Well, this is the third day I'm living in my new house. This post has to be quick because i have Speech Day at Victoria School later. It's so ironical that someone who has apparently received the "VAC Academic Excellence Awards" is at the 6.5th percentile for econs. And 27.7 for Math. Well, who's that? Yours truly... duh.
I actually meant to type something sentimental and emo about leaving my old house for the new one. However, two nights of inadvertently sleeping by accident due to tiredness (4am and 2+am respectively) has forced this back to now. Also, I found that I don't actually miss my old house that much. I think that the fact that i take only about 4 mins to jog back from house to house is a big factor. The proximity is simply too close for me to feel anything. And the place is still intact, at least for now. And I spent the first night being ferried from old to new house and back again. Something that i'm sure most people who move don't experience.
In short, I'm scrapping the farewell post... and it's also because i'm lazy. If you hadn't realised that by now.
But I have to say that i WILL miss the place. The greenery, so much like an unconventional condo, etc... I love the place. It taught me about biology, about nature, and so much else. It is the basis for all happenings in my life up till now.
So, about the new house. I spent Thursday night (first night) unpacking, and basically my room feels like a room now, not devoid and empty. Friday night was spent taking out stuff form my schoolbag and then sleeping. Again, by accident.. There's so much to do now that i can never finish it by Monday. Help.
Now, I'm not a religous person. GP says that you can have morality without religion, however... and I am self-professed a free thinker- who believes in everything. This may sound contradictory, but it simply means that i an neutral to all religions, and do what i see fit. I think religion is a kind of guideline for those who don't have a strong sense of direction to follow. There is a need to heed the advice of one who is more wise than you, more powerful- be they real or imaginary. Religion is a means to explain the world around us, just like science... okay, that's going a little oft tangent.
Basically, this is a prelude to what i did on Thursday after moving house. I kneeled in a Japanese-like fashion and closed my eyes and put my hands together, and prayed to whoever who would listen. (Sorry if anyone finds this mindly sacreligious, but this is how i do things.) Then i opened my eyes and felt slightly better.
Now, this may give the dear reader who at least has seen me in person a skewed sense of me. I think i've contemplated not exposing to much of myself to this blog, but blogs were meant, as were eyes, as windows to the soul, weren't they..? Except that blogs express the author's personality through words... So? Argh, to heck with it all.
First up. I've probably posted/said this before somewhere. But anyway, flipping through a stack of old newspapers (before i started reading in ernest daily/ catching up whenever i can, pussting homework in jeopardy) I've gotten a little inspiration to talk about the type of girls I like.
****
Don't feel like doing it anymore -____________-"
But anyway, yeah. This actually applies to guys too (please don't let your imagination wander), and actually it's just about me envying people in general. Yeah, i definitely touched on it before. Now, in this newspaper article, this Korean star says he doesn't actually fancy any type of girl. I concur (even though I find ponytails just... irrisistable). The most important thing is how the person in question manages to carry off a certain look with grace and impeccable poise. Basically, it's just about how the person's characer shines through... As long as somebody looks confident, long or short hair doesn't matter; not the choice of clothes, or fake eyelashes (or lack thereof). Which explains why I'm attracted to people whose eyes twinkle like stars, who appear to live. Quite unlike me. Which also explains how some guys can carry off the I'm-manly-because-I-wear-hot-pink-shirts-look. Also, quite unlike me.
Incidentally, my greatest wish is to sport a nice curly long hairdo. You know, that kind which simply exudes an artistic sense of fashion and whatnot.. Couldn't find a picture, though.
(told you it was going to be random.)
I found a page of a magazine under all the newspapers. By that, i mean a four-sides-of-a-page type of page. Apparently it's an advertisement by TOYS'R'US. This greatly reminds me of my childhood (or lack thereof.)... I'm turning green with envy at the "drone quadricopter"; musing about how the image of Ben 10 seems to look older (oh, well. Fun fact: I learnt the slang word "dufus" from the animated series. His sister, in fact. Of whose name i have no recollection of whatsoever.); and beyblades. Those things used to be quite popular back when i was in primary school. Now they seem to have been mostly unchanged apart from the images etc. And of course, the price. The little beyblade stadium costs $99.95 (it's pretty much $100 already, stupid marketing ploy...), while a filmsier version i bought ages ago- and thrown away ages ago- cost about $20. A pack of one beylade and the attached mechanism to spin it with costs $20- i bought mine for about $13 in the past. It's either inflation, or some other economics factor... I don't really want to delve into this subject because it reminds me that that i haven't done a single, single thing about homework. And PW, for that matter. I sense that my dear groupmates are getting slightly pissed off. Or maybe more than slightly pissed off. Anyways. I'm in a dilemma about spending that $20 to buy a beyblade, just for old time's sake. Especially when i'm in heavy debt to my father for purchasing the Sony Nex-5 interchangable lens camera (a hybrid between the compact camera and a DSLR). Of course, buying an additional battery and two filters for my two lenses didn't help much. Well, the good lady behind the counter sure did at any rate. The filters were originally $49.50 each, but I got both for $20 altogether (after $20 paid off from scratch-and-win vouchers). If only filters cost that much, i believe the dear reader has got an inkling of how much my camera cost me... And how much Sony is profiting if i can get a discount of 60%.
