The Psychologically Impaired

Philanthropy.

2012-02-10T23:41:00.003+08:00

Currently playing this game online, not because I'm slacking or putting of much-needed schoolwork, but because I want to kill two birds with one stone (not literally, of course).

Freerice.com has been around for years. I remember playing it even before I came here, and there was this huge hype about it because the site (set up by the United Nations World Food Programme) donates ten grains of rice for every answer you answer correctly. So yes, while you get to learn things, you also help combat world hunger in your own little way.

Yeah, English today really got to me. Talked about poverty, and it was painful. Goodness, we are all committing the sin of omission. It's like the bystander effect, where witnesses of an incident all think someone else is going to get help or do something, so they just stand by to watch. We are not very proactive people, are we?

But the sin of omission is scarier. We think it's none of our business, so we just go about our own lives thinking of nothing much but ourselves. We think all this other stuff, all these crises and these issues can resolve themselves, or should be left up to "those guys up there". Yeah, we probably wouldn't be able to match the power, wealth and influence of some major organisation, so we just do nothing.

I want to stop doing nothing. Let's all stop doing nothing. I mean, we're not poor people. You who reads this post are not so terribly poor. We are rich because we are born fortunate. We are fed, clothed and educated and loved and cared for. But what if? What if?

I hate me sometimes.

Okay, besides that, Math was good, CCA was great. Talked too much but I don't think I was that boring today. Continuing next week.

Good night.

P.S. I've just realised that school internet connection makes http://www.freerice.com/ completely ineffective 'cause it blocks the ads that pay for the rice we earn.

P.P.S. Where on earth do lost socks go?

Negligence.

2012-02-09T21:47:00.002+08:00

Listening to some Oasis right now, thinking about the past. When I used to sit in the study blasting songs from my iPod on speakers and mindlessly surf the net while not having to worry so much about the amount of work that is due, because work then was easy and didn't need much thinking and school didn't need that much studying for. Those were the days.

Now I sit here in my room with headphones on, listening to the same songs I did, still mindlessly surfing the net, but worrying so much more about work and things. But hey, it's a Friday tomorrow, and I like Fridays, because there's only Math and English to worry about, and because there's CCA and I absolutely adore CCA sessions.

Was watching trailers and planning for tomorrow's session (going to attempt a semi-workshop thing for the newcomers, which I hope will turn out awesome), then Nikki called and asked me to check my mail. And then I sort of exploded (well not literally, but somewhat).

I will never, ever disregard Mr Valles' emails ever again. I checked my mail after I got back from school, and simply skimmed through all the emails and missed out an important thing. Garth Nix is giving a talk in my school. In. My. School. Garth. Nix. Garth freaking Nix.

Oh my God.

Limited places and first come first serve, but oh God I really really need to meet him in person. He wrote the Abhorsen trilogy, just in case you didn't know, along with a few other series I've been wanting to read but never got 'round to. Oh goodness. This is amazing. All those people who write the books you love seem so far off, but the prospect of meeting Garth Nix kind of blew my mind.

I think authors of good books are amazing people. Because they keep inside of them worlds so different, and stories so detailed they seem true. And that they're able to put all these ideas, these characters and entire universes on paper and make us believe in them is just incredible.

Please oh please oh please it would be so awesome if we could meet him (worse comes to worst we'll just hang outside the Media Resource room creepily when he's delivering the lecture).

Chem today was okay. Will be quizzed next Thursday (so doomed), and assignment due Monday. Beautiful.

Physio was fun. Nodded off a bit during the first quarter of the lesson, but then things got a bit better when Mr Seoh started giving out sweets (yeah I'm cheap). But I sit in a corner now so nobody really notices me (which is good because I can nod off in peace). Also was introduced to this ridiculously lame song about neurons, written to the tune of 'I Believe I Can Fly'. Oh goodness, how could they have come up with something like that?

But I don't care what they say about the tedium and the having to know many things. I like Bio.

I like Physics, too, which is pretty crazy since I'm probably going to be the first person in the history of the school to flunk circuitry. Lab was supposed to be a short one this time, since we only had one circuit to connect and there were really few questions, but took up all the time because we're incapable and inexperienced like that. And to think we'd have picked up some things during the previous two practical sessions. Oh well.

But there's something immensely satisfying about having successfully connected a circuit and obtaining all the correct values. It's beautiful, even. It's a beautiful moment when the numbers stop flashing (or fail to show up) and give you something good. It's like what Dr Frankenstein must have felt when his monster came to life.

Anyway, have an in-class assignment and a practice lab next week, which means we get to fail twice (hooray). And in addition to our Chem quiz, we get to fail three times. Brilliant.

Did 6 rounds during PE. Really, really slowly.

Okay, tired and going off now.

Night.

P.S. I am so grateful for the existence of weekends.

Social experimentation.

2012-02-08T20:28:00.003+08:00

Wifi is still available in my room, and for that I am ever thankful. Honestly, if you don't learn to be happy about the little things in life, you'll hardly ever be happy.

I'm so easily satisfied it scares me sometimes.

No, I must want more. Must need more. Must do more.

Anyway, didn't post yesterday because I was so busy procrastinating.

Didn't really do much in the day. Just had an hour and a half of Math and an hour and a half of English, where we talked about ethics.

Ethics. Goodness, where do I start? Ms Dass showed us a clip of that scene in The Dark Knight where Joker traps a bunch of people in two ferries and makes them try to blow each other up in an epic battle of will and morality. Such decisions are hard to make, and we should've have to consider them until we're faced with them, because whatever unless we have nerves of steel (which would, actually, probably conduct signals better and would then be worse for you because you would be more sensitive to pain) and an iron will (what is it with metal and phrases like these), you'd be all words anyway.

We're all hypocrites.

Remember that scene, in Captain America (the recent movie) where Steve Rogers throws himself over a hand grenade so selflessly? That is what real heroes are made of. Just because we say things and claim we believe in certain things doesn't make us good people. But when we start going out of our way to do selfless things without having to think twice, humanity may have hope after all.

Had our Math test today, and I must say I really, really dislike MCQs in Math. Like, goodness, it's either you're wrong or you're right and that's terrible. Let's not talk about it.

Played pool, and lost too many games for my liking. Then went for ACE and we talked about "restoring relationships" and it was just an hour of sharing stories and that was it.

Almost everyone fell asleep during the research congress briefing (it didn't apply to a lot of Year 5s, anyway) so like, skip that.

Kimi's back in F1 and topped the charts during yesterday's practice session, and I am so glad. Sometimes when a driver returns to F1 you don't know what to expect and you worry so much people will diss him and say he deserves to stay away. But I am immensely proud of our Iceman for making such a brilliant comeback. And in a Lotus, too.

Oh, and Schumi topped the charts today, so totally an added bonus. The competitive cars aren't really up there yet, 'cause they're still taking it slow and steady and making teeny adjustments here and there.

Seen the F2012, and it really isn't the prettiest thing on track. In fact, it looks very much like an ugly stepsister. Quite disappointed, but we can't all be terribly superficial. As long as the car's in competitive form this season, who are we to complain? Alonso's a brilliant driver and so is Massa (except when he turns temperamental South American). I have faith in them.

So, so excited for the coming F1 season. I think F1 gives me a sort of purpose in life, every weekend. I still adore it.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Is it sad that I'm already dreading PE tomorrow? I'm a horrible person.

Procrastination.

2012-02-06T17:43:00.003+08:00

Just finished Math assignment 2, since it's due tomorrow. Got it six days ago and finished 4/5 questions on the day itself since it wasn't hard at all (given it's a Math assignments and they used to do that thing to me where I'd feel stupid for a while). But I'm so addicted to doing things last minute I left the last question out for fun. Yay.

Oh, talk about self-esteem boost. I don't feel so stupid with this Math module. Hooray.

Sunday yesterday, but didn't post because I was almost dying of a terrible stomachache. It's like my entire digestive system was trying to turn itself inside out (thankfully it didn't though). I don't want to talk about disgusting things, but man, I hope that never happens again. Wasted so much bloody time on the toilet.

Super thankful I'm feeling so much better today. Lasted through class, then was dying because I was so hungry yet didn't dare eat anything in case of a relapse. Ugh.

Anyway, played pool yesterday with KT, Adithya and Kelvin, then went out for lunch at Thai Express (like, again). It's turning into a routine. I love lazy Sundays.

I honestly need to go and read up on Chem, because sometimes I honestly have no idea what Mrs Chong is talking about. I'm a terrible student, I know. Been procrastinating like, well, a procrastinator.

Mol gen followed Chem, so then we spent the half hour break in between re-memorising that table we have. These quizzes are getting more and more ridiculous. It's just pure memory. This stuff will probably come in handy during exams or something, but for now it's become routine for us to memorise things week after week.

Korean teacher is kinda growing on us. I mean, we used to complain, but now it's fine. At least for me, that is. Sometimes I think I like mol gen better than physio.

Assembly-ed afterwards. Managed to wake up in time and head down to the hall to catch our first 'Aesthetic Appreciation Programme' thing of the school year. String quartet was amazing. I swear, biceps look good when you play the violin. It's because you inevitably have to like, flex in order to bow.

Awesome stuff.

All right, going off now.

Good night.

P.S. Is it shameful to say that I don't dare continue with 'The Hounds of Baskerville' because it scares me? I'm ashamed. I don't deserve to watch Sherlock.

P.P.S. Everyone's like, "Oh, CNY's over," but for us here it ended right when we left home. So don't go and say it was too short if you've had the full fifteen days. Tsk.

Chronicle.

2012-02-04T22:56:00.003+08:00

Feeling quite sick right now, because I am back from seeing the most nauseating film I've ever seen. Probably worsened by the fact that we were sitting in the front row and had to crane our necks in addition to having the screen shoved crudely in our faces. Ugh.

Spent most of my day in my room (woke up at like, eleven) and watched random videos around the net and read a few issues of Ultimate Spiderman and then watched a few minutes of Sherlock before Adithya texted and asked if anyone wanted to go out to watch 'The Descendants'.

So then we set out with Wee Thean, and then ended up watching 'Chronicle' instead, because we got to Vivo late and missed the first fifteen minutes of the other movie.

I don't really know what to say about it. I'm sure if I wasn't so bent on willing the headache and dizziness away, I'd have appreciated the concept of using character-filmed footage and the inner turmoil and the eventual evil and slight disturbing-ness. Was pretty interesting, actually, but bad idea for people who suffer from motion-sickness. I imagine editing the movie must've been hell.

Maybe it's just us, but the shaking and the spinning totally ruined the movie experience. Oh Lord. Perhaps it was part and parcel, but no. Never again. Next time I'll take motion-sickness pills with me to the theatre.

School yesterday was quite ordinary. Talked about opinions and perspectives during English. Ms Dass is so brutally blunt. Then had Math (which I adore, because it's so slack and lovely and held in an air-conditioned classroom).

Was released early, so finished our Physics pracs before going off for lunch. Pool-ed for a while, then went to meet up with Ash to discuss things. Haven't seen him since our CCA fair last month. Goodness, I still kind of miss the Year 6s in Media last year.

Anyway, Ash did some amazing animating and stuff over the past month, so then we sat for an hour or so and bounced ideas to and fro. I feel really bad because I know nothing of many things and am hence unable to help. Will find some way to get my hands on After Effects though.

Had pizza first thing during CCA, which made us probably the first CCA in history to have our welcome party dinner before the session actually began.

Faced a few technical difficulties, but then we totally solved it by moving into the 502 classroom and screened our short films there. Pin and Jia Min had pretty awesome videos, then I had to spoil all the art and loveliness by showing them incredibly lame ones. Whoops.

Discussed, but then not really discussed. The real work starts next week. I have pretty much the whole term planned out, so if things go smoothly it'll be a great and productive term.

Okay, I'm going off now. Need to somehow get rid of the nausea.

Night.

P.S. This totally made my night last night. Awesomest thing I've seen in a while. Go Disney nostalgia.

P.P.S. When you realise those movies from your childhood were released an odd twenty/thirty years ago, you suddenly realise that you are old. Oh no.

Captain's ball.

2012-02-02T23:59:00.002+08:00

Just ended the intercluster captain's ball game, and 3A managed to clinch second and third place with our two teams (so proud of us, even though I didn't play because I'm terrible).

Congratulations to 2B and 12A for winning girl's and guy's divisions respectively. Awesome stuff, really.

It's funny how enthusiastic everyone was about the game. Usually I don't give a damn at all about intercluster games, because I'm awful at sports (ball games, really) and because I'm usually not that close with anyone in my cluster. But this year I think, things could be really different. I'm sure my cluster would want to win overall. Competitive folk.

Anyway, good games. Totally worth it. Now I have to finish up two Physics practicals due tomorrow and it's already late because I procrastinate so much.

Thursday today (besides the obvious), so like, had all three Sciences and PE afterwards.

Hour of Chem was tolerable, but it doesn't help that Nat keeps falling asleep (sitting next to him now because of new seating arrangement). Quite glad I wasn't as clueless as I thought I'd be. Will definitely work on it before next lesson, though, lest I die.

Physio quiz-ed, which was quite manageable. I like to keep my expectations low so I don't feel that bad when I get my results back, so it should be quite okay this time. I'm just quite disappointed at myself because I labelled 'synaptic terminals' wrongly. Please oh please let my understanding of the concepts be correct. Oh well. Sometimes I feel like I'm not worthy of calling myself a Bio student.

Had another practical during Physics. I really do enjoy Physics pracs, I do. Spent an hour and a half talking about complete rubbish things with Brendan, Galen and Jia Hong (because we shared a table) while trying to connect circuits in vain. Here's a picture. It looks like a huge mess, but it worked because I am the miracle-worker I am. Sometimes you honestly don't know what's wrong; you stare and reconnect and stare and reconnect but it still doesn't work and it's horribly frustrating. But apart from that, circuitry is really quite enjoyable once you get it right.

Rained, so had PE in the hall. Ran non-stop (albeit slowly) for twelve minutes. Paced myself with Aisyah. Thank goodness for her. It's easier to run pacing with someone. Still pretty doomed for 2.4 though. I have no love for running.

Okay, tired.

Going off now.

Night.

P.S. Hooray, wifi's still here and the weekend draws near.

Insecure.

2012-02-01T15:58:00.002+08:00

Been wanting to post since I got back from school today, because- wait for it- there is now wifi connection in my room.

Oh goodness.

Woke up this morning and switched on my laptop (because I'm such an Internet addict it's what gives me my kick early in the morning. Some people use caffeine, but the Internet is the way to go for me) and suddenly, poof, the prompt appeared asking me to log into school wifi because I didn't turn it off from last night.

So, so happy. How could I not? This means no more sitting in the pantry to type out posts and use the Twitter site amongst other things. This is amazing. I can sit here in the comfort of my own room and like, do things. Feels good.

Had our Math GCT today. Wasn't too shabby, thankfully. It's just going to make us complacent and now we're all doomed for exams because we think everything will be as easy as what they've given us so far. Quite scary. The Math department is probably secretly evil and plotting our downfall as I speak.

Did Tutorial 2, then got released. Went with Aisyah to the Games room (like, again. We seem to be doing this every Wednesday now) and played pool. Really badly (for me, at least. So shameful).

ACE was all about respect, but we didn't really talk much about it and instead finished watching Dead Poets Society and then changed our seating arrangement (because the plan is to do it every month) with that random name picker Mrs Lim showed us (one of the most useful things us Geog students have learnt in two years). I sit in a corner at the back now, where no teacher can see me (which is bad, because then I might really fall asleep now).

Then stayed back for a while to do up our class noticeboard (and now it looks quite awesome). Haven't finished yet, but I bet we're the only class ever to rip up English essay presentation paragraphs and use the scraps in a collage. Yeah go us.

Class pride has always been there, but sometimes I still find myself missing 405 and all our teachers and the old classes we used to take. But oh well, we move on. Hardly spend time with a lot of people anyway, because we split into honours/majors during Math, olympiad/no olympiad during Chem, NS group/non-NS group during PE, and more than a quarter of the class leaves during Bio while a lot of us don't take Mother Tongue lessons anymore. The only classes we actually have as a class are Physics and English.

Went out for lunch at the Subway in WCP (at half past two in the afternoon) with Wai Yin and Nicole. Came back, slept, then had dinner, an amazingly short boarding assembly (only half an hour, which is a record, I swear) and that pretty much summed up my night.

Okay, going off now.

Physio quiz tomorrow.

Night.

P.S. I've only read two books this month. Better than any other school month as of late, but still.

P.P.S. Oh goodness I love Sherlock. The geniuses at BBC need a pat on the back.

Yusheng.

2012-01-31T22:40:00.002+08:00

Listening to MCR right now, because that's how I roll with my favourite band of all time.

Was going to post on Sunday, but then there were definitely issues with the lack of wi-fi in my room, and I wasn't really bothered to come out all the way to the pantry to post, so no-go. Nothing much happened, anyway. Went down to play pool around noon-time, then had lunch with KT, Kelvin and Adithya at Thai Express at three in the afternoon. Did a bit of work, then napped a bit, then like, watched two episodes of The Big Bang Theory and an episode of Glee.

TBBT is still as funny as I remember. It's got a consistency as good as How I Met Your Mother's. And I love that Raj kind of started a relationship with his iPhone Siri, which is hilarious. Maybe one day they'll create sentient AI that would be the perfect boyfriend. (If not AI, the perfect boyfriend would be one who would be able to do this with me.)

And Glee was just plain disappointing. Maybe this guy can sum it up for me.

SLI on Monday, so after class we had to head to the hall to watch Student Leaders be Invested. Or something along those lines. Yes, I respect the student leaders in our school, and I strongly encourage the recognition of the SLs' efforts. We will strive to do what we can for our school and the younger kids who'll always see us as their presidents, captains, or chairmen.

Gave a short briefing during our CCA slot after SLI. Feeling pretty chuffed because out of the thirteen newcomers, six voluntarily joined the video side. I am so proud. You know that feeling you get when you just know the rest of the year will be amazing? Yeah, I had that right then. I love Media.

Then had our first cluster birthday celebration of the year. Had an amount of food which was good, and did some talking (I also realise I will never understand girls).

Had two classes today. Math (longest of the week, which was two hours) wasn't bad because time passed quite okay-ly and we ended fifteen minutes early. Finally finished chapter 2. Then English was plain demoralising of my lack of brain function and inferior intellect and inability to form coherent sentences on paper.

Lunched after class, then went to the Games room and like, played pool/watched people play pool for most of my afternoon. Then napped again (I seem to be taking a lot of these, because I sleep late, wake up early, then come back to catch up on lost rest) before watching half an episode of Sherlock. Oh good, good stuff, that. Irene Adler in the series isn't as hot as the one in the movies with Robert Downey Jr (and she didn't have that American-ised accent, either), but she was pretty good as it was.

I don't like that she (SPOILER) dies though, because I like the idea that Sherlock has feelings for someone other than Watson.

Had some yusheng thing afterwards (I'm not Chinese enough to be familiar with this, and it's messy and tasted quite bad) with the other Year 5s during dinner. Messy, messy, messy.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. The more I watch Martin Freeman in Sherlock, the more I want to see him portray Bilbo. It's going to be so good.

Looking For Alaska.

2012-01-28T20:41:00.002+08:00

Updating my blog link list, because a lot of people have stopped blogging or created new links since I linked them. Tsk, inconsistencies.

Or perhaps it's me. Haven't changed my URL since I started, which was back in November '07. That's crazy, isn't it? I don't see myself blogging ten years into the future, about getting a job or what my kids are like, but I don't see a reason for me to stop, either. Maybe the hype will just gradually die down, and I'll no longer find talking about each and every day useful, either.

But I like it as it is now, because I can't stand when days go by unappreciated and unreflected upon.

So like, woke up quite late today. Past noon. Just kept waking up and then realising my ass was still too heavy to be hauled out of bed.

Hung around the Internet a while afterwards, then started on 'Looking For Alaska' by John Green, because Jon Koo and Leyi told me to read it (so Leyi emailed me the PDF). Honestly, I hadn't finished a book (of significant length) in one sitting in almost a forever. Didn't even get up to pee or anything like that. I just sat there and stared at my laptop screen for four and a half hours. So engrossing.

When I started, I honestly thought Miles Halter was female. I mean, what dude is this chatty from a first person perspective? But then it was so good. Oh yes, so good. If I had read from a physical copy of the book, I'd say it was unputdownable, but I didn't really have to hold anything, so I can't say that. Couldn't stop scrolling and couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen, definitely. It started off fast and ended fast and there was never a boring lull where the author describes some fancy scenery or many feelings in a terribly longwinded and repetitive manner. Every part keeps you wanting more.

And it was such a sad book, too. I like these books because they make you think. And 'Looking For Alaska' made me think. About finding my "Great Perhaps", too. Or am I already there? On my way to a less boring life? It feels so real, because I left home for school too. No smoking or alcohol though, and without reckless prank-pulling, but daring enough for me.

It was also about forgiving and forgetting and what happens to memories when people die and how to deal with feeling them slip away. Deep. So deep. And good. So good.

And that's pretty much all I did today. Read a book online, blog, look up random things, and avoid schoolwork.

Go me.

Good night.

Questions again.

2012-01-27T23:47:00.002+08:00

Continuing random question answering.

91-Say 2 facts about your favorite things:

No.

106-Would you ever smile at a stranger?

Why not? I smile at strangers all the time. They think I'm creepy.

107-Do you prefer to be friends with girls or boys?

Does not matter.

108-Who is someone you never tire of?

Aragorn son of Arathorn.

109-Do you have someone you can be your complete self around?

Myself.

110-Who is your most loyal friend?

Myself.

111-Is there anyone you can tell EVERYTHING to?

No. Nobody can talk about everything.

112-If your best friend died, what would you do?

Be sad.

113-Something you’ve lied about.

My whole life is a lie.

114-Have you ever felt replaced?

No.

115-Say 5 facts about your bestfriend(s):
No.

116-The last person you hugged?'

My parents.

117-Story of your first kiss?

When I was born and my mum thought I was the loveliest baby.

118-Do you like kissing in public?

What?

119-Have you ever kissed someone older than you?

My parents? My grandmother?

120-You have a preference for boys or girls?

No. The person you are inside can hardly be decided solely by gender.

121-Is the male or female body closest to perfection?

Also, not decided by gender.

127-What is the first thing you noticed in someone?

Hair. Also the sound of their voice.

128-Are looks important in a relationship?

Yes. Oh definitely. Of course. How not.

129-What’s the most superficial characteristic you look for?

Depends.

130-What’s your opinion on age differences in relationships?

Does not matter. Unless you're Doug Hutchison and Courtney "My-Boobs-Are-Rill" Stodden.

131-Would you ever date someone off of the Internet?

No, we would date in a nice place in the real world, thank you very much.

Hmm why are so many questions missing?

164-Do you ever want to get married?

Yes.

165-Do you think you’ll be married in 5 years?

No.

167-Do you get jealous easily?

No.

168-The last time you felt jealous, and why?

No.

169-What is your definition of cheating?

When you do something you're not supposed to do that makes life easier but is totally against protocol and makes others unhappy.

170-Have you ever been cheated on?

No.

171-Do you forgive betrayal?

When the time comes when someone betrays me, I hope so. Or maybe not. That would be so much cooler, actually. I'd like, turn into someone like Ezio Auditore and carry out vengeance in style (and an awesome hoodie).

172-Have you ever cheated on someone?

No.

173-Why did your last relationship fail?

Because it didn't exist.

174-Things you want to say to an ex:

Nothing.

175-A description of the person you dislike the most:

Nobody.

176-If your first true love knocked on your door with apology and presents, would you accept?

No. I would seek a therapist because I would be seeing things.

177-How many boyfriends/girlfriends have you had?

None.

178-How long was your longest relationship?

Never.

180-Share a relationship story:

Current is inversely proportional to resistance.

181-How often do you listen to music?

Many many.

182-What kind of music you like?

Good music. Duhh.

183-Do you like to dance?

No.

185-Have you heard a song that reminds you of someone today?

Every song reminds me of everything.

186-Share a song that takes you to a certain memory in the past:

The Pokémon first season introduction theme reminds me of Pokémon.

187-A song that’s been stuck in your head:

A bit of James Morrison lately.

188-Put your music player on shuffle and write the first ten songs that play:

Speed of Sound - Coldplay

New Born - Muse

I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab for Cutie (but sung by Kurt Schneider in this version)

Smooth - Santana featuring Rob Thomas

Galvanize - Chemical Brothers

In The City - Eagles

Angels - Robbie Williams

Moonlight Sonata - Beethoven (but not played by him, obviously)

Buck Rogers - Feeder

A Loaded Smile - Adam Lambert

Untitled - Simple Plan

189-A book you want to read/have recently read:

Recently read 'Looking For Alaska' by John Green.

190-Describe your dream library:

Cosy, but with wall-to-wall shelves. Windows to let plenty of light in, but not so that it damages the books. Lamps and comfy armchairs and end tables here and there, and a few potted plants. The smell of book and new building. Digitalised catalogue, but with handwritten physical copy as well. And of course, many books.

