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Paper Charge

2010-10-03T22:42:00.005+08:00

Crumbled paper on the ground,

Mountain heaps of notes unfound,

I wrestle with the problem beast,

The bounty is a paper piece.

There is terror in the air,

Numbers weave and letters flare.

Figures square up to surround,

But I am rooted to the ground.

All I wanted was to play,

My silly games of point-and-slay.

But champion fingers help me not,

'Gainst problems of a diff'rent sort.

I bite my tongue and grit my teeth,

The clan halls call for midnight shift,

But the blast'd figures just won't budge,

I send Pudge into the paper charge.

PSP Repair

2010-08-27T20:45:00.005+08:00

So the screen died,

Ordered a replacement kit which took many weeks to arrive from HK,

and ta daahh,

although it appears I missed something out during reassembly:

O.o

Step by Step

2009-11-19T21:50:00.003+08:00

Step by step, bit by bit
The earth trembles under my feet
The buildings pass and disappear
Slowly, surely, near and near

Left and right, right and left
Destiny's behind that little cleft
After the objective has been found
Another awaits a lil' further around

The island's small, I have my way
'Can't get lost here' so they say
With a map in hand and some grit to go
Evry'thing eventually will show

I choose my path, I plan the road
I adjust my speed to suit my load
For evry'thing under this bright bright sun
Ev'rything, yea, evry'thing, can be done

Shit Happens

2009-10-25T00:14:00.003+08:00

Sometimes after holding for damn long
Just go and shit
For you'd feel better after doing so.
No shit.

Most times the longer you wait the worse it gets
And you'd never know when you’d go.
And when you least expect it...
Shit.

Most of the time this timing isn't ideal.
You'd be in a place when you can't really shit
Or in the presence of some really big shits,
When it goes.

You'd wonder then why didn't you just shit
When you had the chance earlier
In the comfort of your toilet
Or some other place you and Chance planned.

For while you might have felt you just had no shit
You definitely had shit,
It just wasn’t critical
Yet.

Cause if you had shit while you could
You could have avoided the shit
That came unexpected
At the end.

So pick up the courage to shit
Whenever shit deem it fit
For, shit,
It might turned out as you planned.

cross and uncross

2009-09-27T11:23:00.000+08:00

cross and uncross
the paths with green moss
wind up and down across the plain

with flow'rs by the side
each morning is bright
full of brilliant promise to be gained

each route is unique
some bright and some bleak
but ev'ry single has to be tread

yet they all go away
from my here and today
oh what would i give for them back

the old TV

2009-08-28T22:57:00.002+08:00

the blasted thing just won't pause
i hit it again with impotent force
the figures just keep wheeling around
its out of control, i can't help but frown

okay i've got it to slow down at least
half speed, slow motion, a little more peace
but the sound is awry, ghastly and drawn out
more painful to listen leaves nothing to doubt

it gives you more time to think as you please
more time to remember the faces that tease
on the edge of remembrance that you would had forgot
that a little more composure would surely have bought

yet i want to slow down or better yet stop
to think through the rubble and face the demons on top
to make some sense of my grief and despair
to repair all of the damage and re-enter the Lair

surely then i'd be able to run with the flow
to do as-per-normal, to get on with the show
to handle the pace of our fast-forward world
yet it just doesn't, i'm going to hurl.

Shell

2009-08-10T22:24:00.003+08:00

I'm in a shell no one can touch
It's warm and soft in here
Protected from the wind and rain
Nor glee or grief my comfort taint

I'm in a shell close to the world
It's dark and silent here
No bright lights blind my fresh wide eyes
I'm undistracted by worldly lies

Yes it's wonderful to be in a shell
I once was out in the world myself
It bit me hard. I must've came too quick
Way too raw and it made me sick

So I withdrew within an outer shell
Withdrew to places I knew well
Where I was at peace, whole, safe and secure
Where the world could hurt me no more

And though it's sad to not be there
Amongst friends and lovers, to laugh and share
No help for it, it had to be
Its pain outweights its glee

No I will be alright in my little world
Content and safe in potential
Out of Failure's lunging grasp
Safe and sound in all I trust

pray

2009-07-27T11:29:00.005+08:00

many roads present, but just one to take

read the travelogues, and maps have made

did all the hard gruelling work

its now or never, yet now i shirk

time is an asset, time is a curse

does swift movement triumph, or hurtle you to worse?

considered action seems like the panacea to all

yet deliberation muddles and holds me in thrall

i am glad of my borrowed time

i plan and move slowly, i consider and rhyme

if life's but a poem, with ends to be sewn

then without inspiration its back to the drone

there is no ending that's one size fit all

there are few motives that are good to the core

but if mutual exploitation is the order of day

how do you gamble with one life to play?

we make decisions with little insight

past hidden corners that might jump out and bite

while to hope for the best is just plain naive

its all that we have, that's all that i miss

close

2009-07-15T16:52:00.003+08:00

hi, i said to me down the road
hi, he said to i up the path
but as he slowly shuffled close
i blanched and turned, it was enough.

Off-Centre

2009-07-15T12:32:00.006+08:00

"A little off-centre,

A bit more to the side,

Slightly tilted forward,

Rotate it more to light."

The workman staggers forward

And kicks it with his knee,

The sculpture chips, tainted,

Now perfect as can be.

There is beauty in the armless,

The difference catches eye;

There is dignity in the different,

The piece of world called mine.

Busy Bees

2009-06-16T00:47:00.003+08:00

"Hello", I say, "how've you been now? "
My voice just echoes off the ground,
Busy bees don't stop to wait,
They rush along from flake to flake.

A sentence hanging in the air,
Lonesome, cold and in despair,
But bees don't stop, no, not to talk,
Conversation airs they mock.

"Really busy", so they say
As they rush towards the light of day,
"I've things to do and sights to see
Times up my friend. Goodbye from me!"

Engrossed in bringing the trophied gruel,
They miss fragile sunlight on morning cool,
Which scatter life into the flower bed,
And open gently their honeyed heads.

Jireh

2009-05-19T16:00:00.000+08:00

I Am

I am yearning,
To walk again.
To be able to outlast the miles
To be able to endure the heat
To be able ot peservere on forever
Till where earth and heaven meet.

I am praying,
to run again.
To be able to push on breathless
To be able to blink stinging eyes
To be able to be one with the rhythm
Of feet and running sighs.

I am proclaiming,
That I will fly once more.
Down the alleys of promise and open doors
To talk of potential and diminishing times
To think growing pains to degenerating lies
And for this my Lord I commit it all to Thee
My soul, my body, my spirit and my glee.

stone cold

2009-02-21T17:44:00.001+08:00

medusa glare at my heart tonight
turn it hard and turn it right
make me grim and make me cold
before the rest of my life unfolds

zeus strike down any hope remains
and sisters cut my heartstring pains
furies smite every untamed thought
leave nothing to the passing clock

for a stone cold heart moves not when blown
by the winds of fate from a past on loan
and a stone cold heart melts not when placed
in a chance encounter with that familiar face

and a stone cold heart hurts not when struck
by the thought of a future without your heart
and a stone cold heart might finally hardy be
when this cage of tears finally sets me free

hole in the sky

2009-02-14T12:23:00.001+08:00

a hole in the sky, that needs to be patched
i covered it up with some straw and thatch
but one day it all came a-raining down
leaving me helpless with a knot to be bound

a knot in my heart, an ache to be soothed
i sputtered it out in an effort to move
words held unsaid everyday that we met
and was left with a hole in my heart instead

a hole in my heart, all empty inside
i picked up some pieces but they never did fit
a you-sized hole will thus in me remain
till that bittersweet day when i am whole again

2009-01-21T19:09:00.001+08:00

you know for the first time in a while last night, a part of me ached more than my knee.

guitar hero-ed today with lamzy. abusing the drums felt good.

i guess i bled just to know im alive.

10 things to remember when jilting a guy

2009-01-21T00:10:00.002+08:00

smile, he might just forgive you
limit him to 10 or even 5 mins for time pressure spurs mistakes, and he may back off thinking he messed up
say your brother/father is walking around the area
deny any requests. just deny him space to execute his plans. similiar in idea as rule 2.
talk loudly so others can hear
pretend to be in love in 3 to 4 other guys
say you are in fact dating these 3 to 4 other guys
lie that you are sleeping with these 3 to 4 other guys
quote a fee
and when he asks you to forget it, say 'i'm not thinking about it' rather than 'yes'

they would hurt me more

2007-09-05T21:51:00.000+08:00

tell me now, my sweet desire
it's in your eyes your poise your way
tell me now, my hopes and dreams i
leave to you, leave to you

so tell me now, for i surrender
i fought it hard, i fought it long
so tell me now, i know its sudden
but i gave it all, gave it all

so whisper here, my sweet december
breathe it close, quell my fears
say it loud, now and forever
i see it now, i see it now

dun you cry, its none the matter
i'll be okay, just be strong
save the tears, i'm a survivor
they hurt me more, hurt me more

Carpe Momento?

2007-09-04T14:29:00.000+08:00

and now is the moment

the stars do align

i start now, triumphant

the moment is mine

carpe momento

but the words do just die

so I swallow my heart

and let the moment pass by

2007-08-12T23:03:00.000+08:00

you know i really cannot tell,
whether you are running on purpose
or with purpose

nor now can i fathom how much you know

but i just hope i ain't scaring you.

keeping it simple.