Well. Moving on.
I'm moving house in about three days. I swear I don't ever want to move again, even though i probably will. Especially when your parents have the tendency to not plan everything properly and JUST BUY NEW CROCKERY FROM IKEA, DAMNIT (nope, I'm not consumerist, but having a homogeneous set of utensils is something I must be admandant about since moving to a new house signifies a new start). So yeah, logistical issues are my main grouch.
I've not packed either. There's just too many things to cope with at the moment. And getting tired and sleeping while reading the newspapers or Time magazine makes it worse. And makes me more guilty.
Friday, Victorian Challenge back at my old secondary school. Since i have the misfortune of not beng in VJ, i didn't really know what was going on apart from a run and a car wash. The latter, incidentally, featured in the Saturday newspapers.. So anyway. I went back to VS feeling rather hungry, got informed that out of my clique of four, one was busy with debates and the other didn't feel like coming back. So i had to go out for dinner with the remaining guy's Chinese Orchestra friends. I felt a little left out >.<. And they poked fun at RJ... it's never a nice thing to hear your school as the butt of jokes. And of course I didn't agree with them; their grouches about smart people don't apply to me, at least. What's there to compare when my grades are to the tune of BBEEU while the VJ CO gang had a straight-A person in their midst?
Sleeping on the bus journey there was also not enough, as i found out. I took the same bus back after about 4 hours of wandering the Marine Parade area, slept soundly, and woke up several bus stops away, and had to walk back home. Along the way, i discovered that a grassy plain that i used to walk slowly through and enjoy the breeze, trees and sunshine had been fully cordoned off. The fences were already partially erected last year, but still... How disappointing that the pace of life moves so fast. I still want time to enjoy my sun-soaked minutes walking in the field...
I also saw a modern contemporary home. It was under construction the last i saw it, but now.. It's beautiful. Maybe i should have taken a picture of it after standing there and gawking for several minutes straight.
Today (Sunday) will be catch-up day. Has to be catch-up day. I have been accidentally sleeping early for the past few days, so my pile of newspapers-to-be-read and homework have been increasing, never decreasing... There's till so much left to be done till i can finally sleep. And i largely spent the day reading the papers and packing some of my worldly belongings into cardboard boxes to be moved to the new house that's probably under 1km away. Oh, well. Along the way i uncovered so many dusty relics, largely bokos, because that's what i've been dealing with today. Primary school certificates reminding me of my largely-gold NAPFA results back then (drastically better than now). Weird magazines reminding me of how widely i used to read in the past, mostly forgotten. The genus of a dnosaur, for example. The Bookworm adventures series of magazines that I used to follow, books included. Post-kid magazine. Zoo-Ed. Young Scientist. Asian Geographic from my eldest sister (I miss Asian Geo, damnit..). Enid Blyton... the list continues on and on. It's so nostalgic, but i don't really have the time to even sit back and savour this feeling, newly surfaced, do i?
Now, i can't decide whether going for this movie was a blessing or a curse. The blessing is of course that i've watched the final movie in the Harry Potter saga-of-sorts. The curse- that i don't have time to do anything else today apart from typing this blog post, and reading the papers, and dozing off while doing so... I'm already a laggard in terms of schoolwork, and I'm going for the Victorian Challenge (or at least, going back to Victoria School, my alma mater) tomorrow- or rather, today, since it's already past 12 midnight.
I guess this post will simply be a short movie review. Which generally consists of grouches. Well, Singaporeans seem to have a 'genetic predesposition' (probable typo here. Fletched from my GP Paper 2) to complaining, as seen from online websites like The Online Citizen, and I am no exception. So anyway, here goes nothing...
The first thing was the food.
The popcorn was sweet.
I don't like sweet popcorn much. I usually go for the salt-flavoured ones, but even then, my fingers tend to become very sticky after some time, so i'd rather eat plain popcorn. Which is generally not sold in any movie theatre worldwide. I guess. The drink was also disgusting (Coke). I tend not to drink fizzy soft drinks, especially Coke and Pepsi. Flame me if you want, but they're disgustingly sweet. Who'd ever want to pay for syrup mixed with carbonated water? I mean, this is fleecing money in full view of the public, who willingly get fleeced. I guess the same goes for me and ice lemon tea, but at least that is non-carbonated, which means that there is no carbonic acid to acidify the pH in your stomach, or dissolve a little bit of your teeth every time you sip on that straw, etc... ANYWAY. The reason why i didn't have a say in the choice of food is that the tickets were bought quite cheaply by my mum from her company. So packaged sweet popcorn and Coke were part of the food deal. Oh, well. Nachos, anoyone?
