Monday 30 July 2007

Panic

Piano exam today, though frankly I'd rather have a normal day of school. The examiner was a friendly Caucasian man, but that didn't stop me from freaking out. Nervous, and stuck with an unfamiliar piano, I started of terribly, screwed my scales to hell because I was so tense and jittery. Pieces were pretty decent, sight reading was okay, aural was so-so. Hopefully I can still pass......

Determined to take advantage of the remainder of my free day, and forget the depressing piano exam, I spent most of the day in my room with laptop. I've only just remembered that I need to dig up my E maths book from somewhere. Hopefully I haven't missed much, with the exams drawing nearer......

Even so, it didn't prevent me from writing another poem I've been working on between lulls in Literature and History and other various spaces of time in school where thinking in general is not done and often not required (*cough* PSE *cough*).



Winter's Day
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Snow falls lightly like cotton puffs
Smoothening the landscape, no longer rough
The freshness of winter is all around
All life in the forest slumbers underground
Tucked away from the freezing sting
Awaiting the eventual advent of spring
Deeper into the forest I walk along
There is no curious chirping, nor cheerful birdsong
For now, there is a peaceful absence of sound
A tranquil silence prevails abound
There is a strange beauty in this icy wood
Its something in its sombre mood
Onward into the forest I press
As a chilling wind blows from the west
The sun sets below a horizon covered in snow
Giving it an alluring reflected glow
As evening falls I return
To my home where a warm fire burns
The light in the sky fades away
Signaling the end of another winter's day.
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Funniest thing is, I've never seen a winter with snow.

Saturday 28 July 2007

He blasted my body, I broke his pride.

This post shall be a sad one. My juniors became the first SJI C division rugby team not to make it to the semi-finals of the Cup stage in a decade, perhaps even two when they crashed out 8-12 to RI in the second group stage yesterday. They blame it on bad refereeing, claiming that they had actually put the ball behind the line. They even go so far as to quote the ref saying that "I know its a try, but I didn't see it".


Its sad news, especially since they have a decent group of players. We expected so much from them when they routed the opposition 56-0 in their first match. They lost narrowly to ACS Barker in their second, and from then on their campaign lost steam. They won the next two matches by small margins, often trailing on the scoreboard, scoring late winners in matches we should have dominated on paper. Unless they can pull off a miraculous win against Saint Andrews, their fate is sealed.

On a happier note, I finally got the cocky bastard at my taekwondo class. The ideology of this ancient martial arts is respect and restraint, but he was only here for fights. Though one belt lower, 5 centimeters shorter and 30 kilos lighter, his annoying agility allowed him to dodge my more awkward attacks in the after class sparring matches he challenged my brother and I to. My younger brother, being the clumsy meatsack he is, constantly got pwned, normally unable to land a hit while he got owned left, right and center. He would taunt us mercilessly, my brother for his general, how should I put this nicely, lack of streetsmarts, and my for my overly defensive style of sparring.

I refused to be put down by this smaller, loudmouthed, uncouth ruffian from Orchid Park. Of course, many times the impulse to break sparring rules and just rush at him head on with a spearhead tackle (Now made illegal by International Rugby Board for being too dangerous) tempted me, but I resisted demoting myself to his level. Finally today, he beat up my silly brother in a match that lasted 20 seconds. No one makes my brother look like an idiot except me and himself, so I accepted his usual challenge with relish instead of reluctance today. I tried a new tactic today, letting him attack while I waited and blocked, and wouldn't even have bothered with that if sparring wasn't based on a points system which requires you to block attacks with your hands to deny opponents points (Like DotA in a way), then hit him with a counter attack. 2 years of rugby and a much larger build allowed me to swallow block all the damage he threw my way, and once his barrage of kicks ended I would tap him on the leg with my foot, which would earn me a point for contact.

