The Dark Knight Rises.

It's minutes to midnight (and a good Linkin Park album, too), and I'm sitting here in crazy humidity (it hasn't been this humid since week 1, I think) typing these words.

The internet connection here is still terrible, so it's like nothing's really advanced all this while we've been staying here. Sure, uploading is faster with LAN connection, but that's all there really is.

Let's see if I can finish this post in ten minutes, because there is a time constraint I'm working myself on. And also because I slept for four hours this afternoon, which was a complete waste of time and now I am lagging behind many things.

Went out to watch The Dark Knight Rises last night with half my class and Suen Rong and Wei Ren (because we had extra tickets). Was quite excited, all throughout Chem and the Biochem prac (really tense Biochem prac, if I must say). Speaking of the Biochem prac, I didn't like it, because instructions were confusing and everyone was lost and it was hot and humid and we had to wear lab coats. Tsk.

So yeah, back to The Dark Knight Rises. Had high expectations for this movie, given it's about Batman and it's Christopher Nolan. It did blow my mind, actually, but I still need to gather my thoughts right. I really didn't like the fight scenes (Catwoman fight scenes were great, but everyone else looked so slow and ungainly in those costumes), but the plot was amazing (apart from the ending).

The thing about superhero movies like this is that unlike The Avengers, or Spider-Man (in general), no superpowers are involved. Just a wad of cash and really psycho people.

And what makes superhero movies like The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises amazing is what drives seemingly ordinary people (born ordinary, mind you) to do extraordinary things. The concept is that anyone can become a hero. What I admire the most though, are the villains. Villains without superpowers need more drive and depth to work (not like simply losing control of greed of enhanced powers, or having supernatural armies, etc), and an admirable amount of calculation is required to make major heists or attacks happen. It takes brains, and strange motivation that nobody understands. And it's these villains that are hardest to crack.

So yeah, The Dark Knight Rises was extraordinarily well presented, although I didn't like that Batman had to make out with every girl who simply looked his way. And I loved Tom Hardy as Bane. Such class. And power.

So today, we had English, and then Math. Nothing eventful, apart from Han Jie's second presentation (because he botched up the previous one). Talked about gay marriage and stuff, but nothing too deep 'cause I was a bit speechless.

Yeah, that's it.

P.S. Phrase of the day: "Unwholesome consumables." I'm going to start using this in everyday conversation.

Hockenheim 2012

Hooray, Alonso has done it again.

Clinched pole yesterday after some rain and stuff, and now he's won the race. Only person to win three times this season, so yes, of course I'm proud.

Massa had a terrible race though, 'cause he had this collision and his nose came off (car nose, not that thing on his face) and he had to pit early. Grosjean too. Then Hamilton suffered a left rear puncture and the race pretty much ended for him. Action came back when he tried to unlap himself and attacked the frontrunners, making Vettel very angry because it prevented him from taking on Alonso in first place.

Then after a lot of drama and generally being an ass (and helping Ferrari while he was at it, so no complaints there), Hamilton retired.

Button drove a great race, but then got re-overtaken by Vettel towards the end, so ended up third. Although there is some controversy because Vettel had all four tyres off the track when he did so. Stewards are probably arguing about it right now.

Massa ended up twelfth, totally and disappointingly out of the points zone.

Kimi fourth. To quote him, he said, "If Vettel gets a 25 second penalty, I not only get a podium, I also got to avoid the podium interview." Man, you gotta love the guy.

Oh, news just in. They've awarded Vettel a 20 second penalty, so I guess Kimi really did get what he wanted, and Button's in second place now. Kobayashi goes up a place, and Vettel ends up between him and Perez.

Germans probably won't be too happy about that. Schumi's race wasn't too good either. Ended up seventh after qualifying third (Webber got a five-place grid penalty).

Tsk tsk.

Upcoming week has five quizzes and a Batman movie.

It feels quite wrong to talk about The Dark Knight Rises openly now, because of the recent shootings in Colorado. I don't know how to feel, but we shouldn't really associate this with the movie itself. I wish we could freely appreciate the movie as the work of art it is, and not be reminded of how it provided some sort of incentive for this man to shoot innocent people in a movie theatre. Sad.