Secondly, my sister, who has read the book and forgot most of the details, kept asking me stuff during the entire duration of the movie. Me, who has also read the book, and forgotten some of the details. If you have never experienced trying to watch a movie with someone constantly unloading a deluge of questions on you every few minutes or so, then be happy. I hope i didn't also irritate the movie goers beside me. Movie appreciation is not fully there when you have to answer things like: "Oh, who's that ugly-looking man?" (Voldemort); "Who's that bearded guy?" (Albus Dumbledore's brother, whose name i have forgotten EDIT: OH RIGHT IT WAS ABERFORTH); who Draco Malfoy is; his father and mother; the fire spell the idiot cast that cannot be extinguished until it has ran its course; Horcruxes; et cetera. By the way, for Deathly Hallows Part 1, my mother did the same thing- but my sister was mild compared to her, because my mother has never read the book.
This brings me to my Third Point. Which is that they assumed that every single movie-goer was a true blue Harry Potter Fan, who has studiously read the entire book back-to-back several times before stepping foot into the hallowed (Ha. Pun not intended.) movie theatre to watch this really exciting last instalment of The Boy Who Lived. Potter mania, forevermore... THIS IS SO UNTRUE. Spare a thought for poor boys who have to patiently/ impatiently explain to their older sisters and mothers about the tiny little details of what exactly is Quidditch and why Harry P. is holding a tiny golden ball in his hand, will you?
Fourth. The movie started off without the iconic theme song present in most other openings. But i guess the movie was too morbid to use that as an opening... the theme song conveys an air of mystery and draws the curious audience further into the movie, while the last movies (Deathly Hallows, Part 1 and 2) were dark and mobid. Oh, well, at least the song was played at the end of the movie.
Fifth. The movie skipped out on some details that i felt were crucial to the plot development. And random bits of extra things were added. Such as Ron and Hermione kissing passionately after some splashy stuff that happened after Hermione stabbed a Horcrux (I think it was a goblet) with a Basilisk fang in the Chamber of Underground Secrets. No, thank you, I don't particularly wish to know what goes on between the two of them. (Ginny and Harry did the same thing a little later.)
Sixth. They showed Harry in his younger days, somewhere about the first movie. He was so cute back then... ^ ^ The three leading actors were all so cute! And now Harry became some funny pale dude who has a six pack (._.) and chest hair after stripping right in front of Hermione after they got soaked in a body of water after falling from a dragon that they latched on to to escape from Gringotts. I guess people do grow up. Sigh.
Seventh. Snape's character development has been pretty well done, with much fleshing out, and subtle hints given as to how he loved Lily Potter- all the way to his death. The child and young adult version of Snape were cute and handsome respectively. The adult Snape... Very good drawl, very sinister... very ugly.
Okay, I'm mostly done now.
*disclaimer: I am not a crazy hardcore Harry P. fan. I simply remembered quite alot of the plot. Thankfully.
I have just read something quite unbelievable online. A young girl (fine, her age is about the same as mine) has typed an open letter to the education minister, posted on Facebook. Now, i don't really have much to say because unlike her my depth of thought is still.. well, shallow. I'll just say that she does hold quite alot of valid points, but it seems slightly skewed towards condemning Singapore's education system... This is something in common with the book i read during my December holidays (I have, sadly, forgotten the title. It's somewhere in the blog archives, though.)-- which was likewise urging a reform of the USA's education system. Perhaps i've had a slightly different experience, but i feel that my personal take on this topic is somewhat more neutral. I've had good teachers who encourage or at least, don't discourage inquisitive learning. Perhaps some might dismiss some of my questions, but by and large, asking when i don't comprehend or just simply wanting to know more of a subject is second nature to me. And my teachers are game to take on my questions; even if they don't know, they will do their own research and come back to me. As the Chinese say, 三人行，必有我师。The teachers and I teacher each other along the way, and everybody stands to benefit.
Also, this lengthy note by this girl tells me that she is in a different league from the rest of her peers. Not every secondary four girl takes the time to catch up on domestic affairs or reads so widely that she can quote from at least the more famous personas that exist, or existed, with relative ease. I believe that she will go places.
edit: If the dear reader is interested, here is the original note: http://www.facebook.com/notes/janelle-nicodemus-lee/an-open-letter-to-the-education-minister/10150248404359401
Today was the cumulation of whatever work that i had put in to Biosoc, in designing the biology practical for a secondary school science quiz called Eureka!. So after many failed proposals, evaluation, discussions with a group who was not very enthusiastic about things, and innumerable revisions, the papers were finally printed, in black and white, and distributed to the countertops in the chemistry lab. A ten-minute practical that most groups couldn't do (I bet I couldn't, at any rate.) or rather, couldn't excel in. It wasn't exactly worth it, in the sense that I got a sudden, heady rush of emotion or jubilation, or anything of the sort. I simply felt a deep relief that this painstaking work was finally over. And I have also developed a new respect for teachers. I've always known that teaching is an extremely difficult and arduous job, but to try being a teacher of sorts- invigilating, doing your utmost to set a practical paper, checking on the progress of the teams, marking the answers and not knowing whether to laugh or cry-- it really was an eye-opener. I suppose now after reflecting on what I've been doing for Eureka! in the last few months, I really could have done better. And asked the students if they could hear me speaking. And checked and double-checked the plant samples and apparatus provided. (The fern fronds picked for one group by the lab techs were immature and did not have spores yet, so i had to hurry up and deliever the backup frond to them. Thankfully, in the nick of time.)