2007-08-10T01:05:00.000+08:00

we talked.

i wonder when you would hear my words unsaid.

perfect combination

2007-08-08T19:15:00.000+08:00

so you're the perfect combination
the perfect permutation
the perfect complication
for me

so you're my perfect adoration
my perfect intoxication
my perfect inspiration
for me

and if i ain't your perfect condemnation
your perfect tribulation
your perfect complication
then let us be.

msg to yongfountain

2007-07-08T21:50:00.001+08:00

stop being cunning and using that blogsearch.

Urgency?

2007-07-08T21:45:00.000+08:00

A sense of urgency

They rerouted 103
Torn down the HQ
Perhaps now its time
To stop
and say i miss you

I hate the sound of slamming doors.

2007-03-11T23:33:00.000+08:00

I guess i could let it all go. I guess I do not need to hold on any longer to things that seem increasingly distant to me. Firstly, there is that thing that I am not about to mention here. Even on a blog that does not display itself. And secondly, there is well... Career options.

I hate the sound of slamming doors.

But my fingers ache as the doors slam on them. I can't keep this up forever. Sooner or later I will have to choose.

And yet.

I hate the sound of slamming doors!

I guess thats why I am taking chem. Because I am humji. Scared. Afriad that one day I might look back and curse this decision. But at the back of my mind I do know that by taking chem and dropping econs another door closes slightly. And well... I hate the sight of closing doors too. Coz eventually it'll slam.

The opportunity cost though is not bad. Economics is just reccomended for well, Economics. Chemistry is compulsory. Though bridging modules are avalible for Life Sciences, but not Medicine.

Ironic that its economics reasoning isn't it. How much more useful is the latter. Hai.

I wonder how i went from HELM to this. I mean... I paid a huge price for not going to the humanities programme. Its an enormous, very obvious price. But well. Yah. I dun trust my essay writing skills that much. x)

BCME is the most practical combi for me. But I like Lit. Or liked. Anyway. and BMLE captures my interests perfectly. But its B without C. B without C! And that, as I am often reminded, is stupid.

Bah.

And of course there is the first problem.

I need to learn how to let go.

we were from the red and mighty house

2007-01-03T18:23:00.000+08:00

I thought quite alot on the bus trip back today, and i figured i might as well put this on the ol' blog, which yes I have not totally forgotten about.

I miss Moor House.

I mean, I'm not upset per say about Moor Tarbet. Its a nice house, with its own quirks and eccentricities. BUt i miss moor house. I guess i was fooled into thinking that going into mt would just be another very normal very seamless step after moor, but today, it hit me. It hit me that RJ is not RI, MT is not Moor House. The cheers are different, the spirit seems different, the shirt is different. MT is not Moor. and i guess that shocked me.

I miss Moor House. Well, to me Moor House was people. Moor House was 2M. Moor House was auyong and daryl, zhiwen and ronald. It was ziguang and yijing, fangjin and yixiang. Moor House was also activities. It was being lapped by Norman at all the Track and Fields. It was winning things by accident the Computer Science Quiz. It was running my heart out for Cross Country. It was alex screaming at the top of his voice. It was Marc See. It was Shayi. I know they are still here with me, but I guess it'll never be the same again.

I'm not saying that MT is wrong. THat MT is bad. JUst that, I guess, my life in Moor is, well, no more. And MT has much more to go before it can fill the shoes Moor has left behind in my heart.
So i guess i was from the red and mighty house. End. And that it all there was and will be to it. And, well hopefully, MT would be the start of a new legacy.

Holiday Musings

2005-06-20T22:44:00.000+08:00

Mmm. Yea. Its not your imagination. My hired penguins finally did their job and found the blog, though greatly changed. Like my old skin, this is yet another blogskin rip and edit. Supposed to be some Kingdom Heart layout. o_O Had some guy in centre. Sora I think. Haha. Not really sure, I don't play KH. Emulator not out yet. ><

Speaking about games. My ff7 just crashed. All my hard work just poofed. Gone. I may need to go back alllll the way back to where Aeris died. ='( My Highwindddd. #$%^&*

Haha. My life is quite sad, so I guess the skin is quite apt for now. Currently I divide my time between FF7, WE8 (some soccer game) and occasional "bouts" of homework. Bouts which on the whole aren't very successful. I still have nearly aboutj everything left. xD

You know I suddenly have a few random insights about Final Fantasy games. I realize that not only are they time wasting, they teach very very bad values. So far every single game I played teaches you to break into people's houses, pillage it of all its items and money, and then leave it without even a thank you note to owner. It also encourages violence. There isn't one scenario in which you and neogotiate a peaceful agreement with your enemy. FF7 in particular teaches other naughtier stuff. Like going into cathouses, peeping into keyholes, dressing up as a traverstite. Tskk tskkk... And oh ya, its main character is also a very interesting fellow. He plays in both sides of the court, if you get what I mean. First he enjoyed a bath with 10 (or more) hot and sweaty wrestlers in the aforementioned cathouse and then goes on to three-time all the other girls in the party (or four-time, if you count Barret. <- a male). Bah. But I guess thats typical FF for you. All the protagonists. Cloud. Squall. Zidane. All the same. Hmm... I wonder about FFX's Yuna. xD

Back.

2005-05-14T21:18:00.000+08:00

Backkk to blogging! Haha. My blog lives again. xD Okay fine it was liddat a few days liao. Technical error. I thought I didn't publish. Bahz.

AQ (part 1)

2005-04-03T21:24:00.000+08:00

And it was a bad day...

The sky was omninous, threatening to rain. People were sitting about plotting maps, talking cock, drinking the mineral water HQ so kindly provided. NTU was abuzz at about 4 in the morning.

Groups of people were sprawled about, some on hammocks, some on the stadium chairs, all trying to catch some shuteye before the race started. The log cards were given out early and everyone had more-than-ample time to plot their routes. I guess everyone was quite relax.

There were two toilets opened near the stadium; or rather, there had been 2. The bigger more spacious one decided to somehow lock itself at 4am in the morning though. NTU was considerate though, they left the one closer to the stadium open. It was much MUCH smaller and had but one squatting cubicle, and well, nervous people get stomachaches. Queues formed.

I was one of them I guess, or could have been. Somewhat constipated, I went with Geoff, Japheth and En Qing exploring for another toilet after consulting a security guard. He pointed us to the general direction of 'up'. NTU, see, was built on hills. Many many hills, most of which I would come to curse silently and vehemently about during the race itself. The nearest OPEN toilet it seems, other than the well-utilized fragrant cozy one down near the stadium, was up a hill. There were 5 (or was it 6?) flights of stairs.

It was not as if there wouldn't any other washrooms nearby. NTU was quite well planned in that department. There was 1 (open) by the stadium which everyone else used, one at the swimming complex (locked), one (locked at 4pm) near the carpark and yet another one locked behind a door of glass a few steps away from the only open one. All inaccessible.

Anyway, so I went up the hill. We actually found a toilet, with proper seats and all up there at some building. Then we returned down, I unrelieved no less lighter. I guess I should have ate prunes the night before... -___- Constipation sucks. (But according to Norman it lets you run faster. =o Shall gorge the day b4 2.4. lalala.)

Anyway by then we already had registered, with the lady I/C there doing an exceptionable job at forgetting to give teams their proper equipment (like logcards. $%^&*( )

Now fastfoward right to the beginning of the race and we have the Guess-of-Honour giving his speech, someone-whose-name-I-can't-remember cracking some lame sexist joke, and some-loud-bugger leading a funky stretching session. The GoH (I think) stood on two shaky tables beside the bench holding the BB flag and well... flagged us off. The race had started.

Now, I being on the extreme left (near the flag waving GoH), was nearly whacked on the head by the flag pole as I rushed down the NTU track. It wasn't as bouncy as the RJ one I think. Either that or my bag weighed me down too much for me to notice. Anyway everyone ran, a few madmen sprinted, my team paced, we raced across NTU to the exit. All the teams as one, with those who tried to forge alternative routes turning back and following the crowd. And so there I was, amongst the charging pack which was the 'Boys' catergory...

... all going the wrong way.

Friendster

2005-03-31T18:56:00.000+08:00

Yea I created an account. Finally. Omg.

Never actually thought I would, not after avoiding it at all costs as if it was a plague for so long. Testimonials. Eeks. Never was one good in that, and base on the picture I could piece together from the various reviews of Friendster I extracted from various pplz, Friendster was put a testimonial exchange programme. Or so I thought.

And so I never thought I'd end up staring at the Friendster homepage, filling in their registration form, reading the email they sent... Hah. It is almost like a defeat of sorts, finally giving in and all. But then again I distinctly remember it clearly being very similiar with blogs and, er well, gunbound. Both of which I have heard of months before anyone else, but had waited years before really trying it out. Hell. I think it was the same with Kazaa also. -__-

Dunno lae. I guess I make bad decisions. Once upon a time I stumbled upon a Open Beta Gunbound site once, read abt it, d/led the client, logged in, clicked about, clicked about more, clicked about summore, logged out and uninstalled program. Two years later I d/l it and play it. -__- Teh powder of peer pressure.

(Hmm... I think this also happened with CounterStrike... -.- Cept I never really took up CS afterwards. )

Anyway, as before, I went into in discovering a part of the world I've never knew so vast. A slice of life unknown to me. People, people and more people. People I know, knew and once knew. People I heard of vaguely, people I know not at all. I was stunned...

