Adieu.

P.S. Thank God for weekends.

Rendering.

Agh, I have a feeling that this CCA fair thing is driving many of us insane, especially 'cause now we're sort of more responsible for things since we're older and all.

We've got to make things work work work (like Tim Gunn always says) and sometimes things just don't want to work. And then we have to compromise. And then things that would've otherwise been awesome become rushed and lacking in forethought and extremely uncool.

As for us, I think we're doing fine, apart from the video we're supposed to produce to be shown to new students (or something along those lines). Spent forever trying to figure out how to do a split-screen properly 'cause Ash wasn't around, and now I realise I don't have the awesome matrix sequence Ash made to put in the video.

Hopefully we'll be able to have enough time to finish it off tomorrow. (To be honest with you I'm kind of excited to show people our super lame recruitment video. I think it's quite cute, the way we played it out so amateurishly.)

Our poster is epic and our banner is going along nicely, and Rania's probably designing our flyers as we speak. Yay.

I love animal diversity, and that our Bio teacher agreed to set a "question quota" for Ryan (because he'd talk too much otherwise).

Math was all right. Mr Chia is almost always constantly happy nowadays, and it's fun to watch him in class. And for some strange reason he has this penchant for confusing us and then giving us the correct answer. Lucky for me I have Zhen Jie to set things straight for me (which she's been doing since Year 2. Thanks, man).

Chem afterwards was okay too. Fought boredom by talking about 'Sumotori' with Yos and playing more rousing games of 'rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock' with Glenn and Kian Wee.

Lost a game to Mr Yeo, too. As I said, I've got horrible 'rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock' luck.

And I totally need to watch the latest episode of 'The Big Bang Theory'.

Okay, going off now. I think I might have nightmares about unrendered files and having to wait forever to render.

Arrivederci.

P.S. PE tomorrow. Fingers crossed for an awesome PE teacher.

Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.

My roommate is going to officially think I'm nuts from now on, but she's so nice she just told me I could laugh out loud in the middle of the night to this video and she wouldn't mind.

But man, I just wasted twenty minutes of my life laughing my ass off to this video.

I know for a fact that laughing is good for you (both scientifically and spiritually), so perhaps it wasn't really a waste of my time.

Had Malay today, and cikgu's suddenly become super serious about us and O-levels, so I guess it's time we got crackin'.

After that I met up with Wai Yin and Rania and we sort of borrowed (or snuck in, whichever sounds cooler) the Audi to film our CCA video in. Due to the shortage of time and a lack of planning, our shots weren't really as good as I'd liked it to be, but I'm sure we can compromise (although it wouldn't be as awesome that way). Also, I'm in doubt as to whether our video is going to be shown or not. So, so confused.

Probably would've been falling asleep during two-hour Chem, if it weren't for the lame joke-making and the Ryan commenting and the random games of "rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock".

Lost almost every single game of "rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock" I played. I think I have horrible "rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock" luck. Who knows.

First class of Economics ever was strange, because we spent forty-five minutes discussing and choosing various time slots and then were dismissed. To be honest with you I actually wanted to have a proper lecture or something. Oh well.

Okay, going off now. It's sad that school is starting to wear us out. Must be the CCA fair.

Night.

P.S. If you're wondering. Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.

Brainstorming.

Okay, fast post for today because I'm tired and need sleep but want to play with charcoal before I do.

Quite an easy day tomorrow. Malay, Chem, then Econs. Hopefully won't die for Econs, but if it's horrible there's always a choice to drop it, so that's cool.

First day of proper school went down quite well. English was okay, Math was okay (and we're still huge fans of Mr Chia, yes), Physics was okay.

Simple harmonic motion. I don't know why every single time I hear Mr Yeo say "SHM", my brain translates it as "HSM". I was never ridiculously in love with High School Musical (although I did quite enjoy the first movie as a twelve-year old), and neither do I suffer any hearing problems, last I checked.

It's weird.

It's funny how much we (I) rely on spellcheck, 'cause when we're supposed to spell things on paper we get all lost and confused and insecure. It's quite sad, really. Perhaps people back then made tonnes of spelling errors too, but only the substantially wealthy were literate and they were probably taught how to spell really well.

Maybe we should stop relying on spellcheck.

Bonding night was weird. That's all I have to say about it. Boarding Games Day is a billion times better than bonding night. Bonding night is just weird.

All right then, going off now.

Night.

P.S. CCA brainstorming sessions are major fun, except from when we get sidetracked and do completely irrelevant things.