It has also come to my attention that much as i fancied myself to be a backseat leader-the type who doesn't speak much, but hides behind a veiled curtain and advises the one in authority- I probably lack leadership characteristics. The truth is depressing, but yet has confirmed what I've been suspecting for quite a number of years. I probably belong to the 'manager' category- those who can carry out orders well, but yet do not really provide many creative imputs of their own, and not having the charisma to rally people around them to work efficiently and get a task done. How do I change myself...?
The bare-bones outline of a story i have in mind (somehow, quite like a chick-flick)
Oral (-.-) and econs (=.=)
So without further ado:
1. Even though i have claimed that i would only be using this particular site just for CCA and official purposes, my use of it has apparently been expanded to just daily chatter, updating myself on happenings etc. As the creator(s) intended. Oh, well. I suppose vehemently denying all of the above would be amounting to stupidity, so i shall embrace myself in all my areas of weakness and stronger points. But mainly weaknesses.
Multitasking is something that is innate, to some degree, in everyone. After all, people can walk around and talk at the same time... this already requires a lot of coordination, much more so than even supercomputers around the world can provide as to computing power. Multitasking is accentuated by the JC lifestyle as students are thrust headfirst into a period of their lives where there seems to be nothing but homework and yet more homework to be done. Even holidays and outings require someone to at least coordinate movie timeslots and where/ when to meet, for example. I seem to be stepping onto this track as well, having to discuss the issue of selecting a dining table with my parents, watch the TV, try to go online, and type a message at the same time to a friend. However, multitasking has been proven to be inefficient, and focusing on one task at one time is a better choice. Which i will attempt to continue doing. Hopefully multitasking, for me at least, is simply a last resort.
2. Yo-yo Ma. I have forgotten who mentioned him to me, but i have been reading the newspapers daily (and conequently wasting a large portion of my time on it) and his seated figure playing his instrument (cello, i believe) while the setting sun casts an artistic shadow of him in an apartment (the main content of the advertisement) in the past few weeks has piqued my interest about him. He's apparently a very famous cello player, so i really wonder why i don't know him. But anyway: I finally decided to look up his great name on Youtube. And came across this video:
I guess eating while listening to this piece is not really a good idea. Oh, well. The few times i clicked back to the Youtube site i saw him sitting down, bowing on his cello, with a rapturous expression on his face. He is truly enjoying the music... I wonder how i could be like him. I suppose this feeling of giving life to a piece of music and enjoying it at the same time, savouring the sound like sweet wine, is undoubtedly a goal of all musicians. How can i strive to be like that, when i treat Chorale as a past time, a chore? I must learn to appreciate music... Perhaps, that is not as easy as it seems. Immerse yourself in music-making too long, and your senses dull and you just go about the motions... this is a trap that many fall into. I hope i remain sure- footed and continue threading my way to a better future in Chorale.
3. I don't care, I'm going to type about oral first.
I actually can't really speak very well now. Or at least eat food properly. There is a (relatively small) ulcer that is inhabiting the left side of my gum. I thought that I could just drink water and recover over the weekend before oral, and it felt as though i was recovering... but no...! Visual inspection proved otherwise. The constant rubbing of the ulcer against my lower incisors had caused it to grow to about twice it's orignal size... I was frantic and worried for oral. But as it turned out, the ulcer thankfully didn't affect my ability to speak.
Oral was quite badly done, i guess. And yet, it was better than Sec 3 oral. I think. Due to my amazing lack of ability to remember things in the past (except for certain events) i have mostly forgotten about what happened then. As a sentence in my Chinese textbook goes, "bad things tend to be forgotten easily". All i know is that i'm lucky to be the third person sitting for the oral exam today. It was bad that i didn't manage to prepare much, and that there were renovation works going on right outside the hall that the exam was held in, but being one of the first few meant that i had less time to be delusional and less time to feel cold. Instead, the adrenaline rush tided me over, and even though i read many words wrongly, the passage was relatively smooth-flowing. For the discussions with the oral examiners, I suppose that's when i faltered. I panicked and didn't manage to catch most of the question. In retrospect, i should have asked the examiners to repeat what they asked, but i guess the time for that is already long over. So i 'smoked' the question and just randomly answered, going on into a short tirade about some issues that i hoped were relevant. The examiners seemed satisfied and only asked me two questions. But it could also mean that they didn't bother to correct me if i had gone wholly off course... all i can do now is to cross my fingers and hope for the best.
