QuaintNostalgia

Moved to wordpress

2008-06-06T15:22:00.005+08:00

I am moving to WORDPRESS.

My wordpress site:

http://chefsalad.wordpress.com/

Relink all.

Thank you.

And please do not judge or question my decision.

Boiling with rage

2008-06-04T12:48:00.005+08:00

Someone told me that younger siblings mature when they enter secondary school.

Well, apparently, that does not appear to be the case when it comes to my brother.

I have NO IDEA what he is thinking or even feeling or whether he was the tiniest bit of human consideration for others' because from what I understand by living WITH him, the only mental characteristics he seems to possess are that of a wild animal.

Everything is for self gain, everything is to have fun at the sake of others', and everything is done without considering whether it will affect others' or not.

If one day, his appearance ever changed to that of a dog, I wouldn't be able to tell if he was once a human or a born canine.

I am fully serious.

HOW is it that you can go around spoiling things for people and having fun at the expense of others' feelings and NOT have the smallest amount of guilt in your conscience? I don't see how that is possible.

He can't seem to understand that throwing pillows all over the floor and dumping the bedsheets all in a balled heap is hard work for someone who is 30kg lighter than he is(and being born of the female gender, hence the lack of muscle mass and height) who HAS to pack the bed. BLOODY FUCKING HELL the sheets were ALREADY flat on the bed, just that they were a little rumpled. WHY IS IT THAT YOU HAVING TO GO AROUND AND MESS THE PLACE UP SO THAT I END UP DOING A LOT MORE THAN I ACTUALLY NEED TO DO?

Now I have to do SO MUCH MORE than I actually NEEDED to and it isn't just hard work, it's tiring. It's so FUCKING heavy and big and I have to untangle it from its balled heap instead of just smoothing it out. And THEN pick the DAMN pillows(8 pillows) from the floor instead of just alligning them(because they were ALL ON THE BED) and THEN PUSH the BLOODY BED(queen size might I add) back into position because OBVIOUSLY it didn't occur to him that jumping and prancing on the bed will push it away from its rightful position. I don't have THAT much strength, and I'm certainly not as strong as you are. Why is it that you're allowed to have fun at my expense? I don't FUCKING get it.

Making the bed is one thing. Tidying up a mess is another. They AREN'T the same.

And you think THIS is all? OH NO. I have to fucking teach him MATH. And not to say I'm not WILLING to help, because if you want to learn, I AM. But if you can't APPRECIATE my effort or even try your best to LEARN(I'm not even asking you to do your best), then DON'T expect that someone telling you the answers is going to get you anywhere because teaching is a two way thing. You can't expect to understand what I am saying when you aren't even THINKING about it.
And PLEASE don't go, oh, he's incompetent in math and all that rubbish. He, from my observation, is FAR better at math than I am because he can do mental calculations that I can't(whereby I need a calcualtor) 10 times faster than I can if I did it mentally. COME ON, you have the fucking BRAINS, WHY don't you make use of it?

DO YOU KNOW how much others' would want your NATURAL ability to do math and now you just WASTE it and don't even USE it or even APPRECIATE it because you're PLAIN LAZY to. You don't even NEED hard work, all you have to do is to UNDERSTAND THE BLOODY CONCEPT, and even THAT is too hard for you? I KNOW that you will be able to do it once you've understood the concept but now you aren't even TRYING to understand it. You just expect it to come to you like magic. Well let me tell you, never in a million years will it happen.

I believe you don't even NEED math tuition, because you scoed 80/100 in Sec 1, FAR better than I did and now you can go and FAIL your Sec 2 math? That's just plain illogical. Math doesn't even NEED studying. I don't see how you can FAIL it. It just goes to show that you weren't paying attention at all.

No, the questions were NOT tricky. They were so damn straightforward that I couldn't have made it less difficult if I TRIED. It's so OBVIOUS what rule you have to use and which concept to use and it's NOT complicated either. Please don't go, oh you're in Sec 4, it's easy for you. I am TELLING YOU, it is EASY because they're all the sort of questions you get in your textbook exercises and not those tricky application ones. They don't even add weird powers or constants so that it's obvious to you that the ONLY method to use is THIS.

Honestly, I don't know what to say.

I mean, apart from the concept, he doesn't even KNOW that he can FACTORISE it. LIKE WTH???? FACTORISATION WAS LAST YEARS WORK. HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW HOW TO FACTORISE??? You're better at math than I am, not to mention, went to the same tution centre as I did.

He even told me that he school hadn't taught direct proportion when they tested inverse proportion in the paper. WHAT A NERVE. They're in the same chapter! If they've taught inverse proportion, which is harder than direct, then they will DEFINITELY have taught direct proportion.

What makes me even more pissed is that he KNOWS how to do it, he just couldn;t even be bothered to remember that SIMPLE SIMPLE formula that is so SIMPLE it doesnt' need memorizing. y = kx, is it so HARD? And then when I forced him to do it without any help, he actually COULD, almost instantaneously.

I am SO fuming that even in this air conditioned room I am sweating. ugh.

Complaints and grumbles

2008-05-31T20:56:00.003+08:00

I think, I have successfully, SOMEHOW, managed to waste 1 week of my holidays. So there it goes, gone with the wind, never to return again.

Then again, what ARE holidays really? Suppose it was a normal school year after a normal school term and you've just finished your normal MYE and attained normal grades(not excellent, but not that abd either. Just, you know, NORMAL) and THEN comes the June holidays. Enticing as it sounds, you know that you can't push away the dreaded pile of holidays homework and the constant guilt for "not studying' when you "should" since holidays have morphed from "time for rejuvenation and relaxation" to "self study and revision to catch up on school work".

Stupid isn't it?

The only reason why we CREATE this period of time is for students to take a well deserved break and come back refreshed to start the new term and now we FILL it with schoolwork claiming that it's enriching.

It's so IRONIC.

If you're gonna fill it with schoolwork, you might as well have SCHOOL. If not, then WHY have holidays in the first place? You've completely wiped out the idea of holidays being fun and relaxing, which is what they SHOULD be, and turned it into a different version of what you think we should do out of curriculum.

So in short, holidays NOW are just an altogether different species of school, it's self study, yes, but it's STILL study.

ANYTHING that is school-related should be done in the school term and not anytime else. If you can't finish your lessons or think that we need more revision, then dump it in the curriculum.

Don't complain that there's no time. I've seen heaps of time wasted right before my very eyes just because of silly things like miscommunication and uncooperative students(my method to deal with them? Send them out. They're not gonna pay attention anyway no matter how hard you want to make them do it and they'll only further disrupt the class. So why spoil education for others just because of a handful? They're mature, believe me. They know what they should do. If they don't WANT to do it, it's their problem.) and partly due to incompetency on someone's part.

I mean, the school term EXISTS for that purpose, I don't see why you should eat into our holidays when there is time ALLOCATED for you to do what you need to.

I feel like complaining a lot, so OK, I shall.

My top 5 pet peeves when it comes to people:

1. Those who are LATE

I HATE it when people aren't punctual. And I'm not talking about "I'm so sorry I left the house earlier than usual but there was this massive jam and now I'm 10 minutes late!" type of LATE. I'm talking about the "Well, I didn't quite feel like going out so early and anyway others are probably gonna be late too so I just played a few more minutes of computer and by the time I left I realised I was 20 minutes off the clock." kind of late.

Those who KNOW that they can AVOID being late but still do it anyway. (the accidentally-on-purpose type)

They keep the teacher waiting because she can't start the lesson due to their tardiness, make people call and call and call them wondering where the heck they are at 5.30pm when they promised to reach at 5.15pm. And even worse, those who are late and DON'T answer their phones. Which brings me to number 2.

2. Those who don't keep promises.

If you make a promise, I expect you to KEEP it. And don't just keep HALF your promise, keep ALL of it. People expect you to do it once you've said it, so if you dare to say it, you better do it.

Don't chagne it halfway through because of whatever reason because you should have foreseen anything coming your way when you made it.

A promise is a promise. And when you know you CANNOT reach the meeting place at 5.15pm, then DON'T tell me you will because then I will be even more pissed.

3. Those who borrow my items then don't return them.

If you borrow my items then I expect you to be responsible enough to return them even without me asking you because YOU are the one who is borrowing from ME. I am doing you a FAVOUR. I don't see why I have to keep on asking you for it because once you've borrowed something, you should REMEMER to return it, without fail.

And I hate it when people are like "Oh, tomorrow ok?" but their damn "tomorrow" never comes. NEVER. So then I have to call and sms them and make them tell me that it's in their bag already so that they will have it the next day.

4. Those who irritate me for no reason whatsoever

I am specifically refering to one person here. Who I'm sure you all know, and ARE well-acquainted with.

Look, I am not doing anything to you, and you aren't doing anything to me. So WHY is it that you have to constantly bug me every few seconds like I'm the only entertainment you have(and let me get this straight. I'm NOT your entertainment, I'm a HUMAN. Bloody treat me with respect) and you NEED to irritate me to stay alive.

And please, I am tired and hungry from coming back from school. You, on the other hand, have been LAZING ABOUT the ENTIRE MORNING and probably didn't wake up till 10am. I KNOW you're energetic and refreshed, I'm NOT so DON'T expect me to play along with your childish antics.

5. Pessimissts

I know how much you want to die and how much you hate yourself. You don't need to keep repeating it and drowning us all in your misery. Stop moaning and groaning in self pity thinking that no one loves you and bla bla bla bla because I am NOT INTERESTED.

Did you even know that you;re indirectly affecting the people around you? And if you're the type to complain that no one will ever like you, then it's partly for that reason that no one might want to get close to you.

Yes we all know the human race is screwed, the world is melting, black and white lines have been blurred into a grey fog. ARMEGEDDON!!!!!!! Do you need to constantly remind us of it? No, you don't. Stop saying that there is no hope. You say that having hope won't chagne things. Well, will having NO HOPE change things? It won't. Might as well have hope, right? At least it makes you feel better.

I think, I have finished ranting. So then, I shall stop HERE.

Tagged

2008-05-28T12:42:00.003+08:00

Well, since I was tagged... I guess I have to do this. Even though I REALLY don't want to. Since it's so personal and all.

A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz & those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

Tagged by: Yiwei

If your lover betrayed you, what would your reaction be?
Yell "F**k you!" then tell him "I broke up with YOU, not the other way round. I can do without people like you. You should just vanish from the face of this Earth!"

If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?
Winter in Singapore

What will your dream wedding to be like?
English/European countryside with fairytale setting and cottages in autumn and a mini waterfall nearby with a lush green forest and cute woodland animals like rabbits and squirrels. And I can do WITHOUT the gown. The setting is enough. :)

Are you confused of what lies ahead of you?
Yes, mostly because I haven't got any options I'd like to choose.

What's your ideal lover like?
Hmm... best of mixed hispanic-asian-caucasian descent.

Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Being loved, definitely.

How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?
As long as I need to?

If the person you secretly liked is already attached, what would you do?
Too bad lor.

Is being tagged fun?
No it's not, especially when the questions are so personal.

How do you see yourself in ten years time?
Living my life around the world and going to exotic places having friends from different races and nationalities.

Who are currently most important people to you?
Family, friends, and of course, myself.

What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Cute, friendly and generous with compliments.

Would you rather to be single and rich or married but poor?
Actually if I knew earlier that marriage life is debt-ridden then I wouldn't have MARRIED. So I refuse to answer this.

What's the first thing you do every morning?
Bury my head into the pillow and think "Bloody **** I don't want to ****ing get out of bed."

If you fall in love with two person simultaneously, who would you pick?
The one who isn't attached? LOL

If given the chance to turn back time, will you?
Probably not. I want to turn time forward.

What is the last thing you would do before you die?
Go to a buffet, gorge myself, travel around the world, get drunk on vodka, live life on the edge. Oh right, last THING. That's a singular. Hmm.... probably inject myself with morphine if the death is going to be painful. If it isn't then I'll choose a Japanese buffet.

8 people to be tagged:
XinLin
Shen Mei
Hansel
Sheila
Stella
Celine
HuiGe
Yeesuan

* the letter 'K' *

2008-05-27T15:35:00.002+08:00

It's harder than it looks!

Copy and paste to your own journal, erase my answers, and add your own. Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real places, names &/or objects, but nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person you got this from has the same 1st initial.

You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question. And Have Fun With It!!!

1) 4 LETTER WORD: Kill
2) BOY NAME: Ken
3) GIRL NAME: Katherine
4) OCCUPATION: King
5) A COLOR: Koral (I know it's spelt "Coral")
6) SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Keds
7) BEVERAGE: Kickapoo
8) FOOD: Kimchi
9) SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Kleenex
10) A PLACE: Kyoto
11) REASON FOR BEING LATE: [gorging on] Krispy Kremes =D
12) SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: " Krap!!! "

It's freaKKin' hard. Try it.

Restrict creativity =/= language

2008-05-24T10:07:00.002+08:00

Cross Country at Bedok Resevoir yesterday, and even though the occasion is hardly worth posting about, I shall do it anyway.

I walked ALL THE WAY. And I mean all 3.5km of it. And we came in last(or one of the last), which was, expected. The entire walk was filled with lots of UV rays and sun and heat and small sharp stones that got into our shoes and pierced our soles. Hardly enjoyable. And the scenery wasn't that great, its trees and a tiny lake all the way. Very very boring. In fact, I'm getting bored of this topic already!

Other than that, nothing much happened in the past few days. Oh yes, that stupid CRPP survey asked the "what career do you want to have when you grow up?" question again. This time, I jsut typed the answer that came to my mind instinctively.

Traveller

I really don't want to have to answer that. Anyway let them know that not everyone wants to take medicine or business or pursue a science/math/money based career, unlike what most people think is IDEAL. Thing is, what most people don't realise is that there is NO ideal. Because everyone's ideal is different. But then, since the majority still believe in "model answers" or "model essays" or "key words" and "perfect"(which can be VERY subjective) then let them live in their delusioned world.

This post is getting seriously crappy, I don't know what to type and I don't want to have to force words out from my mind because then it'll sound terribly fake like I'm trying to gel together sentences to form a fluid prargraph. Like I always believe, the best form of written work doesn't come from thinking, but by feeling. Which is why I suck SO BAD at argumentative essays because they force us to follow stupid formats that never get me past a B3.

It's an essay, and there are FORMATS. If there is a format, then it ISN'T an essay!!!!! Essays are supposed to be creative, to allow us to pen our inner iamgination and thoughts on paper. What becomes of imagination when you force it into a set format? It becomes disoriented and illogical and the essay churned out will not sound authentic because the voice of originality has been completely disallowed. And to think that language is supposed to be an ART.

Look, even the Cambridge examiners were asking for fresh adn creative essays and complained that Singaporean students kept using "model paragraphs". You can't say I'm wrong.

I want to live in the Renaissance era where science and art co-existed in harmony.

Sushi Crash Course + Youtube Fest

2008-05-20T20:06:00.005+08:00

Edit: SOMEONE complained that I made the occasion sound boring, so FINE, I shall pump some passion into it yeah?

Went out with my cousin to Books Kinokuniya on Sunday afternoon after church. We wore watching outfits! :
1. playsuit
2. white cap
3. birks
It was hilarious when people stared at us and pretended to treat us like we were normal. Totally fun. Shall try that with striped knee highs another time.

Anyway, we went back to my house, where we were having a gathering with my cousins later that night and Hansel(panda, Des, whatever la) was coming slightly earlier to learn how to make sushi.

Well, the sushi lesson was pushed wayyy back since we reached home late so I just practised Sonata in C(still can't get those super fast notes and my fingers jumble up ARGHHH) till my hands were knackered.

Ok then, to the sushi crash course Hansel got! He didn't get any hands on "training" because there was insufficient time so he just snapped photos all the way. And I kid you NOT, he takes a LOT of photos.

The ingredients for the sushi filling...

Tuna with mayo and black pepper(I have to admit it looks a bit like compost here)

Chicken Teriyaki and Unagi

Organic Nori(Japanese seaweed) on the rolling mat

So in case you're wondering, this is pearl rice. You just press and spread it into the Nori.
And you put the filling on the rice in a line.(That's octopus)

(And THIS is tuna)

Roll it. I thught he took tons of photos on the rolling but I guess he thought it was too ugly to be put onto his blog (while insignificant photos like the Doraemon magnets were nice) so there are NO photos showing the process of rolling.
Yeah, this is the roll you get after rolling. It's a lot harder than it looks!!!

Made lots of rolls.

Needless to say, cutting it comes next!

And somehow he CHOSE to post this lame picture of our fridge magnets. I didn't even realise they were Doraemon. Observant.

The sushi for our dinner.

The rest of the dinner. Some salads(including Kartoffelnsalat), fries, pizza(not yet made).

And somewhere betweent he soup drinking and food observing part of dinner, Hansel chose to flaunt his Deutsch and asked me, "Was ist das?". It took me awhile to realise that he was speaking in German, to which I replied, "I don't know." But I guess he really WANTED a german answer so he was all, "You should say ich weiss es nicht." I think it was that point that I started to ignore him and his sister told him to stop boasting.

Oh right! When Sheila(I'm not using "other cousin" now) took a sushi, she dropped it but then managed to save it. And then the 3 of them(namely Sheila, Stella and Hansel) went on to remind me of my egg accident.

And my Stella's tomato-redpepper soup. It's really nice I have to say. And trust Hansel to think that it's Chili sauce.

Chocolate fondue! My piano teacher gave us this fondue set for a Xmas-housewarming gift. You can always get it at Carrefour together with the chocolates.

That's pretty much it for the photos.

Then of course, my cousins and I went to watch really funny youtube videos that I didn't even know existed. I didn't realise they were such big Youtube fans. Oh, and I probably pissed them off when I started to rate and comment each video. LOL, it's my habit! I feel uncomfortable if I don't read the comments.

Oh right, and I also helped another cousin with her History SBQ on Communist Russia(not that I minded. I quite like doing it compared to Science. *shudders*). Geez, I'm making it sound as if I have a million cousins. Nah, I only have 7.

Oh gosh. Another I-hate-war post

2008-05-15T19:26:00.004+08:00

Ok, I really didn't regret going to the German Embassy today, which was some visit organised by the MOELC for willing-to-participate(I thought it was compulsory so I went but it turned out it isn't. But then I decided to go anyway) students.

And I thought I'd be late, but I guess I wasn't. Considering that my teacher was gonna wait from 2.30pm till 2.50pm(I reached at 2.45pm. stupid traffic jam) and I already warned him earlier that I would be late. So when I reached my classmate was like, "Oh, you're not late."(to which I replied, "yes I am." since the official meeting time was 2.30pm) and my teacher gave me that "Wow! You're on time!" look. I think I really gave them the impression that I'd be majorly late.

German Embassy was quite simple and modest looking. White walls, white floor, not much decoration. The place looked so freaking new, it was like stepping into a showroom. I think there aren't a lot of people there.

We were led into the conference room, where they have this long table(like in TVs where they have serious business meetings) with chairs and everyone immediately went all tense and twitchy because we didn't know if we were supposed to sit at the table or at the chairs behind. Turned out it was the table.

So anyway, the guy who was in charge of the embassy(or maybe just in charge of talking to us. Who knows) was beaming at us like mad for some reason, and then he spoke in german. And no one really managed to catch what he said. Then he spoke in English, and his accent was so American I couldn't even detect any German in it. Oh, and apparently he speaks 6 languages(German, English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew. :O :O :O) and did this really neat imitation of how the Americans in Spanish evening class last time couldn't pronounce the Spanish 'no'.

Other than that I think the whole talk itself was quite informative and interesting, if you like such stuff, which I do. It's better than sitting in Biology class listening to mundane explanations of photosynthesis and pollination in detail. I would say it's like a Social Studies lesson.

Oh right, and in the talk the guy mentioned that because Germany started 2 world wars they had really bad historical relations with european countries but know what?
I DON'T THINK THAT GERMANY WAS AT FAULT FOR WORLD WAR I AT ALL!!!!! I mean come on, all they did was to be loyal and join the war on the side of their ally. Is that wrong? It isn't. It's friendship over political ties. And not to mention that they didn't even trigger it. It was some stupid teenager who shot some important guy dead wasn't it? Sure, war is never right. It kills, it tortures, it traumatises. But suppose you weren't even in the position to choose whether you wanted war or not, and only had the choice of remaining loyal. Wouldn't you remain loyal? Maybe some people won't, HYPOCRITES.

Ok, so I guess WWII was their fault. But then think about it. Why did WWII start? Because Hitler was angry about Germany's defeat in WWI. So the cause of WWII is actually WWI(in my opinion anyway) and what caused WWI? Not Germany, definitely. Germany PARTICIPATED, sure, but it DID NOT start the war. Don't they always blame the country that instigated it? And not to mention that Germany had the most number of deaths too.