191-Last movie you just watched:

My Girl.

192-Do you like watching what type of movies?

Question phrasing wrong. I enjoy anything that doesn't suck and has quality actors.

193-You’re in a tattoo parlor about to get inked. What are you getting done?

A tattoo of an eye on my left ankle.

194-What’s something you can see yourself going to jail for?

Being offensive.

195-If you could be any character, from any literary work, who would you choose to be?

Arwen. Because she marries Aragorn and she's an elven princess. And she marries Aragorn.

196-You’re given $10,000…under one condition: you cannot keep the money for yourself. Who would you give it to?

People who supply food and clothes and aid, and then give those things to people who need them.

197-If you had to go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?

Nothing.

198-If you were an element on the Periodic Table, which would you be and why?

An undiscovered one.

199-If you had to delete one year of your life completely, which would it be?

None, goodness me.

200-You’re an Action Movie Hero. What’s your weapon of choice and the line you scream when defeating your arch enemy?

Bow and arrow (short swords or Wolverine-style claws if not) and I'll scream, "Come get me, b*tches."

201-If you could design an amusement park ride, what would it be like?

The most awesome ever. Will provide details when I turn multi-millionaire and actually get to build one for the masses.

202-What is the first curse word that comes to mind?

203-What the last party you went to was… and when the next will be…

Last party? Next? No idea.

204-Halloween costume idea?

Average person. Man those things scare me.

205-How you’d spend ten thousand bucks?

Refer to question 196.

206-Press ctrl+v and post:

207-Would you rather be stranded on a desert island with someone you love for ten years or someone you hate for a month? Explain why.

Someone I hate. Because then I won't feel so lonely when we part.

208-5 things within touching distance:

Laptop phone biscuits wallet CCA name list of new recruits.

209-A drunken story:

Aijdenfaflshj clajf[uanrfu clawfn[aufnsc uh5fuam csdop acnjkdnh xna,bnc,mnb eudajn cannot type while drunk asduhajneccn

210-What are you supposed to be doing right now?

Work.

211-Currently wanting to see anyone?

Not really.

212-Why you follow me?

I don't.

213-If you met me what would you do?

I wouldn't know you.

214-Leave me a ridiculous question:

No.

215-Leave me a cute message:

Who are you?

Pool.

2012-01-27T23:22:00.002+08:00

It seems like I'm going to start every single post by saying "In the pantry right now", so just assume for the duration of the school term that I have to step outside every time I need to post anything or use the real Twitter website or check up on QC updates.

Wednesday, had only an hour of class, which was Math. Then spent the three hours of break we had playing pool in the Games room and The Village in the TV room before going back to school for ACE. Continued watching 'Dead Poets Society', which is honestly astoundingly good, and I now understand the obsession some people have with it. I don't think it really teaches us anything about integrity, but we all enjoy a good movie. Especially when familiar actors are in it.

Thursday, had three Sciences back-to-back followed by PE. Chem was all right. Finished off Assignment 1 in class with the help of Jia Hong, while Mrs Chong talked about alkenes and stuff. Animal Physio was just, well, just. No new lecture notes, but sort of spent two hours recapping the previous lecture. I do understand, but sometimes I find myself a bit perplexed and falling asleep. It's funny how I feel less sleepy during Physics. It's perhaps 90% common sense right now, and I think it's quite fun (what has become of me). Mm circuits.

Paced with Aisyah during PE. Clocked 13:56 for five rounds, which is completely atrocious compared to everyone else (here which refers to the horribly fit girls in our PE group). Need to go running more often, yes. So unfit it's disgusting. I don't know how I've let myself go like this. Reading these posts and remembering the old training days, where I struggled to reach over 50 kg (here). Goodness me.

Almost finished watching 'Dead Poets Society' today during mentoring, but got cut off because Ms Dass wanted to carry on with our English lesson (which I will, again, stress that I will fail this module). Brain froze so badly.

Half an hour break, then had Math (which we now shall start referring to as "SPM", or "Stupid People Math", because we're not Honours students). Thankfully understood things. I'm so grateful for the slower pace, because it gives my poor intellectually impaired brain time to think and absorb information.

Class ended after Math, so went with Aisyah to the Games room to play some pool. We seem to play pool a lot nowadays (well we used to, but ever since the other Year 5s moved in, we've been playing a lot more). Yeah, I quite enjoy pool sessions, because you can simply pop in and join a game, and somehow there are always people there to play with.

CCA was awesome, as usual. Met up with Pin and Jia Min beforehand to discuss things, then went to the hall to fetch new juniors. Eight Year 1s this year, which means double last year's number. So, so elated. We were all like high-fiving each other in the hall, and now everyone knows we are the weirdest CCA.

Didn't have food today because Wei Ren was at SLI rehearsals (along with a few others, and the Year 4s who had SMP), so broke some ice with whacko and charades and basic introductions. Going to hold a briefing on Monday though.

Went out for Rocky's afterwards with Wee Thean, Kelvin, Adithya, KT, Wai Yin and Woan Chyi. Mm food.

Came back and then played even more pool. Goodness, need to develop better skills. I'm sick of depending on luck.

All right, so that's it for the endeavours of the week.

Night.

Questions.

2012-01-24T23:59:00.002+08:00

Copied this off Pin's blog to make up for all the non-posts I've made so far this year.

1-How are you?
Content.

2-Post a picture of yourself.
No.

3-Do you ever wish you were someone else?
Yes, but only that I was Arwen because she gets Aragorn.

4-What is your entire name?
Ya Wen Lim. No secrets there.

5-How old are you?
Yeah.

6-Age you get mistaken for:
Okay.

7-Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality:
Scorpio, and does not apply. I am who I am. The stars cannot dictate that.

8-What did you do on your last birthday?
Stayed in my room and worked on that Deeparaya vid, and then went out for karaoke with the Bruneians.

9-What is one thing you would like to accomplish before your next birthday?
Maintain my lovely, youthful demeanour.

10-What is your hair color?
Asian dark brown.

11-Have you ever dyed your hair?
No.

12-What is your eye color?
Once again, Asian dark brown.

13-If you could change your eye color, would you?
Yes.

14-Do you wear contacts/glasses?
Glasses. They make me look smarter than I actually am.

18-Do you have any tattoos?
In the future.

19-Do you have any piercings?
My ear-pierced days ended with an infection that set in last June. I miss them sometimes. I see people with cartilage piercings and I'm like, heck, I could've had three but now I have none. That's sad. Maybe one day I'll go and get my ear re-pierced, but that day won't come soon because I still remember the pain and the shame of failure.

20-Left or right handed?
Right.

21-What’s your sexual orientation?
Men.

22-Do you drink?
As the wise saying goes, "One who does not drink stays dehydrated."

23-Do you smoke?
No, but I guess if you set me on fire I would.

24-Do you have any pets?
Pet peeves.

25-Where do you work?
Everywhere.

26-Something you are working on right now:
Things.

27-Do you have any “rules” about food?
Save the good stuff for last.

28-Where are you from?
Where is everybody from? Why are we here?

29-What would you say is your best quality?
My self-deprecatory humour.

30-What do you think you’re really good at?
Nothing. Either that, or bumping into things unnecessarily.

31-What do you think you’re really bad at?
Feelings. People. Life.

33-Are you a bad person?
I try.

34-Are you nice to everyone?
Too nice. People tell me to stop being so nice.

36-Has someone ever spread a nasty rumor about you?
No rumours are nasty because they're like funny little stories people are stupid enough to believe.

37-What is your ideal bed? Why?
Mine. Because I grew up with the ideal.

38-Did you wake up cranky?
Never.

39-Do you sleep with a stuffed toy?
Yes.

40-What do you think about the most?
Death, dying, what work I need completing.

42-What you want to be when you “get older”?
Older. See? Accomplished.

43-What are your career goals?
To never regret my career path.

44-What is your ideal career?
Sometimes I dream of being an accomplished movie director; up there with all the stars and getting to order them around in order to create my art. Sometimes I look at buildings and wish I could be an architect because I find design and construction undervalued although it's really very brilliant. Sometimes I want to be a writer or musician or that random person who wins the lottery and becomes a millionaire. It changes from time to time.

45-Is your life anything like it was two years ago?
Of course not.

46-Do you replay things that have happened in your head?
Yes. I'm like a little video camera that records everything for playback later in case I've missed something.

47-Have you ever had an imaginary friend?
Hah.

48-Say 10 facts about your room:
Shared. With. Grandmother. And. I. Love. Every. Inch. Of. It.

49-Do you have any phobias?
Why would I tell you?

50-Have you ever been to a psychiatrist/therapist?
I wish.

51-Are you allergic to anything? If so, what?
Prawns and pressure.

52-Ever broken any bones?
No.

53-Ever come close to death?
I'm still alive, so no.

60-Do you have a facebook? If so, would you add the person who sent you this?
No, Mark Zuckerberg owns Facebook, not me.

61-Do you have any pictures on your Facebook?
I told you, not mine.

62-Describe yourself in one word/sentence:
I think, therefore I am.

63-A quote you try to live by:
"Arr."

64-A famous person you’ve been compared to:
Myself. Since everyone I know knows me, I must be incredibly famous.

65-Weird things you do when you’re alone:
I tell myself things, and sing songs.

66-Something you do without realizing:
Nothing.

68-Someone you’d like to be for a day and why:
Some bank robber, or something. Then I could commit some crime and risk getting arrested, but by the next day I wouldn't be the poor bugger anymore. Sounds good.

69-Leave me a compliment:
Who?

70-What is your favorite thing to do?
Be me.

71-What’s your favorite color?
What are colours.

73-What’s your favorite movie?
Movies, you mean. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and then hopefully The Hobbit, too.

74-What are your favorite books?
Hah. Hah. Hah. I can't name them because I wouldn't be doing them justice.

75-What is your favorite quote and why?
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/36746.Lemony_Snicket

76-What is your favorite word?

77-What is your least favorite word?
Nothing comes to mind at the moment.

78-What is your favorite type of food?
Non-hostel and edible.

79-You favorite ice cream?
It's not so much the taste, or flavour, or texture, but the atmosphere. There was this time we went to this place in Holland and bought the best ice cream at this little shop and sat outside in the cold summer sun munching on the crispy, flavourful cone and it was one of the best moments I've ever had in my life.

80-What’s your favorite animal?
As books, I won't do them justice either.

81-Dogs or cats?
Neither, really. I'd keep a cat, but dogs are ridiculously loveable.

82-Describe your favourite texture:
The smooth, cold side of a pillow. And something else I can't quite recall at the moment.

83-What is your favorite flower?
None.

84-What’s your favourite scent? And on the opposite sex?
I love the smell of freshly baked bread. On the opposite sex? Hard to describe.

85-What is your favorite season?
Winter.

86-What are the top five places you wish you could go before you die?
It doesn't matter where you go, it's who you go with. I was in Tokyo alone 'cause my dad had work, and the sites were great and all, but it wasn't the amazing experience I had hoped to have, because it wasn't shared.

87-What are four things you can’t live without and why?
My functional body, and my consciousness, and people to talk to, and the Internet.

88-Which mythological creature are you most like? Why?
None. I am a mythological creature.

89-What’s your favorite television show?
That old BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, I think.

90-Favorite place to shop at?
None. I am no shopper.

Okay, will continue next time.

Adieu.

The Devil's Arithmetic.

2012-01-24T22:42:00.002+08:00

Ten minutes before lights out, and I'm still in the pantry tapping on my newfound love, 'Pantry wi-fi'. I love pantry wi-fi.

Arrived around two hours ago, managed to get a taxi and stuff and make it back in time to iron my uniform for tomorrow and unpack and stuff.

Haven't posted in such a while because I've been quite occupied with not doing anything except reading Ultimate Spiderman and watching trailers of movies I would love to watch and watching Sherlock and other television shows that are probably a complete waste of my time.

Chinese New Year this year has been amazing, because I didn't fall miserably sick (unlike last year) and because there were hardly any awkward questions asked this year. Wish I could've had a chance to write about it in greater detail, but I didn't have time to write about my past week as each day passed, so details are a bit blur.

Flight back on Friday after school CNY celebrations, which meant only an hour and a half of English (the module which I'm going to be failing this year) that day followed by celebrations and slacking and stuff.

Reached home late, slept, woke up, went on errands (collecting CNY cakes and biscuits and then delivering them as gifts to relatives and things like that), came back, watched an episode of Sherlock with my mum and brother, slept, woke up, went on more errands, had awesome CNY eve dinner (really, really awesome because my grandmother is an amazing cook), slept, and then open house-d and CNY commenced for real.

I love CNY because it gives us all a reason to come together and eat and have fun and visit each other and tell jokes and laugh loudly without a care in the world. Beautiful concept.

And I did not go hungry at all.

Also managed to cram in some reading. 'The Devil's Arithmetic' by Jane Yolen. Honestly really moving. You read about all these things that happened during the wars (and I've read only a handful of these books and seen a handful of these movies) but you'll never be able to imagine the sheer horror of having to live in those times. So what do we do? Do we remember and admire the painful times the older generations have had to endure, or do we cast aside and forget all the terribleness? I think it's better to keep in mind horrors of the past, because things that happen deserve to be remembered, because they cannot afford to happen again.

Okay, long post, need to shower now.

Night.

P.S. Brunei's population is so small, almost everybody knows everybody else second degree. It's crazy.

Racist werewolves.

2012-01-17T20:15:00.000+08:00

Bit of a break before study time actually starts. Have a Spiderman versus Doc Ock sketch I want to finish, but I'm not bothered at the moment, because I'm having one of those moments when you wake up, glance at last night's work and realise everything went wrong and you really can't draw.

It's quite hard getting used to the new roll call timings, but it's not as bad as I thought it'd be so far. Haven't missed anything yet, thankfully, but after three years it's been hardwired into my brain to roll call at 8 pm and 10.30 pm on regular school days, and at 11 pm on weekends. That's just the way we've adapted to life here. And now everything's all harum-scarum because there used to be time after study time to do things we had to (such as laundry, and now the gate to 7B is locked after 9 pm, which really sucks even though they promised us access until late).

Listening to 'We're In This Together' by Nine Inch Nails, because I heard it in the Avengers' movie trailer and I couldn't take my mind off it. It's quite awesome, really. Makes you want to develop mutant powers/build an awesome suit of armour/throw yourself off buildings recklessly because you can fly.

I think the closest I'll ever get to superhero status is being able to fit in their costumes and look good (and being a good person with moral values, of course). I mean, have you seen female superheroes? Tight, skimpy clothing, enlarged chest areas and tiny waists. It's probably because since many of the people who read these things hardly have a social life and hence probably no girlfriend, so it acts as compensation. I don't know, but that's what I think.

Besides, hot chicks = greater sales.

Only two classes today (not counting Medicinal Chem, because it's an elective and I totally crashed it since I'm probably last on the waiting list and today'll be the only time I'll be allowed to do that).

Had Math first thing in the morning after mentoring (with our really cool mentor), and I realise I really do miss Mr Chia. Two years of Math with him, and sometimes you kinda miss it when it hits you and you realise your teacher isn't Mr Chia. I'm going to have some hard time with my working presentation, I think.

It's fun though, because our assignment is due a week after the Math honours' class's assignment. Yeah, smart people, but at least we're taking it easy and at a sweet, leisurely pace.

Had English afterwards. Essay writing skills and I'm scared. I don't know how I'll be able to keep up with expectations, given I now have the vocabulary of a three-year old non-native English speaker and I know about as much world politics as a tree stump.

Spent time after that in the TV room playing this game called 'Werewolves of Millers Hollow: The Village'. Quite fun.

Okay, almost study time now. Better go and be productive.

Adieu.

P.S. Braiiinnns. I need braaaiiinnnssss.

Ben.

2012-01-16T23:19:00.002+08:00

I've seem to have lost the ability to post, really, which is quite a shame, considering how long I've been doing this.

Once again, I'm here by the door so I can get some peace from the LAN-ness. It's not much, but at least the wi-fi connection here is strong enough to get me by.

Been sleeping quite a lot lately, which I think is a complete waste of time. The strange thing about sleep is that it's quite addictive once you've experienced the sensation of getting enough sleep. Tsk tsk.

Went out with Wai Yin on Saturday, where we went to this place called Turf City and met up with Clara to go trail riding. I think I've found a Singaporean equivalent of the Polo club (or at least, the Empire area, where all the white people/well-off foreigners go).

So like, pretty cool experience, even though I was all sore yesterday from being on horseback after like, a forever. Awesome instructor, too, 'cause Clara got this sort of whiney guy and Wai Yin got this dude who could only speak Chinese. And the horse I rode was such a sweetie, 'cause he came up to nuzzle me (or use me as a towel, I'm unsure) after the hour was up.

The Internet connection right now is quite pathetic, and it's gotten really humid lately. Really sucks.

Spent all day yesterday just moping around in my room, reading Spiderman and wasting time on the Internet trying to pick up world events (and then getting distracted by useless pieces of news such as how to stack salad) and also stalking people on Facebook (because I like to see how great other people's lives are and then give myself a reason to be bitter and lonely).

Also watched an episode of Sherlock (because everyone seem to be watching it, and because Fatehah told me to ages ago and I promised). So, so good. Some scenes were so reminiscent of the original stories I found myself grinning like an idiot and wanting to cling to whoever wrote the script and cry like a baby. Yeah, mixed emotions.

I think the series has brought Sherlock Holmes into life again, and yes, he'd totally be that way if he were real and alive today. In short, I loved it.

And I'm even more keen on seeing Martin Freeman as Bilbo now (as if I wasn't ridiculously keen before) 'cause it's cool to see a familiar face. Goodness, the Hobbit.

School today was ordinary. Had Chem with Dr Li, and then Mol Gen with our Korean exchange teacher, both lessons in which I felt less stupid than during the last because somehow my intelligence grew over the weekend. God knows.

Interesting topics.

And that was it for the day because Year 5 is amazingly slack and I quite enjoy it.

All right, I'm going off now. Both wi-fi and weather failing me.

P.S. CNY in less than a week. Goodness, time flies.

Diagnostic criteria for internet addiction.

2012-01-14T00:42:00.002+08:00

Found this on BBC news, browsing around for some bits of strange news.

Do you feel preoccupied with the internet?

Yes, yes I do. Always, constantly, the Internet is the very essence of my soul.

Do you feel the need to use the internet with increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction?

Yes, but sometimes no. When I can sneak a glance at Twitter, I do, but sometimes when I stop using the Internet I don't for many days, like a hermit escaping the world.

Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop internet use?

Yes.

Do you feel restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop internet use?

Yes, but only when dealing with hostel Internet limitations. When I'm at home, I'm completely fine.

Do you stay online longer than intended?

Definitely yes.

Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the internet?

Thankfully no, not yet.

Have you lied to family members, a therapist or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the internet?

Also no, not yet.

Do you use the internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a distressed mood (eg feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety and depression)?

Sometimes, but then again it makes me even more depressed when I read news about terrible people doing terrible things.

Participants answering yes to questions 1 to 5 and at least one more answer were classed as suffering from Internet Addiction Disorder.

Source: Young's Diagnostic Questionnaire for Internet Addiction adapted by Beard and Wolf.

In short, I am an addict.

Like, please, first thing I did when I found out about Internet addiction was to post it on my blog, Tweet about it, and then almost post about it on Facebook. Help.

The thirteenth.

2012-01-13T22:21:00.002+08:00

It's official. I love being in the pantry for wifi. It's not as private as being in my room or anything like that, but it gets me good, strong wifi connection and that's what I need most at times.

How sad is it that my mood lightens when I see that Twitter interface? Man, I need to seek professional help.

Also, I can't post on LAN Internet connection either, so like, I have to find some wifi to get my posts online.

I need my social networking. I swear it. It's quite sad, really, but I like to come back and get online. Twitter, Facebook. I think I need it to feel alive again. Call it addiction, but that's how I get on with life sometimes.

Haven't posted for a few days, and I feel quite behind in my updating and talking about things that have happened recently. Had our first Physics lesson yesterday, where we breezed through three and a half ridiculously simple chapters (for Physics), along with our first PE session, where we desperately tried to lost some weight and gain some height last minute so it wouldn't look to bad on our records.

Going to jump around for a bit because my brain can't process information in chronological order right now (because I'm high from laughing too much at Mr Xie's epic post on our Media Club Facebook wall, amongst other things).

Only one lesson on Wednesday, which was an hour of Math (major, which I can't stress enough because it's so slack compared to the honours class it's quite awesome indeed). Played pool until ACE, which doesn't count as a lesson because it's, well, Affective Character Education. I really do quite like my class at the moment. Still missing the old 05 but this one is great too.

All three sciences yesterday, so had Chem, where I felt really stupid, followed by Animal Physio, where I found it hard to follow because I spent most of my time trying out that ridiculous finger movement thing Mr Seoh challenged us to do (and then said I wasn't a musician because I didn't have the "precise finger control of a pianist", which really offended me), then Physics, then PE. Which might be a science, too, who knows.

Math-ed and English-ed today, and during English I found out that I really do know nothing of the world. I care nuts about politics, and sometimes I think I know things, but honestly I don't. I need to seek enlightenment, but instead of embracing asceticism like Buddha, I'll probably just hang around more news websites and stuff.

Then had CCA, which I love. Oh, CCA, I love CCA. It's going to be an awesome year for Media, and I swear to you we will make it so.

Had dinner with Bruneians (Fatinn, Fatin, Yee Rou and Faiz), talked about new junior, talked to new junior because then we met him at the bus interchange. He's a nice guy. I like him.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Oh finally, weekend again.

P.P.S. I miss not having Malay. How strange is that?

Set Fire to the Rain.

2012-01-10T22:54:00.000+08:00

It's a Tuesday. Oh yes it is.

Only two classes today, which was like yesterday, except that now it's repeated it's quite very the awesome. I mean, compared to the packed-ness of Year 4 this is complete heaven. I feel as if I'm getting enough sleep, too, since we can now go back and nap in the afternoons to our hearts' content.

Mentoring first thing in the morning, so Ms Dass brought us out to the canteen and draw things that represented us on sheets of paper and so she could have some coffee while she waited. Drew a stick figure and labelled it "yawen" and then doodled Spiderman because I really couldn't think of anything (and since I started on Ultimate Spiderman a few days ago it's all I can do to stop thinking about it. I'm afraid I've turned quite obsessive).

Come to think of it, I realise I got the uniform shading partly wrong and the webbing was too fine. But everybody learns from mistakes, and practice makes perfect. Besides, I'll probably never be able to reach the perfection that is those professional graphic novel artists.

Anyway, trying to read as much Spiderman and The Avengers as I can before the movies come out, so I won't feel so ashamed when I call myself a fan.

After mentoring was Math, so we made our way to 01 (because the Honours people get to stay while we leave) and did some stuff about limits. Oh goodness, hope it doesn't get too complicated. It usually starts off like this, where you think you can follow the lesson and a bit of hope blossoms in you, but then it gets all asdjabdahksdbansd and then you're all like lost and confused and in danger of flunking.

English was great, except now I realise I know absolutely nothing about politics and I don't give a damn, but if I want to pass this module I have to at least try. So doomed.

Went back and slept after class, then had an uneventful dinner session (actually all dinners are eventful, but since they're eventful all the time, they become uneventfully eventful, if you know what I mean).

Okay, off now.

Adieu.

P.S. I miss M11405. No lie.

Finality.

2012-01-09T16:48:00.000+08:00

Reading this right now and it's reinforcing my love for Daniel Handler and his lovely genius with words. And his quotes are so true. You can't deny that, even though they sound atrocious at times and make you want to shake your head in disbelief, but they are true.

So like yeah, first proper day of lessons today (CCA fair day did not count because we only had one class and it was like, diagnostic test-y). Spent my weekend walking around the Orchard area because my mum and aunt were over to do some pre-CNY shopping (CNY good, shopping not really) after rushing off after our CCA fair.

Oh yeah, CCA fair 2012 was awesome. Our banner was brilliant. Here's a picture. Thanks to all the people who helped out to paint it over the course of orientation and the hours counting up to the event. One of the best so far I think, because our poster is awesome too, and we totally shamelessly advertised. So much pride for Media right now. I love how we love our CCA to bits (unlike some of the other CCAs where people feel like crap every CCA day because they know they have to show up), and I love how we take so much pride in being in Media. We work hard and we know it. It doesn't matter if people think we're slackers or that we do nothing. Because by the end of the day we're the ones who've had the most fun doing what we do.

Anyway, back to first day of proper lessons. Managed to wake up on time, thank goodness, but then reached the track way earlier than we usually do. For years we've sat at the concourse waiting for the bell to ring, but today we were there before the bell rang and everyone was all confused because we were amazingly punctual and did well.

Had a Chem briefing right after morning assembly, where Mr Murali told us about expectations and such, because since we're Honours students we aren't allowed to do that badly. And no, no Olympiad for me. I don't want to kill myself.