Now having gotten back the latter part of the economics CT, i feel relatively screwed. I suppose this kind of marks (too askamed to list it; chemistry too) is the norm for someone who didn't study. I really do need to put in my all and devote myself to the books, already. This CT is supposed to serve as a wakeup call. I hope it did.
4. Storytime.
Now, this idea has been brewing in my head for quite some time already. But it has undergone several morphs along the way to become what it is now. Even though i most probably wouldn't expand this outline into a full story, i guess even the outline is good.. I guess. Sorry to those who actually wanted to read it, but i'm a person who cannot keep his focus long enough to ever type what i want to do for this. Moving on...
The first incarnation was a girl. Who was quite desperate. And so i brought in the usual secondary school emo themes, of (skim this part if you don't want to read it... mostly referring to SL.) sex, violence, murder, etc... Basically, a festival of all the ugliest sides of human nature that you could think of.
Next came a typical chick-flick (and still is). Chick flicks generally refer to books and media (e.g. movies) catering to a 'typical' teenage girl mindset. I learnt this form my sister a few years back when she asked me what it meant, and i told her i didn't know... She was in JC back then, too. So, the general plotline was something like this: girl sees boy, girl has crush on boy (American- style jock, but in a more Singaporean context, using some of my classmates/ female acquaintances as models for the girl. This is meant to be a compliment.), boy fancies girl too, blurted out confession, happily- ever- after. Alas, this would make people think that i'm some crazy freak who churns out weird stories for girls to read...
Now, across all versions of the story, there is something to do with a diary. Or at least, the previous two versions started with a diary. So it's kind of like, the girl writes in her own diary that she likes a guy, and the guy also states that he likes this random girl that stood out from the rest in his own (slightly manlier) diary.
*we interrupt this commentary to bring you news of the author's attempt to do something about his ulcer by adding an unknown powder called "watermelon frost and pearl powder".
AGHHHHHH IT HURTTTSSSSS IT BURNS OMGGG WHY DID I EVEN OUT IT OMGGGGG.... okay it stopped hurting, let's add more powder.... ARGHHH OMG IM SO STUPID OWWWWWWW*
Anyways.
So the plot evolves and thickens, with both sides getting more attracted to each other , as the reader can see from the dates in their diaries... and yet they don't know that their affection for the other party is mutual. Hence, the enjoyment...
For the latest version, the girl's bored. (chapter one. Or Letter One, as i will call it if i blog the story...) She goes to a nearby swimming complex and puts a book into a locker- and doesn't close it on purpose. Letter One will be on what she wrote in the book- asking the person who picks it up to be her penpal, and share the locker, exchanging their stories...
Letter Two will be on how a guy from the same school as the girl (incidentally) goes to his usual locker . He's quite atheletic and swims every Sunday, and came right on the dot; just after the girl leaves the book in his locker, not knowing that he uses it. This sort of lockers are those that have a coin slot, and the user can leave his belongings inside until he's done swimming. So he picks the book up, and decides to play along, and uses the code that the girl has specified in her first letter to her unknown penpal. They start to exchange letters each Sunday, writing them in the book, and placing it in the same locker for the other party to collect..
At the same time, they meet each other in school on a number of occasions... the girl states that she is attracted to this boy whom she met, while the guy says that he had the same experience. Yet, both of them don't know that they're from the same school. The girl starts to develop feelings for the guy, whom she feels is charismatic, easygoing.. etc. The guy, for his part, starts to notice the girl, whom he thinks is quiet, shy, beautiful, and really, really cute. (oh, well...)
The story continues on, with the both of them eventually becoming a couple, and then seperating (due to a misunderstanding), all the time corresponding through that book in the locker, all the time not knowing that each one is the one they fancy, and that they actually live a few floors away from each other in the same HDB flat... The heartbroken girl cries while seeking her penpal as solace, and this is reflected in the notebook. (unfortunately, blogs don't really have tear-stained wallpaper, do they?) Their relationship deepens over time, each missing the other, each comforting the other through their words, yet never meeting... Several years pass, and their lives diverge; going on to university, NS, working lives... The correspondence is cut as their student identities are left behind.
Eventually they meet each other once more. They look different now- the girl is brimming with confidence, and has blossomed into an woman. She works as an insurance agent. The guy is now a top banker, the youngest in his company. She approaches him as the coordinator for her company to sell insurance to his, and they realise that they have a lot in common. Over time, a relationship blossoms once more, and they eventually get married. finally, on the wedding night, they share stories of how they once used to write letters to an unknown penpal, leaving behind a little book in a locker in a swimming complex... And they learn that they have found each other again.
They have come full circle.
A sample for the girl when she was heartbroken after splitting with her boyfriend (both of them use acronyms for their daily lives and penpal names): Please insert tear stains, by the way.
小猫咪...
I don't want to live anymore.