And the Bruneian helicopter crash two days ago was really depressing, too. So many dead at once, in such a small country with such a small population. We're all shocked.

Selamat Hari Keputeraan.

Long week happened, and I felt too obliged to try to do work and therefore didn't write anything here.

Eventful things happened pretty much every day (because what is life if you don't stop to appreciate the little moments?), but Term 3 Week 3 can be summed up by two key things. Firstly, the combined ACE lesson with 506, and secondly, Lee Han Jie's current affairs presentation for English.

Goodness, I swear I hadn't laughed this much in class since, well, as far back as I can remember.

I mean, there were plenty of sleepy moments in class too, like when nobody could stay awake during Physics, or Math, when my class isn't reduced to a dreary, unresponsive zombie-like state, we're pretty awesome.

We've been wanting to have combined sex ed with 506 for two weeks now, because Ms Dass and Mr Wang (06's mentor) have awesome chemistry together, even though they argue over virtually everything. Anyway, since 06 and 05 have good rapport, we managed to get Ms Dass to say she didn't mind a combined session, and Mr Wang to agree to place his mentor class in Ms Dass' hands (because he evidently doesn't prepare for these lessons).

The story played out like this: On that fateful Wednesday, Adithya came down to my class and asked if we were going up to his class or if his class had to come down to ours, since Mr Wang apparently told 06 that they were having a combined session. Ms Dass then told Adithya to ask his class to come to ours (because we didn't want to climb stairs). Adithya promptly returned to his class and told Mr Wang that Ms Dass had invited their class to join sex ed with our class. Genius orchestration.

It wasn't like sex ed at all. It was more like watching a brilliant television talk show with "abstinence" as the word of the day. It was epic, and the session was filled with the laughter of fifty-odd students, Ms Dass's "what-on-earth" face, and Mr Wang's clueless hand waving and general BS.

If every ACE lesson were like this from now onwards, I would look forward to every Wednesday.

Then the next epic thing happened on Friday, when the remaining six were supposed to present their current affairs reviews during English. It went completely ordinarily, with Ms Dass jotting down notes and most of us listening politely and sometimes exclaiming in outrage, until Han Jie took centre stage.

We didn't think much of it when he posted a link to an article reporting the incident where that guy ate this other guy's face in Miami last May, although we were probably a bit curious as to how anyone could talk about and evaluate the issues found in the article.

But then, oh my goodness, he pulled it off so brilliantly, and so nonchalantly, too. "Look, here is a picture of the man attacking the homeless guy," and "And in this slide you can see the cannibal has been shot dead," were delivered so casually I didn't know whether to hide in disgust or laugh.

And it got worse (or better, actually). He concluded his presentation (after an interactive session concerning whether we would kill and eat other people if we were starving to death) with a slide that made us laugh for at least five minutes straight (I do not exaggerate), bent double in mirth and with tears streaming down our faces.

Ms Dass laughed until she cried too, and she said, "Why, Han Jie, why? You're making me cry," and "I need a tissue, please," punctuated with a lot of laughing. It's funny how we found it hard to be serious considering we were talking about gruesome murder and the like.

Here is a photo of that brilliant slide.

Excellent abs workout.

Today, we went to the Hyatt to celebrate our Sultan's 66th birthday. Good food (the bread and butter, I loved it), then we performed, then we ate again and took a tonne of pictures. Last year for the Year 6 seniors. I realise I'm going to miss them terribly.

Also, finished reading 'Unholy Night'. It's scary how Seth Grahame-Smith writes complete rubbish yet somehow is able to make everything seem completely plausible. All we know about the Nativity has been rewritten into something more human, more real (although we know it's a work of fiction), and more relatable. Great characterisation, has touching parts, and gruesomely detailed, too. The author is somehow able to cast just the right amount of doubt onto religion that makes sense, and is also able to inject bits of faith into the story as well, which I totally admired. Great work. I foresee a movie.