Then had the actual Chem lesson with Dr Li. Yeahey, Dr Li. Pin, Daryl and I wrote "Media <3" on the name list she asked us to pass around, because we really do love our CCA.

Not bad, but have managed to forget everything from Year 3, all the way from hybridisation to nomenclature. Uh oh. Thanks to Jia Hong for helping me recall things.

Molecular genetics was quite uneventful. Have this Korean exchange teacher, so his accent was a bit off (but not incomprehensible), but honestly, hardly anyone could catch anything, because this is a bewildering topic meant to confuse young minds.

Then had no class, then hung around the Fibo room for a while, then collected O-level results.

I will never have to take Malay in school ever again. Oh goodness. I feel accomplished. Back when I came here, I thought I didn't have to deal with Malay, but I did, and now it's over. Heck that was fast.

I am so thankful I passed. So, so thankful. Aisyah and I were practically prepared to cry.

Shocking results, and I feel sad because a lot of people were quite badly affected by the results. It's a terrible day.

Okay, going off now.

Good night.

P.S. Still no sign of new junior. I'm starting to doubt he's even coming.

Orientation day 3.

2012-01-05T16:44:00.000+08:00

Orientation 2012 has just ended, and I must say although the mass dance wasn't as great as last year's (no mass dance will be better than last year's, I think), it was epic and memorable in its own way.

Skipped the post for day 2 because I was sunburnt and tired and had to do this photo montage for our finale event today and watch over banner-painting for the CCA fair tomorrow.

The Sentosa trip yesterday was awesome. My class is quite cool, really. And so's our mentor. She let us slack and eat at Mac's when we were supposed to meet the other classes for lunch. Also wanted to "accidentally" head over to Vivo and "accidentally" watch a movie, but couldn't. It was scorching hot though, and everyone ended up dying (especially the teachers, who had to follow us around as we walked around the place trying to look for stations).

Have plenty of pictures, so maybe when I've uploaded it I'll post a link of the montage. Who knows.

Spent most of my time today working on the montage, but also watched the Year 5s play some game with hoops and sponges. Skipped the mass dance running errands and then had lunch. Oh goodness, I've missed the food from the Muslim food stall. Sometimes food just perks you up, especially when you're starving.

Then joined in for a bit of fun on the field, where we built forts out of cardboard and other things and then bombarded each other with bags of water and stuff. 506 won, but like, ours was still standing by the end, too, so achievement. And it felt so good to get wet under the hot sun.

Finale was great, because the Year 1s were so adorable and the Year 3s from Fibo put on an amazing, flawless performance that brought the house down. It was sad because we placed last in the Year 3 performances category, and it kinda shocked the whole school as well, because it was so good (I'm so proud of Hafiy, because he was right there on stage dancing like the boss he is). And the reason why we couldn't win was because it was too "suggestive" for the school to want to promote in front of Year 1 parents.

It was a bit of fun, and most of us loved it, but because there was this part where 'James Bond' emerges and sort of kisses another dude on the cheek (like a real Bond would do to a hot chick), they wouldn't allow it. But it brought the house down and that's what matters to us.

After the performance, Facebook sort of blew up 'cause a lot of Fibo people were outraged. Terrible.

But as long as we know in our hearts our Year 3s were the stars on the night, any position they award us makes no difference.

Okay, sleepy.

Night.

Orientation day 1.

2012-01-03T23:02:00.000+08:00

The first day of orientation has just ended, and I'm tired.

Officially met my new class today. Not bad, considering the number of people in Media and a few ex-classmates here and there. We also have the council president and vice-president, which is cool.

Went down to the canteen before school started to try and meet our new junior, but (disappointingly for us) we found out he isn't even in the country yet. How on earth is that possible? Why on earth would you have him miss the first week of school? It would be so much harder getting to know people without orientation (although my batch didn't have orientation either).

So yes, we were all baffled. This is the most mysterious junior yet.

Assembled in the hall, where we listened to people talk for a while, and then went off to hang around in the canteen 'cause we were ahead of schedule.

Met mentor, and she's quite awesome already. Topped up school's pizza fund and allowed John Huang to have like, ten slices.

House meeting-ed, mass danced (I'm still a terrible dancer, and hardly enjoy it), then went on to play these random games where we had to do these random things in order to earn things to sell for money, which we had to use to buy other things to play this other game with. A bit confusing at first, but then we managed to pull through and earned a lot more than a few of the other classes.

Now my body kinda aches, though.

Then went totally behind schedule, so we cut the game short.

Had the first hostel dinner of the year. Finally returned to normalcy, except familiar faces are still everywhere and that's kinda creepy.

Then went out with Wai Yin to buy cloth and paint for our CCA fair booth.

Came back, had our rooms checked by Ms Kong, then went downstairs to play pool with a bunch of other people. Yeah, busy day, what with trying to cram in as much hostel fun as possible within the week before school really starts and kills us all. Sigh.

All right, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Oh, and we're the only Year 5 class on our floor without air-conditioning. That's so sad.

So it begins.

2012-01-02T23:03:00.000+08:00

Would've posted yesterday, but didn't because I couldn't seem to get wifi in my room (still can't, actually, so I'm sitting by the door, trying to leech off the weak tendrils of wifi here).

The thing is, LAN Internet connection is quite fast and pretty adequate, but it blocks many things. Like posting a post on Blogger, and accessing Twitter, and questionablecontent.net. And it makes me sad.

So yes I'm now back here, after having left the comfort of home behind me (many kilometres behind me, in fact) in order to pursue a better education and hence stretch my potential and stuff. Whoa.

It's the second day of the new year, which means we're two days closer to the apocalypse. Also, I've managed to pack my bags, catch a ridiculously empty flight, arrive safely, move boxes around, unpack, meet up with friends again, et cetera.

Spent all last night unpacking, so could sleep in a bit late as a reward. Then went out to Clementi Mall with Fatinn to buy essentials like shampoo and detergent and stuff because that's the way we roll.

Then came back and TV-roomed with a bunch of people from my year and then ate then played pool.

It's so weird having to see familiar faces all around. Previously, the hostel really was a place to get away from school (albeit partially and even though we were still within school compounds), but now it's like, whoa, total school five days a week, day and night. Must need some getting used to, this thing.

Orientation starts tomorrow, so then I'll start talking about things in full.

Night.

P.S. Oh no, hostel food begins again.

The year two thousand and eleven anno domini.

2011-12-31T23:46:00.002+08:00

Just got back from a dinner/karaoke session to mark the end of this year, and now I'm about to watch The Return of the King with my family, which will be an amazing start to the new year.

Spent my holidays somewhat fruitfully; grew fat, read books (only eleven, which makes me sad), sort of maybe learnt how to drive.

School starts soon, I'm flying off tomorrow, but for now I'll leave it as it is.

Have a good year ahead.

P.S. Oh, and 'Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter' is awesome.

Lobbed together.

2011-12-26T22:14:00.003+08:00

It's been many days since I last posted (besides the obvious).

The Christmas hype has built up, and Christmas has come and gone. But since I don't really celebrate Christmas, let's talk about what happened prior to the Christmas quiet at home.

Went to Hong Kong for a week, where I had the most delectable egg tarts I've ever set my eyes upon, felt some Disneyland magic, saw the Cirque du Soleil in Macau, amongst other things.

Have footage of our trip to Ocean Park and Disneyland with my cousins, so will probably edit out the stupider things I did on camera and post it as a vlog (which I haven't done in quite a while now, because I'm too ashamed to do it in front of my family).

It's quite sickening how many rides end in some kind of shop which baits little children into wanting to buy toys and various other trinkets, but I admire their genius. And it's quite interesting how being in a Disneyland makes me want to prance around and burst into song every few minutes despite my um, age.

The Cirque du Soleil performance was really good, but it was the stage atmosphere that made it so brilliant. Quite stunning; totally enjoyed it.

Visited a casino, and honestly, I didn't like it. Not in a "I disapprove of this sinful behaviour" kind of way, but more of a "I say, this really is an ingenious concept I can't help but feel a sense of admiration for whoever's running the place, but this is really quite disgusting how people can sit there all day being cold and calculating and in a generally pissy mood" kind of way. So uncomfortable.

And the pollution was disappointing, too. It could be so beautiful, but most of it was a foggy mess. It's like being in one of those video games where you could only see a few squares around you and everything else is in shadow. Just like that.

Watched 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows' with my parents yesterday, and I loved it. All that strange, lingering sexual tension between Holmes and Watson, and the general feel of the movie. And Stephen Fry, oh Stephen Fry.

Then watched 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked' today, and it was quite a flop compared to the Sherlock Holmes movie. No no no. The chipmunks were awfully cute, but no. At least little kids seem to love it.

Okay, should go off now.

Adieu.

P.S. Also, have a new pair of glasses and it's awesome.

P.P.S. Oh, and I also read the Hunger Games trilogy, which was honestly quite awesome. Terribly unputdownable and so action packed you're finished before you even had a chance to breathe and go "whoa, okay" (and there were too many of those moments in 'Inheritance'). I sort of hate Katniss at times, but I don't blame her; I'd go crazy too. So yes, it deserved all those awards. Hope the movies turn out fine.

Inheritance.

2011-12-14T20:38:00.003+08:00

All right, I'm done with the Inheritance Cycle. It's not as huge an achievement as, let's say, writing it, but I feel that I deserve the right to talk about being done with reading it.

So yeah, spent a ridiculously long time on it.

The first two books were as good as I remember, and then things got all touch-feely by Brisingr, and then Inheritance.

Yeah, it was quite consistent and I liked it, but somehow I like all the other characters more than I like Eragon. I love Roran and Nasuada, but whenever we come back to Eragon, I kind of involuntarily inwardly groan. Perhaps it's just that I don't like him talking about his feelings all the time. I'm unsure. It's good for a main character to have flaws, but sometimes Eragon has complete control of himself and makes great decisions, and the next moment he does some stupid thing.

I figure it must've been really hard for Christopher Paolini to end the book, and he did quite a decent job of it. I wish (spoiler alert) Murtagh stayed with Nasuada and Orrin didn't turn into quite the asshole, but there's nothing I can do about it because that's how the story goes, and no matter how I complain, things won't change.

Overall though, it was a really good experience (apart from realising the author's increasing lameness in his sense of humour).

Also, started driving and broke my glasses (although not at the same time).

Oh heck. I will drive like a boss. I'm only human. And I can keep telling myself that. I will be awesome.

Night.

P.S. Forgot to mention I saw 'Puss in Boots' on Sunday, and it was fun. Egg totally weirded me out throughout the movie, but Antonio Banderas' voice as Puss is so incredibly brilliant. And loved the soundtrack, too. Hooray for children's movies.

Immersion.

2011-12-11T19:56:00.002+08:00

Oh goodness, hello there. It's been such a long time since I've spent such a significantly long time on the Internet (mostly I do short Twitter updates and Facebook notification checks, but it's still enough to prove how much my life is dictated by social networking sites).

I've been lounging around here and there, occasionally heading out for food and meeting relatives and stuff.

Watched 'Fellowship of the Ring' once with my younger cousins, but they didn't seem to get it and I was disappointed. I love the movie trilogy to bits (and I can't seem to say this enough) because it's a reasonable and wonderfully made portrayal of the book, and I don't understand how anyone would be able to not like it.

Some people think it's bad to be this into "unrealistic events" and worlds totally unlike our own, but in it I find a sense of comfort because there's still a place you can escape to while our world is in turmoil; albeit within the confines of our imagination. But what we believe in shapes us, and that's interesting to take note of.

And as I make my way through the Inheritance cycle (and yeah I admit I've been going at it for almost two weeks now), I find myself admiring Christopher Paolini's guts for plunging himself so deeply into Alagaësia in order to describe things with such detail and precision at such a young age. Sometimes I think it's dangerous to immerse yourself in such a way that it becomes hard to carry on without it when you're finally finished with your piece of work. Maybe that's why Tolkien wrote so many stories concerning Middle Earth; he stumbled upon something so brilliant he couldn't let go.

I'm out of date with Glee and The Big Bang Theory, although I've had no choice but to watch How I Met Your Mother for fear of spoilers Woan Chyi might shove at me.

Will go and update myself soon.

Night.

P.S. I passed my highway code test, which means I can physically start driving. Oh no.

Fortunate.

2011-11-30T21:49:00.002+08:00

Before I say anything further, I need to post a link to this video. Totally made my day. I don't know why, but it totally made me crack up.

Anyway, just got back from this production of Ali Baba by little JIS kids and it was so cute. Let me repeat: so cute.

These kids probably don't realise it, but they're super lucky kids. Comfortable and probably richer than you and I, attending school where it's all fun and games, not knowing what keeping up with hellish deadlines is like. Lucky kids.

And they're so happy, too. So immersed in the arts and sports and hardly any of them are shy.

Lucky, lucky kids.

And they get to stay in this school until they take their A levels, which is a really long time if you've been in it since you were still in diapers. That's insane, man.

Okay, momentary envy of innocent little children over.

Almost done reading Eragon, and will move onto Eldest as soon as I read up on road signs and stuff because I have a driving law test to take tomorrow. Honestly, it can't really be called "driving law" because there's hardly any law in it. It should be renamed "road signs and common sense", because that's what it is. Road signs and common sense. I just hope I'll have plenty of common sense for use tomorrow morning or else I'm doomed and I'll dishonour my family if I fail and they'll have to bring me out back and put me down. Oh the pressure.

And if I do pass, the real hard stuff comes when we actually have to take to an actual road in an actual car doing actual driving things. Oh lord help me.

Fingers crossed I pass.

Adieu.

P.S. Oh, and Kimi's coming back to F1 with Renault. I'm 90% really jump-for-joy happy because I get to see his name in the rankings again, but then 10% of me is super scared he'll botch it up. I hope not.

P.P.S. One day I will grab a pen and add an 'n' to the end of every "yawë" I see in the Inheritance books.

Interlagos 2011

2011-11-28T21:37:00.002+08:00

I missed the race.

Oh goodness I missed the last race of the season, right when I could've seen it live on television. Why did I miss the race?

Because my parents decided to head down to Miri for the weekend. And I was sad.

But then I brightened up, because there was a sale at Popular and I managed to convince my parents to buy me books and more books. Many books (six). And yes I'm such a happy camper right now.

Also feeling great because I borrowed my dad's copy of 'The Book of Awesome' and yeah, it is awesome.

Will start on my Inheritance Cycle marathon by tomorrow morning right after I finish reading 'The Book of Awesome' (because 'The Book of Awesome' is a really nice title to type out). Oh awesome.

So yeah, back to the race. Stanley will be glad, 'cause the season ended on his beloved Webber winning the race ahead of Vettel and Button.

Ferrari have a four-five finish, and Hamilton retired, and Sutil finished in sixth for Force India (yay them).

Full results for this season can be seen here.

Not much this post, but I hope we'll be able to see better Ferrari performance next season.

Night.

Married with Zombies.

2011-11-23T21:52:00.003+08:00

Heard about the huge hype about our school receiving SGD $35 million as endowment fund? Well yeah, it's apparently happened and now we know we've got more money than the school lets on.

Hm hope the money gets put to good use.

Been back for a few days now, after some hectic packing last Friday night (no reference to Katy Perry's song) and Saturday morning. Took Fatinn and I almost an hour before we could leave 'cause we had trouble looking for someone to check us out. The boarding staff really need to work on their communications system (either that or nobody really wants to work at 9 am on a Saturday morning).

Plane ride was quite normal. Slept all the way, as usual. I love window seats because you get to lean against the side of the plane and sleep, instead of just nod off awkwardly wedged between two people.

Registered for a provisional driving license on Monday, so now I can like, take lessons and wreck cars and stuff like that. But first I have to pass some law test 'cause they don't trust people who don't know the meaning of road signs on the road.

I'm honestly quite nervous about learning how to drive. For all we know I might be a terrible driver. Ew, let's not have that happen.

Also finished reading 'Married with Zombies' by Jesse Peterson, which was really quite entertaining, considering it was a book about a married couple who discover the zombie apocalypse on their way to relationship therapy. Liked it because there was loads of blood and gore and swearing (I mean, way to be realistic, right? Who wouldn't drop the f-word when zombies are about to sink their teeth into you?). It wasn't phenomenal, but it was good.

Yeah, I really do have a thing for zombie books. I don't know why. Maybe it's the brain-munching, or the flesh-squishing, or the awkward-shuffling. I don't know.

All right, going off now.

Arrivederci.

P.S. One good thing about being used to non-airconditioned rooms? I don't get affected by middle-of-the-night power cuts.

P.P.S. Babies, I have seen babies. Adorable little things.

Mylo Xyloto.

2011-11-18T22:52:00.002+08:00

‎"I would not object to us no longer characterising you as not my girlfriend."

Yeahp, that's how Sheldon Cooper asked Amy to be his girlfriend, and I found it the cutest thing ever. (Or at least, the cutest thing I've seen in a long time.)

Oh The Big Bang Theory is one of the best shows I know. Funny, nerdy, awesome, all rolled into one. Smart is the new sexy.

And I'm such a nerd. Oh well, that's how life rolls. Embracing the nerd-dom.

Speaking of embracing nerd-dom, it was the last day of school today. Hung around class for an hour and collected progress reports. Did quite fine, considering I've been really cutting back this semester. I'm being attacked by complacency.

Then went out to eat curry chicken with Wai Yin, Zhen Jie and Mei Zhen. Talked a bunch, and man, awesome curry chicken. I love how people bond over good food. We were totally over-analysing teachers' comments, 'cause Mei Zhen thinks Mr Soh hates her 'cause he wrote "quite well-mannered", which probably meant she's only well-mannered sometimes (according to her).

It must be sad to have to write a comment for each student individually. No wonder they have nice little templates to follow.

Went out with Fatinn afterwards in the afternoon to collect lab equipment for my mum. Took 196 all the way there, hunted for an ATM, then sat near the building waiting for the company's lunch break to be over. So grateful for Fatinn's company.

Okay, going off now. Need to wake up early to continue packing.

Night.

P.S. M11405, you've been the awesomest class. I'm going to miss us as a class so much.

Paintball.

2011-11-17T22:47:00.002+08:00

Oh my goodness, I've just seen and heard the latest Rebecca Black single, which you can find here, and I feel slightly nauseous. She's not as terrible as we made her out to be back when 'Friday' came out, but now she's so mainstream pop I feel almost sick.

I wonder if she's writing her own songs now. If yes, good for her, she's got the lyric-writing skills of a person her age, and if not, the sad people who write her songs for her have the lyric-writing skills and depth of a fourteen year-old.

How awful.

I've also just dumped all my notes from this sem and those I've somehow kept from last sem, and now ready to start with a clean slate next year (although I'm not ready to fly off at all). Packing is terrible business. I'm flying off on Saturday yet I've hardly packed. What am I doing? I'm putting off this tedious job, that's what.

Whoa hopefully I can get all this finished by tomorrow night so I can check out of my room and stuff. Oh no.

Was supposed to pack today but then I slept all afternoon and had some "we'll-be-apart-for-a-long-time' quality time with my guitar in the evening and now I'm stuck here procrastinating.

Went out in the morning for that paintball session Faiz was organising. Fun, but painful. Have a bruise on my knee, and a cut on my arm, but I saw the welt on Wan Shen's arm and the bruise behind Kevin's ear and I know I got off lucky.

And I'm quite familiar with the whole "bruising" process so that's all good as well.

Interesting experience, really. Emerged all hot and sweaty and tired, but like we accomplished something. Also realised we'd probably all die off first if we were in a real war.

Okay, going off now. School tomorrow.

Adieu.

P.S. Whoa, results.

Deeparaya 2011.

2011-11-15T23:16:00.004+08:00

Was going to post yesterday, but then was at an unreasonably high stress level, so didn't.

Went on a field trip to the city area for our post exam activities, and messed around in public places because we're retarded that way. Our facilitator was a really nice person; she was all patient with us and let the guys stop to buy ice cream. And then apparently I tried to set her up with Mr Yeo because she told me she thought he was funny and now rumours are spreading about him trying to pick her up and Mr Yeo thinks it's my fault.

But hey, I didn't spread those rumours. People talk about it because they saw it with their own eyes. Ah, such fun.

Then had rehearsals in the afternoon. Almost died but then survived.

Finally had the event today, so now it's over and I'm glad and free of the stress and work-rushing.

People always think these "cultural awareness" events are pointless and hardly any of the students (or teachers) pay attention to all the hard work and time we've put into rehearsals and choreographing and setting up logistics (and making slides and editing videos late, late into the night). It's quite sad. I think until they've really tried it out for themselves and put that much effort into something just to have people dismiss you nonchalantly they wouldn't value it.

So much work goes into making something happen and into making sure things run smoothly for the benefit of the people, but yet "the people" are general ignorant asses who take things for granted.

Either way, I think I learnt quite a few things over the course of the preparation for this event. Found out what "dikir barat" is (and I'm so proud of us for pulling it off with only four practice sessions), and learnt about Hari Raya Haji in Singapore, and met new people, made new friends, gained editing experience.

I have a feeling nothing's truly pointless. Everything has a reason.

Hung around to help out for the post-exam House Games tomorrow and then had dinner at Medzs for our last cluster outing of the year.

No wonder I'm tired.

Okay, good night.

P.S. I'm so tired, I can't even haul my ass to bed.

P.P.S. Feeling quite good because I managed to organise an old Disney movie marathon for our CCA tomorrow. We need bonding.

Yas Marina 2011.

2011-11-13T23:55:00.003+08:00

Whoa, the day's passed by and I've still got a bunch of stuff to do.

Before the week has ended, I need to submit a bunch of forms so I can go back home, then finish editing a video for Deeparaya, and finish up powerpoint slides for Deeparaya, and pack, and be at school, and rehearse, and oh my goodness Year 4 is going to end on a very busy note.

Made so many plans for the week because we want to cram in as much fun before going home for the holidays and simply rotting away in a stream of idleness and gluttony (which is pretty luxurious if not really dull). Speaking of going home, we'll probably have to fit in some driving license-getting in there, too. Hope I don't like, destroy anything.

Spent my morning sleeping, then my afternoon cutting up sound clips and watching X-Men: Evolution (I'm nearing the end now, and Gambit is still as sexy as I remember).

Missed the race because I was with a bunch of Bruneians (Fatinn, Emily, Syaf, Feyra, Kevin, Faiz, Hafiy and Nick Kong) at Scape K-Boxing. I like karaoke. Screaming your heart out to songs with friends is such a great way to build rapport. Had tonnes of fun, what with singing and rapping and great music.

And it's the first time I've made it through a K-Box session without needing Strepsils. Whoa that was a total achievement.

Then had to wait almost an hour for a taxi back. Thankfully the duty officer (my BC) was nice enough to let it go even though we missed roll call by like half an hour. It's good to call back in advance.

So race. Vettel's first retirement of the season. He shouldn't be pissed at having his tyre punctured because his car has been ridiculously reliable all season and that's partly why his title has been all so secure and brilliant. Hamilton won the race, much to my chagrin, but then Alonso's in second place so that's a bit of good fortune since he started in fifth.

Okay, going off now. School tomorrow and things to edit.

Night.

P.S. Why is it that Indonesian singers have such sexy accents? Heck.

Multi-purpose barbecue.

2011-11-12T22:51:00.003+08:00

Was supposed to post last night, but then hung around in Emily's cluster with her and Fatinn preparing stuff for today's barbecue.

Busy busy day yesterday. Had script-checking for like, five hours straight, and got back papers, then had rehearsals and meeting-ups with teachers for our Deeparaya celebration.

Was pretty disappointed with my results, actually, apart from English, which totally blew me away. Oh well, I guess you win some you lose some.

The thing is that this semester, the papers I wanted to do well in I didn't really score, and the papers I was prepared to do badly in I did quite all right. I guess I'm pretty average then.

Going to focus entirely on next year now, and not look at what's happened in Year 4. Found out today that yes they didn't reject me for Bio and Chem honours, so now I feel super relieved and it's like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Hooray. Also not dropping Physics majors anymore.

It's ironic that I feel accomplished over achieving more work to do.

The barbecue at our High Comm today was quite like many other barbecues, where a few people do all the barbecuing and the rest just sit around and talk. But this barbecue was particularly dull because we didn't really have anything to do. Slept a bit, too.

Multi-purpose barbecue was for Feyra's farewell (things won't be the same without her) 'cause she's graduating this year and to celebrate people's birthdays (including Fatin's, which was yesterday).

Despite how many times everyone dozed off internally, I love how Bruneians have like, increased spirit nowadays. We really do hang around with each other more, and take pride in our nationality.

I like being Bruneian, yes I do.

Hung out in the Games room afterwards after we got back. I think I've become rather addicted to pool.

All right, going off now. Have plenty of work pending.

Adieu.

P.S. Finally have some vlog footage. Whoa that took me a forever.

Daily need.

2011-11-10T23:02:00.000+08:00

Stole this from Pin's blog because I really want to up my post count (and that I'm avoiding work).

