Maths

I hate to ramble, so I'll keep it short this time round. Maths sucks. Yay. Two words to describe how I feel towards this subject. Short and sweet.

I tried a game called "Fate" lately. Despite its rather cheesy title, it's almost a blatant imitation of Diablo 2. I've played Diablo a gazillion times and there's something about flaming any monstrous-like creature with a hot soceress that keeps me addicted to the game. Well, not anymore anyway. I hardly have time.


Dire unicorn up and about the pound the juice outta that creature! Woohoo!


Familiar yet? Seen it Diablo? Hahaha...but they've got some funny twists to the game. Like the little doggie that accompanies you wherever you go.

Economics

"I know econs excites you."

"I know sean the econs freak must be sooooo enjoying this now lah."

Hahahahahaha. Ok, I'm a self professed economics freak. I love econs to bits! And there's nothing you can do about it. Not that I'm all that good at the subject but it's nice learning relevant subjects to life, huh! =)) To all who hate econs, fear me!

I thought the paper today was rather manageable. Essay was a maaaaad rush as usual. Scribble scribble scribble. With the rare exception of dropping my pen to draw diagrams with my mechanical pencil and for drying my wet palms. Yesssss. My palms were all clammy after the essay paper. It was only 45 minutes, mind you, but my hand felt like it had already finished a whole geog O level paper. No kidding. There was no time to think. The minute I saw the question, I was sucked into the vortex!! *evil cackles echo in the background* MUAHAHAHAHAH. It was a good challenge writing so fast nonetheless.

MCQ was tricky, but I wouldn't say it was difficult. Almost as difficult as the tys and some questions had funny phrasing as usual. Blah.

Tomorrow's my free day! Finally a day without papers. I'll spend tonight reading through some formulae, especially arithmetic progression and geometric progression. Oh man. That topic terrifies me to no end. I literally freak out when I see one of those questions. Now picture me, all geared with my calculator and foolscap, with my pen poised all ready-to-go...when I realise I can't solve the first question of the revision worksheet. Good grief.

Upped my conditioning regime today. Did twice the number of sets for weights, pushups and I even did one set of 60 jumping jacks! Wooot. Almost killed me, but I'm glad I did it. Even came down to doing crunches, which I so hate! ARGH. They say I should do weights every two days since if I do it everyday, I'll lose muscle mass. Hm. But I alternate my weights between 6kg and 3.5kg. I should be fine, I reckon. Not like I'm pumping iron like 3 full sadistic hours!

Random thought : Starfruit juice tastes funny. I even have cranberry juice at home. But it's awfully sweet. It's said to be rich in anti-oxidants though. Like I really know what that means. Bah.

Chemistry

T'was ok. I found the paper relatively easier than I thought it'd be at first. Damn them for not testing me on all the hypochlorous acid and dichlorine heptoxide thing. And not a single occurence about the weird properties of aluminium! ARGH!! I spent nearly the whole of today memorising the equations for aluminium hydroxide and aluminium oxide. Boooo. But I'm glad I managed to answer most of the questions quite well - I think.

Anyway, here are the pictures of the sneak preview of National Day. Nothing spectacular, I'd say, but it was quite exciting seeing them just outside Suntec City. Woot. =))

See the man in the middle? Apparently, he's the one in charge. He was walking up and down the road ordering the trucks around. OH well. Oh yes, there were a bunch of slack guys sitting under the shade beside us. I was dying to take a picture of them slacking...but I thought it'd be better to keep my ass safe from trouble. =)





On the right's another picture of trucks. Yes yes. That' about all I saw. Blah.

I realised that the upload function of blogger is very useful. No more need for photobucket! That's unless I have to upload like a gazillion images...'cause frankly speaking, the speed of the upload on blogger leaves a lot to be desired. =P

Off to study economics - again. Yes. But tomorrow's the exam and I don't want to write dapian (rubbish) for my essay. No no no. =))

Have fun at school. (You guys know I don't really mean that, right? How can that ever be possible?)

General paper

I think there's a good reason why they call it general paper. The word "general" is good enough a caveat for them to come up with any nasty tricks to make fool of poor students like me.

There were 12 essay questions, of which most I had just absolutely no idea about how to structure my essay. Turned out I chose "define the role of traditional beliefs in modern society". Hm, sounds familiar yet?

NOOOOOOOOO.

Why didn't I realise that I was up to digging my own grave when I was coming up with my essay plan??? Why didn't I realise that I was repeating my points? Why didn't I realise...Oh pfsh. Bollocks. There were so many signs, for goodness sake. And I had to continue writing the essay as innocently as I thought I would get A1 for combined literature at O levels.

PFSH. Serious screw up. I don't think I've ever written a worse essay - and a even more pathetic conclusion. It was apt I think, considering the standard of my essay.

=((((

Then again, I thought the comprehension was a lot kinder in comparison, in that the questions were very much more straightforward. There was the usual write-like-there's-only-5-minutes-left for the application question - which almost always happens to be the case. Can you imagine coming up with a 400 word essay on what you think about of all topics genetically modified food in 15 minutes flat? No joke I tell you. You should have seen the last word I wrote for my paper - farming. It seemed like some gibberish because I was having cramps in my wrist.

Talking about my wrist, the reason why it hurts so much is because I slipped on my dog's urine the other day. Yes, dog urine. UGH. More about that for another day.