It seemed to work. Knowing his kind to be angered easily, I kept it up, taunting him by blocking or dodging his attacks and landing a small hit on him while making it obvious he was doing no damage. Finally, in a rage he released a maelstrom of kicks aimed at my sides. I hadn't bothered to block since it actually hurts more to do so, and all the fury he unleashed, it really didn't hurt at all!!! Yes, really I swear it didn't hurt! While he was hitting me for absolutely no damage, I landed 5, heavy kicks on his knee, intending to break the legs he was so damned proud of. Anyone who's seen me on the pitch will know I can let loose devastating destruction with my legs, Ryan Singh and John Tan have first hand experience. He seemed shaken after that , no longer able to evade my slow but powerful kicks, and we fought on for a minute or so.

We were both evidently badly battered by then, but neither one of us showed any weakness. We circled each other, but instead of rushing out to attack like he normally does, he chose to stay a safe distance away from me and my (up till now) under appreciated legs. Eventually we both tapped out. Our usual spectators, possibly frightened by the most violent sparring match against each other they had seen so far, proclaimed it a draw. He stormed off after that, as I willed my right leg to stop quivering from the abuse it had taken over the last 3 minutes. Normally flamboyant after such matches, he was furious as he snatched his bag up to leave. I relished the humiliation and anger I had caused him. He battered my body, but I broke his pride.


Take that you arrogant, uncouth and abysmally foolish shit eater. Call your gang if you want bitch, sparring rules don't apply on the streets. No one messes with Micro da Slummer!!

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Hours spent mugging : 5

Thursday 26 July 2007

Green Day got owned


Now what was it I was supposed to do again?


First things first, the 7th and final installment of Harry Potter, well, at least it ties up loose ends. A bit on the unrealistic side at times (Yes, I know its a fantasy), I mean, which couple would kiss each other while carrying armfuls of giant poisonous snake fangs and a battle that could decide the destiny of the world raging just outside. Half the book comprised of them wandering around various forests in Europe, and them arguing while they were at it.


School ended early today for some reason, and I for one, don't look gift horses in the mouth. Tagging along with some of the old 202, we watched the Simpsons movie at HBD Hub. Cinema was completely empty save for a few lower sec guys in the front.


The movie was like three Simpsons episodes joined into one. Starts off with Bart writing " I will not download this movie illegally." in the blackboard opening, and Green Day singing the opening song on a barge in the middle of Springfield Lake. After which, they promptly get owned like this.

Green Day : We've been singing for 3 and a half hours straight now, so now we'd like to take a minute to discuss the pollution of your lake.

(Crowd boos them and throws even more rubbish at the barge)

Green Day : Everyone, please stop!!! Your polluted river is dissolving our barge!!

(Moe throws a large rock, which goes through a drum and hits the drummer in the gonads as barge beings to sink)

Green Day : Oh well.... (All take violins out and play as the barge sinks Titanic Style)

After which, the town erects a anti-dumping barrier to stop people dumping into the lake, but it does nothing to stop Homer from jettisoning a large silo of pig crap from a pig he saved from being killed in a commercial. The lake becomes so poisonous, the US government seals the town from the rest of the world by placing a large dome over it to prevent the spread of the pollution. Blowing town by escaping through a sinkhole, the Simpsons eventually return to rescue the town from being blown up by the government as well.


Ms Chia dropped by my class to get my Commended Commonwealth Essay, requesting that it be sent in before the end of the day. Paranoid about losing my chance to have my work posted in the Muse, I had Sam write a note on my arm. Just sent it to her now. I also asked about Homeward Bound since Mrs Ang said she showed it to her. With any luck, I'll get two pieces in the 2007 edition.....

Tuesday 17 July 2007

UNSW English test was today, though it didn't go as well as hoped. Still, with 3 Distinctions and 1 High Distinction in the last 6 years, one more Distinction is definitely possible. Day was typically alright except for the rather unfortunate disappearance of my boots. Adhitya apparently has rather, erm, explicit material on his phone, and was proudly showing it off/ trying to corrupt Kai Sam, who was shouting "Ahhh!!, Don't corrupt me!!" in horror with his eyes shut. Seeing me, he showed me the video. Not having figured out what it was yet, the video quality was so bad, I didn't realize what it was till he turned up the sound. Upon determining the material he was watching, I said, okay, shouted "ADHITYA, STOP WATCHING PORN ON YOUR PHONE!!!!!!"