Paper planes.

Yay, first real Monday of the year tomorrow. Isn't that great.

Woke up relatively early today, and now I'm exhausted. Partly because my ear hurts and partly because it honestly has been a long day.

So we woke up, had some Bruneian thing (remind me to edit and post the vlog on Facebook soon or it'll be way overdue and wouldn't bother anymore), where we sat at a long meeting table and slid bottles and threw paper planes at each other. Fun.

Then went off to Somerset313 to buy Nazihah's belated birthday present. Got myself 'The Black Parade Is Dead', which I've been wanting for ages and is finally on sale and got the Bruce Springsteen album my dad suddenly and randomly asked me to buy.

Faced a huge dilemma afterwards, so I solved it by getting my ear pierced again. Two holes this time, to make up for the one that closed a few months ago.

It hurts more than I remember, but I've gotten over it once so there's no reason why I can't do it again.

Pain is more mental than physical, I think. You just have to occupy yourself and it goes away.

And besides, I totally asked for it. In fact, I even paid for it. So there's not much point in complaining.

But yeah, I am now totally psyched and no longer look at other people's pierced ears with ridiculous longing mixed with envy.

This is the kind of pain that makes you feel good about yourself. It's like, yeah, if you can do it, why can't I? And now that I've done it (again), it just proves my point. Self-esteem just shot up big time.

I better sleep now, or tomorrow will be hell.

Adieu.

P.S. Watched 'Up In The Air' with the guys in the TV room. First half was great, second half got a bit draggy. Stupid woman, cheating George Clooney's feelings.

Charcoal experimentation.

Went out earlier on after dinner with Fatinn and got myself some charcoal sticks to draw with, 'cause I've been wanting to try them out for a long time now.

I conclude that they're bloody hard to use and cause huge messes, but are able to make almost any crap sketch look good, as illustrated with this here hasty sketch of a tree.

I love drawing trees, they and I have an almost instant connection on paper. And it's probably the only thing I can draw without having to copy off other pictures. Man, that's sad.

Anyway, sort of lazed around all day. Watched the Shaytards vlog in the morning (along with various other YouTube videos), went to the music room with Fatinn in the afternoon, and spent my evening out at West Coast Plaza.

Saw videos of My Chemical Romance live in LA, and totally fell in love with them again (which I do probably once a fortnight or something). Also, I saw this and I probably almost died of nostalgia. Ah, so much love.

I have to admit that my favourite MCR music videos are 'The Ghost Of You' and 'I'm Not Okay', because 'The Ghost Of You' is amazing in every way and 'I'm Not Okay' is so lovably awesome.

Better go off now, 'cause sleeping early is good for you, and I've got to wake up early tomorrow to meet other Bruneian people and do stuff.

Adieu.

P.S. Saw this book at Popular today, and it reminded me of the time I wanted to buy it a few weeks ago in Malaysia. I flipped it over, realised the only review there was by Stephenie Meyer, and put it back. Is that discrimination?

Cornstarch.

Have to type this post out really fast because there's no electricity in our room sockets due to some strange reason and I don't want my laptop to run out of battery.

Was watching the mass dance on Facebook before the lights went off. Thankfully the fan and ceiling lights work by another circuit, or else we'd be sweltering.

Still have 'Dynamite' stuck in our heads, partly because Wai Yin and I went around singing it at random times and places, 'cause people to drop what they were doing and start dancing (it would be great if we could do it in the canteen on Monday or something and watch people's reactions).

So yeah, first day of proper schooling today. Had an hour of Bio, and hour of Math (Mr Chia) and an hour of Physics.

The real work hasn't started yet, but before we know it, we'll be full to our knees with homework and assignments and totally overdue projects and quizzes and tests to study for. It's scary 'cause we know it's coming and we're just going to have to brace ourselves for it.

Anyway, I love how 05 automatically and unanimously (well, almost) votes for Ryan to be every single rep available (he's already mentor rep, which is a great start, and we'll see how we can add on to that).

Yeah, we love Ryan. It definitely wouldn't be the same in class without him.

And I love how Mr Yeo showed a scene from 'The Big Bang Theory' where Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard mix cornstarch with water and place it on a subwoofer (Yos, Glenn and I automatically recognised it). It's such an awesome show.