Time to spend more time with chemistry. Yay. I sound more enthusiastic saying "yay". Yay.

Whatever.

all the hubbub

Is it alright now, the template I mean? =)

It's youth sunday today. I suppose the whole service went well, even though the congregation today was almost stationary throughout the entire service. Yes, most of them were either staring blankly into us, thinking "since when did our church turn charismatic?", or they were clapping their hands unenthusiastically, as though that was all the stregth they could have mustered. Like hello. I woke up at 6.30am. It was the crack of dawn. And I was even more energetic than most people at the pews. sighhh.

That being said, it was rather fun singing once I've found the "right" placement. When I was consistently getting it in the rehearsals, I was shocked. Never have I been able to sustain the right placement for so long. It was good while it lasted.

They say it's too good to be true. Yeah. I lost it almost completely during the actual service. Bollocks. I'll work on it! =(

GP is an interesting subject to study. Seriously, I had a lot of fun reading the articles that were handed to my peers during the first three months. Some of them were insightful indeed. No, I did not experience any sort of epiphany, but it was helpful to be able to have a few points at the tip of my fingers - in case I run dry on them during the exam, which I foresee is quite highly likely. I haven't been excelling at GP, for reasons obvious. I'll give the paper my best shot, even if it means scoring a D or an E. NOooooooo Fs please. I'd really like to pass all my subjects. Hehe.

Anyway, I was reading a blog of my friend's lately and it dawned on me how talented some people can be. Art has never been my forte, hardly, if ever, have I scored past a C for art. Yes, I am aware of my shortcomings! That's why I never ever volunteer to do anything that has got to do with art - even if it means drawing an...erm...apple! Whatever. I haven't been good at drawing fruits anyway.

And to think that I went for art lessons when I was young. I quite enjoyed it, given the fact that my teacher was so encouraging and we were given so much time to just doodle on the spot before she'd praise us for what we've done. Ah...those were the days.

Only if I could have learnt to draw my fruits better...

***

I managed to get 80 marks for my grade 8 theory exam. Ohhh man. I'm happy enough with a merit, albeit just making the mark! It was a hard paper and really, I couldn't have imagined more difficult questions 1 and 2 from the board. Had a hard time trying to harmonise those crap. Yay! That's done forever.

Abel scored 90 for his grade 5 paper too! So we all deserve to celebrate. =))

***

Have fun all who have papers tomorrow - especially physics. The thought of it makes me shudders.

The look on your face makes me boils. - unknown teacher

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

unsettled

Yes, I should feel that way. Afterall, I've done many things I shouldn't have done over the past few days. Time for the confessional.

Number one : I haven't been studying half as hard as I used to, even since the block tests are imminent! In fact, they're only two days away. Two!!

Number two : I went out today. I even made a trip to the arcade at suntec city. I played the game where you beat the rhythm on a simulated drum set - again. Yes, I know I've sinned. I only came home at 8.30pm?

Number three : I even took time out to change my blog template.

'Nuff said. I know I've sinned. That's why I repented like...only one hour after surfing Friendster. I did my economics stuff. ARGHH. Can you believe what's wrong with me? Something is seriously wrong...I'd better mug up hard for GP on monday.

Anyway, I was at suntec city today and I happened to catch sight of the trail of army tanks that were passing by on the boulevard adjacent to the mall! Ok. Will post some pictures of them to show that I was there. And I sinned. Yes, I'm aware of that.

This template is still very "rough". I promise to polish it after the blocks.

I'm beginning to sound bored. Pronoun, verb, adjective, noun. Whatever.

11.36pm. Surprisingly late. I've gotta wake up early tomorrow for the rehearsal at church!! Yay. Will be singing at the special pews on stage. I hope I do make it on time, though! =)

Ciao all. Mug hard.

University life?

Sometimes I wish I didn't have to grow up that quickly, especially now that I'm already 16.

I was reading a fellow diarist over at freeopendiary and he showed a picture of his bedroom in a hostel, I presume, during his university days. It was small, dark and hardly appeared comfortable at all. I don't think it measured more than 2.5m by 2.5m! He recounted how he spent his days in university, practising hard on his guitar (since he did a degree in music, majoring in classical guitar) and how he could only stretch in the hallway because it was far too cramped in his bedroom.

It struck me how real university life really be. It's not a honeymoon to a faraway place where you study in full comfort, having your IPod (yes...bradd. =PP) and your laptop on your desk, where you have your laundry done for you, where you receive your allowance and are free to spend it on whatever you want, where you don't ever have to worry about the utility bill. Instead, it's quite harsh.

It is ineluctable how we are expected to handle more and more responsibilities as we grow up. Even now, when I'm 16, I've already got a handful of them. However, none of them can beat the number of responsibilites that our parents have to juggle with every single waking moment.

You know, we're always bitching about how tough studying is, how doing tutorials during the weekend really suck. I know it's a pain. It is...But still, when you're in school, you're only responsible for yourself. No one else. If you've got lousy grades, you can't blame your best friend just because he/she scored that few more marks than you. At the workplace, you're responsible not only for yourself, but for the company, for your colleagues and also to your boss. Hell, you won't even know how long you'll spend in that cube farm! Ten years? Even the most (hellish) moments in school will only last an embarrassing 2 years or so.

Frankly, I love my life now. I feel motivated to learn. I love my subjects. I've got a fantastic CCA. Tutorials suck. Blocks suck even more. But I'm loving it. It's not going last long. Only a year and a half left - before hell really starts.