Vincent ditched me... that jerk!
That rotten guy... How could i ever have loved him! Is this all that we amount to??? A relationship that is broken by bi**hes like Esther? Damnit... I'm crying. Sorry. I don't think i can write much this week. Sorry for dragging down your week too...
Can't stop the tears from flowing dowen my cheeks... the world's so blurry now, do you know that??? I want to go cry myself to sleep, but it's not worth it over that jerk. He even promised me that he'll love me forever. What happened to all those comforting kisses and hugs? Why... i tried to keep him out of my mind, but it doesn't seem to work. I still like him after all...
That stupid idiot. That hate-inducing smile of his, so easily flashed to everyone... That made me jealous, because i want to keep it for myself...
Those tender words that he always reassures me with..
That stupid fool.
I love him.
I really do...
Vincent, I love you. I love you so much... I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Well... I guess i was too tired to do anything else besides crashing on my mattress and sleeping last night. It was pure laziness on my part because i got CTs to wake me up and he did, but at that time i was just about to doze off. So i answered his call, crawled back to the bed, and accidentally slept from 9pm to 8am... Oops.
There's been nothing much interesting about life so far this week (but yet considerably more exciting than last year) apart from me being dragged into some exchange program by my Chinese teacher with some Taiwanese students from oops-i-forgot-high-school. Before that...
I noticed that my verage number of blog posts is 8. This is quite amazing because i never intended to write 8 blog posts each month.. Just when something more bloggable comes along. Oh, well. This month appears to break the trend with one-third of the month gone already and this being only the second blog post. But who cares, right? Life isn't only about statistics... I hope.
So. About the Taiwanese students. Each of us were charged with a buddy of the same sex. Between me and my buddy (he has an English name- Kevin. Just like the rest of the students. Which left me quite... astonished. O_O) things were quite awkward from start to finish, i regret to say. This is mostly because of my inherent shyness to people i've met for the first time. I tend to warm up to one person only first (normally a guy because of 4 years in a guys-only school, sadly), then stick with the person for a period of time, getting to know the others, form a clique, and finally become slightly more natural. As my friends would have observed. Another main factor was that my chinese was (and still is) quite lousy and not up-to-standard.. So a few lines of mumbled Chinese would have gotten me a puzzled look from the both of them (because another classmate of mine was assigned a girl )and then more awkward silences. So that's how i spent most of my week. The more interesting part was when we were playing billiards and bowling yesterday (the classmate didn't come; she was waiting for me to rush over from Chorale practice to take over so she could go for HER CCA). This incidentally left me wondering about Chinese A-LEVEL ORAL OMGGGGG which is tomorrow. I was wondering just what i was doing playing my day away when i was supposed to revise for oral, but i guess omforting myself that i was spending the day in fact practicing oratical skills. Which of course is false, condering that i couldn't even speak a proper sentence most of the time. So back to the billiards and bowling. After i forcibly chucked my pool cue to the female Taiwanese student (Kai Xuan- the guy is Xiao Xuan and no they're not siblings) and went to the bowling counter to check the waiting list (it was quite long) i found them playing quite happily. Xiao Xuan was photo-stalking her while she hit funny shots, making the cue ball jump (accidentally), and in general not hitting what she wanted to hit. It was fun watching them play around... I was thinking to myself: SO CUTE...!!! while watching them and laughing to myself.
For bowling. It turned out that both of them were quite skilled, but the thing is i don't know how they managed to bowl straight (sometimes) with such poor technique. Xiao Xuan just chucked the ball (don't know how to describe) and it miraculously scored a strike. I don't know how that happened. Kai Xuan walked daintily up to the lane and set the ball free, rolling very slowly towards the pins. On a straight course that scores 9 pins each time. When she was bowling straight, that is... Meanwhile i was attempting to mitate the normal technique but failed as my legs refused to move like what they should. So our eventual score was 56 (the guy), 52 (the girl) and 55 (me). Equally bad, to say in the least..
I also offered to pay for the billiards and they grudgingly accepted, but when it came to bowling they pused their money over before i could take out my wallet. Me: Them -- 1:1. Then after dinner Kai Xuan returned me $10 for the billiards, forcibly. So i had no choice but to accept... Me: Them-- 1:2. Oh, well...
So after this wonderfully long blog post (relative to my need to cut t short so i have more time to do other stuff while i still feel awake), i shall need to do something about oral. And newspapers. And homework. And so on, and so forth...
First up: a brief breakdown on how badly I did for the Common Tests. Since it was heartbreaking, I shall not dwell on it too much.
Monday: Economics. Now, I'm sure i blogged about the first subject (GP) a long time ago, so I shall not talk about it any more... not like i can remember anything. I'm unique in the sense that once I've finished doing an exam paper I immediately forget most of what I've done. So I need to blog about CTs immediately before I really do forget...
