Life And Times Of A Slummer, The Retarded Genius

Nope, No Chemical Flamethrowers On Me, None At All!

2010-06-16T20:33:00.006+08:00

Butler : Master Wong, it's already 9 in the morning, and you'd best wake up now if you want to catch the last of the Americans raiding the Razorfen Downs if you want that Icemetal Barbarute.

Me : Damn, my head is killing me...

Butler : That's because you allowed yourself to be spun multiple times at a high speed on a playground ride last night sir.

Me : Explains wh- Wait, when did I get a butler?

Butler : I'm a figment of your imagination, just like your army of psychic monkeys. Which I'll have to go out and feed in a while.

Me : What happened last night again? I mean, I remember a few snatches now and then of a burning fire...

Butler : Ah yes, you went on for a barbeque sir. With the Creative Writing Circle, and some honourary members.

Me : What honourary members...erm...what is your name anyway?

Butler : Butler, Master Wong. Maximilian Butler.

Me : Geez, I am unimaginative. Anyway, who were those honourary members you were talking about.

Butler : Mr Yeak and Miss Lee.

Me : Butler, I appreciate your strict British adherence to protocol, but we're in Singapore, I can haz first names plz?

Butler : Mr Seth and Miss Jacinta

Me : Seth I remember, but who's Jacinta?

Butler : The lady with the lighter Master Wong. Your long suffering bridge partner.

Me : No bells Butler.

Butler : Do you recall a particularly well-endow-

Me : Ah yes, Jacinta! Delightful girl, that one. Attempted to bludgeon me to death with an Andrei Arsharvin water bottle during the bridge game after I failed to realize she was my partner. Multiple times.

Butler : An agonized glare of pure venom is usually a good clue Master Wong.

Me : Wait, I recall porn somewhere during that game...

Butler : That would be Martin, the movie Miss Wanyu brought sir, not porn.

Me : Don't give me any of your sardonic yet dignified sass Butler! It might as well have been porn!

Butler : As you wish Master Wong. By the way, might I suggest that you wash your hands before you go raiding? The smell of maple bacon is remarkably hard to remove from a keyboard.

Me : Yeah, why do my hands smell so delicious?

Butler : You insisted on roasting your share of the bacon over the open fire sir. With your bare hands. Which I suggest you stop trying to eat.

Me : Fine...(Takes fingers out of mouth) Is that how I got this cut on my hand Butler?

Butler : No sir, you got that trying to retrieve your deodorant can-

Me : Chemical. Flamethrower.

Butler : After Miss Kimberly tricked you into thinking she threw it into the dumpster, and Mr Tim knocked your supporting hand out of the way, causing the lid to crush your left hand. And spill your drink.

Me : Curse you Madame Dictator, you can take away my chemical flamethrower, you can stop me from spelling swear words with the bacon on the grill, but you will never break my spirit!

Butler : In all fairness to Miss Kimberly Master Wong, she did tend to the cut after you hurt yourself.

(Massive crash is heard, followed by the clinking of cutlery)

Butler : Master Wong, please put away the cleaver, I'm certain Miss Kimberly did not attempt to poison you while tending to the wound.

Me : Damn you Tsundere girl. Was there anything I would *want* to remember about last night?

Butler : Plenty Master Wong! Like the doughnuts Miss Lauren brought!

Me : That I pimped up with Jeannel's fudge and the marshmallows Kim wouldn't let me torch! Man, eclairs the first time, now doughnuts. I think I love this girl.

Butler : Then you discovered that the basketball team that Miss Sarah plays with is comprised mostly of-

Me : I promised I'd keep that quiet.

Butler : And you won your bet with Mr Aloysious, now that Mr Shirram has confirmed that Mrs-

Me : Classified too Butler.

Butler : As you wish sir.

Me : More importantly Butler, did I get to use my chemical flamethrower? I brought a spare in case Kim took away the first one. Which she did.

Butler : No, fortunately or unfortunately. You proudly declared you were a learning android while brandishing the spare, which rather gave the game away.

Me : Crap...

Butler : If it makes you feel better Master Wong, Miss Jacinta already had run out of lighter fluid by then, so even if you had succeeded in evading Miss Kimberly, it'll have been for nought.

Me : Did me and Tim succeed in sneaking alcohol into the barebeque?

Butler : No Master Wong, you swore abstinence from alcohol of any sort remember?

Me : Only so I can watch other people get drunk and laugh! Which reminds me, did I get to tell the story why I swore abstinence?

Butler : Yes, you did regale them with that tale sir. They especially liked the part where Mr David kicks your friend for throwing up, which caused him to throw up again.

Me : Hehe, awesome then.

(Falls face first on the floor while getting out of bed. Canned laughter is heard)

Me : (Muffled) Just why did I get on that spinny-majiggy thingy again Butler?

Butler : You were on a sugar high from that doughnut you created sir.

Me : (Still muffled) Bugger. It... Did I do anything else stupid while I was high?

Butler : Well, you did insist on somehow inserting fruit bazookas into that new story-creation game the CWC was going to try.

Me : (Muffled) Oh that one! Please tell me I had the presence of mind to approve that. That was a terrific idea.

Butler : I can assure you that you did sir. Right before Miss Wanyu was kind enough to give you a ride home.

Me : (Muffled) Good... Actually Butler, I think I'll lie here a little longer and give Razorfen Down a miss for now, my head still hurts.

Butler : Very well then sir. I'll be off to feed the army then.

Me : (Muffled) Tell General Bubbles to get ready for the invasion of Blizzard headquarters while you're at it. I intend to have a copy of Starcraft 2 for myself, and a few hundred copies to sell on eBay by Saturday.

Butler : As you wish Master Wong.

I R 18!!!!

2010-02-14T18:23:00.006+08:00

Bloggeh is also 3 years old today!

*Blows party streamers*

As of now, there are currently 2 cans worth of Carlsberg circulating around in me, so holding on to my sobriety as I write this will be a problem.

I opened my eyes to, ready to greet the world for the first time at the age of 18. It was going to be an awesome day, with the CWC welcome tea and training after that, with mostly AFKable classes in between. I got out of bed, seeing the first rays of daybreak peeking through my window as they heralded the arrival of the sun as it ascended towards the heavens. Somewhere outside a bird started chirping. And I actually just laid back and watched it, reveling in the beauty of such a spectacle of the natural world.

Before I realized it was almost 7

Which means I got to school late, which means you have to go to detention, unlike SJI where it means reminding the prefects on duty that writing your name down is a waste of valuable energy. Silently cursing my Fat Ninja and No Profile perks for letting me down in my hour of need.

But Fate does pick me up and dust me off once it's done laughing at me (if only to ensure I survive till the next time it's bored). My class brought out a cake for me, which was honestly a pleasant surprise, with Alex (I think) throwing in a couple of marshmellow sticks that 2SB7 was selling. Well, the whole awkwardity thing was still there, but for a while it became comfortable awkward. Don't ask me to explain. It was probably the balloon Alice got me, which floated around my head like my own personal anti-aircraft mine.

I spent the rest of the day getting numerous happy birthdays from just about everyone I met in the hallways (It was probably the balloon), while at the same time thinking about what to do to get out of detention. Bad enough it was a training day, but it was the day of the CWC welcome tea. AND my friggin 18th birthday. I eventually came up with a four-tier plan, complete with three back-ups in case the previous one failed, that even Artemis Fowl would have been proud of.

----
Plan A : Pay someone to pretend to be me since my eZ-link card photo is from Primary 1, so it wouldn't be too hard to pass someone off as me if they checked.

Plan B : Make up a convincing story to get out of jail. (I AM part of the CWC)

Plan C : Leverage on the fact that it was on my birthday to try and get the teacher release me out of pity.

Plan D : Stash my bag somewhere, sign in for detention, pretend to go to the toilet and run for sweet freedom.
----

Unfortunately, I couldn't ask the rugby guys or the CWC people to stand in for me, and that being almost my entire social circle, I was pretty much screwed for A, because everyone else I knew that was not in those two catergories was busy.

Plan B and C crashed immediately upon finding out the detention teacher on duty was the schizo chem teacher lady, who has a black hole where her soul should be, so no story no matter how convincing would work.

Plan D never got implented. It was Sarah's fault mostly. She was hanging on to my iPhone to Facebook, and she got me too interested in what exactly she was trying to hide for me to stash my bag somewhere else, and I only got it back from her when the detention teacher arrived.

So I spent the next hour and a half with CK, who borrowed the first page of my Tutorial 23 to sleep on so he could pretend to be doing work, while exchanging bored glances with Manfred.

Thankfully, schizo lady said because none of us fell asleep, used earphones, talked or played MonsterKill, Governor of Poker, Chess or any sort of app from the Apps Store (because she apparently has tunnel vision), she was going to let us off....10 minutes early.

But it was enough to rush down and get the pizza and my second birthday cake from the CWC, as well as briefly meet the new CWC juniors and watch Jeannel and Sarah fight over my iPhone again to sound their horns on Mousehunt.

After extricating my phone from Sarah (again), I rushed off to training where Rong decided it was time for him to have some fun, so we ran the usual suicides and clotheshangers. As we sat there stretching when we were done, exhausted and possibly in catatonic shock, Rong asked all the birthday boys for the week (Me, Kun and Shafiq) to stand up. And keep their boots on.

He decided that singing Happy Birthday was for faggots, so he ordered the rest of the team to carry all three of us around the track once. So five minutes of much good-natured swearing, countless reminders to lose weight and threats to throw me into the pool, we were headed home.

I sent the balloon up into the night sky. I've always like to give my belongings a Viking funeral, and I simply couldn't bear to just throw the balloon away, since it was losing helium.

Just finished reading all the hilarious birthday posts from everyone.

Winner is still Gerald's post from last year.

"May the skies rain mayonnaise!"

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to look at the night sky again, this time after the third Carlsberg.

Argh, Why No Love Mr, Jobs?!??!

2010-01-27T18:50:00.006+08:00

The Microsoft gods haven't stopped kicking me in the nuts since I bought my iPhone last week, from the moment I tore the plastic off the box.

Horrified that my hands left smudge trails on the screen, I started to search through the box for the cleaning cloth that was supposed to come with it, only to find it wasn't there, before discovering my USB ports were all full, so I had to spent 5 minutes risking electrocution trying to free up one so I could get it registered and fully activated.

Then I lost my wireless password, prompting another hour or so of trial and error before I finally gave up and called Singtel, with the school's own wireless networks showing me very little love as well, refusing to be in range unless I was standing in the library. And then I couldn't even play Mousehunt with it due to some issues with Safari, causing it to show only a blank screen when I tried to access it during school.

So until Friday I was left with an iPhone that did nothing but ring at inopportune moments when I was trying to get a connection in the library, and cheat at poker. Seriously, it cheats. It pulled out a four of a kind after I bet everything on a full house (At the time of writing, it just deleted my progress in Governor of Poker)

On the bright side, school's turning out to be pretty okay. No more PW, so I end earlier, and coincidentally on the days I don't have training, I haven't fallen behind, done all my homework (ie subjects I care about), while still finding time to play MW2.

Wait, actually, no. Half my good teachers got swapped for terrible ones, and some weird infection is going around the team, which causes odd lumps to start forming on you before they burst on impact and sting like a bitch when exposed to dirt. The new J1's just came in, so the canteen is crowded (more so than usual).

Then again, they haven't realized the library is a good place to crash, so my sanctuary is safe for now.

For One More Day

2009-12-31T16:06:00.002+08:00

------
Micro : Clear!

*Bzzt*

Micro : Clear!

*Bzzt*
------

Okay, just resurrected my blog. And the title has nothing to do with the fact that it's the last day of 2009.

Two more days actually, since we all stayed over at Sam's place when he got back from Australia.

The usual merry band was supposed to arrive, but I came early, so only Sam Wang had turned up.

Most of us were pretty rusty, having not held a controller in...almost a year in some cases. (Sam forgot how to reload in Gears)

Me and Sam started off trying to finish Overwatch on Veteran level, where one of us rides an A130 while covering the other guy on the ground while he makes his escape.

But we eventually gave up after 20 or so tries, mostly due to our poor coordination as well as the fact that neither of us could resist making the guy on the ground dance with the A130's 40mm grenade launchers.

It all went downhill after that though.

We all trooped to dinner defeated men. Bryant and Sam failed to get anything out of 3 hours playing Spec Ops, Moses and I couldn't find anything we could play together and not get owned at, and Mark was looking for cover after forgetting to bring Bryant's Mirror's Edge, a year after he borrowed it.