NS. Bleak.

Steamboat dinner with the choir

Ok. That was a really uncreative title for an entry. But hey, I'm as brain dead as can be after studying economics, alright? It really makes my brain cells commit mass suicide, especially with all the abbreviations! Argh. Talk about ruffling my feathers...*bapok*!

Anyway, I went out with the choir to Marina Bay yesterday for a combined dinner! Yay! Not surprisingly, there were more J2s who turned up as compared to J1s. And no J1 alto turned up. Not a single mugger-one! Alright alright. I guess they were just too in love with all the cells and forces and atoms and revenue and whatnot! =(( But it was a good time.

We arrived there early...so we lagged at the arcade for awhile - I mean, about two hours, in fact! Most of the time, I was just sauntering around the arcade...and looking at how pro Kenneth's junior is. Bajinko! They're really really good at the drums game. He can dish out all the mind-boggingly difficult combos without appearing the least bit flustered. He was just...*whack whack whack whack* And being the suaku people we always are, we just stood down there with our jaws wide open. =O Literally.

Songern decided to play Photohunt. Turned out to be a combined effort.


Yes, talk about law of diminishing marginal returns! Too many people, only one game machine. *beams* Practical application of relevant economics concepts. One scouts point for me! =)

At about 7.30pm, we adjourned to the steamboat "restaurant" nearby to have the highlight of the day - the dinner, of course. Like dah. By that time, I was already famished and I could have eaten a whole colony of cows if I had to because I skipped breakfast and lunch. Not only due to the fact that I woke up late, but also because I had to save money for the dinner. Ha. Serves me right for being a miser.

Some highlights included:

1) The poor prawn that died a horrible death - Charmaine was supposed to kill the prawns (at least those that were still alive) first before dumping it into the boiling concoction of veggies and your usual fishballs and fishballs derivatives. So off she went swinging and swinging the prawns holding it by it's "feelers". As she was about to slam the prawn's head against the table, it slipped out of her hands and landed on the floor. Now, collectively, please exclaim *ow* for the prawn. The poor thing had to suffer such a horrible impact before it even died. sighhh.

2) The second poor prawn who had to die a horrible death at the J1 table - I picked out a lucky prawn from the container and gingerly placed it on the scalding hot steamboat thing. Whatever you call it. That was when it started to go into convulsions, or so I thought. Its legs were moving at full speed and I think if you listen closely enough, you can almost hear it screaming as one side of its body is being cooked - alive! Muahahahahhaa. I'm so evil! Too bad I didn't have the good fortune of eating the prawn who had squirm with full force even until its dying end. Bah.

Here are some pictures of the people who sat at my table. Really funny guys.


JOBOs (J1 bass ones) and me! I'm a bass two, so I figure I'm the odd one out. Coincidentally, they're the guys who came over to my house to have the BMT the other day as well! Niiiice.


Tenors. Oh well. They're just that, I suppose. Tenors. Ha. Basses rule - forever! Oh yes, Louis (I'm not sure if I got the spelling right on that one!) came over all the way from KL to have the dinner with us! woooot. Aren't you guys, the ones who didn't come, ashamed of yourselves yet? Haha...

There's another picture of me and linxin, the only J1 RVians who came. But I look horrid in it, as I always do...but no harm not posting it up! Hahaha.....

Ok. 20 minutes spent blogging this. Shall go off to spend some time with my love - Sloman! *rolls over in fits* Frankly speaking, he has a lot of interesting facts and case studies in there...and I always get distracted reading them instead of the gist of the concepts. Boo. But at least it's economics - and I love econs!!

requiem

I changed my music two days back and now it's requiem aeternam from the collection "Requiem" by John Rutter. Oh man. This movement is one of my favourites in the whole work - Lux Aeterna is a close second. The work is supposed to be a prayer for the dead, sort of sung at a funeral, asking for God to grant eternal rest. The melody is extremely haunting at first, especially when the sections are singing in canon and later converging together to sing the same lyrics. The effect created is like...WOAH. And just when you think that it's going to get spookier, the harp comes in and the whole atmosphere just changes in that one beat. Hahaha...That's my favourite part. Anyway, here are the lyrics...

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

and may light eternal shine upon them.

(4 Esdr. 2, 34-35)

Te decet hymnus Deus in Sion,

It is fitting that a hymn should be raised unto Thee in Sion

et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem:

and a vow paid to Thee in Jerusalem:

exaudi orationem meam,

give ear to my prayer, O Lord,

ad te omnis caro veniet.

unto Thee all flesh shall come at last.

(Sal. 64 (65), 1-2)

Kyrie, eleison!

Lord, have mercy!

Christe, eleison!

Christ, have mercy!

Kyrie, eleison!

Lord, have mercy!

Wow. See? If you come to my blog, I'll even educate you on some choral works! =)) Ha. Talk about educational value.

Anyway, I woke up extremely late today. 11.30am. That's a staggering half hour to noon! Argh. Shall have to mug hard today to make up for the lost time. Time to spend some time with my endearing cell membranes. ugh.

Scrabble withdrawal syndrome

I was soooo happy with myself to have formed the word "otarine". Almost managed to clear my rack with 50 bonus points if not for the silly little F getting in the way. ARGH.