Actually, wars shouldn't even exist. I mean, you talk about being mature and talking things over and then in the end, you resort to the lowest form of negotiation possible except on a much larger scale. It's pretty much the same 2 little boys fighting over something. And the adults who have the NERVE to tell them to "not use violence" but resolve their differences peacefully actually think it's OK to kill people using mustard gas and weapons and bombs for their own personal interests like territory and resources. Seriously, it's the SAME. They, who claim to be mature, are doing the same childish act and saying it's adult just because they "declare war" and use 'chim' words to cover the meaning of it.

No amount of literary prowess will change the fact that war KILLS. You're willing to exchange LIVES for material possessions. How inhumane can you get? You say there's no choice. There is a choice. There is. No one forced you to rearm or develop weapons for that purpose. No one forced you to invade. You CHOSE to because you WANTED to, don't say there's no choice.

You want to start war? Very well then. Try being in the horrible uncomfortable uniform with dirt all around and mosquitos biting every visible surface of your skin then carrying possibly 10kg on your back and running from place to place for your LIFE and THEN spending majority of your time listening to people screaming because they're either dying or injured and sitting in the trenches which are wet and soggy and filled with corpses of your comrades and you have no choice because it's the only form of protection. Oh yes, in addition, add a heavy thunderstorm and the feeling of being away from home for months. After all that, TELL ME that you want to start a war.

And of course this is entirely different from defence. I was talking about countries that invade and attack. Not countries that are trying to protect themselves.

Darling

2008-05-12T20:44:00.003+08:00

I DISCOVERED A NEW BAND! AT TOPSHOP!

Or rather, I'm just hooked onto their song. It has brilliant indie groove to it that I just don't get sick of. And I LOVE the way the lead singer just sings like shes driven to the end of her tether and is on the brink of desperation. The lyrics are beautiful. I really don't like those lyrics where they go on and on about this stupid cliche boy-girl story. I prefer these:

"Behind royal walls, blacked out eyes
A solitary bird, high tension line
Dreaming of a pure white sky
Did somebody stop time"

"Is this what you get in amoral times?
Used to burn, now no fire of life
Settle for the riches to be fed
Deliver to the valley of the bed"

Beautiful.

Watched "The Sisterhood of the traveling Pants". It is such a good movie! Seriously. IF you're thinking that it's some lame chick flick(like most are) that only shallow people watch because its of beautiful people with their glamourous lives that do stupid things with their friends every day, then you are WRONG. The book is awesome and the movie doesn't disappoint either.

Sudden realisation. Why do American-born Asians no look slutty in clothes but Singaporean-Asians do? Simple reason: The way they carry themselves. I've seen Singaporeans who look really classy in denim shorts and T shirts and slippers for the simple reason that they don't flay their arms around or act cute or walk like they're in the wet market.

Love exploration

2008-05-09T18:48:00.002+08:00

Now WHO says I don't like outdoor activities? I like it if I get to do what I want.

Went to play badminton with my cousin today, then after an hour went cycling as well.

Badminton was at the CC. I didn't even KNOW there was a CC! Haven't played badminton in an indoor court for awhile. It was so awesome because there wasn't any of that annoying wind, but then on the downside, it was kinda hot and stuffy. I didn't expect to be that thirsty(since I'm not that thirsty after PE) but I guess I used more energy for badminton so my bottle of water wasn't enough. Then borrowed 2 bucks from my cousin for a drink(ARGH, I haven't returned it to her yet. The money was in my pocket).

Cycling was really fun. Since my cousin lives in the area and I only moved here 2 years ago, I got her to lead the ride. It seriously felt like a roller coaster cuz there weren't any ACTUAL slopes for us to cycle on so sometimes we had to go up on these rocky bumpy slopes of gravel. We didn't know where to go so we jst cycled whereever we wanted and I got to see a lot moer of my neighbourhood, including some houses that look like they belong to the colonial era(but I heard that only caucasian expatriates live there cuz its so expensive). The houses were BEAUTIFUL, I really didn't feel like I was in Singapore.

Cycled and cycled.... then suddenly this guy said "Hello" to us in this really happy voice and then I looked up and it was Hansel!!!!!!! Haha! Yay, thanks for the green bakerboy! Oh, and I discovered an outdoor badminton court as well as a million playgrounds. Love exploring the area, especially on bike!

School today was scary. We had JC talks and all that and each JC tried to woo us into putting them for first choice. I really don't know who to believe after everyone went, "Put XJC as your first choice!" And I got a little freaked out when they started mentioning university scholarships to Harvard or Cambridge or Oxford or MIT since apparently, lots of THEIR students went into those unis. I haven't even gotten my O Level results yet! What makes them so sure I can even get into their JC anyway?!?! I don't even know which course I want to take for university, much less the area I want to venture into.

I have this horrible feeling that I'll just take some crap course because I can't find any course I like and then end up jobless and roaming the streets and then I'll turn into a hobo(XINLIN I QUOTED YOU). I hate not knowing what I want.

Unexpected long-ish post

2008-05-06T20:33:00.003+08:00

Life is revolving around stupid mundane things that don't half get me on my nerves because nothing new is coming up, I've got nothing big to look forward to and the weather's just driving me up the wall.

And of course when I go home hoping to have some peaceful and solitary time for myself, I have to hear my brother singing the Catdog(yes, the cartoon) theme song over and over and OVER again, it's MENTALLY TORTUROUS!!!!! I believe I've heard it about 50 times in the last 3 days already. If he sings it again I'll have the uncontrolled urge to lunge at his vocal cords and throttle him till he stops it. I don't even KNOW why a 14 year old is obsessed with some cartoon that I didn't even like as a child(I never liked Catdog).

Mugged for History the whole of yesterday(in addition to wasting approximately 2 hours mooching around staring into thin space) and I have to say, the sense of satisfaction after I've studied for History returned and I was in a really good mood unlike when I finished studying for Biology and I felt like killing everyone I saw.

[[[ HISTORY PWNS. End of discussion. ]]]

And what is WITH people saying that History needs the most memorizing? I think it needs the LEAST. They don't have stupid solid definitions and its really fair to those who aren't good at remembering information word for word(like me, I remember the concept easily but not the words) and it REALLY tests your understanding. I want to drop science and be a pure humanities student.

Speaking of which, I've been figuring out what to do with my life AGAIN. Only this time I'm trying to think of what I WANT to study in University and be in future. After watching Taboo(Thursdays, 10pm, ARTS Central), I have decided that I want to do something related to cultural anthropology. Seriously, I think they should teach that in SCHOOL. Then people will be more accepting of other cultures and personalities and interests and talents. Now, WHO SAYS TV AIN'T HELPFUL?

Oh yes, following that stupid 'The Arena' debate on whether women should go for NS. I DISAGREE TOTALLY 100% WITH ALL MY HEART. Some stupid guy said that it promotes character building and co-operation and team spirit and all that crap. And another had the nerve to ask, "What happened to girl power?"

Listen mates, in all my 10 years of education, I have never ever benefited from a single camp, team-building activity or autocratic dictorship. In fact, I think those have instead, IRONICALLY, done more harm to me than good.

What taught me the real values of trust and loyalty, teamwork and responsiblity? The media. THat's right. You can argue that they sensationalise news and pollute our minds, but they provide real insight into the society we live in. Without them, I believe all the teenagers would still be living in an illusioned world, not knowing how treacherous and scheming reality REALLY is.

And the "What happened to girl power?" thing? You guys don't really get it do you? Let me terll you THIS is how it works. The males PROVIDE the manpower for defence, the females PRODUCE the manpower for defence and also for companies and for basically every industry.

Go ahead and argue that a woman can't give birth without a guy. Do guys need to carry the foetus for 9 months? No. Do they suffer from morning sickness? No. Do they suffer from post natal blues? No. Do they have to go through the gruelling hours of labour that is really a lot more painful than how most may imagine it to be? NO.

In short, the female's suffering to bring life into this world is ALREADY a representation of girl power, we don't need to go into NS and suffer even more to prove that we're on par with you guys. WE ARE.

And I've thought of something else. You know that Confucian saying that everyone is born kind and good and it is the world that has corrupted us? That's total crap.

For a human to be influenced by the corrupted world we live in, we have to actually LIVE in a corrupted society first, agree?(You can't disagree) And what produces this corrupted society? None other than corrupted and evil people. And where did these people come from? There must have been SOMEONE to INFLUENCE them to be evil and wicked since "everyone is born kind and good".

But then let's go right ot he beginning, the first human. If that human was born kind and good(which Confucius says is so) then WHAT influenced that person, or any other following humans for that matter, to be corrupted and bring evil and wickedness into this world?

The whole thing just doesn't make sense. There has to be a source of the influence, but if you say that everyone is only corrupt because of influence, then who influenced the first person to be corrupt(and subsequently corrupt the world) since that person supposedly is born innocent?

I can't believe I started off with nothing to blog about but ended up with such a long post.

Extra post memorandum:

Beware the birth of May...

Love History

2008-05-03T15:46:00.006+08:00

For the benefit of Hansel(who is currently gallivanting around Europe again, or rather, die Schweiz) I have posted a photo of my ideal bakerboy here.

-Something simple(so its not so epensive as well)
-Khaki(which is this colour) or even better, olive green(but not grass green)
-This is my ideal hat. But it's from Accessorize(and its all sold out in SG's outlet >.<)

I will, of course, reimburse all costs. (Did I use that word right?)

Went for a haircut yesterday and didn't really know what to expect. Now I'm left with only HALF my hair(in thickness, not length) which is WONDERFUL because its so thin and nice and I have never had such thin hair before! Oh and the hairdresser managed to make my hair so nice and straight and well behaved. How do they DO IT? I want to have that skill.

History exam left and I'm kind of happy because:

1. History is so interesting to study and read about

2. You don't have to memorise key words or stupid things and such. Just know the story, understand how both sides feel and you can use your own vocabulary to elaborate.

3. It's a lot easier to score than science.

And after 1 full week of studying(which I already cannot take) I NEVER want to hear/use/read these words EVER again:

1. molecules
2. cells
3. core
4. periphery
5. TNCs
6. policy
7. water
8. diffuse
9. mesophyll
10. increase
11. decrease
12. absorption
13. react/reaction/reactivity
14. precipitate
15. soluble/insoluble/solubility
16. dissolve
17. infrastructure
18. oxygen
19. carbon dioxide
20. redox

Get out of my sight you horrible bunch of vocab/nouns/verbs!

Of boots and tokyo

2008-04-29T15:56:00.008+08:00

Saw some article on "fashion-advice" in the Sunday Straits Times and was totally put off by what they said. Read the exerpt below.

(HAHA I am tempted to put "Source A, Sunday Times, 27-4-2008")

What's this?

DO NOT EXPOSE YOUR BARE LEGS IF YOU'RE PAIRING BOOTS WITH A MINI SKIRT UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOOK LIKE A STREET WALKER.

WEAR OPAQUE TIGHTS, EITHER IN NEUTRALS SUCH AS BLACK OR EVEN COLOURED ONES AS THEY HELP BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN YOUR KNEES AND YOUR HEMLINE.

And then they put pictures of random people in boots in the street in what the PERCEIVED and THOUGHT as fashion 'faux pas'-es.

Source B(WTH? The studying is getting to me)

A woman with loose wavy hair in a white trench dress with a gold belt cinched at the waist, black tights and white boots with a furry rim. (note, description is from me, not from the newspaper)I don't see the problem!!!!! What IS wrong? I thought it looked really cute, a kind of snow angel look. Maybe the gold belt was too loud for them but fine, you don't DISCRIMINATE colours!

Source C

A woman in a grey blouse tucked into a grey denim skirt and brown leather-ish boots.
Ok, so maybe it looks a little odd on her. But it isn't as BAd as they put it to be. All she needs to do it get a looser, slightly longer skirt in a darker colour and boots that are a few cm shorter. VOILA, street chic(I don't actually know any of these terms).

Source D

Girl in a tiny high ponytail with a white dress over a black shirt and long denim shorts wearing small beige flat boots.I don't see the problem in this either. It looks CUTE. IF the Straits Times were teaching people to look classy then they shouldn't say this outfit sucks just because it isn't CLASSY. It isn't classy, but its cute. What's wrong?

Source E

A woman with curls in a long black apron(she looks like a hairdresser) in knee high heeled boots.
And this was where they were TOO MUCH. Those boots AREN'T too high(as they said). I think she looks wonderfully gothic and japanese and hello, people in Japan wear THIGH HIGH boots.

Still disagree that I'm wrong?

I did research. And let's first tackle their claims of "never show too much leg in boots". I am going to prove them wrong that you should NEVER wear boots without tights.

Presenting one of Hollywood's most stylish(and here is what I mean by, "don't follow trends") celebrities, Miss Mischa Barton.

In a red dress and ankle boots.

Looking grunge in a fedora(the hat), curls, cool top and black and jacket, denim shorts with a brown belt and BOOTS.

Straight hair, black leather jacket, crisp white top, denim shorts and BOOTS.

ZOOM IN, yes they ARE boots.

And of course other photos where they DID NOT look like streetwalkers in boots. They looked totally cool.

Baker boy and plain black dress with black boots.

Cute pink and black dress with black stiletto boots.

Baker boy with flowered print dress and black heeled boots.

ALL OF WHICH HAD NO TIGHTS to "bridge the gap between your knees and hemline".

Another celebrity(Britanny Snow I think) looking really cute in a red belt and bright red boots.

Simple outfit but still looking every bit cool with those simple grey suede flat boots(I WANT THOSE BOOTS).
I thought she looked really funky. Blue and red aren't easy to carry off together. But mini skirt? check. Boots? check. tights to help "bridge the gap". NOT THERE.OK that's the end of my research. I hate it whem they instill all these fashion DOs and DON'Ts. My only DO is "be creative and wear it with confidence". The only DON'T is "Don't stick by the rules".

Moving on... My aunt came back from Tokyo and got me stuff from HRC!!! YAY!

Hard Rock Cafe 2008 Cherry Blossom NARITA TOKYO badge. Beautiful.

And this is the prettiest cap I've seen.

I love how it says TOKYO at the back. So when I wear it people will be like, "Oooh, its from Tokyo!" J/K

Off to study Geography now. I hope this post was interesting.

Guitar Lesson 1

2008-04-27T19:25:00.002+08:00

MOOMOO:
I shall reply your question on my blog.

First guitar lesson was OK. I didn't actually PLAY the guitar because the strings snapped ages ago and I got a full 1 hour lesson on how to restring it and tune it. Oh, and plus, Kelvin(the person whos teaching me) strung it wrongly! WAHAHA!!!! I was laughing like siao. I hope I can continue learning it though, because sometimes I get so sick of playing just one instrument and the guitar is really versatile.

And for anyone who's wodnering. NO, I did not pay for the lessons, they're free. My guitar "teacher" is not a proper professional one, just that the church needs more guitarists so I'm trying it out.

Till next time, CHEERIO!

I. Want. More. Tests. There, I've said it.

2008-04-23T20:06:00.005+08:00

I just realised I'm making more and more lists for my blog posts(call it laziness? whatever) so I shall attempt to post proper this time.

I'm so freaking pissed at myself. No my life does not suck(and I'm not being sarcastic), I do not hate myself and I'm not depressed/emo(call it whatever you want). I'm just royally PISSED at my own self.

And why might that be so? Because time management doesn't work for me! I planned to study from 4-7(including HW) today and guess what? I fell asleep till 5.30! There you have it, study schedule ruined all because of fatigue. And then of course I'll study till 12mn to make it up and I won't have energy the next day and I'll fall asleep in the afternoon AGAIN and the vicious cycle repeats itself.

Oh, and even though I claim to be unstressed about schoolwork(which I feel is true since the anxiety camp put on me is by far a lot WORSE than my EOY and MYE combined) HG says that I am. Apparently, I put too much pressure on myself and have too high standards. Maybe I AM feeling the stress of exams but not acknowledging it since its so minute(actually I'd use microscopic but it's so science-ey) compared to what I experienced the 2 weeks before camp that I don't consider it stress at all.

Ahh, the wonders of the human mind. And you thought evolution could produce such a complex organ which is only one of the many that all work in sync to bring order to your body? Not possible. And I'm not even talking about the intricacies of DNA and genetics yet.

I've said it a thousand times and I'm going to repeat it again:

I WANT MORE TESTS

I thought teachers LOVED giving tests? Give us more then! I NEED them. Without them I won't know what to expect and I won't be forced to motivated to study! If the other parents complain then just throw it all to me. Best if 2 subjects per day. Not to say I don't mind, but seriously, I need more tests, and I WANT them. I think I must be the only 16-year-old on the planet who wants more tests.

Examen gefalle mir nicht. Aber ich will Examen noch, weil von Examen ich lernen am besten kann.

I seriously don't know why I keep using German, but whatever, at least it helps to improve my linguistic skills.

Die Zukunft

2008-04-21T20:35:00.003+08:00

I was never really a person for Channel8/U talent quests programmes.

Happened to switch to Channel U to some talent-quest show where apaprently(according to HG) they try to find a good-looking person who has talent. Oh, and the theme that day was "tian mei", which I interpret as cutesey and girlish. And after watching them strut around on stage with I'm-so-freaking-cute videos of themselves being aired, I have this to tell them:

1. Anorexics/Bulimics do NOT look good on stage in dresses. I don't care if you're a size 2. Petite people do NOT equal underweight. Go gain some weight please.

2. Stop acting cute and claiming its natural. It's disgusting.

3. Talent is not playing with bread and forks on the table. Period. I don't care how sweetly you smile.

4. The ability to speak mandarin PROPERLY(or at least, get your pronounciation right) should rank tops in a MANDARIN TV show.

5. Creativity please. The only "cutesey" person who was memorable was the one who looked punk(in pink, yes) and ate popcorn(if you think eating is unglam, let me tell you, its not). The rest were stereotypical and stuck on the safe side(like opening their eyes wide, batting their eyelashes, and smiling oh-so-innocently).

6. Smiles should be natural, not forced.

I just wish there was a programme aimed at discovering real, pure, RAW talent and not so much on their looks and appearance. We should be able to find plenty of ordinary people who are amazing musicians/artists/dancers in Singapore. It's just a matter of whether we want to accept them or not(if you haven't noticed, many of the great musicians don't need cool clothes, crazy hairstyles, or MTVs to get people to AFFIRM their talent. They're always pretty low key and never really appear on the tabloids.)

I wasted 2 hours in the afternoon sleeping and woke up to an arm that didn't feel like mine. Then lethargy set in for 2 hours and I didn't do much of anything, again.

Oh damn, my German essay is long due and I don't know what to write on Zukunft.

Ich liebe Musik. Ich spiele das Kavier und werde in die Zukunft Gitarre spielen lernen. Ich wunsche, dass ich kann die Klavier und Gitarre Spielerin fur meine Kirche sein.

In andere Landen reisen ist auch sehr interessant! Du wollst andere Menschen kennen, und andere Essen essen. Aber ich habe keine Lieblingsland. Fur mich, alles Landen sind interessant und schon. In die Zukunft will ich in mehr Europanischen Landen reisen. Zum Beispiel, Osterreich, Gross Britannien, Griechenland, Italien, Spanien, Portugal und Deutschland. Dann kann ich in Deutschland Deutsch sprechen!

Crap this is going nowhere. I jsut did the above excerpt without any dictionary and made up some of the articles myself. I bet the grammar is just horrible.

Woolly minded

2008-04-16T19:14:00.005+08:00

So I just spent 3 straight hours studying for Geography and my butt hurts and my brain is all woolly. Hmm... I managed 2 topics even tohugh my initial plan was 3(now see why I'm an INFP? Always with unrealistic goals) but at least I wasn't distracted.

I HAVE TO DO WELL FOR MY MID YEARS EVEN IF IT KILLS ME since I've been failing my tests and all this year(for some reason I don't know. which is why Im suddenly mugging so hard). If I don't then the guilt will just pour down on me like treacle...

Anyway I HATE HATE HATE technical terms and keywords and such.

1. The stomach, ileum, islets of Langerhans were not created with NAMES. They're just different parts all inter-connected. There isn't a LINE drawn to indicate where the stomach ends and the intestine starts. If you understand the concept of digestion and assimilation but can't remember the keywords and scientific names, then no matter how detailed and accurate your portrayal of the process is, you won't get a single mark. Unfair? Very.

2. Why are they testing our memory capacity instead of our understanding of the subject??? This doesn't reflect our academic capabilities at all.

3. I don't understand how some people can start studying 2 weeks before a test and still remember by then. Hello, I forgot the information within 24 hours.

4. More tests please so we know what to expect?

5. Teach us, don't confuse us. And it doensn't help that you teach 2 different chapters at one go. IT really doesn't. Now my mind is all screwed with mix-ups of scientific concepts.

I WILL STUDY. I WILL. I shall regain the sweetness of my 16th year after the O Levels.

Plans and eggs

2008-04-14T16:24:00.004+08:00

I'm just feeling kind of down at the moment but then I should pull myself together and start getting organised since Mid Years are starting(Did I tell you how much I can't wait to go to Uni?) and bla bla.

