My Own Little World

The Terrier and the Hare

2007-09-04T21:12:00.001+08:00

ONCE AGAIN, A WARNING FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT WISHED TO BE SPOILED OF HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS CONTENT, DO NOT PROCEED.

Alright. Back again for some blogging. Been reading some blog entries of my friends and decided to blog for myself too. I don't think I'll be writing much today since I need to go off to study again soon. Supposed to finish chem revision today. 16 more questions! Haha.

I think I'll just talk about two characters in Harry Potter that I am fond of. Perhaps they are my favourite characters. Maybe. Anyway, the male character I'd like to talk about it Ronald Bilius Weasley, best friend of Harry Potter. Generally I find him a fairly balanced person. He has humour which makes him likeable among people but he can also get fairly temperamental. Perhaps he's better now after all those years of bickering with Hermione. Anyway, he's quite loyal to his friends. As Dumbledore so rightly knew, he is an important person among the trio. He's the one who keeps them together, who keeps them talking. Harry did admit that having Hermione as a best friend was different with having Ron as your best friend (This was when Harry and Ron were having a falling out in Goblet of Fire I think). There was much less laughing. I think Ron's humour is a very important aspect in the trio's friendships. He's the one who makes them laugh. I'm thinking this is especially important towards Hermione. She doesn't have many close friends to really talk to in school. She's not very close to Lavender and Parvati. So without Ron, she'll be having far lesser laughs since there's no one else to do that job. Harry can still hang around with some other people (though admittedly his situation is fairly the same as Hermione's) but I feel that Hermione's solitude without Ron or Harry would be much greater for her as compared to Harry without Ron and Hermione. I think her insecurities that had partially led her to push herself in her subjects to be the best in them really shows how much she need friends. Without being the know-it-all, she wouldn't be known. And without being known, you wouldn't have much friends (however being known doesn't equate to friends, yes). Opps back to Ron now. Well yeah he is important in the trio. His Patronus (a Jack-Russel terrier, a breed of dog) does reflect his loyalty towards his friends. Dogs are known to be loyal I guess. Yet Ron can be the person with the towering temper. He can be seen angry in almost every book I think (like every other character) but yeah I think it really shows how balanced he is as a character. He has his good and bad points.

On to a female character then. Luna Lovegood. I'm really fascinated by her character. I can see that she is strong mentally as she does not break down when people make fun of her or take her things and of the sort. She is not shy about wearing her raddish-like earrings or being different. I guess it's just her attitude towards such things are not negative. She has a very open mind and does not see her differences as differences. She treats them as if they are normal hence she isn't affected by the attitudes of others. Yet she still treasures the friends that she have. Really, it was wonderful to read about her having the pictures of her friends put up and linked by that chain made up of the words Friends (Sorry if I've got that part of the story wrong). It really shows how much she values the friendships that she have, no matter how few friends she might have. Even though her beliefs are in contrast to that of Hermione's, she still comforts her during one of the incidents when Ron made fun of Hermione in Half-Blood Prince when they had their last and largest falling out. She is caring and remains positive at all times, even when she was captured and imprisoned in Deathly Hallows. She encourages Harry in Deathly Hallows when he was overwhelmed with negative thoughts and unable to cast his Patronus. Her Patronus is also representative of her (as Patronuses should be). She is similar to a hare which always hops around, reflecting her positive attitude. I really like Luna Lovegood as a character. A very unique girl she is.

Well, I guess that'll be all. Got to go back to studying or else I'm facing another 2 o'clock bedtime. Haha. Thoughts on Harry Potter are the main things that is keeping me going. About 1 week left to Prelims. Haha. Cyaz.

The Deathly Hallows

2007-08-11T01:49:00.001+08:00

ANYONE WHO DOES NOT WISHED TO BE SPOILED FOR THE PLOT OF DEATHLY HALLOWS, PLEASE DO NOT PROCEED. DO NOT PROCEED. ANTI-MUGGLE ENCHANTMENTS HAVE BEEN PUT UP TO PREVENT YOU COMING HERE. YOU WILL NOW REMEMBER YOU JUST FORGOT ABOUT SOMETHING AND TURN OFF THIS BROWSER TO ATTEND TO IT. IF NOT, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

Right. Time to get to it. Anyone who noticed the time must be thinking what I am doing so early in the morning. Studying? Hmm I wish I could say that. Well I did do SOME studying today, somewhat. Anyway came back from hospital today. Don't want to talk about it. Not here. Not now.

Moving on. It's time to discuss the Deathly Hallows. The Elder Wand, the Ressurection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility. What would you choose? The unbeatable wand, the stone which summons the dead or the cloak that hides all. Tough. Tough. Hmm. Well, this is my blog, so let's discuss about my choice. I'd say it'd waver between the stone and the cloak.

So firstly, why not the wand? I mean its an UNBEATABLE wand. UNDEFEATABLE. NUMERO UNO. Nahz. Haha. Let's say we enter a HP-theme RPG virtual reality world where there is made-up magic in that VR world, I would just be glad of a wand. Who cares if you have an unbeatable wand. Sure you'll be unbeatable and all, but yeah, what would it achieve? As good as the wand sounds, it doesn't really give one any benefit except to ensure definite protection. Plus the ownership of a wand is such a complicated matter so how can you make sure that you are the actual owner of the wand? Haha. I'll do with a normal wand which can do the normal spells.

So why the cloak? Several reasons. Sometimes it would be just give a sense of relief to be able to hide from everyone's sight. To not be judged by your facial expression or your attire. To not be judged on looks basically. It lets your literally blend in with your surroundings, ensuring that no one notices you. A sense of escape. Maybe. It doesn't stop you from being solid. But hey. You can't have everything you want. Anyway, as Dumbledore puts it, the true magic of the cloak would be that you could conceal others with you. It's something that you can share rather than restricted to personal use. As such, its uses would be endless.

So why the stone? Well, I guess it would be sort of comforting to have your loved ones whom you have lost "return" to you. Like Dumbledore said, no spell can reawaken the dead. Even with the use of the stone, the dead still doesn't belong in this "world". Both are still seperated. Nevertheless, it would be useful if you wanted to clear any unfinished business or questions you might have wanted to ask. Then again, one must fully understand that the dead cannot truly return. Bringing them back using the stone would not make things the same as it once was. Fail to accept this and one might be driven to suicide in order to join the lost loved ones, as depicted in the story of the Tale of Three Brothers by the second brother. The dead are dead. That's it and will be it, forever it. No turning back.

Still, the cloak would be useful to sneak around places or just to hide from everybody for a moment. The stone can be used to settle any unfinished business. Well. Why would I want to use them? I have my own reasons, or maybe not. Some things are just better left unsaid. Of course, the Deathly Hallows are FICTIONAL and NON-EXISTENT. But it doesn't hurt for one to delve in the realm of wonder and creativity from time to time, as long as one does not confuse it with the real world.

Why am I driven to blog, you might wonder? Bored in the dead of night I guess. Oh well. My classmates can't access the school website because it's down for most of the evening today... or should I say yesterday? Anyway, I just hope they can still enter their CIP and PDP stuff in. I was tasked to enter for everyone but since for some reason I am unable to add participants to the activity I entered, everyone had to do it themselves. And if they can't, I'm the one to blame. Partially why I get tired of being a leader. Made me kinda phobic to being blamed. But yet the years of leadership has imbibed this sense of responsibility in me (if any), to some extent or another. I guess I just can't help being a leader. Good things come with bad things. That's just the way things are. I'VE GOT TO STUDY. STUDY STUDY STUDY! Argh. Must get that momentum back. MOMENTUM. *ding* What's that second law again? Darn. STUDY. Bye.

Disturbing the dusty cobwebs

2007-08-07T21:05:00.000+08:00

Heyz. Finally found the strength to move that mouse and change my blogskin. Another Harry Potter skin OF COURSE. What can you expect, really? Well, Deathly Hallows has come and gone. Looking at my ancient previous post, I couldn't believe I started counting down that early on. 167 days. Haha. Wow. Well, it's been a few weeks after the release of Deathly Hallows. What can I say about it? Well I think I should hold back for a few more weeks in case anyone reading this haven't finished reading Deathly Hallows. Anyway speaking of people who haven't finished Deathly Hallows, I really hope my teacher has finished reading it. I mean come on. It's been almost THREE weeks.

Prelims are coming. Got to study. Haha. It's amazing how time flies. Day by day. Week by week. Term by term. Children look forward to growing up. But at this stage, I admit that I wish I could like repeat my teenage life. All the mistakes I've made thus far has helped me along the way in one way or another. It's something like climbing up to the edge of a cliff. At this point, one may hesitate being at the edge. Looking back, you know that the mistakes you've made while climbing up has helped you around other obstacles that you later face. Even though a part of you would want to be back down the cliff and climb it once again for another experience of it, you know that you are now at the top and you can't go back down. Looking forward, it's a large open view of the wide endless sea. It's a whole new world of water, ever-changing and full of currents. You are on the brink of leaving the firm earth foundation you've been standing for the years you've grown up. It's time to take the plunge from this simple, firm world into one's that will be dynamic and rough. In the new water at the top and you can't go back down. Looking forward, it's a large open view of the wide endless sea. It's a whole new world of water, ever-changing and full of currents. You are on the brink of leaving the firm earth foundation you've been standing for the years you've grown up. It's time to take the plunge from this simple, firm world into one's that will be dynamic and rough. In the new water world, there are times when the seas are peaceful, yet times when the storm rages on. Slowly and eventually, you'll have to take the dive. And once you do, you'll leave your firm foundation of the past, almost forever. Coz things will never be the same again, not really.

That'll be all. I'll let the cobwebs drape across the webpage again. As said in Oceans Thirteen, see you and I see you.

Temporary pit-stop

2007-02-05T19:24:00.000+08:00

Heyz back again for now. Hmmm. Let's see. The most crucial, significant and important news of the year. THE SEVENTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF THE HARRY POTTER SERIES, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS WILL BE RELEASED ON 21ST JULY 2007, SATURDAY. WAHAHAHAHA. Yupz. Finally. It's here. Right smack near the preperations for A levels. Oh well. Just study a bit earlier, plan my time well and I'm sure I can make time to end off the series which got me into reading in the first place.

Hmmmm. My feelings about it? First of all, I'm excited of course. Having discovered Harry Potter through the first movie, then next was the first four books and pre-ordering Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, of course I'm excited. Then again, it would be a sad thing since there'll be no more installments to look forward after this last one. It's the END. FINITE. BYE BYE. ADIOS. ASTA LAVISTA. Poof. Yup. It will end. My teenage life has been attached so closely to Harry Potter and it would certainly make a difference in my life without having to look forward to it anymore. No more rushing in the early mornings to line-up for the collection of a new book, spending hours reading new installment, only taking breaks for meals and bathroom and sleep. Haha. Would really miss those times. Well all good things come to an end. At least I can then re-read the entire series and finally understand and appreciate all the effort put into weaving the intricate plot and storyline made up thought up by the amazing JK Rowling. I offer my congragulations to you haha.

Anyway, there'll be the movies to look forward to. Despite having cuts in the storyline to appropriately fit the hundreds of pages into a 2 hour or so movie, it still manages to capture the essence and significance of each installment. Hopefully things will proceed and improve as they have done thus far so that when the final movie comes, it can really end the series off in a way that is deserving for a series which I believe have encouraged reading among children, including myself.

Nevertheless, there will still be other great novels to look forward to. I would just have to explore new jaunres of books and see what fits my liking. At the moment, it's usually fantasy. Haha I will still have Artemis Fowl to look forward to, though sadly once again, the next installment will be its last. Comparison between Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. In my opinion, Harry Potter is a character who has remained virtuous throughout the series, though still experiencing the parallel situations teenagers in the real world go through. On the other hand, Artemis Fowl is a character who is a baddie gone good. It shows changes that can impact a person and how one matures through experiences in one's life. I'm not saying that either story does not have what the other offers, just that, in my opinion, they each show a particular trait more than the other does. I may be totally wrong, of course, but that is my opinion.