Back to the point. Economics. I only studied up till [I forgot- something about intro/ scarcity and the PPC(production possibility curve); elasticity; and concepts of elasticity(Price Elasticity of Demand, Income ED, Cross ED, PE Supply)] and then there was firms. Something ablout long run and short run, and then classifying markets into different structures- monopolies, oligopolies, and the like. Hence, half of economics was not studied and I obviously didn't know how to do the case study and essays. Hence, I will die for econs.
One trend i observed was that for all subjects, I start off each paper very slowly, taking my own sweet time, and ending up having to rush (even then, not so much of a pick up in speed of thinking and writing); therefore, I managed to not complete nearly every single paper. The one or two that I did were very, very rushed, and therefore insubstantial.
Tuesday: Chemistry. I regard this, with Biology following close behind as the subject that I like the most and hence will excel in. So when I left about 20 marks' worth of questions undone, which means that the maximum I can get for the paper is a 70% (not even an A1 in secondary school O'lvl standards). Since that will be unviable due to careless mistakes and the like, this generally means that I am not going to do very well for chem. And if it's going to be my best subject, then i really don't want to think about the remaining subjects.
Wednesday: Math. The paper was relatively easy if i were to measure it in terms of JC standards. However, I obviously still flunked it. I forgot my secondary school differentiation even after reading past year notes; another 20-25 marks left undone, and the rest mostly unsure of. Nothing more needs to be said.
Thursday: Biology. Another relatively easy paper which I didn't manage to finish (essay question, part a and c). Now for part a, which asked candidates to name a fibrous protein and how its structure relates to its function. I wrote on my question paper "cellulose" (a carbohydrate polymer); then i went on to write the first paragraph about cellulose and its main function (structural support in plants, facilitating pressure potential due to turgor pressure, giving plant cells their shape, high tensile strength etc.). The second paragraph became the beginnings of a lengthy elaboration on collagen (the correct example to be named). Then I realised that I wrote about cellulose, hurried to change "cellulose" to "collagen", and had to stop right after that as the time was up. So, I wrote how collagen has functions in plants. You may deduce the humor of this situation... I would laugh at it too, if the person writing such things was none other than myself.
Friday: Chinese. Halfway during the composition, my chinese e-dictionary died on me, and it was a permernant death. So I had to struggle my way through composition, ending very lamely, and then struggled through Paper 2- again, I was too slow. So I didn't finish in the end, with my two fellow female counterparts in the same class staring at me in astonishment. This is what I mean when I say that my chinese standard is really, really low.
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After CTs on Friday, I decided it was time to finally relax for a bit before sleeping (early- at 10pm). So I invited my friend CTs (not referring to Common Tests this time round, it's his initials) to play billiards with me and shop for weights. The shopping failed because the shop did not stock the type of weights that him and I wanted. Then billiards failed because the place apparently moved out. So we went back to the same shopping mall we begun our journey from after the harrowing experience, blew away money on arcade games, slacked around for a little more (I got CTs hooked to pro-looking bicycles) and went home after dinner and slept.
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So for today (saturday): I was supposed to go for an optional chorale session but i realised i was going to Universal Studios Singapore (USS) in Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) so i had to decline.
Then, family logistics were really, really bad most of the time. So i shall not talk about it, apart form a sneak peek: it was so bad, my parents and I didn't even bring a camera. So all photos were taken using Iphones.
This shall be a complaining session about USS.
After finally going in after a few more minor problems, I looked around me. The area was called Hollywood. Buildings left and right mimicked shops in America, pandering to the 60's or so era. The buildings had fake facades, protected by a white canopy. When I first saw the opening of RWS in Singapore, I thought to myself: Singapore has fallen. Two casinos and a theme park with Disney attractions and so on... Something found in most countries. Why go to such great lengths to increase economic revenue? By turning what used to be a unique place into something ubiquitous? Something so commonly seen elsewhere globally? Something so extraodinarily fake and unreal? I don't find the kick in visiting these sorts of places. If I want to visit pyramids I'll go to Egypt; if i want to see America in the 1960's I'll visit small, less developed parts of America; and so on. Rather than sit down waiting for the queue to slowly inch forward and feel as though I was wasting away my life in there, in rooms reverberating with mindless chatter and noise emitted from giant, loud speakers.
Anyway.
My parents and I walked along USS in an anti-clockwise direction. USS is shaped like a rough circle, with the entrance/exit from the Hollywood area. First, my mother went to stand with a fake Marilyn Monroe for pictures. I pity the fake personas, who have to act the part, pose, blow kisses (Marilyn Monroe); act stupid (fake Frankenstein just before going back); act weird (Betty Boop and the female version of Woody Woodpecker- my mum said it was cute; i said it was not. And i told her i'll laugh if the female character was actually played by a guy in the suit.)