So today, I plan to:

1. Study Geography(like really really hard)--Industries and NIEs and what-have-you.
2. Practise on my Qualitative Analysis on TYS(can't waste what Panda taught me)
3. File my E Math, A Math and Bio.
4. Practise the 3rd page of Sonata in C
5. And if there's time, do my German compo on 'Zukunft'(future)
6. Tidy up my cosmic disaster of a room

Thing is, some people plan and follow and succeed, while others, like me, fail. I think the discipline I have is too steeped in imagination and feelings and wishes. Someone give me the motivation I need. And please don't go, oh, this is your last year, you have to do your best. I still have A Levels, provided I make it into JC.

Interesting things that happened today:
Well if you really want to know, then i dropped an egg on the floor today. More precisely, the egg rolled off the kitchen countertop and I was trying to catch it using the side of my torso to trap it between my body and the edge of the counter(since my hands were busy with the stove and I couldn't really pull away).

And joy of joys, my torso happened to crush it against the edge of the handles below the counter. And it so happened that nature intended for egg shells to be THIS vulnerable and weak to break upon the slightest of forces so you got it. I had egg gunk down my shorts, on the counter top, down the counter, on the floor and on my foot. Yuck.

---UPDATE---
I decided to tackle my room first since looking at its disorder and mess just unsettles me.

My room BEFORE tidying in it's so called "natural" state:

Files and bags and papers strewn accross the bed and shelf and literally dumped into every and any available space

Zoom in to the pile of worksheets and whatnots in front of the lava lamp. I don't even know half the stuff that's in there. Geez.

And my bookshelf which is stuffed with books that do not belong in its categorised position.

And the tidying and packing and filing begins:

Halfway through the filing of worksheets. I almost fell off the bed while doing so.

And after the tidying and packing:

I put some clothes int he wash, hung the rest up.
Put my bags into their rightful storages and filed 4 subjects' worksheets.
Threw away a whole bunch of papers that were outdated(most of which were consent forms from either early 2008 or 2007)

Result? A nice and clean room again. Sort of. I have lots of stuff and I know it so it will never look uncluttered but its' definitely neater.

Worksheets in the file instead of thrown around.

Check out the stack of papers. It's gone! I've got my nice and clean desk once more!

Tidying my room has definitely made me feel better ever since I've been doing really badly this year. I don't know about you, but whenever I do badly in a test(graded or not) or exam, I feel like I'm letting my family and myself down. That feeling is horrible. I need to buck up.

Oh and for those who haven't seen my room before and are gaping at the phenomenal amount of green in it, well, I REALLY like the colour green.

Shopping and its theories

2008-04-12T10:00:00.002+08:00

I learnt a few things today when I went shopping with my cousin in Raffles City.

The my-style Theory
When you go shopping, get the person who's style is the closest to yours or who wants to buy almost the same stuff as you do. If you want to dress indie-street, people who are emo-punk will only say it looks disgusting. If you want to experiment with new styles, then people who are conservative and afraid to stand out of the crowd will only say your outfit looks weird. Overall, picking the wrong person to go shopping with you will not be helpful, at all. Which is why I LOVE shopping with my cousin because we both want to change our wardrobe and we got the same playsuit!!!

The correct-shopping-centre Theory
Singapore is laden with shopping centres, though still not many. Different shopping centres have different kinds of shops which cater to different kinds of people. Don't go to where you think most people your age go to shop, but to which shopping centre has most of your favourite stores. For me, its Raffles City. River Island, Topshop, ESPRIT, Accessorize, Animal... Sure, lots of teenagers LOVE going to PS, but I hate that place, there is NOTHING there. NOTHING. So, be selective, be honest and you'll save a lot of time and energy. Plus, if you think the people who hang out at a particular shopping centre will piss you off(PS has loads of act cute teens, Raffles City has almost none), then avoid that place. It only gets your mood off shopping.

The online-catalogue Theory
For those who hate browsing through the racks finding nice pieces of clothing, the internet is here to save the day! Go to the store's online website(I do it all the time) and there, you can go through ever piece of their apparel in the comfort of your own home. Then, you can proceed to go buy it at the store after you've targeted the clothes you want.

Oh and did I mention?

I hate my feet. Why on earth do they have to be so freaking small. The smallest size in Topshop(UK 3) is too big for my feet and those ladybug flats were so cute and would look so nice with black striped knee highs ARGH.

The weirdest birthday ever

2008-04-07T20:09:00.003+08:00

The actual date this was blogged: 9 April 2008
(But I just wanted to have a post with the date on my birthday!)

The 16 ways I'm the weirdest person on earth and totally loving it:

1. Pull ups are A LOT easier for me than sit ups/standing broad jump. Like, A LOT.

2. 3 chapters of Geography on development(50+ pages) are much easier for me to study than 2 chapters of Chemistry on alkanes&alkenes(20+ pages)

3. I'm more scared of beetles and cockroaches than I am of lizards.

4. I spend ages doing up my notes, then hardly refer to it later.

5. I prefer the cold freezing winter to warm sunny beaches

6. I love walking around in shopping centres doing nothing just because I like the place.

7. I'm the only one who thinks that the characters in Audition are WAY too skinny.

8. I'm a semi masochist. I like muscle-aching pains, bruises, grazes, but I cannot stand cramps or clean cuts.

9. I can be totally unstressed about school work but give me a 1 night camp and I almost kill myself over it(not to mention diarrhoea, cough, flu and losing 2kg)

10. I smile without even meaning to, I can't help it.

11. I want to have a Han Chinese traditional costume.

12. I don't like to go to bed, but once I sleep, I don't want to get up.

13. I can't remember how nuch money I've borrowed or lent so I always ask my friends if I owe them any.

14. I like onions

15. I can put my EZ Link Card in my wallet, then 30 secs later start panicking because I can't find my card in my pocket.

16. My form of comfort food would be instand noodles

---Most boring post ever on how I spent 7 April 2008---

I had the weirdest birthday ever. Seriously.

IT started off totally sleepy and me rushing off to school hoping I wouldn't be late. Then after school, since I had my dental appointment, I went to the CBD area(JOY!) to go eat my lunch and rest at Coffee Bean(I'm not a starbucks person =D). And guess what? After trudging for 15 minutes under the hot hot sun in this disgusting tropical climate, Coffee bean was UNDER RENOVATION. Yes!

So OK, I shall not get pissed on my birthday. I went to Lau Pa Sat instead, since it was nearby and it looked nice and empty and airy. I went in, oredered a bowl of gyoza ramen(I. LOVE. DUMPLINGS.) and entertained myself with some Australians ordering some food(they kept asking some questions on garlic LOL) while eating my noodles. I took as long as possible to eat my noodles, and I am alreayd a VERY slow eater yet I took about... 45 minutes ONLY. THat's freaking short.

I had 1h15min left to my dental appointment and 1h15min to kill. But because it was so hot out, and my blouse was soaking wet with sweat, I decided to go to the dental office 1h early and do my homework. Ok, I admit, it was for the air con. So I sat down, took out my mock paper, began circling answers with my pencil and before i knew it, I was asleep, while doing my homework, in a DENTIST'S OFFICE. And I thought I only slept for only 5 minutes but actually, it was half an hour. And my turn finally came and I realised when my dentist told me, that my stupid metal bracket fell out AGAIN.

Oh, and no birthday list this year because I know the stuff I want will never be given to me but instead shall have to be bought myself, and also because I didn't receive much this year. Not that I mind, since I love the thought of being 16.

Presenting pre & post Rhythm XXII

2008-04-06T17:26:00.008+08:00

Without further ado...

I present the pre and post of RHYTHM XXII! Oh, and how I spent my day(well, evening).

I decided to wear my brown bakerboy(since I felt like it) and since bakerboys and braids go together(they're like, SOUL MATES), I plaited my hair into two as well. It took me approximately half an hour to get ready but practice makes perfect! I expect I shall need lesser time in the future to plait my hair XD

So I left the hour 20 minutes late(and arrived only 10 minutes late) and didn't see HM at our meeting point, City Hall MRT, so I called her house and guess what? She overslept and only woke up when I called her!!! Grr... So I had to wait and wait for her and Mavis to arrive.

While we were scouting for our dinner venue, I was looking around and half day-dreaming when I saw this guy in some store and my sub-concious mind was all, "I know him from somewhere..." but I didn't really pay attention since I was thinking about something else. Then the penny dropped, "OMG THAT'S MY MATH TEACHER FROM SEC 3!!!" And I darted off, I mean it. According to HM and Mavis, he stared at me for awhile but I guess the hat made me look too un-Singaporean so thank goodness he didn't recognise me.

Dinner was at Subway.

Me and HM taking a pic together.

Without glasses. ROFL.

And of course, due to dear HM being late(despite her taking a cab and all), we were slightly late for the band concert. We had to rush there and even though we knew the route, the walking and climbing and collecting of tickets took ages.

We were supposed to meet Gwen at Victoria Concert Hall and go in together but since 3 of us(HM Mavis, me) were already late, we didn't want to wait so we SMSed Gwwen and told her to go in on her own. But then she couldn't find her way here so in the beginning of the concert we were frantically SMSing Gwen and laughing silently at her funny replies.

The below is an excerpt of our SMSing marathin convo.

Gwen: Lost

Me: Where exactly are you? You're supposed to cross the Cavenaugh Bridge.

Mavis: You, girl, are dead. Wait did you exit at the correct exit of the Mrt? If not then go back and LOOK AT THE SIGNS CORRECTLY.

Gwen: I see esplanade.

Gwen: I crossed bridge

Me: What colour is the bridge? Is it the correct one? Did you see the black sir stamford raffles statue?

Gwen: Stall right?

Me: Upstairs. Did you collect your ticket?

Me: Downstairs no more space so we're upstairs.

Gwen: Stall ticket can't go up

Me: They say no space below so they let us go up.

And hence this was how she found her way there.

But still, we came in time to watch some band from a school in Taiwan play TEQUILA(this ultra upbeat, jazzy tune and it was great. They literally bought the house down). After the Taiwanese, we got to watch SM perform with the alumni band. Apparently, they ran out of flute players so they had to use Junior high players(namely, SM).

There they are. SM's the one in the maroon coat.

At the intermission, we rushed down(since we were sitting upstairs) to meet SM and also give her her birthday present. Oh, and SM's classmate helped us take a photo. Left to right: SM, me, HM, Mavis.

Then the second half of the performance.

This time the entire band(excluding alumni) played.

After the concert, we went backstage to try our luck and see if we could meet SM again(hey we only get to meet a few times a year ok?). And lucky we were! She happened to be right at the entrance so we didn't have to find her at all.

Me and SM. Her flute looks small, but it's really long!

Attack of the hoodies! HM and I both wore hoodies so we pulled it up and took a photo, though it's a little dark. We apparently look like eskimos.

Off to take photos at the bridge while waiting for Gwen's father to arrive(we were taking his car)

Happened to snap a very mesmerising and beautiful view of Fullerton Hotel.

Us pretending to talk and chat while looking at the view from the bridge. Looks fake doesn't it? We were just stoning actually.

Then began the conversation about music and Alanis Morissette and Aly&AJ and suddenly...And we went home.

Oh, and the GG Sec 4 Farewell was on Friday. Despite me not liking the CCA and all, I like my juniors. They're really nice.

From the Sec 2s...(I love their batch, they're so rebellious. HA!)

A self-sewn pouch with zip and a note! I don't care if I don't have a rank, the last sentence on their note has told me that I have achieved what I wanted to achieve as a senior and not follow the autocratic regime.

From the Sec 3s...

Innovative! They wrote their note on a slipper.

And I'm guessing this was from the Sec 3s as well since they asked me the spelling of my name and told me that they had spelt it wrongly. They only spelt it with one 'R'! LOL!
That's about it!

***And there are supposedly, very nice photos of me and HM with a "natural cool street look"(as quoted from SM) taken in the MRT station platform but the Nokia Software in my computer has gone all weird and I can never transfer them from my phone into the computer now. Oh well.

And with that, I have evidence to support my theory that to look un-Singaporean, just wear a hat(excluding baseball caps). It makes a lot of difference. And because HM doesn't look local as well, we looked like tourists! Please tell me I look like I'm 16 and not 12.

The anti-heat campaign

2008-04-04T22:16:00.006+08:00

Women should stop using PMS as an excuse to get highly irritable.

It's like when a teacher shouts at her class every single morning for the same old thing for an entire year and every day the class says, "She's PMS-ing at us again."

Get your facts right please.

PMS does NOT come every day. It only arrives once a month(give or take a little) so it is completely illogical(if you want to argue from the scientific point of view) that you say she's PMS-ing every day. Unless her menstrual cycle was screwed then I have nothing to say and that person should go see a GP, IMMEDIATELY.

I don't know about you, but seriously, I think a better, and more logical reason for the highly-irritable mood swings are to do with the weather. Come on, it's 32 degrees out, it's so humid and there's no wind. That's typical Singaporean weather, isn't it? Because of that, you start sweating everywhere(even your legs and forearms). Now who WOULDN'T be annoyed and irritated when experiencing such discomfort? Even I feel like pulling my hair out and running out of class when its so hot and I'm in the classroom under the fan.

I seriously don't know HOW people can stand heat. Really, I can't.

Whenever people come back from winter countries, they're always like, "I'm so glad I live in Singapore." And I always ask, "How come? The weather in winter is so much better!" Yes, I've experience 0-10 degree weather, and I very much prefer it to our tropical climate. I dread coming back to Singapore because I'm faced with the inevitable truth that I will have to live in such horrible hot weather again.

And for those who love tans. Well, get a spray tan. Lying under the sun for that skin damage to occur is just not worth it. Especially with the hole in the Ozone Layer.

Another reason for loving hot weather is, most popularly, the beach. You can run around in skimpy swimwear, play in the water, suntan(AHEM, read above), have picnics, relax without a care in the world... Well, I guess it's all personal preference. I don't like being in swim wear(nylon is so uncomfortable, cotton is so much better), I don't like being in the salty water since I'm not a good swimmer and water can get extremely dangerous, I don't want to be tan, I don't see how you can have picnics with insects gorging on your feast and blood, and relax? FORGET IT! I'll probably be sweating my guts out!

I prefer winter. The melancholic, desolate look of snow covered trees, the serene, dark streets at night, the beauty of snow and the lack of sunlight. Oh, and higher metabolism so it means you can eat a little more XD

And I'm not a mean sister OK? --->

So happy birthday Amos(you TWAT)!

***New test! GO DO IT EVERYONE!

A miracle

2008-04-03T21:12:00.003+08:00

This was supposed to be on my Sunday School Class Blog, but whatever. I like this post since it ahs such, uhhh, DESCRIPTIVE language. It's been so long since I posted something like that.

You know, God's wonders never cease to amaze me.

Like today, when I had my 2.4km run/walk(though its actually a JOG. Get your English right people! GOODNESS). And my physical fitness level is 0(if there were negatives, it would go to negative infinity) so 2.4 is actually really really hard for me, even though I know all the sporty people out there find it a breeze.

YEAH I'M SORRY BUT I JUST CAN'T DO IT AS EASILY AS YOU CAN OK?

So anyway, I started off thinking, "How on earth am I even going to complete this?" and soon, things proved themselves to be worse. Imagine, it's hot, sunny and humid. You're doing your 2.4, and then your calf muscles feel like they're on fire, its like a permenant leg cramp. Everytime you stop, the pain gets sharper so you have no choice but to continue jogging.

By the middle of the jog, you're already breathless, your muscle cells have already started to respire anaerobically(producing lactic acid so it means I'm probably gonna have muscle ache tomorrow. AWESOME), your legs CONTINUE to hurt, every step is agony to your heels, sweat is dripping off your back and face.

Your lungs are close to self-combustion, and your head is reeling. You thirst for water, you're desperate, so you swallow saliva in an attempt to dampen your throat. Instead, it feels totally parched and dry, making you choke. All in all, it feels a lot worse than what you had initially expected(and believe me I've already got a very good imagination) and you want it to end SO BADLY.

But you must complete it! You MUST! If you don't, you'll have to go through this torture again! You need strength, and who do you turn to? Yup, I always turn to God. Because God's always there, rain or shine(or snow)! You ask, you BEG, "Please, PLEASE give me strength(physical). I NEED IT. I need to pass this so badly!"

You're still running. You don't feel like you're changed, I mean, you're still tired and all, but some how, you manage to continue. You push yourself beyond your own limit. Your body cries for help by sending pain signals everywhere. You ignore them. There's a motivation now, a kind of motivation that makes you want to pass. You HAVE to pass(yeah I know everyone's aiming for A or C, I just want to pass, happy?), you don't want to go through this again, in fact, you CAN'T.

And lo and behold, you actually make it! You don't know how, but you make it and that's what counts.Everytime I start the run without knowing how I'm going to make it. And everytime I manage to do it, no matter how much I feel like giving up in the middle.

Isn't that a miracle?(to me anyway, I know to YOU it might not be. FOR ME IT IS OK?) I can never understand how I am able to pull through, and if it isn't a miracle of God then I don't know what is.

PEOPLE!!! THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION. It's a factual recount from MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE!!!! I really DID feel like that during NAPHA, believe it or not.

Stress (not stressED)

2008-04-02T18:22:00.005+08:00

Stress doesn't exist as long as you don't believe in it.

Ok, so now I know what stress feels like.

1. My ****ing dumb ass of a brother just came home and I was just sitting in front of the computer, doing nothing to him at all when he came in and switched off the ceiling fan just to annoy me. And as you all know, I get highly-irritable and stressed when it's hot. I had to walk all the way to the switch to turn it on again and now I'm sweating my guts out. Damn it, I WANT IT TO SNOW.

2. I found the most amazing piano version of 'BoA-Everlasting' on Youtube but I don't know HOW to upload it here. I thought I could just copy and paste the code from Youtube in here but NO, I can't and I'm not going to waste my time over mundane technical difficulties since I'm already IT challenged.

3. I've got 2.4km NAPHA tomorrow and rather than be stressed about the math test, I'm more stressed for the run/jog. Seriously, it's not the tired-ness that gets to me, it's the pain. Do you know how much your calves HURT when you run? It's like a permenant leg cramp, it feels like it's on fire, and you can't walk since you have to PASS it if not you must redo it over and over and over and over and over again.

4. My piano teacher is coming tomorrow and I have yet to master page 2 of 'Sonata in C'. I hope my fingers are prepared for a vigorous workout.

5. I'm probably not going to sleep early tonight since I don't like going to bed(but once I sleep I don't want to get up) and so I'll be rushing off to school again after possibly over-sleeping for 5 minutes half-hoping that I won't be late(SBS/SMRT you CANNOT let me down).

6. 1 Chinese mock paper. Sounds simple, but its lethal. One paper is enough to fry your brains. I HATE doing those. Like, read FIVE passages in size 10 font in the span of 2 hours then answer questions on it that you'll get 0 for since you have no inkling of what the philosphy-based passage is about(some stuff on LIFE again).

But to be thankful...

1. I'm in love with Jason Mraz's music again! I was singing along to 'I'm Yours' just awhile ago, gosh It's such a beautiful song. It makes me want to learn to play the guitar!

2. My birthday!

3. Going out with my cousin on 11th to shop since we're both changing our wardrobes(kind of).

4. My (other)cousin's 1 year old birthday party this Sunday. FOOD!

5. Getting the motivation to study/do homework again( I did 2-3 hours of it last night, YAY).

6. Instant noodles for dinner tonight.

7. Finding the music sheet for 'BoA-Everlasting' in hope that I can play as well as that talented pianist in the Youtube video. I'm probably gonna have to improvise a bit though.

8. Shen Moo's band concert this Saturday

9. Mid Years(yeah I didn't put this in the wrong column. I'm thankful for mid years). They force me to study. If not, I would never study since my main problem is remembering the key words rather than the concept. The concept itself is easy to grasp and I can remember it fairly easily. It's just the key words that I can't remember and that also give you the marks so I end up memorising anyway(much as I am forgetful). Which is why I LOVE Geography/History. You can just remember the concept/event and crap your way out of anything since one thing always leads to another and it's plain common sense-ical(not to mention more interesting than Sciences, no offence).

10. The fact that I thought I would quit German in Sec 3 when I took it up in Sec 1, but no, I'm still learning it now in Sec 4 and I want to take it for H2. Might as well take something you like!

11. Music. Need I say more? These days I'm coming online just to drown myself in it. And when I'm bored, I just play a song over and over again in my head.

*So, who says you have to blog for a reason? I blog because I like the freedom of expression(kind of, so long as it doesn't cross the limits of the law), the absence of formats, and I like writing/typing. It helps me to destress and its a lot less tiring than writing.

**Yeah, stress is gone. I guess I should go cook instant noodles now.

***I realised I;ve been blogging mroe often these days. I think I kind of caught on Victoria's idea to record how your 16th year is like. It's working, I hope? Next time when I read my archives I'll laugh at my own posts!