Anyway, I was halfway through this game with this girl who thinks she's in Peter Pan ( I mean, what's with the name tinkerbell??) and suddenly, I was disconnected!

ARRRRRGH. I stayed up to play scrabble online and you tell me it's disconnected? I scored 20 plus points for the word OTARINE, alright??

Some freak accident must have happened to the server. Either way, I'm not happy. I wanna play scrabble!!

*peace out*

I shall stop acting like a belligerent child and be my normal self...who is responsible, sensitive, sensible...blah blah blah. Hahaha...

That aside, I still managed to finish the whole darn chemistry syllabus for the block test today. Am I good or am I good? Hm. It's not nice to revel in one's achievements but come to think of it, I did a lot of work today! I even finished my energetics mcq - which I completed with much tedium. It's extremely difficult. Bah.

If there's anything to look forward to tomorrow, it's the choir steamboat! I wonder how they're ever going to accomodate at least 40 of us though! It's going to be quite packed. Pictures promised. =))

And for now...I desperately want to play a game of Scrabble. ARGH. Anyone up for a game? =) Tag me.

From yours truly, the 24/7 Scrabble enthusiast.

shaving hurts. sometimes.

Ok. I know shaving isn't supposed to hurt. But hell. I think sometimes I'm just too eager and I press the blade too hard on my skin and *prick* - there's a little red dot that's gonna ooze blood later. Argh. I pricked myself a good 3 times just now! Couldn't stand the little hairs growing...so decided to remove them using...yes, my trusty shaver! =) In fact, this is only the second time I'm using this shaver. And it's pretty cool to boot!



It's even endorsed by David Beckham! Wooot.

Anyway, I was just in the toilet shaving today...and I realised something. I have many types of gel. Almost enough to rival the small little mama shop at Chongpang. Look at it.



I mean...that's a lot!! And fact is, I only use one type - L'oreal Invisigel. I insist on the extra strength one, thank you. The normal strength one just doesn't cut it! The hold is pathetic...especially with horrible untamed hair like mine. You really should look at my hair in the morning. It's a total mess. Alright. It's still a mess after gelling...but it looks neater, for one!

Anyway, I went to mug with my "daughter" today at Bukit Timah Plaza. I wouldn't say it was all that fruitful, especially with the bunch of kids screaming away at the nearby playground. They were sooooo noisy I could hardly focus on my work! Almost took out my shotgun and shot every single little one of them...Hey wait. No. I'm a kind soul. *angelic music plays in the background* I love and adore kids.

But seriously, there's a limit to it. Argh. And those kids really tested my patience.

Knowing full well that I could have done a lot of work, I brought my entire tome of chemistry notes. Trust me. The amount of work for the past six months is almost equivalent to the work of a year in secondary school. Which explains the thickness of my file...


It's so thick my fingers can hardly go round the edge! And everyone was looking at me like I'm a nerd for holding such a thick file. I mean....c'mon! I'm not a mugger.

Felt weird on the train because everyone flashed me a weird expression. Yes - everyone. Or at least 9 out of 10. Which is bad enough. It figures that I should have brought a thinner file. Ha.

Anywaysssss. A little quiz for all you guys who even bother to pick time out of your busy schedules to read a blog like mine which lacks gravitas...(*rolls eyes*).

Guess what's this? =))

from a landbound mammal

Yes! I've finally learnt how to swim breaststroke! For a good 10m no less! hahaha..ok. It's a good start. And today's a nice day to have a swim as well because the sun's mighty strong! yay. I'll swim at the pool every saturday from now on. hahahaha.

So we had a BMT (bass mahjong training) the other day at my house with Sua, Edmund and Benjamin. T'was great! We had a lot of time discussing crappy stuff like "cement mixer" and what not. Hahhaa...it was a good laugh. Managed to hone my mahjong skills on the way too! I even managed to score a limit two times! wow. That was an incredible hand. hahaha...But we didn't play with chips or anything. Just playing for fun.

I haven't been mugging hard enough. I mean, block tests' the equivalent of mid year exams and I'm not even half as worried as I'm supposed to be? Not. Good. I'll have to mug mug mug mug mug for the whole of next week. Hahaha..

Please people, mug hard! =)) 'Cause after blocks, we'll be fr...

Oh wait. There's still the endless heaps of tutorials to complete.

But leave that for another day, will ya? =D

an evening of sacred music*

I have this really bad habit of leaving the house just on time so that I won't reach the place too early and appear to wu suo shi shi (aimless). Looks like I've got to learn from this lesson.

Thinking I can find the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts easily, I left the house 1 hour 15 minutes early. Yada yada yada...took the train to Dhoby Ghaut (I've always wondered about the funny name...but oh wells.) and ate at the Long John Silver's there in ten minutes flat. I almost choked on the multitude of golden fries can. The chicken happened to be just fried some more. *faints*

Anyway, I took the bus to the bus stop that the street directory directed me to. Off I strolled...

Until I realised I was lost. Like what the...

So I asked some stall owner (thanks Auntie!) how to get to the NAFA before hastily rushing out to the concert hall.

zoooooom. Then I realised I was at the wrong campus!

ARRRRGH. Can you believe my luck!

Crossed the same road again - just that the traffic light was slower this time round. Thanks so much.

Managed to arrive in the nick of time. Just as expected. Phew. But I was sweating so profusely - so profusely I think it was blardy embarrassing. Bah.