Okay, Monday tomorrow. Have two hours of Electrochemistry and a Biochem prac to look forward to.

P.S. I find myself spending too much time doing Chem nowadays.

P.P.S. Stats is sexy.

P.P.P.S. Congratulations to Lim Jeck, for achieving first in the world for IMO. I love how our entire school is so proud of him.

Silverstone 2012.

It's a Sunday, the Silverstone Grand Prix is over, and there's school tomorrow.

So I'll wrap this up chop-chop (I just looked this word up and found out it's Chinese origin, so like whoa), so I can focus on stuff like my ARP and Chem review worksheets.

Woke up quite late today, because I totally wiped out after yesterday's long day.

Spent my afternoon catching up on the Shaytards' vlogs, and recapping our first Biochem lecture (actually it was more of randomly doodling on my notes), hanging around Tumblr, trying to perfect this song, watching 'Away We Happened' (because that's part of our ARP), psyching myself up for the race.

Then the race started, and suddenly everything sort of burst into life. Tweets rolled in like bullets, and I desperately tried to find a live streaming link that would last me (settled eventually for this French channel, of which I understood absolutely nothing, but it was comforting to be able to hear the revving engines and see the cars on track).

Alonso led very well initially, but we all know the results now. Strategy was kind of a bummer, because he started out on the hard option tyres, and had to end the race on softs, which gave Webber an advantage over him. So, with the faster car, Webber won the race. Vettel ended up third, but I don't think he was expecting to win.

Massa finished fourth, his best position of the season so far, I think. I'm so glad he's managed to find his own pace now, and I bet he'll have less criticism to deal with now. Kimi and his teammate Grosjean finished behind him, followed by Schumi (it was a good lineup, honestly, because these are all drivers I like). Schumi qualified third though, poor thing, but his car really didn't cut it.

I love following Lotus on Twitter, because they're really funny and tweet the awesomest things. Them and Red Bull have the best sense of humour there. Lotus' hashtag of the weekend was '#GodSaveOurTyres'. Very appropriately put.

Button and Hamilton had very disappointing home races, because they were tenth and eighth respectively. British fans mustn't have been very happy with that. And Di Resta didn't finish, so the Scots couldn't have reason to celebrate either.

And somehow Perez attacked Maldonado and both of them spun and that was that for them. Terrible results for both of them, with one DNF and one 16th place (15,000 Euro fine for Maldonado). Tsk. And Kobayashi somehow rammed into his pit crew during a stop (25,000 Euro fine).

Okay, that's it now.

Good night. Week 3 starts tomorrow.

P.S. Oh, and Rowan Atkinson was in the pit garage and that made it awesome.

Purchases.

Woke up really early today (for a Saturday) to figure chords out for this song we're performing for Sultan's birthday celebration next Sunday.

Van left at 9.45-ish in the morning, then reached our High Comm, then we like, practiced a bit and then we had KFC for lunch (because Auntie Mal ordered and she's nice). Bruneians and unity, it's funny but we really are like some dysfunctional family. We may not be close sometimes, or we may hardly talk to everyone else, but in the end we're still in this together.

And it's also funny how we've been asked to do things like this so many times, nobody questions it anymore (except Nick Ho, who was a bit hesitant and confused as to why we are requested to do such things). Sometimes I wonder why, if they care about our grades so much, they would further affect them by giving us reason to divert our attention and divide our time, but then in the end it's all down to proper time management and self-control. After all, we have obligations.

So anyway, got dropped off back at school, then went out with Fatinn immediately afterwards. Our agenda was to buy socks and groceries, but we ended up walking around Bugis and buying more than intended.

I hardly shop, so I'm rather proud of myself when I get things I like. Went to Kinokuniya and procured set of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' (up till the most recent one) for a cheaper price than if I bought them individually (because there has been such a hype lately about 'Game of Thrones', the hit HBO television series). Also picked up 'Unholy Night' by Seth Grahame-Smith (remember him?), which I shall start reading very soon. Also bought myself two Marvel keychains, one of Iron Man and another of Spider-Man. Awesomeness.