Are you wearing a hat?
No.

Bottled water: yes or no?
When you buy water in bottles, somehow it always tastes funny. But when you buy your own bottle and then fill it with water, yes.

Do you have a crush on someone right now?
Yes, myself. I am that awesome.

What kind of laptop do you have?
It's pro.

Do you prefer writing with pen or pencil?
Oh dear Lord, pencils.

Who was the last text message in your phone?
Adithya.

Whats your favorite season?
Autumn/Winter.

Does your best friend have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
Well.

Do you like them?
Well.

Favorite radio station?
Don't listen to the radio. Whoa.

Type your name into Google, whats the first thing that comes up?
Some hi5 page of someone with the same name. How sad. This blog comes up fifth though, which is awesome.

Whats your favorite song at the moment?
Well you caught me at this moment where I don't have a favourite song. But I last downloaded some Take That, 'You've Got The Love' by Florence and the Machine, and Coldplay's Paradise is still quite divine.

Coke or Pepsi?
Pepsi.

Favorite subject in school?
Bio. What else?

Last concert?
Muse.

Next concert?
Hopefully something kickass.

Last magazine you bought?

Some ancient issue of Nat Geog.

Last book you read?
Last proper book? Man that was all the way back in September. How sad. If I'm not wrong, it was 'Little Vampire Women'.

Do you prefer cats or dogs?
I like cats, but I'd keep a dog.

Is there someone you want to punch right now?
I want to punch many people because I have violent tendencies.

Favorite sports team?
Ferrari, doubtless.

State you most want to visit?
Liquid.

Run.

2011-11-10T16:52:00.000+08:00

Whoa, I really need to get back into the habit of posting. But it's like nothing much really happens these days, and nobody wants to hear about me spending most of my time watching X-Men: Evolution online.

So like, yeah, first day of script-checking today. Oh, and also had Malay O's, which I'm very afraid of failing. At this point, I'm totally okay with a D7/C6. I just don't want to have to take Malay until Year 6. My atrocious Malay grammar shames us all.

Oh so ashamed.

So yeah, script-checking. I feel quite appalled at myself because I find myself using the excuse 'I was sick' to explain terrible performances. That's awful of me and I feel even more sick of myself because I can't just admit that sometimes I'm not good enough.

I'm not great.

In fact, everything that's been my life so far is all down to luck. I'm a very lucky person. All my results happen because I lucked out. I'm not smart, and neither do I work hard enough. I'm just very lucky.

And when you count on luck that much and that often, you're doomed when your luck runs out. And that's what happened to me. My luck ran out.

I mean, I did better than expected considering I slept most of the time and didn't study as much as I wanted to, but I shouldn't be thinking I could've done better. Because I couldn't have. It's really no excuse. Ultimately these results are going to stay with me forever, and I can't go back in time to change everything because I was unlucky once.

Oh man.

At least we have Evo Bio back already, so tomorrow can only get better.

Okay, adieu.

P.S. So many things, so little time.

Eid al-Adha.

2011-11-06T23:32:00.003+08:00

Hello there.

I was going to post on Friday about how exams were over and about how terribly it went down, but then the Internet connection sort of went down on me and now I've decided to simply put those things in the past. After all, who wants to remember terrible experiences?

Experienced Hari Raya Aidiladha for the first time ever, 'cause we had to go all the way to Sultan Mosque to film some things for our school Deeparaya celebration.

I feel quite bad for thinking it'd be tedious 'cause the weather wasn't very good, 'cause it turned out to be quite fruitful. It's good to learn things.

So like, yeah. I've always sort of been able to appreciate Aidilfitri more because people observe Ramadhan and then invite you over to their houses to celebrate once the fasting month is over, 'cause it's a tangible thing in a sense that it affects me and I see it happening.

But then I've always thought of Aidiladha as 'the other Raya' because it's just not really "put out there", if you know what I mean. I know I shouldn't, but if things don't apply to you you really don't hold it in that high a regard.

But today we saw people giving out free lunches and cooking from gigantic pots and handing out meat to the needy and I thought it was really sweet. I totally did not know any of this happened. Especially 'cause I don't see Singapore as that religious of a place.

I learnt that (oh my goodness I sound like I'm writing a reflection for some school project) sacrifice isn't just about killing some goats or sheep, but it's about sacrifice of things we enjoy for the better of humankind. Like giving to the needy (like paying zakat), donating to charity, going out of our way to be nice, keeping up a smile even though the day's been terrible, little things like that. They don't have to be physical objects or a quantifiable amount, but there are these little gestures that could make someone's day and it's cool to highlight these things.

It is believed that we must give up our earthly desires in order to achieve a higher spiritual level, but hardly anyone is willing to go that far.

Interesting.

All right, I'm going off now.

Night.

P.S. It's funny how Muslims know I'm not a Muslim, and a lot of non-Muslims here think I'm Muslim just because I'm Bruneian. My friends, being Bruneian is a nationality, not a religion.

P.P.S. Bought three books today and I feel quite bad 'cause I had hardly any self-restraint in Kinokuniya earlier today. Just kept grabbing and having to put books back on shelves. Sigh, limitations. (Whoa material greed.)

Moving on.

2011-10-25T22:52:00.002+08:00

The week has only started, yet it feels like a Friday 'cause roll call's at eleven and the week's sort of already ended.

Exam week is the beginning of a new week regardless of which day of the week it is.

So, last day of proper lessons with 405 today.

Peribahasa quiz-ed during Malay, then I realised it was also our last proper Malay class together, unless we all fail our Higher Malay O-levels (God forbid) and have to bear with this module for two more years. Whoa. Even though there are only seven of us, we sort of do spend significant amounts of time together.

Had Math after Malay. I can not imagine having to learn Math under a new teacher. It's like my brain's been hardwired to understand Math only in Mr Chia-English. He makes Math so much friendlier.

Then had Chem, where we weirded Mrs Chong out again. I love how she gives us weird looks and then makes straightforward comments about our "interesting" behaviour. Received our marked revision quizzes, went through them and checked our CA scores. Thank God for CA. It's like a buffer that lets you get by even though you slip up really badly during exams (although having a really bad CA score means exams count more).

Spent PPV break doing Math tutorials so Mr Chia could upgrade our files. He's such a nice guy.

Then went for Econs and went through Test 2 (which was quite terribly done, I admit).

Wake-up call, because I really am not as smart as I would like to be. In fact, I'm quite stupid. There are no excuses for being stupid, but that's what studying is for. Only the truly intelligent need not revise to do as well as we do.

Okay, going off now. Sleeping early tonight.

Relatively.

P.S. Spent quite a lot of time reading Malay stories on those Facebook sharing pages, but you can't really call it a waste of time because it helps with my Malay (and my proficiency is so terrible it could make you weep).

Penultimate.

2011-10-24T23:41:00.002+08:00

I don't know why, but I seem to be counting down the days I have left with my class as a class. That's kind of sad.

It's like knowing when you'll die and then counting down the days you have left and feeling sad about it even though you know there's nothing you can do. Pretty pointless, yes. So I'm just going to seize each moment as it passes because that's what awesome people do.

Had Math first thing in the morning, and we did revision questions and stuff. I do not remember any triangle properties whatsoever we learnt in Year 2, and neither do I even remember the sine and cosine rules. I am doomed.

Didn't have Physics because Mr Yeo mysteriously wasn't here. Spent the time doing an English article review (which I've finally finished, and here's to me assuming correctly that Mr Chin has already marked three so he won't penalise me for handing in only nine).

Went through a past year paper question in Evo Bio. I like Evo Bio, but it's hard to pinpoint answers because sometimes you really don't know what the question wants. I enjoy learning it, but I can't seem to answer questions the way they want us to.

Stayed back afterwards because the Year 6s had their farewell assembly today. Great speeches and performances, but I feel terrible because I messed up the footage with a horribly jerky tripod and an inability to deal with annoying Year 3s.

One day I'm going to snap and end up breaking all their meddlesome little fingers.

Oh I'm so violent.

Dinner was better than usual today, and that's worth noting.

Night.

P.S. I have awesome friends because they willingly donate their watermelon.

P.P.S. Watching this year's Year 6s about to graduate makes us wonder what our farewell assembly will be like.

For the love of racing.

2011-10-23T19:24:00.002+08:00

A moment of silence. I didn't mention Dan Wheldon's death previously, and now the motorsports community is once again reeling in the loss of yet another.

Marco Simoncelli passed away after a crash during the Sepang MotoGP race, and I feel distraught.

This is racing. There are always risks involved no matter how safe rules make it and how much new technology has helped.

And it's this few select people who understand the risks and for the love of speed are able to do what they do for a living.

I admire these people.

RIP.

Year End Boarding Dinner 2011.

2011-10-22T23:11:00.003+08:00

Listening to MCR at the moment, feeling proud because they're now trending on Twitter under 'MCR ARE HEROES'. It started off as some battle between Justin Bieber and other artists who have large fan bases over Twitter, and then the MCRmy butt in to make some killjoy noise and now everyone knows we're awesome.

They're my heroes.

Wasn't productive all day, but then again there was a lot of anticipation in the air for this year's year end dinner.

Always a celebration of a year spent together, and all the good times and the bad times we've gone through living in this community. It's a time where the year 5s reflect upon the year and think about graduation in another year's time. And then I realise it's our turn next year. I hope our year end dinner will be the most awesome year end dinner the school's ever seen.

This year's programme was much better though, compared to last year's. Performances were great, the games were fun (although we all know the 'Don't Forget The Lyrics' part was way too short), and the food was better.

The disco wasn't as good though, which was disappointing.

I realise all party songs generically sound the same. And nobody seems to mind because they're great to dance to, anyway.

All right, I'm tired.

Night.

P.S. Bruneian pride.

P.P.S. Going to start laying on the exam stress now fun time is over.

Resistance.

2011-10-21T22:47:00.002+08:00

It's a Friday, but it doesn't feel like a Friday. It's sort of like a really sad Friday, because it's the last day of the last complete week of classes we'll be having as a class. And it doesn't feel like a Friday, because there was no CCA.

Sigh.

I was also sad because I lied today. To be honest, and I wasn't when Mr Yeo asked me if it bothered me, it bothers me. It bothers me that people think I talk funny. It bothers me that they mock me even though it's only a bit of harmless fun. It bothers me that I think I might be too sensitive. It bothers me that I seem unable to get angry and tell them to stop and have them believe me. It bothers me.

Is conformity really everything? Just because I don't speak Singlish does not mean I'm flaunting. I speak like I do because I've always spoken like this. I like speaking like this. It's how I learnt to speak English. It's what makes me me. It doesn't matter how we say things, or what accent it's in, because ultimately we use the same words which give the same meaning when we speak the same language.

I'm not sad, or angry; I was just really bothered. But now I'm all right because I have too high a self-esteem to be insecure.

Went down to the demo lab for Physics today. Played around with experimental setups and stuff. Super cool.

Finished off the rest of the speeches today. I loved how ironic Sam's speech was. She's one of the most ardent card-players and class yet she talks about curbing teenage gambling habits.

Had a test during Econs. Hopefully don't do as badly as I think I did.

Talked about worksheets and struggled through our second revision quiz during Chem. I think I might be quite hopeless. The truly intelligent people are those who ace everything without studying. I am not one of those people.

Also, hell week (the week before) results are out, and totally improved for my Geog test from the last one (by like, two marks, which is a lot out of twelve), and passed Chem quiz 3 and our second Physics test (sometimes you need a wakeup call to tell you how stupid you actually are).

Okay, I should go off now. Should be a long day tomorrow.

Good night.

P.S. By the way, Pin, was reading your blog. 1042 posts without a single repeated title, although occasionally I've had to double check before posting.

P.P.S. Lovely rainy weather.

Speech.

2011-10-21T00:01:00.002+08:00

And here's the speech I wish I gave:

Good morning to parents and representatives of the Ministry of Education. I’m Lim Ya Wen from NUS High School, and I’m cutting straight to the point.

For many weeks, I planned to start off with “Good morning, my name is yawen and I’m a lesbian”, so I could prove a point about how people would react to such taboo and controversy, but I decided not to risk it. I decided against it because I realised I didn’t want my speech to scream “gay rights”. I want it to be a serious discussion about how things could change for the better. I might sound like a certain president of the United States, but don’t tell me words don’t matter.

I propose that our sexual education syllabus be revised to include Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) matters. It is evident that as LGBT pride communities all around the world emerge to strive to bring about equality for all genders and sexualities, we cannot remain ignorant.

Homosexuality has been around for longer than we can imagine. 25th century BC, a tomb is built for two Egyptian men in an intimate relationship. 6th century BC, homosexuality is recorded to be widespread and legalised throughout the Roman and Greek empires. 4th century BC, a bisexual Alexander the Great leads millions into viewing same-sex relationships positively. But centuries later, in 1952, the American Psychiatric Association included homosexuality in its ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’. What happened?

Currently, homosexuality is covered in only one lesson in the MoE’s sexuality education programme, where it, quoted from the website “seeks to inform students of the definition of “homosexual”, and that homosexual acts are illegal under Singapore law. It does not promote homosexuality, but follows social norms of mainstream society”.

I’ll be frank and tell you how I think it sounds: chicken. It’s a stance that shows fear of backlash, a fear of criticism, a fear of venturing forwards. It is cautious, but it is not practical.

School is stressful enough without having to deal with unnecessarily tedious issues such as coming to terms with sexuality and self-doubt and depression, et cetera. We know that homosexuality remains such a sensitive topic and is withheld in schools only because many parents do not want their children to be exposed to the idea of homosexuality.

I’m not accusing you of bigotry, or of homophobia, but you must see that we cannot hide in ignorance forever. People need to know that there are a few factors that contribute to an individual’s sexuality, and none of them “because God made you wrong”. A lot of mystery is shrouded around homosexuality, and because of this mystery, there are those gays who’ve come to establish themselves as rule-breakers with a “I-can-do-what-I-want” attitude, because being gay is against the law anyway.

Take, for example, a boy called Ed. Ed finds out he’s gay. He doesn’t know what to do. Is there a protocol for this? Nobody knows. His parents are homophobes. They find out. They tell him he is condemned to hell. Ed is scared. Ed desperately tries to cling onto whatever will accept him for the disgrace he is. And whoa. Ed finds a boyfriend. They have sex. Obviously, a man cannot get another man pregnant, so Ed forgoes protection. They break up, but Ed continues to sleep around. Then Ed finds out he has HIV.

This is how the social stigma of “homosexuals spread AIDS” was born. Do you know that when you fill out forms for blood donation in Singapore, they specifically ask you if you’re a man and if you’ve had sex with another man. If you’re a woman, they ask you if you’ve had sex with a man whom you suspect has had sex with another man. I understand that certain precautions have to be taken, but this is ridiculous and bordering on discrimination. We have to put and end to this, and we can.

So how do we?

Through a revised sex ed, we could slowly introduce topics like sexual identity, coming to terms with oneself, opening up to parents, safe sex between same-sex couples and so on. Sex ed packages need not be specifically addressed towards these issues, but it would be great it they could integrate lesson plans with LGBT scenarios as well. It provides a sense of inclusion and acceptance, and lets adolescents know that if they have problems, they can be addressed without being judged.

School counsellors can be trained to be open and accepting and show no qualms when troubled teens need someone to confide in concerning sexuality issues.
We could also lift bans on children’s books that include same-sex couples, so we can relay the message that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being gay.

One of the most banned books in the United States is a children’s book about a pair of male penguins who hatch an egg together and raise the chick as their own, and many adults hate it immensely. Children to whom the book was read raised no queries about the “odd pairing”, and were able to enjoy it as yet another story about a happy family.

Some parents might argue that sex ed like this is going to put ideas into their children’s heads and they’ll end up queer and revolting, but it’s like saying you don’t want your child to learn how to drive because there are risks of them getting into car accidents.

Parents will oppose to these plans because they feel morally disgusted about LGBT. This type of disgust is culturally determined, meaning when one has become accustomed to seeing only heterosexual couples and being exposed to primarily heterosexual romance, it becomes unusual and shockingly foreign. This sense of disgust isn’t due to any rational reason, like being disgusted by rotten food because it’s unhygienic and could kill you if you ate it, but evoked just because it’s different. How is that not senseless discrimination?

Sexual education in this country should not be ‘this is what homosexuality is, but don’t do it because we’ll arrest you’, but it should be a ‘this is what homosexuality is, and that’s okay. You may carry on with your life’. So one day when the ones who have been taught and understand go on to have children of their own, we’ll have generations of acceptance. Nobody will need to be defined specifically by their sexuality anymore.

And just so you know, in 1973, twenty-one years later, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its comprehensive list of mental disorders.

So as Peter Parker’s uncle Ben Parker once said, “With great power comes great responsibility”, and you, with the power to bring about a better education, and with it acceptance and understanding, are responsible to grant it. So grant your children the education they need now. Let them know they can be who they are.

Thank you.

Paradise.

2011-10-20T22:26:00.002+08:00

Saw Coldplay's latest music video for their song 'Paradise' last night, and I thought it was amazing.

It's so simple, yet it touched me and I felt it. Nowadays a lot of MVs for popular songs are just a bunch of sexy-looking people dancing promiscuously (although I don't really mind, because Maroon 5 somewhat does it as well, and Adam Levine is well, Adam Levine), and nothing truly captures the true essence of a song.

Elephant costumes and South Africa may seem really random, but it looks a true paradise. We think we're so awesome with our gadgets and gizmos and our "superior" education, but in truth we're just poor, sad people. Fear, paranoia, judging and being judged, overambitious-ness, superficiality.

And one of the most popular conversation topics as of late is that of a little girl who got hit by moving vehicles. Twice. And nobody helped her until someone with an actual heart and soul came by to rescue her, and then got accused of helping her only for fame and fortune. What on earth? How can you not be outraged?

The only reason why the true severity of this problem was exposed was because the security camera footage of the incident went viral and all the news agencies picked it up. There are so, so many people out there, heartless and apathetic. How could they?

And then there's news of Gaddafi being dead, and people are celebrating and calling it a victory, and then checking his name off a list which included 'Saddam Hussein' and 'Osama'. It sickens me that people are gloating in this manner. You may have hated one man, but his death should not give you reason to party. Is there no longer respect for one's adversary?

The world is so beautiful yet so saddening at the same time. But it's the beauty that's worth preserving and living for.

Okay, yeah, finally gave my speech yesterday. Even though I wasn't as prepared as I had liked to be and I totally exceeded the seven-minute maximum limit, it went reasonably acceptably all right, and now I feel kind of relieved it's over. There are always three versions of a speech; the one scripted, the one given, and the one you wish you gave.

Exams are nearing, but I have an Econs test and Chem quiz to study for tomorrow. Let's go. Semangat.

Night.

P.S. Everything's over so fast it scares me.

Don't Stop Me Now.

2011-10-17T23:07:00.002+08:00

This video just made my day. Go British novelty television shows. They're awesome.

And my God, this interpretive dance thing is brilliant. This guy is brilliant. Who could've thought. I'm going to do a Gary Barlow on the X-Factor and say it was "absolutely fantastic". It takes genius to be funny, really.

Math first thing on Monday mornings seem to drag on forever, but then I realised I'd miss it. Heck.

Did more stuff about probability and apples and maggots and choosing people. Interesting. Also laughed at people who didn't understand the probability of roulette. It's fun because we can take this probability stuff and apply it to gambling methods.

Physics was just sitting there and attempting a past-year exam paper. Brain was dead so I really didn't do anything for the two hours. Instead just kind of stared blankly at my paper and then fell asleep. Whoops.

Watched a video about the evolution of modern humans during Evo Bio, which was quite intriguing. I don't think we appreciate the complexity of the human mind enough, but then again we could be really, really stupid compared to beings on other planets. We could be totally primitive and unrefined. Now that's a really sad possibility.

Sometimes I wish we could pull a 'Subtle Knife' and cross over to other dimensions and alternate realities, but we can't at the moment (not consciously), so we'll just have to deal with it and wallow in our un-satiated need for knowledge.

Came back straight after that and slept my afternoon away.

Feeling quite a sense of achievement because I managed to finish my Math ass in a relatively short amount of time and with minimal help. I think my answers are all wrong, but as Mr Chia says, it's good to learn from mistakes.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. A lot of plans have been crammed into our post-exam period, but do we have enough time to do everything?

Yeongam 2011.

2011-10-16T22:05:00.004+08:00

It's a Sunday, and our penultimate week of classes before our exams starts tomorrow. It's worrying because even at this point where we should all be preparing and revising and panicking, we still find ourselves caught up in assignments and homework and worksheets to complete. We don't even notice exams are just around the corner.

But then again, in a way, doing work and completing revision worksheets is sort of revision. I mean, one of the reasons why teachers give us this work is so that they can gauge how much we understand and are able or willing to do before we give up and resort to copying off friends. The thing is that even though we might do a little referencing, we'll still be lured into familiarising ourselves with the topic simply by reading the questions. Whoa, subliminal stuff.

Race day today, but I missed it because I went out with Kelvin and Wee Thean to watch 'Johnny English 2'. Laughed plenty, and managed to spot a few 'Mr Bean' gags and 'Blackadder' similes, which are classic Rowan Atkinson and I don't think I'll ever grow tired of them. Oh British humour.

Also, ate Carl's Jr for the first time. Yum.

Caught race results, and I have to say I'm really glad Vettel won this race in stead of Hamilton. And it's always appropriate for the newly crowned champion to win the race following his Championship win because it totally asserts the "yes, my team and I are better than you" message even further.

Webber in third, Button fourth, Alonso fifth and Massa sixth. Still the same few fill in the top six.

Okay, going off now.

Adieu.

P.S. I want my speech to be flawless. I will never be ready.

P.P.S. Also, I readily admit I almost cried watching this. So beautiful.

Shoes.

2011-10-15T23:23:00.002+08:00

Was watching this video about Miss America contenders talking about Math in schools and bemoaning the lack of intelligence in the world, but then I realised it was a spoof and I thanked God profusely.

Then I found this article and oh Lord. What is wrong with us?

Got some (very much, actually) sleep today, then woke up to go out with Fatinn and Emily. Dropped by Bugis to get some things for next week.

Managed to find myself a new pair of shoes, which are awesome. Some people think it's really sad that I only buy shoes for myself once or twice a year. When my parents bring me out to buy girly shoes to wear at weddings and during Chinese New Year, it doesn't count.

Fatinn wouldn't let me into Kinokuniya. It's like I've fallen way behind on books and reading and everyone else has read all the "in" titles and I haven't, so I really wanted to go. But come to think of it, it was a good decision to refrain myself because I'd rather buy books in Malaysia where it's so much cheaper (even though bookstores here have a wider range). Also, books take up space and make packing so much harder.

Uploaded this video last night, because I don't want the product of our workshop thing during CCA to go to waste (so go and check it out and lend your support). Hopefully the other groups will be able to edit and upload theirs as well, but I won't force them until the exams are over. Seems a waste to leave all that footage unedited. And it's good practice, too.

Hamilton on pole for the race tomorrow, and the Ferraris are in the third row. Hm. I'm glad Massa outqualified Alonso though, because that gives everyone all the more reason to stop thinking of him as "the other guy".

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Note-to-self: Blackcurrant-flavoured H-TWO-O tastes awful. In fact, 100 Plus rules over all isotonic drinks I've ever had.

Industriousness.

2011-10-14T21:34:00.002+08:00

Oh no, once again I'm embracing my Hokkien heritage and am listening to ‘我问天’. I really like this song, because it reminds me of back when I used to watch Taiwanese dramas with my grandmother at home and me being able to understand little snippets reminds me I really am Chinese.

Didn't post for the entire week because I was ridiculously busy and didn't want to make it seem as if I was wasting time or anything like that.

Stayed back after school on Monday to watch the Year 2s English 'Corpse Bride' project on Monday. I love the Corpse Bride, so I couldn't say no to Mr Xie asking me to look after the camera in the Audi. Had the company of Yee Rou and Nazihah and we talked about school life.

Chem and Econs presentations on Tuesday. I'm so grateful for having Yos in our group, because he did pretty much everything and deserves total credit. And the presentation went down super well because our model was so simple nobody could troll us. Then embarrassed myself in front of our Econs lecture group because we were the only ones to present and I put on some ridiculous accent and swore colourfully in Italian.

Watched English speeches and attended one of the Music students' peer-teaching project things on Wednesday. Then ate and talked at Pastamania with Aisyah and MJ for like two hours.

Ended our peer teaching session for PE yesterday, so now all we have to look forward to next year's NAPFA. I might fail this one; I'm so incredibly unfit.

Geog test went all right, hopefully I'll be able to improve from last time. Also stole leftover SDYC biscuits from the Humanities classroom. Good stuff.

Physics test-ed and Chem quiz-ed today. Can definitely pass these, but acing is another matter. Also continued with speeches, and with each speech I become more determined to make mine absolutely perfect. I can do this. I mean, my ego's so huge, I actually enjoy having the opportunity for people to listen to me.