Well, let's get away from the realms of fictional worlds and back into present times. School is going smoothly. I'm slowly adjusting to the rigour of school life once again. Amazingly close to five weeks have already passed and frankly it only feels as though I have been in school for about three. They weren't exaggerating when they said that this year was going to be fast-paced. Soon it would be the March holidays, then the second term would arrive to deal with the ending chapters of each subject. The JCT would then be a wake-up call for many. The remainder of the third term will be spent finishing off subjects and revision. And the fourth and final term would be spent almost wholly for revision. Then it is time for the A levels and poof. Done with studies until after the next 2 years. Time sure flies. It is at this age that one might feel that growing up may not be such a prospective idea as it once was about a decade ago. Oh how things change.

Hmmmm. I think that was enough to be getting along with. More work awaits me for today. Hopefully I can turn in before 12 midnight. Rest is important after all. It's worst off to fall ill since it'll be like a day or two in suspended time before you are suddenly thrown back amongst the thick of life and its problems. Haha at least I have that feeling. Alrighty then. I'll be off again down the road of life. Cyaz.

P.S. 167 days left to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

THE year is here

2007-01-09T19:55:00.000+08:00

Hello. As usual, I'm back after a month or so. School has begun again and my internship has not yet completed. There's still the presentation that we need to do. Oh well. I hope we'll be able to settle that within the coming weeks or so. I will finally have a breather once it's done and over with. The lessons learned are valuable but sometimes when you have a task that's been delayed for some time, you don't feel too good about it.

Alright. I'm in second year now. Got to really pull my act together. The A levels is in just 10 months away, and 10 months isn't that long. Term 1 will be rather fast as once you're getting used to school again, it'll be soon the end of term. Term 2 would be filled with trainings and rehearsals for activities thus the late hours of such activities would eat up quite some time from the term. Term 3 will start off with the JCT and then revision. Term 4 would be the Prelims and more revision. Wow. A whole year planned out as simply as that. Oh well. What's coming will come, and I'll have to face it when it does.

Nevertheless, 2007 will still be a great year. There will be lots of things that are happening this year. At the end of this month, Windows Vista will be released. I'm looking forward to the better design. Looks more sophisticated I guess. Then in the entertainment side, there will be great movies. Spiderman-3, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and if I'm not wrong, Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. Looking forward to them. Also, the seventh and final installment to the Harry Potter series might be released this year, though if it's happening anytime in the second half of the year, it'll be a torture for me since I've got A levels. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. Many interesting theories but it's quite hard for one to put a finger on it for the last title. We'll have to wait and see what the book will be about then.

There'll also be Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars released in late March. Finally, a Command & Conquer game after quite a long break. The screenshots looks great. The storyline sounds great. Everything about it seems to be great. My only worry is whether my laptop can handle the graphics needed to run the game. Haha. Once again, we'll see how it goes.

For the trading card scene, Magic: The Gathering's Planar Chaos will be release late this month too. From the preview cards shown, it looks set to be a cool and interesting set to play. A black version of Wrath of God, a red Akroma with abilities different from the white one. Once again, I hope there would be fun slivers to play with. ONWARDS FOR THE HIVE!

There'll be a PDP exhibition tomorrow. Hope all goes well. Everything seems set to go. The banner is AWESOME. The flyers have been made. All that's left is some aggresive advertising (maybe not too aggresive) and recruiting and may Bowling have more members for the upcoming and next year. Haha. Hope more will join this year. One BIG happy family.

For maple, I've FINALLY reached level 25. I can FINALLY change my armour. Hopefully I can push for the next 5 levels and FINALLY change to the 2nd job. At least it's a start to reaching the third job. A start thats is very far far far far away from the third job mind you, but still, it's a start. Looking good in my new equipment at level 25. Hopefully I would not lose interest in the equipment before reaching level 30 at least, though I doubt I can get enough money to get level 30 armour. Haha. Well, with all the horny mushrooms I'm killing now, I might actually save up enough. Haha.

Alright then. Better go. Don't expect to have a post soon haha. Unless for some reason I have a urge to update it, I just might. MIGHT. Bye.

Half the battle past

2006-12-02T19:50:00.000+08:00

Hello. Back at the moment. I'll be gone again for a camp soon so I thought I'd do the decency of updating it before I go. Let's see. I still havent started much on homework. At the moment, I've only done one comprehension. Only 1 month to go. And there's still revision to do. I'm not exactly great with the academics so I really need to patch things up. Hope I can get myself to do some work soon.

Talking about work, I joined an internship. Spent 3 weeks on it already but yet there's things we need to redo. Me along with 2 other friends are supposed to record bowlers from the Singapore Sports School so that the coaches can use a software to analyse their performance. We are also to be familiar with the software and teach the coaches on how to use it. Sounds simple enough. Haha I emphasise the word "sound". The camera we used to record them didn't have a certain function that we require. So we will have to record them again with a better camera. I hope it turns out find. While I'm out for camp, they'll be recording. I hope I can get back in time to help with the analysing we're supposed to do. With 1 week left of the internship, I hope we can finish it in time. Really need the time for homework, revision etc. If I can spend that time effectively of course.

Had bowling physical training yesterday. Wasn't that bad. Surprisingly I could actually complete the 5 rounds around the track. I didn't think I could really do it after about a month of zero excercise. Haha. Nevertheless, I still got rather dizzy after that. Lasted a bit longer than usual but nothing bad happened. So I guess it was ok. Later in the afternoon I bowled with Rodney, Qing Hui and Weixin. I'm quite impressed with Rodney. His upswing is lower compared to last time but his rev got much better. He's got a bright prospect in bowling as a career. Haha. It was just great to bowl with friends again. Forgot to warm up after the first minute or so and quickly did the necessary stretching. Had a bad experience of not warming up previously when I bowled alone. Didn't really like what I experienced so I wasn't keen for more anytime soon. I'm still aching all over but I think it will be better by the time camp starts though.

Camp. Looking forward to the bowling camp. From what I've heard, it's going to be more recreational than what I expect. Hope it will be an enjoyable camp and bond everyone together. All the best for a better and closer team next year! Haha.

I finished reading some books recently. Not Harry Potter. Not Artemis Fowl. Haha. I belive it's the Dark Elf trilogy. Many thanks to Bibi who introduced me to the series. Finally, I change from HP and Artemis Fowl. At times I do want a change but I fear that I might not like that change. But I find the setting in this book appropriate and interesting. A lot more deaths than in either of the two series I usually read. I guess this one is more adult-based. Well. I am growing older and Harry Potter is considered a children book among many *internal struggle of disagreement*. Haha. Oh well. Finished the trilogy. Looking forward to many other books of the fantasy genre. Thanks Bibi.

I guess that is enough for today. And maybe enough for the rest of the holidays. You never know though, I might update again to talk about the camp. Again I emphasise another word, "might". Haha. See you then.

Day of my life

2006-11-18T23:46:00.000+08:00

Hello again. Hmmm the internship is getting stressful since we have to calculate some concrete data for the project. I hope we can do something useful. At the moment, this coming week's action plan has been finalised. Hopefully the following weeks will go smoothly haha.

Homework. I think I should really start on SOMETHING tomorrow. ANYTHING really, as long as I can at least keep my conscience at bay for the day. The fourth week of the holidays will be starting really soon and I haven't even looked through my homework yet. I still have an idea of my workload though. Maybe I should follow Bibi's method of putting all of my work in some visible area in my house so that I can pressurise myself to do them. Presently, my mental pressure seems to be weakening haha.

Well, the second chapter of my story is finally done. But since the first chapter only consists of several paragraphs, maybe that chapter could be a prologue and the second chapter can move on to the be first. Haha. I should be more worried on whether I can complete this story unlike its unfinished predecessors. But this one is different. This one is original. Not much restrictions to adhere to. Maybe I can finish it. I hope. Haha.

Met Bibi today to install Maplestory in her laptop. Haha finally. But I forgot that she had to create an account first. No problem. That was what I thought. Apparently the popup didn't appear in her computer when we were trying to sign up hence no sign up. No sign up equals to no mapling. Oh well. At least the client is in her laptop. Once I got home again, we sorted out the sign up problem and finally made an account. Then the next problem came up. For some reason, her client couldn't open or something. Waited a while and then she could go into the programme. After logging in came the next problem. The channels didn't appear when she clicked on the server. Haiz. Oh well. Hope tomorrow things will work out find.

Oh yeah. I had an interesting find at the Sports School. There was actually a bowler there who had the same name as me. Cool. However there was just one drawback. That Azri was a girl. Well, let's just say I could never have thought that my name could be used to name a girl. Hmmm. Better not continue on this point. I think she would be aware of the uniqueness of her name already without me talking about it here.

Hmmm. And a final note. I guess at times you gain friends and you will also lose friends. I'll try to keep as many friends as possible but sometimes you just can't stop things from happening. All I can hope for is that someday and hopefully soon, we can be friends again.

Holiday Tales

2006-11-15T18:11:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... I guess it's about time that I updated my blog. I mean a lot has happened and I have to do it sooner or later. Since I have things to talk about, I'll blog it down. Firstly, PW is over. Yes! Lol. Well somehow it was OK after WR had been handed in. I'll miss the times when we meet for PW. More of the interaction rather than the time spent on PW itself. Alright next. The 2-part class bbq was fun. Helped out in starting the bbq on the first day but it was a failed attempt. In the end, Li Fang and Jennifer managed to get the embers ready and glowing. Haha. Good job girls! Mr Lim and Mr Lau came for the bbq. Haha thanks for coming! Basically we ate, talked, watched some games of squash and dunked some people. I didn't get dunked but I was ready to get it for the second day. Sadly on the second day, the pool and the bbq area was seperated by a fence hence we couldn't just throw people into the pool. Haha oh well. I would be happy being wet or dry. I tried to prepare the bbq again and with Daryl's help, success! It was a better ember than the one on the first day. We cooked the remaining chicken wings and other food. During the start of the bbq I had to scare off a cat who was mewing for food. It was my fault in the first place since I got friendly with it when I first saw it. Haha. Denise came at about nine since Amy or someone convinced her to drag herself and her siblings down there so we could finish the food. They did help but there were still leftovers. Oh well. Daryl decided to throw the ones he couldn't finish. Haha. The first day was much more fun since everyone was there but the second day was a good way to end the whole class bbq I guess. Denise's younger sister is rather vocal haha. I'm used to vocal people so I guess it didn't affect me as much as others. After a while I got used to her antics. Haha.

Hmmm. Internship. It started this week and we went to Singapore Sports School to do it. The place was huge and super cool. Had a straight one-lane track in the walkway for the track team. 2 large pools they could call their own. Large halls of badminton and table-tennis. And for me the most exciting part was the bowling alley. Yes they have their OWN bowling alley at the basement. Although it only has about half the number of lanes a standard alley would have, they still had their OWN bowling alley. Super nice. Their house balls looks new since I doubt anyone uses them. They are serious bowlers and would have their own balls. Haha. Anyway, we have to use this programme to help coaches find faults and potential injury areas. We were told today that we were probably only working Bowling for the programme instead of doing it with table-tennis (originally it was supposed to be badminton instead of table-tennis) since they are preparing for a tournament or some along those lines. Yeah. Well less things to do and there's a higher chance of completing it early. Hope everything goes well next week and we can get through this internship! Haha.

I've also begun writing again. In the past, I wrote Harry Potter fanfictions. However, I'm writing a whole new original (or so I believe) story. The differences you may ask? Firstly, I am not restricted to any canon from books that I have to follow. I can write anything and however I wish to without much boundaries. I'm going it slow now instead of writing about two chapters at once since I want to continue this story till the end. Usually I'll last for about two to three chapters before I get a long writer's block and end up giving up on the story. Slow and easy now. Slow and easy. Haha. Writing does help to relieve me of some stress and does distract me from some of my current worries. It's my own way of relieving stress.