Stuff and rubbish

2008-03-31T16:37:00.008+08:00

It just dawned on me that we're all going to be 16 this year and its just 2 more years till we get to go clubbing or get legal acess to booze. Oh, and we're graduating as well, and I suddenly thought of the whole prom thing(and I might just go in sweet lolita but then I'll have to get contacts and temporarily dye my hair orangey red, but I'd rather do that than go in cocktail attire like everyone else).

AND! Everyone else is so sure of their life, they have like, completely MAPPED our their life routes for the next 10 years and its so scary since I keep thinking about it yet can't decide what I want to be and I'll never be able to take Literature again since I opted for Geography and History(but I LIKE those 2 humanities more than Lit, even though I really love Lit as well) and it's totally not my fault that I'm not allowed to pick what subjects I want to study because OH NO bloody science is important so everyone has to take 2 sciences but there's a triple science for those who are thinking-oriented but NO triple humanities for those who prefer it. WTF.

Everyone's saying that there's no future in the arts/humanities and I want to slap them because I'd sooner struggle for a living and do what I really love than earn loads of dosh yet hate my job to the pits. Be a teacher? No way, you can't wear what you like, you have to follow stupid formats when its all about free expression, and those students will give you hell. Today I was telling Theresa that I want to be a freelance travel journalist(if that job even exists). :D

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The top in standard this year is from a double science LITERATURE elective class(and she so happens to be my friend as well). Congratulations Theresa!!!!! That'll show you triple science snobs! Ha! Go and gloat all you want, we still get the last laugh.

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I also compiled a list of 'WANTS' that I'm hoping to get in GSS(if not sooner for the cheaper items) and it came up to a whooping 15 items, one of which is zebra-print sneakers(so if you know where to get them tell me please because I've never seen them on sale anywhere).

Oh yeah, my birthday list has yet to be published! It shall be in time to come.

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And since everyone's announcing it on their blogs, then...
YAY we get to go for a prata outing this sunday!!!!! I though we had to wait till December or something! Yay! I think I like the curry more than the prata but whatever. Seriously, I can't imagine ANYONE not liking Singaporean food, it's one of the best fusion cuisines in the world. And not only a fusion of TWO cuisines, but 4 or 5. How unique can you get?

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And for those in need of some music:

1. 'Run baby run' - Garbage
2. 'The Remedy' - Jason Mraz
3. 'Bathwater' - No Doubt
4. 'Arms of my baby' - Joss Stone
5. 'IS IT YOU-' - hoitomi

5 tracks I'm loving right now.

** Thanks XinLin and YeeSuanf or Joss Stone's album, I have never heard such great R&B/Soul!

I'm stressed that I'm not stressed

2008-03-28T22:08:00.005+08:00

My plans of completing my homework were pushed aside after HG kindly invited me to go to Yamaha in PS to check out the pianos and electronic keyboards, and also their pop piano classes. So yeah, I went with her along with XinLin who decided at the last minute to join us. Yay.

We spent ages in Yamaha while HG whined and pined about whether to buy a piano or a keyboard(XinLin and I strongly encouraged her to get a piano even though its slightly more expensive since the sound is a lot better) and I just scoured the racks for interesting music scores.

Eventually, we went to have dinner because I was complaining and grumbling about being hungry(I hadn't had any food for 8 hours, neither did I have lunch) but then SOMEONE strongly objected against Pasta(WTH is wrong with italian food please can you tell me) so we had to eat Long John Silver's(at least it wasn't Yoshinoya).

At about 8, HG and her friend went home since they both have curfews and XinLin and I don't(yeah, now you know why I love my freedom). So the both of us went on an impromptu MRT ride to Raffles City(partly because I wanted to go to Accessorize) and jsut walked and walked and walked there for ages wtihout buying anything. It was awesome. I hate running, but I really love walking, especially in huge posh shopping malls because it's so fun to explore and drool at the stuff in the shops(saw this really nice turquoise beaded necklace, turquoise clips and olive green hat).

And hereby I can declare that I have found my shopping/going-out partner!!!!! Yays for XinLin! Everytime I want to walk more or just head somewhere else to explore, my friends are always too tired or broke or past their curfew. She's like the only friend I've met who's willing(like me) to walk for ages in a shopping mall without buying anything even though we had PE earlier that day and our feet were hurting. Next time though, we probably won't go in school uniform.

And I want to change my wardrobe so I can look like I'm 16! I'm love the whole bohemian look except I'm not a hardcore bohemian so I'm just going to mix and match and hope it turns out OK. Right now, I'm in love with this brown jumper-dress-top from asiajam.com. I love the details and colours on it. It's just so un-Singaporean and un-preppy and un-emo-ish.

And... this is me.
While I was in the toilet(that's the toilet door!), my brother stacked a pile of pillows outside the toilet door and when I came out I pretended to fall over it only it isn't very convincing since I can't act very well.

Pic-tur-esque?

2008-03-26T20:46:00.003+08:00

This post is long overdue.

In a random attempt to make my posts more "picturesque" and colourful, I went around my room taking random photos which I've decided to upload just because!!!

My latest addition to the HRC badge collection. Madrid, Spain(Damn something's wrong I keep mentally translating everything to German and I almost typed Spanien).
Thank you Hansel/Des/Max/Brian/Moz(whatever you want to be called) !!!!!

My new furry pink scrunchie!!!!! It's so cute right?
Angela bought this for me in Indonesia(since she always goes back during the sch hols)

And my CD case which is dangerously overloading. I badly need another CD rack...

Yeah haha that's all folks!!!!!

Sorry for being so lame in this post. XD I just want to have a remembrance of how my 16th year was like next time when I'm 20+ and I read my archives.

The Chandelier Ballroom

2008-03-24T20:54:00.002+08:00

You know that Alanis Morissette song 'Ironic'? It's so true. Life really IS ironic.

Like when I get more homework you'll probably assume I'll practise less piano but NO, the mroe homework I get, the more piano I practise, and the less homework I get the less piano I practise. Weird? Very much so.

But I'm really enjoying my time at the piano these days. If you've heard me play(which not many of you have) then you know I'm really aggressive when I play(like, REALLY). I love it that I can bang something yet make music and I can do it as many times as I like with the fastest song I know and get that wonderful andrenaline rush with music all over the place. I mean, imagine you've just heard this amazing song that really touched you, and try to multiply that feeling by say 50. Yup, that's the feeling you get when you play a piece you love. Bliss!

***HG, jealous much? Haha.
(Look, just go with what you want and ignore what others say!!!!)***

Somehow I'm wondering why a Grade 8 piece is so much easier than a Grade 6, and more fun to play too. Oh, I finally figured out the keys to 'Worn me down' in C major(like I'd actually ATTEMPT the sharps and flats in other keys), rejoice! Life is awesome when you have music.

I watched some Planet Earth today and there was this particular cave which is crowned the title of the most beautiful cave in the world because they have all these beautiful crystal structures and a particular part of the cave is called the Chandelier Ballroom(what a beautiful name) because this huge maginificent crystal structure was literally hanging from the ceiling and there were SO MANY of them! Humans can't really go in since it takes 9 hours just to get down and once when a person broke an ankle in the cave last time, it took more than 100 men 3 days to get him out.

Yikes, NOT for the claustrophobic.

(Haha I can't believe I used the word beautiful so many times!!!!!)

Die vectors, die!

2008-03-21T17:08:00.006+08:00

I'm so pissed. And guess what made me pissed this time?

MATH HOMEWORK. Ok, not the homework, but more of the physics-based concept we were made to learn.

I shall try hard to refrain from using vulgarities even though I feel like tearing my notes apart and burning it then shouting at it gleefully, "Ha! YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD KILL ME COULDN'T YOU? NOW I'M KILLING YOU!!!"

I stared at my notes(and it was even the EASY parts) for a full half an hour to one hour and tried to make sense of all the gibberish yet couldn't.

A
____________ C
I
I
I
I
B

Sorry for the weird picture, I'm just trying to prove my point.

ANYWAY:

This is what goes through my brain when I'm trying to think practical.

If a force moves through BA and then AC, mathematically, it should be BA + AC.

So if you should wish to calculate the force, shouldn't you calculate the force from BA and then calculate the force from AC then add them together? Because the force DID in fact move through point A. But NO, according to some crap theory, BA + AC = BC, which is the diagonal that I can't draw(but I'm sure you can visualise).

So what they're trying to say is, that when a force moves from B to A, and then from A to C, the force is somehow only from B to C, SKIPPING A.

I think they must be in self denial or something. If it passes through A, then you can't deny the fact that it did indeed pass through A and skip A when calculating the force!!! Why is it only BC??? It didn't pass through BC at all!!! WTF.

And if AB = -BA, then why not keep it as AB and not use the negative sign at all because it get's so damn confusing when there's a '-'.

It's so freaking unfair! I know math is a science, but making it so physics based is just unreasonable! The reason why I took biology was because I am incompetent at physics and now you just force me to take physics again under the subject name of 'math'!

I can do math. I can. I have no problem in algebra, trigonometry or even logarithms. But dump in a physics and my brain gets literally fried.

Can I just say this?
"****!!!!

Laughs hysterically

2008-03-20T23:15:00.003+08:00

Finally went to catch 'The Leap Years' and it was quite OK, not amazingly awesome, but OK. Pretty good I should say, for a local movie. Some parts were so lame that I burst my guts laughing!

And anyway HG ditched me AGAIN during dinner(TRAITOR), so only my bro and I ate.

When both of us got home and were waiting at the 1st floor for the lift to come, my bro, being childish as ever, wanted to race me into the lift. I was too tired to object so I just ignored him. Nevertheless, he was still determined to beat me and stood right outside the lift doors(so close that his nose can touch the doors) and when the lift reached the 1st floor and the door was only half open he dashed inside expecting to gain victory over, ahem, me.

What he DIDN'T realise however, was that someone in the lift was about to get out. And judging by the way she spoke, I can tell she's from China, so let's refer to her as the PRC.

*brother dashes into half-open lift door*

*almsot bangs into PRC who is also standing right in front of the lift doors while giving her a shock*

PRC: Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!! *clutches chest and pants*

Me: *looks in shock* ; *laughs hysterically*

Bro: *Mumbles* Sorry...

PRC: Xia si ren!!! *continues to clutch her chest and pant and giggle a little*

Me: *continues laughing hysterically*

PRC: ni men shi ji lou de?

Me: jiu lou... *laughs again*

PRC: Ohh... *begins to calm down and walk away*

Bro: dui bu qi...

PRC: mei guan xi... *smiles*

Me: *laughs hysterically all the way to the 9th floor*

That was about the most interesting experience I had today, apart from laughing in the cinema when Li Ann's box of Chiffon cake dropped.

And I'm facing a major dilema(correct spelling?). I don't know if I should go, I mean, it's 2 weeks. Plus, I don't know anyone else really well. It'll either be a fabulous experience or a really traumatic one. But at the same time I really want to go and my intuition is telling me to go. It would also be a great once-in-a-lifetime experience. Though I don't quite know the details and I don't know if it'll interfere with O Levels or not since most of the people who are expected to go are all in IP(grr...).

Still, 2 weeks is a really long time... I don't know what to do!!!

I'm talking about an exchange programme to Germany by the way, and it's not compulsory.

Update:
Ok, I CAN'T go for it. Even though I'll only travel to Germany in Nov-Dec, the German students are coming in Jul-Aug and that's when heavy revision and work for O Level begins. I guess circumstances made the decision for me.

No More Yoshinoya!

2008-03-19T21:02:00.003+08:00

My life is filled with coincidences!!!!! My friends know my cousins, my classmates know my friends from another school, my cousins are actually classmates with my friends. Wow. I guess a population of 4 million ain't that big?

I've been trying to get myself off the computer and catch up on my studies since the whole camp incident literally pulled my studies into the gutter with me. It really pains me to see me get low grades for humanities, especially when the paper was supposed to be easy and the teacher writes "Has potential for good work" and asks you what's going on when you're supposed to be doing well. And of course i can't say I was stressed over camp because that'll sound so stupid and irrational.

It doesn't help that math is so physics based. What are vectors really? A line of force? FORCES HAVE LINES???? Oh somebody just shoot me! I really cannot understand this physics concept, and no one told me that AB does not equal to BA because 'ah-bviously' if AB is '+' then BA should be '-'. Like, WHAT? This does not make any sense to me. THIS is the reason why I took Biology in the first place!!!

Anyway I hope I can go out with HG and my bro tomorrow to watch 'The Leap Years'. Yes I know, going out with your brother and friend??? Weird combination but we won't die. Since we all want to watch the same movie! I hope I can make it there in time after my german lesson. And I do NOT wish to eat at Yoshinoya again. We have eaten there one time too many!

Oooohh! People have been asking me why I've been smiling so much and been so high lately. Actually, I have no idea. I think it's because camp is over and I discovered some awesome music and I have nothing to be scared about, for the time being.

The school sells MEIJI yoghurt!!!! Yummy.

10 tips to top your recounts essay

2008-03-17T19:06:00.004+08:00

For English lesson today, we were supposed to form groups of 2/3 and then pick a kind of essay(eg. argumentative, letter writing etc) with which we will create a powerpoint on how to do well in that kind of essay writing. Now note, I'm sure you know I'm not the follow-a-format person, Im' more of a wait-for-inspiration-to-hit-you-then-write-whatever-you-want person.

And since my other 2 group members couldn't bo bothered to do much(1 was researching for Geography, another was on Warbook), I decided to crap something out.

I think my teacher's going to explode when she reads this. Oh well.

10 tips to top your recounts(writing about a past incident that happened) essay

***Before you begin, get the facts right. It will do you no good to make up the setting and story plot as you go.***

1. Setting?

2. Number of characters?

3. When did it start? Make sure the date and time of the day are consistent throughout the essay.

4. How did it happen? Make sure the story plot is convincing and realistic, a little drama is encouraged for exciting storyline, but don’t go over the top.

5. Decide how it will end before you start. Happy or sad ending?

6. Tone. Very important. The tone you use determines the feeling you give to the reader when he/she reads it.

7. Add your opinions and do not just narrate. How did it make YOU feel? How did you think the others felt?

8. Details. Too many make it long winded, too little make it plain. The key is to add events(whether small of big) that were significant to you and others, or that you deeply remembered because it struck you deeply.

9. Readers aren’t stupid. They can tell if you are lying about your emotions. Hence, always stay true to your opinions even if you feel others do not necessarily agree with you. Believe me, it shows.

10. Don’t stick to the format too closely. It makes the essay boring and mundane. Be original, write what YOU want, go with your inspiration. Most of all, have fun!!!!

I can't say I'm the best person to do this! And I don't know if I'm really submitting it! But at least we have something as back up.

Cheers!

IT challenged

2008-03-16T15:03:00.003+08:00

E learning should never have been invented, EVER.

Now that it exists, my teachers keep dumping our holiday homework or lessons on the freaking site and I have no idea how to navigate there or how to use it, much less how to HAND IT IN.

There should be some consideration for the IT-challenged out there, AKA me.

I mean, what's wrong with giving out holiday homework on paper? It's a lot easier to read, write and hand in, and students don't need to go search for it on the World Wide Web. Half the time I don't know what I'm clicking or doing and you can't be sure if you've actually FINISHED all that has to be done because they might have dumped it in some corner of the site that no one even goes to.

Honestly, can the school please stop abusing technology? It's useful I know, but for things like these, it's better off given out manually.

From Huihan's blog(HAHA):

1. The status of you and the last person you talked to on the phone?
My friend and table partner(in school) Prisia. Status? What does that mean?

2. What's bothering you right now?
Bloody E learning and how I'm going to complete my homework when all the damn homework is chucked there.

3. Wallpaper on your computer's desktop?
Some photo of me feeding the seagulls in China.

4. Listening to?
Myself typing and hitting the keyboard aggressively. MY TYPING STYLE

5. What do you smell like?
No idea, I don't sniff myself. Maybe oil and grease from the food court I ate at? Who knows.

6. Eating?
Grapes.

7. If you could change something in your life, what would it be?
That I will dare to say what I want to say about people I really cannot stand in their face, I don't like lying(even white lies).

8. What do you wear to bed?
PJs, duh.

9. Do you remember your dreams?
Most of the time I don't have any. But my dreams are usually pretty cool, like my own version of amazing race. It always involves me rushing off somewhere exotic like I'm in a race or something and its just exhilarating.

10. Who will you sleep with tomorrow?
Either alone or with my mum, and always with my blankey and doll.

11. Have you ever been gambling?
Not really.

12. What's something you wish you could understand better?
Why some people want to fit in so much. It's cool to be unique, I don't see why you'd want to follow others when it doesn't make you happy.

13. What did you do last night?
Watched TV and read till page 140 of 'The Sweet Far Thing'.

14. What was the last thing you drank?
Milk tea, I think.

15. Are you bored?
Kind of, or rather, I just don't have a life.

16. What are you excited about?
Shen Moo's band concert, when I can finally meet her and Hoiz.

17.Where was the last place you went?
Hougang Mall, for lunch.

18. What's on your mind right now?
"Wouldn't striped knee length socks be so cool? And of course Singaporeans would just laugh but I don't care."

19. Have you cried recently?
I'm guessing recently means about 2 weeks ago, so yes, I did.

I need to go get a life

2008-03-14T16:40:00.003+08:00

Went for dental today since my metal brackets fell out due to me chewing some meat(pork I think, or maybe it was chicken) eons ago. So i went to have it fixed. And behold, it feel so much more stable now, thank goodness.

I left the house really pissed today because of my bro(like, understatement of the century) to go to Chinatown for dental and after dental, i decided to explore the area a little since I didn't quite feel like going home.

I didn't expect to see much but I'm so seriously in love with the place. I love the architecture(shophouses given fresh coats of bright paint), the different smells of food wafting from exotic restaurants, the non-existence of wimbotic teenagers. It's such a wonderful, wonderful place, I could spend hours on my own just walking there.

Adn of course I have nothing to say because nothing has happened and I haven't really been doing my holiday homework(especially Geog, damn human Geog) and all free time is spent in front of the computer.

I need to discover some new music!

I need to go somewhere exotic!

I need to find some motivation to practise Sonata in C!

I need to get on a caffeine/sugar high!

Most of all, I need a life, not like I'm going to get one anytime soon.

Life is wonderful

2008-03-10T22:35:00.004+08:00

Life is wonderful at the moment.

Camp's over (not that it was torturous, but it is a relief to know that I've gotten it over and done with), holidays are here(even though I have Chemistry SPA but then studying isn't actually agonizing), and with some luck, I managed to get 9 books at a 20% discount today after finding out on the Kinokuniya site that the last day of the members' storewide 20% promotion is TODAY!!!

So I got my membership card(to be fair, its actually under my mum's name but I'm the one who uses it), asked my bro if he wanted to come along(which he did), watched a little bit of 'Planet Earth'(amazing by the way) and then dashed down to Ngee Ann City's Kino outlet since only that outlet has the widest selection of books(both Literature and Childrens').

We had dinner at 'Mos Burger. I had a burger, my bro had TWO(:O :O :O). Then it was off to Kinokuniya!!!

Spent some time at the entrance picking out books and a magazine and then finally went to the Childrens' section, which isn't really as kiddy as it sounds. In fact, childrens' section houses both baby, childrens' and teenagers' books.

BEHOLD, MY PURCHASES:

At the top, you can see a Haruki Murakami novel. I decided that the $30+ one was too expensive and so I bough a cheaper one.

Oh, and 2 more Jodi Picoults.

Finally, I got a Clive Cussler novel.

Sophie Kinsella's latest!!!! Chick Lit is the best!

'The Sweet Far Thing', it was sold out when it first got released!

Ok, and some other books that aren't so significant but I still wanted.

Life is wonderful!!!! Did I already mention that? Oh well.

Pardon my short-lived euphoria.

It's over. Thank you all.

2008-03-08T18:27:00.002+08:00

Yes I'm back from camp and surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Somehow the homesickness didn't really hit me and time passed pretty fast too.

Makes me wonder why i spent the first half of last week crying my eyes out and worrying.

Before I start off proper though, I should mention that we had great weather that day, no rain, so we could pitch the tent properly.

Along with that, the teachers in charge we really nice and even offered to leave the coridoor lights on for us so that it wouldn't be so scary.

Pitching the tent was quite fun. A big thank you to all who came and helped us! I'm eternally grateful to you. Together, we managed to get the tent up before nightfall so that was good. Dinner was next.

And since it's a Sec 3's camp, and Sec 4s are facilitators, all Sec 4s then went to help out with the next activity, which was the Nightwalk. In this activity, the Sec 3s are blindfolded and then separated into pairs. The Sec 4s will initially lead each pair for a walk while other Sec 4s try to scare them. I didn't really try to scare them because firstly, I know what its like to be frightened out of your wits. And secondly, it's already scary enough to be in total darkness.

Supper was next, and I didn't have any appetite even though I did drink something hot, since I was feeling kind of nauseous(from what I don't know), and sure enough, the nausea went away!