Went out with Fatinn and Woan Chyi for dinner so we could treat Fatinn for her birthday. Talked and ate and talked. It's nice to have friends.

Okay, going off now. Want to sleep, or something.

Night.

P.S. Year 4 is going to be over soon and I'm going to miss it immensely, even though we despised the amount of work we had to do. I love my class.

Suzuka 2011

2011-10-09T17:40:00.002+08:00

It's the ninth of October 2011, which makes the date 9/10/11 if you write it out that way. Pretty neat.

It's the little things like this that make you stop and appreciate each day even when they seem like little fleeting moments that pass by in our lives.

Last day of CCA on Friday, yet we have unfinished business. Hopefully people will cooperate and edit their videos, but I doubt anyone would want to be at CCA on Mondays at a busy period of time like this. Deadlines, tests, quizzes, more deadlines. It's awful. But then again, CCA is supposed to be a part of the school curriculum, and therefore whatever we give, they have to take. I just don't have the heart.

Spent yesterday afternoon in school (then again I'm always in school; I live here) with Yos and Bryan, watching Yos do stuff for our Chem project. It's like we're making no contribution to this.

Went out for dinner with Wee Thean and Adithya afterwards. Mm good food really does perk you up. One only eats hostel food when going out to eat is not economical, which means there's study time, or there's a lot of work that needs to be done that's due the following day, so it's associated with depressing thoughts sometimes.

Then came back and played pool for two hours. KT joined us so we could form even teams.

Lost to Wee Thean and Adithya five games to seven, but that's okay because at least my pool skills are have somewhat improved. Played on Friday as well and really sucked.

Also, KT is officially pro at jump shots.

Race today was momentous, because Vettel is now the youngest back-to-back F1 champion ever, so good for him. Finger Boy has deserved it because he has driven flawlessly this season. And the season's not even over yet. Four races to go. Just goes to show what a ridiculous clean-sweep it was.

Button won the race because his girlfriend's Japanese, and Alonso finished second, which shows Ferrari's pace isn't that terrible after all. Massa finished seventh though, behind Schumi and Hamilton and Webber and Vettel.

Apparently Hamilton was surprised his race didn't go so well, but he had a puncture so it was expected.

I feel as if I can't say anything anymore because I don't watch any real racing action. That's just really sad and depressing.

Bye.

Steve Jobs.

2011-10-06T19:21:00.002+08:00

It's currently thunderstorming after being all humid all day. Started raining during our Cell Bio prac and made everything all dark and lovely.

Received news during PE on our PE teacher's iPhone about Steve Jobs' death. I feel saddened. He was one man who made an impact on all our lives. It may not have been a brilliant moral impact that makes everyone better people, but it was an impact nonetheless. It may have been solely commercialism, but that man had a goal and he achieved it. Apple Inc. is huge.

And it's epic that many people found out about his death/spread word of his death on devices he brought into creation. That is quite a way to go. I'm going to miss his keynote speeches and his black turtleneck and jeans and nice balding head.

Long school day today. PE-ed, then continued our ujian karangan, then had Geog.

Geog was lecture, followed presentations which took longer than expected so Mrs Lim couldn't continue with the other lecture.

Also played with pens and ink and stuff. Have I mentioned I really like Yos' white pen? It's so good.

Got started on permutations during Math, which means we're really close to finishing off this sem's syllabus.

Counted corn kernels during Cell Bio for our prac. Tedious stuff, but there's this immense sense of satisfaction you get when you finish counting and categorising a rough 700 kernels. Go us.

Anyway, watched the third episode of Glee season 3 just now (because it wouldn't load last night and I decided to sleep early), and I have to say it is quite good. I dare not say it, but the old Glee essence is coming back. I love how Will Schuester is becoming tougher and more assertive and generally a more badass and self-respecting teacher. And Mike Chang finally got some good lines and a singing part, which I believe he nailed. Hooray for Asians.

I also realise that my first term of CCA leadership can be compared to the second season of Glee, because it was fun but hugely messy and pointless and unorganised and really bad without continuity (and season 2 gave us Blaine, too, which made it so much better).

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. How sad is it that the concept of 'A-'s being "Asian Fs" is quite accurate? Man.

P.P.S. I also love how everyone appreciates Coldplay a bit more now that Glee covered 'Fix You'.

Franz Ferdinand.

2011-10-06T00:19:00.000+08:00

Waiting for Glee to load right now.

Internet's been absolutely atrocious, and now I have to use LAN connection or I can't get anything done. It's so slow. So depressing.

Short school day today, but spent afternoon sleeping, so I still only had the night to do work.

Finished a Geog poster (again, this time with case studies and stuff). Was less sleep-deprived so it sort of looks better now and contains more information than last time.

Also read through our Econs report and found findings to insert into our report and stuff like that. Kinda looking forward to our presentation because it's some role-play thing where we get to be all foreign and try out different accents. Mm, I love accents.

Okay, so today we had Math first thing in the morning. GCT-ed most of the lesson away, then did even more tutorial questions. Also talked about the Tower of Hanoi, which is awesome. Leyi said that there's a 72 disc Tower of Hanoi which when completed will end the world, but it takes 2^72 - 1 moves to complete, so it's probably not worth it.

Ujian karangan-ed during Malay, which we will continue tomorrow. Oh no.

Also essay-ed during English. Made some ridiculously irrelevant references that don't make sense, and wrote lengthily and stupidly. There goes my English grade.

Did nothing during ACE, because Mr Yeo wasn't in school and I didn't sign up for PSATs and hence didn't have to go for the briefing.

Yeah, that was pretty much it.

All right, short post for tonight because I have to watch Glee.

Night.

P.S. Weather still going great. Yay.

P.P.S. It's like the greatness of the weather is inversely proportionate to the quality of our Internet connection. How sad.

Faith.

2011-10-04T22:34:00.003+08:00

The Internet connection's acting up really badly right now. Must be the product of procrastinating Year 5s who're using the Internet to evade studying. Whoa.

Which is sort of good, because hogging the bandwidth means frustrating teenagers into giving up on whatever they want to do on the Internet and then carry on with studying. Or end up being miserable and in no mood whatsoever to be productive. Oh well.

Didn't post yesterday because the really hot and humid weather simply killed my mood. Felt like doing absolutely nothing but wait for the humidity to die down. I don't even remember doing anything fruitful. Either I'm suffering memory loss, or I really do procrastinate a tonne.

Oh yeah, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, because that's what YouTubers do to you. They make you like them so much you can't stand not watching their new videos and stuff. Doesn't really help to follow them on Twitter, either. You're all like, "All right, time to get stuff done," and they're all like, "My new video is up!" and you're all like, "Damn it."

Solution? Get of Twitter. But there was no work in dire need of being completed, so it was excusable. Oh me. Poor me. I'm terrible.

Anyway, the weather today took a marvellous turn for the better, and rained. Multiple times. And it was so beautifully cold all day (don't ask me how cold can be beautiful, but it just was, so deal with me). Refreshing, yes? Yes. There's just something about cold, crisp mornings that get you all galvanised and ready to love the world again.

Photo-taking early in the morning, so had to be in formal in order to look less like the mess we actually are. I love my class. I'm going to miss it, so badly. Mrs Chong told us today our class was like a kindergarten class, but it's not like it's a bad thing. It isn't.

Didn't have Malay, so sat strangely silently at the bench near the netball court doing our own things. Sometimes you just need the company, even if you're not in the mood to talk.

Borrowed Faiz's Time magazine to read. We get our own issues but it's like I never have the time to read them. Picked up a few English-y words to use for tomorrow's SA essay. I fully dislike writing essays for the sake of satisfying teachers. I want to write to make me happy. But that's not how life works, and I suck at thinking up points, so I write long, contentless essays. Depressing stuff.

I miss narrative writing. Not only because I was so much better at it, but because I think up unreal things better than being organised and listing out supporting arguments.

Tutorial-ed during Math, which meant we spent our time attempting tutorial questions. Mathematical induction is just a really tedious process, but less tedious than binomial theorem, so I'm okay with it. Very wordy, too.

Had Chem and got our tests back. Did all right, but not like complete ownage. Thought I'd did worse, actually. Then had nothing to do, but Mrs Chong kept coming up with excuses to make us stay in class for as long as possible. But we finished assignment 5 last weekend (discussion over Twitter with Kian Wee and Daryl was so convenient), and our project discussion was all confusing, so in the end she relented and let us off half an hour early.

Did random stuff during the PPV break.

Talked about essay-writing and structure during Econs. It scares me. I haven't been doing brilliantly.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. It's officially official. Monsoon season is back, baby.

Indulgence.

2011-10-02T23:25:00.002+08:00

Dun dun dunn, it's already October, and here I go again on a post about how ridiculously fast time travels and we're all doomed because it'll be the end before we know it.

2012 is coming fast, my dears.

Just finished drafting my speech for our advocacy project thing. Left the Word file there for ages to like, ferment in the depths of my computer memory, and then finally opened it up to finish what I started and finalise things. Revised it a thousand over times, and now I have quite a wordy speech I need to cram into six minutes. I don't want to rush things, because this isn't a race to rapid gunfire. You want to make sure every single bullet hits its target with impeccable timing. I'll make timing my b*tch, man.

Also sort of tried to fit in almost every speech device we learnt about during English into my draft, so I'll at least score points in that area. And I like a challenge. Feeling super proud of myself because I managed to sneak in a Spiderman reference to make it even more epic.

Sometimes I think I'm afraid of making serious speeches.

Wasted a whole lot of time yesterday just sitting around, catching up on television shows and thinking about the amount of work I'm stupidly not doing and stupidly haven't done.

I think they plan it just so they release new seasons of everything right when our workload is going to reach its peak. It's scary. The universe is out to get us.

Hopefully Glee will be able to return to its old, season 1 continuity and not the bunch of random randomness and relationship-trading stuff we had in season 2. I've missed it. I don't ever want Kurt and Blaine to break up, because it would've been too fast and too soon.

How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory are as funny and nerdy (for the later) as I remember, which is good because I enjoy their consistency.

Okay good night.

P.S. I strongly feel like having a LotR movie/book marathon. Oh December holidays, let me indulge.

"I wear this on my sleeve," -MCR

2011-09-30T23:13:00.002+08:00

Last day of September today, and I just realised. And there I was thinking we were still sometime in the middle of September, but apparently not.

Week 3 is over, and it was over so fast yet so gruelling.

It's also the last day of school lessons for the Year 6s today, which means yet another batch is graduating; bringing us closer and closer to our graduation, in turn. The prospect of being out of school and into university life just scares the hell out of me. I'm growing old and what if I can't accomplish what I want to accomplish in the short time I'm given here? Oh no.

And when I recall when we talked about not leaving this place soon enough, I really want to go back in time and tell myself to pull myself together and simply savour everything and go along for the ride.

Okay, so, yeah.

Rained superbly in the morning, so went to school contented and feeling great. Also, it was a Friday, and Fridays are good days because there's no school the next day and we get to sleep in.

Talked about AC and DC circuits during Physics, which makes me wonder why I really never bothered to look up how these things work. I mean, we see them everywhere, and electronic devices and appliances basically rule my life, so why am I not the least curious about them? Maybe it's because they're everywhere, they've become un-fascinating. That's kind of sad. These things need to be appreciated more, I think.

And I'm simply shallow.

Two of the remaining groups finally presented during English (my group presented a week and a half ago), and I have to say, the guys really impressed me with their 'love and marriage' presentation. Yes, it's true that pop culture destroys the meaning of traditional marriage, but true love can never be destroyed. I love it how the guys seem to be more clear about these kinds things than girls are. What can we say? We're erratic.

Also, got marks back for summative compre and essay. Compre was great, essay was better than last time (and last time was a C+, which was depressing beyond words).

Made tonnes of LotR references during Econs with Clarice and Verena, 'cause we had to do this discussion and presentation about the trade of certain countries, and we chose New Zealand. Awesome fun.

Almost managed to finish off our notes during Chem, but we've got one page left before we're done with this sem's module completely. I like Chem.

Edited stuff during CCA. I want to remain president, because I feel as if I need to make up for this horrible year of non-leadership. I believe in me.

Then had dinner out with Wee Thean, Kelvin and Lee Ji-Hyun while we discussed our Econs project. Yeah, busy day.

Okay, going off now. Need to watch the latest episode of Glee.

Night.

P.S. And, if anyone wants to stalk me further, here's a Tumblr account.

P.P.S. The rest of 05 gets to go for the Geog field trip tomorrow with the 04 and 02 Geog students, while Daryl, Zhi Yao, Ryan and I are able to spend our time doing other things tomorrow morning. Whee.

Guppy report.

2011-09-29T22:42:00.002+08:00

Sometimes, I feel like I need to assert my girl-ness, so I'll post a link to this insanely hot GIF. It's a matter of taste, really, but I know thousands of other people around the world think Adrien Brody is great, so it's no matter if you think he looks terrible. It's fine.

Slept quite late this morning, rushing a Geog poster-presentation thing that we only have to present next week due to certain reasons I can't recall so will not disclose. Partly why I don't want to remember is because I probably wasted my night. But no regrets, oh no.

Forward and onwards, mateys.

Played random games during PE, because it was peer teaching.

Then finally had our Malay debate, after weeks and weeks of dragging and postponing and changing dates and topics. I must say it's like a great weight has been lifted off our shoulders, because it's something that's been pending for such a long time, and now that it's gone it feels good. I can not speak fluently in Malay, which is quite a shame, considering it's been part of my life for many, many years now.

Talked more about proving in Math. It's sort of magical, really.

Did more inheritance stuff during Cell Bio, which reminds me, 'Inheritance' is coming out on my mum's birthday, which is in a month and a half. Oh I'm so excited, but then I'd have to re-read the previous three books first because I have obsessive issues so I'd have to wait until I got back home.

Dinner was surprising, because it was surprisingly good. Like, puffy, crispy prata with curry sauce. Felt good not having to eat rice for hostel dinner for a change. And the look on Adithya's face when he realised what we non-Indian-vegetarian people had was just priceless. Poor guy gets pretty much the same thing every single day, and they won't let him switch to regular food (because he's not vegetarian at all).

Okay, more stuff to do.

Guppy report awaits.

P.S. It's super humid tonight and I don't like one bit of it.

Entropy.

2011-09-27T23:52:00.002+08:00

As good as rainymood.com is at helping one pretend it's raining, it isn't as good as real rainfall, which is why it feels amazing right now because it actually is raining.

It seems like I talk about the weather all the time here, but I honestly can't help it. I love almost everything about rainy weather. The darkness, the pitter-patter of raindrops, the occasional assuring thunder and lightning, the cold, the way the wind blows and kisses your face with a slight hint of wet, the smells, the sounds of cars driving through water and making little splashing noises. Is that selfish? I know a lot of damage can be caused by storms and relentless rainfall and stuff like that, and even so I still seem to love it to bits.

But you can't always see the bad side of things, can you?

Okay, printing my Math journal now, because Joo Kee just tweeted about having not finished his and I almost totally forgot about it. That's what I love about the Internet and social networking, even though it's a huge waste of time and causes us to procrastinate so much. I enjoy feeling connected.

Had Malay first thing in the morning today, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to fare very well for this test either. This is it, I'm going to fail my O-level paper and end up having to take Malay until I graduate at this rate. Better start crackin'.

Had Math afterwards, where Mr Chia gave us sound advice on choosing our honours and majors for next year. Everyone obviously wants to choose the subjects they like most, and yet not want to die of work overload. It's a hard balance to find. Then he told us stuff about our future Math modules, which pretty much scared off or tightened the resolve of Math-honour-takers.

Statements is an interesting topic because it's been mostly words, so far. Converse inverse contrapositive maybe yes no perhaps just kidding. It sure doesn't feel like Math.

Finally started on our last topic of the year for Chem, but then got reminded of how much we didn't like entropy. Oh, entropy. Entropy of the system, of its surroundings, of the universe. Time going forwards and entropy increasing until equilibrium and so on. Deep stuff, man. Existence is a scary thing.

Need to get started on our Econs project. So far we've only distributed roles. It's hard 'cause we aren't in the same class and have other things to think about.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Need to brush up on my pool skills.

P.P.S. You know the awesomer half of the year has arrived when it starts raining a lot more frequently.

Discrimination.

2011-09-26T23:11:00.002+08:00

I would like to start off this post with a little heart-to-heart about subject specialisation. It may be a bit vulgar so I suggest turning away for a moment.

Dear people who think not dropping Bio is stupid,

You are not better than us. Just because you guys have a flair for calculations and logical thinking and hate learning about "stupid, useless, irrelevant things" does not mean everyone else does too. Just because you belittle Bio does not mean you should belittle the people who enjoy it. Just because you think your life would be better without this subject doesn't mean the lives of people who take Bio suck. No, don't make assumptions.

Also, just because people who like Bio tend to want to drop Physics, you think you have the right to insult us, to tell us we've made unintelligent, irrational decisions because we're dumb enough to enjoy "mindless memorising" and not appreciate Physics. Why haven't you considered that interests can be different? Maybe we're as uncomfortable with calculations and diagrams as you are with terms and explanations. Have you ever stopped to consider that? Don't we have equal opportunities to indulge in the subjects we like most?

Just because you're geniuses with Math and Physics and are honouring everything sans Bio, it does not give you the right to call us stupid. You are not special. It does not make you smarter than us. It's called discrimination, so go f*ck off and leave us alone. We're not losers, so stop thinking you're better than us.

I hate your mentality.

Sincerely,

Someone who's not dropping Bio.

Okay yeah, now that's over with.

Math test was okay and passable, got let off early during Physics, and played with guppies during Evo Bio. I love Bio.

Also, pretty doomed because I have a Math ass due tomorrow and I realise I'm stuck.

Night.

P.S. But feeling accomplished because I finished a Physics ass. It's times like these when I feel like I want to drop Physics the most, but I'm not, so should get rid of these feelings.

P.P.S. Sudden storm ftw.

Singapore 2011.

2011-09-25T22:52:00.003+08:00

In all my almost eighteen years, why have I never thought of the possibility of elven mermaids before? I have been missing out on a lot.

Going to type this post in two minutes with the sound of Rick Astley belting out 'Never Gonna Give You Up' in the background, 'cause he performed yesterday over the course of Singapore's F1 event and someone uploaded it onto YouTube.

Yeah, all the hype about F1 is going to end very, very soon. Also, I just received a tweet about Linkin Park recently bringing the house down during the post-race performance. Great, simply great. Absolutely brilliant. It's bad enough that I'm stressed as hell and have a Math test tomorrow and I'm worried about being careless and losing marks without knowing I've missed out on yet another F1 race just a teeny distance away from where I am, and a performance by a band I used to love to bits.

So yeah, back to the race.

Finger boy is now only a point away from clinching this year's Driver's Championship after winning this race, so good for him. I feel like a proud parent. It's like we've watched Vettel go from promising rookie to epic ownage, and I like that he's not a complete douche like Hamilton is.

Speaking of Hamilton's doucheness, he ran into Massa quite early into the race, punctured Massa's rear tyre, and poor Massa had to finish tenth due to really bad luck.

Button finished second, and shaved many seconds off Vettel's lead before finishing 1.7 seconds behind the leader.

Alonso in fourth behind Webber, because despite somewhat good driving, our car just isn't up to par.

Okay, going off now.

I'm sure I have more to say but I really can't at this moment.

Night.

P.S. Geog field trip was interesting. Know a little more about Singapore now, and it doesn't hurt to know things.

P.P.S. The race also managed to cut our field trip short, which made me love F1 a little bit more.

Humility.

2011-09-23T23:31:00.003+08:00

Just got back from dinner out with my aunt, uncle and freaking adorable baby cousin, and Stella tweeted me this link, which plays out the comforting sound of rainfall and distant thundering to create the illusion of a reassuring thunderstorm.

I love it when it rains. The sound, the smell, the temperature, the lack of humidity afterwards. So good.

It's been all cold and rainy for the past few days, and I totally appreciate it. It makes up for all the crap we're going through at the moment, what with all the deadlines and tests and quizzes. Oh horribleness.

And went off blogging for a week, because frankly I manage my time really unwisely, so I couldn't bring myself to come here and procrastinate because that would make me feel even worse.

So now it's a Friday again, and even though it's not such a free weekend, it feels good to not have a test/GCT/something due the next day, even though we have a Geog field trip early morning.

Busy busy busy. That's all we've been. But that's life, and we push on.

Hopefully I'll do all right for our Chem test just now.

Had a farewell party for our Year 6s during CCA, because today's their last CCA session, and we've relied so heavily on them. People like Roslyn and Ash have done so much for us, and because of them we've developed as a CCA and they've set the path of leadership for the rest of us. We all want Media to succeed and be regarded with high esteem, and all my CCA life they've been there. And suddenly they're gone and there's a huge gap that needs to be filled. I'm so grateful for their help.

Okay, yeah, race weekend this weekend, and it's a little closer to home this time 'round. Singapore, so close yet so far.

One day, I'm going to go and watch a race live, complete with tickets and seats and all. I don't know how much longer I can last without the experience.

Going off now. Tired beyond belief.

P.S. New seasons of How I Met Your Mother, Glee and The Big Bang Theory have all premiered this week, and I think I might explode of television series goodness.

Acceptance.

2011-09-17T23:20:00.002+08:00

Did two things of significance today, and only two, so it wasn't really as productive as I planned it be.

Slept too much in the morning, and ended up not getting anything done because I was sleeping, instead.

But managed to get my lazy ass out of bed and head down to Bugis to meet Aisyah so we could check out the National Library together and see if we could find any useful material for our Malay debate project. Apparently not.

Despite the non-yieldy trip, we gained plenty of new library experience, 'cause neither of us had been there before. If it's possible to fall in love with a building, I have with this one. I love libraries because they're so organised, literate and smell of books, and I love this particular library even more because the building looked so good.

It was ridiculously professional-looking, too. Great place.

The second thing I did of significance today is draw out this print ad for our English advocacy speech project thing in order to support our cause.

And since I'm posting it here, I might as well get out with my cause. I'm advocating a review of the current sexual education syllabus to include LGBT matters. This is because with education gains understanding, and understanding leads to acceptance, and with acceptance, the world becomes a better place. It sucks to have to go through high school as a student with tonnes of work, and it must suck even more to have to go through it with sexual confusion and unsureness of oneself, risking depression and such.

So once a generation has been educated, it paves the way for future generations to have the same level of acceptance. People shouldn't be defined by their sexuality. They can love who they like.

So there you go. Now I'm off to draft my speech.

Adieu.

P.S. I also like libraries because when a library is new, it smells of new building, and when it's settled in, it smells of books, which are two of my favourite smells.

P.P.S. Workload still dwarfs Mt Everest. Oh help me.

Colour Fusion.

2011-09-16T23:12:00.002+08:00

Our school combined performing arts concert, aka 'Colour Fusion' has just ended, and we've just had the most awesome post-event pack up ever.

Hung around in the hall while the PA team cleared away all their equipment from the hall, and helped coil a few wires. Then played around with balloons and had awesome fun with Rania, MJ, Wai Yin, Pin, Shankari and Adrian. Wearing our media shirt lets us do almost whatever we want, because other people have learnt to recognise us as the "backstage people" who do all the technical stuff.

Which is true. Without us managing the sound, lighting, slides, recording and various other paraphernalia, no school event would be able to take place fully effectively. The performing arts CCAs perform, and that's their calling; to be on stage and be seen doing what they love, and we find this special place in our hearts where we find sweet, simple satisfaction in playing huge parts in making things run smoothly even though we're hardly taken notice of. Media club pride forever. I love us, truly and forever.

Last day of the first week of the last term of Year 4 today, and the school was sort of abuzz with it being the first weekend of the first week of the last term of the last year before our class reshuffling, and also 'cause many of the performers had pre-concert jitters.

Had Physics, then English, where I felt kind of bad when 405 trolled 404 during their presentations, then Econs, where Jia Hong kept saying she screwed up although she got higher marks than most of us, then extra Math, where we went through two GCTs, and then Chem, where we went through Ass 4 and a past year paper.

Finally did some filming during CCA. Ever-so-grateful for the help of Kat and Stanley, who were nice enough to agree to appearing in our video and contributed even more awesomeness.

Going to edit soon, hopefully, really soon. Workload needs to be cleared first, though. Go me, I can do this.

Okay, have to go and watch House now.

Night.

P.S. Our performing arts CCAs improve every year. It's even lovelier watching them after realising that.

Newton-Raphson.

2011-09-15T21:27:00.003+08:00

I love how when you Google the words "cunning" and "plan", the first thing that pops up is the Wikipedia page for 'Baldrick'. It's brilliant.

I miss watching 'Blackadder'. Each episode was simply packed with wit and fun and Rowan Atkinson genius. I love British humour.

But I'm watching 'House' at the moment, so I still get huge doses of Hugh Laurie. I adore Hugh Laurie as House. He's the perfect combination of utter asshole and wit. And those moments when he impersonates a British person while playing an American by faking a British accent while in his American accent make me admire him tenfold, because it's so ridiculously convincing.