I finally played my first few games in about 3 months of bowling abstinence. I didn't take note of the score of my first game since I forgot to check on it before starting a new game. I think the second game automatically started when I made my next shot. I don't make it a habit to check the screen often and I don't want to remind myself of any bad shots or remind myself of the score so that I can take each frame as it is. The drawback is that sometimes I don't realise that it's already the last frame where I should be extra careful and strive to make a good shot. Then again, striving too hard produces the opposite effect haha.

That's about it. I don't know when I'll feel like updating again. Hopefully soon but looking back on all the homework that I ought to be starting on soon, perhaps it wouldn't be that way. Well, you never know really. Lots of things can happen in life. Haha. Well, see you around then.

Time moves on

2006-10-23T15:47:00.000+08:00

Heyz again. I don't really have much to do at the moment. Waiting for the Econs post-mortum to start. Some of my classmates are in the hub but I didn't highlight my presence. Don't know whether they noticed me here after about almost an hour here. Why did I tao them? Let's say just it's better that someone doesn't know I'm here. Well anyway, let's just blog.

Supposed to have a half-day today and was allowed to leave at 10.30am. However, due to my guilt and conscience, I stayed on for my usual timetable. I was quite weak in maths and I did diligently do the physics tutorial. So I might as well attend the tutorials after all that work. Although my stand on the usual timetable was quite firm, I don't really know whether I should attend the Econs thing. I believe I can understand from the answer scheme provided but my conscience is telling that that I'll learn more from a live session. Hope he's right.

So what have I been doing before blogging? Read Artemis Fowl and the Artic Incident. Harry Potter does get a bit tiresome after you've almost memorised the storyline by hard (mentally whacking myself for that comment) but yeah a small shift in stories wouldn't hurt. It's not as though I'm turning my back on HP. Just taking a small break before prowling on. There's still magic, magical creatures, impressive plot works and comedy in both books so I place them on an almost equal standing (I'm sure you know holds more importance). If the Half-Blood Prince was available in the library I would have instead opted for it since I wanted to reread the last few chapters of the book. Really get emotionally into it to see whether I can feel some tears welling up in my eyes. Haha. I did get sad the first time I read the last chapter through, though it wasn't extreme sadness. Just felt sad. I believe there weren't any tears, although it was a close one haha.

I guess it's Hari Raya tomorrow. It's a bit sad to leave Ramadhan behind since it just gives me a sense of peace with myself. Well, I can expect the usual stuff to happen. Got my new baju kurung set, though I would be just as happy to reuse last year's. However I must say the new set does look good. Haha. Been a while since I wore something brighter. The colour is not exactly one would call bright but at least it's brighter than the usual colours I wear. Nice buttons too. Hopefully everything would go well.

CIP... I have to settle it soon. Hopefully the proceeds from the event Li Fang found goes to a charitable organisation. Or else there would be no point in us doing the thing since it wouldn't benefit the community much. I really hope it will be OK. Or else it's going to be tough looking for orphanages or old folks' homes. It's not about finding the places but more on the time. There are only 2 more school days remaining in this term.

BBQ. Should I go? I feel that the measures that needs to be taken so that I can eat at the BBQ qould be quite troublesome since it's only for me. Was planning not to go. According to Choon Wei can settle one but need to see how first. Clarify whether the measures can be taken in the first place. Well, maybe there are also other motivations for me not to go for the BBQ. I've already taken some emotional blows. Not that I mind taking any more, even now, but yeah it does get tiring after some time. Just tired to getting beaten up. Mental punchbag for someone. Haha I dunno. Let's just end of this point with a wadeva. Wadeva.

Maybe I should get going. Might need to settle something before the Econs thing starts. Bye then.

Masks

2006-10-20T10:47:00.000+08:00

Heyz. Hmmm... Maybe this time I should talk about myself. I believe many people see different sides of me. Some find me quiet, some find me irritating, some find me arrogant, some find me pathetic, some find me a helpful person. The list might go on (cant think of anything else now) but yeah. That's me. A person with many masks. Let's just say I tend to behave differently around different people. Well, I guess that is normal for everyone. You have to adapt to your surroudings. And the only way to do this is to have such masks for you to wear when you are in different situations. But real question is, who then is the real me? Is it the quiet studious boy, or some irritating irritator who drive others nuts or maybe I'm really the arrogant person who ignores others unless I'm required to approach them. Hmmm... many individuals have their own unique views. But for myself, what is the truth? What is my real attitude? Who am I?

Thinking about it now, I really don't know who I am. My attitude changes according to the situations I am in, just like everyone else. But what is my primary attitude? How do I behave when I'm alone and I can act without having anyone around me. That might be my weakness. I do not know who I am. Yes I know my name but what is my real personality in me. Behind all the masks I wore, how does the real face looks like? At the moment, that face seems to be a blank face. No eyes, no nose, nothing. A blank face. Either that face is shrouded by an invisibility cloak or spell and cannot be revealed by a Revealer or whether there is just no face there at all, I do not know. I know my purpose in life. I have my goals. I have an idea of the path to that goal. But I believe I'm lacking the most basic question of all. Who am I as a person? Has my path really been catered to my personality, which is still unknown to me. If it is not an appropriate path, what is my goals then? Nevertheless, whoever I may be, I know what my purpose is. That will never change no matter who I am.

Well, let's get that call in the Matrix and return to the real world. My results are satisfactory I guess. I really need to improve my Mathematics. That's for certain. I'm quite proud of some of my subjects while I'm happy with the others. In all, I'm satisfied and thankful. Hmmm. Written Report was submitted today. It was unexpectedly rather rushed. I had to rebind the WR as there were some imperfect pages (haiz... perfectionist me...). Luckily I made it back in time. The only thing I forgot to do was to put the removed imperfect pages into my bag. I think it should be still at the photocopy shop. Well, as long as my WR had all the right pages in it and everything was settled, I'm ok with that loss. Hmmmm. What lies ahead? The class CIP. Revision. Hopefully I can bowl at least once to see my current condition. Hopefully I haven't reduced too much. For some reason, I can even convince myself that I had actually improved by not bowling. Haha. We'll see how I perform on the lanes then. Maybe I could work on "That Thing You Do". My pitching seems off at those high parts. I also need to refresh Yesterday. Born Free and Russia with Love should be ok since it does not demand much on the vocals. Haha. Practice practice practice.

Oh! I just realised what I wanted to blog in the first place. It slipped my mind I guess. Hmmm. Is it really worth it to be a nice person. Well, nice people do nice things to help others. Usually they do not want rewards for their actions, which is what makes them nice. Even if the receiver is still harsh towards the nice person, the nice person will still be alright. Hence, I really admire nice people. Maybe sometimes, nice people regret being the way they are, but I guess it will go away after you get that fuzzy feeling. Haha. Tried to be a nice person but I doubt I can be one. There's just something missing. Something. I don't know what but I know it's something.

Ok. End of post. Bye. Ciaoz. Finite.

Contented

2006-10-18T15:36:00.000+08:00

Heyz again. Well, as the title reads, I'm contented. After that gush of emotions, the barriers are back up and running. Regulators are in check and systems are all green. No more critical alerts, no more system breakdowns.

Well, my results aren't exactly fantastic. I did relatively ok in some subjects while rather badly in others. Overall, I made an improvement to all of my subjects other than maths, which deproved. Haiz. I knew that I worked hard for it but it just didn't work. Oh well. At least I knew that however differently I may have prepared, it would not have made much difference to my mark. I tried my best and have no regrets. Not much anyway. Maybe I have got to change my learning style for next year's JCTs. Really need to get a firm grip on maths so that I can improve my overall grades.

I need to settle the Written Report today so that I can bind it tomorrow. Hopefully I can reduce the number of words in time and get everything relatively settled for Friday. I can't stay up as late as I would like since I have to get up early tomorrow morning. I need to finish everything latest by 12 midnight. My record was doing it up till 3pm. I'm sure Denise spent a longer time during the first draft. Hopefully, everything comes out right. No glitches. No hiccups. Hopefully. These things usually happen so I guess I'll just have to hope that it wouldn't be too serious.

Edited Si Jing's and my slides for the OP. Now I have fewer slides but perhaps more to explains. Hopefully, I can use up the 5 minutes that I have. Stay stable. Calm down. Be enthusiastic and SELL MY PROPOSAL. Haha. There'll be a rehearsal on Friday, unless our group is chosen for tomorrow's rehearsal. I'll be ready.

Currently writing a fanfiction. I don't really know where the story will go. Have really thought about the storyline. Let's just see where my imagination takes me this time. I also need to settle the CIP for the class. Hopefully I can settle it. Haha. It is true. Suddenly everything else comes after Promos. Maybe it will finally be a break during the mid of November.

Hmmm... I should get started on my WR soon if I want to finish everything on time. I don't want to feel rushed when it's 10pm. Bye then.

Myraid of Emotions

2006-10-17T19:20:00.000+08:00

Heyz again. Hmmm. I really cannot put a finger on how I'm feeling at this moment. I was feeling depressed a few days back. I'm really angry and certain points in time today. I also felt contented with the grades I received for the tests that were given back today. It's just a mess of everything. Firstly I don't know how to react to all of these feelings at once. Next, I don't know how to sort them out from the knot they've made in my heart. I just don't know. Haha. No one has really seen me like this so here's your chance. Wow. Lolz.

I believe I can handle the other emotions on my own. However, a certain emotion has been engulfing me for quite a while now. I am really being depressed by it. So much so that other emotions were born from this single emotion such as anger for instance. I am sad. Depressed. Worried. Troubled. However you may call it, that is how I am feeling. Currently a friend of mine is ignoring me, or at least avoiding me. It's best that I avoid her for some time too but doing so really kills me. I really liked being friends with her and it's intolerable for me to go on like this. No matter how I put it, I really don't know how much longer I can stand avoiding her. If I don't avoid her, then she will get even more irritated at me and I'll make things worst. I really have no clue at what I did to offend her to such an extent. I really can't take much more of this. Really. I usually thought that I could well up my feelings and soon they'll go away or dissipate or something. As long as those feelings are not shown, I do not care what happens to it. However now I think that bubble in my heart is going to break soon. It doesn't take much to burst a bubble. But this is my heart's bubble. It's taken beatings throughout my life, especially a few years back but I guess it's getting too full. There's no where else it can go to. So I guess it's going to burst. This is what's happening now. I'm losing control of my emotions (so much for Occlumency lolz). I AM BREAKING DOWN.

There. Some of it has got to go somewhere. This blog became it's new home I guess. To my friend who has been avoiding me, please. I really can't take it avoiding you for much longer. I do not know why you are avoiding me. It's literally tearing me apart to avoid you. I do not want to do this for much longer. I want things to go back to how they were. We being friends. I can freely talk to you and the same goes for you. I can joke around with you sometimes. (Shucks, maybe a time turner would do the trick) I really want us to go back to those times. I do not want us to be this way. Please. Please. Please. Let us go back. Let us just forget about what had happened and go back. Please.

I am taking this opportunity to apologise to you. I AM SORRY. PLEASE. I AM REALLY SORRY. FORGIVE ME FOR ANYTHING THAT YOU ARE DISTURBED WITH. Please. I am sorry. Forgive me. Please. Let us go back to how they were. Please. Let us be able to talk to each other again. Allow me to even look at you from away without any troubled feelings accompanying me. I am sorry. Please. I hope you can forgive whatever I have done wrong. I am really sorry. I can't avoid you for much longer. Please. I want to be friends with you again. Please. Allow me that privellege to be friends with you again. After the things we've been through, please do not let this ruin it. Please. I am sorry. I am sorry. I AM SORRY!