Because Mark arrived we had enough people to play Halo 3, which I've gottten pretty good at for no apparent reason, though when we reached Valhalla it all degenerated into Moses trying to run people over with the vehicles and me waiting in the skies with a Banshee and challenging him to a dogfight.

By 1 in the morning however, we hit the same problem we had in the afternoon. We had given up playing Horde mode, Rainbow Six was being uncooperative by not letting us play co-op, while Chris and Moses had to go home because they couldn't stay over. We eventually did something we had sworn we would, but never did during similar sleepovers.

We watched the Futurama movies Sam Wang had been bringing for the last 2 years.

Futurama...I wonder why I never started watching it in the first place, though the movie's liberal use of time travel made the whole story pretty confusing.

I played Dead Space until 5 in the morning when I realized everyone had fallen asleep.

Meaning I was alone, and unlike Isaac, did not posses a plasma cutter, a RiG or hobnailed boots for stepping on necromorphs. Keeping a close watch on any vents in the room I quickly turned off the 360 before hiding under my blanket. With the two cans of Spam I brought but never got a chance to open.

Mixed Signals

2009-11-28T18:35:00.005+08:00

-----
Things to do this holiday
-----
Do my homework, for subjects I consider important anyway (Status : As if)
Get all the Live achievements for RE5 (Status : I HATE Professional mode)
Start my Apothecary fanfic (Status : Well...I decided on his name?)
Revive the Perion series (Status : ERROR-No Necronomicon)
Contact Sam and find out when he's coming back (Status : Bro, have you been trying to call me?)
Become an OGL (Status : I traumatized one of my interviewers for life. What do you think?)
-----
With Project Work over, possibly well done, there was only one thing left. OGL interview. You may have recalled that I hated Orientation, so why would I sign up? Change the system from inside, duh.

Yep, I strolled into the interview room with high on coffee, 3 hours of sleep and adrenaline from sneaking into the hall when it was locked. I went with (After what Zongren told me) the balls-out approach to the OGL interview.

I went in as the Cheng Heng who most commonly appears at during Sam's sleepovers at 3 in the morning. The Cheng Heng that the Cracked.com editorial staff would welcome as a long lost brother. It was an all-or-nothing. The Council would either put me at the top of those shortlisted for OGL, or start calling the police.

I heard no sirens in the distance during the interview, but I'm pretty sure they had a silent alarm under the table.

It was going well at first. They asked me about what I wrote on my application form, as well as what a cacophony was. They liked what they saw on it apparently.

-----
Micro : What my greatest skill will be as an OGL? See, like I wrote on my form, I can see the quiet, silent people. People who go unnoticed. There's bound to be a Hinata Hyuuga or a Nigel No Friends in every group. And I can see them very well, because I was one of them. Still am sometimes. I didn't write that because I overshot the word limit already.
-----

Thine moment of eloquence. Then came thine moment of retard.

Then I shot myself in the foot when said I didn't get along with girls well. Can you blame me?

Crush 1 was a tomboy, and now that I think back, possibly a dyke.

Crush 2 was a girl who liked reading and watching yaoi, and swore celibacy at 14 (I had nothing to do with it. I think)

Crush 3 was a probably the bset looking girl in UWC (And a local to boot), but...wait, you all know how this one ends don't you?

----
Councillor : You know, your OG will definitely have girls, what are you going to do about it?

Micro : Erm...play it by ear I guess, like I have been so far. I mean, it's working isn't it? I haven't had any sexual harassment lawsuits brought against me haven't I?
-----

I will have one soon enough after they asked for a pickup line. A higher up in the Council was definitely smoking something when they thought up that section of the interview.

-----
Coucillor 1 : Think of a pickup line for her (Points at Councillor 2)

Micro : Mi scusi, but what rating are we looking at? M18? NC16? PG13? PG? Or family friendly?

Councillor 1 : R21, hit us with your best.

Micro : Say, you've got 306 bones in your body right?

Councillor 2 : Wasn't it 206?

Micro : I'm a PCME student, don't judge me!

Councillor 2 : Heh, so am I. Anyway, yeah, I've got 206 bones in me.

Micro : Want one more?
------

Zongren said he could hear all 6 of them laughing from outside the classroom. He was telling everyone at training later that I definitely in after that. Of course, he hasn't read the comments from their interview.

They said it was original, but the girl certainly looked shell-shocked. And if I hadn't succeeded in portraying myself as a self-centered, misogynistic amalgam of contradictory traits, I might actually make it.

On to the Count of Monte Cristo then

Due to my organization and coordination skills being close to level one, I confirmed with Tim we'd be going to watch the Count of Monte Cristo on Thursday about....thirty minutes before the show started?

Good thing he lives nearby, otherwise I'd have to spend the entirety of the thing stuck next to a guy created from Shen Shin's DNA (Or vice versa) because Jeannel and Shawn wanted alone time. Instead of stalking Bryant, Sam and myself, he stalks Jeannel and Shawn, instead of obsessing with Space Marines, he obsesses with... Jeannel and Shawn it appears (Tim too...), but the same need to constantly 1-up everyone around him and that low, monotone drone which makes it's entry whenever it's most unexpected and least welcome makes me feel secure putting money on the fact that they were related.

Indi turned up apparently, and I even thought I spotted him, but I couldn't be sure it was him. Turns out it was...

ACSian theatre's Count of Monte Cristo was pretty good this time, without masses leaving at the interval like the Odyssey. Of course, Song and Kun were complaining the words and analogies they used half the time were too chim, but meh, that's ACSian theatre for you.

It took some artistic license and didn't follow the original story to the letter, Danglars and Dante do not die in the original.

The former is starved and humiliated before repenting and being released by the Count, instead of killing himself after losing on the stock market, as Andrew Ong hilariously portrayed. The rest of the bits, not the shooting (though everyone laughed at that anyway because he's so damn funny).

Dante goes off once his revenge is exacted, and presumably goes off to live out the rest of his life in quiet, jewel encrusted opulence while boning his hot Arab slave girl/mistress/prospective wife the whole time. He does not do a partial striptease before leaping to his death in a river in a spectacular finale. Though the all white storm coat did set off a few gaydars, so I guess we can forgive Bryant for throwing it off.

By the way Bryant, Wilson asked you to lay off the steroids. At least that scene allowed me to find out that the stage can lower itself. And there's a door when it's lowered. I didn't even discover that when I snuck into the place myself...

Overall, CMC was pretty good. If it can make me forget that I've spent three hours watching it, it's good.

And they had the good sense to make a wardrobe change, compared to what they were wearing in the posters. It was so weird, me and Damien have decided to make a life-sized copy of it and give it to Bryant on his birthday.

It had a large, puffy bowtie. 'Nuff said.

Sigh, all the melancholy after I watch ACSian theater performance, good as they are. I always wonder why the heck I chose to stick with a rugby team where I'd be lucky to be a regular sub, let alone start. I sometimes wonder if things would be better if I signed up with the drama people.... Too late now to change...

All the things that never happened, and never will be...

Sad blogpost is sad... 8 (

Just That Bit Closer to Sam Fischer

2009-11-03T23:04:00.005+08:00

Instead of falling asleep at the SJI table, I decided to look for more comfortable and quiet lodgings, so I broke into LT1, since the air-con was on there while it was pitch dark.

Wondering where I could buy a pair (trio?) of green-lit goggles to go with my l337 n1nj4 skillz as I lay down in the space below the lecture seats, I drifted off to sleep in the chill air...

Only to be awoken by a "testing, testing" from the speaker system 20 minutes later. Apparently a technician turned up early to test the microphones. Patting myself on the head for having the foresight to stash all my stuff below the chairs as well while picking a row all the way at the back, I lay frozen below the seats until he left before I promptly blew the joint.

The adrenaline rush cancelled the need for any more sleep. Next time, LT4!

Spent most of the day chilling with Shawn and Jeannel in one of computer labs until the final results were released for the whole year. I had a straight flush for my Promotional grades, till moderation came and bumped everything up. So I'm looking at ABCCEE. Not that I'm complaining. Hmm...what can I spell with that?

ABECCE?

CABECE?

Ah screw it, I give up.

The Council found my OGL application form a real hoot apparently, according to Zongren.

Oh yeah, that's right, I applied. Did I ever mention that?

It was a spur of the moment thing, the sort of thing I do when I'm not entirely lucid, but at least this time it didn't result in me clinging onto a rope for dear life 4000 feet above sea level.

A snap decision it was... Chris Khew waiting for me to make up my mind whether to take a form, Kim (and her umbrella, it was raining) impatiently waiting for me to make up my mind...

What disturbs me though, is the fact that the form says "Do not be discouraged by the dedication needed...yada yada yada." It's worrying. When something like that turns up in the official blurbs, well, yeah.

It's like writing "Don't give bungee jumping with nothing but some dubiously withered looking vines just because you might plunge to your most horrible and gruesome death as you are impaled on the jagged rocks below. Like the last fifteen suckers before you."

The Bachelor's Life

2009-10-21T17:32:00.004+08:00

----
Micro : Dude, Yahtzee is right, Sheva is not African! Listen to that, that's a British accent, right there!

Bryant : No way!

Micro : She sounds just like Mrs Creffield!

Bryant : Sssh! Don't ruin the fantasy!

Micro : Of what? Sheva or Mrs Creffield?

Bryant : What do you think?

Micro : Mrs Creffield it is then
------

Surreal is staggering back to an empty house through the dimly lit streets, bumping into bushes at 5 in the morning after playing Resident Evil 5 with Bryant. And training for 4 hours with the ACSI old boys before that.

Been living the life of a bachelor for the last few days, since my parents and sister are in Vietnam. No limits, a suitable stash of cash, and all the time in the world for weekends. Awesome, is it not, that I beat Majini up with my friends until we both pass out and drop the controllers, thereby activating his OCD and hence our collective common sense?

No, Sir Cliff Richards, you should NOT stay a bachelor boy until your dying day, no matter what your daddy says. Zongren, if you ever read this, listen to Song! Find a nice girl and settle down, because I'd rather be running diamonds than having to do my own laundry or scour my own food...

Which coincidentally, leads to the worst sort of laundry to do (Running diamonds, not finding food, unless it's a really hot day). Not that I'm incapable of doing the said tasks, I'm capable of a lot of things, but really, getting home at 10, proceeding to wash clothes from running diamonds and waiting till 11 to hang them up, then trying to get up before 6 is not possible for this bachelor...

And I've got to babysit my brother. Well, not really, since he's content with watching Naturo from 3 to 10, so it's more like looking after a plant, just keep it watered.

Zen...And Comforting

2009-10-03T00:22:00.004+08:00

*Begin deep, meaningful and insightful section here*

"There is no mystery to happiness.

"Unhappy men are all alike. Some wound they suffered long ago, some wish denied, some blow to pride, some kindling spark of love put out by scorn -- or worse, indifference -- cleaves to them, or they to it, and so they live each day within a shroud of yesterdays. The happy man does not look back. He doesn't look ahead. He lives in the present.

"But there's the rub. The present can never deliver one thing: meaning. The ways of happiness and meaning are not the same. To find happiness, a man need only live in the moment; he need only live for the moment. But if he wants meaning -- the meaning of his dreams, his secrets, his life -- a man must reinhabit the past, however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain. Thus nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting only that we choose between them."
-- Jed Rubenfeld, 'The Interpretation of Murder'

Much thanks to Bryant for having introduced me to that quote. It's stuck with me since the day he posted it.

Reverting back to the old day cycles I used to have. Study, then TF2. Study, then read TRC manga.

Love this cycle. It's simple, it's calm, it's comforting, and most of all, it's familiar. Two years of living it, two awesome years. The best bit is, I don't have to choose between happiness and meaning because of it.

What I do, I enjoy, and conveniently happens to take care of the future, and since I'm good with the past, well, I've got myself a pretty good deal don't I?

Might be a little late to save your dream of finally getting a chance to see what the hell John Nash was up to in Princeton isn't it?

Well, I lost heavily before the dark ages ended didn't I?

*End deep, meaningful and insightful section here*

Okay, that's over! They should read stuff like that during chapel.

Instead of the usual did to spur us on to

The chaplain ACJC has is kinda like this one.

Why, why, why can we never have a Chaplain/Priest like this one!

