Saturday, 23 February 2008

Brothers In Arms

Its been a month or so since the finalization of my demotion from starting player to substitute. I pretty much got over it, mostly helped by the fact that I could be considered a supersub with Luohan and Gerald.

I saw plenty of action already after just three games, the third being today. I was brought on at every game, and while the first one was okay, the second and third one were the dirtiest matches I've every played.

The second match was against Green Ridge, got brought on 15 minutes into the second half, and they were plenty dirty already. Every scrum involved them hurling long sentences in Malay that George said were swear words. One guy tried to pull me out of the ruck by my neck. In a rage I shot my head upwards head butted him in the stomach and threw him my best pai kiah look (still not very good). Amazingly, he backed off. They punched, they kicked, their linesman was biased, referee was pretty blind, it made for a bad game, and if I'm not wrong, they tried to field an overage player. Worst game I had.

Till today of course. We scored first blood against Bukit Batok, but Tim missed the conversion. (His kicking has been off form of late...) Then they intercepted a pass Loy was offloading to Gabriel, and they burned down the wing, and converted their try. 7-5, we were actually losing. I watched from the sidelines anxiously with Gerald and Arjun (Luohan started in place of Jamal, who was injured) as our scrums got pwned by theirs. SJI has always been known for solid scrums, but right now we were getting owned left, right and center by theirs. Luohan was getting bullied by that brute of a prop they had, and by the 20th or so minute he was looking pretty beat up.

Thats when coach told me and Arjun to warm up. We got sent in not long after that to relieve Luohan and Jun Teng. Thats when I got my first look at my opposite number in the scrum. At around 180cm and 80-90kg, the first thing that crossed my mind at the first scrum was "shit". Of course, when we actually got down to business, he found he couldn't outshove me. At the next one he tried shaking like a bitch to try and destabilize me (Yes, this is against the rules. Duh...). Loy told me if I hadn't been wearing a scrum cap, I wouldn't have lasted against him. I held on for dear life and thanked the heavens for my scrum cap. Then when he moved up, I ducked down and rammed my shoulder into his stomach. Pwned bitch!

The game was bad tempered to say the least. The buggers were perpetually offside, they conceded at least 10 penalties, and thats not counting the ones the shortsighted ref didn't see... We fought our way back to their try line before we knocked the ball on and conceded a scrum to them. By now I didn't fear the behemoth that now tried to stare me down. All the times I had staring contests with Oliver and numerous other people paid off.

Now, on one ruck right on their try line, everyone was lined up for the final attack. Matthew and another 2 forwards were already lined up to crash through and score on the right. I covered the left side alone in case they won the ball back and ran through there. I waited to dash across to join Matthew once Arjun passed him the ball, but then all of a sudden, Arjun shouts "Micro, your ball!!!" and flings it to me!! The mother of all WTFs went through my head, and I only had enough time to brace for impact before two of their guys hurtled at me and shot me down. But as usual, they were offside, and we got a penalty, and while they were still stunned Loy took the ball, tapped it, dashed the short 5 meters with no one realizing what was going on to score and FINALLY put us ahead. I guess in a way I helped with that one, I did win the penalty after all...

The rest of the game for me involved charging with the ball once or twice or clearing rucks while screaming and shouting like a madman. I do it so often I've become known for it. Most of the team thinks I'm nuts to do it, but Max apparently finds it inspirational, or so he claims (Thats my apprentice!! 8] )

It turned really soured after Mr. Behemoth got so pissed off at not totally frigging pwning me in the scrum that he punched me as I came out of it. Incensed, I fought the urge to rip his necklace off and stuff it up one of his bodily orifices, and did the sensible thing, which was complained to my captain (Loy), who in turn complained to the referee. The ref said he saw it, but he didn't do anything about it. Well, just got one thing to say to you ref. Fuck you. Bitch. Well, thats actually two....

I wanted to try out Matthew's trick of pinching the guy's sides, but I had to move down to lock before I got the chance, since coach wanted Wei Shun out. Highlight of the game was when pushed all the way back to our try line, when they passed it out to one of their guys I rushed up so fast the guy didn't even have time to move. Matthew and Loy couldn't believe I could move that fast. I never actually felt I was going fast, but I was still really pissed off at the punch, so yeah, possibly that.