A day of thought

2006-10-13T22:57:00.000+08:00

Heyz. My JC had an open house today and I thought it was alright. There was a sufficient turnout despite the lack of visitors to the bowling booth. Partially it was because we weren't really inviting them to come but just sitting there. There were some who were interested. Passed a flyer to an interested student who went to the booth for a while and gave details to another who was also interested. Also, the downside of the booth was that there was no appeal. Maybe we should have had some kind of makeshift alley to make it more interactive. Haha. Maybe during the PDP exhibition. Maybe. I'm not the captain. Furthermore, we might be getting more visitors during PDP exhibition since students would be looking for PDPs to join rather than getting acquanted with the college.

I'm quite confused now. Currently my feelings are scattered and disorganised. I'm trying to place them back in their places but it seems those holding places have shifted too. Seems that I'm keeping these scattered feelings into the wrong places. I guess I'll just have to wait. In time, I know the proper order of the new arrangement. Why did I even made a mess out of it? I don't know. Feelings themselves can make you do some illogical stuff. Logical stuff too. But you would not do some of these stuff without these feelings. Feelings. I should strengthen my defences. I can't allow another attack like that. But before that, I need to sort out this problem. Haiz. Haha. I'll get through this. Hopefully.

Hmmm... a short post for me today, considering its quite late. I'll need as much sleep as I can get haha. Bye then.

New Phase

2006-10-11T07:26:00.000+08:00

Heyz. I was inspired to change my blogskin to something more "mature" so here it is. Simple, light and rather nice. I shall be contented with it for some time. The promos are finally over. I've prepared as much as I could for each paper and gave it my best shot. Let's now hope that my best shot was good enough to get me promoted. I'd rather not worry too much about it now. I'll leave that for next week.

Spending the day without the need of revising something seems quite unreal but blissful. Although such times are particularly rare nowadays, I'll appreciate them while enjoying them at the same time. Although the end of the promos do lift a heavy burden off my shoulders, more burdens will latch onto me. The OP, class CIP and other issues will need to be settled soon. Oh well, I'll worry about them when I have to (which isn't too far away anyway). There'll be a meeting to practice for the OP. Hope it wouldn't take too long, especially when the rehearsal schedule had just been changed.

Yesterday, I tried to install RYL (Risk Your Life) MMORPG game into my system. I'm in serious need for games now and since the levelling up is faster in private servers, I'm even more inclined to return to the game I once played about two years ago. Anyway I've installed it for the sixth time and there's still some error. Gave up trying and was conceded to the fact that I won't be playing it for that day. Hopefully, the game will work today and I can finally have a game I can be addicted to. My buried interest for Command & Conquer games were also resparked when I heard about the release of C&C 3 next year. Finally. It's been quite some time since I bought my last computer game because I had no interest in the new games that were released. Now I can at least look forward to reliving some part of my childhood. Was quite addicted to C&C games back then. Strategy War-Time games. It was the first type of computer games that I got into. C&C, Starcraft, Warcraft etc.

Hmmm. I think that's enough for this post. Got to get ready for the meeting. Byez.

The beasts within

2006-09-27T14:39:00.000+08:00

Heyz I'm taking a break now before I start mugging for the Promos so here I am on the blog. Surprisingly I'm updating on a somewhat regular basis compared to my long absences. Maybe I now find the blog more useful. Hmmm...

Anyway I made an observation while skimming through other blogs. It just occurred to me that when we get into our teenage years, especially the late side, it seems that we get slightly more negative. From negative I mean that we are more depressed about things. More stressed. Yeah I feel it to myself but I didn't really occur to me that I'm not the only one out there. There are some who are worst off than me and others better. Whatever it is, there is a level of sadness/depression in everyone, no matter what that level is. I came to this conclusion from some of the posts that I've read and also some blog designs that may be centred around something sad or depressing.

I guess we do face some amount of stress at this point in time. The weirder part is, we just can't seem to get rid of it. Although the causes for worry or sadness may be gone, we still go find that bit of depression in us. It's quite intriguing I must say. We seemed to have lost the ability to simply shake things off when the burden gets too heavy. We no longer laugh away our problems as often as we once did. Maybe it's the maturity. Being mature causes us to think far ahead and deeper into things. We know that we can't solve a problem by laughing about it so we do not do it anymore. We might have failed to see that such actions, although they do not solve the problem, does help us to cope with it. We now know the one of the only ways to see through a problem is to deal with it. However, we can't deal with all of our problems all at once. We need to solve them systematically. If we burden ourselves by facing all of our problems, hoping to be released from all of them at once, I think that will never happen. Problems appear in our lives all the time. No matter how we try to avoid it, it will still crop up one way or another whether we want it to or not.

The note seems to be rather depressing, seeing as problems will always be around in our lives. However, there are ways to cope with this problem that would not lead us to frequently think of negative emotions like being depressed, sad or worried. Maybe we should take a step back and access the problem at hand. It might be better if we dealt with our problems one by one instead of facing them all at one go. For example, in a strategy war-time game, one should avoid lashing out at the main base with full force. It will be much better to deal with the smaller clusters first as there will be a higher chance of success. Although these clusters will pop up again elsewhere, it will be better rushing into the main base. As for MMORPG, it is certainly better to face a tough boss one by one as there would be time to recover. Facing all the bosses in the entire game all at once, even though your character's abilities may be maxxed, you will find it rather difficult or possibly impossible defeat all of them at once. Maybe we should opt this approach to our problems rather then letting them well up in us and consume us, leaving behind the sadness for us to sink in.

Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps. My views on matters seldom do not make sense since I do find it a bit tough to write my thoughts clearly. These are just personal views that I have and may not be reflective of the present situation. Well, it's been about fifteen minutes or more. I guess I'll start studying now. Hmmm... Another post idea just popped up in my head. Maybe I'll deal with it the next time I blog. The Promos will begin soon so I may not have the time or the conscience to come online to blog. But well, I'm no Sybill Trelawney in these things. Then again, Sybill Trelawney only exhibit some Seer abilities at particular times in the Harry Potter series. Haha. Bye.

Point Brink

2006-09-22T10:44:00.000+08:00

Don't ask why I chose the post title. The phrase just came by in my head. It sounded nice so why not put it as a title ya? Hmmm... currently in school blogging. Supposed to be doing GP but maybe I can spare about 5 minutes.

Spent quite a bit of time on WR again, though I am quite pleased that the number of words only exceed by a small number, compared to the previous drafts anyway. I realised that the fewer the number of words you have to remove, the harder it is and thus the longer it takes. Luckily Si Jing could spare her beauty sleep (beauty reminded me of the comprehension I'm supposed to be doing now) to help me edit since Amy was out of commission with work. Haha. Discussed a few useless stuff. Something about a race. And a PRIZE. Wonder what the prize is? Don't we all wonder too. Unsignificant part of the night so I'm not including it here. After the WR content was done, it was downhill from there. Simply add one more section to the appendices, update the content page, make slight changes to the title page to suit the current draft and I'm done.

Well I think it's about 5 minutes already so I think I'd better get to work. A half-done summary and an AQ question that needs to be done. The Q in AQ might mean question but haha I'm not bothered to find out. Let's see what this day brings shall we? Byez.

THE PRIZE WAS THOUGHT UP SIMPLY DUE TO THE BOREDNESS OF THE NIGHT
Just thought I ought to mention that, right Si Jing?

Ok really, Bye.

Living through the days

2006-09-19T16:45:00.000+08:00

Well I'll be... I'm back. Since I so happen to have an urge to reflect, I decided to update this blog for the second time this month. WOW. Hmm... What can I reflect about today? I'll see what crops up in my head while I'm writing this.

Well, I had to miss my showdown with Qing Hui last Friday. I was rather disappointed that the weather wasn't ideal. The rain made it inconvinient for me to bring the bowling bag. I was feeling quite hyped up to bowl, seeing as it hadn't done so for about a month. I actually had confidence about beating him. I'm not saying that I would definitely beat him but I really thought that I could do it. Maybe I still can. We'll see when we finally have the showdown, though the odds are against this. Hopefully, there'll be another time when we can have our showdown.

Oh yeah. During a motivational camp approximately a year ago from today (the date of the post), I thought of a symbol that could represent me. I think my symbol is a bell. I don't know what kind of bell exactly but it's a bell. I chose it as I think I am a helpful person if you know me well enough. At least I THINK I'm a helpful person. Many people see different sides of me. Some think I'm a *&@%$! while some do see me as a nice person. Either way, I think I'm a helpful person. People usually ring bells to get help. Perhaps the bells at a librarian's counter would be appropriate. There are other reasons of why I chose a bell. I have forgotten most of them but what I mentioned above was the most significant reason. Haha. Now you know.

Maybe I should touch on relationships. At this age, quite a number of youths do get into relationships. I do not deny the feelings that one may feel toward a certain someone so I guess it develops from there. Well, I also view relationships leading to marriage. At this age, I don't think many would see relationships as a pathway to marriage. Even if they do realise it, I think many do not consider much about it when starting a relationship. The truth of the matter is that one starts a relationships to get to know a special person better and hopes that one can get married with that person. So sometimes I do ask myself? Why start a relationship at this age when it is not likely that it would last until one is ready for marriage? I used the word "not likely" as I do agree that there are some that lasts until that stage but I feel that usually it doesn't. I may be wrong on all accounts but that is still how I view it. Pointless? To some extent yes, since one doesn't fulfil the true objectives of a relationship. On the other hand, relationships at this age helps us to be better prepared for relationships in the future if the current one fails. But still, the costs are great. If a relationship fails, you may lose your friendship with the person too. If the break-up was mutual and a friendship still continues, it would not be as relaxed as it once was. Maybe it can be but I do not know since I've only lived a small portion of my life where such things are more commonly found in TV dramas and novels rather than happening on a real scale. Personally, I prefer having a friendship with someone rather than losing all of it just to have a closer bond with someone which fails later on. I treasure a lasting friendship than a temporary relationship. Then again, one can never tell how long that "temporary" relationship can be so what I mentioned above can be wrong on all accounts. That is just how I perceive it and it may not be fact. My point of this beating-around-the-bush discussion, maybe relationships are not worthwhile at this stage as one can lose friendships that can be even more valuable. I perceive the likelihood of sustaining a lasting relationship would likely be possible at a later age when relationships do become important. What I have written in this paragraph is merely my thoughts on the matter. I am not claiming that it is factual or reliable. It is simply a comment about it and if you are free to disagree with any or all part of it.

Haha. That has been on the brink of my thoughts for quite some time. It's quite relieving to finally pour it out. Haha. The benefits of a blog. My ending sentences for what was mentioned above is not avoid any flaming from anyone who thinks otherwise. Despite this, there are some things that I prefer to keep to myself. One day, I may reveal it into the open but some things are just not meant to be revealed. It's quite stress-relieving to pen down your thoughts, though this is not exactly an appropriate phrase due to this being an electronic gizmo. Well, there are work to be done and chapters to study. See you till my next post then.

Back... Finally...

2006-09-13T16:50:00.000+08:00

I'm back since it's already September. I want to keep a nice archive for my blog without any missing months. So I'll probably be updating at least once a month. Hmmm. The promos are coming. Started studying Econs during the Sept holidays. I hope I can recall those mounds of facts when I re-read it a few days before the exam itself. Maybe the Econs test will refresh my mind. Currently studying Physics. Actually I'm reading through the notes and memorizing key definitions and formulas. After the JCT, I realised I have to do some practice to get accustomed to applying those concepts. Hopefully I can get some practice in soon. Probably during the weekend. Hmm... I have to finish reading the all the topics by Friday. Hopefully I can. Hopefully.

Interesting things that happened during my one-month absence from the blog? Well, I did finish reading Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony during the holidays and it was GREAT. The end was quite good and touching at times. Thankfully there'll be one last book before the Artemis Fowl series will come to a close. I think I can expect no less for that book as I did for the Lost Colony. At least I'll have something to look forward to after finishing Harry Potter Bk 7. I think I'll get even more depressed than I was with the Lost Colony once I finish HP bk 7. I dedicated almost six years of my life towards HP, which incidentally was the book that got me to start reading and actually liking books in the first place. Sometimes I feel I owe J.K. Rowling so much for getting me interested in books and realise how exciting it could be when you get so engrossed in that fantasy world. Oh well. Good things have to come to an end, or else it might no longer be good for long.