Okay maybe more of shocked. Wadeva. And then, as with the past 2 avoid-and-then-give-in scenarios, I felt a pang of regret. What if I had joined early... What if I had see all this b4? What could have happened? What else did I miss out... But most of all, Why had I been so bull headed and stubborn... Friendster was like a plague lor. Many many emails spammed my inbox to all of which I paid little heed. I actively avoided it in a sense. Haishh.

Ok wadeva. And thus I joined the fray late. xD So wad? Add meeee...

But I think I wouldn't get around to doing anything much until I finish iLearning, which, estimating from the current amount of work left, should be sometime next year. And anyway I got AQ comp on sat with teh sleepover on fri so ya... It'll rot for awhile, not much tho... But I can't really bear t... -__-

Thats the second syndrome. The feeling that there is much catching up to do. The urge to rush into teh fray. I remember the last time with GB, I ended up playing a substantial amount right b4 the Common Tests (actually that wasn't a bad thing. good stress relief. =P)

Ya so I won't continue until after everything, so if I haven't replied not that I daoing anyone okayy. But still remember to...

Addd meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

aq'05 countdown...

2005-03-29T23:19:00.000+08:00

4 more days... And actually there really isn't much of the 4th day left anymore, I bet once this post is posted it'll probably be just 3. -.-"
AQ training begins every year at the end of the year before. So in a sense, I've been training for 5 whole months are that one race which happens in approximately 3 days and 1/2 an hour time.

Bring it on. xD

Okay fine that sounds somewhat overconfident but heyyy... No point being intimidated right? You only make more mistakes when you are afraid.

Dunno lar. I know I should be a bit scared, a little frightened, a tad concerned, what I seem to can't care less. I remember being quite frightened this time last year... I wonder what happened... I'm now going for the full race, one triple or more the distance of the last one and I dun feel a thing...

I guess it must be the experience from last year. Being in front makes everyone else seem so HUMAN. I mean I saw the winning team's first leg cramp and stop, and actually had walked pass them wishing them well. Winning is not a as faraway prospect as I would have thought, or at least for the relay... But dunno leh, despite everything, the mock aq results, my knee hurting again, the perhaps-too-long tapering, etc; my confidence still remains.

I am mystified. But I hope it lasts... Hell. I know it'll last.

HipSteR!

2005-03-27T02:23:00.000+08:00

Support 2M Hipsters - http://2mhipsters.blogspot.com!

another late entry: teh march camp.

2005-03-20T00:00:00.000+08:00

March camp. The past experiences I've had of them vary alot. The first was quite okay, fun even; whereas the second was more or less pure hell. I've been dreading the camp, and thus when the news came that the Nat Individual Chess Comp was to be held on the same days, I more or less jumped at it.

Not. I more or less like totally changed my mind in about two days, deciding instead to go for the camp (with 1 day off lar, to help do some internet thing around the house when the repairman was to come). Of course, the fact that Sean, Fang Jin and Brandon were ALL ponning the comp for their own respective camps had a reasonably large bearing on this decision. Anyway, I decided might as well go lar, since go chess comp only go there to be thrashed. Bahz. The other significant reason was that this March camp would probably be the last of such camps I'm in as a participant, so thought might as well get it over and done with. xD

The march started pretty much similiar to previous ones. Bag check. Bunks. Standardization. Station Games. Blah blah blah. It was only after all this more or less 'fixed' activites were cleared with did the camp really show it character. The human scavanger hunt was freaky tho. Lying down topless baking in the Tennis Court. Ouch.

War games rocked. Okay I personally think that the sec 4s weren't trying as hard as previous years to run and catch us, or mebbe my squad is just too proed xD, and the result was quite clear. My redeemed ALL the lightsticks availible for us to redeem and still had some of the blue green paper (the ones we used to exchange for lightsticks) to spare. Ownage. xD

Then early the next day came the big one, the Amazing Race. My squad raced swiftly up the rankings before being yielded (BAHHHHHHHH.) at Bukit wadeva (Timah? hmm...) Nature Park. Then we lost alot of our drive and ended up joint-2nd with nearly all the other squads. (Not that bad I guess. xD) I guess we could have (I could have. lalala.) sacrificed my hair at the Fast Forward but looking back retrospectively its a good thing we didn't. Hiking in to Changi Jetty is the pits... By not taking it we took a bus. Whee~!

I have to commend my squad for their uber performance during this race tho. (not ego. xD) I hardly needed to do much except stay at the back and remind ppl to walk faster, whereas the other DYs were carrying bags, making and holding inspirational 100plus cans etc etc. I was lucky, my squad rocked. xD

The camp surely ended with a bang tho, and the last day back @ RI was quite okay in March Camp standards. Well, at least there weren't any fake road marches or round-the-track cheering sessions. The double breakfast-lunch, the movie and the surprise promotions (wheeee~! I was surprised at being promoted kayy... I seriously tot it was for some other batch) were fun tho. xD. Oh did I mention the movie was chaoji pro? Damn. High standards for next year. xD

Yea and then at the end of the camp we went to soccer, in which I got this giant blister (seriously giant) hence my MSN nick for the past few days. Sad isn't it? Getting the blister NOT from the camp but from the soccering AFTER the camp. -___-

Anyhow, so ended teh March Camp.

(Geez. All this 'catch-up' blogging is tiring... >.<)

a late late entry. Mock AQ.

2005-03-19T13:05:00.000+08:00

This entry is late. But I guess that goes without saying. I had actually written another one long long ago about mock aq but somehow I didn't publish it. Can't really remember why... (Ya. That long ago. xD)

Mock AQ was tiring. I mean after 1 whole day of school, a track and field meet (which I more or less ponned, with excuse bwahahaha, but thats besides the point), the 50 odd km thing was urghh... After the rather short running leg I was more or less already a walking zombie. (Yea. Walking in the running leg. xD We ran also lar, but @ the last part ran out of steam)

The red bull and food @ RI helped abit tho, and I felt quite revitalized for quite some time. But the biking route and long and... Ok fine, it was only long. And after hours upon hours of cycling I personally was more or less spent. I spent most of the return journey cycling in a sleepy half-awake eyelids-drooping trance...

Ya I noe that the real thing itself wouldn't take place in the middle of the night when everyone is already tired out, but still... Mock AQ was just 50 odd km, and AQ itself is 75. And that this 75 would take place under the scorching energy sapping sun. Food for thought. >.<

But I must say that the route rocked. From Kembangan we made our way along the EW Line to Paya Lebar, then to some temple at Aljunied Road, to some bus stop a some avenue in Hougang, then to Bartley road near Maris Stella and MI, then to Yio Chu Kang there nearing Rosyth, then back to RI through Boundary Road. And thats just the running leg. It was like a walk down memory lane for me... I got to see my old house, old schools, old kindergarden etc etc...

And so ended the last real hike.

Awakened.

2005-03-09T20:39:00.000+08:00

And finally after an unforgivably long time leaving my blog in the state of blog rot, I finally decided to update it. *Appaulse please* (er.hahaha... sorry... i've became lamer.)

The past few weeks were hectic. They past by in a blur of trainings, lessons, sleep (not neccessarily seperated from lessons xD), unfinished homework, mugging for tests, doing badly in those tests, mugging more OTHER tests, doing badly in those too, and did i mentioned unfinished homework?

And so now here I am, standing at the interval between the rush of the term and the just as hectic holidays, taking a step back, grabbing a breather, and reorganizing my thoughts.

My weekends have been in a perma-screwed state this year, with trainings sometimes even eating into my church service time. Now though, this weekend, heck this week, will re-define what screwed means...

First of is Inter-House Track and Field until about 6, which should be quite fun actually, if not the the following series of unfortunate events. (lameness. xD) Right up next would be the mock-aq, the big one. Teh 75km hike. And wtf lor, its overnight. -.- Hours and hours of walking in the dark. Bahz. Well at least the sweltering heat would be gone.... Then RIGHT after the 75km OVERNITE hike, the big move would come. My family is moving back to Avon, the condo above the unopened woodleigh station. -__- Insomiac time. xD

Actually I can't believe that this moving house is actually taking place, and actually am rather sad about it. I remembered wishing fervently for this day in Sec 1, so that I would not need to spend every morning peering worriedly out of the bus windows or bus stops wishing feverishly that the 13 would come so that I would not need to pick up by my 6th demerit point and do time in detention. xD. But now, after getting used to the hustle of the morning, I have become rather attached to this place. Attached to the MRT (NEL may be out of the way and rather ulu, but still...), Attached to Heartland Mall... Hell. Even attached to the long walk in and out the of estate when I am going to and fro from school (which are different. I go in a loop.) . Tommorow I would walk that road for the second last time, and tommorow afternoon I would take the route back for the last time... Urghz. I think too much.

Ah well. Shall end off (abruptly) here. xD. Have to attempt to catch up on my homework. xD

P.S. and ya i haven't changed my template. lazy me. xD

[empty]

2005-02-20T14:11:00.000+08:00

You can pretty much guess my life from the apparent lack of entries.

OBS.

2005-01-16T01:19:00.000+08:00

This probably be my last post for awhile after awhile, till i get around to changing skins or something.