I mean, he doesn't even have to be an Interrogator-Chaplain! Just think about it, a Chaplain who gives sermons in full power armour! Reads quotes from the Bible he wears around his waist with a chain! Blesses people using a crozius! Partitions the wafers and wine with a power sword! Come on, this would bring the flock back from those "charismatic" churches! Or at least draw the fa/tg/uys into attending Mass on a regular basis.

Which reminds me, right after the Promos, I'm getting started on my newest fanfiction.

This one will be about an Apothecary who's expelled from his Chapter (Iron Wolves) for losing the gene seed of ten marines because he stopped to rescue a group of Guardsmen from Traitor Marines. Until he performs a great deed of service to the Emperor, he will have to wander as a Lone Wolf across the galaxy. So he joins up with the regiment of the Guardsmen he saved as a medic, looking for the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the Emperor.

Initially supposed to be a serious one to explore how Space Marine-human relations (Still is), Bryant and I couldn't help but think of all the awkward scenes a Space Marine medic used to healing superhuman warriors would have babysitting normal human soldiers.

----
Bryant : Apothecary! Private Jenkins had a heart attack!

Micro : Bring him to my operating table. Now administering the Rites of CPR.

*Crushes Guardsmen to death due to his superhuman strength*

Micro : Oops...Erm...Emperor watch over your soul brave soldier?
----

----
Micro : Emperor's peace be with you fallen warrior, as I take the Chapter's due.

Bryant : Apothecary, why the hell are you mutilating Forester's body for?

Micro : I am extracting his gene seed, so that his legacy may live through another.

Bryant : Oi! We're not Marines, we don't have gene seed!

Micro : Really? Then what are these two glands that I just extracted from Corporal Forester's midsectio-

Bryant : PUT THEM BACK!!!
----

Well, if you've been doing the same thing for the last 100 years, you tend to get a little too familiar with the routine wouldn't you?

PS : Sam, sorry we couldn't meet up! It's not so easy for us any more... We'll make up for it when you get back in December, I promise!

PPS : Before I forget. You mah hoe! (It's Friday)

Lock And Load

2009-09-14T22:01:00.003+08:00

Had an awesome day once again in the CWC. Only for it to be ruined tonight by them.

Jezebels and vagabonds. And while neither really applies to what they did tonight, it fits the way they go about anyway

In the act of forcing a burden on me, they have relieved me of another. Now, hatred is acceptable. Conflict can be justified. Confrontation is reasonable.

Not once, but twice this has happened now. I longed for a truce or equilibrium of some sort. No more, but I still weary of this stalemate. I've done enough giving. Time for some taking.

So awaken the Eversors and unchain Khorne's servants, for he thirsts this day.

And we shall gladly slake it.

Meh, Shut Up and Reload Already

2009-09-03T20:43:00.003+08:00

----
Micro : Some days Tim, I just feel like quitting the team and turning in my badge so I can get back to basics, so I'd have nothing to annoy/sadden/worry me. I mean, when I try to do everything, I'm rubbish on the field and the classroom.

Tim : That's not true... You are trying to move from C to A, people like me are trying to get promoted. And you're a still a senior player, even if you don't act like it. Besides, how's quitting going to help? If you hand in your badge, you can't get it back, and if you quit the team now, you definitely won't be able to make it to the first team. Really Cheng Heng, quitting now won't help, you'll end up with even less than you started with.
----

True dat. No point folding if you've already bet big. Tim's right, I can't quit. Truth be told, I'd go mad without training. It'd be like taking a vow of silence.

Before having that conversation, I was going to whine about how it isn't fair that I know exactly what I'm doing, but I can't do well because I get careless, at *everything*. But now I'm not.

Crazy fool that I am, I decided to prescribe myself the DOW2 campaign to remedy sleepless nights. On Primarch difficulty, and now I require Prozac after I spent half an hour finding and killing the Lictor Alpha for the stage, but get killed by fucking SPORE MINES ten seconds after that. Three times in a row. Basically, the difficulty curve works like this

----
Recruit - Your Marines are made to Shen Shin's proportions. They only need to sneeze to take out a Fire Prism. And those are just the scouts.

Sergeant - Your Marines have as much plot armour as fluff Marines. Able to stand in the middle of an open field and gun down Looted Tanks without getting seriously hurt.

Captain - Your Marines will need to learn a concept that's very foreign to them. It's called cover. Marines actually get killed on this level.

Primarch - Terminators will get killed on a regular basis by (Dear Emperor...) Hormagaunts
----

Then, there was this guy on the Starhub servers who---

Wait, run that by me again!

Uh-huh...yeah...okay...WTF?

You can't be bloody serious...

Breaking news people, there are actually people going for the rugby outing tomorrow. Which unfortunately, is the also the time period which I intend to return to SJI at.

Ordinarily, I would be stuck here indecivisely, afraid of the consequences of either choice. Look bad to the team, or not return.

Then again, I've always prided myself on being able to elicit a "WTF?" response from people.

Micro has decided to be decisive today. I R going back with the rest. Sorry ACJC, but you should have put the celebrations on Monday.

Finally learning to stand up for yourself are we?

Indeed I am my friend, indeed I am.

Got the presents yet?

D'oh!

Meh, they won't expect one from you anyway, you never were in the habit of doing that.

Well... I handed up my lit homework to the BAng on the last one, does that count?

No

Really? Fine... Is there anything else I'm forgetting?

Clouds and supersonic aircraft. CWC email. Now.

Told You I'd Be Back

2009-08-17T23:48:00.000+08:00

Arsenal played the perfect game (6-1 against Everton) and Usain Bolt ran the perfect race last night, and I did the perfect experiment for Physics SPA today. That anagram still scares me these days, after unbelievably crap luck with them at O-Levels. I arrived in school at the usual time so I'd get a ride to school despite being in Shift 2, and tried not to die of anxiety while reading Duma Key until 10. Damn you Steven King, now you've made me go from dreamless sleep to "WTF?" dreams. The last one involved Robbie Keane dying and China nuking the school. The dreams of a man missing half his brain due to a car accident and a supernatural island are contagious.

Such a weight off one's chest...Chemistry won't be as finicky as Physics, and Chinese test on Wednesday, meh, when did I start caring?

Anyway, while I was dying of guilt for not going for any CWC meetings earlier this year due to training, being faced with the prospect of stoning yet another 4 hours before it started left me in the age-old problem here. Too little time to go home, too long to waste. The successful SPA more than made up for it of course.

So after Sam Wang and Tim K had to return to class at 2, I was still left with much time to burn. So back to Duma Key it was, at the risk of my subconscious pulling another Piccaso on me, to watch Eddie Freemantle slowly crawl out of insanity.

Finally at 4.30 I met up with Sam again to find our way to the meeting room.

That's when I heard her...

A shrill roar is volleyed at poor Tim for forgetting to unlock the room from somewhere in the candeck. The source of the noise, standing at 5"2 in all her glory, the self proclaimed Madame Dictator Kim.

Okay, so she isn't so evil once you get to know her, but I still spent the next five minutes taking cover behind Sam because Tim was too small to provide ample protection.

Unfortunately, this appeared to be one of the sessions involving labour and admin st00fs, so half my mind was spent thinking up suggestions for the outing they were planning, and the other half was spent thinking of a name for the dead cockroach taped to the wall with a "OMG, help me!" speech bubble next to it after Mr Woolhead mentioned it was important to know "the name behind the face". I eventually pasted a "Hi, My Name is Llewellyn" sign next to it. Madame Dictator was not pleased.

On a absolutely random note, I must watch Up. I have never missed a Pixar film before, and I don't intend to start now.

P.S : Two years are up Bryant, what does that anagram stand for!!??!?!

WTF...Where Did That Come From?

2009-07-27T09:49:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, I had the dubious privilege of consciously watching myself fall sick with fever. While most enlightening actually feeling the fever take over, it wasn't fun. Definitely wasn't fun.

Usually, one wakes up with the said illness, but in the space of an hour I went from cursing the Economics independent worksheet to a shivering wreck on the floor.

First sign was the chills. I was resisting the urge to start up TF2/SwiftKit while doing the damned worksheet when I suddenly felt really, really cold. Which was weird, given how it supposed to be a hot day.

I realized something was wrong when the headache came in. That was definitely something wrong, I actually slept the night before.

It all proceeded to fall to shit from there. My parents found me a shivering wreck under my blanket with the windows closed and fans off at 30 degrees.

By the time I reached the clinic my temperature was 38.5, which I realized, even in my connection-lost-to-reality-attemtping-to-re-establish state, was a record. Normally, I abnormally low temperatures (<36) because the thermometer I bring is probably broken and only for show.

While the doctor admitted I was in bad shape, he seemed pretty certain it wasn't H1N1. So that means no 7 day holiday for anyone in contact with me.

My 7 day MC however, means I miss the CWC session this week. I feel *really* guilty about having joined but never going because of training, but even when I can go, something else turns up. (First Chinese A-Level oral, followed by this).

A Conversation

2009-07-11T16:07:00.005+08:00

We need to talk. It's apparent that your problems have gotten out of hand.

Leave me alone...

You sure about that one? You can't seem to make up your mind about that one...

I know...

I know you tried to interact with them, but let's face the facts. Most of the time you've got nothing to say to them. And kid, it's made you miserable for a long time now.

No kidding...

And the worst thing is your indecision. Sure, you've sworn to be a lone wolf, just disconnecting yourself entirely from them, as far as possible. But you keep holding out in case that might change.

Hey, what can I say, I'm an optimist. Or at least I used to be.

Why exactly do you hate them so much anyway?

I don't hate them...

Hate's a bit strong I guess, but you definitely don't like 'em. I see many things too, just like you do.

Of course you do genius, you're me...

When you were sixteen. From happier times. And answer my question.

I don't know...it's just that whenever I'm around them, I just feel so damned edgy and uncomfortable... I just don't feel happy around them. Something about a lot of them just irritates me...

Well, whatever it is, it's getting serious. You're perpetually moody and listless because of it. And that in turn, causes you to not feel like doing anything. Especially study. You got butchered at the Terms, and even though it was a mix of carelessness and crap luck, you still shouldn't have crashed so spectacularly. Hell, it's even affecting your ability to write. Look at your posts since you got here. They're missing something.

I know, I know... The odd thing is that it's just them that this problem turns up with. I'm perfectly okay with everyone else I've met, but I can go through a day without saying a word to any of them.

Atrophy could be the reason for your writing's malaise.

Yeah...

You miss Sam, Bryant, Moses and the rest don't you?

Good that you noticed Captain Obvious. Moses is in CJ, Sam's in Australia and Bryant might as well be there with him, busy as he is these days. At least I still see Tim K often enough online, but still...

Back to the original reason why I'm talking to you. You can either continue trying to fit in, or strike out alone. You can of course, remain in the transition stage you're in now, but a fat load of good that's done you. The first option has no guarantee of working, and being the calculative being you are, I guess I know what you'll pick.

I have no qualms about being a lone ranger, but then that might ruin...

Your chances with her? Honestly, mate, the best way to go back to the relaxed state of life that you operate best in is to just disconnect yourself from everything, and you're seriously holding this up for one girl? You could fix everything that's gone wrong!

Sounds much like one of those chick romance novels. Lulz. But you're right.

Meh, I knew I was always a sensible bugger. So, now will you walk the Path of the Ranger?

Yes! Now give me my camo-cloak and mini-brightlance/sniper rifle. Wait, actually, you can keep the rifle, Rangers still suck major ass, even in DoW2.

Seriously? Damn.

Yeah, they do, but Guardians are actually useful these days. But they removed Dark Reapers.

Like topping Haagen-Daas ice cream with pond scum... Sigh, hopefully Relic will get it right one day. But listen man, just remember, do the right thing, and don't forget that you are special. Srsly. Egoistical as it is, it's how you thrived and survived back then, and that's how you'll repeat that here. But really, you know you aren't normal, and not in a bad way. Don't forget. It's all going to be alright from here on.

But what about her?

Sigh, I'm still a poet and romantic at heart aren't I? Well, didn't chicks dig rebels and such?

You're speaking from a total lack of experience. But meh, odds are you're right.

You seem to have taken that rather easily. I'm surprised.

I took my happy pills 8 )

Nice to see you in a bright mood again. Now, off you go, and finish up the tutorial on M.I okay?

Will do! Bye!

Bye!

I Am Ze Ubermensch!

2009-06-27T01:53:00.004+08:00

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198002575944/stats/TF2

Ironically, I was using the Kritzkrieg when I set the record. 64 points as Medic. Not farmed. No cheats, no hacks, nothing.