Being facilitators of the camp, we can sleep whenever we want and take as long as we want to bathe so that was good. I didn't bother bathing but I did use wet wipes and I changed out of my sweaty clothes. It felt a bit better but a little sticky.

So then came the time for us to sleep, or rather, crawl into our tent. We managed to get 2 other people in the tent with us. Thank goodness! We left one side of the tent completely open because it was so hot and stuffy and we couldn't sleep anyway, so we sat up and talked and read magazines and listened to music. It wasn't that scary really, once you get used to the school at night, it feels quiet cool. HG was the first to run out of the tent, saying that she needed fresh air and some cool wind. She took out her homework(math) and went to a nearby bench to do(it was totally bright there). I followed suit, except I didn't know how to do my homework without my notes so I just read and listened to music on the bench.

But then we started worrying about whether we'd get caught, so we went back into the tent. However, the other 2 people couldn't stand the heat as well, so all 4 of us went out and tried to sleep atsome tables and chairs outside the general office, not that it worked for me. I don't sleep that easily, and I was tired, but not sleepy. Not even at 2am.

Though that plan backfired as well, as we were scared we would get caught for not being in the tent. So all 4 of us had to go back into the tent and try to get some shut-eye, not that it worked for me. The nearest I came to being asleep was that phase between sleeping and awake and I got woken up by my CL's phone call informing me that there would be a fire drill at 3.30am.

Sure enough, we got up earlier for the fire drill and watched as the poor Sec 3s stumbled down the stairs, like how we did in OUR Sec 1 induction camp. HG was pretty pissed because she really wanted to sleep but for me, it didn't really make a difference since I wasn't exactly sleepy. The drill ended at 4am, and we crawled back into our tent. I don't know if I slept or not, I think it was just a light nap, so in total, I couldn't have gotten more than 1 hour of sleep, yet I had the most energy in the morning out of the 4 of us. Incredible,. HG would call it. I say its due to the joy that camp was son going to be over.

And I scored like a million buig bites in the tent. And I'm not even the type of person bugs like to bite. I'm the type who can go out in a rainforest wearing shorts without insect repellent and comeout without a single bite. The place was really SWARMING with evil blood sucking flies. Even tohugh I was wearing track pants, they still got to my feet and now it looks like I've got some serious form of skin disease. Imagine, you're waking up at night just to SCRATCH your big bites.

I mean, seriously, if those bugs wanted my blood tht badly, they could've asked. I'd willingly drain a litre of it for them to enjoy. Stealing it from my blood vessels like that is simply unacceptable. But yes, we survived and morning passes really quickly.

We had breakfast, then 4 of us were allowed to sleep upstairs since we were all tired out from sleeping in the tent and then when the time came to unpitch the tent, we all went to help out.

Thank goodness we managed to finish doing it by 9.20am, so I could go home by then and take a shower, then go for my math tuituion(even though I fell asleep and my teacher caught me).

Now I'm out of camp, I RELISH my freedom. I went to check out the CD store after my tuition, and went to the library just beacuse I felt like it and I got a book too. It feels great to be abelt o do whatever you want.

When I came home, I ahd some lunch and then wento sleep for about 3 hours. After I woke, I felt pretty terrible, maybe because I might possibly have had some horrible dream(not a nightmare) that gave me a panic attack and made me wonder where my mum was, since she went out when I was asleep. I got really homesick suddenly and cried a little but then I thought about it and I didn't really know why i was homesick. I mean, I was home, my mum was going to come home later. What's there to be sad about?

So i figured that I should blog to get my mind off it and it has really helped.

Anyway, a big thank you to all who helped me through this really difficult time:

1. CL of guides Coy 1 and 2(thanks for putting up with my persistent questions about it) and for organising this for us to get he badge.
2. My church friends for giving me lots of encouragfement and support.
3. Shen Moo for cheering me up
4. XinLin who taught me that I should learn to sirvive a night out of home
5. HG for not being pesimisstic
6. All the guides who helped us to pitch the tent
7. The teachers for allowing us to pitch the tent and leaving the coridoor lights on
8. The other 2 people who joined us in the tent

Really, this couldn't have been possible without all of you.

Vietnamese?

2008-03-04T18:30:00.004+08:00

This is a really bad time. Everything seems to be going wrong, but I'm still holding on, and I won't give up.

To get my mind off everything that was bothering me, I decided to continue with 'Project Identity Crisis'. You guys should know what that is. It's about me wondering what race I look like and where I'm from.

So I posted my photo(face only) on Gaia, without spectacles, since it's easier to tell without specs, and asked the international crowd there(it's international enough for me. I even have a german-speaking Austrian friend there, though we converse in English) what race they thought I looked like.

The response(In increasing order of each race they guessed 1 being the most and 6 being the least)

1. Vietnamese. :o :o :o

2. Chinese

3. Korean

4. Native American/Canadian(WHAT???)

5. Philippino(o.0)

6. Mongolian(LOL?)/Antarctican/Mix of Vietnamese and Chinese

SO I can thus conclude that I look Vietnamese. Which doesn't make much of a difference since some Vietnamese are sinicized from Southern Chinese(which is what I am, or at least, what I know I am) but oh well.

I guess it doesn't hurt to know which race you look like.

Music does wonders

2008-02-28T11:33:00.003+08:00

Well well, firstly, I'm not saying your activities are boring and need to be improved. Most of the people like it, why change it? The problem lies with me, not with you, so stop taking things as personal insults. It's my psychological barrier that you do not have and hence it is my problem to solve. If you have encouragement or suggestions on how to overcome the fear, I'll welcome all advice. But if you don't, then shut up.

Secondly, don't assume I don't want to enjoy it. I do, badly so. And I have been trying to, so don't assume I haven't been trying hard enough. I'm still trying my best and I don't expect any help from you. I'm going for it, isn't that proof enough?

Thirdly, first impressions count. All my past experiences with it have affected me greatly. I believe the word is traumatised and it is not an exaggeration. My experiences with it have changed how I view it greatly whether positively or negatively. You may have found it fun, well then, good for you, I'm happy for you. I haven't, but I'm still giving it a last chance.

Fourthly, different people have different opinions. You cannot expect a 100% agreement on every issue you think is right. I accept your viewpoint, and I understand how insulted you feel when someone say something really bad about something you're passionate about. But it doesn't mean I share the same views. I don't expect you to share the same views with me as well but that doesn't mean I can't vent my frustration can't I?

Anyway on a lighter note, I watched Juno and don't ask me how I sneaked in when my birthday is in April and I look like a 12-year-old. Despite the cliche storyline, the movie was awesome. I mean it.

Music does wonders.

Courage, can someone give me any?

2008-02-23T21:27:00.002+08:00

One minute I'm worrying non stop for it, another I'm actually looking forward to it. Is there something wrong?

I'm kind of having mixed feeling to the camp now and it's left me totally confused. I just hope that the sun sets quickly and swiftly because I hate sunsets during camp. THey remind me of families at home eating dinner, students going home from school, the 7pm show that I've grown accustomed to. It makes me feel more homesick than ever but when darkness sets in, the homesickness feeling actually goes away.

I just wish I have something to occupy my time and distract me so that time passes really fast and I'll get really really tired(especially since I have PE that day as well) and I won't think of how much I want to be home doing my homework(math), watching TV or just eating dinner.

Anyway, forget CDs and clothes and boots and hats. I just want courage more than ever now. I need it. But it seems to come and go as and when it likes and I can't always successfully summon it. What do I do? I really need courage, a lot of it.

Then again, just to cheer myself up, I should be glad
1. I'm not stuck in a 4-year war down in the front when handphones weren't even invented yet
2. I'm not being persecuted for my race or religion
3. It's not in foreign part of Singapore that is really old and abandoned
4. It's only 1 night
5. I'm allowed loads of freedom since I'm a senior
6. I'll have music to accompany me
7. I'll probably be really tired so hopefully I can drop down and just sleep like a log

I HAVE TO STAY POSITIVE.

Deutsch ist belästigung!

2008-02-19T18:46:00.005+08:00

I hate E learning. Especially for 3rd lang.

I HATE IT! The website is freaking hard to navigate and use and I have no idea what to really DO for the E-lesson and it didn't dawn on me that I should have done those that were supposed to be HANDED IN first rather than do those which are just mere revisions and don't need to be handed in at all.

And e-learning is horrible enough for a NORMAL subject, try it with German. I almost died. Most of the time I was frantically navigating between the online translator and the MOELC website trying to make sense of the new vocab.

I hate learning 3rd lang online, it's so difficult and annoying. I rather go for class. Oh, and it gets better, the homework gets deactivated by midnight so I have to get it done by THEN.

In addition to studying for the math trigo test and chemistry QA(of which I have no knowledge of since I had no idea what the teacher was saying. Like, WHY WHY WHY can't I take Literature instead of Chemistry) test tomorrow. Yikes, I am so dead.

Have to go do my comprehension on "Ein ganz besonderer Morgen".

Someone help me!

---UPDATE---
Finally done with the comprehension and the story was so freaking lame I cannot even bring myself to describe it. I hope I submitted my homework correctly because I'm not 100% positive if we're supposed to submit it that way but oh well, it was the only method I found.

Learnt a bunch of new vocabulary only to forget them. Oh wait, I learnt what traffic jams are called! BRILLIANT!

My German knowledge bank is rapidly decreasing in quantity.

Nevermind,

ICH LIEBE SCHOKOLADE! <3

Holocaust

2008-02-18T19:37:00.002+08:00

So beacuse I love History(it's my favourite subject even though most people hate it) I went to read this book on World War I and World War II and the effect it had on me was... shocking. I had no idea how people actually survived, if they weren't killed on the front, then they were in danger of getting killed by air raids, and if THAT didn't kill them, then the sheer stress and fear of being IN a war would just do the job.

Seriously, I admire them SO MUCH.

I mean, most people know about the war. Yeah millions were killed, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, the whole world(even isolationist USA) went into war, blabla. But they don't know the details. The horrific killings of suspected spies(many of which were probably innocent), the mustard gas(which was so horrible they didn't have the heart to use it in WW2), the way people were gassed to death in Auschwitz through no fault they committed and the separation of thousands of families.

I can tell you after I knew about it, I was SHAKEN. THe governments can just keep on declaring war on other nations but in truth, they probably didn't have to lift a finger. They were probably worried about how many more men they had left to send out to the front instead of the many families who lost their sons in the war. And even after this, I can't believe people still WANT to go to war for stupid things like oil or land or resources.

Can the many lives lost account for material possessions? No, they can't.

And besides, can I ask, who really BENEFITS during war? That's right, no one. And even AFTER you've got to pay for the soldier's counselling and ammunition.

The poor soldiers are probably scarred for life.

ON Saturday night, I was channel surfing(after midnight) and I happened to switch to channel 5 and it was some movie. Once I saw many people being forced into trains without ventilation, and a guy with the Jewish 'star' on his arm, I knew it was the Holocaust. I almost CRIED.

I have to stop being so sensitive.

Young at Heart

2008-02-16T22:14:00.003+08:00

I don't want to grow up.

I want to be a child again, and maintain that childish innocence, where the world was perfect without any flaws, and I wasn't afraid to say whatever I wanted. Childhood was so amazing, its like a fairytale and it will never come back!

I loved it when getting full marks on a math test was possible(for my standard) and we didn't have to commit to anything. All we had to do was to go to school and learn. Even PE lessons were fun(and i can't believe I'm even saying this).

Growing up sucks, and to think I wanted to be a teenager when I was younger.

Anyway, went to my cousin's fsahion show today, and their school is, I can safely say, a million times better then mine. Their toilets were so nice, I can tell you, for once, I am drooling over a TOILET. And its not even made of gold!

Plus, they don't overspend their finances on sport facilities and actually focus more on the facilities of the school as a WHOLE.

Plus, the people were awesome. They were so friendly, and GENUINELY friendly at that. All the people in my school act friendly just to appear professional, because of course, if they laugh and smile to the guests too much, they won't be SERIOUS won't they? Load of crap.

I'd rather people not be so serious. There is nothing in wrong with being young at heart is there? In fact, its probably better because you won't bear grudges and you don't act. I hate people who act, it's disgusting and fake and the lowest form of attention-whoring you can be.

This post so sucks.

War on the front

2008-02-14T23:02:00.004+08:00

If I was a soldier in WW1 or WW2, and camp was fighting on the front, I would probably have shot myself on the foot to escape having to fight in trenches filled with mud and human defacation and corpses. Though actually I think there's a penalty for doing that.

I used to watch some films about soldiers fighting on the front while they took a torn and tattered picture of their family, looked at it, and cried silent tears. I wondered if homesickness was really that bad. I thought what drove people crazy were the constant bombs and air raids and mustard gas, and the fear of stepping on a land mine while running for shelter. I thought the sight of your friends dying and having to eliminate lives was what caused shell shock.

I never knew that just being away from home felt like your heart had been ripped out by a merciless beast who refused to kill you yet kept you alive just enough for you to feel the pain. No wonder soldiers went crazy after the war. I don't blame them.

Sudden realisation, I don't have to go for NS. Now be happy Kerryn!

Playsuit

2008-02-13T21:22:00.005+08:00

That's my baby cousin. He's not even a year old(turning 1 year old this 17th April) and that was the first time he came to our house during CNY.

Yeah, I know he's cute. So are all babies.

Focus on the red suit. That's a playsuit(its not shorts and a shirt.) and it's so freaking cute it makes me jealous. Why do babies have such cute clothes? And obviously, they didn't think to use it as inspiration for adult/teenage fashion. Come on, it's so so CUTE, and convenient to put on too. Plus, its perfect for our hot Singaporean weather.

OK, so I admit. I WANT THAT SUIT. Minus the big logo in front. I can do without huge logos. A belt will do the trick. And boots. XD I don't care it it's 'so last season', the whole point is to wear what you like, not what the trend dictates.

And of course, shops either only sell denim overalls or sleeveless playsuits(which I don't like).

Is it so hard to join a T shirt and shorts together?

And if babies wear it, it means its comfortable too!

What more could you ask for?

Vodka anyone?

2008-02-13T16:35:00.004+08:00

Yeah I'm a spoilt pampered brat. Double that. No, actually, TRIPLE that. I can't live outside my home alone for 1 single night, I can't pitch a tent on muddy ground, I don't know what direction fungi grows on on the barks of trees in the forests.

I've been thinking about it(in fact, I have ALWAYS been thinking about it which makes it hard for me to concentrate in lessons but well, can't be helped. It's not like I want to) and much as I want to pull myself together and prove to myself that I can survive one pathetic day out of home, I just couldn't find any willpower to. Someone please help me. Otherwise, I should resort to these...

1. Smuggle like 3-6 cans of beer(the brand with the highest alcohol content) and get totally wasted during lights out so I can fall asleep drunk with no idea of how homesick I am or how creepy the surrounding is. Then I will wake up with a totally WICKED hangover that hurts too badly for me to think of my homesickness. On second thought, vodka would be better because it has a higher alcohol content. Yeah, I'm quite serious.

2. Blast music all night even if the other 3 people kick me and threaten to severe all friendship ties with me. Even though it's gonna be quite scary out there, I'm sure that Rachael Yamagata and Paramore and No Doubt will make things a little better.

3. Gossip and laugh. A lot.

4. FInd a friend willing to SMS me at 1am onwards and spend the night sms-ing away till I'm dead beat and tired.

5. Spend the entire day at school working extra hard so that I will be on the verge of collapse when its lights out and I can just sleep and not think about other stupid things like how homesick I am.

Anyway some stuff I noticed about Luke Brandon(NO not the one on Shopaholic.)
-He's a pretty good teacher despite being a native and all
-He's got a really cool sense of humour
-Even though he sometimes gets annoyed with our laughter
-Somehow he forgot about the class presentations(YESSS)
-And... why is he always wearing the same pants? That's a little weird.

Oh and this post is so random!

I want books by these authors:

-Clive Cussler
-Haruki Murakami
-Jodi Picoult
-Marian Keyes

And these books:
-'Lock and Key' by Sarah Dessen
-'The sweet far thing' by Libba Bray
-'After Dark(アフターダーク)' by Haruki Murakami

Probably not a lot but well I shall add more when they come to my mind. Just to get my mind off IT. Oh shit I'm thinking about it again.

NO NO NO please.

I have a goal, an ambition, a dream!!!

2008-02-09T22:48:00.000+08:00

I have been thinking rather deeply about my life lately(don't worry I won't go to all that "life is, actually, quite a simplistic pleasure" kind of philosohpy) ever since my cousin asked be what course I wanetd to take in JC(believe me, I didn't even know JC had courses, I just thought it would be like secondary school) and which area I wanted to work in in the future(and it wasn't even like marketing or fsahion or F&B. It was only an "arts or sciences?" question). Yeah, I couldn't come up with an answer.

BUT NOW. NOW IS DIFFERENT.

I have figured out what I want to do in life. I have. Or rather, I have figured out what I want to do in life once I make enough money.

Guess what...?

GUESS!!!!

guessed it?

I want to travel the world(not alone, dammit. That's dangerous)!!!!! I want to learn more about other cultures, about other races and other countries. I want to expand my horizons beyond the scope of Singapore and go to beautiful places I never knew existed in planet Earth(like mountains and canyons) because Singapore has a serious lack of mountains and valleys.

Even if I come back broke and in rags, I won't regret it. Money can be made again, and again. But experiences are once in a lifetime.

I can't believe I have an ambition! This is incredible!

INFP

2008-02-09T00:18:00.001+08:00

What does Kerryn do when she's bored and on the net?

Do research of course!

Believe it or not, researching is actually addictive. This time, though, I researched on my personality type(INFP) and came up with pretty interesting results...

You don't have to read this. I'm just putting it here for my own reference, what reference I don't know!

1. INFPs are highly intuitive about people. They rely heavily on their intuitions to guide them, and use their discoveries to constantly search for value in life. They are on a continuous mission to find the truth and meaning underlying things. Every encounter and every piece of knowledge gained gets sifted through the INFP's value system, and is evaluated to see if it has any potential to help the INFP define or refine their own path in life. The goal at the end of the path is always the same - the INFP is driven to help people and make the world a better place.

SO TRUE!!! People assume I haven't been thinking about my life, but I HAVE(every day), and I still don't know what I want to do with it.

2. INFPs are flexible and laid-back, until one of their values is violated. In the face of their value system being threatened, INFPs can become aggressive defenders, fighting passionately for their cause. When an INFP has adopted a project or job which they're interested in, it usually becomes a "cause" for them. Although they are not detail-oriented individuals, they will cover every possible detail with determination and vigor when working for their "cause".

True once more. I rarely do extensive research for school projects, but when I was searching on my ancestry, I had more persistence in doing it than I ever had for my school projects. And yes, if you don't offend me, I won't bother you. But if you choose to violate one of my values(lets see, flexibility and acceptance ranks tops) like my CCA, then you bet I'll fight back.

3. The INFP does not devote their intense feelings towards just anyone, and are relatively reserved about expressing their inner-most feelings. They reserve their deepest love and caring for a select few who are closest to them. With Introverted Feeling dominating their personality, they're very sensitive and in-tune with people's feelings, and feel genuine concern and caring for others. Slow to trust others and cautious in the beginning of a relationship, an INFP will be fiercely loyal once they are committed.

Seems like how I make friends! Which is why I'm extremely fussy in friendships and why I take longer than most to forge a REAL friendship.

4. INFPs are warm and caring individuals who highly value authenticity and depth in their personal relationships. They are usually quite perceptive about other people's feelings and motives, and are consequently able to get along with all sorts of different people. However, the INFP will keep their true selves reserved from others except for a select few, with whom they will form close and lasting friendships.

Aha, yes! I don't have trouble getting along with an of my classmates(who, I have to say, are extremely different from me) but I'm not close to any of them either. Oh, and that explains why I can't stand those act cute, act cool people!

5. They lead with their values in mind, and these guide them. They prefer not to take a hands-on approach with others but to allow them to achieve in independent ways. They are facilitative rather than directive.

Which is why I have never been able to get along with my CCA. I mean, independence and standarisation are worlds apart!

6. INFPs have a gift for interpreting symbols, as well as creating them, and thus often write in lyric fashion.

Wait a minute, I write in lyric fashion? What does that even mean?

7. They do not like following all the rules and regulations, but they are not overtly rebellious. They seek to get things done in their own style.

Yeah, I rebel, silently!

8. Have a general advantage in foreign language learning.

What??? Come on, I SUCK at German.

9. INFPs show interest in a varied range of the unusual and original.

Yes! Come on, wouldn't the world be boring if there wasn't originality?

10. They may unexpectedly disrupt a conversation by commenting in such a way as to give the impression that they are not following the subject. This can confuse or puzzle others.

Yes, so my friends, if I ever give a random comment, I am actually still listening to you! I'm an auditory learner after all!

11. When an INFP supports a particular project or goal, they can get an extraordinary amount of work done in a short time. On the other hand, INFPs tend to procrastinate and are dissatisfied by detailed work not related to one of their important values.

