Today is the final day where I'll go through normal schooling in SJI. Ever.
What can I say? That was one hell of a fast ride. I can still vividly remember the first day I stepped in, 6.45 in the morning, bright and alert for my first day. Meh, who am I kidding, I was fighting not to fall asleep since I had to get up at 5.30 to get to school before I moved.
Someone (Name starts with K, ends with H, and has a EIT in the center) unscrewed the 422 sign from the back door and ran off with it, and almost got the one at the front door as well. While not exactly a sensible idea, I guess it shows how much we love our class, to the point that we want to carry a part of it (Literally) with us everywhere we go.
The memories...
Well, there are good ones, there are bad ones, and there are stupid ones that just make you go "WTF?". I'll just try to keep the good ones, try to forget the bad ones, and replay the stupid ones in my head for laughs.
You start to take notice of all the little things you never bothered noticing before on days like this. Like how small groups of guys will just sit around shooting the shit with each other after class, how Kevin's latest chalk portrayal of Wayne on the board has much in common with a Greater Demon, all that.
Tried to leave our own mark somewhere in the class, but 422 2007 got most of the good spots already. Even the bits behind the projector screen, although Raghaav and someone else already wrote TungNation there as well.
And yet the day passed like any other day, with a few exceptions. Feroz was being the usual stupid bitch she is, but Lam finally stopped picking on the usual people today (Wayne, Shen Shin, Tim, Gerard etc).
The testimonial letters Tung wrote for us were fantastic, got an entire paragraph talking about my academics and how I've always done well, though his letter makes it seem like I've only ever played one year for my team, cause he only mentions 2007.
Of course, Tung decided not to be entirely truthful this time round, unlike during Graduation Day. According to him, Sam is a "man of faith"
As quoted from the man himself
------------------------------
Sam : God is my favourite fictional character.
------------------------------
Go figure, he's not very big on religion. Shen Shin is apparently a "compassionate" person. Next to a rock perhaps. And for some reason, practically everyone's letter had the word "amiable" in it. Probably a lack of a better word, same reason why the principal can only use "urge" and Miles can only use "special" when requesting we do something or praising a person respectively.
To all the friends I've made here (Bryant, Tim K, Tim the Fool, Sam Loh, Lolses, and rest which I haven't listed here), thanks for the good times guys. Many of us will probably go our separate ways after the O-Levels, but I'll always carry the times we spent together with me. Good luck to all of you guys, and once again thanks for the memories.
Especially you Wayne. The time where you clotheslined yourself will be a tale I will tell my grandkids with pride. 8 )
Tuesday 30 September 2008
Monday 8 September 2008
Epiphany
Epiphany
1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day.
2. An appearance or manifestation, esp. of a deity.
3. A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
(From Dictionary.com)
Like being up at 4 in the morning the day before school starts even though I'm finished with my holiday homework for once. Its tradition.
Anyway, there I was, just reading about Wall.E and all the references it makes to Pixar's other films (Toy Story's Rex appears in his collection of stuff, the rat-bots seen in the rubbish disposal area are called REM-E, a reference to Ratatouille) when all of a sudden, that feeling comes back again.
Its the same one I get after watching most other Disney/Pixar animated films (Animated, not the rubbish like High School Musical).
I want to be a part of it all.
Be up there with them, create these vessels of storytelling that have such an effect on me, and share that feeling with the rest of the world.
I want to work there.
The logical part of me says "Quit dreaming, get to sleep already, its 4.30."
The rest of me does that dramatic "I want to follow my dreams and spread my wings" speech, dying for even that tiny, minute crystal of a chance that it might one day that the dream might materialize.
And therein lies the problem. So often does this feeling surge up, only to be pimp smacked into submission by cold, hard logic, proceeding to wither and die like flower in a desert.
For one, I can't draw to save my life. My last serious attempt at anything visually artistic was when I was five and trying to draw balloons.
And the best in the world will all be trying to get in there as well. I used to laugh at the people with 6 points going to animation courses, but at the moment, well, ah dammit, you know what I'm talking about.
But some desert flowers are persistent little blighters that simply refuse to die out. One generation dies, leaves seeds for next rainfall of yet another good movie from Disney/Pixar, seeds grow up into flowers which then flash the "V for Victory" and planting the seeds for the next generation before being stomped on by the hobnailed boots of big, mean Reality.
This time though, the feeling lasted long enough for me to do a serious search for requirements to land a job there. The Pixar site lists that one needs to do a demo reel of a short for animators, but the link for "Can I Submit a Story?" is broken so I'll never know if I can. Somehow, I've got a feeling they don't normally take in a person who can make a story but can't materialize it. Like taking in a guy who can write but can't read.
Even as I type, the feeling is dying down once more. The requirements to get in, and the videos the competition have sent in are taking turns jumping on its prone, helpless form. (If I searched right on Google, I think the Kiwi video was one).