We eventually won 15-7, a scrappy win, but still a win. George was crying after the match. He thinks its his fault that we lost just about all the scrums in the first half. Well, Matthew did mention the scrum stabilized after I was brought on late in the first half, but seriously, how George managed to maintain so long with an injured back is beyond me.

George, if you ever read this, its okay man, I know how it feels. But seriously, you fought plenty hard, pretty good considering your back. Cheer up man.

A campaign begins, and a campaign ends...

Sigh, so little time to post with the Common Tests...

Admittedly, I wasn't as committed as I was in the second half of the year last year, a problem I intend to correct by the next term.

A Maths - My trump card went according to plan, no problems there
E Maths - Should have been easy, ran out of time, like a lot of people
Chemistry - Do-able, an A is definitely possible
Physics - Same as above
History - Blanked out for international relations for SS, history was smooth.
Literature - My answer was pretty darn short, just two pages long. The unseen prose came out from Life Of Pi by Yann Martel.

Well, I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, but not as badly as I could have. Really got to fix this by next term...

Hours Spent Mugging : 8

Thursday, 14 February 2008

Love hurts, some Valentine's...

Well, its bad day. Following on the back of another bad day, which started off with me, and 50 other Sec 4 guys getting screwed over by Mr. Liew for not bringing our thermometers. He was in a rather creative mood that morning, making us run a couple of times back and forth to the tennis court and making us squat while attempting (emphasis on attempting) to drill in the seriousness of the situation, and made us write a reflection of what would happen if bird flu did come to Singapore. He didn't green form us because they ran out of green forms, all of them having been used on the previous levels.

I spammed everything I saw from all the documentaries of epidemics from the Discovery Channel and NatGeo for that reflection, throwing in everything from Variola Major (More commonly known as smallpox) to Vietnamese duck blood pudding (I swear that exists). Speaking of the Vietnamese, a couple of Sec 3s mistook me for a Vietnamese scholar. Okay, I may have lived 3 years in Vietnam, but that shouldn't have any bearing on how I look should it?? Not that thats a bad thing, seen from another angle it could mean I look intelligent. Well, I am packing comparable brain power the real McCoys tote around. Okay, that sounded narcissistic, I know.

Anyway, back to my bad day. After giving myself a mental pat on the back for remembering my thermometer today, I realized I had forgotten to photostat my IC for the O-Level registration...

My Lit presentation looked like crap in comparison to the other ones... Damn, hate that feeling...

And after that, Shen Shin continued his run of reminding me of my loss to him at Dark Crusade for the 11th day in the running now, which is every day after the match. Got into another argument when the prick mentioned Eldar are only good for using excess bolter rounds on. Some good came out of these endless arguments for once.

------
SS : What possessed you to attack my base in the Eye Of Gorgon and in Eden? Did you actually think you could win??

Me : My Farseer.... got something in his inner eye, so he didn't see it coming.
------

The argument then went on to his Communist sympathies. He of course, used the old claim that he was an idealist, not a Communist.

------
Me : Commie
SS : I'm not a Communist, I'm a idealist
Me : Fascist
SS : Communism isn't fascism
Me : The way Joe Stalin ran Russia, it sure was, one man in charge.
SS : See, Communism, in its ideals, is good....
Me : Same could be said for fascism. Everything is good ideally
------

Coincidentally, it was English, and it just so happened our Commonwealth and
expository essays came back, so our argument switched to that... Shen Shin, the competitive freak he was, was out to compare marks in no time. Its somewhere around here he reminds me I lost an 8 point lead in Unreal to him to lose the game.
------
SS : How much did you get??
Me : 24, see, Eldar are a good essay topic
SS : Let me see that... Wait, you wrote out of point
Me : Did not. What did you get
SS : 20...
------

And he calls me a sore loser. It stretched on to comparing our English marks last year.... We both got 21 for the expository.