Was a Monday today, but felt like a Friday because of all the people heading to CCA and because it was near the end of the school week. But it's a Thursday. How confusing.

GCT-ed again during Math, which was better than yesterday's. Thank God for the availability of "upgrading".

Physics prac-ed with Kian Wee. Was fun because we're Chem prac partners and I feel okay even though I'm horrible at practicals. Sometimes I don't like working with people I've never worked with before, or with people who you know will judge you for being stupid.

Finally had Evo Bio. Spent less than an hour listening to Mr Soh talk some more about allele selection and stuff, and then Mr Soh spent more than an hour listening to the class to our assignment 3. I say "listening" because Chee Seng came over to sit with us and we couldn't stop talking and ended up handing it in after class ended. Whoops.

Then hung around 06 for a while, waiting for rehearsal.

Rehearsal was fun because we've finally figured out where to place the cameras. Oh joy.

Going to talk about the concert tomorrow when it's done. I actually enjoy rehearsals because I like to see how much improvement has been made on the actual day, and seeing things refined after days of practice is satisfying.

Okay, need to go now.

Adieu.

P.S. Need to know more songs.

Scrambled egg.

2011-09-14T23:48:00.003+08:00

Something's wrong with Blogger today, but I can still type here, so I figure it's safe enough to post.

Ended class ridiculously early today, because Mr Chin wasn't in school for English and Mr Yeo wasn't in school for ACE, so kinda had to wait for a few hours after Math and Malay before going out to Seoul Garden with MJ, Jia Hong and Deborah.

Totally died for today's Math GCT, and I swear I'm not going to screw tomorrow's up as badly, because the one we're having tomorrow isn't upgradeable. Mr Chia thinks it isn't excusable for us to not know our Newton-Raphson method. Anyway, did some stuff about expressing some equations in power series afterwards and that was it.

Still just hung around and talked during Malay while doing random bits and pieces of work. Really unproductive.

Lunch was awesome, because we ate and ate and ate because it was a buffet and we wanted to get the most of our money. Decided to head out to Seoul Garden even though Subway was having a tempting one-for-one deal at all outlets (heard tonnes of people say this today, and then saw tonnes of people leave school for Subway), 'cause we wanted to treat Jia Hong for her birthday (although really belated).

And it was so good. Hadn't eaten there for quite a while now, so it was fun and we got to play with food. Scrambled eggs on the hotplate and then asked for a new hotplate shamelessly. And then kind of over-ordered food and didn't finish some stuff, 'cause we sacrificed meat for dessert.

Walked back to school because I was so ridiculously full.

Have this huge dilemma over camera placement during the performing arts combined concert on Friday. I prefer the audi over the hall because it's more comfortable there and it has a slope which raises the seats so we can get a good look at everything, but it had to take place in the hall and now I don't know what to do. Hopefully we can solve this problem by Friday.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Awesome weather today. Really, really awesome.

P.P.S. Realised ice cream and Koko Krunch go ridiculously well together. Why haven't I noticed this before? All these years.

Excuses.

2011-09-13T23:03:00.003+08:00

Doing a teeny slice of research at the moment (which here means typing phrases into the Google search bar on the top right corner of my browser window) for my English advocacy speech project thing, and it turns out our region of the world is still keeping really hush-hush about all this homosexuality stuff.

They don't talk about discrimination cases, hate crimes or senseless assaults. It's so clean. It's like they don't acknowledge gays at all. It's like a problem they don't want to address, and hence keeping it quiet, very much like this advocacy speech project thing we have to do.

Honestly, I don't really mind this advocacy speech project thing (I'm unsure what to call it because it appears to be not just a simple, heavily-graded six-minute speech anymore) because my ego is large enough for me to enjoy being heard, but one of the main reasons why I procrastinate so much is because I don't want to do a crap job. Which is super ironic, because the later I leave my work, the more likely I'll end up doing a crap job. Subconsciously, I'm giving myself an excuse to submit subpar work. Bad subconscious.

Had this short hostel talk in the theatrette during mentoring, so spent twenty minutes or so listening to Ms Queenie tell people about what it's like in the hostel, what to expect, how to behave, and all the essential life skills they'll pick up during their stay. Fun stuff, yeah, but I still can't help but feel a bit violated 'cause it's like tonnes of new people are invading your house.

Lounged around during Malay and discussed some peribahasa questions, then had our first GCT of the week during Math, followed by Chem, followed by nothingness and card-playing, followed by Econs.

Ah, Econs.

I still enjoy Humanities.

P.S. Haze has improved, skies are clearer and it rained. Overall, the weather is looking up and I'm thankful.

P.P.S. I love my Tweeple.

Horny umbrella.

2011-09-12T23:48:00.002+08:00

Listening to Snow Patrol right now, and I really like their sound. There's something about Gary Lightbody's voice that's so pleasantly pleasant and makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

I generally dislike many female singers because I don't like the way their voices become screechy and unnecessarily painful to the ears and it annoys me. And maybe because I'm sexist, too (well, slightly).

First day of school today. Had trouble waking up because I had trouble sleeping because the haze has gotten absolutely terrible and made everything hot and stuffy and humid. Touched down yesterday and instantly missed cleaner Brunei air. It's bad stuff we're inhaling, but we've no choice, because if we shut the windows we'd die from inner-room stuffiness.

Thankfully survived, and even had time to nap in class because Evo Bio got cancelled, which resulted in a three hour break before our house meeting.

Math first thing of the day went by slower than usual. It's like we all needed time to remember what on earth happened last term even though it's only been a week. But yeah, Mr Chia has successfully managed to re-introduce Math into my life once again.

Had Physics afterwards, and finished off our magnetism notes with much slacking and procrastinating and lame joke-making.

Nothingness was spent having lunch, watching people play cards, playing Freecell on my phone, sleeping, wandering around aimlessly, and reading off Yos' umbrella (which had phrases like "Thinking of you makes me feel so excited").

Had hostel dinner again, which really is yet another sad reminder of being back at school. But the company was good. The company is always good.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Mid-Autumn Festival. Moon has been blocked by the haze and that's really sad.

Monza 2011.

2011-09-11T21:56:00.002+08:00

Let's see if I can rush this post in a few minutes, because my workload has piled up like magic and now I don't want to like, die.

Went to a sort-of party for middle-aged people yesterday, and saw old people sing terribly. The experience will scar me for life, but at least now I know I can still have shameless fun when I'm seventy.

Then magically woke up before noon today to head out for breakfast before catching my flight back here, the place where my school is situated because I need an education to make a better living in the future, and because my country sent me here because they didn't really want me back home.

Caught the race, and was sad I couldn't watch it on television, but that's all right. Will catch highlights eventually.

Vettel won, again, and Button got second place, again, and Alonso managed a place on the podium, which was brilliant for Ferrari.

At this rate, Vettel and Red Bull are going to clinch both championships before long, and all we can do is sit back and watch and congratulate them. Good going, really. They've dominated all season. Ferrari are third in the standings after McLaren, and Alonso's in second in the Driver's standings with Massa in sixth.

Webber crashed out early in the race trying to take on Massa, and then Massa spun and ended up in tenth place. Poor guy made it back up to sixth though.

Apparently the Schumacher-Hamilton battling was uber epic awesome and brilliant, but I couldn't watch it and that only reinforced the sadness when Hamilton managed to overtake my childhood hero with his better-performing car.

Nine cars retired, which is quite a large number. Liuzzi and his first turn fiasco (or perhaps not, race stewards think there were other causes of the tangle) wiped out Rosberg, Petrov, D'Ambrosio and himself in one go, and various other failures ended it for other drivers.

Okay, okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Last term of Year 4 coming right up. Holy shit that was fast.

Mastering Physics.

2011-09-09T23:05:00.002+08:00

Feeling so horribly unproductive at the moment, and it makes me sad. What on earth have I been doing?

Nothing much. Sleeping, eating, sleeping, eating, dreaming of doing work and then waking up realising I haven't yet. My mind obsesses yet my body does nothing.

Read 'Little Vampire Women' yesterday, and although there were plenty of really amusing facts as little side notes and a tonne of eyebrow-raising moments, it honestly wasn't as well written as 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' (and its prequel and sequel). I think that's because P&P&Z is one of the first of its kind, and so exceptionally good that other parody books don't seem as good anymore.

Desperate holiday reading has reduced the number of unread books I've got at home, and I think this might somehow clear my conscience and let me get more when I see ones I want. Honestly, there's so much to read yet so little time to do so.

Okay, last true day of the holidays tomorrow. Does work resume when I get back? Will it not resume? Am I doomed to last-minute work everything? Am I going to fail all my subjects and get my ass booted back here?

Tune in next time to find out!

P.S. The hardest part of filming things is finding actors to do it.

P.P.S. We have to learn to see further than the work involved and be able to visualise the finished project, and then that will keep us going.

P.P.P.S. Oh no.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

2011-09-07T22:06:00.002+08:00

Still listening to Snow Patrol's 'Called Out In The Dark' (I say so because it's been on repeat for a few days now, ever since I realised it existed).

Also talking to Baoxin about a scholarship interview she's got tomorrow. It's interesting, because I think I might know how horribly nerve-wracking it is to sit in a room in front of several strangers and have to "present" yourself to them in a nice little package they'd see fit to have in their institution.

Yeah, it's scary business. I remember literally trembling, because I was so terrible nervous. I thought it'd be fine, because whether I got in or not, I'd be fine with whatever outcome (although I must say I am so glad I got in).

And now I wonder, changed so much as I have (in terms of confidence and shamelessness; I still think and talk pretty much the same), would they have passed me? Maybe they look at me now and totally regret letting me into their school. Whoops. I still don't know how I got in. I thought I failed the entrance paper, and when I found out I passed, I thought I botched up the interview really badly, too.

Sometimes when things are meant to happen, it doesn't matter how, because what matters is that it did. And I'm ever thankful for it.

Speaking of being thankful, I found my phone earlier on after losing it yesterday. Turned the house inside out looking for it, then they found it at my uncle's house.

Went out for dinner with Kevin, Feyra, Feyra's sister, Fatinn and Faiz at our beloved Mall to celebrate Kevin's birthday. Sooner or later, all of us are going to be able to legally drink and drive (man that's just ironic. Drinking and driving are a terrible combination). Was relatively quiet, because it's a weeknight and all the other Bruneians have school to attend tomorrow, or jobs to turn up at, so therefore less people and my beloved poklenz.

Sometimes it's like Bruneians in Singapore in Brunei are different. It's like we've seen more, and we've been through more, and we emerge all war-torn and bitter and with our eyes opened to the outside world. Whoa.

Also finished reading 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' by Mark Haddon, which is as brilliant as they've said it would be. Such an amazing read. I love books that kind of open your eyes to different perspectives and open your mind up even further after you're done with them. So, so good. It's never mentioned that the boy in the book has any form of autism or Asperger's though, so we assume. I thought it was quite convincing.

I feel enlightened.

All right, I have the rest of my holidays to enjoy.

Adieu.

P.S. So many good books, so little time.

P.P.S. Tried to convince my brother I actually go to Hogwarts, but failed miserably.

Les Schtroumpfs.

2011-09-04T20:26:00.002+08:00

Whoops, been away from the Internet since my flight back on Friday, and haven't posted for too many days.

During my brief period of abstinence, Irsyad kindly tweeted me this terrible piece of news, where MCR fires their temporary drummer Mike Pedicone for stealing stuff from them, which is really sad. I was kind of getting used to him replacing Bob and stuff. Oh God, I miss Bob Bryar.

Anyway, not that anybody cares, but I'll run through the last few days just in case they get lost in history forever.

Thursday was our school teacher's day celebration, which was disappointingly un-entertaining (although it was a definite improvement from our national day celebration). Appreciated teachers and stuff. I totally appreciate my teachers. In fact, one of the reasons why I didn't post on Thursday was because if I did, I'd be writing another huge cliché post on why we should appreciate our teachers and how to appreciate our teachers and stuff, so no.

Friday was my flight back, so spent the morning packing and the afternoon transiting between countries.

Watched The Smurfs (movie) yesterday with my mum, brother and cousins. It was better than I expected, and I'd totally learnt to keep my expectations low now, so I can still enjoy myself and be entertained. I liked it because it was full of ridiculous familiarity. Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Hank Azaria. I was in television series junkie heaven, man. And the references, oh the references.

But yeah the Smurfs were kinda cute and it was kinda funny so good going for a holiday "nothing-better-to-do" movie.

Also started reading 'Merde Actually', sequel to the wonderful 'A Year In The Merde' by Stephen Clarke, who is as funny as he is an awesome writer. Finished it earlier today, and I have to say it made a highly amusing read. Loved it loved it loved it.

The reason why I got 'A Year In The Merde' around a year or so ago was because I saw 'Merde Happens' out in stores but didn't want to buy it because my strange compulsive disorders prevent me from buying books out of order. Was totally impressed with the title, and the Merde books are so so brilliant.

Also had fun carrying around a book which blatantly spells out the word "shit" in French and having nobody mind because they didn't know what it meant.

So yeah, need to get some work done soon, but it doesn't hurt to be able to chillax to the fullest for a few days before getting back in the game again.

Adieu.

P.S. Smurfin' smurfity smurfin' smurfs.

Spirit.

2011-08-31T22:53:00.002+08:00

Ended out cluster outing dinner four hours ago, and yet I still feel full beyond words. I am definitely not cut out for buffets. My stomach capacity is only that large.

Anyway, Sports Day was today, and so we didn't have any lessons whatsoever, which was great. Also glad it didn't rain today so we could finish all the intended events (with the exception of the novelty teachers' tug-of-war, because the field was still squishy from previous rainfall).

Our Fibo spirit was really dead today. Hardly anyone cheered, or clapped, or made any kind of enthusiastic noise while our runners ran or received prizes. That's kinda sad.

Congratulations to Fleming for winning today, because they totally deserve it. As far as anyone can remember, Fleming never does well for these events, and therefore they've worked especially hard and now have earned the right to be winners of Sports Day.

Yeah.

Our school really lacks spirit sometimes.

I remember back in MS (I sound old saying this), we'd sing the school song with so much heart, and we'd cheer and have march-pasts and stuff. Now that was school spirit. Then you come here and a lot of people are too proud to admit they want to cheer and yell and scream their lungs out for the sake of their houses. Sad.

Okay short post for tonight.

Adieu.

P.S. Epic LotR music was played during one of the prize presentations today, and it was epic.

P.P.S. Nope, still don't have a sense of direction.

Hardship.

2011-08-30T22:35:00.003+08:00

Sitting here late at night even though there's school tomorrow, but that's okay. Holidays are coming soon and I can afford to crash because I've slept so much over the past few days. Browsing through Facebook photos of last night's and today's Hari Raya events, and it kinda really just hit me: We go through so much together.

I'm serious. We do.

There's a picture of our batch (Faiz, Kevin, Insan and I) together, and it hit me like a speeding truck hits a careless jaywalker. We've gone through so bloody much, it's scary.

Every single one of us (the Bruneians in our school) knows what it's like to leave home, leave our families behind, be foreigners in a ridiculously tough-sounding school, to have to learn how to deal with each other, work with people, travel alone, get things sorted all by ourselves. We've all gone through all this character-building crap that is, of course, good for us. All seventeen of us. There's no denying that. There's also no denying that we've got each other's backs, no matter what. Those that cry together, laugh together, and I love how much Bruneian spirit we've got in us. It keeps us going, no matter how much it sucks or how much we miss home.

I can't say I don't miss home as much as I did two and a half years ago, but I'll admit that it bothers me to a minimal extent now. Being here and being at home is like a win-win situation. I'm happy with either, and it's this equilibrium that comforts me.

So, yeah, it's the first day of Raya here in Singapore, and I'm glad we had fun. Everyone's looking forward to going home for Raya in two days, but now we have no excuse to be miserable about missing the first day or two.

I've got a tonne of vlog footage to edit, but it's no chore because that way I know all the little moments we had together won't be lost forever.

We'll eventually all graduate and leave this place. Will keep in touch for a while, but we'll inevitably drift apart, and all that closeness we had once will be left in the dust; something that we know was there but yeah, too bad. But then we'll look at these photographs and watch these videos and smile because they're good memories. Memories we want to keep with us as long as we live, and perhaps even beyond that.

All right, I've said enough.

Night.

P.S. One of the most satisfying feelings ever is buying things to bring home that you know for sure will make people happy.

P.P.S. Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, maaf zahir dan batin.

Onset.

2011-08-29T23:50:00.003+08:00

Been an idle day today. Brilliantly rainy weather in the morning meant sleeping in, and when I finally did wake up to have lunch with Woan Chyi, I spent the following afternoon watching House and getting better acquainted with charcoal.

The only kind of charcoal I've got are the soft pastel kind, and it's really messy to use because it smudges really easily. But overall I think this sketch of Nightcrawler turned out quite all right, even though I was afraid of killing his hair and face and ended up drawing a hood to cover up instead. Was ready to scrap it, too, just in case I smudged it really badly.

It's not perfect, but I love Nightcrawler. I also love how completely black the black of charcoal can get. It's so brilliant.

Went out afterwards to Auntie Mal's place, because tomorrow's Raya and we like to celebrate things like that.

It's interesting that when they're sembahyang-ing (praying) and stuff, it doesn't bore me to just sit there and listen. When you have no idea what they're saying, it becomes super mysterious yet awesome-sounding. And because we've sort of grown up listening to this stuff, it becomes familiar and kinda reassuring.

Felt kinda bad for the others, because they're starting Raya away from their families, which is sad and makes them homesick. Poor things. It really blows to be away from home when the rest of your family is spending time together doing something you should be there to participate in as well. It's like a huge chunk of you has been ripped out and is floating about in oblivion, waiting for the embrace of the comfort of home. You sort of feel empty, and it's a really shitty feeling.

So yeah.

Going home in a few days though, so we shouldn't feel so bad.

Night.

Spa-Francorchamps 2011

2011-08-28T21:33:00.005+08:00

Vettel has just won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, and good job to him. Yeah, Finger Boy does it again.

It was probably a breeze though, 'cause when you start pole there really isn't much catching up to do in order to win.

And it's another Red Bull one-two, because Webber did quite a great job too, and poor Massa had a puncture and ended up eighth to Alonso's fourth. Rosberg led for a while at the start, but then ended up behind his teammate in sixth.

I love how Force India's just chilling in the middle field and doing really well despite what everyone thought a few years ago when they first started out.

I think the best driver of the race today was probably Button, for epic catching up at the end, and taking on Alonso for third place with two laps to go, after starting thirteenth. He went up ten places from the start, but that's not impressive compared to Schumi's nineteen-place improvement.

It's Schumacher's twentieth year anniversary since making his F1 debut, and he suffered really bad luck yesterday when a tyre came off his Mercedes during qualifying. Poor guy had to start last, but still nobody doubts his driving ability. He totally deserves to be well-celebrated, because no matter how questionable many of his actions were over the years, he was undeniably brilliant, and brilliant people can be assholes sometimes if they're brilliant enough.

I remember watching F1 in Schumi's heyday as a little girl with my dad, and we'd make little jokes about Button's name and watch Schumacher win race after race. Oh good times, good times.

So yeah, a really mundane day today. Spent most of my time doing an e-learning karangan on and off, and then finally finishing literally minutes to midnight (whoa Linkin Park reference). Also watched a tonne of YouTube videos and went out to buy cereal. I have a strange love affair with cereal.

Singapore's getting a new president, and thanks to that there's no school tomorrow so I get to sleep in some more. Catching up on sleep is fun, but I hate waking up really late, because it feels as if I've missed the day. But oh well, the night is good too.

P.S. Raya's almost here. Hell that was quick.

P.P.S. I missed Kimi today.

P.P.P.S. And oh, the weather was simply divine yesterday.

P.P.P.P.S. STGCC 2011 vlog is finally up, by the way. You can watch it here.

Hypocrisy.

2011-08-26T22:27:00.003+08:00

Was just about to type stuff here, when Mr Xie called to say he was locked in the library. At half past ten at night. Talk about dedicated footage editing.

So I went down to look for help, and the security guard guy who does the hostel night shift simply gave me the library keys. That's so nice and awesome of him. Then I braved myself to walk through dark, empty corridors and managed to free the teacher.

I'm not a coward. Or am I? Perhaps I am. But I'm not afraid to admit that I'm less brave than a lot of people out there. I despise horror movies, dislike unnecessary death and gore, flinch at the sight of scary images, and used to hide under the covers and cry whenever my parents watched anything remotely scary as a kid. I'm both scarred and scared. Maybe I'm just sensible enough to not want to put myself through a series of mini heart-attacks and sleepless nights and being unable to go to the bathroom unaccompanied.

I'm good with the way things are, thank you very much. I don't see how being into horror films is going to make me a better person.

Okay, finally done with our Physics and Geog tests and Chem quiz, and I'm hoping I'll pass every one of them, considering there was a thing called time I hadn't managed properly and almost killed me.

Bad decisions needed to be paid for, and that's why I stayed up til three in the morning on Thursday after opting to go out instead on E-learning day. But my detrimental self-destructive time management methods worked, because with finishing my Econs reflections then, I had time to do a bit of Chem and Physics for today. That's why I didn't post last night, because I, unlike a lot of people, actually have to study.

Bit of a busy day for our school today, because as organiser of SAMC (Singapore Amazing Machine Competition) and SDYC (Sustainable Development Youth Convention), we somehow managed to make them happen on coinciding days, so student helpers were needed pretty much everywhere, and a lot of people went around in formal wear and blazers and were generally missing because they had to be at the Science Centre or the school audi as participants or helpers.

Also, a part of NJRC was happening at the Science Centre, which took a toll on the Robotics people, from what I could make out.

So yeah, absentees everywhere, which made teachers very, very frustrated about having to hold make-up classes and administer make-up quizzes and come up with new questions for make-up tests.

But we can safely say that today is sort of like the last day of the term, because next week is almost completely lesson-less, what with public holidays, Sports Day and our Teacher's Day celebration. And then I get to go home with a huge burden of work to do, but that's okay because I don't want to think that far yet. I'm tired and it feels good to be able to relax for a few hours before getting up and going again.

Also feeling sort of sad because next term will be our last term together as a class. Time freaking flies, man.

Okay, good night.

P.S. We're all hypocrites.

P.P.S. Really proud of the way we cooperated and sat together for a while discussing CIP matters today during CCA. #mediaclubpride forever.

Mad Cow.

2011-08-24T15:23:00.004+08:00

"The Singapore Red Cross precludes potential donors who have spent a cumulative time of three months or more in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996."

That's a line from the Wikipedia page of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or rather known as mad cow disease. I was on this page the day before, and if I'd have read that line, I'd have sort of mentally prepared for being utterly rejected just now.

It kinda sucks, when you want to do something of significance, that would make an impact on someone else's life in a good way, but they tell you you can't. It's not like you're not good enough, it's just that the circumstances don't let you. And it's just a really, really strange feeling. Sort of a mixture between disappointment and well, more disappointment.

Only one person in our slot could donate, which was just really unlucky. But the other three people who couldn't donate aren't banned for life, and never being able to donate blood is just sad. Jean had low blood pressure, so she couldn't donate either. So much for promising to donate blood together. But the thought counts too, right? A lot of people didn't even bother signing up, and I'm glad we at least tried.

So yeah, that was the highlight of my school day.

Oh, and we had a guy come in for Malay to talk to us about writing and answering comprehension questions. We all sorta like him and enjoyed it. Funny guy.

Now I've got to go and do other things. Should stop thinking about blood donations, and congratulations to all the other donors who've gone through with it. When you don't know what to expect, or how much pain to brace yourself for, it's scary having to bide your time waiting for it to happen.

So yes, courage.

Oh, and the Malay cerpen guy told us a story about this other guy who answered the essay question "Define courage," by simply writing "This is courage" and then handing in his paper. Apparently he aced it. Awesome stuff.

Adieu.

P.S. It's a Wednesday, it honestly feels like a Monday, but all I'll ever remember this day as is "the day my blood got rejected forever day".

P.P.S. I realise that if I really wanted to, I can go and donate blood in other countries, but then again knowing your blood's been rejected is like knowingly jeopardising the health of the blood receivers. Man, dilemma.

The Romance is Chemically Mine.

2011-08-22T23:43:00.003+08:00

On a somewhat MCR marathon right now, and I've only just reached Danger Days. Been going since before dinner, and I've gone through Three Cheers, The Black Parade and The Black Parade Is Dead!, and I honestly couldn't be more in love with this band right now.

And it gets better. Wearing one of my MCR shirts and reading The Umbrella Academy and reading a bit of Chem, the romance is most definitely chemically mine.

Did Math today, and I think root approximation is pretty pointless because if we're allowed calculators to help us calculate points to decimal places, then we could just use the solve function of our GCs to make our lives oh so easier. But no, because if we could do that the Math department wouldn't really need to teach us anything anymore.