OBS was fun. o_O Really contrary to what I thought it'd be like. I spent a substantial amount of time that week before dreading it and well... It never lived up to my expectations. =P

OBS didn't start very smoothly for me. I felt really down and depressed was right after the failed kayaking attempt on the first day. At that point I damn pissed with everything in general. Was wondering how the hell to survive the next 5 days. I mean... The very first activity flopped. And spectacularly at that. With all the mud and glass and cuts adding to its grandeur. I hated capsizing to begin with. I mean I got that bloody kayaking star liao still need to capsize for wadd. Then the stupid tide had to recede all the way to reveal and quicksand-like marine clay with glass shards embedded everywhere. The best and most mood uplifting thing I did then was to wash in the drainwater. Drainwater.

Dinner that day didn't help at all. Thinking and worrying ahead too much, we decided to cook a meagre meal. Uncooked rice with curry and anchovie sauce. Mmmm.

Everyone, I guess, was pretty pissed and sluggish all the way till the 2nd morning. So much so that even with an extra 1hr, we still were late for the Zipwire activity. And omg the zipwire... I dunno what possessed me to go third for it. In fact, I probably only went so easily coz I didn't have time to think about it. The first few seconds of acceleration was damn scary. Butterflies in stomach. Brr. Other than that the rest quite sian.

That marked the beginning of the amazing uplifting mood Armstrong had for the rest of the camp. In the land expedition that followed, wherein I the navig almost took a nasty turn (and would have if not for the fortunate meeting with Tensing), we didn't get lost. xD After avoiding the earlier blunder everything else was easy lar, cept that the Tensing ppl kept doubting my navigation. Walk 50m den stop and question. Kao. But navigating in Ubin is easy lar. If you can navig by principles like "Turn left when you can turn left", "Keep heading right", den you know you probably wouldn't get into too many problems. Armstrong was to get in none whatsoever. =D

We were the first group (with tensing) to the Quarry Camp. First to complete the checkpoints and reach Camp 1. First to return to Camp 2. Hard to be sad after that right? And the activites were damn fun too. Tripod was okay I guess but I loved rock climbing. xD Best of all was the Quarry, tho the barrel on the raft kept coming loose... (it didn't matter in the end. xD. goal post only wad.) Water frisbee was uber. xD Tho the changing up when RG Watches came in was messy. Bahh.

Thus the atmosphere was extremely bright and positive. Even an ant invasion couldn't kill the mood. After flaming (literal) the ants with an Off! spray and a lighter we could carry on as tho nothing happen. Heck... The torching was even fun. xD

Tho I think that the Finale after everything was damn extra and unneeded. The made-up games were lame... Moonball? Urghh. And the kayaking was like 5 mins of kayaking, 10 mins of washing up. -.- And the enddd. Anti-climax like siao. What sheet got wet and kayaked for a piece of paper to redeem chemicals for an experiment showing redox (whatever it is)? Pfft. And the "Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-dox!" toast... -.-" Lame lar. Went "YAM SENG!" instead for the heck of it tho. =P

And there I found out I got kicked out of SMP. Booooo. Nvm shall do Moot Parlie instead. Sounds like more fun. xD

At Punggol Jetty shayi requested to go back via public transport and I followed lor, with normie and bernard. Probably stank up the 82 tho. And that boarding was jack lor. We waited for the first 82 to ready up to set off. Then dis bus uncle came over and offered a lift (somehow he was one of the chartered bus drivers) to some block in punggol. So we left and went into it. Then we realized it wasn't going to move for some time. Not until it had all 20/30 odd people. By then the first 82 had left. So we alighted and waited for another 82. Then the boat came in and about 5 ppl went up. Thinking that the bus wouldn't leave, as only 5 ppl (not 20/30) went in, we continued waiting for the 82 driver to ready up. Then the bus left. -.- And we were left waiting for the bus driver, who was apparently testing out the passenger seats, to ready up. Bummer.

Overall, OBS was friggin fun. With all the drainwater bathes, marine clay, uncooked rice, rock hard (literal) floor. All the rock skipping, late night Karaoke from malaysia, overflowing "rations". All the sandflies, mosquitos and wild boars. The gargantuan hiking bag, trans-island-toilet-service and fire tricks.

Ok fineeeee. But it was fun lor. Definitely better than all the other camps I had thus far. It was slack. But who said slack wasn't good.

And I miss it already...

...But still am friggin glad to be back.

And so it begun...

2005-01-04T22:50:00.000+08:00

Back to school. xD

The first two days thus far have been sianz enough... Seriously.

Yesterday started off with me getting stuck in a nice traffic jam @ Braddell, Bishan and I heard ALL of the other roads surrounding RI/RJC. I went from wondering what to do with my spare time I would have before assembly to wondering whether the prefect catching latecomers was late too. So there I stood in the nice double-decker 88 bus watching a host of people walking on foot overtaking me.

I got in on time (perhaps stretching the term abit but I wasn't book. bwahahaha) and went straight to the hall where we were treated to a opening year speech by the new headmaster. It was, refreshingly enough, a speech that did not begin with a story. It *pause* was a *pause* speech *pause* that went *pause* like this *pause*.

Class interaction followed, so 3R, sitted in a neat 5-4-1-2-5 seating arrangement met Mr Koh, who promptly told us to tell the class about something he thought everyone else didn't know about themselves. Like: Not knowing what to say but knowing perhaps the class did not know that.

Then came today. I went to the bus stop prepared and got off at the 93 stop at Braddell closest to RI and proceeded to walk well... To RI. Duh. Instead of waiting for another bus to get stuck into the gridlock again. Halfway on my way there, I noticed the same 88 appear and getting stuck in the jam. My decision, and the extra walking distance, paid off, I thought. Then the 88 driver displayed a new approach.

Horn horn. Horn horn. It horned its way past the mass of cars and proceeded to blockade the bus stop from an outer lane. And there I was stuck at some traffic light that took like 6 mins to turn green (man). Bah.

And I wouldn't even start on the talks. (Coz mebbe I didn't absorb a thing at all)

What would Day 3 bring...

Happy New Year!

2005-01-01T01:07:00.000+08:00

Omgomgomg. '04 is goneee. What the hell happened?

I still have homework undone. Books unread. Friends unmade. Words unsaid. Lives untouched.

Ok fine. Perhaps not.

Yet. The start of '04 didn't seem so far off. I don't feel like I've been in RI for 2 years liao. 2 years. And next year Sec 3 already... Whaddaheck. Times flies... *

Damn.

*At least I can say this in retrospect. But while living it, there didn't seem to be an end. Time crawled.

Geek Speak

2004-12-31T02:00:00.000+08:00

Ok so for the past few days I haven't been chatting much. Partially because I was rushing my homework. Partially because I was trying to forward ports. Mostly because I was looking desperately for an Operating System for my unbootable new com.

I KNEW i missed out something. A damn floppy.

If not for Microsoft happily not supprting SATA driver at boot up (they provided a floppy disk as a backup) and that lack of a floppy drive I could have spent over 10 hours doing something ELSE.

Then of course the emergency software I downloaded was in Spanish.

Wow.

But heck. By upholding a strict policy of non-meddlement (I dun touch the bloody settings), I've got BT to work fine so I can go for a second dose of foreign language OSes.

Ok so I've turned into some geek.

Merry X'mas!

2004-12-24T16:46:00.000+08:00

I probably won't get a chance to wish anyone that online on X'mas itself so... well, ya: Merry Christmas! xD

Back.

2004-12-22T23:24:00.000+08:00

Finally AQ camp is over. xD

T'was mad. 3 days of activities... From running with 4.5 litres load to cycling on that damn bike in the gym. From really cycling on that hard bum-hurting bike to barefoot soccer in the uhh. literally: blistering heat. (Yay. Blister endurance. Oww)

Ok so now i get to slack and pretend i dun have any homework again. =P

I've been playing PES3 (Pro Evo Soccer) again after uhh months with my broken controller. xD Dunno lah. As usual I'm finding most single player com games sian (FFs dun count. xD). Meaningless waste of time in front of com. I now get more enjoyment stoning online. Multiplayer still can. xD More enjoyable. (coz normally much funnier)

Dunno. I remmeber a time when I could basically stone in front of a singleplayer game for hours and hours and like enjoy it. Haishh. (I bet these words would come straight back at me once I actually find something decent. xD)

Oh well. There isn't much of December left. I better not waste it no more.

Better get back to stoning. xD

Warren and Unwired

2004-12-18T01:21:00.000+08:00

Friday looked forbidding to start with. I was to have a full day in school, morning AQ, afternoon "wad sia" planning...

But I guess messenging people late at night about the planning not that good. I forget stuff. (Ok fine. 5 people are going to find this extremely ironic but heck. =P )

And my blisters were not liking the idea of covering another 7.2km.

So I ended up ponning the whole thing. Guiltttt... >.<

But the outing was so fun. xD. I got to bowl and play pool after more than 1 year. xD But I n00b lar... I only did them both twice before. xD So I had fun bringing up the rear in bowling scoresheets. Haishh.

It was damn funny lor. How Joanna could just drop the ball and gets sprites... ops. strikes. xD

Oh ya I recorded that uncle singing in the Water Hazard. xD. Shall upload it someday. Bwahaha. xP

That same night I returned and stayed up till 4am playing GB with marc and chris. xD

Somehow even though there isn't much of the hols left... I feel like I have just started mine proper. xD

Ok. So the above post is quite late... I was going to publish it on friday night but decided to GB instead. xD Then on Saturday my internet went down.