It all started on an instant respawn 2fort server. I had just gotten Doctor Assisted Homicide, and I needed two more achievements for the Ubersaw. So I sat there in the respawn room wondering which two I should go for next.

Intern and Specialist seemed to be the only two which didn't depend on the competency of my team mates, and were not ridiculously stupid like so many Medic achievements.

I checked the front door of the BLU fort.

Are we turtling? Check.

Are there many Heavies/Soldiers? Check.

Am I the only Medic on the team? Check.

And so it began. I changed the setting for "Begin playing like you got no balls at " from 80% to 0%. I started to run away the moment I was under fire, turned around so often and suddenly that I looked like I had Tourette's Syndrome, and fired off the Kritz at the first sign of danger (Yes, I even Kritzed a Heavy when I saw an Sniper coming down the bridge).

It took a surprisingly short time to amass 10k heal points needed for Specialist and Intern. Then I thought to myself, why stop here? How often do you get 2 sentries built at the entrance of the fort with dispensers nearby, as well as a RED team comprising mostly of W + M1 players?

It was only 21 minutes of getting crit-raped that the RED team sent an Ubered Pyro coming up from the sewers. No one needs the element of surprise anymore when you're invincible.

But I got the the achievements, and most importantly, my Ubersaw.

I celebrated using a Demoman that jumped onto the battlements.

Ubersaw makes Medics charge up to just about any class for easy Uberchage/Kritzkrieg. And believe or not, Medics will come up tops most of the time. Soldiers and Demomen are actually pretty poor in melee range, Heavies get tunnel vision when they start firing, Scouts tend to go for a bat kill when their Force-A-Nature runs dry, Engies are too slow to run away, Snipers can't see closer than 50 metres and Spies are just for lulz.

If I wasn't phasing my mind off Planet Slummer and back into the real world for the exams, I'd draw up plans on how to build an Ubersaw. In real life. Anyone know where I can get that handle?

Because I already have the blades and syringes ready.

Michael Jackson apparently just died 12 hours ago.

While he did have an unhealthy interest in little boys, never seemed to grow up and decided to make himself look like one of his one zombies in Thriller in his later life, there's no denying the man was a musical genius.

If you can write and sing a Grammy winning song at the age of 10, and continue doing that for decades, you've got to be someone special.

Now that he's died, let's just remember the good that he did, not as the scandal ridden man who lived in a world of his on, but as the handsome young rogue in Thriller with the talent we may never again see in our own lifetime.

CUH-RIT!!

2009-06-16T21:31:00.003+08:00

Things to do this holiday
-------------------------
Convert Tim to TF2ism (Done)
Study properly (I'm working on it)
Get all the new unlocks (Just the Cloak and Dagger left)
Get all the old unlocks (Just the ubersaw left)
-------------------------

And that's about all that I can do with the time remaining. I was trying to clear up all engagements before Sam gets back sometime this week, but with the quarantine in effect, it looks like we'll have to battle our way through hordes of men in biohazard suits to get to his house.

The holiday is the first time since I got to AC that I can finally drop everything and simply put up my apathy-shield/umbrella to everything that demands my attention. Come to think about it, I should put my apathy shield up for more things that I used to feel weren't important.

Because it frees up time for TF2. The two new Spy watches will ensure the old invisibility watch will never get used ever again once you gain either unlock for most people, but my spy skills have gone down the drain after two months of neglect.

Strangely, all my other classes save the Demoman have gotten *better* with two months of neglect. Positive K-D ratios are now *common* to me! And not to boast (eh, who am I kidding?), but when I play Sniper or Soldier, I help enemy Spies get the High Value Target achievement. (You need to backstab an enemy who is dominating at least three of your teamates.)

Sniper is really the way to rack up kills very fast, especially on 2fort. Here's some food for though.

It took me 7 months since I bought TF2 before I got Fire Chief for Pyro (Get 1000 kills as Pyro)

It took me just two weeks of playing to get Kill Everyone You Meet (Get 1000 kills as Sniper)

Admittedly, I've done little but play Sniper the last two weeks, and it was on a 2fort instant respwan server...

The new unlocks for Sniper aren't fantastic. The Huntsman makes Sniper a dangerous close-combat class according to Bryant, but a close range Sniper is kind of paradoxical to me...

Jarate ensures for much lols, and it's useful. By covering your enemies in piss, every hit on them will be a mini-crit, it can extinguish you and your teamates if you happen to be on fire, and it can reveal cloaked Spies. And it's funny. 3 uses to add to Brainiac's 101 Uses for a Wee.

Razorback is fAiL... 1 word. Ambassador.

As for the Soldier...

I used to hate this class. Now, I love it. Unlike my other three prefered classes (Medic, Heavy, Pyro), I can actually fight, and fight at just about any range. And crit rockets! Nothing makes my inner child smile more than hearing the electrical sizzling when a crit rocket is fired off, the bright, sparkling comet of doom zooming at all the poor suckers in range. At times like this, I always think the same though. Mates, you are all fucked.

It's fast becoming Tim's favourite class too. He's already racked up a more impressive record with the Soldier than I have, though Steam being the bitch is can be, didn't take it down.

Quote from the Spy when dominating a Scout : Here lies Scout. He lived fast, and died a virgin.

Dear Mr Bill Gates

2009-06-05T13:37:00.002+08:00

I have managed to successfully buy, download, install and play Operation Anchorage from Games for Windows Live, despite your gargantuan efforts to prevent me from doing otherwise, and no doubt the Pitt and Broken Steel will follow closely behind this success. I may have wasted thirty bucks in my endeavor, but it was thirty dollars for a worthy cause.

Yes, your barriers to prevent people from purchasing Fallout 3's expansion packs from GFWL are not insurmountable. The fickleness of the download speeds and the unreasonable age limit were easily overcome, but then you started playing hardball.

Yes Mr Gates, the monkeys you hired to create GFWL almost had me there. For a period of time, GFWL would simply claim that nothing was available for purchase, and only after persistent trial and error did I finally manage to trick the system into letting the option to purchase Operation Anchorage.

Fortunately for me, my Fallout 3 was gifted through Steam, so I dodged your potentially fatal region coding.

But even then, I had to dig through the innards of my computer to move around the BSA files from the default download location into the right place in the operating files because I didn't buy Fallout 3 from GWFL.

Even after that, it was hours of wrestling with the data files before I could get Operation Anchorage to work.

But, eventually, I did get it working. And I enjoyed it. Chinese stealth armour is awesome, even the though the Crimson Dragoons weren't using it to it's maximum potential

Now, I'm not belittling GWFL Mr Gates, but really, something has to be done about it. From what I've heard, you've already fired the head chimp at the GWFL department, so I know you're aware of the problems with it.

While I could possibly labouriously figure out how to force GWFL to sell me the other DLCs, I'd really appreciate it if you helped out by fixing it. Or allowing people who know what they are doing to distribute it too *cough* Steam *cough*.

So yeah, get either one done pretty soon. Don't sweat too much about the problems with GWFL, had least it's a tiny boo-boo compared to EA's idea of SecureROM. I really ought to get the Psychotic Prankster achievement on whoever thought that one up.

Yours Sincerely
Micro

How to Survive JC Life

2009-05-10T11:51:00.004+08:00

While lurking MOAR through the Stomp forums, I finally chanced a guide to JC life posted by a certain user named Grandash. The frankness and mostly black-and-white answers and suggestions in his/her guide make it seem like a key to JC life written by my 18 year old self, save the glaring differences in writing style of course.

------

Guide to ownage in JC. - Slack in JC and still excel.
The Pareto Principle gives evidence that 80% of our achievements comes from 20% of our efforts. The following are the 20% you should do and the 80% you should avoid.

Dont do CIP. Waste of time. (Finally, someone else with a brain regarding CIP...)US Universities dont even bother looking at it. Considers it as free labour and that you are stupid enough to listen to the government/school. In their culture, CIP is only for those who break the law and part of their rehabilitation program.

For PW (if it still exists in 2009), dont bother doing your GPP well. Just write some crap and hand it to your teacher. Ignore wadever complaints from them. It carries no marks. Insist on keeping meetings to a maximum of 1 hr. Set agenda before meeting. For whatever work, just split the work load, do separately, then meet again to collate. Any surveys data can be faked, and they will not be able to catch you. (not that i recommend you to do that. I strongly believe in research integrity) However, write your WR very well and make sure you excel in the presentation. (I got an A for PW, and i spent less than 24hrs in total for it. Including typing my InR, PI, rehearsals for presentation, etc)

For maths, do all the tutorial qns. During tutorials only listen when the teacher has a faster method, or you dont know how to do the qn. Otherwise do wadever you want. (e.g sleep, sms, do other homework, read books, play GC)

For chem, read the notes carefully. (Figured this one out myself actually) Esp if they state any abnormalities. Buy a good textbook and read, do read the fun facts or wadever the book calls it. It is useful esp for application qns.

For phys, just buy a challenging qn book and practice. If you understand the concepts can just throw away the notes (Thank you, thank you *takes bow*).

Econs just read the essay outlines, practice case study skills. (Exactly what I've been trying to tell History/Social Studies students all this while) Notes almost 80% are junk and not needed in exams.(Good to know, but not useful) You can survive on just 20% content and get a very decent A.

For year 1, dont bother listening to your GP teacher. Yr 1 teachers are crap and they teach crap. Listen attentively in yr 2 though. To survive yr 1, either you read VERY widely (Good, I'm safe already then), or take GP tuition. Please dont waste your first yr or else your english standard CMI in yr 2.

If you think you are extra smart, join the olympiad training programs (Unfortunately, I'm also a lazy piece of crap) and make sure you get selected to represent your sch. Listen very attentively, and MAKE SURE you go back and read the reference books within a 48 hrs timeframe. OR ELSE I guarantee you will be lost in the next lesson. (unless you are a freaking genius of IQ more than 160)

For H3 dont be stupid and take the MOE modules. Take the local Uni ones instead. I highly recommend NTU H3 maths or SMU game theory. SMU game theory is the slackest (around 3 months only). Do the MOE and cry. Do for 1yr-1.5 yrs, get tougher paper, same credit as those local uni ones.

Dont take up research attachments (Thank goodness that a certain combination of unique circumstances prevented my from doing this one). Literally saps your time away. Including your holidays. If you think you really have the time, do put in commitment and at least get a merit award at the SSEF. Another point to note, only do quality projects from the A STAR research labs, NTU ones are just looking for cheap labour. Go there do testing for the prof, and will not qualify for SSEF first round. However the carrot is you get some money at the end of it. (not sure how much, but around 150)

Join council only if you are sure you are popular and have the calibre to make it to the exco. Anything else gives you little credit, fills/saps your time, and give you insomnia and lack of sleep. Normal council member = free labour. Its a crap CCA and wadever respect/prestige bullshit the sch sells you is nothing but a fallacy. If you want to join it, please dont join for the prestige or for your CCA cert. Join it for the skills you will learn and use for a lifetime, and it will be more worthwhile.

Maintain good relationships with the guard in your school and it will reap dividends for you.
----------

Hollow

2009-05-03T01:08:00.004+08:00

---------------

Your caring façade worked so well, all laughter and fake smiles

Hell, I’ll admit, you managed to fool even me for awhile

But now it’s not hard to see past your deceptive screen of lies

Which shields your true colours from everything save my two eyes

You carried yourself around so confident, so self-assured

As you watched everyone in the room hang on to your every word

You even took it upon yourself to save the silent and forgotten

Not out of charity but rather evil motives misbegotten

Now the one you’ve hypnotized and taken under your leathery wing

Is little more than a flesh puppet which you use to sing

High praises of yourself, but with another’s tongue

Greasing your way upwards through society’s rungs

But I’d like to warn you now, I’m not the sole person who can see

Past your mask and shallow mind, yes, there are more like me

Already, we’ve tried to sabotage and sour

Your undeserved bid for formal power

I know life is no drama, and you might not fall

Regardless of the outcomes, the Unseen Seer will watch all

Along with the many who have the foresight

And the strength to resist your charm's might

Is that why you loathe me, fear me, keep me sequestered and afar?

Because I can see past your act for what you really are

------------------

I never work without inspiration. What does that say about the above?

Third Time's a Charm

2009-04-21T23:11:00.002+08:00

Scored my first try today against PJC! Not just my first try for AC, my first try.

Ever.