Very true, even I'm sometimes surprised at my speed! Don't laugh, you haven't seem me work before!

Basically, I'm guessing it means that we're an unconventional, unstereotyped, misunderstood lot(only about 1-2% of the population forms INFPs). Oh well, doesn't bother me. In fact, I like it that way!

Mixed tribal blood

2008-02-05T22:22:00.000+08:00

Yay it's Chinese New Year and what better time to explore our ancestry and heritage?

Yes, it's ABOUT the identity crisis.

Ok, so this time I was doing research on Wiki and I actually found stuff that was USEFUL in determining my ethnicity's authenticity.

-----INFORMATION-----
(I summarised it and put it in my own words cuz wiki language is boring)

So, the Chinese race, as we call ourselves, are actually made up of 56(or 57) different clans/tribes/ethnic groups and majority(when I say majority, I mean like 91++ %) of the Chinese are from the Han tribe(even though they used ethnic group but I think tribe sounds cooler so I'll use tribe).

The original dialect of the Han tribe, is, of course, Han, which is mandarin. And just when I thought I couldn't be Han because my native dialect is Hokkien and Teochew, I read below that even though mandarin is the official dialect of the Han tribe, many other dialects like Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka are actually from mandarin and they all belong to the Han tribe. So I guess I'm still Han.

Ok, so here's a question. Why then, do we look so different from the northern Chinese(who are also Han)? I found the answer! Because our ancestors were from southern china, we might not be PURE Han Chinese as southern chinese consist of mainly the minority tribal groups and the Han chinese only migrated south sometime in history so we southern chinese may very well be of mixed chinese tribal blood! That's so cool, right? Or am I the only one whos really interested?

By the way, the cheongsam is NOT a Han Chinese traditional costume. The origin of the cheongsam was actually from the Manchus(which is also a chinese tribe, but just not Han). The REAL Han Chinese traditional costume is what I mentioned before, robes and sashes and belts, and its really beautiful too. It looks a bit like a Hanbok, but not as puffy. I wished we were like the Koreans who still own a piece of their traditional costume for special events.

Now I want to do the DNA test more than ever.

Short people problems...

2008-02-03T17:36:00.001+08:00

People obviously thought to manufacture apparel for large people, but NEVER for short people. The simple reason? Because even if short people want to buy blothes meant for tall people, they can just do alteration! Simple isn't it?

NO IT ISN'T.

I am never, and I mean, NEVER, going to buy pants(or jeans) again. I'm so over picking through that irritating rack trying to find the ones I want. I was picking through humongous piles of jeans today, because I wanted one with a flare at the bottom(since I LIKE flares, I don't care if the trend is skinny jeans) and I found one that felt pretty soft so I went to try it on and I happened to pick the correct size as well, so I was kind of chuffed.

Then, of course, doesn't come the part where I actually BUY the jeans, but the part where I have to FOLD UP THE BOTTOM because it is too freaking long for short people with short legs like me, and I needed to see how it would look like after alteration. But then, after folding up the bottom, the flare is gone. Like, GONE. I'm so short, that to alter the jeans to my size, the flare has to be CUT OFF.

Like, WHAT IS THE POINT OF CHOOSING FLARE JEANS WHEN YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE THE FLARE ANYMORE???

So in the end, I didn't buy it. Even though it was 20% storewide at LEVI'S.

I've decided. I'm not going to buy pants anymore, picking through them is too time consuming.

I'm going with shorts now. NOT DENIM MINI SHORTS, thank you. Just normal cotton, earthy-coloured, slightly-above-knee shorts. If I get boots, I'll wear them with boots. And the reason why shorts are so awesome for short people like me, is that even if I pick shorts that are considered short(since most of the apparel are catered for tall people), they aren't that short on me! Plus, shorts are way more comfortable anyway.

I'm going to Bugis to check out the boots population there. Someday.

The next Beatles?

2008-01-29T18:09:00.000+08:00

I happened to glance at some magazine a random classamte was reading and the title of a particular article was:

"The Click 5: The next Beatles?"

or something like that...

Whatever reason they gave, the click 5 will NEVER, EVER EVER in a billion years be the next beatles. NEVER.

I can't believe people actually lke that 'Jenny' song, its disgusting and a totally obvious ploy to win the hearts of all innocent teenage girls so that they'll buy their album.

And di I mention their hairstyle? It so does not suit them, makes them look really preppy.

Twilight

2008-01-28T20:35:00.000+08:00

I'm not criticising the book.... I'm not.

Ok, maybe I am, a little.

I have no idea why people are crazy over the book. Fine the story plt was well thought out, the words were beautiful, the characters dazzling(*cough*Edward Cullen*cough*), but doesn't anyone find it too freaking LONG WINDED???

Ok, so maybe saying this now is a little out dated since the 'Twilight' craze was sometime last year but whatever. I was at Sharlene's blog earlier and I loved her list of the top 10 most ridiculous things in 'Twilight'.

My personal favourites...

1. Guys do not act like this in real life. They do not poke you gently on the nose, beg you to tell them ALL about every minute detail in your life and treat you like a newborn baby.

2. Dully predictable conversations.

3. Bella practically faints every time Edward(gorgeous vampire bf) comes into the room.

4. If Edward and his family freaked out about a paper cut, wouldn't he be driven mad every time Bella was on her period(My favourite!!!)

Now to my own mini list:

1. Somehow people seem to idolize the character(the oh-so-gorgeous-he-could-sweep-you-off-your-feet Edward Cullen) more than to appreciate the rich language and story plot(even though its long winded but credit should be given to the literature!)

2. It was so long winded I actually skipped some of the conversations.

3. Why a simple story could turn into a complicated chase around the country.

No, needless to say I'm not buying the 2nd book, or the 3rd, or any sequel for that matter.

Oh and the actor playing Edward Cullen is unbelieveably ugly, how ironic.

I. Love. Mozart.

2008-01-26T10:07:00.000+08:00

I LOVE MOZART'S SONATA IN C!!!

LOVE IT!

1. It's in C Major! No sharps, not flats, maybe only the occasional accidentals but that's ok.

2. THe rythmn is so easy to catch! Total classic.

3. Even the italian peformance directions are easy to understand! Allegro con spirito - quick with spirit, what could be easier?

4. It actually has this fantastic tune that make you want to practise it and complete the picece!

5. It gives you the andrenaline rush that you could never get from a sugar high and playing a 185bpm DB4 combined.

It's just awesome. It reminds me of the reason why I don't listen to the radio anymore.

Why, WHY can't more music be like that? Oh right, because then there'd be no originality.

I once knew...

2008-01-24T15:31:00.000+08:00

I once knew a girl who was so pessimisstic about her O Level Chinese results that she threatened to jump down the railings from the 3rd level even though I advised her not to because she would traumatise the Sec 1s down there with her crushed corpse.

She literally pissed everyone around her off from her constant whinings about her supposed B grade results that she had yet to receive.

The day of her O Level results release came....

She sat in her seat... jittery....

Waited, eyes full of anticipation, uneasiness shifting in her, not knowing what to expect.

Her name was called, she went up to the teacher, took her paper, stared at it...

She went back to her seat and smiled.

Then she started jumping while sitting in her seat(goodness knows how she did that)...

She'd gotten an A1!

To all the teachers who thought she would bever get past a B, they were wrong. She had proven them wrong and done herself proud.

This post is dedicated to my wonderful(though sometimes annoying) friend HG!

Congratulations on your A1, now stop worrying!

(Yeah I purposely made this post in purple, your favourite colour)

What kind of nerd are you?

2008-01-20T15:46:00.000+08:00

Got this off Xinlin's site. Look's pretty cool, trying to detremine what kind of nerd you are. and no, nerds are not geeks. There IS a difference, nerds are actually a different kind of cool altogether.

ANIME NERD[ ]
You watch anime.[ ]
You read manga.[ ]
You buy/collect anime DVDs or manga volumes[ ]
You own some other form of anime/manga merchandise.[ ]
You have referred to an anime character as ‘hot’ before.[ ]
You have cosplayed.[ ]
You have done so in public.[ ]
You have been to an anime/manga convention.[ ]
You have created/joined a fanclub for an anime/manga character.[ ]
You have created/joined a hateclub for an anime/manga character.[ ]
You have squealed when you found out somebody had the same name as an anime character you knew.[ ]
You enjoy drawing anime.[ ]
People you know know you as the ‘anime’ person.[ ]
You know that it is pronouced ‘mawnguh’ and not ‘manga’ like it is spelled. [ ]
ANIME/MANGA POINTS: 0

ART NERD[x]
You like art.(only the appreciating part, that is)[x]
You actually consider yourself an artist.[ ]
When using art supplies, the brand of them matters to you.[ ]
You have a favorite brand.[ ]
You have asked for art supplies as a Christmas/birthday gift before.[x](Caran d'Arche markers, does that count?)
You give people your drawings as gifts.[ ]
People actually ask for your drawings.[ ]
You are known as ‘the art person’ at your school.[ ]
Instead of just ‘brown’ or ‘pink’, you’d be specific; it’s ’sienna brown’ or ‘blush pink’. Or whatever.[ ]
You have taken an art class outside of school.[x] (When I was like 6 or 7, yes, and I held on pretty long too)
You have considered a career as an artist.[ ]
Your school papers are always covered in doodles.[x]
You have a favorite artist.[x] (Jacques Louis David, lols)
Your drawings have been framed.[ ]
You carry a sketchbook with you everywhere you go.[ ]
ART NERD POINTS: 5

MUSICAL NERD[x]
You play a musical instrument.[x]
You play more than one instrument.[ ]
You actually really enjoy playing your instrument.[x] (Well, when I'm in the mood to play, then yes)
You’ve given your instrument a name.[ ]
You’ve participated in an extracurricular activity for your instrument.[ ]
You are known by what you play.[ ]
You listen to classical music.[x]
You are wondering whether that refers to the classical music genre or the classical music time period.[x]
You have a favorite composer.[x]
All of your friends are from your band/orchestra class.[ ]
You write music.[ ]
You’ve had discussions with your friends about music; your favorite composers/instruments/musical time periods/key/etc…[x] (I complained about Mendelssohn who was from the Romantic Era but whose music sounds baroque, I guess it counts?)
You have considered a professional career with your instrument.[ ]
You are never nervous playing for other people.[ ]
MUSICAL NERD POINTS: 6

VIDEO GAME NERD[ ]
You play video games.[ ]
You own more than 4 different video game systems.[ ]
You’ve had debates over which system is the greatest.[ ]
You play video games every day.[ ]
You have played a video game for over 10 hours.[ ]
You have songs from your favorite video games on your MP3.[ ]
You love to talk about video games.[ ]
You memorize the dates for when a new game is being released.[ ]
People know you as the ‘gamer’ person.[ ]
You spend more time on video games than you do hanging out with friends.[ ]
Your gaming system is in your room.[ ]
You have preferences when it comes to what company your game came from.[ ]
You’ve had debates over which company is the best.[ ]
You keep playing a game until you beat it.[ ]
It makes you angry when you found out somebody looked up cheat codes on the internet to beat their game.[ ]
VIDEO GAME NERD POINTS: 0

COMPUTER NERD:[x]
You use the computer every day.[x]
You have an account/username on some sort of social website.[x] (GaiaOnline?)
You go into random Internet chatrooms.[ ]
You spend at least 2 hours a day on the computer.[ ]
You use computer faces; : D xD xP D: >.> and etc [x] (I use o.0, a lot)
It is hard to go a day without using the computer.[x] (kinda...)
You spend time in online forums.[x] (GaiaOnline!)
In the forum/chatroom you use, you are known there by everyone else.[ ]
You have friends you have only met online.[x] (Definitely)
You have/have had a girlfriend/boyfriend you have only met online.[ ]
You have actually met an online friend in person.[ ]
U cn ezly rd ‘txttlk.’[ ] (Are you kidding? I HATE text talk!)
You have said ‘lol’ or ‘omg’ in speech that is not online[x] (lol, yes)
You can type really, really fast.[x] (Yup, with many typos.)
COMPUTER GAME NERD POINTS: [7]

So I'm a musical, art, computer nerd? Huh.

Why do I care?

2008-01-17T18:59:00.001+08:00

It never fails to amaze me how inhuman and insensitive my CCA mates are(I won't even say they're my CCA friends. I'll never have those kind of friends).

So yesterday I had GG(~surprise surprise~) and we, being Sec 4s, were supposed to split into different departments(or groups) to plan the different parts of the Sec 1 induction camp that we are going to be facilitating. I happened to be in the 'Games' group with HG and so basically, all we had to do were plan and create games for the Sec 1s to bond and have fun. So OK, that's what we did. We invented a few games, or to be precise, we took the game ideas from elsewhere and made it 'original'.

One particular game had something to do with pouring water over someone to make the person, get this, DRENCHED. And then of course there are going to be maybe some other games later. So from what I understood(whcih I can say I understood perfectly fine), the poor, culture-shocked Sec 1s are going to be wet from head to toe and made to play other games and they'll only be able to get clean and dry when it's bath time.

Now we all know this ISN'T a good idea. The camp's at night. It's Singapore we live in. It's the monsoon season. You all know what that means don't you? Cold, windy, maybe even RAINY nights. You want the Sec 1s to stand there, drenched in water, in the open air and continue playing games? For all you know, they might not have a very strong immune system at all. They could catch a cold in just half an hour(Believe me, I have friends who are THIS weak), and even a fever. And how are they supposed to play the other games when they're soaked and uncomfortable?

Now if there is a problem, in this context then there definitely IS a problem, then it should be addressed. I don't care if I fall out with the entire group(except maybe HG but then she's on my side too), it's the welfare of 20 Sec 1s we're talking about and seriously, their wellbeing is definitely worth more than our group's pride.

So don't say all I do is complain and don't do anything. I DID SOMETHING.

I told the group leader to make the wet activity RIGHT before bathtime, but she refused because she didn't think that people could catch a cold in wet, soaked clothes in the middle of the night during monsoon season. Ok then, what about the huge amount of discomfort they'll face in wet clothes while playing the rest of the games? Guess what her reply to that was.

"It's not you who will be feeling the discomfort anyway so why do you care?"

Honestly, I can't believe such people even exist.

Yes, why should I care? I'm not the group leader, I have no reputation whatsoever to worry about, I can wash my hands off this whenever I want to. I can do whatever I want. Whatever decisions we make won't affect me at all. Me and HG have a 8 person tent all to ourselves. Why on earth should I care?

I CARE BECAUSE I DON'T WANT THE SEC 1S TO FEEL LIKE ME WHEN I WAS A SEC 1. I WANT THEM TO LEAVE THE CAMP WELL AND HEALTHY. I FREAKING CARE BECAUSE I SINCERELY WANT THEM TO BE ABLE TO ENJOY THE CAMP AND NOT CURSE THEIR SENIORS FOR GETTING THEM WET THEN MAKING THEM PLAY GAMES IN THE COLD.

But most of all, I care because it's 20 lives we're talking about. 20 human beings. Sure they're younger than us, that doesn't men they don't deserve to be given respect. Shouldn't we, as seniors, be more considerate and sensitive to the situation rather than put up a fancy smokescreen for all to see?

Why do I even care? They don't listen to me anyway.

Typical schoolish rants

2008-01-15T17:22:00.000+08:00

Somehow, all the horrible things have been happening to me lately and NO it is NOT about homework or exams. ARGH.

1) I missed a freaking 1 hour Bio lesson on the Nervous System(!!!!!!!) because of a glitch in the communication system in our class who claims to have a organised relay system that did NOTHING. It doesn't pay to be kind at all.

Don't blame me for not paying attention in class because well I DID. The time of the Bio lesson was scheduled at 2.15 pm for those with CCAs later and 3.15pm for those without. Since I didn't have CCA on Monday, I thought I'd be a kind soul and let those with CCA go for the earlier one and then I'd go for the 3.15om one even though I really wanted the first shift. As evidence to support my statement, my teacher even told us to write down if we were going for the 1st of 2nd shift, in BLACK AND WHITE.

So on Monday(day of the extra lesson), I went to my friends class after school(since I don't exactly LIKE my own class) to wait till 3.15pm for my supposed Shift 2 Bio extra lesson. At about 2.45pm, I checked my phone, and my classmate had sent me a frantic SMS at 2.25pm to tell me that there was NO shift 2 and everyone in class was supposed to go for the 2.15pm Bio lesson.

Since I thought that the message had been written on the whiteboard by the teacher of a classmate or whoever, I went to my class to check but there was NO NOTICE of any last minute change in the Bio lesson time, because they obviously thought that passing the message by mouth was an effective, efficient way to let everyone know. By the time I knew, it was too late to go for the lesson and even if I went I'd be scolded anyway even though I wasn't in the wrong at all so I just stayed in class and helped my friend with her trigo question.

My school's organisation message-passing system is the worst I've ever encountered. Ever.

2) Seems like I'll have to go for a camp after all, but its only 2 days 1 night and I'm a senior anyway so I won't get scolded by anyone. Obviously I do not wish to abuse my authority by screaming at the Sec 1s like how my scniors did. I don't wish to take revenge this way. I know how I felt in Sec 1 and I don't want others to feel the same. Besides, this is NO WAY to gain their respect, the seniors have never really managed to gain my true respect through this stupid "disciplinary" method.

Don't encourage me. I'm currently living in self denial and trying to convince myself that camps are FUN and the activities are MEANINGFUL and that of course, all this is WORTH IT WORTH IT WORTH IT for a Gold for CCA.

BEcause apparently, sleeping under a stretched canvas sheet will prove my competence as a Guide(if Guides are supposed to be hypocritical, act cute, demand-respect-by-yelling girls, then NO I DON'T WANT TO BE A GUIDE) and only then will I be able to obtain a Gold for CCA. Hell, I didn't go through 4 years of suffering for a puny silver. If I suffer, I expect to harvest the fruits of my labour.

3) I hate my class. I repeat, I HATE MY CLASS.

The people at the back are forever making so much noise talking and laughing as if the others would rather listen to them than the teachers teach. But then when THEY'RE talking to the class, their friends(in the same clique) keep shouting "Keep Quiet!" or "Listen!" when ironically, THEY are the only ones making the noise.

And frankly speaking, the people who keep yelling like every minute or so to the class to "BE Quiet!" are in fact the most noisy people of all. Their constant shushing and yelling is so frustrating that I could crush my pen and paper and even the chatter of my classmates are not as distracting as their voices. They think they're helping, but they aren't.

I'm sick of living in the world where you can't just be who you are, what you are, however you want. I hate how people act just so they will appear as a 'leader'. I'm tired of this constant sucky school life that I'm forced into against my own will and even the interesting subjects have to be made boring just so that it will fit the stereotype as a subject. It doesn't make sense, never did, never will.

This is interesting...

2008-01-10T17:57:00.000+08:00

I found this on some blog. Just LOOK AT THAT.

"The meaning of the name Kerryn is Dusky And Pure. The origin of the name Kerryn is American. The name is the combined name from Keren and Kerry."

Wow, I never even knew my name had a meaning, I actually thought it was just some name invented by my parents. It's good to know, I guess that my name originates from America but whether it was from the Native Americans or the Caucasians I have no idea. I looked 'dusky' up in the dictionary and it means something like dark-skinned so maybe it really WAS from the native americans! Cool! I've never heard of an American name, most I hear originate from Latin or Spanish or French or something.

Identity crisis

2008-01-07T19:03:00.000+08:00

Today, I encountered a question that was simple yet complex, and it really left me to think a lot about my own life, how I want to live it, and how underaccomplished I am. Other's answered it easily, effortlessly, yet it left me stunned for a full 5 minutes(which is really long) and I decided to leave it till I was older(and it's not like I have much time left).

Know what the question was?

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

I HATE HATE HATE this question because I always can't answer it. I can't, and could never ever do it. It's not like I have a natural flair for anything that I'm willing to spend half my lifetime on and depending on it for my livelihood, and I really don't want to do something I don't like, yet when I think about it, there's rarely any occupation I like at all. Everyone else was going, "Vet!..... Forensic pathologist!..... Fashion Designer!..... Biomedical (something)!....." and I was actually envious of them for being able to reach their decision. It's not that I don't WANT to have a goal or ambition, I want to, but I just can't SEEM to. I don't even know which industry I want to work in, AT ALL. All I know that it definitely has got nothing to do with physics, or maths.

And I'm having a severe identity crisis. It's all gaiaonline's fault. I met so many people there who had mixed races(i.e. hispanic and native american. half korean, half german. etc.) and it left me wondering if I really AM pure chinese. I asked 3 friends, and their comments weren't exactly helpful, though interesting!

1. HG said that I look Taiwanese. -_-"

2. SM said that I look different from most Singaporeans, but overall I still look like one(can't figure out what that means)

3. HM said that i look 90% chinese, and when I asked her about the other 10%, she said she didn't know what race it was.

That did it. I've made up my mind, and I've decided that when I'm 21, I'm going to go for a DNA test, and find out where my roots are and what traits found in my DNA are from which race. I know it hurts, but I'm willing to do it. At least I THINK you can do it, because Oprah Winfrey did it and they had information like "__% east Asian, __% African...".