Watched the Harry Potter movie on Sunday. It was okay, ignoring the usual cutting of events to squeeze that 800+ page book into 2 hours. I watched it cause I loved the series when I was younger, getting up at 4am in the morning to get to borders to get the Order Of the Phoenix. I was even mentioned in the newspaper for my insane devotion. Of course, some went solely for Emma Watson *cough* Wei Shun *cough*. Well, at least she still looked good in this one, Cho Chang was fat, to the point that Looney Lovegood looked better than her, which again, is stupid since she isn't supposed to look that good. Neville Longbottom is bulked up as well. Zhongxi reckons the kissing scene was too fake, which was because, according to him, "Who kisses with their hands by their side?". Well, we're not all that experienced friend.


Just a few more days till the release of the last book. At least Rowling has the sense to end a storyline when it still has momentum, not when its already pretty listless like Pokemon. While it has garnered millions, possibly billions of dollars from little kids (Including me) with its franchise, the developers can't see that it is definitely past its prime, insistently trying to squeeze every last cent out of this exhausted series with tired, predictable new worlds. I mean, look at the new Legendaries for Pearl and Diamond, they don't really look majestic. Just shows how the animators are out of good ideas.

Runescape Stuff
=======================
Finished Underground Pass, at bloody last. Could have been worse though. Started Legends Quest, the main goal for me now. Unfortunately, I'm really going to have to work a bit more to bring up my stats to do it, especially herblore.


Hours Studying This Term : 1

Tuesday 10 July 2007

Feeling........ Faint..............

Chemistry practical today, involved testing of gases. Me and Wayne bumbled along the whole time, both of us getting the same items for the same experiment at least twice. Nothing really went to well, our splint didn't make a peep when held over hydrogen, and the blue litmus paper turned red when held over it. Thinking we had made a scientific breakthrough, we rushed to question Mr Tang over this strange abnormality, only to discover that Wayne's hands were more acidic than normal today. Managed to force the limewater to turn chalky in the carbon dioxide test by adding about 4 full droppers of acid into it. Not bad, considering Mr Tang couldn't coax the desired effect yesterday. Oxygen test went well, but we couldn't get the sulphur dioxide test to work. In the end, I was making green fire by burning copper carbonate on the Bunsen burner. Some idiot left two Bunsen burners running at full blast and unlighted at the next table.

I think inhaling all that gas did something to my head because right in the middle of the Chinese test in the next period, my head felt sandwiched between a pneumatic clamp. Didn't help that that terrible Pro-life talk was on at PSE lesson. A campaign talk supposedly to educate us on life, sex, abortion and all that which stretched over 3 very painful weeks. At first, I had a small sense of respect for the logic behind it, but today just sent it all spiraling towards the ground. The final chapter today was on abortion, which included some extremely gory scenes of aborted foetuses, foetuses being aborted and disposed of, and the anti-abortionist protests being victims of police brutality. When the entire auditorium let out a collective gasp of horror at one picture, he thought we were laughing at it. The worst bit is, although he claimed to be neutral, take a look at what he said.

----------------------------------------------------------
Presenter : To support Pro-life ideas, one must reject and disapprove of Embryonic Stem Cell research, In-Vitro Fertilization, Abortion, Contraception, (I can't remember the rest)

Me : What the f*** is wrong with IVF?

(As if by magic and he heard me)

Presenter : By using IVF, the couple is instrumentalizing the child, and it is no longer unconditional love, and the child has become an instrument to fulfill your needs.