Well, there goes one post for me. This one is relatively shorter than the previous two. Maybe I'll be more active after the Promos. Maybe not. It seems that there will be some things that need settling after the Promos. OP presentations... CIP... Life goes on I guess. But at least there can be some time for resting. When I say resting, I mean that I can take a break from revising my work for a few weeks. We'll see how things go then. Anyway there's a new proverb up on the welcome page. So go check it out! Ciaoz

Thoughts

2006-08-04T21:20:00.000+08:00

Heyz. Back again for another post. I was in the midst of thinking about something when it struck me that I could post it on this blog. I mean, what else would this blog be for? (other than publicising my passion for Harry Potter... ). Yeah its one of those times when I think the stuff that's going through my mind is worth posting about. Hmmm... better stop this beating round the bush thing and get straight to my thoughts.

Hmmm... quick reflection of the CCAs I've been in through my life. During primary school, I was a librarian for a few years before changing to English Drama Club. Next in secondary school, I joined the Chess Club. I was never involved in any of the uniform groups but people say I have the looks of an NPCC guy. Hmmm... reflecting about that near the end of my sec 4... maybe I could have done well in NPCC. Know quite a few of them to say the least even though I was in Chess. Then here we come to JC. Currently in Bowling. What drove me to join TJC was to join Billiards. Sadly, missed the trails and hence didn't get in. From what I've heard, it's closing down anyway so it doesn't really matter whether I got through the trails or not. But while having Billiards in my mind as my main CCA, I did consider Bowling to be my second CCA. Liked the sport and made me more driven to want to learn to play it properly indirectly by Alvin. Just because he was in Youth and quite good at it, I just felt like wanting to win him at it. Far from it now though haha so no worries there Alvin ;) Anyway then circumstances put me into hearing about bowling so now desperate for a CCA and also realising that bowling could actually be my main CCA, quickly joined. A bit on impulse but up till now no regrets of joining Bowling. Maybe there's some but too trivial to be mentioned.

Your point?, I hear you ask. I think I'm more like a Jack of all trades. I was never excellent at Chess, though I can play well if I'm on form. I also learned Badminton from my dad since young. I think I still preserved my badminton skills but as I mentioned earlier, they aren't that super. Yeah I do admit I'm an average player, but that's just it haha. Currently Bowling is progessing fine. Learning new stuff in trainings. Improving my basics so that I can manage the other techniques. In short, I'm making good progress. However being the worrisome and slightly negative person that I am, I know will be able to hit that 120 - 140 range. But I have a feeling that I'll just be like that. That may be true as to really hit those higher score range like 160 - 200+, you really need more time to learn and improve your skills. Only having one year to learn, I doubt I'll be able to get that range but of course I'll try my best to beat Qing Hui :D But after that 1 year of training, formal training for bowling will no longer continue for me and I guess my skills will remain where they left off. I know quite a few of you should be quite puzzled about what I just said above but my point is this. I feel that I can do many things, but not really being excellent at anything.

Advantages of a Jack-of-all-trades? Versatile. Adaptability. Useful. But sometimes that satisfaction of really being good at something isn't there. Some people have extremes in their skills while others are somewhat consistent throughout. By being a do-all kind of person, I don't really feel that I'm excellent at much. There are some stuff that I have pride for myself in but I'm not sure too. I think I can attribute this feeling of not being excellent at much with my low self-confidence. Yes I admit and know I have a low confidence. Developed it over the years I guess. Can't remember from what incidences but yeah. I do try to overcome it from time to time. But whatever it is, there will always be times when I'm low and it engulfes me sometimes.

Nevertheless, I can overcome this problem from time to time. I am good at many things if I lower my expectations of being "excellent" so that I can have more satisfaction in the things I do. I will still beat you at bowling one day, Qing Hui, and you better beat me at studies. I will still strive to be better or on par with Alvin, though this is more of a personal goal thing. Nothing on you Alvin if you're reading this. Just challenging myself lol. I guess I need to reanalyse my expectations of myself. Don't worry I'll get through this phase. Just a random thought though. After a day's sleep (which I require after the loss of sleep due to WR), it'll be fine again. Just that sometimes my mind tends to think about some stuff. Philosophical you might say. Worrisome. Whatever it is, I'm just that kind of person. Think more about stuff than I actually voice out. Think of consequences. Think of reactions. Think of other people's opinion. Think a lot really. I'm like some kind of machine, checking through every factor before I actually do something. Developed this kind of thinking because in the past I tend to unknowingly insult people by not considering about all this. You might say its a bit too much but hey, that's what I now do to prevent such things from happening again.

Alrighty. Doubt you could understand that post. Like I said, just a random thought. Nothing to worry about. Feeling bored (something that I don't usually feel recently). Should make best use of this kinda moment. Play! haha. See you then.

Wear and Tear

2006-07-28T21:29:00.000+08:00

Heyz anyone out there. I've returned to this kingdom in My Own Little World, bringing tales of my travels through a journey called life. The plane back to the real world is still delayed for now so I guess I can spare some time over here. Just to start things off, to a person who calls him or herself "someone" on my tagboard, yeah my posts are rather complicated. Well I basically blog when I feel like it and when I feel like it, I really write long posts and stuff. So that's just me lol.

Hmmmz. Let me give something that's associated with my post title. School work is starting to get quite stressful again. Well, maybe more towards PW since there are so many things to do. Written Report, EoM and others that come next. Citing sources, looking for new sources, going to National Library almost weekly now. It really gets the best of you sometimes. Only thing I can hope for is for my group to be able to get through this and produce some quality stuff so that we can get our 'A'. Strive on I guess.

On a lighter note, I recently watched Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. Rather interesting and very funny for some parts. The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger so I guess there'll be another one. Also, there was a trailer for Spiderman 3. Finally, some signs of Venom. At least they started talking about the symbiote thing that infected Spiderman first before it infected another guy to become Venom. Although I doubt that there will be a proper Venom for Spiderman 3, a symbiote-spiderman fighting against his dark side thingy would make a good movie. I think I saw the next green goblin too. 2 villains make a hero movie more interesting I suppose. Personally, I'm hoping for a Spiderman 4 where there is a real Venom. Computer-animated or real-life actor or anything else, as long as there is a Venom in there, I would be satisfied unless of course it is a whole different Venom portrayed haha. But from what I can tell from trilogy trends, it seems that this hope may be pushed aside. Still I am hoping for some cliffhanger ending where the symbiote finds the other person it's supposed to infect and form Venom.

Hmmm... enough about Spiderman. Maybe I should mention about bowling since I am in bowling. Recently I managed to speed up my ball because I realised that I need to somewhat "push" my ball with the part of the palm under the index finger to make it move faster. Trying to feel my fingers flicking on the finger holes to rev up my ball. Still not excellent but at least I am better off from where I was. Just need to improve my 1-step and 2-step, get in some delay and hook the ball a bit more and I guess I'm well on my way on becoming way better.

Hmmm... project work meeting tomorrow. Hopefully we can get the major portion of the WR done by tomorrow. Then just left some editing, make everything flow, compile the Bibliography (almost forgot about that part... must settle that tomorrow) then it should be ready by Thurs. Hopefully it can have most of the content in order so that the editing wouldn't be too much but seeing from past comments on other documents, doubt this would be any different. Not that I mind the changes that need to be made because it will help us get better grades. Just that sometimes the number of comments can make me slightly put-off. Haha nevermind. Changes are essential.

Hmmm... I guess the plane is re-calling the passengers back. Time for me to go I guess. Life is waiting out there. Time to fly off back into reality again. Byez!

Day of Bowling

2006-07-15T23:25:00.000+08:00

Today there was a Past vs Present "championship" at Safra Mt Faber. Basically the current bowling team, including the "semi-retired" (or so they refer themselves to) seniors, play against the students from the past batches. Quite an interesting match-up. Anyway let's not simply plunge into the action and instead follow a chronological order of events so that my post can look longer.

Anyway, Safra Mt Faber was huge. As in, it was even bigger than Safra Yishun. When I thought the view looked great at Yishun, Mt Faber was also just as great. But the rock wall tower at Yishun does have its plus points. Moving on, Alan and me met at Habourfront mrt and then took a taxi there. It was a good thing I went to the Safra website to check its exact location as by doing so, I also remembered the address. With the all-important address, we were able to find the Safra and not end up somewhere in limbo. So there we were, finding the bowling alley and after a cleaner there gave us directions, we were in Superbowl Mt Faber. BIG. NICE. SPACIOUS. Wow. What a great bowling alley. It was the amount of free space that made me like the place. The toilets were cool because they had the auto-tap thing where you put your hand under and the water runs. Yeah. I always find those kinds of toilets cool. Back to the alley. Min Sheng, Qing Hui and Yi Xuan were already there so Alan and me joined them. Soon more friends joined us and finally everyone was there.

My team? Gerald, Qing Hui, Shaun and me. My scores? It was a 4-game series and I got 85, 149, 137, 144. Average 128.75. During the first game, I was trying to recall the feeling of doing 5-step so that could get my timing right. Been doing too many one and two steps until I actually found five-step weird at the beginning. Yeah a bit bad score. Mr Ng talked to me and told me to relax more and don't be so serious. Tried that a bit and managed to boost up my scores. Haha. Actually quite proud and happy with myself for the next 3 games. Never could I imagine that I could maintain a 143.3 average for 3 games. So happy :) Even though I was positioned 17 in the end among all the ex-batch and current batch bowlers, I was still very much contented. Haha then got lucky draw, rewarding shopping vouchers. Congrats to the people who got them. Rodney, better put it to good use. Good use defined as beneficial to the TEAM ;) Congrats to everyone who managed to get the trophies.

In all, the trip to Mt Faber was worthwhile. Managed to get a better-than-usual average. The place was generally nice. Haha. Hmmm I guess that would be the end of my post but there's one last thing. I added a new proverb to my Proverb section ("there's a proverb section?" I hear you ask. Look at the top bar haha). The proverbs there are thought of by yours truly so if you want to use it (lol like real... but who knows...), just acknowledge it. For the benefit of everyone, I'll just put the new proverb here so that you can read it.

It matters not the fear of the competition,
But instead the fear of one's expectations

Haha some people said it was nice so I thought I'd just put it here. Hopefully others may like it too. Those who don't like it, please don't flame me on my tagboard. Byez!

Yesterday

2006-07-14T22:48:00.000+08:00

= Yesterday =
by Beatles

Yesterday
All my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe
In yesterday

Suddenly
I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh, yesterday
Came suddenly

Why she
Had to go
I don't know
She wouldn't say
I said
Something wrong now I long
For yesterday

Yesterday
Love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believeIn yesterday

Why she
Had to go I don't know
She wouldn't say
I said
Something wrong now I long
For yesterday

Yesterday
Love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe
In yesterday

(hum to "I believe in yesterday")

Heyz again. Since some of friends also "feature" or talk about songs in their blogs, I thought I would too. Those lyrics are from an old song titled "Yesterday". However, some people still know this song, considering its old age. As for myself, I prefer older 70s - 80s songs that people in their 50s may karaoke to. You can call me old-fashioned but I find that such old songs have a deeper meaning to their lyrics. If you read closely, the song is basically about the process and end of a relationship. During the relationship, you would be carefree as "all your troubles seemed so far away". At the end of that relationship however, those troubles "they're here to stay". After a relationship, you would feel as though you are only "half the man" you used to be since a "part" of you is now gone. You may also feel depressed then, taking note of "There's a shadow hanging over me". Yup lots of meaning there. Other than the meaning, the song is quite short in comparison with modern pop songs. The tune is nice and its really a soulful song (to me at least).