After 5 years in the game, on my third game for AC. Like I said, three's a charm!

Happened right after the first try in the second half. Keith caught the ball and burned his way through for 50 meters before going down a meter before the try line. Prentice got stopped half a meter before it. Someone kindly cleared the ruck before I finally plodded my way there from the halfway line.

So there the ball was, just exposed there. I ran totally on instincts I never knew I had. Grabbed ball, jumped over ruck without landing on too many people, put ball down.

I heard the referee blow a punctured sounding whistle, which could have meant various things

1. Try
2. No try
3. I need a new whistle
4. Hot damn, I'm tired...

I only got confirmation when Keith looked at me incredulously and said "Micro, did you just score?!?!". So, with the rest of the team staring at me with shock/amazement, I replied with my standard answer. "Huh?"

That was enough to keep me powered and moving at full speed until we hit 80-0.

It's a very good week. I scored for the first time *ever*, Prentice is happy again since he managed to come on in the second half just after me and score as well, Isa doesn't seem so pissed off at me since my scrum form improved.

I've picked up my class rep badge, PW teacher has OK'ed my PI ideas, and I have a B, possibly moving up to A for Physics.

Only bitch in the week so far is that I failed maths. Damn.

"Silent Running" and "Ninja" Perks

2009-04-06T23:06:00.004+08:00

First off, thanks for dropping by here Ollyvia, I'm glad you like the scarf! Hope you enjoy yourself in Michigan!

Yes... it appears I have someone how acquired both these Fallout 3 perks in AC, among other things... Put simply I can move into and out of many things (etc lecture theatres, classrooms, unwanted CIP events) without anyone seemingly noticing. For laughs, I've even tried breaking into the Performing Arts Centre or whatever they call it here, but no one came to make it interesting and I got bored since the only room that wasn't locked was the sound room or something, it was so dark I couldn't tell...

A regular Moist Von Lipwig I've become, it seems, I've become hard to notice all of a sudden. Of course, while this pseudo-invisibility is fun at times, it appears my Control Key is broken. That means I'm stuck in this mode till I get a new keyboard for my life. It also means that no one notices me till I do something that pisses them off. Appears to be true in many cases...

Anyway, off that depressing topic and onto...well, a potentially more depressing topic, the rugby team. While I did play during the 114-0 pwning of HCJC, I've injured Prentice pretty badly during training, and while he's trying to be nice about it, I know he's just really, really angry about it, and with me. Isa appears to be mad at me for some reason as well.

Why?

Because I don't try hard enough during training?

The immensely long time I am taking to remember basic manouvers?

Because I don't seem enthusiastic at training?

Because I'm too quiet during training?

Given the high standards here, I'm probably guilty of the first, I'm definitely guilty of the second, but I'll be very upset if it's the last two. I don't say anything at training because I simply don't feel I'm in a position to. Everyone else plays better than me, I have nothing to offer in advice skill-wise, I'm faring worse during all the fitness sessions, I don't feel I should really be encouraging if I'm at the back end, I've always felt that it's the coaches discretion when it comes to deciding who plays, so I don't request to be fielded... What can I do but keep quiet?

Quiet...I seem to have silenced myself since coming here...No one appears to hear me anyway, so why bother, I tell myself. Irony of it all is, when I went back to CJC, one of the first things my friends there noticed was that I became "more outgoing."

The irony...

CJC...It was so good to be back. To go back to where I can see a familiar face everywhere, people I can hold a conversation with, people who won't rudely disappear halfway through when I'm talking. I don't have to raise my voice to be heard there. I'm not forced to roam amongst the shadows because I feel unwanted there.

Going back there, I was really, truly at ease for the first time in a long time. I didn't have to worry if people could hear me, I could laugh without sounding fake, I could really smile without forcing myself to, I could forget I totally screwed myself up in AC and just be happy to be amongst friends would even noticed I was there.

I just wanted to cry when I went back. I've done a lot of crying since arriving here. Corryn, Hong Kong, the list goes on...

Ah what the hell, the first step to solving a problem is to admit there is a problem.

The dream is dead.

My class doesn't care about me, and I don't care about them.

The team doesn't appear to need or want me around.

I find it hard going without the recognition I had back then.

The SJI cadre here consists mostly of people I was never very close to, and everyone else seems to have assimilated easily here, I don't want to weigh them down.

I'm sick and tired of being constantly on guard not to lose my temper or break down.

I'm feeling miserable here, plain and simple.

There's just one thing that keeps me going. And I'll lose that too, if I break down and give up. Duty-bound.

Searching for the Right One

2009-03-23T04:22:00.005+08:00

Me once again at my traditional Welcome the New School Term Night, which I normally spend rushing through the holiday homework, or if I've been a good boy, having a fragfest on TF2/COD4/Fallout 3, followed by the traditional blog entry.

Yeah, searching is what I spent Saturday doing, looking for the right present for...wait, that's supposed a surprise for Ollyvia...

Meh, what the heck, we're giving the scarf to her on Tuesday, and it's not like news gets around very fast through here unless it involves Matthew's DotA pride.

Ollyvia's moving away to Michigan at the end of the month, and with her birthday coming up soon, we (i.e me and Ronald) thought it would be a good idea to get her a birthday present suited to the climate there. Our (okay, fine, his) idea? A scarf.

The original plan was also to split the cost just between ourselves (also his idea). Yes, I know, me and him are starting to end up like Commander Vimes and Captain Carrot. Anyway, we planned to meet up on Saturday to shop for a scarf for her.

Unfortunately, he suddenly couldn't make it. Panic.

The thought of two "first thing fits me" guys when it comes to fashion and accessories going shopping for a girl's scarf was hilarious. The thought of me going alone however, was not.

Enter Rebecca. I am so damned grateful she could make it on such short notice to go shopping with me. I've had bad experience with department stores since I was 4...

----
Micro : Mum, I'm boooored...I'm tired, can we go home now...

Mum : Just few (10) more dresses Cheng, and we'll go home.
----

Yeah, bad days.

She's a self-confessed perpetual latecomer, so that saved me since she arrived later than I did.

We did still spend a couple of hours simply finding a scarf that seemed appropriate and was within our price range, hopping from Far East to Wisma to Tang Plaza and....well, I lost track after that.

Not that that long time was a bad thing. Bryant's already prepared me for shopping with girls (his record was 45 minutes at Kino. Yes, I timed), and Rebecca makes for great conversation, despite both of us being quiet by AC standards. So far the only I've met in AC I can have a conversation at length with, after Caleb of course.

That's mostly my fault too, according to her. She says I need to talk to more people in the class.

Ordered the cake as I made my way back home, and Beck, I'm afraid we won't have enough cake to splatter on Ollyvia's head, unless some noble soul would like to donate their piece of cake for so she can have one last lulz with the class. Or the class can have one last lulz at her, either way works for me.

Which reminds me...

I seem to have picked up three labels I never thought would end up with me.

-----
Rebecca : Mrs Chiang was quite surprised you left for the rugby tour.

Micro : How come?

Rebecca : She said you looked too refined to be in rugby.

Micro : Er...okay...

Rebecca : I also didn't think you looked like one, you look too quiet and gentle.

-----

Quiet, refined and gentle. And it's not just them. It seems that way to everyone from the PW teacher all the way to some people on the team.

I told Moses about it. I got a "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL CHENG HENG!!?!?!" in reply. I appear to be growing up without knowing... My 16 year old self is going "What have you done to yourself mate?"

Of course, I'm not saying they are bad labels. Very different from what I'm used to though. Could certainly get used to it.

New Heights!

2009-03-21T00:23:00.002+08:00

New heights the J1 ruggers have reached, the 28th story of the Empire Kowloon Hotel to be exact. Journey, perilous it was, and our merry band of 5 braved the blustery Hong Kong skies, hotel security guards and the dangers of a hotel rooftop, all in the name of capturing the perfect picture of the Hong Kong skyline.

Not all of us made it there. Nas and Kun didn't dare to climb the ladder to the highest point on the roof because it was a LONG way down if we slipped and fell, and I almost backed out as well. At first, I only climbed up to give Zongren and CK my camera and I went down again, but they thought I chickened out at the last rung, so I went back up again, and I'm glad I did.

The two photos showing why. There are a few more pictures of us dancing on the roof of the hotel, and one with the two of them doing the Titanic scene and looking so damn gay, but they're all on my Facebook, and I'm too lazy to upload them...

It is dry as hell in Hong Kong, and I've fufilled most of my main objectives there, namely

-Buy new shoes
-See the nightlife (Non-existent where I was)
-Count how many 7-11's I could see from my hotel (3)
-Find a new entry for engrish.com
-Play in the match we went to there to play (failed)

Yeah, I was pretty upset about that last one. Very upset, but perhaps I did get a bit too emotional about, looking back now sneaking away from the rest of the team when they went for the dinner reception wasn't the best thing to do. It's painful though, listening to them recount their stories on the field, that crash that left a guy out cold, the run that gained more than 20 meters, that tackle to stop the one that almost got away... To here all these post-match tales, unable to join in because you have none of your own... It hurts, really.

But meh, I'll get over it. Aside from that, everything else was fantastic. Left to roam the streets of Kowloon by ourselves most of the time, we jumped from shop to shop, possibly annoying quite a few shopkeepers by trying out just about everything in their stores before finally deciding on something, or worse, not buying anything at all, but those were rare cases since everyone was eager to spend and most stuff is really cheap there.

Execpt for two VERY important things I hold dear to my heart.

Video games, and food.

For some reason, both cost more than back home, the average NDS game costing at least SGD$40, and that's the for the not so popular ones, where 30 is the norm here, and I couldn't find a place that would sell a decent meal for anything less than $5. That made me sad. Okay fine, at least they compensated for the meals by having super large portions, but that's beside the point.

Oh yes, speaking of meals, there was this conversation that practically sealed my reputation as team dreamer...

-----
(Peter Wang and Keith talking about something I misheard)

Micro : Wait, wasn't the hotel gym closed?

(Very long puzzled silence)

Mr Lim : Err, Micro, you're watching wrong channel, everyone one here is tuned to MTV, I think you're on Discovery right now...

Zongren : So what channel are you watching sir?

(whispered) Micro : His TV is broken already...
-----

Zongren almost covered the table in tea upon hearing that.

Hehe, the kangaroo court sessions... Turns out the stuff Lincoln was furiously scribbling down was all the so-called charges he would prosecute us with. Our first hint was when he bought all those century eggs and raw brocoli, someone should have suspected something, but we all assumed he would get his wife to cook or something, and me being me I was too happy carrying two 2 litres of bottle Coke that I would get a share of for carrying to notice anything suspicious.

Turns out, all that stuff was for eating. Raw. As punishment for charges he fabricated. A few of the charges...

---
"Keith, you are accused of being too much like a tourist, always having a camera out to take photos of yourself."

"Edmond, you are accused of learning how to pass balls on the 11th floor of the hotel, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Micro, you have two charges. *Gets century egg ready* You are accused of not being a team player by not letting anyone else carry the Coke, and for posing as an SJI boy on an ACJC rugby tour" (I only wore my tracksuit, and George wore the bottom half...)

"Tim, George, Nasril and Song, you are all charged with stealing my bananas to eat them."

"Peter Wang, you are hereby accused of not going out with at least one J1 player."

"Mr Lim, you are accused of *insert ridiculous charge here*"
-----

Prentice has a video of Peter freaking out for at least 2 minutes before eating the century egg, and Mr Lim only finished his after much complaining, threatening the judge and pleading. No problems on my end, two bites and it was over.

Most importantly though, I've learned on a lot of people who look real fearsome and intimidating can be quite nice once you get to know them.

I've learned that not everyone is the talented but distant Space Marine I thought them to be.

I've learned that truly, you won't be left behind or forgotten here, even if it seems like you have been.

And I learned to play hearts.

Round and Round the Merry-Go-Round

2009-03-10T22:55:00.002+08:00

The mood of the day goes, from good to bad and back again about a million times.

It's currently on the bad cycle. It's the NE poster thing's fault. Photos of the mass rallies during orientation were harder to find than I thought. Where are all the camwhores of the school when you really need them... With approximately 10 hours before school restarts again, I apparently, am in crisis. I currently have a few options

1) Grab any bunch of photos I can find, and alter my group's poster thingy to fit the bill

2) Simply go to sleep and throw something together from what we have tomorrow.

3) Wait for inspiration to hit me.