It was hell ok. I was ermz... fiddling with the wireless LAN again trying to get it to work and I somehow managed to destroy all 3 cards. (Or at least I thought I destroyed all 3 cards.)

Its a scary life... No internet. No MSN. The lost of contact. The absence of interconnectivity. I was practically unwired from my world. (Looks like I'm addicted to the com...)

So without nothing to do (It was earlyyy... Only midnight. Rmbr that I stayed till 4 the previous night so bio-clock warped...) I turned on the TV and watched, of all shows, You've got Mail, a show on well... emailing and instant messaging... =(

The world lives to spite me. -__-

Then today the repairman came and fixed it by slotting the cards in and out again. Turns out I installed them improperly. (No clicking sound) Haishhh. I feel stupid.

Well at least the WLAN is running. xD

And I shan't get started about Yio Chu Kang and Long Piao Piao @ Serangoon Stadium...

...

2004-12-16T23:37:00.000+08:00

Went to Sim Lim today with Mervyn to recce the prices. And well turns out that my stuff are out of stock. Haish. Conspiracy lar. Of all times... When I finally decide what to get and actually raise the money and actually go it is out of stock.

And so I coped a wireless router in the end after going up and down collecting flyers. Fun. The burger king there also very kind. Let us sit and study flyers long after we finished the food. =D

And oh... The guys at fuwell cheapoed me of a umbrella and a waterbottle. Hmph. Liddat also wan to con me...

Thus I returned. I must comment fuwell for their perfect camouflage plastic bags. No one would have robbed me. I looked like I was carrying stuff back from the wet market.

[rant&jargon]

I immediately tried to fix up the WLAN and was bouyed by the success of my successful setting up of my new com. Den i got hell.

My other com's case wouldn't budge. And after hammering it for some time it finally opened to reveal alot of dust.

Then comes the fun part. I installed the PCI Card but it looked too low and the antenna thingy couldn't fit. So I shuffled the pci components (3 times...) in hopes of installing the thing while a metal bar remained locked across the middle of the case. I gave up went down to check the dell's webbie abt it... It said something abt remove screw.

So I took a screwdriver and go there, then I found no screw... Fun. Desperate, I just yanked it. It gave way. -__-

So i installed the pci card and the drivers and tested it. My system couldn't seem too recognize the card... Thinking I installed the thing wrongly, I opened my case and tried again and again and again...

After 4 hrs I got quite pissed. -__- Turns out my chipset too old.

Yay.

[/rant&jargon]

Hahaz. The above makes no sense. (Partially coz of jargon, partially coz its really hard to describe this sorta thing, and mostly coz its boring) But hell. Ranting on blog is a good method of stress relief. =D

Well. I guess at least the days are getting eventful. xD Better than nothing I suppose.

Nat Treasure and whatnot

2004-12-15T22:27:00.000+08:00

Hmm I haven't been blogging much. But then again there isn't much to blog about. Nothing interesting in rotting in front of the computer.

Today began with me dying in training. Running with 4.5 litres is not fun. And after 4.8 km (2.4 with the load, 2.4 without) I died. xD. The sun started looking very very bright suddenly... My vision was yellow. -__- So I slacked during sprints. =D

And I found out I definitely need to play barefoot more. Perhaps that way I can build up an endurance for playing on the astroturf. Blister count after the match was ridiculous. I was like limping all the way. (And banged my head on a TV Mobile LCD screen on my way back. O_O Ya. I was that off balance.)

Then I had to hobble to Plaza Sing for the movie with juanhe, kelly and annalyn. (quite fast too... I was running late. winced all the way to NEL. bahz.)

And i learnt a few things from the outing:
(chronological)

#1: Do not attempt to consume ice kachang before a movie even though it seems you are early.

#2: Do not stash movie tickets away in a plastic bag you might mistakenly throw away.

#3: The soft drink cups are cold. (freezing in fact.) My mouth was already pretty much frozen by chionging the ice kachang... I didn't need my hands to be as well.

#4: GV: Plaza's exits signs are much dimmer than GV: Marina. =D (not so damn glaring... I rmbr trying to position myself so dat someone's head was blocking it during Shutter lorz... )

#5: BK doesn't mind you sitting on their tables not ordering anything. (At least for a short period of time. xD)

#6: Bring your own damn fork. (Plastic fork vs Sunday pie. Goodbye fork)

#7: Always count on the MRT train to be totally crowded when you have blisters.

Quite a fruitful trip no?

Retreated and back again.

2004-12-10T15:55:00.000+08:00

Yet another camp has passed. And though it, of course, pales in comparison with the big Jiangnan, it was memorable nonetheless. (Or of course, as memorable as LANning, playing Marvel vs Capcom and playing bridge can be)

One thing that I've learnt would be how lucrative arcades are. Even though its like just a puny 20 cent (1 whole yuan... Ok. Thats not much izzit?) per game, it still eats up your coins pretty fast. xD

Another thing would be how bias some* Man U fans are.

*Some! Some! Not all okay? Don't bash me.

I think I'd be changing my blog layout soon. xD Partially because of how everyone is doing the same, but also because I realized how screwed up my blog looks using Firefox. Then again recently lots of blogs screw up with firefox. xD. Wz isn't too happy.

I dunno. In the end what use is w3c. It tries to standardize HTML, but fails badly at it. Partially because IE just has too many users. IE just adds whatever they want, and since they have the most users, other browsers are more or less forced to add to stay ahead in the game. And the avaerage user does not give a hoot about w3c anyway. As long as the page loads properly, all is well. Hence of course, IE's popularity. (Although I guess, as wz says, its popular coz ppl cannot be bothered to dl another browser on their coms and thus use the preloaded IE)

I guess I'd try to script a blog that can be displayed on both. But in the end, I'll still cater more to the IE ppl. xD Coz thats what most ppl use anyway. Greatest happiness no? w3c is a lost cause. At the moment anyway.

Time Squeeze

2004-12-05T20:24:00.000+08:00

At the risk of sounding self-contradictory, I'd say the holidays have passed very swiftly. I remember beginning the month of November... The massive reading project which I tried to embark on. The packing for Jiangnan '04... Somehow one month has already past, and 2005 looms closer.

Sure enough, I've called much of the hols boring. Now, looking back (Well. I don't have to look very far do I?), it seems that I've wasted the holidays away, spending much of it calling it boring. Excellent use of time.

It doesn't help when I stare at the calender and notice how many events there are littered about. There wouldn't be much of a holiday. Not anymore. And to think how just a few weeks back I was wondering how to spend of that time. Well now its spent. And I've got chat logs of complaining how boring the hols were to prove it.

Its like, the only really memorable event in the span of about 6 weeks was a-little-more-than-1-week worth of Jiangnan '04. The rest of the time somehow disappeared. Vanished. Poof. Gone in a puff of smoke.

And the pile of homework sits not-so-snugly at my desk. A heap of new textbooks on the floor.

Oh 2005 looms alright.

And browsing through the pages of my newly bought textbooks. Two hundred dollars (1000 yuan. Eeeks.) worth of it. I conclude 2005 is going to be a loooong year.

Damn.

Shutter.

2004-12-02T23:07:00.000+08:00

Ok. I basically walked out of City Hall MRT thinking about how terribly late I was at 3.15. I figured I'll most probably have to trek to Marina Square (whereever that was - I didn't really noe) by myself. Then I saw the welcoming contingent. xD. Thanks for waiting! =P

Marina Square is a... maze. The cinema is hard to locate. And after some weird mix up, You Kai ended up as the only one there with the rest of us looking for him near the food court. Anyway the pathway to the cinema was amusing. Construction site-ish tunnel. Blehz. Its amazing that GV Marina was still so packed. I think the people there were quite pissed at us though. I noticed they opened another counter coz we were holding up the queue quite badly.

Shutter was. Freaky. T'was my first horror movie. xD Though, I wasn't really that freaked out coz, as I have said, its hard to be scared when you are talking cock. =D I got more startled by the screaming rather than the show for the first part lor. But the last sequence was really quite scary. xD The trip out of the cinema theatre was fun. With yx and his "oh no the door is locked!" a la Shutter.

Brrr. Freaky.

Anyway the outing concluded and ended with minimal conversation. Bleghz. And thus I failed in my face-name-msn objective and am left as clueless as before. >.<

Its weird really. How the outing was so hyped up. And how it ended lacklustrely. For me anywayz.

And perhaps also how everyone talks alot on MSN, but don't dare utter a thing in real life.

Catalyst X signing off.

SG idol. [end]

2004-12-01T23:19:00.000+08:00

So it ended.

Dunno lar. I didn't really follow the show very closely and all. Just more of tuned in now and then. I guess the result was quite predictable. With Taufik having that immense lead in the online poll carried out, well, online. Its just sad Sly didn't win I guess. xD Sorta rooted for him from the start k. Coz he stood out. xD No matter. I think he'll still get a contract either way.

And SG idol amassed 3 million votes! Thats 1.5 million dollars. Not bad man. Seems very profitable somehow...

Haish. Why did it end? Time seems to really fly. I can still remember the first few episodes clearly... As if it just occured a few weeks ago.

Then again. The whole year was a blur.

Oh well. Tommorow is shutter day. The outing that somehow will gross a 50% attendence rate at best. People are sure busy in the holidays. xD See you all at Marina. xD.

Back to AQ.