Next was Battlestar Galactica. All three of us sat the blue one first (Cylon). I found it quite impressive but also an impressive waste of money. The sound effects were good, but after hearing it looped more than several times after a 30+ minute queue you begin to think that it's really, really annoying. The walls looked really gross and simulated red flesh with wires running through them. I imagined that being my flesh and shivered. The ride was alright, but not too exciting. I find rollercoasters very ordinary... perhaps the ones in Singapore and Malaysia (Genting Highlands) are not enough to stimulate me. Since there are actually two rollercoasters for this ride, i tried to go the red one (Human) next. Their budget must have ran out because Human was simply decorated with just a aeroplane replica in the holding room and the walls, sparse concrete. Or so i thought till i knocked it and found it hollow. Cheapskates. After 20+ minutes of queuing, I could see the rollercoaster. And then I waited for another 20 more minutes because there were 'technical difficulties'. And then I decided I was being stupid, and ran out.
My parents sat The Mummy rollercoaster while i was queuing fruitlessly. It looked quite fun... I took pictures of the fake-but-impressive-looking figures outside. The figures outside were supporting slabs with heiroglyphs on them. I thought: "I hope those heiroglyphs mean something...". The entrance to the ride was flanked by two jackal-headed gods (Anubis, if I'm not wrong; too lazy to check Google)- as if an entrance to a temple. I met my parents and continued walking. Walking, walking... most of the time spent was done so walking or queuing for rides. Which was quite pointless.
We sat down somewhere in Jurassic Park area (i think that's what its called) for a little rest and nachos (salty). Then we wanted to sit a water ride, but the wait time was 100 minutes long... not worth it at all, unless you had an express pass, which required more money.
Onward to Far Far Away, where we sat through a 4-D movie which was quite horrible; there was water sprinkling down on the viewers as part of a sneeze (twice) and other stuff; ghosts were simulated by air on the back of the neck (really noisy) and horses galloping by moving seats. The most disgusting effect was spiders by funny things that darted around shoes rested on the floor.
Then, lunch at some Friar's Restaurant place. The windowpanes showed a friar licking ice cream, eating more food, and a painting on the wall showed a friar surrounded by a circle of sausages. The wooden roof beams were, of course, fake. At least the food was acceptable, if expensive.
More walking back to Hollywood. My mother decided to rest while me and my father finally sat the Human ride. It was, apparently, up again, before it broke down- AGAIN- after another 15 minutes of queuing. I sat down and silently boiled with some unknown feeling inside me. Luckily it was repaired. Then when it was my dad's and my turn, we sat in the roller coaster, unmoving, for a few minutes, before the 'technical error' message came yet again. For the 3rd time. And we travelled backwards to the start/end point and got off, and the thing went around twice as a safety check before we finally boarded, took the ride, and got off. Utterly boring. Adding on to the long queue times and the despise i now had for USS, consumer satisfaction was at an all time low (what I still remeber from econs). And finally: the last ride. I forced my father to take The Mummy ride with me again. The interior looked alright at first... until we got slightly further, and there lay fake sarcophagi (the stone caskets Egyptian mummies lie in), fake heiroglyphs, fake walls, fake everything... with an empty Lay's wrapper in the crook of a joint between two wooden planks (it felt fake, but the wood was probably real). And the noise by people was unbearable. So after yet more queuing, I was nearing the start point for the ride... and i saw a big figure of a god. Chinese have their 牛头马面 to guard over hell; apparently the Egyptians had their "马面人身" as well, as my father said. This figure was interesting as I tried to take pictures of it but failed; my 3rd generation Iphone had no flash, so nothing could be seen, and my father's 4th generation Iphone only captured white because of the flash. Perhaps, something more spiritual... as it is supposed to be in a temple. They reduced a previous king (Amenhotep) to a mere skeletal figure, shouting out random bits of "you will never get the Book Of The Dead!!" and evil laughter, and so on.
This is the whole point of why I didn't like USS one bit at all. Selling false information to those visiting; being utterly sacreligious, reducing stained windows to such abhorrent scenes of modernity and ice cream on windows; whittling, stripping culture down to it's bare, naked self and calling that being "universal"... this is something I will not pay for. For the rides along, yes; for everything else, count me out. I prefer originality, enjoying these things where they belong. If they made The Mummy attraction into something educational fine, by all means do so; even if for amusement, perhaps; but this is going overboard.
To conclue, I won't be back there in a pretty long while, unless I'm dragged there by friends. Who should know me better after this post, really.
...
On a lighter note, I spotted many, many DSLRs when I walked around the place. At one time I counted about 10 in a 360-degree spin around the same spot. Once a guy went past me carrying a hybrid interchangable lens camera! I was really jealous and stared at the camera till he went past... (e.g. Sony Nex 5; basically, compact DSLRs are smaller, cuter, sexier versions of DSLRs, and without the bulk that a prism for reflection confers.)
**Please note that this is a very skewed version of USS by someone who so quite biased against it. I'll admit that the rollercoasters were quite good (my dad even shouted on both red and blue rollercoasters) and the Mummy attraction had good effects. Even if they were fake. The fires especially left we wondering how they did it.. and how engineers design rollercoasters too, for that matter.