Oh well.

Then had Physics. Mr Yeo's finally back, after his two weeks of reservice. Made lame jokes about magnetism, and covered a part of the notes. Not looking forward to the test. Oh no.

Evolutionary Bio was fun, because it's Bio, and because Mr Soh's awesome. Ryan got owned, and then we covered stuff like genetic drift and stuff. Mmm Bio.

Oh, and some more nerdy pickup lines. Embrace the nerddom.

- You're so hot, you excite my electrons.

- If we're two sides to a reaction, we should calculate Ka so you'd be on top of me.

- I wish I were adenine so I'd be paired with U.

- If I'm a G-protein, you must be a GPCR, because you activate me.

- You know what they say, baby. Subduction leads to orogeny. How about we go back to my place and make the bedrock?

- I'm so attracted to you, they're going to have to call it a fifth fundamental force.

- According to the second law of thermodynamics, you're supposed to share your hotness with me.

- You must be a good benzene ring, because you're always pleasantly aromatic.

- You must be created by the Heavens; no amount of genetic drift would be able to achieve such perfection.

- You must mess up the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, because your alleles are out of this world.

- No genotype on earth could chart your beauty.

Okay, nerdy enough for tonight, and the poor people following me on Twitter have had to put up with way more.

Night.

P.S. Oh oh one more: My favourite element is Uranium, because I love U.

Stormtroopers.

2011-08-21T21:37:00.003+08:00

Priorities were not right today, but witnessed a few pic moments during STGCC today, so was quite all right. Work is still there though, and now I've got vlog footage to edit underneath all that.

In the meantime, before I upload the full, edited vlog, here's a teeny short clip of me high fiving a Predator (nothing much, really. It just is me asking a Predator for a high five and then scoring big time). I also high fived a stormtrooper, but it was really awkward and now I'm started to doubt my shamelessness. I might actually have shame.

Saw a panel of Marvel artists and writers, which was seriously awesome. So much awesomeness in one area. It's funny how despite they've probably got dream jobs, quite a few of them act as if they've never gotten girls before (or guys, depending how they swing). There was this one guy who pretty much included the word "boobs" in all his answers. For example, which superhero would you like to be and why, and he went, "Which one gets the most ladies? Oh Ironman. I want to be Ironman." And another guy went "Cyclops. Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Psylocke."

And one of the guys mentioned he "saw Psylocke and became a true man." Whoa there.

Oh they're only human, and great people. That's so cool.

Unleash your inner nerd. It's totally okay, because there are tonnes of other people out there who're as nerdy, or worse.

Managed to get my hands on a copy of 'The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite', and I'm really glad, although I haven't started reading yet. Been wanting it since its release, but it's been hard to find. I love how Gerard Way's short biography at the back says, "He's also in a band." He obviously doesn't want to sell his comic on the basis of him being in MCR and already totally famous and loved by thousands, but it can't be helped that that's how I discovered it.

Good stuff though, yeah.

And saw really really expensive collector's items and ridiculously good paintings of Marvel characters and scenes. Pregnant Mystique was brilliant.

Yeah, comics.

And plenty of cosplaying, too.

Okay good night.

P.S. Oh, and there were mini TARDISes. So cute.

Courage.

2011-08-19T22:43:00.002+08:00

Yeahey, it's a weekend again, but this time it'll be jam packed and my workload catching up is going to go completely down the drain.

Going to watch House soon, and I want to bring up something I've been wanting to point out for a long time. In the House intro sequence, there are fancy shots of medical things accompanying the actors' names with the same beige-ish background and theme, but when it comes to Jennifer Morrison's name it turns into a ridiculously random shot of a boat cruising on a river. I don't understand. Did they somehow run out of clips and had handy boat footage lying about? Hmm.

Have to wake up early tomorrow because there's this SPSO and NMOS awards ceremony thing I'm on duty for. I'm kinda looking forward to it, because I haven't been on video duty since like, orientation, I think, and I might've gone all rusty. We'll see.

There used to be a time where half of the school events would be covered by yours truly, but now we've got more people and our work is more spread out amongst the Year 6s (because Mr Xie insists so), and it makes us seem like we're doing nothing. We're being perceived wrongly, even by members of our own CCA. It makes me sad. I want to tell them that just because they do nothing doesn't mean we (as a whole) do nothing, because there are quite a few of us working hard on school events and such footage.

Feeling super grateful for the support our CCA teachers give me at times, when I feel like dying and killing people at the same time. I'm not nasty enough, I'm not nice enough, I'm not pushy enough, I'm not easygoing enough, I'm not respected enough, I'm not supposed to be respected, et cetera. You can't give everyone what they want.

Had our Physics in-class today, and it was okay. I think I can pass, and I sure hope so. Once again I doubt dropping Physics.

English comprehension was graded and insidious and I kinda want to pass because if not I'll lose all hope in everything in life.

Then had a full two and a half hour break where I went down to the library with Wei Qi to view the Year 6 art exhibition, which was quite awesome, looked for my house on Google maps, and then went up to the Life Science lab to check on mine and Leyi's plant tissue culture, which is still fungus-free (got extremely lucky there).

Chem was fun, but kinda worried about the next quiz because the previous one was terribly done.

Okay, going off now. House awaits.

Night.

P.S. In life, there's no such thing as a break.

Tongue rolling.

2011-08-18T22:04:00.002+08:00

Listening to 'The Black Parade Is Dead!' right now, because after all these years, I'm still ridiculously in love with this band. It wasn't just a phase I was going to get over once I got older. MCR for life, man.

Totally forgot about it, but I posted this ridiculously long overdue vlog a few days ago, from when I went out with Wani, Myra and Nadhirah during the June holidays.

I have seriously found a strange love and attachment to vlogging. When you record videos of events or conversations a lot of people would deem pointless to record, that part of your life stays on. It wouldn't be just a moment that happened and would be forgotten in a short while, but it'd be a moment you can review and appreciate; sort of like a keepsake of the past. As my favourite vlogger Shay Carl says, if life is worth living, it's worth recording, and I'd like to live by that rule for as long as I'm capable of.

Strangely didn't feel like a Thursday today, and I still haven't figured out why.

PE was still all about mini tennis. Had this tournament thing where everyone had to play against everyone else of the same gender, and it took us so long we've only managed to play a seventh of what we were supposed to in two sessions, so we're pretty much doomed on the "finishing-on-time" scale.

Translated English text to Malay during Malay, and like, my grammar is really strange. It's not bad, it's just strange. And my vocabulary has become a complete cesspool of jumbled words and scrambled imbuhans and it disgusts me.

Had Geog after. Yeah the topic of urban planning interests me, but Mrs Lim spent most of the time talking about places to get good food in Singapore, so like yeah, effective lesson. We suspect she got paid to advertise, but we'll never know.

Had Mr Loo come in place of Mr Chia for Math today, and owned the notes like a boss, a phrase here which means "went through a lot of pages faster than ever before".

Talked about dragons during Cell Bio. Mm genetics. Just like Evolutionary Bio. It's fun when our two Bio modules link up.

All right, time to do something else.

Adieu.

P.S. I can roll my tongue like a pro, baby.

P.P.S. Concluded today that Malay songs are either about sakit jiwa or celebration, so it's like they're all bipolar or something.

Acronyms.

2011-08-17T22:39:00.002+08:00

iTunes is on shuffle, and I realise I really don't have all the time in the world to listen to all the songs I want to. I put my iTunes on shuffle because sometimes it knows best what I want to listen to, and I need reminding of some of the songs I have.

Oh memories.

Didn't post yesterday because I was utterly pooped, even though we did relatively little at school. Field trip was sort of interesting, and I liked the IRAS (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore) building, and it smelt quite new and fresh and the building was getting enough light even though it was kind of underground. Mm yeah.

Tax in Singapore is admittedly really well done. Back home, we don't get taxed, so we're sort of new to all this taxation because our parents don't have to sit and worry over paying taxes in time and calculating funds, which is good in a way. But then again, I think it'd be a good idea if taxes were implemented for the better part of the population who're well off, just so we can all contribute a bit more to our country's improvement.

We're ridiculously pampered, and I'm not sure if that's such a good thing, after all.

Then like, ate out with Wee Thean, Kelvin and Lee Ji Hyun. Baskin Robbins was a bad call because my voice cracked really badly afterwards.

Had a Math graded class task first thing in the morning, which was quite okay, apart from the part where there were numbers (I kid, it really was okay, actually).

So we're finally done with integration for the sem, and now we're onto other things.

Didn't have Malay so spent an hour in the student lounge helping Aisyah colour her art piece. Oh my goodness, I have the colouring skills of a six-year old.

Part of English was spent talking about Singaporean culture. I'm foreign. I don't really know what Singaporeans think of themselves, but I know what foreigners think. It's epic kiasu-ness and a strange love for acronyms and writing complaint letters all wrapped up neatly and systematically. Scary stuff, man.

And our NE quiz was on Singapore as well, because after all, it's National Education. Spent more time waiting for my computer to load than actually playing the game, which was glitchy and honestly way too easy for words.

I'm not offended that they're trying to inculcate feelings of loyalty towards this country. I'm all the more enlightened, and being knowledgeable doesn't hurt.

All right, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Whoa Raya is in less than two weeks. Freakishly fast, yes.

Self-control.

2011-08-15T23:10:00.002+08:00

The weather's absolutely lovely and cold, and it's been raining most of the afternoon, much to the chagrin of our Sports Day event organisers. Was supposed to hold a few events earlier on, but had to postpone them indefinitely due to the wet weather. Nobody likes to run on a wet, slippery track.

But I'll grasp the moment to be selfish, because I honestly do love cool, rainy weather. It's amazing.

Started the week feeling really sleepy and watched 'House' late into the night. Managed to finish season 2, but that's not really the point. The point is that my lack of self control killed me. A lesson which I probably won't learn, because as they say, you can rest when you die. So much to see, so much to do.

Have foreigners over from Australia, but it never really applies to me because I don't interact with the exchange students.

Math first thing in the morning. Went through notes and got our Math test back. Passed, yes, and made some mistakes, but it was a-okay.

Then had Physics, or sort of, because we spent forty minutes waiting for a replacement teacher to come in place of Mr Yeo (who's been off on re-service for the past week or so), and then the remainder of the two hours staring blankly at the poor guy who had to come and teach our class.

I feel really bad about wanting to drop Physics, but it's what I want to do, so no regrets when it happens. I like it, but it makes me feel so terribly insecure it scares me. Numbers numbers numbers. One day I'll get over it, and hopefully soon.

Simulation-ed again during Evolutionary Bio. We're like, at least two lessons behind all the other classes because of all the Mondays we've missed.

Picked beads and entered numbers into excel files, and all this genotypic frequency stuff is actually kinda cool.

Okay, enough for today.

Night.

P.S. Darren Criss's cover of Elton John's 'Your Song' makes me happy.

P.P.S. One of the few female artists I like is Colbie Caillat, because her voice isn't screechy and her songs make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Having said that, I still despise 'Lucky' to the core because I find it annoying, even though it was a duet with Jason Mraz.

Asian James Brown

2011-08-14T22:33:00.003+08:00

Wow, it's like if I don't go out during the weekend, my posts are almost contentless and I don't post. I live a really boring life in my room, actually. Internet addicts have close to zero social lives, but I make do.

Anyway, really into catching up with America's Got Talent right now. There are just so many people out there who were totally born to do what they love to do for a living, and it's great that they've been given platforms to pursue those dreams of theirs, and the really terrible ones entertain us, so it's good for viewers.

But when you muster up the courage to go up there and perform on national television in front of judges and a live audience, do badly and they put you down, it must be the hardest thing ever. Dreams shattered and hopes blown away, and it really shouldn't be necessary to wake these people up so publicly. They'll never see themselves the same way again.

Man, talent shows really are blowing up, aren't they?

Two things I learnt from watching the show on YouTube for the past few days: Rebecca Black truly can't sing well, and I have a total mancrush on Dani Shay, who's got way more charm and talent than Justin Bieber, in my opinion.

Rebecca Black's also dropping out of school, so there goes my high opinion of her being able to take criticism. But honestly though, people shouldn't be such asses to her in real life. She is, after all, only human, and human females are emotionally really vulnerable, so it's not nice to tease them. Poor thing. I wonder what her parents think of her brilliant career path now.

Kinda restless because there's no race today and won't be until Spa on the 28th. Time flies super fast, so I'm not worried about the wait.

I think I sleep most of my weekends away, so I can safely get less sleep during the weekdays. This "battery" concept isn't actually true because there's no way I can charge myself up fully and then go days without sleep, but it makes me feel good about myself.

Okay, going off now.

Adieu.

P.S. Asian James Brown made my day. Love the guy.

Working printers.

2011-08-11T22:45:00.002+08:00

Reading the Wiki page of the Tenth doctor and realising he was nearsighted in his left eye too made me feel quite awesome. Yeah I am totally going to watch it once I'm done with House. A bit too late, but better late than never.

It's been quite humid tonight, and I'm sweating just sitting here and typing. It's ridiculous. I'd really love it if rainy weather came back. The best nights are cold nights.

Had mini-tennis during PE. Really, really bad hand-eye coordination.

After that had Malay, where cikgu made us recite sajaks. There were a few sajaks which were quite nice, really, but I can't stand the way you have to speak when you present them. I don't understand. Why can't we speak normally like normal people? The term "normal" is rather broad, but you know what I mean. Sajak-ing is just really awkward and weird and I can't find enough emosi.

Got released early during Geog, because my class had a health check that strategically interrupted class. Was kinda thankful my group didn't have to present our slides about concept plans and stuff, but then we spent the better part of the hour listening to Ryan ramble on and on.

Health check was awkward, because I had to answer questions about my eyesight, which I don't particularly like. It's becoming really tedious, actually. I've sort of resorted to just shrugging, but these were nurses and I'm a decent enough person. Had to run back to get my glasses and stuff. Of all days to not bring them.

Then one of the nurses told me, "Your other eye can see really well, huh?" and I heard Yos laugh from the other table, because she was totally wrong about that. But yeah, to make things simple, they kinda only judge your myopia and ignore hyperopia because generally young people don't get that. How fun.

Cell Bio quiz was terrible and I feel sad. But it's over and we can't do anything about it anymore.

Math was fun, yeah, in ways.

Okay, going off now. Have better things to do.

Night.

P.S. Accomplishment of the day: Finishing my EI 1. Yay.

P.P.S. I love working printers. They're like magic.

1000th.

2011-08-10T23:03:00.002+08:00

Whoa, title says it all, I've just realised that this is my thousandth blog post (actually one's a draft, and it concerns Escher and I've been keeping it there as a memento, so it totally counts).

Yeah, nobody cares and I still write horrible posts that are "nothing, really", according to people who bother telling me that, but I can look back at an almost daily commentary of my life and things that have happened over the past almost-four years and I appreciate my own perseverance and love of my own thoughts. To those people who tell me I'm boring, I'm not making you read what I write, and I've come this far, so in your faces.

I'm probably boring because I don't come here to b*tch (pardon my language) about people who've made me angry, or to talk about my miserable feelings or to gossip juicily, or anything along those lines, and I know that's what makes most people tick. I don't want to reread my posts feeling all bitter and having to relive all the bitter moments of the past. Emotion is not the boss of me.

Anyway, it totally feels like a Sunday today, but it's not because it's a Wednesday and day two of our National Day school holidays. School resumes tomorrow, sadly, but I'm sure we'll manage. And besides, it's only two more schooldays until yet another weekend.

Went out with KT and Kelvin to watch Captain America: The First Avenger at Vivo, because it sucks to feel all restless cooped up in the hostel going stir crazy.

Despite what people might be saying about it being really bad, I thought it was quite all right. I enjoyed it, although the ending was a bit funky.

Totally liked how Chris Evans managed to make Steve Rogers such a likeable guy, and Captain America truly really admirable. He is, after all, the first Avenger.

What with Thor out earlier this year and Iron Man already a big name, The Avengers isn't going to be totally unfamiliar when it gets released in cinemas next year.

Okay, better go now.

Night.

P.S. Can't seem to organise thoughts tonight. In a total state of disarray.

Wretched.

2011-08-09T20:17:00.002+08:00

Watching this video right now, along with a few others with probable equal potential of making girls melt. Darren Criss is awesome.

And rewatching this video of Jason Mraz performing live totally reminded me of how there was a time I swore to myself I wouldn't marry a guy who wasn't able to sing and play the guitar/or any other musical instrument that looks cool. I mean yeah, I can dream.

I'm sure somewhere out there one day somehow I'll stop being forever alone. It's a sad prospect to end up single forever. I don't really worry about it as much 'cause I'm not that old yet, but when I look around me and see a tonne of people my age and much younger who've been in like a gazillion romantic relationships and can't help but wonder, "What on earth am I doing wrong?" Maybe it's not me; it's everyone else. It's okay to be single at the moment.

Anyway, my little predicament aside, have you heard about the London riots? Didn't really want to talk about it, because these things happen so often in other countries it's become commonplace, but then there was footage of this happening and now I feel really unhappy about the state of things.

How could anyone do a thing like that? Help a heavily bleeding, injured boy to his feet only to check the contents of his bag and make off with them. This is going to spark some big outrage, man. Are we as humans born with morals and a sense of right and wrong? Or is it drilled into us as we grow up? If this is what people claim separates us from "animals", then we're no better off. Sure we might think we might comprehend we might be one of the most advanced species on Earth but hell we're stupid.

And then there's this video, where two girls talk about showing "the rich people" they can "do what they want". So much bullshit. So this is what they want? People dying and things destroyed? How on earth is that going to make them better people? What point are they trying to prove? That they can wreck lives just as well as "rich" people can? I don't understand.

Sometimes you just lose all faith in humanity.

Confusing thoughts.

"'Cause I wanna be Mr Pond."

2011-08-08T22:40:00.002+08:00

Listening to Chameleon Circuit's 'Still Got Legs' album at the moment, and yeah it's been established that I do really like it, particularly 'Everything is Ending' and 'Mr Pond'. It's so good.

My earliest memories of Dr Who are of my parents flipping to BBCEntertainment and telling me of a man who travels time and fights monsters and that they loved it and it was a brilliant show. I've never been an avid follower, but that doesn't make Chameleon Circuit any less good to listen to. But maybe yes, I should get started on watching one day. Once I'm done with House and this pile of schoolwork and editing I've got on my hands.

People are wishing Singapore a "happy birthday" right now, because it took me like two hours to type out the first two paragraphs. Well yeah, Singapore's always been the "cooler" country here. The one where almost every non-Singaporean in Southeast Asia wants to go to shop and be associated with in some way.

I have to admit, back when my dad started his evil schemes to deport me here to pursue a better education many years ago, I grew this ridiculous amount of resentment for this country. I hated it. I hated the way they spoke their English and the way they drill their students relentlessly and everybody wants to win and is so kiasu (yes I'm allowed to use this because I'm genuinely Hokkien).

But this place runs things so well it scares me. It's become like a second home now, and even though I am and will always be oh-so-Bruneian, Singapore's all right.

National Day celebrations ran from eight to eleven this morning. Great job with the marching, even though the performances were a bit weird and unentertaining.

Such patriotism.

All right, going off now. Any more and I'm going to launch into a meaningless ramble about my confused mixed feelings of pride, envy, fondness and resentment towards this country.

Night.

P.S. And I still feel a little bit sad about being able to celebrate Singapore's National Day with Singaporeans in Singapore and having not done so with Brunei in three years.

Cereal.

2011-08-07T20:54:00.002+08:00

Was going to post on Friday, but went to sleep after the first few lines so I ditched it.

There was a link to this video, which is quite an old ad by Petronas a few Chinese New Years ago, but Mr Chin showed it to us on Friday during English and it made me rethink my life.

No, money isn't everything. But I love money. I want to be rich and rollin' in money and be able to spend whatever I want whenever I want and never go into debt. I've gone insane. What's with this, man?

I know I'll never make it. I'm bonded. I'll be in a quiet country all my life, working office hours with the same mundane job until I retire old and worn, but at least I'll be with my family and that's probably what matters most, ultimately. Yeah, going to need to come to terms with this. Time to say goodbye to ever achieving anything brilliant in this lifetime. It's kind of sad, isn't it? But yes I will probably be happy.

Perpetually torn and confused, yeah.

Loved the weather when I woke up this morning, because it was raining, and then continued to rain for like, half the day, which was brilliant and cooling and refreshing.

Our senior management will probably be hoping it doesn't repeat itself tomorrow, because that way all our (Singaporean) National Day plans will be ruined by wet weather. Not that I mind, though, but for all the people who've put in all the time and effort into making the event happen.

Haven't done anything really productive, and I berate myself for that, blah blah blah, same old story. I wish I could time travel to the future and confront my procrastinating self. Dear self procrastinating in the future, if you ever read this, STOP.

All right yeah, ridiculously uneventful weekend. Went out to eat just now with Adithya, but that was it.

Night.

P.S. I think I might be in love. With cereal. How is that even possible?

Still Got Legs.

2011-08-04T22:56:00.002+08:00

Whoa look there, it's the fourth of August, and it's going to end soon, so like, yeah.

Okay, time to do a little "oh-my-goodness-gracious-time-has-completely-flown-by-and-left-me-dumbfounded-to-find-it's-already-the-middle-of-sem-2-term-3-and-that-time-has-not-stopped-for-me-at-all-what-am-I-doing-with-my-life" moment, because honestly, I haven't done one of those in a long time, although it may have seemed like only yesterday because oh my goodness gracious, time has completely flown by and left me dumbfounded to find it's already the middle of sem 2 term 3. And it's also disappointing to find out that time hasn't stopped to wait for me or any of us to catch up with it and has simply hurtled on into the abyss that is God-knows-what.

What am I doing with my life? Before I know it, I'll be like, old and dying and dead. Whoa there.

Listening to Chameleon Circuit's latest album 'Still Got Legs' right now, and so far it's awesome and makes me wish I watched more Dr Who. Oh yeah.

The weather today has been absolutely magnificent. Rained a tonne, and it's still cold now, which is brilliant. Loving it.

Had PE indoors, because of the lightning alert. Mini tennis and sponge balls. I swear Mr Loke makes a lot of homosexual references, but few people get it.

Master-discipled during Geog, and got let off early, but never earlier than the History students. Tsk.

Did more Riemann summing during Math. Getting the hang of it, but Mr Chia has totally taken to taking the mickey because of an incident last Monday where I kept going "I don't know". But I believe he's nice enough to stop in a few lessons' time.

Talked about stem cells during Cell Bio, which was really rather interesting. Now we know how it works. Moral issues, killing babies, and stuff. When are we really "alive"? Is it when we gain consciousness? When does that happen? Or is it when sperm meets egg and blastocyst is formed? We don't know that.

But I do believe we're not just a ball of flesh and organs before we emerge from the womb. Hard to draw the line, huh?

Okay, going to sleep now, because although Friday's tomorrow, I want to enjoy it without feeling unrested.

Night.

P.S. Oh it's official. I really like this album.

Riemann.

2011-08-03T22:43:00.003+08:00

Wow, it's midnight and I totally didn't realise until half a second ago.

Just finished Chem ass 2, which was really horrible for me because I keep mistaking purple for red and red for purple and then mixing up my ratios because apparently my brain can't think in colour.

Neither can I differentiate left from right, 'cause I honestly thought right was left and listed R(n) values for L(n) while Riemann summing today in Math. I really do have issues. But it's okay, because left-right confusion is surprisingly common, and unless I take up a job guiding aircraft or giving directions to people, I'll manage in life.

So first things first, and it's YouTube video time.

Ever since filming last week, we've been working on our class National Day video on and off, and today we finally got together to finalise it and export and submit it to the English department (whose idea it was to do this in the first place). So if you're curious as to what our video looks like, and what we did two Mondays ago on our school holiday, here you go.

Also, here's a link to our Malay vodcast entry, 'Abah', with which we got fourth place and a bunch of stuff to go with.

Still coming to terms with FCPX, and the controls still bewilder me and I don't know where half the tools I want to use are, but I'm working on it.

Math first thing today, followed by Malay (where we just sat there and did past year papers, and then realised our MoE language proficiency test totally ripped of the November 2008 O-level paper). Came up with gory shark's fin stories during English, and Mr Chin is still so totally definitely awesome. Hoping my advocacy speech will come out awesome, but we'll have to see about that.

OBS talk during ACE. No, I'm not going. The end. Okay my decision has been made.

Then stayed back for an hour or so to check up on mine and Leyi's plant and bacteria tissue culture (which turned out awesome, mind you), and to finish up our NDP video with Zheng Wei.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. Where did all our time for sleeping go? As Cap'n Barbossa from The Pirates of the Caribbean said, "You can rest when you die; for now, move on."

P.P.S. Wishing we could've done something like this back when I was in Brunei, but then again, if I hadn't come here, I wouldn't have gotten so into video editing, would I? I guess things are just meant to happen.

Chinese Opera.