Its a simple, but powerful short. But yet its showcases the creator's animation prowess, as well as his unquestionable ability to send a message through it and tell a story, made all the more commendable because it has no dialogue at all.
For now, I'll just lovingly put that dream back onto the shelf, just in front the one of me becoming the new Roy Keane for United, between the one where I become a world renowned chef specializing in steaks and the one where I become a CSI unit.
Normally I trivialize sensitive topics, to distance myself from them. But I refuse to here.
I laugh all the time all the other three, trivialize them, because I know and feel that they'll never come true.
I'll never laugh at that dream of working at Pixar though. Not now, and not ten years from now. Not necessarily because it had any greater a chance of coming true then the rest of them. But because it felt so much more real than all the rest, and because I wanted it so much more.
Perhaps I'm giving up the fight before its even started. Perhaps I'm safeguarding myself from certain failure. I don't know. Perhaps I'll simply come crashing down if I set down that road, like what happens so often in real life, and either I or the dream won't survive the fall. Perhaps it'll come true if I bet my last chip on it, like so many characters have in all their films.
Maybe that's why I'm drawn to them, the promise of success if you just try one last time.
But although I'm shelving it for now, I might even settle for an illusion, like the Kiwi's own illusion, even if it will only last a short while before its inevitable end.
1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day.
2. An appearance or manifestation, esp. of a deity.
3. A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
(From Dictionary.com)
Like being up at 4 in the morning the day before school starts even though I'm finished with my holiday homework for once. Its tradition.
Anyway, there I was, just reading about Wall.E and all the references it makes to Pixar's other films (Toy Story's Rex appears in his collection of stuff, the rat-bots seen in the rubbish disposal area are called REM-E, a reference to Ratatouille) when all of a sudden, that feeling comes back again.
Its the same one I get after watching most other Disney/Pixar animated films (Animated, not the rubbish like High School Musical).
I want to be a part of it all.
Be up there with them, create these vessels of storytelling that have such an effect on me, and share that feeling with the rest of the world.
I want to work there.
The logical part of me says "Quit dreaming, get to sleep already, its 4.30."
The rest of me does that dramatic "I want to follow my dreams and spread my wings" speech, dying for even that tiny, minute crystal of a chance that it might one day that the dream might materialize.
And therein lies the problem. So often does this feeling surge up, only to be pimp smacked into submission by cold, hard logic, proceeding to wither and die like flower in a desert.
For one, I can't draw to save my life. My last serious attempt at anything visually artistic was when I was five and trying to draw balloons.
And the best in the world will all be trying to get in there as well. I used to laugh at the people with 6 points going to animation courses, but at the moment, well, ah dammit, you know what I'm talking about.
But some desert flowers are persistent little blighters that simply refuse to die out. One generation dies, leaves seeds for next rainfall of yet another good movie from Disney/Pixar, seeds grow up into flowers which then flash the "V for Victory" and planting the seeds for the next generation before being stomped on by the hobnailed boots of big, mean Reality.
This time though, the feeling lasted long enough for me to do a serious search for requirements to land a job there. The Pixar site lists that one needs to do a demo reel of a short for animators, but the link for "Can I Submit a Story?" is broken so I'll never know if I can. Somehow, I've got a feeling they don't normally take in a person who can make a story but can't materialize it. Like taking in a guy who can write but can't read.
Even as I type, the feeling is dying down once more. The requirements to get in, and the videos the competition have sent in are taking turns jumping on its prone, helpless form. (If I searched right on Google, I think the Kiwi video was one).
Its a simple, but powerful short. But yet its showcases the creator's animation prowess, as well as his unquestionable ability to send a message through it and tell a story, made all the more commendable because it has no dialogue at all.
For now, I'll just lovingly put that dream back onto the shelf, just in front the one of me becoming the new Roy Keane for United, between the one where I become a world renowned chef specializing in steaks and the one where I become a CSI unit.
Normally I trivialize sensitive topics, to distance myself from them. But I refuse to here.
I laugh all the time all the other three, trivialize them, because I know and feel that they'll never come true.
I'll never laugh at that dream of working at Pixar though. Not now, and not ten years from now. Not necessarily because it had any greater a chance of coming true then the rest of them. But because it felt so much more real than all the rest, and because I wanted it so much more.
Perhaps I'm giving up the fight before its even started. Perhaps I'm safeguarding myself from certain failure. I don't know. Perhaps I'll simply come crashing down if I set down that road, like what happens so often in real life, and either I or the dream won't survive the fall. Perhaps it'll come true if I bet my last chip on it, like so many characters have in all their films.
Maybe that's why I'm drawn to them, the promise of success if you just try one last time.
But although I'm shelving it for now, I might even settle for an illusion, like the Kiwi's own illusion, even if it will only last a short while before its inevitable end.
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