Me : Right..... You just said a minute ago that nature's main objective for females is to have children, and if a woman goes for abortion, she destroys that objective and hurts herself. So why shouldn't a woman help herself live up to her purpose by going for IVF if she can't have kids naturally you self-contradicting f***tard.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, ECSR doesn't even require foetuses anymore, if one reads medical journals enough.

On his evaluation sheet
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(I took the stand of Guthix and the U.N here)

Your opinion of this course

IVF is a bloody saviour for infertile couples, and I think they'd love their kids like any natural parent, and ECSR doesn't require embryos anymore, so you people have run out of reasons to stop the discovery of potential medical miracles by opposing stem cell research.

This course was as neutral as nitric acid.
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I'm pretty against abortion, but I don't see anything wrong about IVF and ESCR. The viewing material shown was also a little, well, controversial to say the least. Blue Lagoon and the Hard Truth to 15 year olds?? Not sure thats even legal mate. Can't believe he's alumni.

My headache exacerbated, no thanks to that horror show, and the journey back home started seemed like crossing the Alps. When distance starts to go out of focus, I know I'm in trouble. When I finally got home with Bryant's help, I just collapsed on the couch, and slept from 3 to 9. Luckily most of its cleared up by now. Going to sleep now, hopefully the migraine doesn't act up again, there's a match I really want to play in on Wednesday.

Runescape stuff
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Once again, I flamed demon-girl 666 on the clan forums today. For goodness sake, she thinks Tim finds her annoying, despite him making at least two posted apologies, so I laid it out very clearly for her in simple words what the hell was that situation. Though I do regret calling her eccentric, and having to explain to her it meant odd, weird, strange because she didn't understand, and now she took it as an insult. Crazy Aussie girls...... Anyway, after leveling both Strength and Defense, I'm 0.05 levels away from a combat level up, according to the calculator.

Saturday 7 July 2007

I find myself unable to concentrate on doing most of my homework lately. Probably still in a holiday mood, really got to shake that off fast, I can't afford to get off track anymore.

Determined not to become little more than target practice in Gears, I looked around for a few multiplayer tips. Sadly, IGN gave the Lancer, and the 133t chainsaw bayonet a rather scathing review, labeling it as a noob weapon. Then again, they do think that the Hammerburst shoots in 4 round bursts.....

Watching a Gears Sniper montage, I was thinking to myself, are there chainsaw montages as well?? Bryant and Sam vehemently denied this when I asked, and so I set out to prove them wrong. I found a video on Youtube of a guy chainsawing his way around XBL, even using my favourite Theron Sentinel, the montage showing him sawing apart every COG player from Carmine to Hoffman. However, when Bryant took a closer look at the video, we realized that a good number of his kills were either KSed (Kill-steal) or he was taking advantage of the lag that didn't affect him as the host. He even thought I could chainsaw better than that (6 Therons in a row on Insane)!!

Recently, I've been reading the webcomic Alien Loves Predator. The storyline revolves around an extremely horny and desperate Alien xenomorph named Abe and a shortsighted Predator named Preston. Instead of following their age-old tradition and attempting to tear each other's guts out, they live happily together in New York, with Jesus being signed as a batter for the Yankees and moving in with them so they can share the rent. One of my favourite excerpts
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British Man: Could you please point me to the Tube good chap?

Preston: What?? Speak English man, oh, you must mean the Subway.

British Man: You have a fag to spare??

Preston: (Looking around frantically) Down here, we call them homosexuals. And no, I
do not have one to spare!!!

Brit : Sorry, I meant cigarette.

Brit : Whew, speaking American English is a real chink in my armour.

Preston: Asian-American you mean. And down here, its called armor.
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Sigh, was Feng Lan's birthday today. I intended to write a small birthday poem, but my creative juices went out on me, and I couldn't come up with anything appropriate for someone's sixteenth birthday.....

Which is kind of worrying, I haven't written anything in quite a while thats worth noting. Hope I haven't lost my touch......

Anyhow, Happy Sweet Sixteen FL!!!