And another embarrassing thing happened. I was at the door, waiting for the family in front of me to have their ticket torn so that they can enter the hall. Suddenly, this gorgeous looking girl said hi to me and extended her hand. Thinking she must know me and considering my "Alzheimer's" memory plus the fact that she was just DDG, I extended my hand as well.

That's when she said, "uH...your ticket please."

ARRRGH. Dies of embarrassment on the spot can! Geeeee.

***

Back to the concert. I loved the second half of the programme - the one with the asian spirituals and the afro-american spirituals. Somehow 20th century western spirituals just don't cut it out for me. They lack way too much structure, making it seem like an agglomeration of ideas. Abstract, but hey, people can argue that it's free expression. Afterall, isn't that what 20th century is supposed to be? A myriad of fragmented ideas pieced together to form a whole.

To me, that's just...hard to digest.

But the second half was great! Loved Orasho, which is a Japanese-d form of a spiritual. Beautiful asian harmony weaved together with the feel of a traditional church spiritual. Niiiice.

And of course, they sang Battle of Jericho. I've heard that before at their...dunno what concert. But it's still nice to listen to songs that you're familiar with.

The last piece of the prayer to the St Assise ( I think!) was extremely exquisite as well. Beautiful harmony with a very very nice soprano part. Ahhhh. Melted on the spot. I love such music!

For encore, they sang Flying Without Wings, which I've heard before as well. I remember once, they sang Over the Rainbow as an encore. And it's the arrangement that I know!! Wow. That was amazing. I love that song. It's in my top ten choir songs list. At least those that I know how to sing anyway! Hahhahaa...I'll compile a list soon.

***

Yay! Sua and Edmund will be coming over to house tomorrow! Yippee. Time for a good mahjong game. Too bad Guanhan can't come because of PW. Oh crap. Talking about PW, I still haven't made my interviews yet!! *shudders at the thought*

PW spoils my day.

***

Managed to complete 11 pathetic questions of mole concept today. Totally unacceptable. Must. Mug. Must. Mug.

*zen like look*

two wasted trips =(

Oh man. I can't believe I made two wasted trips in a row!

First one, was the outing to Wild wild wet with benjamin and zen wea. Oh wells. There was no sun. And it rained halfway. Double whammy, I tell you. Now about the attraction itself. In fact, I wouldn't even term the "biggest water theme park" in Singapore an attraction in itself. It doesn't justify that. Let me share some insights on my "trip" to the water park.

Firstly, there are essentially only four rides for adults (read: anyone above the age of 13). Yes, a miserable number of 4. Not unless you count the "Shiok River", which is this stream of water that happens to be heated. It proved to be the best place to be in when you're just sick and tired of freezing your butt off waiting for your turn. Haha...we spent quite a lot of time just floating around in the river. Hm...Obvious highlights include the ride where you slide up and down this parabola shaped...thing. I don't even know what to call it. Lol. It's heart-stopping, let me warn you. I'm not kidding. Hahaha...zen wea said just the fact that I bellowed halfway down the slope made him scream as well. Oh well. The domino effect, call it. Hahaha...

The park isn't without it's merits as well.

1) It has excellent showering facilities - complete with working doors (don't underestimate that!) and a separate area for the urinals and toilet bowls. Plus there's ample space in the cubicle for you to hang your clothes and your bag. So...I guess that's important. I'm not sure about the girls' changing room (duh!) but the guys' one was always clouded with this foul smelling odour. Couldn't tell where it emanated from...and somehow, I think I don't want to find out.

2) Free floats for use. Which means that you don't have to pay a single cent for them. Hm...this wasn't the case at fantasy island last time, if I recall correctly. =) But after paying $12.90 for the entrance fee plus an additional 2 bucks for the locker, the last thing I really wanna do is to pay for those round air-filled floats. More money saved = a happier sean. Amen!


yes, please buy one of these smart cards. =) And don't queue up at counters 1 and 2. Queue at counter 3 instead. Just perpendicular to the two queues. Lol. 'Cause when we were there, everyone was queueing at counters 1 and 2. We just strolled to counter 3 and bought our funcard with ease! And no, we didn't tell them there was a counter three. hehe.

Next, I wasted a trip to the language centre today. ARGH. There was supposed to be a dance practice, which I was involved in. But, I decided to join the singing performance for obvious reasons. So...there wasn't any song practice today. Gags. We had to go home like ten minutes after we just arrived. Lol.

Managed to spend some time in the pool today....learning how to swim that is! Well, I think all I managed to learn was how to tread water. And I'm still not very good at that! =(( Hahaha...I think I most resembled a fish thrashing about on land - except that I'm in the water. I kept having weirds thoughts about how people would just dive into the pool with their clothes on, trying to save me while I struggle to tell them that I'm just learning how to swim and that I'm not drowning. ugh. Swimming's not as easy as it seems!

I'll get to it some other day. argh.

sine, cosine, cotangent...

And the list goes on and on...and on. I've been doing maths for the entire day. Can you believe it? I can't believe it myself. Hahaha...that proves it. I have amazing willpower. Just that I'm always overpowered by the compelling urge to slack. Sigh. Conflicting emotions. But the real reason why I mugged so hard for maths today is because I've to see Miss Tang tomorrow. Reason being I have far too many blanks. Hahaha...I tried my best though! =)) See, motivations really work. Ha.