Walked around with Fatinn because she wanted to look for a new pencil case and shoes and stuff (general girlish browsing).

Back to Clementi, walked around some more, coincidentally met Kevin and Nick Kong, bought our groceries, then ate at McDonalds with Emily (who also coincidentally met us there because she was planning to meet up with Kevin and Nick to buy durians, which I did not intend to stick around for).

Managed to catch the final session of qualifying when I got back (it got delayed 'cause of the rain), and it was great and terribly exciting. Alonso on pole (yeahey) after he managed to barely squeeze into Q3, followed by Webber, Schumi (brilliantly done), Vettel, Massa (back in form, thankfully), and Kimi (next to his old teammate, such nostalgic feelings).

Celebrated a bit on Twitter with Pin and Joshua Sia. Yay Ferrari fans.

Tired now so I'll go off.

Night.

P.S. Oh, and yes, we did get socks. I've lost so many socks this year it's not even funny. I don't understand where they all go. I was like, down to three functional pairs. Atrocious.

Youthful.

Before I start this post, I think this will explain the current Andrew Garfield craze running through circles of teenage girls (actually I think it affects females of all age groups). Goodness, I don't understand how this is all it takes to make one's insides stir, but it is.

Perhaps one day I'll conduct research on this effect and find out. Interesting.

Anyway, it's been a long and tiring week, and this was almost a non-weekend, but thankfully it's not, because tomorrow's busking session is cancelled due to licensing issues (so grateful). So now I can do work and be productive and stuff.

Monday was a Youth Day holiday, so we didn't do any learning or anything in order to help us feel more youthful or something. I remember staying in the hostel doing work, and cleaning our room, and avoiding work, and then doing work, and then complaining about our school's English syllabus while conveniently not doing the AQ Ms Dass wanted us to do.

Found out on Tuesday that hardly anyone did the AQ anyway, then spent English just feeling demoralised and clueless as to how answering 'Application Questions' worked. Had Math, and I was glad I did the tutorials beforehand because then I could totally afford to daydream.

And goodness, the weather conditions totally improved, too. It turned from horribly humid and unacceptable last week to a lovely, cool clouded over, rainy kind of weather, and it feels so refreshing to wake up to crisp, cold mornings.

Chem honours first thing Wednesday morning, followed by more Math tutorial-completing, followed by ACE, which everyone was looking forward too because it was a sex ed session. I really enjoy sex ed, because it makes the teachers feel awkward and uncomfortable, and it reminds you that they're only really human, too. Also it's funny when they address relationship issues and you're like, man, this is never going to apply to me because I might be destined to be single for the rest of my life.

But Ms Dass was quite good with dealing with the session, which required her to talk to us about AIDS and STDs in general and how we should not be pressurised into having sex with anyone if we don't know them well enough. If someone is telling you that they'll break up with you if you don't offer sexual favours, then they obviously don't love you, so you're better off without them, stupid. You won't die if you aren't in a relationship, and frankly, contracting STDs conversely increases your chances of dying. Whoa ironic much.

Well dealt with as it was, it wasn't as fun as I thought it'd be, because Ms Dass took it rather seriously. Unlike in 06, where their mentor turned sex ed into a Math session about probability. Epic.

Didn't have Math on Thursday, so we spent the first hour and a half of school in the Games Room playing pool and air hockey. The rest of the girls were at the basketball court with Deborah, I think, because she's one of the hosts for the Korean exchange group (ten Korean boys, which basically meant it was like, free flow). Hadn't played pool in a long time, and missed all my initial shots, but then I totally improved and it was awesome again. Brendan completely owned everyone (Pin, Ram, Sooraj, Muru, Aris, Jun Wei, Boon Chong and myself) in air hockey, which I theorised was a result of his inherited American tendencies towards violence.

Then had an hour of Chem majors, two hours of Ecology (quiz included, which was much easier than expected), and two hours of Chem honours (in-class assignment of which I hope very muchly to pass).

Body ached all throughout Friday because PE was vigorous (I mean, come on, I hadn't exercised in ages because I'm unfit and terribly ungainly when I do sports).