2004-11-29T22:43:00.000+08:00

Went for AQ today. (Trying to get a 50% attendance mah. xD Not my fault kay? Flu) I think this year the training is more intense than last years. Comparatively anyway. At least, I don't remember the 4th training being so intense. OK then again mebbe it was. I dunno. Memory failing me. As always. xD

I completed the 2.4 run in my slowest time ever. sheesh. Its sneaky lar. 20 min run den 2.4 and nvm say earlier. I was attempting to lap everyone. (ego.) xD Then, of course, I died. 16 mins. Blearghz. Must train stamina. But the duo-stitch was terrible ok. Shouldn't have drank so much water. xD My my ear got more blocked. -___-Its taking kinda long to unblock itself...

Nvm I guess. My main objective i guess is to get my old pace back, and then shoot for sub 10 2.4. Quite unrealistic huh. Now I 16 mins. -___-". I take comfort in that my NAPFA was 10.23. Or somewhere there. =P

Its good to be back. At AQ. xD

I tried to check out the movie schedule again. And found out how disorganized online booking is. One tries to get you to register first. The other hangs. Another only has a schedule up to the 1st December. And the last stopped screening. Wheee. Are they out to make things difficult? Certainly seems so. >.<

Hope everything works out in the end... Somehow...

Post Jiangnan.

2004-11-27T23:13:00.000+08:00

And so I went to church today. (Though in this case tonight might be more accurate since it is a night youth service) Was feeling rather sick, after all my ear is still blocked and flu has only just started to fade. I met some RG sec 3 there who also went to jiangnan. I think. At least looks like. What the heck. My memory sucks. Thats why I didn't blog chronologically about the trip anyway.

Oh ya speaking about the trip, here is one of the many products of my latest gaming spree on Fireworks MX:

I'll never forget the trip.

Though now the rot sets in. Its terribly hard to approach and talk to anyone on MSN I known from purely the trip alone anymore (considering how suddenly everyone is like boycotting msger... ). Like I told wz, there's no more common ground, common experiences besides the trip. It seems. Awkward. And even if there is one, it'll probably be very... forced and deliberate. Not a natural spontaneous one. You would have to constantly conscientiously think up topics to discuss.

And its not just for this trip. It happens all time. Just how many of my 150+ contacts do I really chat to? Not alot. Less then 10%. And thats on the good day.

It is sad. Depressing. What happened to all the promises to keep in touch? Everyone seemed so confident and reassured when they were made. Everyone seemed act like they'll have no problem doing so. And yet now it all seems to fade...

I guess msger can only go so far.

I really really hope I guessed wrong.

Blogging Fever?

2004-11-26T23:30:00.000+08:00

I seem to be compelled by some unknown force to blog these days. I dunno. But I seem to be making alot of entries lately... o_O

For one thing something always happens... Yesterday it was the 1 yuan mix up and today I got the weird lack of jiangnan people signing in... Must be MSN's spoilt contact list adding thing. The passport system is so clumcy... Now I bet some people have my email in 3 varients. "hotmail.com","passport.com" and "gmail.com". Great.

(Oh btw. Plz delete the "passport.com" (NOT HOTMAIL) one and add the "gmail.com" one if u have not done so.)

Bahz. Even my instruction seems clumsy. -.-"

Anyway due to my cold and blocked ear (not nose. ear.) I am now somewhat stuck at home playing my new favorite computer game, Fireworks MX. Hooray.

The Gamma function is interesting. =o

Ok. I think my rant is finish. xD

...

2004-11-26T01:29:00.000+08:00

Ok. Fine. So the earache was but an inflammed ear. Nothing else. I should really stop thinking so much...

Interestingly enough before visiting that Raffles Medical Group clinic (where I firstly dropped my medicine, then my receipt, and then my change within half a minute while walking out of the clinic) , I went to Cold Storage to cope a drink. Then, at the counter, I fumbled around with my wallet looking for a golden 1 dollar coin. I felt quite cheapo, considering I went to a supermarket to get one can drink (50cent. whee). I guess the person behind the counter thought I was even more cheapo as I handed her a 1 yuan coin (stupid gold colour. about same size summore). Then all people behind me in the express queue all started to stare disapprovingly at me. Perhaps for seemingly trying to cheat, perhaps for wasting their time, or perhaps just wondering why they didn't think of that before. =P

Oh well.

Catalyst X signing off.

Nostalgia abound...

2004-11-24T19:49:00.000+08:00

...But life goes on? Doesn't it?

Had my first AQ training in a long time (competition season starts erms... next year? prepare earlier I guess).

Back to Singapore. Back to life. Back to what came before.
Somehow I feel out of place. Things have happened, words been said and now the familiar has become the new.

It doesn't help that I caught a cold and a terrible earache on the way back. I mean, delayed pressure release? o_O Been quite long since I left the plane liao and still got that before-your-ear-pop feeling. Quite deaf in my right ear now. Shall attempt to sleep it away. Again. However, its like a physical reminder of the trip. A reminder of what has happened, of what has passed. Perhaps I do not want it to fade after all... NOT. It may be just one of the effects of cold. -.-

However, considering how long I lived in a surrounding similiar to this new place, it didn't really take long to acclimatize. (Speaking of acclimatizing, I already kenna sunburn.)

The path from the bus stop to the clock tower gave me a strong sense of deja vu. No. Not of the trip... But of the one year that has passed. No more, would I enter the classroom by that passageway-leading-to-the-astroturf and see the faces of 2M engrossed in last minute mugging, reading, chatting about Revealations *shudder*, or witnessing the latest KST-YX drama. No more would I hear the squeaky fan, see the slanted lights or read the eccentric board messages. No more MRT Maps, no more super-sized locker, no more dirty classroom. (Wait. Is that a good thing?) No more people, which I have known, studied, talked, played and ate with for 2 whole years. Sure enough, I'll still see them, but they wouldn't be my classmate no more.

I couldn't bare to look away, as I walked (briskly. I was late) on. But I did in the end, as the evil "Books for sale" sign (or something like that) drove my glaze away. It was yet another reminder of the time that has passed. Another reminder everything would soon be just... memories.

Why must my posts all be a melancholic? -.-

Oh well, I guess I'll keep in touch. =P considering how there isn't many people in the RI Sec 2 GE cohort anyway. 5x30=150. Ok... thats quite alot...

Oh ya. I linked the version of Gu Dan Bei Ban Qiu all the blue bus people heard in, well... the blue bus. Or at least I think its the same version. Enjoy.

Catalyst X signing off.

Jiangnan '04

2004-11-22T23:06:00.000+08:00

Ok I am retyping this coz IE crashed on me at the last minute and my long long entry became no more. Great...

Its over. The 9 days of it just past in a blur. In a mad flurry. Like a winning hand in daidee. (Hmm... too much card games for me...)

It was fun. All the joy and laughter, nicknames and cards and cards and, well, cards... All the meals, the oversleeping, the missed breakfasts and late nights... All the bus travelling, people smoking in air-con areas and the nice black rainwater-now-on-the-road at shanghai. All the missing clothes, missing booklets and rushed worksheets... They'll be missed.

Gone... Past in a flash... 9 whole days... Gone.

As I walked down the street, I couldn't really believe that I walked down a similiar one 24 hours ago thousands of miles away. Just 1 day ago...
As I entered Cold Storage and walked down the aisles there, I couldn't helped but convert all their prices to yuan. Then I blanched, turned round and marched out emptyhanded. -.-" But hey! Ferrero Rocher is cheaper in S'pore! Woot! In fact as originals go, they are comparable to s'pore's stuff in price. Cept mebbe CDs...

Time just flies. Damn. I need to get it off that Concorde.

I remember the nights. Nights of cards, little fighter, and warcraft 3. Nights of flying daggers, instant noodles, and coffee-chocolate cookies. Nights of polar bears, talking nonsense and prank calls. Nights of bathing and freezing. The nights were always just as, if not much more, fun as the days.

The shopping. In Shanghai: The uber-cheap McDonald breakfast, the aimless walking, the cards. The photo-taking, the nice black groundwater, the cigarette smoke. The long walk back to the bus, the weird stuff on the floor and the amazing lack a of washroom. In Suzhou: The cheap 88 dollar nike/adidas jackets, the 10 yuan for 3 non-ankle socks, the weird train vehicle. Not forgetting the cheap-CDs-that-I-wanted-which-had-to-be-sold-out-before-I-got-there, the sneaky English/Chinese Warcraft 3 CDs, the uber expensive original clothes. And most memorably the sleazy shop, in its fine smokey splendour, and Patrick's uber pwnage haggling skills. And of course the lovely run-all-the-way-back-before-the-coach-leaves.

The journeys! Well with the great forbidding cliques there were there wasn't much, as Wei Zhong aptly puts it, diffusion. But with all the singing, card games, claustrophobia, sleeping, passing-of-water-bottle-games. The trip was half the fun, although sometimes took more than half the time. The singing was really fun though, I mean, the first thing I did when I came back was down... acquire Westlife's Fool Again and If I Let You Go from my K... old CDs.

The meals! With a great variety of topics ranging from the Chef Conspiracy to Wei Zhong's Chicken Poll. From the 12 people squeeze (which seriously added to the fun), to the mad rush for food using "We are men" as an excuse. From a beer bottle to a waiter's mole. From a hairy unbreakable tiny Da <--(Big) Zha Xie to a table of girls asking Wei Zhong to eat (their) tofu to find the answer to his poll. From the take-a-photo-at-each-restaurant to their fragrant toilets (though I must say public toilets have the best and strongest fragrance). From watching the fish's school stare down at us while we were eating one of its kind to the hearty YAM SENG of the last lunch. It was fun.