Option 1) looks possible. Option 2) is the route I'd have taken in another totally different set of conditions, if I knew everyone else's filed this in their heads the same way I do (Things no one cares about.), but I'm not sure if it is. I've trodden on enough toes as it is.

Option 3) however...

Is how many of my magna opera came to be, my Commonwealth credited essay, Chapters 1-2 and most of my powerpoints. A lot of my best work is forcibly dragged out of my head and onto paper/keyboard in these moments.

But I'm coming up with nothin----

"Stop the car!" *SCREECH!!!* "Look at that beauty, get me sack and noose Terri!"

*CRASH*

"Gorgeous! Look at that blighter!"

Amazing. I have just found and abducted a photo suiting our needs Steve Irwin style on maniAC! I need to do this more often...

I will never doubt the power of the internetz again!

My posts are becoming shorter and more weird than usual. Uh-oh...

1SB2 - A New Beginning (Two weeks late as usual)

2009-03-08T11:22:00.003+08:00

Yes, it seems I've been at ACJC for a month now, and that the March holidays are...one week away? That was fast... Mostly due to the fact that everything is so rushed now that I haven't got time to stop and think.

Two weeks into the job, and surprisingly, I haven't been sacked as class rep yet. Yet. Sarcastic and cynical as I seem about having taken on the job, it's starting to grow on me, though if there were a grade for this job, given how I've moved (or not moved) the class, I think I'd get a subpass at best.

Oh yes, the class has the misfortune of having me at the helm. What can I say about them? Well, to be honest, I'm getting the same feeling I was getting at Corryn during the first week I was so damned miserable about, that something vitally crucial happened that everyone was supposed to have taken note of, but I just happened to blink. Of course, that problem eventually fixed itself quite conveniently at Corryn, and with any luck it'll happen here.

I R 17!

2009-02-18T22:51:00.002+08:00

-----
Gerald : HAPPY B'DAY MICROO/CHENG HENG! May the skies rain mayo^^
-----

Gerald, I'll remember that line for many birthdays to come!

Happy birthday to me lulz!

Wait, no. "Happy birthday to me" must be one of the loneliest-sounding phrases around, given how it's only said by people who are absolutely alone on their own very special day of the year.

Which quite thankfully, I'm not.

The so-called AC tradition of being rolled around in a dustbin on your birthday seems to have over-looked with thankfully. Being found only when you want to has it's uses sometimes 8 )

Speaking of which, we've just been sorted out into our actual classes. Now, I have switched from Corryn to 1SB2. What I don't get is them making us have orientation with one group of people, then proceed to swap us to a totally new bunch of people we are completely unfamiliar with, thereby neutralizing the point of having gone through all that bonding.

Ah well, the Lord works in strange ways. Pity though, I was just starting to warm up to everyone in Corryn. No one going with me since they either don't take H2 Physics, or didn't get the same score as me...

On the bright side, they did at least post me together with Nick Lam, so I had at least one familiar face in the crowd. It certainly made up somewhat for what happened next.

The teacher in charge...well...how do I put this nicely........

*Warning*

ERROR 144 : Aformentioned action is not possible

*Warning*

Ah nuts, never mind, you get the idea.

Still, the last thing I felt was a major problem in this school conveniently solved itself, so maybe if I sit back and do nothing, it'll eventually fix itself.'

Fortunately, the other people in the class seem to be okay people. Thank the heavens they got rid (I think) of the old system where the better your O-Level score, the lower your class number, so I'm not stuck with a influx of scholars/workaholic China studenets/nerds. It's great being a Medic in TF2, but it's NOT funny if the entire team consists of Medics. Even I have a limit of how much over-enthusiasm concerning homework, and I live with myself, so that just means the leeway is not exactly large...

Meh, what am I saying, all the ASEAN scholars I've met in SJI are friendly guys, and I enjoy the tag of nerd, but like I said, Medic is fun to play, but whole team Medic = GGed with no remake.

With 13 minutes till 18th of Feburary is over, I've been contemplating what being 17 entails. Doesn't unlock the next level movie ratings. Doesn't allow me to drive yet. Doesn't allow me to buy alcohol or get into clubs, not that I'd try because I'm too damn lazy/lifeless.

In short, just me getting older. Uh-oh... Staying at this age is fine with me personally. Most people my age just can't wait to hit 18/21. I can't understand why, except perhaps for the driving bit, and it's not that hard to drive anyway.

Hehe, look at me, already thinking about how to stay young at 17. Can't imagine what'll happen if I hit 30. Or whether I will hit 30, if I decide to continue my titration habits here.

101th Post

2009-02-13T23:15:00.004+08:00

Wow, looking back at post 100, that was a pretty emo post. What a way to mark the century post, though I never, ever delete posts. Just a policy thing.

Right, I guess it's time for the explanation for the previous post.

Ahem. The previous incident has been resolved on all sides, and has been considered to be settled by all parties with no further comment.

Typical politician's answer, if I might say so myself.

Well, Week 2 has come to a close, and Destiny has kindly allowed any remaining problems I have remaining to be deflected by mein apathy shield!

Okay fine, not really, the lack of time is a bitch. Okay, not really the lack of it. Because I've been so enthusiastic in signing up early with the rugby team, I get back at around 10 most days. I haven't even had time to use Frank properly yet!

Oh yes, Frank. That'll be the computer I built. After Frankenstein. My nerd side cries in agony. Frank has been sitting under my desk for a week now, and I've done little with it save checking my email.

Like having the ability to telekinetically lift cars and tear them in half, but all I've done so far is open cans with it... The horror of it all, I can't imagine what'll happen when the homework starts coming in...

Time seems to turn up at all the wrong spots, in all the wrong quantities in AC. I will pack 4 lectures consecutively, and suddenly, I'm home free at 1130. Good huh? So what happens if I have to stay back until 5 for training?

A grand total of 6 hours. Weet, what do I with it? Okay fine, most hardworking people would point at that and say

"IDIOT! Homework goes HERE!"

Which is true really. And I honestly tried that. I got to page 17 in my H2 Chem notes (Lecture is still at 7...), something of the like with H2 Maths, tried to understand why the hell it's so hard to just to tell people "Money is exchanged for goods and services, and using 1 trillion dollars to give every American 600 Subway Subs, and iPod and a pair of Ginsu knives is just dumb," and why they've got to do it in about 3000+ words.

And guess what? It was still one-thirty, and all I succeeded in was looking like a closet mugger who's come into the open. Okay, it gave me the chance to pay attention more in Chem...wait no...less busy...not really...Damn, what benefit has it brought me?

Let's see...I spent enough time staring at the back of Rachel's head to realize she dyed streaks into it, had it curled at the ends at one point, doesn't really bother with neatness, and has birthmark at base of neck?

Too many details, I know, and don't worry Rachel, not stalking you!

Okay, that goes into the "Nolelele NO!" catergory. It'll be useful later on I'm sure, but we live in the present, and it needs fixing.

Not enough to go back home, too much to pass quickly, too much to fill completely with homework (At least for now).

-Gym? Possibly for the last hour or two before training starts, which leaves me with 4 hours.

-Library? Sorry, Oldham Library still feels like a step down from SJI's Beurel....Especially content-wise...

-Eat? You're kidding right? I'm 85kg right now, bad idea...

-Sleep? Where? Yet to find a good place to crash out. Bad idea anyway.

- Stare into the air and contemplate the meaning of life? Hmm, interesting, except for the fact that I know the meaning of life already. It's 42. Everyone knows that.

-Use sugar that Mivio gave me with the matches she gave Caleb to make caramel? Caramel good... But caramel is one-use-only. Dammit!

That's it, I'm out of ideas. Time has lost it's ability to come WHEN NEEDED in the right amounts for me, and it's coming up at all the wrong times, causing me to trip over it.

Sort of like me now in rugby. Rusty as hell now, dropping passes like nuts, the new guy telling me to be more aggresive and...

WAIT! Bad Cheng Heng! Enough problems for the week! ONE AT ZE TIME! NO MORE FOR TONIGHT!

One Long Haze Of Sadness

2009-02-08T02:07:00.008+08:00

I'll be honest, I'm not entirely at ease here in ACJC. For starters, I don't feel at accepted into my OG, plain and simple. I can say something, and not be heard, or be interrupted mid-way by someone else. Is it my fault? Possibly, probably... You start to realize something is wrong when the girl who arrived in just yesterday fits in better than you do.

I was actually writing a song about the OG. I scrapped it. No one seemed to like it. I know what an "Okay..." or a "Right..." in a certain tone means.

It's like the picture's been taken, and I didn't happened to be in it. Bryant says it'll all fall into place. It has, just that I'm not there either. I could vanish mid-way through something, and they wouldn't notice.

I could pass out somewhere and collapse, and half of the OG wouldn't notice.

And guess what? They didn't. I did pass out. In the middle of the campfire in the hall. One more migraine attack, another to add to my list.

Aside from David, and the other guy who pulled me up and dragged me out of the hall to find help. Couldn't see the other guy through my daze, so I'm sorry if can't give you due credit.

I told them that the flashing lights in the dark and the noise triggered it, which was partially true. My attacks get triggered by a few other reasons, when I'm extremely upset/angry for one.

This is what happened. Marshall, our resident joker, had been dragged onto stage by yours truly after much egging on from everyone else, where we promptly made jackasses of ourselves. Then came something that I felt I really could strut with : Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Right up my alley. I watched the show of the same name so many times, Scenes From a Hat so many times. So I grab Marshall and tell him "Let's go and redeem ourselves mate!".

At that point, Serene tells me to sit down. Then the pause before her next sentence. I always recognize that pause. It's the one you take when you think about how to tell a person to just plain get lost in the nicest way possible without sounding really nasty.

"Sit down, give someone else a chance," she said. Fair enough. In the same breath she joins the rest in encouraging Marshall to get back onto the stage.

At that point, I just had it.

All the times I've been told "Could you move please, I want to stand next to *insert name here*".

All the times I was ignored or cut off mid-sentence.

All the times I got passed over in the games.

All the times I had to shunt my way to the back, because I made a conversational dead-zone with my mere presence.

Helped along by all the damned cheering and lights, my head and eye caught fire and exploded. Someone said "Is he crying?" after awhile. I might have been, for a short time. Then David and someone else hauled me out to get help.

I remember being put into a chair and a kind teacher looking after me and calling my mum, praying for me in between. And I didn't even catch his name. The rest was a haze of pain until about 930, according to the teacher.

The last painful slap? I missed the dances. I missed the dances. The one part of the whole thing I could honestly say I enjoyed and looked forward to.

Oh, I tried to get back in. I even told the teacher I was okay enough to go back in. I didn't dare to push it too far, in case he thought I was faking it. He eventually let me go back into the hall to watch. Perhaps I shouldn't have gone back in, because all I achieved was getting my head throbbing again, and seeing what I was missing.

Serena and Arthas (My OGL's) turned up after a while, along with Rachel and someone who possibly looked like Priscilla to help locate my bag so I could leave. Once they did, I staggered out with the teacher supported by two other OGL's who I also didn't catch the names of, and into my mum's car.

I know it's only a week. I know some things take time to happen. I'm just upset because these things happened, sans one Cheng Heng, a name some of them can't remember even now.

Serena, Arthas, Amanda, I know you three tried. That's one thing I'll give this school credit for, people will truly put their hearts and souls into everything they try.

I'm sorry if I feel like this, if I sound unappreciative, I know I must. I know, odds are it's my fault in some way, but really, all I can do is sigh wistfully when I look back at what happened.

IT LIVES!! IT LIV- Ouch, Son of A...

2009-01-29T21:15:00.003+08:00

HE LIVES!! HE LIVES!! *Maniacal cackle* What? Creation, what are you doin- OUCH! Bad creation! You do not zap Dr Frankenstein with your remaining static char- OUCH! Finally succeeded in convincing my parents I was putting together a computer out of nothing but spare parts. Started on last Wednesday, actually *technically* finished the assembly on Thursday afternoon, it actually booted up much to my relief. Then the problems hit. First thing I noticed was that there was an apparent leak somewhere in the power supply, because I kept getting an electric shock from the casing... In Tim's book of the 5 common stages that need to be troubleshooted after assembly, I hit 4 of them.

In face of an OS that refused to install, a belligerent proto-computer that insisted on trying to kill it's creator via electrocution, and a fast approaching Chinese New Year, I surrendered and turned it in to the experts at Sim Lim who I assumed would magically fix it with their superior knowledge of the machine spirit I had somehow pissed off.