If there's anything worse than being stuck in a slow queue in a fast food restaurant because of indecisive people (the irony of it all!), it's to find out that the stall you want to eat from is closed - permanently.

Now, I usually take the shuttle bus from my condominium to Northpoint. Recently, I've decided to eat healthily, thanks to the influence of Mingtse, who happens to be an organic food freak. =P I won't abstain from oily food and stick to the fruit only diet...but I'll try to cut back on Macs and other fast food. Ha.

Thus, I trudged along to the food court at the basement...it's quite a long walk really. Thinking that I'd eat cai fan (mixed rice, where you get to choose the dishes that you want), I went to the stall where they were normally located - only to find out that it's been replaced by Rotiboy. (which is damn damn good by the way.)

So I combed the entire food court. No sign of it.

Like whuuuddd. I can't belive a food court doesn't have a cai fan stall! That's outrageous!

Had to make a 15 minute detour under the sweltering hot sun to get yet another coffeeshop in the area before I could buy what I so desperately wanted.

The price of eating healthily. Not a good start.

That being said, I've been conditioning regularly. It's coming along fine..but I've noticed that my right arm is weaker than my left arm. That's very evident when I do weights. Hm...and my right arm is my dominant arm! Ironic. And puzzling. Perhaps it's because of all the work that I've to do? Long term exertion. Thanks to all the 2.5 hour geography exams where you write non-stop. Ugh. Nightmares galore.

Off to wild wild wet tomorrow! Shall blog about it. Yeeeeeah. Fun fun fun.

madman on the loose

There are crazy people all around me. Well, sometimes I'm one of them too.

But...

It's not everyday in your mundane life that you actually get to see a real madman on the streets of Singapore. Probably it's because most of them have been arrested by psychiatrists hidden in ordinary layman's clothes, prowling about and just waiting to handcuff the looneys and send them to Woodbridge. Oh wells.

Anyway, I was at OG orchard today. Ok. Not me. My mum. But I had to follow anyway.

ARGH. I keep digressing!! Focus. Sean. Focus.

We were waiting for my dad who was MIA for the millionth time (it runs in the family, trust me. I'll talk about that some other time.) when my mum said with her eyes so wide open it looked like she saw a madman, which in fact she did..."That guy is crazy." She grabbed hold of my sister's hand and pulled her further away from the looney who had unkempt hair and such a shabby look I'll bet my million dollars that he hasn't bathed for a good decade. But fact is, I had my back to him...so I didn't get to see what happened.

Being the typical "kaypoh" (busybody) Singaporean, I asked my mum what had actually happened which made her come to the conclusion that he's a looney, since afterall, I have a nutty brother at home anyway.

She said, "He kissed the private part of the picture of the model on the wall."

Cue: Jaw drops.

That's gross. But in a funny way.

Now you know who's really mad. Not me. Him.

Baptism!! =))

Yay! I've been baptised at church! Wow. It's an amazing experience...for me. But this is where the road really begins...after the confirmation of my allegiance with Christ. Ahhh! And to Shaoning, thanks so much for coming to witness my baptism ceremony today! You've really encouraged me a lot. Hahaha...=))

Managed to borrow the Grade 8 CD from Linxin! Yay. Thanks a lot linxin. I love all the pieces in the grade 8 syllabus. They're all played extremely well...which leaves my playing with a lot to be desired. Hahaha...I've been slacking a lot for the past few days. I wish I had the passion to continue practising hard on the piano to improve my *horrible* technique! Gags. I'll have to come down to doing it sometime.

Choir elections - I've been appointed to be the bass sectional leader...along with Edmund!! It's quite surprising really...but I'm still elated. I've got a lot of work to do...but edmund, we can do it!! hahahaha...

I've been exchanging emails with my correspondant from France who'll be coming on the 5th of July. Oh...I can't wait! Hahaha..The worst thing that I can think of is the lack of communication between us because I can't speak french well for nuts! I'll have to learn some sign language or something...and that's why I need to brush up on my french soon.

Here's a sneak preview of my french friend (lol. alliteration. whatever. hahaha.)


he's the one on the right! hahaha. Just in case.

And yes...he'll come to school. But only on monday. Hahaha...so those of you who are dying to see a french guy live, come look for me on mondays!! ahahhaa. whee.

Mole concept.

Now that's something I always say I want to get down to but never did. It's been the case for three days now. Not tooooo good.

Chemistry aside, I think my life's going well. I've got time for myself (a little too much!), I've got time to study and I've got time to interact with people around me. Not everything turned out the way I wanted them to...even though I've been praying mighty hard about them, but I suppose it's God's will. He will provide. Amen.

Hm...My mum bought this game that's similar to mahjong!! But it's used to learn chinese instead. Now, this is very important for me - not just because I can hardly vocalise my thoughts coherently in mandarin, but also because I don't study chinese anymore. So...it's a good way to keep in touch with my roots...however feeble an attempt. Sean is learning chinese!! Now that should make the headlines!!

I won the game in the end. HA. By 97 points. My mum won by 65 points and my sister lost all the points to us. We started with 360 points and she was left with a mere 198 points. Hahahaha...but it's quite expected. She's only primary 5!! hahaha. No match for my *lousy* but still pro enough chinese.

Yay! Mugging session coming up. I need to mug. Seriously. I think my expected results are as follow...