Been loving this song since I was still a child. Of course I didn't fully understand the lyrics but all that mattered back then was how it sounded. Guess it just stuck onto me. Haha sing this song, you may ask? I guess I could sing it. Don't know how well though so I'd rather you not take the chance.

Well back from yesterday to today. Bowling training as usual. Practising one-step the whole way. Trying to get my ball to speed up. Try to increase my low rev (if I even have one to begin with). Well, at least I'm doing better since Nationals, or at least I think so. There's a Past VS Present competition that comprises of bowlers that were or is from my school. It should be fun. Qing Hui, Gerald, Shaun, me. Balanced I would say. Hopefully we can do well in the competition. Wonder who the other teams from other batches will be. There'll be a team from our seniors. Maybe even some adults who were once in my school too. Haha let's wait and see. Hope to bring good news back to this blog tomorrow (if I'm not too tired to blog in the first place). Hmmm... Need to clean my Rampage in the morning. Tomorrow's Saturday. Tomorrow's in about 1 hour's time.

Getting sleepy... My results aren't that bad but aren't too good either. Must do better I guess. Need to settle PW stuff too... Tired... Yawn... Nightz...

Reminiscing

2006-07-04T19:20:00.000+08:00

*A blue spell circle flashed into reality above my computer seat, supported by vertical arrays of blue light. A moment later, I materialised onto my computer seat as the circle and light disappeared*

As you can see (or read actually), I'm back on my blog, though as always, it's always temporary. If you have no clue as to what I described above, don't bother about it. Just a crossover from DOTA. Anyway the JCTs are over. Results should be coming during this week of school. For now only received a small portion of an exam so I can't really predict the overall outcome just yet. As school starts, PW also starts again. The worries... the panic... all the usual stuff back again. There's always weekends to look forward to. Come to think of it, this week will pass by rather quickly considering the activities I have after school during the remaining days. Oh well, time waits for no man, or boy for this matter.

Sometimes I miss the times that I could just lie down and watch TV without worrying much about the future. Suddenly I find myself anticipating planned events or just worrying about little details. Well, sometimes good times just pass by before you can fully be satisfied by them. One thing people sometimes don't notice is that bad times pass just as fast. For instance, the JCT. That one week flew past. Although it took quite a while during the holidays to prepare for it, the all-important moment itself during the exam seems as though it only lasted half the time it actually did when you recall about it. Well, I guess time flies when you are busy with something. But time also flies by when you are doing nothing - as in relaxing. So when does time really fly? Maybe it always does but it just depends on how often we are checking the time.

The times after the JCT went by quite smoothly. Managed to content myself with a few computer games here and there. Went outside a bit to freshen myself up. Enjoying blissful TV time unpunctuated by worrisome thoughts about work. I guess its a cycle. You worry, you work, you actually do it, then you relax. After relaxing, it starts all over again. Haha.

A bit philosophical today (or so I think) but yeah. Anyway another short post from me. Now it's back to where I came from then.

*Activate Boots of Travel and another blue spell circle appear above my head, supported by the same arrays of lights before I disappear off my computer chair*

The holidays...

2006-06-03T23:22:00.000+08:00

Hello again. Again it's been quite a while since my last post. Well, I've been away from this blog for longer periods of time. Anyway, it's the June holidays and I've been taking it easy for this first week. Made several trips back to school for make-up lectures and other stuff. So in a sense I did "revise" some stuff. Hmmm... highlight of this week. That would be the exco selection for bowling. Qing Hui and Yee Tien captain for boys and girls respectively. Gerald is the secretary and Billy and Yi Xuan are the treasurers. I believe all of them are capable of leading the PDP well and I wish them luck in handling their responsibilities.

Since I'm out of interesting stories, I might as well talk about my trip to Desaru, Malaysia last weekend. The trip started out fine. Met the other MCS people in the morning. Filled the white immigration forms, took a coach to the immigration checkpoint, crossed to Malaysia, got through the immigration there and we were on our way. Ok a short break at a coffee shop area for breakfast. Ended up buying some stuff from 7-Eleven. Sadly I was looking for a toilet but the public toilet aren't open yet. Oh well. Have to hold it. It wasn't that bad yet anyway.

The trip itself was quite long. About an hour and a half (i tink) of non-stop highway drive on the coach. Most of the bus went to sleep. Due to my past experiences and also because I didn't feel like it, I didn't sleep. Instead entertained myself with the vast plantations as far as the eye can see. You couldn't get that kind of scene in Singapore. Our first stop was at a Fruit Farm. There was a toilet there, though it wasn't really like the ones you find in Singapore, but toilets are toilets. The guide at the farm talked about some interesting plant stuff and introduced us to some of the plants there. It was all nice but the actual fun came when we visited the animal "enclosures" there. It's just animals around behind fences or cages or free about. Didn't really spend time with the ostriches. The baby rabbits were cute. The monkey was kind of entertaining. It was fun to watch the chickens. Nice feeling to let a goat smell the scent of your hand. Fed some koi fish (some of the guys made them swim back and forth by putting the food alternately at two points lolz) and patted the local stray cat there.

After that we had lunch and this Chinese coffee shop. The food there was the best throughout the whole trip. Even the fried rice itself was nice, not to mention the various dishes served. Was really satisfied with all the food, especially the tofu. Nicely cooked. Then we headed to the hotel, which was somesort like a chalet as well but it was still in room-form. On the way there played with those "permanent" bubbles, passing them around. The people at the back were so excited when it finally reached the back haha.

Later at night we got to see fire flies. It was like so cool. The tree filled with small luminious blue specks. Spray some water at the trees and the flies light up. The guide over there told us the flies had waterproof wings or something so they can still fly back up if they got knocked into the river by the water. Beautiful. Also managed to have a fire-fly on my hand. You don't even feel that it is there. My senior put some light over it to examine it and it looked like an ordinary beetle about the size of a rice grain. I think its sensitive to the light as not long after it flew off my hand and onto his life jacket. Another beautiful thing I noticed there was the sky. Littered with stars. I finally understood what I friend was talking about when he talked about the stars he saw at a camp at Malaysia during sec 3. Beautiful. No other word for it. These kind of things just make life worth living for.

The next day we have a rafting activity, which was originally planned for the first day but cancelled due to the rain. It because of the lightning that they stopped. Anyway the rafting was nice. Had quite an exercise of paddling the raft with my group. After that we had to link all four rafts from the four groups and row back as one MCS haha. I think I pulled the scissors out of my friend's hand during the linking and it dropped in the lake. Oh well. After we got back ashore, there was an obstacle course (quite muddy too). The tarzan-like swing across a pool of muddy water was fun. The walk across a wobbling plank due to my own nervousness was quite a ride. The monkey bar across another pool of muddy water was a victorious achievement (had doubts since I can't do pull-ups) and the climb of the wall was fun too.

The last thing before returning back to Singapore was shopping at a shopping complex. I was hoping that there was a toys'r'us or an equivalent of it somewhere in the complex but too bad there wasn't. I hoping to find and buy Gundam model kits at cheaper prices since the currency there is cheaper. Anyway, my friends ended up buying some t-shirts and other stuff while I ended up buying fruits. I think I was the only one or at least one of the few who did it lol. Some durian from the shop outside the complex to go along with the chiku I bought from the fruit farm during the first day. Basically that was it.

There is one other thing. Some dares done by the guys during the bus-ride back to Singapore. Scandalous dares. As usual they tease me about liking this certain someone which I don't and only regard as a friend. I doubt any of the MCS members reads my blog but yeah. I am free of relationships. I never liked the person whom they think I like and I no longer like the person whom I did like. Freedom (imagining the episode in Gundam Seed when Freedom came from space and saved the Archangel) of relationships. Hopefully I can stick true to this through the two years in school.

Haha quite a long post from me here. Longer than my usual at least. And as usual I might not update my blog quite often. Nowadays I only blog when I feel like it, and that's not usual. Haha so see you on my next post. Byez!

The final stretch...

2006-05-23T18:25:00.000+08:00

Hmm... it has been too long. Sad to say that when I'm busy, I really can't do other stuff. Anyway here I am. Let's see... recent events. That would be Bowling Nationals A Division. My JC playing with the top 3 JCs. I'm a reserve but I was pacer for the last 2 events... Singles and Doubles. Quite fun. Get a bit of exposure for next year's Nationals, which I hope to compete it.

Anyway, got my highest score during training last Friday. 151. Woot. Haha. At least got something to be proud about. Anyway I noticed several mistakes I have during Nationals. I think my release is totally wrong because my ball is like hooking a bit like the way a left-hander's one does. Maybe I'm just forcing the ball to go straight. Haha. Just have to master straight ball a bit more before I feel I'm ready to hook my ball. Hope it isn't spoilt by then.

Hmmm... the ice-cream sessions after each tournament day is quite fun. Get to talk about stuff with people. Get to eat nice ice-cream... haha. The only thing that bothers me is that I will miss the rest of this week. Furthermore, this weekend going to Malaysia. My other CCA's overseas trip. Quite fun. I rarely get out of the country. Hope it'll be fun.

Having a bit of muscle aches here and there. Maybe because I managed to run 4 rounds (1600m) without stopping. Maybe it's just the intensity of the tournament. I dunno. A few Lemsip Max tablets usually work. Maybe I'll bring some tomorrow in case I feel sickly there. If other people in the team feeling sickly can give also. But might not be good idea. I don't know whether it causes drowsiness or not. Personally for me it doesn't but maybe it's just me. Maybe not. Haha so many maybe-s.

I hope I get to be pacer tomorrow during the first half of the Quartet event, though I feel it's Alan and Shaun's turn to play since they didn't get to be pacer during the Doubles. It's ok. Maybe I should have a break anyway. And also need to explain to Mr Ng about the soccer finals attendence form that I handed in late. Hope he don't mind that much. Haha byez then.

A good week ahead... hopefully

2006-04-10T14:58:00.000+08:00

Hello again. Haha I broke my consistency rule again. Oh well. The past few days was slightly worrying than usual. Firstly I forgot to hand in the money for Mardi Gras but luckily the teacher didn't scold when I handed it in today. Phew... Anyway I have to go back to school later for MCS (Malay Cultural Society) for rehearsal on our performance. Finally... our first real performance. The rehearsals are quite fun actually. We keep improving after each one. Sadly I had to miss some of my bowling trainings since it's closer to Mardi Gras now and the rehearsals are becoming more and more important.

On a better note, we have three bowling training sessions this week! Superb man. Tuesday will be at Tampines Safra, Wednesday will be at Hougang Superbowl (I'm missing this one for final rehearsal for Mardi Gras) and Saturday will be at Yishun Safra. So exciting! Never been to Yishun Safra before, though I passed by it once while walking back to Yishun Interchange from a chess tournament held at a primary school. The place looked slightly quiet since I think its also a country club. Not sure on that one though. Well, it will be good that we can finally get suited to the lane condiitions in Yishun Safra since that is where the Nationals is going to be held. It'll be useful for those selected for the teams. I'm just putting in my best efforts during training but whether I get chosen or not is not important. What I'm focusing on is to get a better average. That is what will be important later on anyway. Must improve!

Hopefully I can keep up regular self-training sessions so that I keep my momentum going. I also realised that its important to practice one-step and three-step first or else I won't get a decent score. Oh yeah... highest score I ever got in my life for bowling... 125! yay! Haha must set my mark somewhere there hehe. Hopefully can go consistently over 100 one day. Maybe a few more months. Hmmm...

Anyway that's all from me today I guess. I really need to study for my maths lecture test this thursday. Just need to recap and hopefully I'll be fine haha. Well cya then!

P.S. I'm still thinking on what to add for the "Extras" page...

Yet another day...