And more problems turned up. My motherboard had somehow burned itself out, and I would have to wait until next Friday (tomorrow) to see if they could fix it.

Damn. I thought I had raised ein Ubercomputer, able to match Bryant's own (RAMwise anyway), able to let me play TF2 without slowing down when three Medics activate their Ubers at the same time and three sentries fire at their patients, or play COD4 and shrug off the idiots who think its funny to toss 3 smoke grenades at the same time to force others to lag.

Instead, it seems I've failed miserably at playing computer technician. Oh well, I guess I'll know tomorrow if it can be saved.

At the same time, I'll know for certain tomorrow if I'll be in ACJC. You never know what happens in the postings, you hear all these stories...

Its strange thought, heading to the ACS family, after 4 years of being taught to jump on cars with an ACS sticker on their windscreens. Doesn't help that I've been trying to look for Dan Abnett's Traitor General, but if they ever ask though, SJI first.

Oh yes, I found this picture on icanhascheezburger.com, in their lookalikes section.

While they do look remarkably alike, I'm sure Bryant can tell us what else is similar about these two pictures.

WE ARE LEGION!!

2009-01-13T11:24:00.002+08:00

8 points!! WIN!! I R WINNAR!! 7 A's!!

And that was all that filled my head as I collected my results on Monday. The hall was filtered out.

Got together with Sam and Bryant to let loose a raucous "WE ARE LEGION!" in the middle of the hall. I guess it wasn't exactly appropriate to those who didn't do well, looking back though.

Hehe, 3 days on, and it still makes me happy to think that I'm finally a true free man. Everyone else seems happy with their results, Bryant has 9, Sam has a 13 but he doesn't really care because it's enough for Trinity, Tim K has a 6 (Duh).

Best looking option so far would be ACJC Science stream. It's a bit far (Okay, very far), but it's good, there are plenty of SJI guys going there and there are plenty of SJI guys already there.

So far, Bryant, Ray and Kaiyang are putting it as their first choice, and so will Tim K as long as he doesn't get the call from ACSI (IB) teacher. Tim Foo has DSA'ed himself there, so he's going there whether he likes it or not.

To be honest, I did consider going for the IB program as well. The Net searches seem to say that IB is the new in-thing, but I'm one to listen to all sides. Apparently, while US colleges hold the IB in higher esteem than the A-Levels, the opposite seems to be true in the U.K.

A 41 and a 44 pointer (Out of a score of 45) in the IB were shown the door at Oxford and Cambridge, where an applicant with 3 A's in his/her A-Levels was accepted.

Considering I don't really have any plans to head all the way across to the US to study, yeah, bugger that. I've had enough of being a damned guinea pig in all these new educational schemes that very often tend to crash and burn (Yes, whoever thought up TDP in SJI must die).

Into 2009

2009-01-02T00:09:00.006+08:00

-Eat a Quad Stacker (Done)
-Eat a Mega Mac (Done, Mega Mac beats Quad Stacker)
-Unlock Axtinguisher (Done)
-Unlock Blutsauger (Done)
-Finish up to Chapter 4 minimum
-Take over the world
-Resuscitate the plant above my desk (Failed)
-Return all of Sam's Discworld books (Done)
-Get the other two Gaunt's Ghost omnibuses (Done. There's only one other)
-Figure out why the *&!@ TF2 keeps shutting down on me mid-game (Done, and fixed)
-Convince parents to let me build my own computer

Before I go any further, there's a good guess that O-Level results will be out on 12 of January. A newspaper article involving a tuition teacher who scammed parents asked the judge to let her out on bail for her daughter's O-Level posting, and the judge agreed to let her out until Jan 19. According to another blog I saw, that means "the JAE will be done by Jan 19", so it must have started a couple of days before. The author guessed that it would be 12 Jan, given the posting starts a few days after the results come out.

I bought a microphone, so I can communicate/shout at the dumbasses who try and shovel enemies to death when I uber them. All I'll say is it's unlocked a whole new experience.

First time I tried talking in the Starhub servers, they thought I was speaking Chinese.

Then midway through Gold Rush, the building near the second point, me and another Medic were building ubers to rush the sentries on the ceiling. Then, all of a sudden, a red Demoman turns up at the door and attempts to blow us and our patients to pieces. With 97% ubercharge, I thought "Oh shi- I'm out of here!"

So I tried to back down the stairs and realized I couldn't go any further. Turning around, there was yet another red Demoman who tried to attack us from the back. I quickly switched to my blutsauger for a close range duel.

All of a sudden I'm bombarded with voice-chat screaming "MICRO, USE YOUR UBER YOU STUPID CH**BYE!", "UBER ME! UBER ME YOU F***KING C**T!". I got the Demoman, but the other one fragged me...

In the respawn room, I was assaulted once more with verbal abuse. That never gets to me, but the following line did.

"Eh, why you so stupid ah? Got uber why never use... Lucky I got or we all die liao..."

In a squeaky, lazy drawl that was far too high to be male. The girl was the other Medic. THAT really got to me. That annoying, bimbotic drawl that sends me into my own version of the Black Rage. If I knew the Dark Angel's Litany of Hate, I'd have chanted it.

I DIED TO SAVE YOUR BLOODY UBERCHARGE YOU STUPID BITCH! I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE GOOD WITH THAT DAMNED MEDIGUN! YOU WILL NOT TELL ME I WAS STUPID TO LOSE MY UBERCHARGE FOR YOURS! YOU WILL NOT RALLY ALL THE GUYS IN TEAM AGAINST ME SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU FLOUT RULE 16 OF THE INTERNET (There are NO girls on the internet)

Okay, that's out. Team furious with me, I furious with team. So I switch team, and everything became much better.

There was an old uncle on the other team, given how he sounded and spoke on the voice chat. And he was very, very good.

It was like being lead into battle by a grizzled veteran of war, the one with the perpetual unshaven face and greying hair, a lean frame that nonetheless manages to overpower muscled barbarians on the other side of the lines. The one who always manages to keep his squad alive and lead them home while looking and sounding badass the whole time.

Very nice to Medics he was. Disappointed I didn't have a Kritzkrieg for him, since he made one more effective on defence than an ubercharge. Won every game and came in top three whenever I stuck around and healed him. Watched him rape enemy team as Soldier when another Medic Kritzkrieged him.

Microphone's greatly reduce odds of an ubercharge becoming a dud. Most players will be considerate enough to tell you that they're out of ammo. Still accidently ubered an AFK Heavy once. We stood there like a bunch of dummies, unmoving and watching the world go by surrounded by a blue tinted glow.

(Insert Title Here 2)

2008-12-14T15:16:00.004+08:00

Things To Do This Holiday

2008-11-29T19:17:00.002+08:00

-Eat a Quad Stacker (Done)
-Eat a Mega Mac
-Unlock Axtinguisher
-Unlock Blutsauger (Done)
-Finish up to Chapter 4 minimum
-Take over the world
-Resuscitate the plant above my desk
-Return all of Sam's Discworld books
-Get the other two Gaunt's Ghost omnibuses
-Figure out why the *&!@ TF2 keeps shutting down on me mid-game

Yup, decided to make a list of things to do during this holiday. Its a long one (well, not so long now), its a free one, and I've put quite a few things off. Might as well get a few things done.

Erm, Excuse Me, But How Flammable Are You?

2008-11-14T02:22:00.005+08:00

I'm rather short of fuel you see, because I need to keep some to burn all my books since the O-Levels are over. OVER!!! FREEDOM!!!

I'm sorry, I just finished playing Pyro on TF2 and Call Of Duty : World At War, where flamethrowers and setting people on fire are the main attractions, and some people don't burn as easy as others.

Buoyed by an easy final Chemistry MCQ paper, our merry band set off to LAN/buy new games, LAN being the first time I've been able to play COD4 without 200+ ping, and it showed. 500+ kills, everyone else was barely hitting 400.

The flamethrower in COD : World At War is NUTS! Wide spread, insta-kill, and it relies on a cooldown time rather than ammo, so effectively its got unlimited ammo and no reload time. Now I know why the even the Japanese suiciders surrendered when the Marines had them. I'd have done just about anything for a flamethrower in COD4, especially in Charlie Don't Surf. Which reminds me, why is it flamethrowers are out of style now? No one seems to be using them.

Enemies in COD : World At War are also less grenade-happy then their COD4 counter parts, and its the fire WW2 game where you can reload the M1 Garand even with bullets still inside it.

And then on to TF2. Now, my computer is venerable old dinosaur that has served me well, running COD4 and Doom 3 without too many problems, but it might have reached its expiry date with TF2. For some reason, it restarts itself in the middle of a game for no reason every couple of hours or so, and at times, will lag even with what, 19 ping?

A Medic ubered me at one point when I lagged. When the lag went away, I was waiting to be respawned along with an angry Medic. Yeah.

As a Pyro though, the burn damage after you set fire to someone often kills classes with low health, so half my kamikaze rushes do bear fruit, unless its another Pyro, who are fire-resistance (Asbestoses-lined suit lol?), so I need to remember who burns well, hence the title.

O-Levels- Matchweek 1

2008-10-26T18:23:00.002+08:00

Everyone's still alive after the first round, most happy, some sad. Everything I've done is not fantastic, but hopefully good enough. It felt the same, looked the same, seemed the same as every other paper I've done, but it somehow, something just doesn't feel right. Its like firing off a cannon. You hear the shell coming out, but there's no resulting boom, and then you start wondering whether or not you've been firing live rounds or whether you accidentally loaded the rock cakes that they serve at teatime.

Chemistry, dammit... It was such an easy paper, routine and straightforward, and I've already lost 6 marks due to carelessness. It's such a let down. I got 70+ for the 2007 paper. I got an A1 for Chemistry BEFORE moderation when less than 20% of the school got an A AFTER moderation.

"Cheng Heng, don't be an arrogant bastard and cry over 6 marks, I lost much more than that!" I'm sure many of you will say. While a loss of 6 marks is theoretically 74/80, which is still major l33t, I've seen Murphy's Law enacted on me many, many times. When you've been Fate's favourite trick pony everytime It wants to see someone trip and fall just before the finish line as often as me and perhaps Liverpool, you'll understand.

"Don't count thy chickens before they hatch!" is the adage I like to live by. And even after I've seen something moving inside the proverbial eggs when I hold them up to the light, there's always a chance that the dealer was a dishonest bastard who sold you duck eggs instead of chicken eggs.

It's disturbing as well, looking at the general mood around country for the last few papers. A Maths, apparently, was a no-brainer for plenty of people, judging by the forums I've seen so far. Even up there plenty of people seem to have lost less then me. And unless the large majority of people which I require to die in front of me has no access to the internet whatsoever, I'm sailing in extremely dire straits.

In the five hours in between I started this post, went down to have a steak and watched one movie, I just managed to hypnotize/convince/calm down/lie to/assure myself that all is fine.

And why you may ask? Because, the blessed internet has borne me more great fruit!

I found the answers to the E Maths Paper 1. 71/80. I'm feeling good.

A Journey Comes to A Close

2008-09-30T16:35:00.002+08:00

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 )

Epiphany

2008-09-08T03:58:00.006+08:00

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.

I Spy...

2008-08-25T21:41:00.002+08:00

With my little eye, a Heavy who doesn't realize anything suspicious about a "friendly" Pyro back to his own base in the sewers. Butterfly knife FTW.

Have begun playing Team Fortress 2, mostly as a Spy, going around stabbing hapless Snipers and Heavies in the back. Okay fine, the learning curve is really steep for Spy (70 kills to 250 deaths), it didn't help that the other side had become Spy-paranoid after I captured the intelligence twice in my first game. Seriously, I walk up cloaked to a Pyro from behind and all of a sudden he/she/it turns around and lets off a plume of fire and I'm roasted.

I guess its imprinted onto me now, since its the first class I played in TF2, much like how I'm stuck to the Vengeful Spirit if I ever touch DotA. Its just so FUN to rush into a giant crowd of people who have no idea you're there and go on a kamikaze stabby rampage!! Or sap like 7 dispensers and sentries in a row and watch the poor Engineer futilely try to save them.

Of course, Sam and Jem insist that the Spy is NOT for kamikaze stabby rampages. But meh, they wised up and camped a Heavy outside all escape routes for me whenever I pick up the intel, and you can't cloak or disguise yourself when you're carrying the intel, so I ended up rushing up to the battlements and stabbing as many Snipers and Demomen as I could before someone found me out. Which, unfortunately, got faster as time went by.