Speaking of Friday, CCA was great. Yeah.

Then went out to Holland Village to eat with KT, Kelvin and Wee Thean. Ate at some Japanese ramen restaurant, which was really good (I think we can factor in the fact that we were starving and it was a hot meal on a cold day). Talked some conspiracy theories, then had Cold Stone afterwards. Best ice cream I've had since The Hague.

Yeahp, long, eventful week. Also, had Sultan's Birthday practices at night with the Bruneians. Time is scarce.

P.S. I really need to blog more often, because I find myself referring to my tweets to help me remember what happened over the course of the week. But I've really been really occupied.

The Amazing Spider-Man.

Oh my goodness, this is a good start to July.

Just got back from watching 'The Amazing Spider-Man' with Kelvin and KT at Vivo, and right now I am overflowing with all these feelings. How hard it is to find words to express one's deepest feelings (at 1:09).

I love Spider-Man, I really do. He's one of my favourite superheroes and possibly my favourite character in the Marvel universes, and I hold him very dearly in my heart, and I was a bit afraid people wouldn't like it. Or that I wouldn't like it.

But yes, I liked it. One thing I admire about the Marvel universes and the Spider-Man story (or the story of all its other characters, actually) is that it's so versatile. As long as you hold true to your characters and certain story lines and conflicts that you want to convey, you can pull off movies very nicely. And with The Amazing Spider-Man it was done pretty well.

They've gone a step back from the 2001 adaptation with Tobey Maguire and instead of showing the Peter Parker who's a man but is not yet a man because he's a loser, they focused much more on the boy. The boy who lost his parents mysteriously at an early age with questions unanswered, the boy who stands up for others even though he gets beaten up for it, the boy who fetches eggs for his aunt at home after school. I love this side of Peter Parker, really.

Ben Parker's death gets to me every time. Whenever I read it or watch it it makes me want to slap Peter across the face, but this is one of the most important lessons Peter ever learns, and I like that they did it quite well. Spider-Man's hunt for his murderer isn't resolved in the movie, but I'd have liked to see how they handled that (but he learns the lesson of restraint in his later scenes with Flash Thompson).

Gwen Stacy had a little less swag than in the comics, but Emma Stone did a good job anyway, because what's important is that the audience loves her. And they do, unlike when everyone thought Mary Jane Watson was a complete indecisive b*tch when Kirsten Dunst portrayed her. Hopefully they don't kill her off too soon. If they do.

It was also a bit strange seeing Peter Parker without Harry Osborn, but I suppose that can't be helped. It wouldn't be good for people to be able to draw too many parallels between this adaptation and the last. And I thoroughly enjoyed how they put in so much effort to avoid anyone saying the famous "With great power comes great responsibility" line. They managed it well.

I still don't like Curt Connors as a bad guy because he's really a mentor-figure towards Peter, but oh well. Random inner conflicts and stuff. Maybe it's a side-effect of turning into a giant lizard thing. I hope they'll incorporate the actual Venom storyline into future movies (because the Venom in Spider-Man 3 was an alien symbiote and not a Parker-Connors creation) because they definitely hinted at a second movie (this being a Marvel movie, there was no surprise when the after-credits scene appeared). It sucks that Dr Connors was turning into some kind of Norman Osborn wannabe though.

Okay, that's it. I feel glad I saw this movie and that it didn't suck and that there were moments for laughs and moments for feeling extremely touched and moments for hopeless romantics to sigh about Peter and Gwen. Yeah.

Good going, Marc Webb (so aptly named, too).

Okay see you.

P.S. Oh and if you look closely you'll see that Peter Parker and Curt Connors glasses had absolutely no degree because his image wasn't refracted through the glasses, and that there was this technique they used which blurred out the periphery of the frame and gave its centre a brighter colour, like the human eye does. Nice.

P.P.S. And went out to for a sushi buffet yesterday to celebrate MJ's birthday. Om nom.

P.P.P.S. Best Stan Lee cameo yet, hands down.