Chemistry - D
Biology - D ( I know this is really lousy...but hell.)
Mathematics - B (I want a B soooo badly. And I need to work hard for it.)
Economics - D
GP - D

Yucks. Full of Ds. Bottomline is, I don't want to score Os or Fs in anything. NOOOOO. Not ever.

I think writing it out motivates me. Ha. We all know how true that is. Blah.

****

'Cause I'd give the world for you
anything you ask of me, I do
-Westlife

That's taken from the song "if your heart's not in it". I guess it really spoke to me. Spooky...but I wasn't feeling too good when I was on the bus and listening to the song really made me...even worse. But it spoke of everything I wanted to say. Ack. Life sucks sometimes.

I listen to Corrinne May often. Friggin' encouraging to me 'cause it's gospel in nature...and it really encourages me to keep a close walk with God. I've been backsliding recently. It's not a good sign...but I hope after my baptism, I'll be more encouraged to keep the faith. (argh. reminds me of the anonymous people. I don't like anonymous notes. If you want to say something, you should have the courage to stand by it.)

***

Baptism this sunday. Scared, yet in anticipation of it. It's such a big step for me...which is partially why it scares me. But I'm really encouraged by my churchmates. Arrrrgh. Love you guys loads.

***

Hope I vote for the correct people tomorrow. Will be thinking hard. God bless all nominees tomorrow!! =))

***

Ciao.

maths, oh! why must you torment me so?

Maths is difficult. Ok. I'm only doing Maths C...but still, it's freakin' tough, alright! I spent like 15 minutes on one pathetic AP GP question. Fifteen! That's horrible. And the worst thing is, it's only 6 marks. Dies. Now I'm beginning to understand why they give 3 hours for each of the maths paper....



To prolong our death! To make it as slow and as painful as possible.

Told you the maths department wasn't up to any good. *argh*

***

Anyway, I haven't been mugging hard enough for the past few days and I'm lagging behind my schedule. Yes. I, the resident slacker, have come up with a schedule detailing all the work that I have to do! Ha. Can't believe I actually did that...but it's so muggerish. Eeks.

It's been a rough week. But I thank the Lord that it's coming to an end. I've learnt a lot about how to handle things and how to rely on my faith. *gag* God will provide. That's all I'll say.

I'll be baptised this Sunday! Yay! That'll be something to look forward to. It's a huge step in my journey as a Christian - and I hope to make it a memorable one. Hm.

I sound boring in this entry. Can't take it. Must be the maths!

ARGH.

Maths. Is. Difficult.

Period.

shit happens

Yes it does, amen.

I attended the SAF choir concert yesterday. Hm...On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate them 8. Bonus marks for singing nice songs towards the end that really engages to the audience on the whole and also for singing a song that really engaged me because it resembled bin-nam-ma a lot! It's called "Incantatio Maris Aestuosi "Kalevala"'. The theme of the song is rather haunting, I'd add. It's about how you are trapped in a ferry twelve stories high and just as the ferry tips over and is about to sink, you hear the screams of people coming from all the docks. You realise that there is nothing to do but to wait for your turn as the water comes rushing in, engulfing lives. I particularly liked the forced whispers by the other sections. There was even a whistling part by the first tenors too! Interesting.

laaaar-GA.

Overall, I'd say I enjoyed the concert a lot - considering I paid only $4.80 for the ticket after the grant from the Arts Board. Yay. I love cheap concerts. Being a student really rocks. You get all kinds of funny bonuses, like student's meal at Burger King for $3.90. Yay! Swoon all of you who aren't students and would like to be one. Ha.

Shan't comment on what the class did yesterday. I know it was done with no malice, but still, it was rather embarrassing on my part and on her part. I'd like to restate my point that there's nothing going on between us and that we are just good friends. Period. Leave them to think what they want.

***

Conditioning is coming along fine...even though I think I should incorporate some skipping to improve endurance as well. Ahhh. Time to hit the sports connection.

I'm about to take swimming lessons!! Yay. It's not the "pro" swimming lessons so to speak, but the kiddy ones. Oh gee. I can just imagine the shock on the instructor's face when he realises that I, a sixteen year old boy, still cannot swim for the death of him. Just imagine.

My mum, "Hi. Could you conduct swimming lessons for my son on Saturdays at the pool?"
Him, "Sure! How old is your son? Three? Four?"
My mum, "Erm. Sixteen, in fact."

*pregnant pause*

I'm so going to die of embarrassment.

But to learn is better than to suffer during national service. Ohhhh yeah.

yoga was never so difficult - I thought

Eunice's friend is undergoing a course to get a degree in Yoga. (woot. sounds like yoda. yay!)

The tough thing about the course is that they have to score at least 1000 points to graduate, or so I heard from Eunice. Imagine...you only score a miserable 5 points for sticking a rubber tube up your nose and out of your mouth. 5!! And you can only score 10 points maximum for squeezing the tube up both nostrils. Gee. I now officially declare this the hardest degree to obtain - even harder than the chemistry I'm doing now. Which is obviously painful enough.

"Random thought : pink babboon baboon"

Lol. Our group wrote that on the mahjong paper the speaker gave us today at church. We were supposed to write 3 ways in which success can be defined...but I thought it'd be nice to see if we can try to make Amanda go into laughing fits (she really does, trust me) when she sees the word "baboon". The first thing she said when she saw it was..

"Baboon's spelt wrongly!"

OH MAAAAAN. That's so embarrassing can. And to think that ONE hwachong person and ONE raffles person couldn't spell baboon properly. Shocking.