Talked about M&Ms during CCA afterwards, and had an M&M tournament. We are so lame, but it passes time, and is probably one of the tastiest games ever invented. You know, where you squeeze two M&Ms together and see which one breaks first and the one that doesn't break after you go through the whole pack in the same manner is the winner. Michelle and I found it on Failbook yesterday and decided to try it out. Awesome fun.

Need to see what we can do for our CCA day video soon. Maybe tomorrow when I'm less tired and when there's electricity.

Night.

P.S. Joo Kee upon seeing Penny in The Big Bang Theory: "Oh, hot chick."

P.P.S. Went out for pizza with Wee Thean, Kelvin and Adithya and it took us three hours before we could get back. And the place we were eating at was in Clementi.

Dynamite.

Trying to get Taio Cruz's 'Dynamite' out of my head at the moment, but it just keeps coming back.

I guess after our awesome mass dancing (and encore) during the campfire, it kinda gets imprinted into your mind. But I don't mind, 'cause it sounds good.

So yeah, orientation '11 is officially over, and everybody's going to be extremely pooped tomorrow if we don't get enough rest (and that's why we're thankful school starts late tomorrow).

Been a tiring few days, definitely. It's always the first few that go by really slowly. Afterwards, it kind of flies by till the holidays (which is a good thing).

They always say time flies when you're enjoying yourself, but it also flies when you're really busy too, so it's hard to conclude whether we spend more time having fun than being busy. I'd like to think that we have fun though.

Kinda sad that we had to have the campfire in the hall though, 'cause of wet weather (which made showering without hot water afterwards even colder).

And since we didn't know what on earth was going on where and when, Michelle and I had to totally compromise our pre-planned for-track camera angles and now our footage is going to be a bit off and shaky.

Our Santa-from-hell chariot made its debut, and looked totally badass 'cause it was pulled along by people wearing bull horns (on fire) and our Santa threw around dynamite from a sack while they went down the aisle. And we were probably the only ones who bothered to come up with an entire dance, so kudos to them.

I now have no idea how the judges are going to choose between an evil Santa from hell, a smoke-emitting dragon (which totally didn't look like it was made from recycled materials, 'cause of the smoke machine), an epic-looking viking ship, and a flying shoe, but I'm totally proud of our flaming Santa.

Besides, it's only two weeks after Christmas.

Okay, proud of Fibo, and I need sleep.

Night.

P.S. Oh, and Year 1 performances were adorable.

The aftermath is secondary.

Orientation day 2 today.

Had epic fun 'cause of the station games we had to do in order to save our "legendary mythical creatures" (or something) from the clutches of the evil Popobawa (which turns out to be not something our school just made up, 'cause I Googled it).

Was a bit confusing though, 'cause we got the wrong clues and things got mixed up. But that didn't really matter.

Completely owned the first station. We kinda know each other almost solely by "interesting things", and therefore guessing who wrote what interesting thing about themselves wasn't hard at all.

Second station was awesome (ah, chairs), and the rest aren't as fun to talk about.

I have to say I don't like being blindfolded though. I don't know how blind people do it. It's scary not being able to see.

Started on our evil Santa Claus from hell chariot afterwards. Hopefully we'll be able to finish it by tomorrow night before the campfire starts.

Feeling kinda sad 'cause I'll be on duty and not being part of the crowd (although I will have a stellar view of everything). And I won't be alone 'cause I managed to drag Michelle (willingly) along with me.

Okay, even longer day tomorrow, so I'll turn in like, fifteen minutes earlier or something.

Adieu.

P.S. I'm quitting MouseHunt, but man, it's hard. I've grown a biological impulse (somewhat) to sound a horn every fifteen minutes.

On fire.

First day of orientation today.

New classroom, new teachers (although we haven't met them yet), new modules, new year, but the people are still the same (somewhat), and that's what's important.

Finally managed to elect Ryan as mentor rep for this year (God help us, but it's going to be so funny), along with Leyi. Mr Yeo was nice enough to let us do it, even though Ryan wasn't so happy about the matter.

Learnt the first half of the mass dance, and had a house meeting which was filled with super lame fire jokes.

It may sound weird, but our idea for an evil Santa from hell on a Fibonacci-slave-driven chariot (on fire) wielding a bondage whip (on fire, but the idea got rejected) and a sack full of dynamite (also on fire) got accepted, with a bit of compromising, of course.

It'll be awesome if we can pull it off though. We'll see how it turns out tomorrow.

Talked to the juniors again today, and found out the poor things were super homesick. It's funny how we felt as crappy two years ago but feel completely at home now. We know that it sucks to be living in a different country with no family or close friends, going to a new school where you don't know anyone and everything's different. It's a horrible feeling, being alone. That's why we're totally empathetic.