2011-08-01T22:42:00.000+08:00

You know your school has entered a new level of nerd-dom when we have our own Android app (designed to make the lives of NUSH students easier, it says. Kudos to the guys who made this happen, although I'm still not getting an Android phone anytime sooner).

Just uploaded a new vlog, so check it out here.

Finally decided to bypass Facebook and just go ahead and upload onto Youtube, because I figured my vlogs get such a small audience it really makes no difference, and that it'd be more fun if I could like, track views and stuff. And it's probably easier to view than on Facebook, anyway, so good for my teeny audience.

Nothing to be afraid of, no. haters gotta hate, and lifeless people like them deserve our pity and should all go and get lives (you tell 'em, Rebecca Black).

Anyway, started off a new school week with a Math test first thing in the morning, which was quite all right, really. Hopefully carelessness won't come back to bite me in the ass.

Then Mr Chia bribed us with sweets to not say a word about it to the other classes, 'cause we were like the first class to take the test (thanks Mr Chia).

Two hours of Physics went by pretty quickly, actually, because it was a huge mess what with Zheng Wei pretending to be Yos and Yos pretending to be Zheng Wei and Bryan pretending to be me and me pretending to be Bryan. I don't know why it happened, or how it happened, but it just did. Our class is just really, really weird. No denying that.

Did capacitors, which was okay in ways. Yeah.

Evo Bio was fun, too, 'cause we kept up with our "switching places" charade and 'cause Mr Soh is simply really awesome. Yeahey Hardy-Weinburg.

Watched Chinese Opera during our assembly slot as part of our 'Aesthetic Appreciation Programme', and like, wow. I kinda enjoyed it, to be honest. Pretty entertaining, and totally appreciate them coming over to perform like that.

Woan Chyi's birthday today, so we hung out especially long during dinner. Yeahey legal age.

Okay, going off now. Econs test tomorrow.

Night.

P.S. And thanks to Zheng Wei for supplying us with Eclipse mints today. Can't live without Eclipse.

Hungaroring 2011.

2011-07-31T21:54:00.003+08:00

The race has just ended, and I'm feeling kinda sad because it's four weeks until the next race at Spa, and I missed more than half of this race, so I haven't really stocked up on enough F1-ness to last me a month.

And the next race is in Belgium, which makes me sadder because Spa was always Raikkonen's special track, and everyone knows we miss Kimi to bits. I think if I brought Kimi up in conversation with Stella she'd probably break down and sob for hours on end. Yes, we do miss him. We miss the Iceman and his nonchalant, totally emotionless ways, and his beautiful racing and his ridiculous amount of self-control.

But anyway, missed this race because I had to go out to dinner with Bruneians to commemorate pre-Ramadhan night. Puasa starts tomorrow and the only meals we'll be having together as a group will be sungkai (because there's no way I'm waking up to join them for sahur). Yeah, that was fast. Blink of an eye, and it's fasting month yet again.

I admire the Muslims here because unlike in Brunei, we don't get to end early or have all PE classes cancelled throughout the month. Instead, they have to deal with full school days and vigorous exercise and the like, which I know is super tiring even with food.

But I digress.

Sort of satisfied with the race results because Button won. I'm all for Button winning, for three reasons. The first is because people have been treating him as McLaren's second driver to Hamilton, and I don't like that. I like Button very much and I don't particularly like Hamilton the most cocky driver on track. The second reason is that he suffered a hydraulic failure last race and had to retire, and lastly, it's his 200th Grand Prix appearance, so you've got to hand it to the guy.

I remember making jokes about him as a little kid, because I found his name so awesome. Button Button Button. How cute. (And yeah, he is quite hot, but not as hot as Kimi, of course).

Vettel second place was quite all right, too, because I like Vettel and his kiddish ways. Joshua thinks he's adorable (man-crush right there).

And Alonso third was great, because a Ferrari on the podium is always a good sign.

Then come Hamilton, Webber (poor Stanley) and Massa, who set the fastest lap of the race and I'm really proud of that.

Okay, going off now. New school week starts tomorrow. And it's a full school week, this time round (man we're getting spoiled with holidays).

Night.

P.S. Selamat berpuasa, guys. May your iman be kuat.

Simulation.

2011-07-29T21:18:00.002+08:00

Eyes closing, listening to the Scorpions, going to sleep very soon, and going to type out this post in five minutes.

Great stuff, yes, great stuff. Attempted a Nightcrawler in charcoal, but my pencil outline isn't done yet and I'm already sort of giving up. The thing about drawing is that you should never give up on your vision, 'cause it might look like crap initially, but when you persevere it kinda shows up quite decent-looking. Will try again tomorrow.

Really humid right now, and I don't like it because it's adding to my sleepiness and it's really warm and sticky in a way. Hope it'll rain tonight.

Felt kind of weird today, because it's a Monday even though it's a Friday, and so everyone went around really confused. Monday blues on a Friday is just weird. It's like we're all accustomed to feeling happy while carrying out a Friday schedule and to feeling tired while doing Monday things.

Anyway, had Math for a start, and it's funny how calculus has started to rule our lives. "What is the rate of mutation?" was a question we got in our Evolution Bio prac, and we were tempted to answer with "dy/dx". Oh lord help us all. Differentiate integrate chain rule we're all doomed for life.

Started a new bit of Math today. Some Riemann Sum thing. It's not that Math isn't fun. It honestly is enjoyable when you understand it.

Finally had our Physics in-class today. Hopefully won't get under average, and I have a feeling our average is going to be quite high, 'cause it definitely wasn't as hard as expected. Common sense-ed my way through, but randomly tossed in a few signs here and there, so it probably gave away the fact that I had little to no idea what I was doing.

Had Evo Bio in one of the computer labs. My strange and sudden obsession with 'Twelve Days of Christmas' has gotten half the class humming it at random times, and putting in the effort to learn the lyrics.

Yeah, go us.

Anyway, played around with some simulation thing for our prac, and then answered a few questions with Zheng Wei, Bryan and Verena while Yos plotted our graphs.

Honestly, I don't care what people say about Bio anymore. I'm going to honour it and that's final. If you think it's useless and want to drop it then be my guest, but I hate that people keep telling us we're losers for liking such redundant subjects.

Then went out for dinner with Wee Thean, Woan Chyi, Adithya and KT. Talked about Pokémon and I realise I haven't watched an episode in weeks. Totally got overridden by House.

Okay, night.

T list.

2011-07-28T21:27:00.002+08:00

Big debate right now: To go or not to go to the Singapore Toys, Games and Comic Convention.

Oh lord, I would love to go and check out the Marvel/DC stuff, but I'm totally unfamiliar with everything else, and that would make it strangely awkward to be surrounded by rabid fans.

Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

Today's a Thursday, so we started off with PE and then some Malay and then some Geog and then some Math and then some Cell Bio.

Mrs Lim uses this online tool to pick names for presentations, and it's funny because we've all become so addicted to the process of waiting for the names to be chosen (sort of like a jackpot machine) we request for it all the time. Would totally place money on names, but then that would develop into full-fledged all-out gambling, and then that would be totally against school rules.

Cell Bio was interesting, even though it dragged all the way past six and we were tired and worn out. Air-conditioned lab made it better, too.

Cultured some bacteria and some plants with Leyi. Hopefully my bacteria won't GG or anything like that, because honestly, I think I did a really terrible job with the streaking. Absolutely un-precise. Our plants definitely have better chances. Epic fun.

Also kinda spent most of the time singing random Christmas carols while embedding plant stems in agar. And now I know the lyrics to 'Twelve Days of Christmas'. It's drummers pipers lords ladies maids swans geese five golden rings calling birds French hens turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. Hooray for great memory.

I love Christmas spirit (although I don't celebrate it and Christmas is like, months away).

Feeling really tired right now, so short post for tonight.

Night.

P.S. I love Twitter because whenever you tweet something, it's good to know people on your T list have got your back.

Eclipse shower.

2011-07-27T21:51:00.003+08:00

Tolkien's Elven languages are so beautiful. There's just a ring to them, that pleases the ears and sounds so delicate and charming and lovely. Amazing, really. The pronunciation, enunciation, expression, yeah, it really raises the elves a notch above the other races.

Listening to Enya's Ániron at the moment, and it makes me love LotR even more. So peaceful yet so epic. I love it.

Didn't post yesterday because I got lazy and wanted to watch House instead, and there really wasn't anything to talk about.

Math early in the morning today was all right, because I didn't get terribly lost and was completely okay with it. Honestly, I can't imagine Math class without Mr Chia. Man, it's going to be so sad without him teaching us next year.

Then had Malay, where cikgu jumped us with a karangan we had no idea was going to happen. Did a crappy job (but then again, all my karangans are really bad because my Malay is simply atrocious).

English was great, because we watched a documentary on the Chinese people of China (not the "me" kind of Chinese, where I only call myself that because of my Chinese roots and have the Chinese literacy of an ambitious tourist, but the real Chinese people of China) and how they toiled to learn how to speak English in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was really moving, actually, despite how we mocked Chinese accents afterwards.

I love how their instructor guy told them that they learn English not because they're wannabes, but because they take pity on the foreigners for not understanding Chinese. Their work ethic is ridiculously strong and driving, and I love how they know that the advancement of themselves and their country is going to be built on a foundation of understanding and comprehension brought about by effective communication. If they won't learn Chinese, the Chinese will learn English and trounce everyone.

I feel so ashamed now. I claim to be Chinese yet I neither read or write Mandarin. People think I speak Hokkien funny even though it's really the only Chinese dialect I'm reasonably fluent in. I may look Chinese, and hang out with Chinese people, but on the inside there's very little Chinese about me. I have relatives I see annually who say the same thing whenever they see me, "Oh here's the English person/So you speak Hokkien now, eh?" So they belittle me for frankly, sucking at being a Chinese person. It gets worse when it comes to food. I don't eat pork, and am generally uncomfortable with Chinese cuisine. Do I blame my upbringing? My parents and brother are "Chinese" enough.

In answer to questions about my strange accent (which a lot of people think is weird, or that I'm faking), no I didn't grow up in Asia, and yes English is my first language. Three or so odd years in Birmingham was enough to see me turn from a toddler to a rather English-accented little girl. I'm rooted there.

As I've always said, the most Chinese thing about me is probably the fact that I eat with chopsticks sometimes. How sad is that? So people regard me with disdain. I love it how people talk about me in Hokkien and think I don't understand. Dear lady who serves us hostel food, I know what you say about me not being able to speak Mandarin. And it hurts.

MoE language proficiency test was interesting, because it wasn't really gathering information about how well Malay students in Singapore handle the Malay language, because the only Singaporean Malay taking the paper from our school was Aisyah. Their survey results are going to be contaminated with Bruneian and Indonesian data. Fun.

Okay, going off now.

Night.

P.S. "You are my adversary, but you are not my enemy. For your resistance gives me strength, your will gives me courage, your spirit ennobles me. Though my aim is to defeat you, should I succeed, I will not humiliate you; instead, I will honour you, for without you, I am a lesser man."

P.P.S. Spilt an almost full box of Eclipse mints in the Audi today, because Kian Wee didn't close it tightly enough and I flipped it over. Five second rule totally applied there.

Jobless nerds.

2011-07-25T19:29:00.002+08:00

Going to type this post out in five minutes, because I'm exhausted and want to go to sleep early tonight, but don't want to forget about today. Not that I ever will, because I have footage to remind me of it.

Yeah, woke up early today (even though there was no school) to meet up with the class (or at least, a third of the class) and film our National Day video (because every class has to submit one, God knows why).

By some epic coincidence met Chee Seng on the bus, and then met Bryan, Yos, Zheng Wei and Joo Kee at the interchange, and then met up with Shuen. Wasted pretty much a lot of time at Vivo throwing around random ideas for shots, but then managed to pull through. And then Cheese and Joo Kee decided to cameo as a gay couple every scene. Don't ask me why. Hidden homosexual tendencies, perhaps.

Lunched, met Mr Yeo, went to Esplanade, saw the Merlion, had Shuen run across bridges, bought drinks, had Leyi catch up with us, made fun of Bryan being a "noob tourist", bought more drinks and then took a bus to Orchard to film our last scene of the day (yeah, we've still got more coming, which will hopefully be done soon).

Then went to Plaza Sing where Zheng Wei, Leyi, Bryan and Mr Yeo wanted to watch the latest Harry Potter instalment, so we left them and went to play pool.

Yeahey, lost only two games, which was pretty awesome, mind you. I enjoy pool 'cause it involves no ball-throwing or catching whatsoever, and 'cause I'm quite okay at it. One day when I'm older and way richer, I'm totally going to buy a pool table (whoa I'm so ambitious).

Came back, and coincidentally got on the same 196 as a few of the hostel girls and Wee Thean. Had dinner (and crepes, which were part of our cluster celebration), and then came up to edit footage.

FCPX is going to be brilliant once I get the hang of it, which I hope is soon. It's rather different though, but I'll talk about that some other time.

But yeah, 405 is awesome. We're not ashamed to be complete retards in public (when was I ever ashamed to do stupid things in public?), and have complete acceptance of homosexuals and mentally retarded people. Jobless nerds, that's what we are.

Okay, sleep now.

Night.

P.S. After our disastrous encounter last year, I've finally come to terms with Yos' camera. It's somewhat awesome.

Nürburgring 2011.

2011-07-24T21:52:00.002+08:00

Whoa there, we seem to have come across a bout of bad luck, what with Vettel getting ahead of Massa with a lap to go over a course of a botched pitstop for Ferrari. And poor Jenson (as what trended on Twitter a moment ago) suffered a hydraulic failure that forced him to retire.

I believe the hydraulic failure caught the wrong McLaren, actually. Even though Button wasn't running a strong race (starting in sixth, then suffering a bad start), I honestly am biased enough against Hamilton to not want him to win the race.

Still, second place is the next best place after our win two weeks ago. Yeahey Alonso really can drive the car to its maximum potential, and I'm glad about that. Massa finished fifth, which was really quite unfortunate, but Vettel beat him fair and square. It's kind of ironic how German drivers didn't do as well for their home race (just like how British drivers sometimes do badly at Silverstone, too).

Anyway, got an email from Roslyn about how badly my side of the CCA is degrading and how she was disappointed in us and my student leader skills.

Yeah, it was a total wakeup call. All this while I come on here and post about how I "swear" we'll be doing better next CCA session, but it never happens. I've probably failed everyone, and I feel terrible and depressed and dejected. What have I been doing? There's no excuse. Maybe I'm just not cut out for leading.

I've brought us nowhere and we're heading nowhere. Unproductive disappointment and I'm really, really sorry about it. I don't know how I'll be able to look my members in the face anymore. So yeah, that's basically what's been happening. "Ya Wen never does anything."

It's saddening and I'm sad and I'm going to take this like a boss and work my ass off this semester. Even if we don't win competition awards, I want our side to at least gain some respect.

DSA 2011

2011-07-23T21:07:00.000+08:00

Getting used to Lion now, and man it's pretty neat. Interface is pretty sweet, and the new trackpad motions are slowly being adjusted to.

Although their automated spelling correction really annoys me. Turned it off because I like to be able to purposely misspell words and make them up when my vocabulary fails me. Gibble asdd lnme edd d mmm yeah? Yeah.

Couldn't feel chuffed about not having to go to school when Bruneians have school on Saturdays today, because I had to wake up earlier than usual schooldays and go to school and like, do things.

Yeah, our DSA camp was today, and we were all there to lend a helping hand. I love how so many of us were so eager to sign up and how we were okay with waking up early and dealing with nerdy little children (no offense, the nerdier the more they belong in our school).

Also, we get a free shirt. But the design's been the same since 2009, and I have that shirt in a hideous cyan-ish shade from Year 2, and now we had a light purple one that isn't less easy on the eyes. Well yes, the design is rather keepable, but they honestly need to pick better colours. It's like our senior management is colourblind. Not all colours go well with our school green, okay?

Manned the Bio station in lab 2 with Samantha, Ian Foo and Galen. Kinda panicked during the first round, so it was quite a bit of a mess when we sliced beetroot before we were supposed to and wasted some, and then the cleaning up after that was confusing, too. But after that we got all smooth and calm and organised and were pretty efficient, although the day simply drained us.

Primary school children who know they want to do Math and Science for the rest of their lives are sort of scary. These kids are like little nerdy people who are destined to grow into even larger nerds (sort of like us, really), and because many of them are so keen on entering our dear school of Math and Science (and because they're from Singaporean primary schools), the competition is freakishly fierce.

Like, if I were an eleven or twelve year old and had to carry out the experiments these kids were supposed to do today amongst all that scary competition, I'd have broken down and given up. But man these kids are smart. It's hard to decide whether they're just robots trained to give desired outputs when fed input, but some of them really do have the potential to become awesomely awesome in terms of intellectual capability.

Watching our DSA camp again just makes me wonder (yet again) how I managed to get into this school. How on earth did that happen? I mean, I left half the entry examination paper blank, and sat there shaking during my interview, and then told them I hadn't any interest in mathematics. It was a recipe for failure that backfired completely. Yeah, I was half-hoping I wouldn't get in, because I didn't want to leave home. So yes you have to give us foreigners credit for bravery, even though we aren't as smart as a lot of people here. We've got spunk.

But it's true, doubt does creep in on me sometimes, when I feel as if I'm just not cut out for it. This doubting happens less nowadays, but it's still there, and was today. I bet if I'd tried to get in through DSA I'd have failed miserably.

The kids were cute, though.

Oh, and we saw Lim Jeck's sister because she came to our lab, which was amusing because she sort of looks like him. Kept an eye out for Cyrus' brother, too, but didn't see him.

Then came back, slept, and then went out for dinner with Fatinn. Walked about Clementi Mall eating frozen yoghurt and talking about life. Where would we be without friends?

All right, going off now. Want to finish off 'Stardust', because it really has been way too long.

Night.

P.S. Talked to Stanley about F1 earlier today, and he's going to be so happy Webber's on pole again. The Ferraris are fourth and fifth respectively, but the other teams wouldn't count on that. Forza Ferrari.

Lion.

2011-07-22T22:41:00.002+08:00

Really excited at the moment, because I've finally gotten Lion (after it was released like, two days ago) and now I'm running FCPX (huge thanks to Wee Thean). I haven't gotten 'round to using it yet, but it looks an awful lot like iMovie. It's like Apple's trying to make everything simple for amateurs. Seems simple enough to use.

But part of me is kind of disappointed, because now I can't really impress people with my mass of FCP knowledge that I had when using FCP7 as everything looks so cute and easy and laid out for you. With FCP7, at least we could look somewhat really professional using it, and now it's like we're editing home movies for the family to watch around dinner. But no, I won't judge it by its appearance alone. Now I honestly can't wait to get my hands on some footage so I can put the editing to the test.

Oh man I am so excited.

So, Lion. I've just started using it (about half an hour ago) and everything seems so easy I find it insults my intelligence. When I type, it's like typing on an iPhone, because it likes to auto-correct you and tell you what's right and what's wrong and then suggests words for you to use. I don't like that. This is why our spelling is atrocious without spellcheck. I bet people from the 1800s could spell a hundred times better than we can now. Mr Darcy couldn't have proclaimed his deep, ardent love for Elizabeth in bad, misspelt English now, could he? That would've been so unromantic.

All right, enough about Lion for now. I'll need some time to getting used to all the new trackpad gestures (and I've become ridiculously swift with the old ones, it's kinda sad that I have to hesitate and get everything wrong now).

My day was totally made by this Japanese exchange teacher guy who got into the same lift as I did this morning. He stepped in and was all like, "Good morning!", and I was like, "Good morning," back, and after that I felt strangely cheerful. So that's what a happy morning greeting does to you. No wonder the Japanese have such a great, admirable work ethic.

But then again, Yos pointed out that it's probably only Singaporeans that are miserable and sullen and glum in the mornings, but he's generally racist, so I don't know how credible that is.

A good "good morning" makes mornings good indeed.

Physics was fun and confusing. Oh yeah. Such fun.

English comprehension quiz thing (because I'm not calling it a test) was fun too. Now these are the types of questions that you can enjoy answering. Spotting irony and deciphering writers' thoughts. What made it more enjoyable was that it wasn't graded (and Mr Chin lied to us when he said it "probably was").

I have a feeling Ms Tong likes referring to us as "girls", because we're an all-girl class (which is extremely, extremely rare in our school). Yeahey Economics.

Chem quiz was, well, here's to hoping I pass. Mrs Chong is going to be so disappoint, but I hope not.

Then had CCA. Have good plans for SDMA, and new instructor guy is (insert opinion here). Will consolidate plans next week.

Had dinner out with Wee Thean, Kelvin and Adithya. I don't think I'll ever grow tired of having dinner with these people. Eating together is probably what bonds hostel people.

Okay, going off now. Want to watch 'House', and have to wake up early to help out for DSA tomorrow.

Night.

P.S. So, so glad our Malay video got into the top five. Winning would be nice, yes.

Temper.

2011-07-20T22:54:00.002+08:00

Okay, first 'Could you please unblock Twitter' email to the Boarding Office sent, and hopefully, hopefully, they'll consider my plight, take pity on me, and then unblock Twitter. That way, it'll save loads of frustrating moments and depression when I can't locate wifi in my room and I have to like, tweet things.

I'm so addicted to Twitter, there will soon come a day where I'll have to feed off Twitter with an IV drip, and I think I might need to seek counseling or something, I'm not sure. Made a Twitter reference in an essay two weeks ago and got it back during English today, and Mr Chin circled the word "trend" (followed by a hashtag) and question-marked it. Mr Chin should totally get a Twitter account. His epic thoughts need to be shared, and I bet he'll garner more followers than I have in like, a week.

Well yes, I'm now officially a fan of Mr Dustin Chin, English teacher extraordinaire, master of indifference and captain of "owning Ryan".

Speaking of Ryan, he sort of exploded in class today because he couldn't solve a Math question. Well, you can't know everything. Loved how Mr Chia dealt with it, because all he said was, "Ryan, you're disrupting my class" and it was a ridiculously awkward moment.

Have a Malay ujian tomorrow, and I'm feeling terribly unprepared.

Racial harmony-ed during ACE. Yeah, we all know it's uncool to be racist. In fact, it's uncool to be severely biased or pious because it's unreasonable and unnecessary.

Then redid our Physics practical, because our results really were a mess.

Wore my glasses to the scholar meeting just now, because I figured since I look smarter (or nerdier) in them, I'd be able to pass off as a more "scholarly" person. Honestly, you can't really define a "scholar". Nobody's perfect. Some people study too much and some people couldn't care less, but we're all scholars, right?

But the presentation is always the same. Study, participate, have fun, don't stray. Work hard, be diligent and caring and responsible. Yeah, totally, man. I think I have sufficient moral values for that.

All right, going off now, have land use to evaluate (yeah, I'm a proud Geog student).

Adieu.

P.S. Our Pokémon video is almost at a thousand views. We'd love your support.

Fame.

2011-07-19T20:39:00.003+08:00

I think I might be in love with my laptop right now. Oh man. Watching House on it for the first time and everything's so clear and beautiful and the colours all stand out (makes my New York cityscape wallpaper look even more amazing, too) and I think I like, fell in love, man.

It's like I think about it before I go to sleep, and when I wake up in the morning I'm all excited to see it again, and when I use it I love the feel of the keys and the way the screen looks crystal clear. Ah, love.

Brought my old Macbook to school though, 'cause this one's too precious. The contrast is scary. It seems to take forever to boot up (which, of course, is still faster than your average PC) and it's sort of slow in doing things, but it totally works and I feel bad about letting it go so young. That's all right, because I have a photo montage in the works on it and so I'll still be using it for a few days.

Asked Phan for my The Sims 3 disk a few moments ago, so I'll be able to install it here and sim with extreme awesomeness. I still only have Late Night, but that's okay. Won't be spending too much time gaming because I have like, priorities (cough excuses cough). But I will definitely get CIV5 when I see it (been wanting to play it since last year, but like, Mac versions of games are hard to find, and like, expensive). I'm cheapskate. Ridiculously cheapskate.

So what if I like money. Money's what makes the world go round nowadays. I mean, I'm all okay if it's for other people, but when I buy things for myself I feel as if I've totally wronged myself (or some part of myself). I hate feeling guilty after buying things. I know I shouldn't, because the money's all mine, but still.

School ended at five today, but I only had two hours of class, which was fun (and gave me time to watch House and select SPSO photos for that photo montage I'm supposed to do and like, sleep). No Malay, no Chem, no PPV (never did I even stop to consider Math Honours).

Yeahey, now to go and be productive.

No idea how to do our Physics prac. None whatsoever. Absolutely clueless. Going to ask around tomorrow. Need enlightenment.

Adieu.

P.S. The music video for Rebecca Black's latest single 'My Moment' was released last night, and it's already gotten hundreds of thousands of dislikes (and probably like a million views). Prefer 'Friday', because it was a whole new level of crappy it was fun and catchy, but this one is just a bit weaker than all the generic pop songs we get nowadays. Nothing special at all.