Anyway, already pretty pissed off at the day's downs and the fact that I couldn't think of anything to write for Valentine's Day, I discovered Shen Shin had actually detailed my losses on Eden on Bryant's blog. Twice. With the purpose of "annoying me"

You see, this is why I never warmed up to Shen Shin. He will obstinately defend his own views right or wrong, turn both eyes away from any losses he has, and force people to turn three on his wins. Its not the first Valentine's he's mucked up for me. I remember him forcing his way to take a look at Night Sky while I was writing it last year, and him snatching it from me to read it after RME. I had to dive bomb him with my pencil case from the second floor to the first to get it back.

Just to annoy him in case he's reading

1st A Maths test
Me : 25/25
SS : Single digit score

2nd A Maths test
Me : 18.5/25
SS : 10/25

Vector test
Me : 17.5/25
SS : 8/25

Commonwealth
Me : 24/30
SS : 20/30

And since he so wishes to bring last year's results to the table too...

FYE 2007
Me : L1R5 = 13
SS : L1R5 = >20

If I may say so, pwned. Bitch.

Sunday, 10 February 2008

A Happy Birthday, To Me, And My Blog

Chinese New Year was a blast this time, but there was no 360 fund to collect for unlike last year. Family all around, hong baos being given, its a great time of the year, probably the best as well. Being Chinese New Year also reminded me that my blog is now slightly more than a year old now, since my first post was somewhere in the heart of it. My first post was also pretty close to my birthday last year, which is what I'll be talking about in this one as well.

Decided to bump the celebrations earlier to today since my actual birthday is the 18th of February, better known as Common Test Day 1, and I doubt too many people would be in a celebratory mood.

Tim Foo probably forgot to come, and Sam was sick, so in the end only Tim Kwok, Matthew, Bryant and Jem turned up. Of course, that had its advantages too, namely not having to pass controllers around so much. Bryant brought his Gamecube, thank goodness, since Jem brought his 360, but forgot his video cable...

Anyhow, we played Super Smash Brothers Melee, with human opponents I could actually had a decent chance of winning against. Bryant and Super Smash is Shen Shin is to Dark Crusade. Played my usual Kirby, refusing to forsake the little fluff ball who can mysteriously pull out swords and hammers 4 times his body length out of the air. Jem was not much competition since he wasn't really listening to the tutorial video, and Tim didn't see the tutorial at all. Matthew was content thrashing my AI+ maps in DotA on my laptop, periodically calling me in to show off his 30+ kills against 3 opponents.

Tried to hustle up some blood pressure pills for Bryant before I started on RE4, he always has fits when he watches me play, and today was no different. Didn't help that I entered the Verdugo stage at the time. Amazingly, I managed to get most of the prompts to dodge the Verdugo's attacks, my reaction time not encumbered by the "six second stun time" my team claims I have. Matthew wonders why I can't do that on the field where it counts, and proceeds to tell everyone of the photo that someone took of me stoning while everyone else was running in a match.

Had dinner at around at around 6:30, got a few pictures of it





Ah Sam, what you missed... There was much steak to be had...

My parents had to send Jem back home since he was supposed to have left my house 5 minutes after 8:30, and he lives in Clementi, so he had quite a distance to cover. Tim had a couple of rounds of disastrous rounds of Mercenaries before his dad came to pick him somewhere around nine to ten, and Matthew hitched a ride with him. Bryant stayed to play Super Smash till about half past eleven with us since he stays just a few streets away.

Then all of a sudden at around 12:15, my mum tells me that there's a kid outside our gate with a bike, and its probably Bryant. I go do to check, and what do you know, it is him.

-------------
Bryant : Okay, its a pretty strange request, but can I borrow two eggs??
Me : No kidding thats strange, what in the world do you need eggs for at this hour?

Bryant : My sis wants them, she's baking...
Me : Who the hell bakes at this hour?? And why didn't you ring the bell??
Bryant : Didn't want to wake anyone up. Tried to call you 4 times
Me : I don't have my phone remember??
------------

Ah well, its the end of another great birthday and Chinese New Year, thanks to all the guys who came, really enjoyed having you guys here.