I can write but I can't spel.

ARRRH. Whatever.

sushi buffet! woooot.

I wanted to blog about this yesterday, but my internet connection screwed up on me. It slowed down to a horrible crawl...so slow it would have made a 56k modem seem fast in comparison. Taking a good 3 minutes to load just the blogger homepage is unacceptable. I wonder if it's my firewall...hm.

Anyway, the sushi buffet went great! It was wonderful to have a time to catch up with all my lame friends at church...Am, Eu and Lo. Like elements from the periodic table. Lol. Hahaha. (sounds familiar, Lois?) Anyway, we talked about all sorts of stuff and it's nice to know that we're having such good fellowship together. Even though we gossiped a lot *pardon us*, but it was great fun. Not so fun trying to stuff 56 plates of sushi into our stomachs though. Hahaha...56 is quite embarrassing considering there were 4 of us, but it was quite funny to see how Eunice tried to stomach the last cup of chawanmushi. She looked as if all the plates of sushi she ate were going to come out of her nose! ahhahaha. But it was an enjoyable time. Yay!


our small achievement in the first 15 minutes. Imagine 5 times that. =)

Have I told you guys this yet? My brother's a monster. He acts weird all the time. No. Let me rephrase myself. He is weird. Arrrrgh. And he was being his usual self at the lift lobby just now - when the girl from my block walked out of the lift.

Now, you must be thinking, "What in the heavens is so funny about that?"

Ha. This girl is no normal girl. She's a gege (princess). Ha. My brother and I coined that term for her because she walks so daintily she takes a whole 15 minutes just to walk to the porch from the lift lobby - when it's only like less than a 150m away. Ok. I might be exaggerating, but the fact is, she takes really small steps when she walks.

And she carries a butt bag. Lol. By that, I mean bags that seek to impede butt development because each time you take a step, they slam into your butt and flatten it by a few inches. Imagine the amount of force that your poor behind takes when you have to carry all that books to school! Shocking.

My french correspondant will be here on the 5th of July. Now that'll be something to look forward to. I speak horrible french and I hopez ze doezn't mindz. Hm...the french will be appalled at the amount of grammatical errors I do to their beautiful language. I gotta agree with the latter though. French is a beautiful language - but a pain to learn sometimes.

Off to do my daily conditioning. Day 4 and I'm still on it! Go me. I've included weights in my training now that I've realised there are some weights hidden in some dusty corner in my sister's room. Now that's scary. But who cares. And yes, my half squats are only a minute long. Hey. It's tough alright! Go try it. By the end of 30 seconds, your legs will be shaking like there's a 8.5 richter earthquake going on. Ha. Oh well. I guess I still can't match the physical fitness of the people in sailing and canoeing. Afterall, their arms are the size of my thighs! =S

*scoots to do crunches*

not good down under

ohhhh man. wearing the wrong underwear really can ruin an otherwise fantastic day. bah. I'll never wear that pair of briefs again! =((

First day teaching N level at Chestnut Drive Secondary School. =) It was an enlightening experience...hm. I realised that actually the disparities in difficulties between N level and O level Chemistry and Physics is actually quite big! Take this question for an example.

"Name the apparatus labelled X." -Burette

That's one mark in your pocket. And they don't do mole concept...which made things quite difficult for me, since I know absolutely nuts about doing mole concept questions using mass ratio. Whatever that is. Left everything to Gerald because he seemed to know what was going on. Oh well. It was rather pressurising because while I was teaching mole concept halfway, the teacher tapped me on the shoulder and said, "hey...they don't need to know mole concept." OHHHH. But I assumed they did. I mean, I've been trained to do mole concept since I've started on the tumultous route of the study of chemistry *sobs sobs*. But since they didn't do mole concept, I thought it'd made things easier. But nooooo. They had to use proportions. Like whuuddd??

Oh well. I'll be teaching O level students next week. So I'll have to mug up on my half forgotten physics and dig up that tome of a textbook from that abyss on my desk. *pouts* Physics!! You never fail to leave me. Haunt me, you must not. *I so love yoda...that green furry...thing.*

Mugged at the library till the library closed can. =) It was half mugging, half talking session. But I managed to finish a good deal of econs mcq. I can't believe I couldn't find sickle cell anaemia in 5 *yes a staggering five* bio textbooks that I soooo awfully tried to wrench out from the shelf! Yes. Five. Now, you have to get this right. Biology textbooks are not textbooks per se. They're encyclopedias - each with at least 1000 pages. Can you imagine all the calories I burnt trying to hold the book in mid air, flipping to the content page and then to the actual page that contains the info on gene mutation? My arm almost died on me. Good exercise though. *positive outlook*

Talking about exercice, I've came up with a resolution to condition my (horrible) body everday by doing conditioning exercices! *applause* Now that's new! Yes yes yes...lazy sean has actually come up with an exercice regime. 60 crunches, 3 reps of 10 pushups and a minute squat against the wall. It's not a lot...but I think it'll keep me in good shape. I'll hit the gym every Saturday to do weights! Yes I will. Amen. Ha.

Sushi buffet tomorrow! Can hardly wait. It's only for two hours though...so I'm not sure whether we'll be able to talk since I think we'll be munching on all the sushi and ice cream - non stop. HA. A big feast awaits me tomorrow. Be jealous, you should.

Man, I love Yoda.