2006-03-22T19:42:00.000+08:00

Heyz people out there! Trying to strive for consistency in my postings now. There's isn't much to do today (or so I think) so here I am spending a portion of my time before I return to work. Anyway, today was quite a usual day. However, the morning announcements took longer than usual. There were so many people trying to publicise their CCAs or informing of other events. Lectures and tutorial were as they always were. During contact time, we had a talk about psychological profiling, or something along those lines. We had to take an online "test" later in early April which consists of 270 questions... woah... haha. Then we have to pay $35 (after school subsidy) for a personal booklet regarding our personality. It is meant to help us in our future careers or how we can improve better. I like doing these personality stuff and having one that is very accurate would be worth the money.

There was bowling training again today. I made most of my shots hook so that I can keep it consistent. I think I got the gist of it. What's left is to aim between the first and second arrows or else my ball would hook too much to the left. Hopefully what I'm practising is the right technique. No one highlighted any mistakes so I guess what I'm doing is ok. Once I get the whole thing right, I may finally be able to get a few strikes in a game. My personal target at the moment is to reach an average of 100. Hopefully this will help. I was also thinking of training by myself at a bowling alley near my house during one of the days that I end school early. Might help to increase my performance (suddenly reminded of the tongkat ali pills advertisement). Still considering about it at the moment though. Nationals are in about 2 months time or less so I really have to buck up if I want to make it for the team. Either way, I'll still see Alvin at Nationals! Want to see how pro my friends said he is. I really hope Nationals don't clash with Gema but seeing how things are going I can safely assume it should. Better work out something with MCS fast.

Well, that's it for today I guess. Tomorrow I have no Group PE so I'll be ending earlier than planned. On the other hand, I really need to train up for NAFTA (I think thats how its spelt). Byez then!

Dashing through the holidays

2006-03-21T14:40:00.000+08:00

Heyz again. Well, as promised, this is the entry where I'll be talking about my March holidays. I had activites on each day except the Sunday before school reopens so it was quite hectic for me. Anyway, there was Bowling training on Monday. It's basically the usual stuff so nothing much to talk about there. I had Malay Cultural Society meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday to practice a performance we are going to put up soon. Sadly, I had to skip the CG outing where they planned to ice skate. I really wanted to see how it was like to skate. Maybe I could even get the gist of it. No matter, there is always next time. Most of my classmates fell a number of times, which was to be expected as I think most of them had no experience in ice-skating or roller-blading, which might help. The movements for roller-blading seem to be similar to that of ice-skating anyway.

This is finally the part which I will talk about most. What could I be talking about for three whole paragraphs, I hear you ask. Well, its about BOWLING CAMP! One of the best camps I attended. On a side note, I avoided camps in the past due to bad experiences at my Primary 6 camp. Anyway, the first day was rather eventful but since we started at about 12 noon, there were lesser activites than the second day. We started off with playing a memory game which was quite funny. I was the last person to receive the message. Qing Hui ran up to me to pass the message when his phone rang and he forgot a portion of the message. I suspect his ringtone had some brainwashing effect. Or maybe his phone could cast Memory Charms. Back to reality, in the end we lost but it was a whole lot of fun anyway. The next part was another game where we had to pass a ball using our necks. The ball kept dropping at either Neha or Rodney so we had to do it several times. Glenda insisted that it went one whole round before we can end it. After doing it for about three more times, the ball finally travelled for one round. The game was rather scandalous in my opinion. Luckily no one had their cameras out... I think. After that was training but there was no coach. We had a mini-competition among groups to see which group could drop the most number of pins in three games. Hehe... my team was second. It was better than nothing haha. The main event for the first day was the Amazing Race in the area around the college. For the first time I realised how big the private housing area was. There was a cemetery (quite creepy since we played at night... luckily we didn't have to go into it) and some shops up there too. My group made an alliance with another at the beginning and I was thankful that we did. I doubt we could progress far with only three people. Six brains are better than three! The clues of the locations were quite tough to figure out if you didn't know the area well. In the end we managed to get the clue for the last location (the location of the clue is derived from the combination of all the other clues). I had the right idea of where the last location was but sadly there wasn't enough time. Oh well, the process was fun though.

Day 2. We had some games after washing up and my group was chosen to facilitate some of the games we had proposed earlier. We played "kidnapped" where we chose a victim and place them somewhere in a room and the remaining group members have to find their victim blindfolded. It was quite fun moving Marcus around. It was also funny when we purposely placed objects to block their way when they are about to find their victims. It was then time for drills. After running continuously two times around the track, I felt a bit dizzy through the warm-up so I rested for a while. Maybe I pushed myself too hard. I usually can't find continuously for long. Furthermore, it was a while since I ran a large distance. The only other time I had that feeling was when I did some rigourous warm-up during PE in secondary school. Had to sit down and miss badminton because of that. In both times, I felt like I was going to faint. My vision got patchy and stuff. However, I have never ever fainted before in my life haha. The drills were quite fun too since we were doing it in a group. After that was training again, which I didn't go because it clashed with my Friday prayers. Anyway, once we got back, there were wet games which was alright. In the end though, we hunted down Min Sheng to dunk a bucket on him since he splashed us with water in the first place during the game. After that was ANOTHER Amazing Race but this time... it was large locations along the Northeast Line. It was quite insightful as we visited the various locations. It was quite rushed but it was to be expected lolz. We were supposed to take pictures of the locations we were supposed to go to with one of our group members in it. Min Sheng rocks! He practically led our group to the places. Didn't know what we would do without him. Thanks! After we finished most of our checkpoints we rushed to the final location that we were informed of at the start. We didn't manage to find some of the places due to time constaints. At least we got most of them. We got in second but after some earlier preparation on the quiz that Mr Ng was going to give us, we managed to gain enough points to crawl up to first. It's only by one point but hey, first is first haha. Though we were competitive, Rodney's group was good too. They split up at a point to find the checkpoints so they could cover the area faster. Smart. Once we were back at college (at around 11.40pm) most of us were ready for bed. However, some of us went on a nightwalk around the school. I'm a bit sensitive to paranormal issues so I decided to sit this one out. I admit the school is quite creepy at night, especially some of the areas, so I'd rather stay in the safe Dance Studio with the others. One another side note, the dance studio is kinda creepy too with dim balconies and a mirrored wall (we covered it up in case it was disturbing to anyone). When I asked those who went for the nightwalk about whether they saw anything unusual, they said that nothing happened. Phew haha.

During the third day, we had some games involving hurdles and stuff. We also played a game where we the opposing team would attempt to make us smile. I almost smiled when Marcus told me a joke. He just needed one more joke to make me smile but luckily the time given was over by then. Sad :P. Then we had a volleyball game where we are supposed to catch and volley the ball using a large sheet. Even though my group lost, we had fun trying to catch the ball and volley it over. It was then cleanup (I volunteered to do the toilet). Actually toilet duty isn't that bad since we just had to clear the floor of toilet paper. Just sweep them into a pile and dump them into a bin, simple. We then ended off the amazing camp with another training session (phew... 3 training sessions in total) before we departed.

Well, that is about it for my March holidays. The remainder of Saturday and Sunday were spent to do the homework that I missed out previously. I know it's been a long entry since some time so I hoped u enjoyed it. Next time then!

I have returned with news!

2006-03-12T19:31:00.000+08:00

Heyz everyone! It's been too long since I last blogged. Haha. Well I think I should firstly explain my long absence. My computer was down for almost two months thus I didn't have much chance to blog over that period. After it was repaired, I kinda lost the habit of blogging. So here I am again, trying to make blogging a habit again.

Alright so let me try to wrap up experiences in my time of absence in a about a paragraph or so. Let's see. The orientation during the first week was very enjoyable. The Orientation Group Leaders (OGL) were great! Anyway, the lectures and tutorials after that were alright. The workload isn't too heavy yet so I'm coping just fine. Juggling between two CCAs is quite tough but thankfully they rarely clash so everything is moving along just fine. The only change is that I once again appreciate weekends a lot. Firstly it is because of the time I can spend watching TV in the morning and secondly it is just great to have a break.

Now let me bring you forward through time to a week ago where my JC had its second orientation. Inspired by my OGLs, I too opted to be an OGL. We had to attend mass dance sessions a few weeks prior to the orientation itself so that we could teach the dances to the people. It was tiring but once we could remember the steps I was a lot of fun. There were 6 dances to be learnt! Well, technically, we only had to learn two new dances from scratch. The rest were more or less a revision from the first orientation.

Alright, I went a bit off track there so back to the orientation itself. During the first day, it was mainly dry games and administration matters so the day was OK. There were wet games during the second day and yours truly got thoroughly soaked a few times by his trusted friends. No hard feelings day. It wasn't as bad as you would think since it was a hot day after all. In the third day's progamme was the main event during the orientation. Dragon Boating! For those who don't know what is dragon boating, it is a sport where about twenty people sit in a long boat and row. Sadly I didn't have permission to participate so I simply sat there and watched them row further away until they returned about an hour later. From the comments I received from my friends who participated, I can come to a conclusion that it was well worth the seven dollars they paid for it. The fourth day was slightly dry as the schedule was packed with various talks. Nevertheless being myself, I didn't fall asleep during the whole affair. Finally, the last day (time sure moves fast, eh?) was the day of Orientation Night where they were talentime performances and skits put up by the various Orientation Groups that got through the auditions. Once again, they ended off with a rock band performances where I think a portion of the people left, including myself. Sadly, there was mass dance after that. Sigh, too bad I couldn't stay. Well, that's that for orientation. In all, it was a lot of fun and was well worth the effort put in by everyone.

That's it from me I guess. The March holidays have begun and my schedule is already packed with activities. I hope I'll be able to blog about these activities during my next entry. Byez!

P.S. For those who care, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire DVD and VCD is out in stores so go and get them!

Back to Blogging

2005-12-30T22:48:00.000+08:00

Heyz ppl! It's been 10 days since I last blogged so mainly due to someone being bored in my tagboard, I've returned with a new post. Quite a few stuff had happened since the last ten days so here I go with the many events that I went through.

Alright. First of all, I had to go to my JC for a briefing on subject combinations. When I first arrived there, I was supposed to wait for Choon Wei but he wasn't there yet. However, I was not alone as a few of my schoolmates were already gathered at one end of the bus stop. It was a bit funny as we began to increase in numbers. More and more of my schoolmates gathered at that area and soon there was a whole crowd of us standing there. At least I wasn't feeling nervous anymore as we were all together. I think we made students from other schools nervous. I would guess that they are wondering why are there so many students from my school there. Soon Choon Wei arrived and so did his other friends. After waiting a while more for Adam, we went into the JC.

Firstly, the registration took a bit of time but I didn't really mind. It was actually a good thing as I had ample time to think through what subject combination I would take. I discussed this with my friends at the bus stop but some of them too had their own doubts. However, some of them already had a clear picture of what subjects they are going to be taking. John and Peng Soon, for instance, wanted to take Triple Science but sadly they couldn't as their raw L1R5 needed to be 7 or less. I don't know whether their L1R6 meets the criteria but from the happy looks of Choon Wei and Adam who were going to tell John of this recent discovery, I guess they didn't make it (I'm sorry if I'm wrong!). Anyway, after much deliberation I had a subject combination in mind.

They then led us into the lecture hall and my first thought was WOAH. It was high up! VERY high up! Since we were the later end of the line to be registered, we were led to the top tier seats. My second foolish thought on this was that it would be quite easy for someone to just jump over the barriers and a few storeys down to the lecturer. I really hope no one gets that stressed to do that. Anyway Adam and I didn't get any seats so we had to stand behind the seated people. It wasn't really that bad. When there were important announcements and description on subjects, we stood up to get a full view of the projection screen. When subjects that we aren't planning to take are being discussed, we simply sat and listened.

Anyway, I then found out that there were different groups of subject combination, as in the levels of the subject. In the end, I chose the combination with the basic requirements for me to get into a University. As Choon Wei so rightly says, I need space for my H3 subjects and also the time for my PDPs (aka CCAs). However, I turned out that we had one more day to think about our choice before we had to register online. My final decision was only made the next day but soon that wasn't the end of my worries.