Anyone wants to join me for the DNA test?

Nothing to say...

2008-01-03T22:19:00.001+08:00

School has started and there's absolutely nothing I can say although there are probably a million thoughts running through my mind right now. I've been wondering why I suddenly have the urge to keep blogging every 2 days or so, must be some weird effect the school-reopening had on me. And I think I must be really stressed(doesn't happen often, I wasn't even stressed at last years EOY) because I'm actually longing to PRACTISE THE PIANO. I can't believe this.

Can't I be stressed about homework or something simpler?

Well, apparently not. I'm SOOOO stressed about my P.E. lessons and the impending doom that is awaiting me then. In fact, I think I've gone way past the point of stressed till I'm dreading it every minute and worrying about it non stop. I mean, even though Singapore is pretty advanced with really good sanitation and all, I 100% DO NOT trust the school to look out for my welfare, much less for my safety.

Yes, I know life's unfair.

Oh well, at least my German classroom has aircon again(whee~) and it's now on the 1st level instead of the 3rd so I don't have to climb stairs(whee~ x2).

Actually I just wanted to tell you guys:

PE SUCKS, SCHOOL SUCKS, and I HATE THE NEW CAMPUS.

That pretty much sums it up.

Resolutions 2008

2008-01-01T17:34:00.000+08:00

Since everyone's putting their resolutions on their blogs, I thought I should do it to, to make it more complete. And here's something I never thought I'd say but...

I'VE FINISHED MY HOLIDAY HOMEWORK!!!!!

Well, I would consider it finished because even though I skipped a couple of questions and assignments(including a summary on soccer that i have no idea how to do) it is FINISHED. DONE. COMPLETED.

2007 was pretty good though I did encounter some rough moments definitely but I'm hoping 2008 will be better because now there are no Guides seniors to scream at me and hopefully, no camps.

Best things of Year 2007

Event:
When I went to China! I LOVE going overseas, or rather, I am obsessed with it.

Gift:
A S$100 HMV voucher that came with my cute bag!

Feeling/Emotion:
The happiness I got that I cannot describe on the 3rd day of OAC Camp when they announced that we would be let home early because of food poisoning! I even volunteered to clean and sweep the dormitory up, and i did. Almost singlehandedly.

Meal:
Every meal my grandma(paternal) cooked and I was there to eat it(:D), and also my birthday dinner.

School:
Geography or History lessons, and I REALLY love it not because I can sleep and there's no homework but because it's always so interesting. Oh, and my new friends that i made in 3/I!

Things I did:
To skip camp and complete my german book review that took 5 hours(straight). And also to do my own music research because 98.7FM is crappy.

Worst things of Year 2007

Event:
Sec 3 OAC Camp, need I say more???

Gift:
(None, because I love ALL my gifts)

Feeling/Emotion:
That terrible, sinking, world-is-coming-to-an-end feeling I got when I was told that I had to go for 2 compulsory camps. I remained depressed for about 2 weeks and I am NOT exaggerating.

Meal:
Normally I always eat what I'm given and I enjoy it but I think it would have been that meal in China where the rice felt like plasticine, and we ate cabbage for 7 days in a row, 2 meals a day. But not all were bad, only that particular one.

School:
When I had to pass my 2.4km and NAPHA tests, and all the jogging and PE. Exams are NOTHING compared to those.

Things I did:
To pon Guides, I guess. A few times, sometimes within reason. Mostly without.

I'm not wishing for 2008 to be GOOD but at least be better and I really really with that all the PE teachers will go easy on those who aren't as physically fit, and that my friends will not keep getting sick and that if I get sick I won't spread it to her and her family(happened once). Oh and to continue taking German even though I SUCK at it so much because my grammar is just horrible. And I HAVE to stop angering myself whenever I see those wimbos. Just that they piss.me.off.

I think I'm already looking forward to Chinese New Year. And I already know what my grandparents and aunt are going to say to me then--"kuai gao zhang da", which I have long given up on.

I hope Global Warming really slows down, because if it's THIS hot right now, how hot will it be in April?

Go figure, guys.

Happy New Year!

Grrr...

2007-12-30T18:04:00.000+08:00

I just don't get it.

Why must we students do and do and do homework that the teacher will probably never go through properly or mark? It's just a stupid waste of time, and everyone knows that no one will take homework seriously in the holidays either, so the work won't be done well anyway, and adding on the fact that we're doing WORK on topics that we haven't even been TAUGHT yet.

Someone should tell that to the school.

About school, I've already started to worry NOT for my O Levels but for my NAPHA test and jogging sessions and PE lessons. Ironic eh? I don't just HATE those sessions, I DREAD them, but of course not as much as camp. After 3 years of jogging, my stamina doesn't seem to have improved and instead, my muscle aches last for 1 week instead of 2-3 days.

And I don't understand why we must cheer during jogging. I don't have to yell to show my class unity. In fact, if I WANTED to show class unity, I wouldn't cheer because then I can conserve energy to run and keep up wth the class. And yes, we all know that you have the stamina to talk after 2 rounds of jogging. Can you please be more considerate to those who get breathless after a few paces, LIKE ME FOR INSTANCE? Do you seriously think someone like that will be able to cheer along with you? **** you. (I'll leave the word to your imagination)

And WHY is passing a sports test compulsory? Do you know that some of us have to go through hell and BACK to pass that darned 2.4km? NAPHA isn't a physical fitness test. It's a test of physical COMPETENCY. It means that to pass it, not only do you have to be healthy(which is fitness), you have to be ace standard in sports. Don't think that you can expect that of everyone. It isn't possible.

I hate all of this crap. So what if its a sporty school? Doesn it mean that aesthetics don't count? It's just unfair that sporty people get the glory of doing well in sports but those talented in the arts barely get recognised and further pushed to pass a sports test they might never be able to. And that's to add on with the lousy system of counting the number of rounds you run in 2.4km(yes I almost had to retake my 2.4km because SOMEONE didn't count my rounds properly again).

Apparently, trying your best in PE isn't enough. But it you fail music, or art, no one even gives a second glance.

Just something I've always been angry adn puzzled about. It just isn't fair that everyone has a talent but only SOME have been born in the right time and place to actually be appreciated for it.

If you can't practise what you preach, then don't preach

2007-12-28T10:14:00.000+08:00

I was on the phone with HG yesterday and our conversation suddenly lead to my China trip, which at that point, I began to complain about 2 old folk in our tour group. Now, we ARE Chinese, and we are very clear on how the chinese respects the old because of course they have the most life experience and hence deserve to be given authority over everyone else. But it doesn't give them the power to ABUSE their authority and think that since no one dares to rebuke them(I would, if no one was there to berate me afterwards), they can do whatever they want, act however they like and STILL be correct. Most people would say that, well, they're old, you can't blame them for being like that, but NO. They were 2 of the msot unreasonable, selfish, inconsiderate, impolite old folk I have EVER met. EVER.

What did they do?

Number 1
One of them, a 60+ woman, apparently has walking problems and even though she can walk, she needs to sit on this mini wheelchair(mini because she doesn't need it permanantly and the wheels are smaller than your average sized wheelchair) on long walks in parks or whereever.

Well, my grandmother has walking problems too. And I know, TOO WELL, that old folk with walking problems walk slowly and constantly need people to hold their arm and walk with them, not to mention that when they walk, they walk in the 'crippled' form, which looks VERY unstable and you can really tell that they aren't faking it. That old woman, however, didn't use her wheelchair when we were in some park even though we had to walk a lot. And she was even walking AHEAD of the tour group, in front with the children(including me), without the aid of another person and her walking was PERFECTLY FINE without any 'crippled' form.

THat night when were had to go for dinner and the restaurant was on the 3rd storey, we had no choice but to climb the stairs up because there wasn't an elevator. Even my grandmother whose walking problems seem a 100 times more severe than hers can climb those 3 storeys with the help of others but without trying, the old woman REFUSED to climb the stairs, and REFUSED to be carried, so we had to change our dinner venue to another restaurant even though everyone was starving hungry and tired as it was the 1st day.

On the 2nd day, when we had to view some scenic places, there were cobblestone stairs, maybe about 2 storeys, but this time in the open air. And the old woman couldn't escape this time. So she had to climb the stairs, and guess what? SHe climbed the stiars PERFECTLY NORMALLY. She did it without the aid of others, and even bounced along at some point. To top it off, she was keeping up with the tour group and wasn't even lagging behind. Well, I would like to ask her one question, why did she feign having walking problems if she didn't have any? These cobblestone stairs were with no doubt harder to climb than last night's indoor staircase, so if you could climb these why did you refuse to climb those last night?

Number 2
Whenever the tour guide is introducing a place, or a local product, or telling us some local customs in the tour bus and everyone is really keen on listening because it's so interesting, that old woman and her husband ALWAYS interrupt the guide when she is in mid-sentence, sometimes even in mid-phrase and they never wait for her to finish what she has to say, so most of the time, we're always waiting for the tour guide to finish answering their seemingly useless, unrelated, personal questions and then when she continues to talk to the tour group again, she jumps to a different topic and we all don't know what she had to say earlier.

And when they interrupt, it's not only once or twice, but CONSTANTLY. They seem to think that when the tour guide's talking it's only a conversation between them and the guide and after about 20 minutes of Q&A with the tour guide, and the guide starts talking to the tour group again, they cut in less than a few seconds later! Usually, the tour guide talks for about an hour and leaves the other 2 hours for us to sleep or rest but because of thet inconsiderate impolite couple who have no respect for others whatsoever, the tour guide had to drag her talk to 2 hours, of which 1 hour was used for just answering the couple's personal questions, and our parents couldn't get the sleep they wanted as they had to finish listening to the guide's talk to get vital information.

Even the adults were pretty pissed with that old couple, and my friend and I kept saying, "Shut up la!" from the back, where we obviously could not be heard. And guess what? When the tour guide had painstakingly finished her talk and asked, "Any questions?", that couple didn't even say a thing! Why couldn't they just ask they questions when the guide had finished talking? Why did they have to spoil the talk for everyone in the group except themselves? Don't they even have a tiny bit of consideration for others? And the sad thing was, their family did nothing to stop them...

Number 3
That old woman's husband, who seems like he's 70+, is a smoker. And I wouldn't mind if he went 10 metres away from the rest of the group and smoked in the open but he always smokes whenever he wants when we're outdoors, even though the tour group is all around him. It's like he deliberately WANTS us to sniff all that disgusting second hand smoke, not to mention that SMELL.

Well, bloke, if you want to give yourself lung cancer then that's fine with me because I can't change your mind, but don't think that others want to die so quickly, much less sniff what you are sniffing. If you want to go smoke, at least be considerate enough to go to a corner where you're away from the tour group and other people and finish your smoking, then come back and rejoin the tour.

He even smoked in an open air restaurant, can you believe it?

Number 4
Well, Yunnan is a place with a high altitude, it's no secret! So when we were in Lijiang, and we were going to go up this mountain where the altitude is about 3000+, the tour guide warned us about all those high-altitude symptoms you get(like headaches, nausea, fatigue-which i got, breathlessness-ditto, but then I 'm always breathless because I have low stamina, dizziness, fainting) because she wanted us to be prepared and told us that if we were weak, we should buy cans of oxygen to suck up there at the mountain just in case. THe guide also told us that some Taiwanese tourists fainted straightaway when they got up there. In addition, she mentioned that it's doesn't matter if you're young or old, because age isn't a factor when it comes to how weak you are at high altitudes.

Because of all this "scary" information about the high-altitude symptoms, that old couple decided not to go up there and wait at the cable car station while their family went up. When we were at the top, some people had a few puffs of oxygen(I didn't need to though) but luckily for our tour group, no one's symptoms were really severe to the point of fainting, including that old couple's family.

When we got down the the cable car station after coming down the mountain, the old couple heard from their family that they didn't encounter any major high-altitude symptoms. So the couple, being unreasonable, went to scold the tour guide for exaggerating the symptoms of high altitude, when their family didn't suffer from any, and hence "influencing" them to NOT go up the mountain, when their family did not get any severe problems.

Firstly, the tour guide was NOT exaggerating, she was telling the truth and preparing us for the worst, and also doing her job in warning us about it beforehand. Is that a crime?

Secondly, the couple refused to go up of their own, PERSONAL, choice. No one influenced them. The tour guide let everyone decide for themselves. While their family members decided to take the risk by going up, they were too cowardly to. They cam blame no one else but themselves.

If I wasn't with my family friends, I would have gone up to them, scolded them, and told the tour guide to ignore whatever they said.

See? Even though the older generation can scold us teenagers for being havoc-y and undisciplined and disobedient, I doubt they themselves are any better. Typical Singaporeans.

If you can't practise what you preach, then don't preach at all. No one will listen to you anyway. And I won't give you respect if you don't deserve any.

To complain or not to complain..?

2007-12-21T18:57:00.000+08:00

I guess you guys are expecting me to complain about my never ending pile of holiday homework(seriously, we don't even get so much homework in a TERM) but no, I shall ABSTAIN from doing so because well,

1. Complaints about homework are just boring and mundane and plain annoying to read, since its so common.

2. I'm so over complaining about my homework. I'm just waiting for a miracle to happen(a.k.a. for myself to actually be willing to do it and not force myself to write every single letter I need to write)

Skip the red bit if you don't want to read my complaints after I said I wouldn't because I always seem to contradict myself.

But still, ok, here's one teeny tiny complaint about my English Comprehension. It's about football, which I have no clue about and I do not watch. In fact I am so absolutely clueless about it that I don't even know how many players there are in a team or what a penalty kick even means.

And the comprehension is also FILLED WITH BRITISH SLANG, which is ok for me because I read Alex Rider and Sohpie Kinsella and a whole lot of other books by british authors but then what about those who don't? How inconsiderate can they be when they were setting this paper?

Either way, the only people who are going to benefit from this comprehension are people who

1. Love football and know every single thing about it including a whole lot of British teams

2. Are relatively fluent or have knowledge in British slang(which is SO COOL)

You do realise, those 2 qualitites rarely come together. You either possess one or the other.

I went to view my school's new location today. The school itself was ok. The bus route WAS NOT. I have 4 routes, 3 of which involve overhead bridges and I am not confident of climbing them in the mornings when I'm half-asleep with my minor fear of heights and stairs and also my clumsiness. I will, probably fall down at least once in the entire school semester. That's not a nice thought, AT ALL.

So now my only option is to change buses and I'm really worried because sometimes the buses that you're waiting for just DON'T COME even though you've woken up at the same time. And then of course, you're late and the school refuses to listen to your piddly excuses of "the bus was late, what could I do?", which is the most possible scenario and you get sent to the reflection centre. So now I'm all prepared to be late and be sent to the reflection centre for detention or whatever because I really do not trust SBS or SMRT to be punctual.

Ok, so as a summary, I'M NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO SCHOOL REOPENING, in fact I'm trying not to think about it.

Ps. XinLin is a REALLY good blogger! I just discovered. And I thought Victoria was good. Ok so I guess they use different styles, but XinLin's style really appeals more to me.

Post 123: Yunnan, China.

2007-12-17T12:58:00.000+08:00

Yup I'm back and this post took me days of careful photo selecting and size decreasing(for the photo) and uploading and typing so this will be one of my most laborious posts yet. As like the Japan one, I'll change font colours to represent the different days we spent in China(A total of 8 days).

And the number of photos per day decreases for some weird reason, which I guess is due to more and more photos containing people making me unwilling to put them here. This time, I'm just going to copy most of the content from my journal(yes I still journal) and edit it a little so the posts are going to be in a 'daily journal' kind of format.

DAY 1:

7 Dec 2007, Friday

I'm in Yunnan now! It's winter, and freezing cold, though thank goodness I brought enough jackets and windbreakers in my hand lugguage. And I'm sooo grateful for my scarf! My poor feet had to suffer with just 1 layer in the penetrating cold till I got to the hotel and shoved on 2 socks, 1 thick cotton, another woolen. After putting them on, my toes were a little bunched up in my sneakers but at least they aren't cold! You have no idea how much I yearned for heat in the 7-17 degress Celcius temperature but after thinking about the sweltering heat in Singapore, I decided I'd rather stick with the winter.

We touchdowned at Kunming this morning after a 3h40min flight(where I only got 1/2 hour of sleep, MAX and breakfast was served at 3am for some weird reason). After collecting our lugguage, my friends and I(because we were travelling with another family from our ex-church) rushed up the tour bus to stake our claim on the back seats, cuz it's the most spacious.

The morning passed by rather slowly, we went for Breakfast round 2 at Macdonald's in Kunming, which is quite advanced I guess for China, but it still can't beat Singapore.

Then we went to view somegrand gate-door thing. I have no idea what it is because I was too tired to pay attention to the guide but this is what it looks like.

And the streets are filled with old folk dancing and practising taichi.

Just another photo of how the area looks like.

And anopther of those gate-door things. It's meant to be a different one.

We went to some local park place which would've been boring if not for the fun we got out of feeding the seagulls.

They sell loaves of bread ar RMB1 per loaf and you just pinch pieces off it and toss it in the air for the flying seagulls to catch of throw it in the water for those on it to snatch(gosh it rhymes).

Seagulls that are snatching for bread in the water.

They even sit on the top of boats.

Further down the area, we feed seagulls again.

Oh! And the gulls have a leader. The gull leader is a seagull, whcihi, at some point in time, makes some noise at a frequency at human ears can't register. Once all the seagulls hear that sound, they IMMEDIATELY flock to a certain place and fly a few rounds around the lake.

Gulls on a roof before the sound was emitted.

And none left on the roof after.

The air becomes swarmed with seagulls once they hear the sound.

We then went to sample tea after our lunch, which is not my cup of tea so I just sipped politely and gave those with caffeine to my mum. Everyone then bought some tea(understatement of the century. It seems that EVERYONE buys tea when they go to China). They didn't tell us that one tea in particular that I drank makes u twice as hungry as normal if you drink it on an empty stomach(so hungry that it makes you nauseous) and I thought I was actually having motion sickness(which I never get) untill much later when I found out.

DAY 2:

8 Dec 2007, Saturday

We coached to Jiuxiang this morning, and it took ages, although halfway throught the ride they took us to some crystal shop.

Sopme scenery we took ON the moving bus. You don't have time to focus your shot so you just snap all the way and hope it turns out ok.

And YES, we reached our destination FINALLY.

Because the area is one of the least developed, lunch wasn't as nice and the fish(the ONLY fish they have), apparently, contains about a gazillion bones tiny sharp bones and even a morsel a centimetre thick can contain as many as 3 bones. Once one gets lodged in your throat, it hurts like hell and you have to go to the hospital.

This is the map of the area we explored in the afternoon.

This is a gorge. We took a lift down to the bottom.

Where we take a 10 min boat ride through the gorge. It was so so fantastic because its so silent and you're surrounded by these huge rocks and green still water(which is DEEP) and of course, great weather.

When we got down from the boat, we went to view the running water further down the gorge and discovered that there'sd actually a dam there(unused) and the rest of the water was plunging down huge steep rocks with a great whooshing sound.

The start of the dam where the water goes down.

And suddenly plunges. You can never defeat the force of water...

Me at a platform above the plunging water. Don't ask me why I keep doing "V" signs.

We walked on a path built on the side of the gorge, which was incredibly scary because the fence was rickety looking and the view of the plunging water(even scarier than the photo I put) 10+m belowwas seriously unnerving. But I made it all the way through and the gorge actually leads into a cave!

One of the openings in the cave. I'ts huge. Really huge.

wI then found myself in a cave with rock structures formed through erosion by water some 6 million years ago when these caves were filled with water.

This is only one of the many structures. The colours are from coloured bulbs.

I walked, I panted, and I finally reached a huge platform where we could rest for awhile. I thought this was the end to the cave, but NO! We proceede by walking even more on stairs, most of which are wet with WATER. It was so freaky because I thoght I would slip while climbing down and the noise of the water below was louder than ever. And while I was painstakingly making my way through the steps, others skipped along merrily. HOW ON EARTH DO THEY DO THAT?!?!?!

A waterfall IN the cave.

This is called the fairy paddy fields. In the background you can jst make out a long train of stairs. Looking ever so fragile in the hgue cave.

And guess what? WE HAVE TO CLIMB EVEN MORE STAIRS. This time, UP. It was to view some bat caves, but I didn't see any bats or any form of life at all, other than the tourists shoving their way through.

To return to the carpark(which is the start of the gorge), we jstu had to take a cablecar(which is actually a ski lift). On it, my toes could actually skim the tops of some coniferous trees and I got a good full view of the vegetation below.

While we were driving to our next stop, Stoneforest, on the coach, an accident occured right in front of our vehicle! A van(tourist) and a lorry collided and there were glass shards all over the road. The tree that had fallen in the middle of the road had to be moved away and the tour guide from that van had her leg pinned under some metal from the van that was dented inwards. Poor girl, i hope she's OK. That has GOT to hurt real bad.