Thursday, 7 February 2008

Clouds and Cosmos

Night had fallen as I returned home
With weary arms and aching bones
Yet, despite my pack weighing down on me
I couldn't help but stop and see
To gaze up into the pristine night sky
That alluring sight before my eyes

Clouds rolling across the inky black night
So peaceful, so quiet, so calming a sight
The blazing sun gone, replaced by the moon
And although the clouds heralded rain quite soon
I paused awhile to look up at
That endless, free flowing rolling sky that
Stretched out beyond the eye can see

That boundless spectacle made me
Feel so insignificant, so tiny and small
Compared to the cosmos, the stars and all
A tiny speck in a realm so huge
I'm just one person, in my personal refuge

The first raindrops shake me from my starry sojourn
And through the rain, I continue my return

I R Irked

Righto, I'll get started, there be much things I feel I have to whine, bitch and complain about like a little girl in the week.

My loss to Shen Shin on Eden
----------------------------
On their traditional Frag Day, we went to settle an old score that had lasted between me and Shen Shin in Dark Crusade. Having never actually played against each other, with only reports of each other's skill from other people, I arrived at the LAN center to attempt to dethrone a champion. Shen Shin on the other hand, though he claims he treats "all opponents with respect despite their win rate", thought he was here to partake in a clay pigeon shoot.

The Space Marines of Darassuum Kad Chapter would face off the Guardians of Craftworld Thaelecon. I struck fast, with three Guardian squads savaging his base within 2 minutes of the start, targeting his Servitors before they could bring the heavy bolter turrets online. His Scout marines offered little resistance, and for a short moment, I was completely unopposed. My Dark Reapers began to arrive, just in time as the supersoldiers of the Adeptus Astartes emerged from their barracks, who fell quickly once the agents of Khaine brought their Reaper cannons to bear. Somewhere in the background I could hear Sam saying "Shen Shin, now's a good time to pick up the pace!!" For first time, probably in a long time, the Darassuum Kad Chapter looked like it would not triumph. 5 squads of Dark Reapers fired death and destruction into the crowd of Guardians and Space Marines led by their Brother-Captain.

I don't know how, but somehow, my attack was beginning to be pushed back. Guardians fell as bolter rounds tore into them. Dark Reapers, tied up in melee combat by Assault Marines, were unable to fire their Reaper cannons. My attack force was but scattered bodies on the ground as Grey Knights screamed for my Webway Assembly to be destroyed. Goliath had won once more.

My loss didn't come as surprise to anyone, even to myself. Now here's the bit that really gets I R irked.

--------------
Shen Shin : So beat that rush.
Bryant : I think Cheng Heng will have the last laugh when the final year results come out...
Shen Shin : Apathy... I don't care about studying...
--------------
A week earlier...
--------------
(Chinese test results are back)
Me :Son of a *****, 23...
Shen Shin: What you get??
Me : 23....
Shen Shin: HA!! 32!! IN YOUR FACE!!
--------------
Now, I've known Shen Shin to be a lot of things, mainly fanatical and fascist/Communist/Idealist (Dreamer if you ask me). He's the kind of guy you can picture as the Chairman of some banana Communist republic 20 years down the road. I'm serious, when Mr Chua asked him how he'd solve world poverty in RME, he replied "A Communist revolution." He claimed that "Communism isn't bad" in Full History according to Matthew. Hypocrite isn't one of them, guess I'm going to have to add that to the list now...
--------------------

On to the next subject I wish to whine about now...

Loss of my handphone
---------------------
All started with Luohan wanting to take a picture in school. Since his phone didn't have external memory, I offered mine up. Of course, of all places he could have picked, he picked the teachers conference room. While a conference was on... Still, I agreed to take the photo, so I guess its partially my fault, but Ms. Tan came out, took one look at Luohan and Co. posing for the shot, and confiscated my phone, telling me to see my HOL. With Frag Day being the next day, and my birthday party on the 9th, I picked a REALLY good time to get my phone confiscated till the end of the term.

!!!Warning!!! Sarcasm levels have reached Byrant-class levels, protective measures must be taken. OOGA BOOGA!!
----------------------------

Right, now that all that's been out of my system, I can finally get on with more important things, like studying and organizing my birthday party.