The tourist destinations! The large wood-from-well temples, the fragance of incense, the way you kai banged the bell (improperly). The sight of a bunch of tourist happily snapping away in an area with a "plz dun take photographs" sign, the overabundance-of-digital-memory-which-led-to-the-photographing-of-dustbins-and-bottoms, the large opaque money-eating supposedly-can-see-the-bottom lakes.

The hotels! The cute-slippers-which-appear-at-every-hotel, the way the stairs is faster than the lift, and how a supposedly creepy dark 7th floor was conquered by turning on the best invention in the world ----> lights. The TV Games, the TV Channels, the African American player who I thought was called guo guo [Fruit Fruit] (Thats his team's name). The dodging of teachers, the trip to the "supermarket" provision store, the 40 cent LAN shop. And of course the scolding of Jonathan and Sean for doing what their dance instructor asked them to do--> visiting girls rooms. (OK fine, to get their shoe size).

The performances! The way I slacked when I realize I was not performing, how everyone reacted when they heard they were going to perform in front of RI, RGS on Chinese New Years Day (i think), how my fingers were freezing off. The twin dance performances, the throwing of a stone over the roof, and the way I had to manuveur to take photos without getting blocked. And of course the way it ended, a macanera, a cheer contest (NO CONTEST), followed by a sweet auld lang syne (with english DROWNING out the chinese) and how we had to be reminded how everyone will go seperate ways when guo yong gege announced the bus allocation.

And last but not least the people. The teachers, the parents and the other students. All have, in their own way, contributed to the trip and made the best experiences I have ever had. (overseas. which was easy enough considering how I hated all the other trips prior to this one) It'll probably be the last time so many 2Mers still considered 2Mers are gathered at one place, considering how David wants to make his leaving of s'pore for canada a hush hush private affair. It'll be the swansong? Perhaps. I hope not though.

And I must apolgize to all for my antisocial behaviour during the trip, sticking to my clique (class+gabriel), not daring to move out. Playing cards nonstop.

I thank everyone, Ronald, my roommate, the other 2Mers, Gabriel, Sonic, the parents, the teachers, my fellow blue bus people, and everyone else on this trip for making it a great experience. I thank God for keeping everyone safe and sound. (See Wei Zhong! No crashes!)

All gone... All turn into just photographs and memories...

...but priceless and invaluable ones at that... Never to fade to dust. RI-RGS, Jiangnan Learning Journey 2004.

The Catalyst X signing off.

Course Options.

2004-11-03T09:58:00.000+08:00

Time is near up. At 5pm today i would have to push the dreaded submit button and seal my fate. It would be a welcomed, and at the same time a hated, event. It would be a wonderful reprieve as the form has been in my thoughts for days, whether I be sleeping, eating or staring blankly at the computer screen. A welcomed end to the decision nightmare. Yet it would also be the closing off of a subject, a discipline which I have studied for 2 years. The end of it after 2 whole years for, well, 2 more years. If I decide wrongly, Regret would surely then come haunting me, whispering to me, stabbing me in the heart, producing heartache like no other.

I hate decisions.

And this one more than others.

They make me panic, regret... and think too much, as seen in the extremely long paragraph above.

...And as the seconds tick away, I open the webpage for the sixth time since 30 October and wonder and wander...

IEP Day 1

2004-10-15T23:44:00.000+08:00

Today was the first day of the post exam activities interest elective programme. Armed with the knowledge of the ring being "somewhere near Jurong East MRT", which was "2 hrs away" (bad info. but was corrected later online. phew. if not i would have had to awaken at 5-something....) I left for NEL.

Now, looking back, the guess timing was impeccable. I reached there with just a minute to spare. (Outram to Jurong East < Kovan to Outram), i thought the other way round... The building was... interestingly coloured. easy to spot. xD But i spent something time outside walking around wondering why they said the automatic doors would open at 9. (I was there at 8) b4 of course noticing the unlocked manual doors...

The IEP itself was quite fun I guess. Nearly everyone else seemed already able to skate perfectly though... -.-" And there I was without any knowledge of skating, inline or ice. Fun. Fell down twice badly (the interesting cartoonish way where u are inclined backwards with your arms whirling wildly) but still managed, i guess, to learn how to walk/skate abit....

After that I left with daryl, mervyn and marc to LAN awhile and stone until Vanity Fair screened. Wow. I found out now my CS is totally screwed. too much UT2k4. jumping around in CS is... well... quite useless.

Then i went on to waste money on a Shrooms Set (wah, miniscular burgar) @ the KFC and proceeded to spill the coke. Didn't notice the nice funky lever tray (stupid small tables)...

Then we went to the nice empty cinema 1/2h earlier and stoned. xD Listening to The Exorcist soundtrack coming from the other cinema. xD

Vanity Fair itself was... chim. must get the book... too confused liao. xD

And thus ended IEP day 1... (and my allowance. ='( )

EOY Over and wadeva happened b4

2004-10-13T20:58:00.000+08:00

Finally. EOYs over but it really feels sorta anticlimax. And now as i type this i get this panging feeling of guilt of not realli mugging so much as i could b4 since now suddenly got alot of time on my hands. Then feeling then reminds of the exa-... not uh. tests, i screwed up... Vicious.

Oh well i can't realli remember much of what happened earlier. But I'll give it a shot.

I shall start from the prefect nomination. Got nominated by that ronald without knowing... -.-" as did quite a number of other people. den had to waste time in the LT as the Mr Lim went on and on but uhh something. 4got liao. but not too long lar. There only kia, gerald, norman, juanhe and me from my class got in to the interview stage. hah. waste the time of all the other nominees (who didn't get it)

Den came the interview. Yayz. Was throwing playing cards abt in class with kia, gerald and norman b4 it. xD So fun. Not really great guai behaviour (under observation leh. the prefect thingy) but heck lar. xD Den Brian got caught using the com by some sec 3s. o_O

My interview went... down the drain. What can i do for the school. Well WHAT can I DO for the school? o_O muz be specific waddaheck. Made up some crap answer in the end and thus, well, screwed up. Haish. Oh well... The setting was very nice. 10 (or was it. too long ago liao) ppl sitting in a circle staring at you. Nice.

On tues well found out that i didn't get in. oh well, wasn't really trying very hard to get in anyway (and with how the interview went) wasn't of a surprise. but hey, congrats juanhe and norman.

Then the test started and I... dunno lar i get the feeling i died in chinese and english (yay. re-writing essays in the test is fun, make me go 50-100 under min. word limit). This hols muz learn to write faster >.<

So fast forward to now where i am sitting by the com, blogging and playing observer in a convo on pre-AQ planning and realizing how free people are. Oh well.

P.S. Beware of the "black list"... xD.

Long time no blog

2004-09-04T23:47:00.000+08:00

...Now is that a phrase?

Was very busy for the pass few days, either (in priority from least done to most done), studying, playing or slacking. xD
Test results came back. I passed maths! w00h00! Good thing got retest from 30 odd % pull up to 50.8%. My GPA is gonna dieeeee... (Then again my Maths test in the first semester had a failing percentage and I still did ok. )

And uh, Jane gave me a Gmail invite. YAYYYY. Continues thank-you barrage:
Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!

It solves my always 90% inbox full problem. xD

Skipped RI Open House today. Was suppose to man the Afternoon booth for Chess but had some BB thing on. And since the Mornning shift had more than enough people... I wonder how it went...

2nd medal. Undeserved.

2004-08-27T20:37:00.000+08:00

I feel so bad. In more than one way.
One way being how I caught a cold, got stomped on the toe until its bleeding and strained my arm before the badminton match.
The other being how I totally screwed up the match (wad? You think you can play properly with all the above?) and still get the gold medal (team event wad) because of other people's effort.

The injuries were so... unlucky lor. I could even move properly because of the toe, and hence was slowed down alot I guess. And my arm... Never stretched. Couldn't even do a proper 3/4 court clearance (I could ok. 1 year back). But oh well still got medal. xD Bad feel so "slacker"... I guess I'm just giving excuses though. Was badly out of practice.

Inter-house Com Science

2004-08-20T21:37:00.000+08:00

LOL! Went into LT1 thinking of gaining a couple of participation points for Moor (Some Moorian came to the chess room asking for people to go take the quiz), and manage to get into the uhh... Team Quiz round. There, I basically stoned while Mervyn answered all the questions that were answered. (Not my fault. I know nearly nothing in com history/software/graphic rendering/java) Anyway, mervyn rocks O_O, so got 1st. XD

The first question was damn farni:
*Some weird, chim and incomprehnsible (then again to me they all were) comes onto the screen*
U Know?
No.
How?
Tikam.
Uhh... N^2? N^3?
How I know?
Aiyah nvm. Tikam it.
The answer is n^2.
The answer is correct.
Huh? Really har.
Thats funny...

I feel bad lar. Didn't really contribute much and still got the trophy thingy. But who's complaining? XD Must have been really lucky in the quiz paper though. Didn't know about half of all the questions, and guessed alot the ones I "knew". (I know these things very vaguely because I just read all these stuff to know what to buy... Oh well.)