During the online course registration, there was a part on my health information. The first required field that I had to fill in was my blood type. MY BLOOD TYPE? The thing is, I don't know my blood type so I decided to leave that blank at first. Later on, I wondered whether there was a chance that my registration might be cancelled if I didn't fill in all the required fields. The health section was also part of the whole course registration. In the end, I simply put one of the two blood types that I should have running in my arteries, veins and capillaries. If I'm right then phew but if I'm wrong I'll have to inform the school about that part on the registration. I can't have them giving me the wrong blood in the event that I seriously need it right?

Well anyway, just to be safe, I went for a blood test with the mother at a clinic the next day. She told me that they were going to prick the end of my finger and use the blood for testing. However when the doctor was done with the paperwork on the test, another surprise came up. He took an injection syringe. Firstly, I am afraid of injections and secondly I haven't had one for a long, long time. Anyway, I didn't really had a choice since I had to get my blood tested so I braced myself for my childhood pain. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. Once it was in, it wasn't really painful. It was actually quite cool to see my blood entering the syringe and filling it up. It was so dark and red. It's the first time I saw my blood being collected like then. The doctor then transferred it to some kind of a vial and rubbed some antiseptic with a cotton ball on the injected spot. He then put on the nice plaster and it was done. Woohoo! My first blood test. Suddenly my fear of injections decreased quite a lot but I would still avoid them if I could.

Well, that's basically it for the ten days. What I've mentioned above only spread over the course of a few days. The time before and in between this are not significant enough to be written so I'll just leave this as it is. It also just occurred to me that students entering Victoria JC are unaware that they need to choose their subject combination online at the VJC website. I've just told two of my friends about it over the same time period of the above events. So for any of you reading this and you are going to be entering Victoria JC in 2006, go to the VJC website pronto and choose your subject combination! And Kenneth bought me a Providence Gundam 1/144 for my birthday. He really didn't have to since my last present to him balanced the birthday-gift-scale but oh well. Since he already bought it, I might as well accept it. No point seeing a good model kit go to waste.

Only a few more days to go to the beginning of another phase in a life of education. Enjoy the remaining time you have and have a happy New Year!

P.S. Sorry I couldn't go for TWE POP Aiysha!

Another day closer to a new beginning

2005-12-20T22:30:00.000+08:00

Heyz everyone. It's been quite some time since I lasted posted so here I am again. Nothing interesting happened today so this will be quite a boring post. If you are already puffy-eyed and ready to go to bed, this can be the alternative to counting sheeps.

Anyway, I finally logged into MapleStory again. It's been about 4 to 5 days since I lasted mapled as I was busy playing Pokemon Emerald. Since I'm back to monotonous training in Pokemon as the more interesting parts are over, I'm reverting back to MapleStory for a while now. I managed to level up to 20 today and I'm going to get my new equipment. I already bought myself a one-handed sword after much thought between using a one-handed or two-handed sword. By using a one-handed sword and thus being able to use a shield, I can take less damage but with a two-handed sword, I can do more damage. I am a bit frustrated with the small amount of damage I am currently doing but I'm sure that will improve as I play on. Furthermore, I'm planning to be a Page (If I can even reach that level...) that later advances to a Knight, when the job is released in MapleStory (once again... reaching that level is a distant dream). The Knight has a Shield Booster skill or something of that sort so I think I'd rather approach my dilema with long-term goals. Other than my weapon, I still need new armour which Choon Wei has kindly offered to give (thanks a lot!). With all that settled, the only thing left is to level up.

If any of you haven't noticed, it's only 12 days to the end of 2005. To me, there's only 12 days left to enjoy this time of complete freedom before I get weighed down again by education. Not that I really mind of course. One can hardly have much leisure time. After education, it's out to a working life. I'd better enjoy my remaining time to the fullest. After the 'A' levels, there won't be much time to relax as there is NS (I really hope I can get into Police haha). Well, that's it from me for now. I hope there will be more for me to write on my next post. Cyaz!

To the call of duty

2005-12-16T22:23:00.000+08:00

Heyz again. Posted earlier this time as apparently something interesting happened today so I might as well post about it. Today, I had to return to my Class Manager (someone who manages the class affairs) duties even after leaving Secondary 4, which should officially mean that I am no longer a Class Manager in the first place. Duty calls, nothing I can do about it. Actually it started late last night at about 11.35pm. Choon Wei and I were having a race trying to get up to the top of Patience Woods again (MapleStory stuff for those who find this alien). Hehe I managed to get up there twice but sadly Choon Wei gave up the attempt. It was getting late anyway. Nevermind Choon Wei, try harder! Practice! Haha anyway, there I was minding my own business concentrating on avoiding floating puff balls that knock you off the small platforms if you get hit by them when I got a call of Kim Fang. Well, I now learnt that if anyone calls you somewhere near midnight it isn't going to be good news. He told me that Jue Chen wanted to talk to me about the class magazine page I handed it a few months ago. Guess what? It was REJECTED. Yes, you heard right, rejected.

Imagine what would be the first thing that would come to your mind when someone told you that the class magazine page that you have contemplated for the school magazine was not accepted and you had to do a better one. Well, if this information reached me during the morning or afternoon I could still take it calmly. However, it was already 15 minutes to midnight and I was already planning to call it a night. I must admit my anger got the better of me, something that you do not usually see. Being me, I like to suppress my feelings and I try not reveal my true emotions. Usually its me formulating a plan for the next course of action.

Jue Chen told me that the publishers said that the picture quality were not good. I cannot argue with them there as it was true. The right border was a bit messed up during the printing. My friend printed it a second time but it was still in the same state so I decided to hand it in anyway as the deadline for submission was close. Next comment on the magazine page. It was slip-shot work. First thought that ran through my mind was... Excuse me. I put in a lot of effort in finishing up that page. My friends too put in effort in getting their seperate tasks done so that the page can be completed... But if you want it in the most original form... WHAT! Third comment on it was that it was boring. Ok. That is quite true if you were to compare it with others. Ours had too much words and it simply didn't look as nice as theirs. This was not my initial thoughts though. Never you mind what I thought about it... hehe...

After having like 15 minutes to debate this in my head, I am torn in two extremes. On one hand, I am pissed off that the magazine page was rejected and that everything I hear about it was negative comments. On the other hand, I am very thankful and grateful that the publishers bothered to inform the teacher-in-charge about the problem instead of just continuing with the printing anyway that may result in me hiding from my classmates. Its obvious now that the second mindset was the right one to follow but at that point in time, both sounded logical to me (never listen to your anger... it never brings about any results... learnt that lesson).

So we did a new class magazine page. Actually it was 2 pages. One had a shortened poem on it while the other had a mass of class photos. I really hope that these pages are good enough for the publishers and they will turn out alright in the magazine. Or else... (do no think about that now) Well the new pages we produced were the best ones we could come out with considering the short notice and only having a few people to work with on it. I sincerely hope that it will be OK as we really put in a lot of effort into it (If discussing about the new pages at around midnight and producing it eleven hours later is not effort... I don't know what to say) All I can hope for now is that the magazine pages will be accepted by the publishers.

On a brighter note, the posting results for the Provisional Admission Excercise (PAE) into JCs for the first 3 months is finally out. As a matter of fact, it was a;ready available before the mentioned time. I went to the website and entered my particulars before clicking the button. YES! Posted into the JC I wanted to be in. Let's see, my feelings at that moment? There is a quote in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that could summarise that. "Malfoy got detention! I could sing!". Hermione said that in case you were wondering. Anyway, the next good news was that Choon Wei made it too and so did several of my other friends. For those who weren't posted in the same JC as me, it was really nice knowing you in secondary school and I hope to see you around someday. For the others, see you next year then!

Some of you might have seen in my tagboard that there was a TJC band concert today. Too bad I couldn't go for it. Its just that it was too late. I have my curfews too. It would have been nice to go there though. Hear some "live" music for a change, not that I listen to music frequently in the first place. Really sorry I can't go for the concert Aiysha.

As a side note, I also noticed quite a number of my friends going overseas (well duh it is the holidays) . Haha... You can say I envy them slightly but I have MapleStory and Pokemon Emerald to keep me company (speaking of MapleStory I haven't played today >_<). There's always tomorrow, although "tomorrow" is coming to a close soon. Well, you can't have too much of a good thing. Azri signing off!

A Better Yesterday

2005-12-15T21:18:00.000+08:00

Heyz there all. Nothing much happened today compared to yesterday so I think its better for me to talk about yesterday instead. Well let's see. For a start, this is going to be about MapleStory so if it is on your dislike list, I suggest that you should stop here.

Anyway, I'm a noob in MapleStory so some of my friends help me through some of the quests I'm supposed to do. The problem is the quests that are recommended for someone of my level are difficult to complete at my level. In simple terms, hard quests for weak players. It gets harder as you get stronger so its not such a big deal. Firstly, these friends of mine have high-level characters. To be among them while you are actually a puny low-level character is one thing. To go through dungeons with high-level monsters that can probably kill you with one swipe while they escort and heal you along the way is another thing. They spent most of the evening helping me through my quests. Getting the items from dangerous areas... Hunting monsters that drop items I need... Escorting me along the way while we pass dangerous areas... etc. I am really grateful and thankful for their help and I would definite do my best to help them when my character is as strong as theirs.

The next thing which happened earlier yesterday before the MapleStory affair (forgive me for not blogging in chronological order) was a pool session with my friends. Pool as in a form Billiards and not diving in a swimming pool. It was quite fun on the whole. Valerie only played near when the session was ending and that was only after Kenneth, Chuan Li and I stared at her continuously. Sadly, she stopped playing after Kenneth and I came back into the room and gave her a fright by immitating the SWAT team. Oh well. Anyway, after the pool session the three of them went to Valerie's place to watch Top Gun (forgive me once again if its the wrong movie name) while I, being my usual self, went home and played MapleStory.

That's basically it for this post. I'm trying to post as frequently as I can while I combat the mortal foes that distracts me from doing so, namely MapleStory, Pokemon Emerald (Pokemon is still enjoyable to a certain extent you know...) and a I'll-do-it-tomorrow attitude. Cyaz on the next exciting adventure in My Own Little World!

Hard Work and Frustrations

2005-12-13T20:00:00.000+08:00

Finally. I have chosen a blogskin that finally works. Edited bits of it here and there and added the music which my friend gave from another person's blog (so if this music sounds like the one in yours, thank you!). Anyway it was quite a day for me today. Don't expect any outdoors adventures from me. I'm referring to basically everything that happened in the computer.

First of all, the "hard work" part came under my new MapleStory account. Managed to get it to level 14 yesterday but today I had to stop short at 16 after a "frustrating" attempt at completing a quest. Ironically, it was described as "test of patience and skill" by my friend who tried it earlier today. I think I spent (or wasted) about 3 hours trying to complete the task but after that time frame, I still did not manage it. However, I did make it to that last jump, only to miss it and drop back down. After several more attempts, I closed the game and I don't think I'll be playing it for today at least.

Some of you readers might be wondering why on earth I chose a Harry Potter theme blogskin when there are so many other themes to choose from. Well, for those of you who don't know me personally, I am a Harry Potter fan, more to the book than the movie since the movie is all about the book in the first place with certain parts edited. I think that the novels have a lot of depth in its storyline and the various plots in each of the books tie in well with the overall story. I am aware that there are some of you who hate Harry Potter or think of it as a childish story and I respect your views. However, I hope you respect mine too. My world doesn't revolve all around Harry Potter (firstly because magic isn't real) and I am interested in other novels and affairs in life.

Anyway, I think that's enough for my second post and I hope to write about more exciting accounts on my next post. As Laura from Hamtaro so rightly says "Tomorrow's going to be an even better day!"

Entering my Own Little World

2005-12-12T10:22:00.000+08:00

Wow. I got myself a blog. Cool. Anyway hi to those who visited this blog. This is my first post so there aren't much things I have to write about at the moment. Just testing out new skins and stuff. Hope to be able to have a real entry on my next post.