Time, that's what it needs. And a lot of friends and lame jokes.

Long day tomorrow, and I need some shut-eye.

Night.

P.S. Getting more adept at 'Munchkin', which makes us oh so nerdy.

Nerdy board games.

The first boarding assembly is over, and we're back in our rooms knowing nothing can stop school from resuming tomorrow.

Most things are still the same, but it's nice to know that they're making the effort to improve our stay as the years go by. New caterers (which we've had the opportunity to try out during dinnertime) are a definite improvement from previously, and the guys have a never-ending fascination about the fruit juice that actually tastes like fruit juice).

To be honest with you though, we're pretty bummed that our batch won't be able to experience "hostel food" as horrible as we've told them about, and therefore would never be able to comprehend our um, suffering (okay, I exaggerate).

Finished with my unpacking this morning (I have very few belongings, actually). Then went out with Fatinn, Woan Chyi and Nicholas afterwards for lunch out at Clementi. Bought some food and other miscellaneous household items, 'cause after two (or three) years we know what we need to survive.

Played 'Munchkins' with Wee Thean, Insan and two of our new juniors before dinner, and then played some more afterwards with Colin, Adithya and Kelvin replacing the juniors. Fun, but nerdy. And incredibly lame.

So yeah, finally going back to school again (sigh).

Ah, school. Another three-day orientation programme, and more time off from lessons (which is totally encouraged).

Fingers crossed to it being un-lame.

Okay, better go off now. School awaits.

P.S. Is it sad that I'm re-watching all of CollegeHumor's 'Hardly Working' episodes? I think it's sad.

Continuity.

Yeah, we're back here in school, trying hard to get accustomed to the oh-so-much slower internet connection (which, believe me, is a really difficult thing to do).

Being back as it's ups and downs, and while downs are many (such as the table lamps that don't work, and the gates within gate of my new cluster which try to not let you in with biometric systems that simply refuse to detect your fingerprint, and having to heave luggage and boxes up to the eleventh floor), it's definitely got awesome ups.

Met friends again, talked a lot (too much, actually. I think I should cut down on the talking), made super lame jokes, hung out a bit in the TV room with the new juniors (and I think we kind of scared them a bit 'cause we couldn't stop laughing and talking and making lame inside jokes).

Give it a few weeks, and it'll be back to the way things are supposed to be, with regular school routine and all, and not this hectic mess of strewn clothing and boxes and books.

It's funny, 'cause we hardly talk to each other during the holidays, but we can come back here and it's as if we never actually left in the first place.

I'm like, not bothered to unpack at all. It's a horrible process and I don't like it very much. But hopefully, without much procrastination, I'll be able to finish before school starts and we GG.

Okay, it's late, I'm tired, and I've got the internet connection to complain about elsewhere, so adieu.

P.S. Everyone's kind of split up now. Man, that's a bummer.

When a Man Loves a Woman

Listening to 'When a Man Loves a Woman' off YouTube right now, trying to decide which version to download.

Heard it in a restaurant during dinner and haven't been able to get it out of my head ever since. I have to admit, Michael Bolton's voice sounds way, way, sexier than Percy Sledge's, even though Percy Sledge is the original writer.

Good stuff, good stuff.

First day of 2011 today, and there hasn't been much difference. No magical findings, no weird prophecies, no Hogwarts admission letter, nothin'. Oh well.

But yeah, as every year has been since I started schooling, the coming of a new year also represents the coming of a new school year, which means returning to school and like, doing stuff again.

It's been fun to not do stuff for a while, and just laze around and eat and grow fat and gather dust and cobwebs, but it wouldn't be great to lose my purpose in life or anything like that.

The only way we can truly appreciate the holidays is to work hard during the non-holiday period (because I don't know what else to call them. Days are separated into three nowadays: weekdays, weekends, and holidays, where the day of the week doesn't matter). So I have to say I am quite looking forward to going back and settling into school routine again. It'll bring Chinese New Year around faster.

Resolutions, resolutions. Don't really have any for 2011, except maybe to not deteriorate in awesomeness. It's nice to not pressure yourself, but it sucks to become less awesome than you were previously.

But it's not like I'm not ambitious, I totally am, like, ambitious. Yeah, money, I'm totally going to have tonnes of that.

Hasta la vista.

P.S. The prospect of having a new roommate is making me anxious. But what happens, happens.