On other matters, the Malaysian Experience got postponed because of Bird Flu. Yay. Too bad it didn't get cancelled altogether though. XD I personally think its a waste of time lah. And, thus far, I hate camping, meaning tents and all that. Too bad (seriously. not sacarstic) the earlier trip to Chiangmai got cancelled though. That one would have been fun I guess. XD

Time flies.

2004-08-18T22:05:00.000+08:00

Hm. Haven't updated in some time. Had the maths test couple of days back. Extremely. Hard. Or, to be more accurate, it is do-able, but the time limit was crazy. Section B so far confirm fail liaoz. Argh. I didn't even draw the graph lar. It was like: Look at first question. Think. Think. Try. Try. "15 mins (out of 25) left". hAR? On the other hand, not many people finish it on time either. <-- Including some of the "maths geniuses" XD. So mebbe got moderation? Re-test? Free Marks? Pray...

Anyway, today I just finished being evil. XD. Updated the security of the code on the blog. XD. Very easy to break one, just to give them code checkers some mental exercise. XD. Oh ya, since I suddenly *ahem* got hold of Fireworks MX, I can start trying to make alternative backgrounds I guess. Once the exams are over though.

Oh, and the Malaysian Experience trip thingy may be affected by the recent bird flu outbreak there. Maybe it'll get cancelled like Chiangmai. Hopefully. >.< I don't think much of the trip anyway. Hate camps. XD. But then the teachers would be like damn sad lor. Organise so much for Chiangmai then kenna bird flu so it cancelled. Now organise again for Kluang and Malaysia kenna bird flu. But do I care? XD

Oh well. Better go off and start mugging Science.

Inter-School Team Chess

2004-08-15T22:23:00.000+08:00

Didn't blog yesterday about it as I was waiting for the results to be posted online. (Not in top 3 so dunno mah. Bahz.)
RI Team 1 (Sean, Wei Xing, Samuel, Brandon and Sheng Hao <-- Reserve, played zero) Poor thing lar, Sheng Hao, go there and slack around. Budden got lotta free CCA Points and a Trophy [he decided to donate it to the school XD] got 3rd. Lost to ACS(i) Team 1 and 2. -.-" Bad luck with the pairings lar. Haiz. RI Team 2 (Mark, Fang Jin, Ari, me and uhh... Daniel(I think) <-- Reserve, played 4 games. "Pro"er than me I think >.<) got 9th! (Ah. Wait. That a major deprovement.) Hahahaha... Beat Barker and ACS(I) Team 3 by Match Points. Poor Shouren. I personally played 4 out of 5 rounds (everyone in Team 2 played 4 out of 5 to let the reserve play, since the reserve quite pro XD), won 2 lost 2. >.<
here.

Com CrAsH!!! [SP 2]

2004-08-13T23:00:00.000+08:00

Ahhh... So unlucky. I patched my com with XP Service Pack 2 today, and configured everything to work properly. The new security centre very cool one. Keep saying Norton is spoilt. had to patch THAT too. Bahz. Had to start reconfiguring the firewall, but I too lazy and didn't do it.
Then I let my family test it. In the end, the firewall permissions became... very generous. (Someone clicked "yes" alot) Now "My Computer" cannot load. I just got "Recycle Bin" fixed. Urgh. Also keep getting funny "Memory Error"s.
That was yesterday.

Today had Chinese Test. Lost quite a lot of marks i think (to be expected. oh well. pray not though. XD). And I managed, for the FIRST time, to finish a 公函 in time. Amazing! Normally take like 1 1/2 hours or so. Hope it makes sense though. XD
Other subjects were fun lor. Had PE, which was soccer in an extremely extremely small area; Music, Cakewalk!; English, uhh... I was mugging Chinese then so....; and Chinese itself, more mugging. What was going on har? XD

Oh well. Better go and get some sleep. Have chess tournament tommorow. Inter-school team! O_O First time also. XD

Music Selector Working!

2004-08-10T13:44:00.000+08:00

Wohooo!!! After a crazy hours of reading up on the scripts and stuff, I finally got it to work. Will be adding more songs. Enjoy. XD

National Day

2004-08-09T23:27:00.000+08:00

Hmm. Didn't watch much of NDP in the end. Ended up trying to script a music selector. Well. It worked out fine in the end (Maybe abit laggy) but I ended up not using it, since it sorta messes up when you scroll as it overlaps with the tagboard. <-- technical stuff
Hence I ended up wasting more time. Damn. Better start mugging for Chinese and Maths.

History Drama.

2004-08-07T17:20:00.000+08:00

Argh. Sore throat got worse and I had to shout to be heard (Wait. I WAS heard, right?) on stage since my voice projection deteriorated with the cough. Oh well. Got third in the end, behind Nanyang and Victoria. -.-" Judges don't appreciate humour? XD Dunno lar. Didn't see the Nanyang play. Sucks being backstage.
Anyway, the whole cast & crew were wondering about the uhh... extremely-enthu-about-laughing audience.
Adnan: "You wouldn't get any satisfaction out of me..."
Audience: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
[whispered convo backstage]
"Har? What's so funny?"
"Oh."
The cast and crew didn't realize any humour was attached, but oh well... Even better I guess.
My scythe whacked the floor in the twirling part. Damn. Practise too much with broomsticks liao. XD Much more pro with broomsticks that the actual prop. -.-"

Sick. Damn.

2004-08-06T22:38:00.000+08:00

So unlucky... Sick before History Drama. SORE THROAT summore. Alamak. Scarely tommorow no voice.
*gulp*
Today we had National Day Celebrations. Quite fun, but I personally miss throwing lightsticks around like the last time liddat. XD
Ok. Better get some rest for my throat -.-"...

English Fest and Rants

2004-08-05T21:53:00.000+08:00

Today was English Fest, meaning the whole day got spent on doing English activities, or would have, if I did not have History Drama rehearsal.
The activities were quite fun lar. Especially the charades and 'taboo game', the latter being a game where you must let ur team guess a word, and cannot say the word itself and a few other 'taboo' words. Very engaging. My team cruised into a hands-down victory in 'taboo' and edged out the other teams to win in charades. Engaging. XD

[rant]

Bah. I realized that I have to go for the BB handover parade thingy on Saturday because History Drama does not last long enough. Have to be back @ RI at 2pm and drama ends @ 12 noon at Victoria. Damn.
I really don't see the point in parades lar. March march march, spoil your ankle and knees all for show. If you ask me, drill is something of the past. Do people fight wars in rigid formation standing upright shooting at each other anymore? NO. Yayaya instill discipline, build character wadever; standing still, stamping does all that right? Sometimes I find myself wondering why I am in a CCA that dedicates like 4hrs of its time into drill, when even the notes they themselves give out read out an average good time allocation would be 55mins. Budden musn't dwell on it too much, make myself depressed only. :'(
Ahh well just my two cents. (Mebbe less. -.-") Mebbe I ignored other good points whatsoever but this is just my opinion. A slacker's opinion I guess. XD Trying to de-stress. XD

Disclaimer: OPINION. O-P-I-N-I-O-N. Hold me not liable for whatever I wrote here... blah blah blah. XD

[/rant]

X-Country...

2004-08-04T20:36:00.000+08:00

Whoa. Today's Cross Country was fun! Ran 4.8km and ended up no. 39. Last year I was unrated (below Top 50) ok... XD
Ok... Maybe thats not very good compared to running 2.4km in 10min 23 secs, but I haven't been training too long liao. Very slow now. :'(. So no. 39 also quite okay lar... -.-"
The thing that surprised me is that the top few 'fast' runners aren't that fast at all. At the last 300 odd metres; wheezing, stitching up and dying, I still could make out 20 odd people running before me. Must try harder next year! Get top 25 (for medal XD)! Hopefully...
Anyway, Moor swept the U-13 and the U-14 and came in first for both, and got third in the U-15 to win the X-Country. Woohoooo... The U-14 Top 10, Moor had position no. 1,2,3,6,7,8,9 I think, with Norman , Yi Jing and Daryl getting no.2, no. 3 and no. 6 respectively. XD Moor rules.

Wadever.

2004-08-03T16:42:00.001+08:00

Haven't posted in a while... Hmm... Trying to decide on and do the blog design but my CSS very poor.
RI X-Country coming up tommorow, a 4.8km run. I hope I can go all the way this time. haven't trained in too long liao. *gulp* And I am coming down with a cough or something... Perfect timing. Urgh.
Ok. Now I better get back to the designing (and mantaining...) shan't I...?

Edit: Design temporarily done... Will get song selector thingy and links up later. XD

Design and stuff.

2004-07-26T20:26:00.000+08:00

Am in the process of designing the blog now. Sounds like the update news thingy in normal websites doesn't it? Guess I'm too used to them.

Ok Tagboard. Uhh... *Looks around*

Ahh well...

Wandering On...

2004-07-21T21:06:00.000+08:00

Yay. Forgot to bring keys out today and noone at home. So kenna stuck outside. Went wandering about the area around my house though. An interesting waste of 2 hrs. Bah.

Shall continue to wander on...

A sheepish start.

2004-07-18T22:44:00.000+08:00

All right all right all right.
Blog.
Finally caught up with the bandwagon and jumped on it after chasing it reluctantly.
And enter this scene i did. Sheepishly. Feel like as if I'm late for something liddat.
Peer Pressure. Bah.
Ok now thats done I'll leave this to stagnant for awhile shouldn't I? =)