So anyway, Stoneforest is jsut lots and lots of grey limestone pillars that were eroded by rainwater into shapes that are so bizarre.

This is what the pillars look like up close.

And a huge FOREST of them, hence the name.

I thought that this 'Keep off the Grass' sign was so cute! I mean the English version is pretty normal, but READ THE CHINESE! Ahaha, creative.

And for dinner! Dinner was truly unforgettable!

All the dishes were ok... except the fried worms! Yes! WORMS. They were deep fried golden brown and 2cm long but they just creeped me out. It's not that I thought it would taste disgusting, I just couldn't get enough courage to put one into my mouth!

Since its considered a delicay, everyone tried one and loved it but I stared at my half worm(I picked half sicne it was smaller and I was too chicken to try the full worm) for 10mins before stuffing it into my mouth with rice and more rice. When I felt the crunch, I almost wanted to spit the whole thing out but I swallowed it. I mean, I eat animals. I don't mind trying dog, rabbit, frog, rat, but I DRAW THE LINE at insects and grubs.

The restaurant. Oh gosh I'm doing "V" signs again.

DAY 3:

9 Dec 2007, Sunday

We went to some Peacock Park today. They call it 'Seven Colours of Yunnan'(loosely translated since I'm hardly an ace linguist). The REAL Chinese title below.

There wasn't much to see. The Park just consisted of a bunch of peacocks and ducks and chickens roaming about in randomly placed enclosed cages. And for the msot part, the tour guide was intropducing us to some local trees.

This 'waterfall' thing was about the most interesting feature we saw.

Pink trees! So pretty!

We went for our medicinal foot bath next, and for those above 18, a foot massage as well.

Speaking of feet, my LEGS are hurting from the climbing yestreday(the caves remember?). Adults used to tell me that because I am young I should be more fit. This is SO not true. None of the adults had aching muscles like me! See what I mean when I say my fitness level is 0?

Ok, so anyway, the bath was kind of cool. They dump herbish powder into a wooden bucket and pour hot water in it to dissolve the powder. All I did was soak my feet in it(which felt great especially in this cold weather, not that hot weather is any better). After a few minutes, little jelly-like globules form in the water and it's really ticklish so I couldnt' stop laughing. I expect some grown ups were pertty annoyed at me not taking this seriously but let me just say that IF I COULD STOP MYSELF FROM LAUGHING I WOULD HAVE! You think I want to do this on purpose??? It's like asking a person who got stabbed in the stomach to not utter a single cry of pain.

During our foot bath(which lasted about 20 mins), some guy came in to advertise some ointment(which we'd already planned on buying because we got it once in Beijing at it was REALLY good). To prove the efectiveness of the ointment, he singes his palm on RED HOT METAL, then shows off his burn. Following that, his assistant spplies a generous amount of ointment on the burn and viola! It doesn't hurt anymore.

We then coached to Da Li, which took about 4h, excluding toilet stops and all.

And when we reached Da Li in the evening, all we did was go to view some big glass globe.

But it was worth it because at the square below the glass globe, they sold CANDIED HAW!!!!! It's called 'bing tang hu lu' in Chinese and you can only get it in winter. It just haw(the actual fruit) coated in hardened crystallised sugar. It is SO SO DELICIOUS.

Notice our happy faces.

Day 4:

10 Dec 2007, Monday

We went to Tian Long Ba Bu(some Chinese period drama or movie I'm guessing)movie studio, which is this authentic-LOOKINGold ancient city specially built for the movie set!

Notice the 2 words say 'Da Li'?

Some performance in the middle of the street.

And of course, there were random activities like archery which I tried out and believe me, even though I am a hunter in Maplestory, I absolutely SUCK at it in real life. My dexterity and accuracy is 0. I even shot one OVER THE FENCE. And mine was the lightest bow too! My brother took the heaviest bow and shot more arrows into teh target than I would ever have done in my entier life.

Then we spent the entire afternoon coaching to Lijiang and reached there by nightfall. We had dinner there and then we went into the supermarket opposite the restaurant to buy snacks. My mum made the fatal "error"(or not, depending on how you see it) of letting us take ALL THAT WE WANTED. So that's what we did. In fact the carrier bag was SO full that I had to hug it because carrying it on hand would be impossible.

AND I HAVE TO MENTION OUR HOTEL! It is SO awesome. IT's not the usual high rise building with rooms. The hotel is split into hundreds of villas(that are like 3 storeyed terraces) and there are 4 rooms in each villa. One family usually takes 1 villa with 4 rooms. The villa contains a living room, a dining room, a kitchen and also a HOUSEKEEPER! It's like staying in a chalet with your own maid, except better! There's even a computer but the internet sucks SO much that I couldn't even access my own blog.

DAY 5:

11Dec 2007, Tuesday

Our housekeeper cooked breakfast for us this morning! I felt really bad because I didn't eat much(or rather, didn't have the time to) and she's really nice to all of us.

Because the villas are all located really far from the entrance we have to take these 'car' things out to the carpark. That's how the villas look like, but I assure you the inside is ANYTHING but traditional.

Destination 1 was 'Mu Fu' which kind of eman the 'residence of Mu'. I'm not sure who the Mu family was because I was too cold to pay attention but I'm guessing that they were some rulers of the Lijiang province in the past.

Part of the huge residence. You do realise I'm wearing ear muffs.

There's a tree that grew upside down somewhere in the residence. See how the roots stick out? Or what I think are the roots anyway.

View from one of the platforms in the residence.

Then we went to 'Gu Cheng', which means Old City, or rather, ANCIENT CITY.

The shops are all in traditional olden Chinese architecture but the stuff they sell is pretty modern. Liekw aht you'd see in a normal store.

On one of the many paths in 'Gu Cheng'.

See the flags lining the path below? They lead the way to a village dominated by the Naxi Tribe(which are related to the Japanese race).

There waqs some performance in the village about this guy climbing a ladder made of knives(which means he's actually going to stand on the knife blade) but because I was tired and hungry, I accidentally tripped and my poor, poor ankle was in sheer agony so I couldn't care less about my surroundings. There was also another performance inside some hut but the incense was so strong and mixed with the thin air, I couldn't breathe at all.

Lunch was disgusting. The rice felt like plasticine but I guess that's because water boils at 70 degrees at such a high altitude.

We proceeded by going to a cable car station to take a cablecar up to a mountain(and in Chinese they call it 'something' snow mountain, so I was actually expecting snow).

Wild goats I saw at the station. SO CUTE!

This is the cable car we sat when we went UP.

There aren't any windows. So it's open air.

And this is all we saw at the top. ALL WE SAW. There isn't even an ounce of snow worth mentioning about. It's all green pastures and blue skies. What a waste of all that oxygen spent going up.

When we were on our way down by cablecar, I fell asleep and my mum woke me up when we were about 5 cablecars from the bottom(which is also the station). Just as I was about to FULLY wake up, the cablecars stopped wuith an abrupt jolt. It shook forwards and backwards for a few seconds before settling down and that was when we realised that grey smoke was ruising from the power house below.

It turned out that there was a power failure! They took 5-10 mins to start up the power and I had to bury my nose in my jacket because the wind was blowing all of the smoke into our faces(especially since we were so near the power house). All I can say is, I'm glad I wasn't stuck in the middle with no clue of what was going on.

we stopped halfway down the mountain to take scenery photos. Like this.

And this.

I mean, yeah they are beautiful. But after looking at stuff like this for days, you start to take its majesty and beauty for granted and it becomes kind of... boring.

DAY 6:

12 Dec 2007, Wednesday

Breakfast today was awesome. Our housekeeper singlehandedly cooked 9 dishes for 7 of us, again. That's what I call PRO.

We set off really early to coach to Shangrila and on the way we stopped to view the bend of some river(which name I have long forgotten).

Here it is, I don't know which bend it is. I jsut see lots and lots of meanders.

Well, this is what it's called, I guess.

For the entire coach ride, I was SO tired and wanted to sleep, but NO, I waqsn't allowed to because when you do, your breathing rate decreases and you suffer from high-altitude symptoms more easily. Ugh.

We proceeded to Pudacuo National Park after lunch. The bus we took(Which isn't our coach. It's some other bus by the National Park) stopped at special 'scenery stops' for you to take pictures but for some reason, all the stops were sunny. Sunny=warmer=NO SNOW. All the other shady places which they passed were covered in a blanket of snow so we were pretty pissed that we didn't get to play with the snow.

Scenery stop.

At the last stop, our nice, nice tour guide brought us to a place where we could play with snow, because I requested for it. Hey if you don't ask you don't get right?

JSUT LOOK AT OUR HAPPY FACES. I made a snowball and was showing it off in the camera but Amos and his friend threw snow in the cameria to make it look like it was snowing, thus ruining the pic. See the blur?

This time all of us wanted to try to make it look like it was snowing. So we got our handful of powdery snow ready...

And THROWWW!!!!!! Perhaps our timing wasn't right. Only certain parts look snowy.

Yeah and i finally got to take a photo with my SNOWBALL.

The "V" sign here stands for VICTORY. My friends there because she helped me with it.

And more sunny scenery stops.

We were supposed to go to the Prayer Wheel that night but it's 500 stairs to climb and I'm not that interested in it anyway so we didn't go up. Instead, we just hung around at some warm, cosy cafe below.

DAY 7:

13 Dec 2007, Thursday

I don't know why but there weren't many photos of Day 7 and those taken weren't that nice either.

Anyway, we took a flight back from Shangrila to Kunming(again) and just walked around.

The only really interesting thing that we did was to go shopping in Luosiwan bazaar which is a hge shopping district. Yes there were many clothes and jeans and items, but they're all winterwear and much as I dig winterwear, you aren't even going to be able to wear it in Singapore.

DINNER WAS YUMMY. It was mushroom hotpot, and we had to pay for that meal ourselves, but I gather it was worth it.

My feet were sore from all that walking and I actually thought that I would develop bruises on my soles(but no I didn't). Now when I walk, I can feel pain on my soles are the area below my toes. Yowch.

Day 8:

14 Dec 2007, Friday

We went to a flower farm(AHEM, Horticulture) where you pay a certain fee per person to go in and cut stalks of flowers(maximum 6 stalks per person). One stalk isn't just one flower, as I initially thought so.

1 stalk=10 over sub-stalks=50++ flowers(tiny ones)

The flowers and scissors.

This is what it looks like close up. Took me ages to get this shot.

And I also got mud all over my shoes and tried to scrape it off but failed miserably so I decided that I'd wait for it to dry up then fall off on its own.

We went to a strawberry farm next, which is like the flower farm. Except this time you pick strawberries that you want(small bite-sized berries are actually sweet unlike the usual sour) until you fill up your red bucket.

We went to a silk shop next and since we've already got silk sheets from Beijing I just walked around the store and I saw this BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL bag that cost *gulp* RMB300. That's so expensive! I really wanted it but didn't buy it.

Later on we went to another shopping area and bought a lot more stuff because that area seems to stock more items that tourists want to buy.

Guess what I saw there!!!!!

My RMB300 bag that was only selling for RMB119!!!!!! You bet I snapped it up!

After dinner when I stepped out of the restaurant, I saw what seemed to be a dead cockroach on the red carpeted floor. Then, my bro appeared and knowing what he'd do(which is kick the cockroach at me) I ran down the stairs. When I finally reached the compound below, he flung the dead cockroach at me(HE ACTUALLY TOUCHED IT :0 :0 :0). Thank oodness it didn't hit me, but when I got a good look at it on the ground, it was actually... a bundle of thread.

And I got another 3 bags at the Airport's Duty Free. Theyr'e cloth because I don't like leather or plasticky bags. And certainly NOT emo looking. Best of all they only cost like RMB 24 each.

These are the items we got in China. We didn't think that we'd gotten a lot, but actually, IT IS A LOT.

And I arranged them on the table.

Notice the blue bag? That's tie dyed and the stack of bags there are mine. The stack beside it isn't.

Yes and you DO realise I'm weing a cap in almost every photo? It's not to act cool. IT's really really sunny there, probably even sunnier than Singapore because Yunnan's altitude is really high.

Oh, and like HALF the female population was wearing boots, just on a rough estimate.

I hope this post wasn't to long-winded but hey, it's to make up for 8 days.

Wish me bon voyage!

2007-12-06T18:28:00.000+08:00

This is my last ever post before leaving for China and there's nothing much I'm going to say, just a bit of thoughts here and there.

We're taking China Eastern Airlines(I was thinking, shouldn't it be Eastern China Airlines? Whatever.) and there's no entertainment on board(a.k.a. screen in front of you) but then the flight's only 4 hours so it shouldn't be that boring since it's at 2.10am and I'm probably gonna sleep rather than play.

We were told to bring a torchlight in case of blackouts in the hotels. Ok, this really worries me. I daresay, I don't like the dark very much and the thought of bathing halfway when all the light suddenly go off is quite frightening. but I shouldn't expect much from a place like this which isn't as advanced.

I've almost finished packing all my items(except my brush and comb which I need later so I'll pack it in after I use it) but whenever I go on tours or holidays or anything that needs me to pack a huge amount of items(especially clothes and necessities), I have this constant "fear" that I've forgotten to bring something and I constantly review my list(both on paper and in my mind) to make sure all my items are there but I can't help feeling that I've forgotten to bring something although there doesn't seem to be anything that I've forgotten.

I hope I'll be able to go shopping there at least once. It really annoys me to know that I can go to a palce but I don't have time to buy the items because the tour doesn't allow for it. I got heaps of shopping time in Europe and South Africa and Japan so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that I'll be able to at least buy something from there(something practical yet memorable of course. I don't buy stuff for nothing!).

And from my cousins and uncles and aunties who have had tons of experience of holidaying in China, here are the shopping tips they gave:

1. DO NOT ever buy gems or jewellery. They could be fake.

2. DO NOT buy any medicines or "rare herbs" or miracle cures. They could be fake too, and they're freaking expensive.

3. Lastly, whatever you buy, BARGAIN.

I mean, most people think that abstaining from gems and medicines are easy. Just DON'T BUY THEM RIGHT? Nope. It's not that simple.

I'm sure all you billingual Chinese in Singapore know, that when you say something in English, then say the same sentence in Chinese(with an accurate translation), the CHinese one always sounds more passionate and exaggerated. Just try it, it's true. And we all know how charismatic and eloquent chinese speakers can be in speaking, especially when they're promoting products. So, it isn't as easy as it sounds.
But then again, I'm not the kind who buys gems and jewels and medicines. I'm the kind who buys CDs and crafts and bags.

I'm leaving for Changi Airport at 11.15pm tonight, and my brother and I are keeping the years-old tradition of eating Skittles on the way there in the car.

I just love Changi Airport, it's so full of life and there are so many different kinds of people there. Plus, you look up at that HUGE departure board and see half the world cities on it.... "Cairo... Paris... Tokyo... Seoul... Vancouver..." And you start to wish that one day, maybe one day you could be on a plane, flying to one of these far away cities...

Still, who am I to complain? I'm lucky enough to go travelling almost every year which is what's fuelling the only passion I'm sure I have. See you guys when I'm back and wish me bon voyage!

My Hard Rock Cafe badge collection

2007-12-04T15:47:00.000+08:00

I SAID I'd post and brag about my Hard Rock Cafe collection so here it is. I'm so proud of my BEAUTIFUL collection. Feel free to ogle at the shiny badges. Haha. I'm not stopping here. I hope to get more and more and more and more and more.....

London.

My latest addition from my aunt who came back from her holiday. The red door with the hinges can actually swing open! I think it's supposed to be a miniature phone booth.

Berlin.

My aunt bought this for me as well, cuz she also went to Germany. Only I'm not sure what that figure on top is supposed to be. Looks a little like Elvis Presley to me but they said it's some chess piece thing.

Madrid!

My aunt got this for me as well, on her honeymoon. About a year ago I think.

Barcelona.

My aunt was on some Spain and Portugal tour for her honeymoon adn got this for me. It's an Easter 2006 Special and the egg shell can open and close to reveal the 'Barcelona Hard Rock Cafe' inside.

Lisbon.

From my aunt as usual. This is one of my favourites. I like the colours in this one. And how cool is the green feather in her hat?!

Paris.

I got this in Dec 2004 when I went to Switzerland and France. The Cafe was closed due to some private party but we managed to get this at the store.

Hong Kong.

My aunt got this for me. I can't remember when she got this and why she went there but it was pretty recent.

Beijing.

I got this in China is Dec 2002, if I'm not wrong. The panda is really cute, isn't it? I know SOMEONE whos into pandas. Wahaha.

The words say "Universal Citywalk Osaka".

And as seen by the yukata/kimono(whatever you want to call it. It said Yukata ont he packaging), it's obviously from Japan. This has GOT to be my favourite. I think it's cuz I chose it myself and the green there is a little glittery and the purple is beautiful too. I got it at some complex near Universal Studios Osaka last December.

Saigon.

I think Saigon is in Vietnam. Correct me if I'm wrong. My other aunt got this for me. It was one of my first H.R.C. badges.

Bangkok.

The same aunt who got me the Saigon gave me this. Somehow she's always going to Bangkok.

Bangkok. Songkran Festival.

Yup, the same person got me this.

Ho Ho Ho!!!

2007-12-01T20:24:00.000+08:00

I just have this drive and inspiration to blog lately so pardon my constant whinings. It just came to me that today is December 2nd, which means its the 2nd day of the most festive month in the world! Wow, it's like all throughout this year I've been awaiting this month and now it's here, it doesn't seem to be any different.

Except maybe for the fact that I'm going overseas in 5 days! Sorry I just can't contain that excitement!

So I have decided to list down my entire list of Christmas WANTS and WISHES though I probably won't be getting any of them at all but well, I'm taking it a source of consolation.

THE LIST--

1. Operator Please debut album 'Yes Yes Vindictive'

2. Paramore albums 'All we know is falling' and 'RIOT!' (Ok, that's 2 things but I don't care)

3. Flat boots(no ankle boots OR heels) that are made of suede and are thin in material and preferably brown or grey in colour.

4. A newsboy cap/hat (!!!!!)

5. Never ending travel vouchers (I think I may possibly have mentioned these, like, a MILLION times before but the wish still stands)

6. CD ROM game 'The Sims 2' (I know I have 'The Sims' already but number 2 looks exciting too!)

7. The entire range of Jodi Picoult books that I have yet to buy.

8. A Haruki Murakami novel(any one. I haven't bought any yet)

9. Skechers shoes!

10. Sarah Dessen's latest novel 'Lock and Key' (But it's only out April 2008!)

11. More space on my mp3 to store songs (I love the design but the space is so little. I really don't wanna change to a new one...)

12. S#arp album (I don't know which! Maybe the one with all their hits in it that they released after they split)

Wahaha, that's IT. And I guess you could say I cheated because it's not just TWELVE things, its a whole lot more.

Oh, I went ot my grandmas house today and came back with 10+++ more T shirts, 3 Hark Rock Cafe badges (Berlin, London, and free gift) and some postcards. I AM SO HAPPY!!!

Now I have more colours to add into my many-colours-already T shirt collection(I wear them too, and I don't have black and I never will have black shirts), more badges to add into my international collection of Hard Rock Cafe badges(I will boast about them here some other day. HA!), and my infamous postcard collection.

Yes, I am a collector of many items.

I'm going delirious with excitement. I should stop.

Band Bang Bang

2007-11-30T13:56:00.000+08:00

Weird title?

Not so weird story.

Every since yesterday, my neighbour(whatever floor they're on, I can't tell) has decided to carry out contruction works which involve HEAVY DRILLING, HAMMERRING and some lighter sounds which remind me of chiselling.

I mean, I could forgive them and ignore it if it's for only about an hour or so. But NO! Do you have ANY IDEA how long the bang-bang-banging sounds stayed? It stayed for at least 6 hours yesterday! And it continued at 11am this morning!

I mean, most of the time when when we hear the sounds of renovation works upstairs, it usually isn't that severe. All you hear are sounds that irritate you and then they go away after awhile. But these sounds DO NOT JUST PRODUCE SOUNDS, they are so so bad that they actually vibrate the floor tiles. And when I sit down to eat, I can feel the impact of the hammer on the kitchen table. The people who called my house actually asked, "What's that noise?" because it was so loud that they could hear it over the phone.

It was so bad it gave me a stomachache while I was cooking my brother's lunch and I had to dash to the bathroom and the noodles turned soft.

I really can't take this anymore. I feel like I'm living in a constant hellhole. The sounds come at no warning at all and they might pause for a few minutes giving you the impression that FINALLY FINALLY you can get some peace and then they start ALL OVER AGAIN. It wouldn't be so bad if the drilling was constant but it starts and stops every few seconds and it just makes me want to tear my hair out.

I aws tempted to yell "SHut the hell up!" at them but then I don't think they'd hear it over the drilling and since I don't know where the sound is really coming from, I wouldn't know where to direct my yell.