I'm enthusiastic about buying it, seeing that I DON'T need a Damien-grade computer to run it, and my computer could actually take it if I got a new graphics card and added some RAM to it. While we're on the topic, my computer apparently has better processing than a WCG computer. Mine packs 3GHz, while Bryant's new one packs just 2GHz. And mine's four years old. Lulz anyone? My cousin must have put some really powerful shit in that thing when he built it.

Did I note that the price tag at the Steam site says it costs just $19.99? I mean, I have no idea what other costs come with that, maybe because its just TF2 alone, and not bound together with the Orange Box (Not that I'm interested in dropping Companion Cubes or killing head crabs anyway), maybe thats just the price alone without shipping/tax and all those other strange costs that come out from bloody nowhere.

But if it really does cost just twenty bucks, I'll take it, definitely. I mean, I can't even buy Sudoku DS for twenty dollars! And no, just because I like sudoku doesn't mean I'm a 4Chan browsing gay Japanese sociopath Sam.

Oh yes, my DS. I just bought Pokemon Diamond for myself. Okay fine, every other game Pokemon has released after Gold/Silver/Crystal was just a blatant attempt to milk the series for money (I realized that when I was 12, thats how bad it was...). But then again, I'm quite partial to milk myself. Come on though, who here has not played/watched Pokemon when they were younger? And who didn't have fun while they were at it?

Anyway, played through 10 hours of it already (Courtesy of today being a no-school day), got just three badges because I keep retreating back to the PokeCentres because my Empeleon/Arrogant metal penguin in a suit runs out of PP so fast.

Pokemon Diamond tries (and pretty much fails) to look 3-D. While they did stick the day and night back into the game, and added the option trade across the internet via a wireless router, it is useless because my router hates me and throws up all sorts of errors when trying to connect.

Its Been A Good Week

2008-08-18T09:31:00.002+08:00

A very good week in fact. Prelims are going sexy sweet. Nothing says "I Love Life!" more than playing COD4 at seven on a Monday morning while there are some poor buggers out there fighting for their lives in a Geography exam.

And I passed my Chinese at O-Levels. I PASSED!!! One who has never passed since the start of Sec 3, has PASSED! With a C5 I might add.

English Oral was imbarrage! It was so...so... Ah crud, its the attack of the Michael Phelps Syndrome. All I can say was that it was cool, like he did upon finding out he had become the winner of the most Olympic golds of all time. Yes, the irony of not being able to say anything now despite owning for oral is not lost on me.

Wait, its coming back now. In a litany of...of... fuck this, it was awesome, lets just leave it at that. Electric guitars playing in my head as I walked out of the library, I did get myself lost on the complicated and poorly explained route out planned by the teachers.

I found myself trying to kick open the mysterious locked door at the third story of a flight of stairs behind the library I never knew existed until then. After some back tracking I finally came across the hidden sign saying "This Way Please" pointing downward which lead me to another three doors, two of which were locked and the last one leading into a surreal and empty hall.

Unable to resist the urge to be a complete jackass on the stage without anyone throwing stuff at me, I ran onto the empty stage and attempted to sing various songs in falsetto voices not unlike Robin Gibb, before accidentally knocking over the "Silence, Examination in Progress" sign with a noisy clang as I grabbed my bag.

Apparently, Kevin Lee had decided to show that he had male hormones in him by talking about how "pretty" one the examiners have been, but who the hell has the time/peace of mind to check out the examiners in a oral exam where you have one shot only and a bad mark will send you down to the pit of you-are-totally-screwed.

Admittedly from what I saw of the other examiners I guess Kevin and Co. weren't far off, though one did look like Melissa Yeo which incited a blood rage to go rip her arm off and proceed to beat her to death with it.

Get Ready to Go Again

2008-07-28T17:57:00.003+08:00

-----
Quote of the Post

Mrs Ang : Here Cheng Heng, have a piece of cake, I've been so unkind to you. With good reason though. (Passes cake)
-----

Well, two weeks to prelims. Damn, where the heck did all the days go... Guess this is what using a credit card feels like.

Managed to convince Bryant to follow me to Woodlands Library to study, since the place looks, sounds and *normally*, is peaceful.

Unfortunately, as per normal, when I have an idea, a couple hundred other people will have the same idea at that same moment. The place was packed, and for some reason, everyone seemed to come in groups of three, so there was never a seat for the both of us at any of the tables.

An hour and a half of freefragging the Bendemeer E Maths papers on the floor, we gave up and deviated to the comics section as his request. Tried Macs, but they don't allow you to study there on weekends, stayed at the foodcourt for an hour or so.

Then, we wound up at the new games shop that opened up. Which I never saw, despite going to Causeway Point every week, but they classified Metroid Prime Hunters as a New Arrival. It came out in 2006. Place is pretty cheap though.

Saw a couple of little kids playing badminton as we were walking through the estate. They look better than half the class at it, if our PE lessons are anything to go by.

----
Bryant : Feel like playing as well?
Me : Why not? With them?
Bryant : Nah, don't think so.
Me : Because we're antisocial bastards?
Bryant : Yeah.
Me : Or you just don't get beaten by an eight year old
Bryant : That too.
----

I must have struck his dad's car more than 10 times in the half an hour we played. Not intentionally, though even he admits its an ugly car.

Physics was okay today. They shrunk the paper to fit within two hours by cutting the MCQ, but it still went well. Bodes well for the prelim.

Mrs Ang is playing conscience games with us. She gives us CAKE to try and make us feel guilty about not doing our work so we'd do it. And it was good cake! It's working too, so now we're all trying to squeeze it in between doing Mr Lam's MGS paper.

Career talk today, went to the engineering course, and all the signs point to me being an engineer. Need to be good at Physics, good at Maths, and don't mind getting dirty, and not too many people want to do it. My kind of job!

*Daydream Starts*

Me :DIE MATHAFUKKER!! THATS THE LAST TIME YOU SPAWN CAMP ME!

(Bashes Pyro's head in with big wrench)

*Daydream Ends*

Anyway, just to end off, something Kai Yang spotted today at the bus stop.

----
Kai Yang : Guys, look! Lesbians!

*Points to a pair of girls holding hands and walking*

Me : Wow, he's right!

Bryant : Guys, just because they're holding hands doesn't mean they're lesbians. I mean, my sisters do that as well, they aren't lesbians. Wait, uh-oh... What if

Me : Lets not go there...
----

Because that is wrong on so many counts. 8 (

Started a Facebook account at 3am on Sunday morning. Kevin Wong found it within 24 hours. And I hadn't even told anyone yet. They'll make a stalker out of him yet! 8 )

Dying City

2008-07-05T02:15:00.002+08:00

Walking through the ruins of a dream I once held dear

Seeing only desolation and emptiness down here

I raised this city of a dream, I did it oh so fast

But the essence is so near death, its life now in the past

The wind howls through the barren streets, cold and unforgiving

Sapping away at my very will to go on living

I seek shelter behind a crumbling wall

Anything to stave off the chilling squall

Rain beats down mercilessly without pause

As I huddle pathetically behind the wall, a rebel without a cause

All alone and broken-hearted, as the rain mingles with my tears

As they both slide down my face, as I watch my city dear

Turn to dust, and nothingness and air

As I stand there in the rain, in the zenith of my despair

Then it hit me, like a paper ball casually thrown

Perhaps it is a good thing that I had only known

The dream for such a short time, so the memories

Of that which I mention as a dream allegory

Are mercifully few, for the time was brief

But so sweet the were, reminiscence brings nought but grief

It is better to love and lost than never loved at all

To take that plunge and risk that painful fall

And along with that epiphany came the light

The rise of the sun heralding the end of night

Storm clouds stop pouring and begin to slowly clear

And gone with them are my sorrow and my fear

My city still lies in ruins, but now it’s far from dying

Life still hides in the cracks, so far from expiring

Should I try to rebuild it? Or should I start anew?

Start once over again or search for lands afield?

No matter, I have plenty of time to decided

How the resurrect this dream which almost died

Once again, I walk through the ruins of a dear I once held dear

But now, in a different light, with hope and second chances here.

I Am A Crazed Gunman

2008-06-28T02:49:00.002+08:00

-----------------
Quote of the Day : Hey guys, if you unscramble Oberon, you get Bonero!

(Jem)
------------------

Chinese Oral was bad today, at least everyone else thought it was hard, but not to worry, I'm not going to run through the school gunning down helpless students in my fury (Though I will be very tempted to do so if I dent my Chinese O-Level because of it, and I happen to locate an old Soviet munitions dump with RPDs in it.)

If all turns out well (Or unwell, depending on your perspective), someone, somewhere will notice the title, think I'm another insane Asian teenager who'll go do a Seung-Hui Cho and shoot, maim and kill random innocent bystanders like that Japanese guy who I can't remember the name of.

Of course, that someone somewhere will probably call the police or something of the like to stop Columbine III, and I'll probably be arrested and severely interrogated like one girl who pretending to be a crazed gunman(gunwoman, gunperson?) to get more hits on her site.

-------

Call of Duty 4

The problem is though, I am a crazed gunman. In COD4 at least. Ask all the walls I filled with lead.

I managed to convince my brother to split the cost of buying COD4 for PC, and while I can only run the thing at Low setting, the graphics are still looking plenty l33t to me, and it doesn't lag. And before anyone else asks, unless I'm *really* motivated to go for some reason, I'm not paying to play COD4 at a LAN center.

My first hours on the multiplayer were quite miserable though. Perhaps I shouldn't have entered a 24 player free-for-all map at level 1 when everyone else was using P90's and Martyrdom (which is basically being as cheap as a two dollar whore) on a server I had 300 ping on.

Things started to sort themselves out after I got my RPD and stuck to team games, which is not to say easier, since with team games when one side is dominating, you get carpet bombed every 15 seconds.

Eventually I found a Singaporean server (YES!!), though my team got owned so bad by this guy called g0dspeed that we were dead again before our bodies from our previous deaths turned cold. I now have a new respect for MP5's with silencers and the UAV Jammer perk.

The Spetnaz winning tune (Their anthem I presume) is pretty darn cool!
-------

Almost beat the crap out of Adhitya today. I basically lifted by the collar till Sam Chou pulled me away before I got started. He's got an annoying as fuck tendency to add useless/offensive/annoying/plain stupid things into someone else's conversations, like those forum trolls you always want to brain with an ice cream scoop, but never get the chance to. I was pretty cheesed off and tired after the floorball game today, I was dealing with Kevin who was angry with me for hurting his thumb because he punched me and cracked it, so yeah, by the time Adhitya came over to be the social pariah he is, I was ready to break backs and snap necks.

Its the End of the Dream For Now...

2008-06-23T02:02:00.003+08:00

For me (School holidays just ended), for France (Booted out of the Euro at the group stage, scoring just one goal), and probably for Italy (Spain will beat them, you'll see).

While I don't actually have any homework to complete now (None that I could find anyhow), as you can see I'm continuing my tradition of staying up the first night before school starts again. I should name this ceremony. Suggestions anyone?

We were supposed to watch Get Smart on Friday, but Bryant made the fatal mistake of returning home first, and getting held back by his mum. So there I was, stuck at AMK hub, regretting not checking the 5+ messages he sent me telling me that he went home first.

So I think to myself "I'm young, I'm all dressed up, I got money, and I've got time". So what do I do? Well, I traveled all the way to Paradiz for a solitary LAN session. Intended to play COD4 online, but the first place I went to couldn't get online for some reason. So I toyed around with CNC3 for awhile. Its true, all CNC games degenerate into mAjOR tANk rushes. Not that that isn't fun in itself. After playing Dawn of War for so long, its nice for a Yuri's Revenge veteran like me to finally be able to run over enemy infantry with vehicles.

After an hour I finally gave up mowing down NOD base after NOD base with Mammoth tanks, and decided to hop over to the next LAN shop to see if COD4 worked online there.

Joy indeed, it worked there. And even if the rest of the guys hadn't failed to get Get Smart tickets because they were sold out, I wouldn't have moved my ass from that seat. Turns out, its not that hard online. With a new account, I was beating people with Martyrdom perks. I was having so much fun *not* getting owned that I didn't notice Sam, Bryant and Shen Shin appear right beside me till Sam said "Cheng Heng, it doesn't count if you play against yourself"

We managed to find outside competition in the guys next to us, so it became a 4 vs 4 match between the two camps. I was worried they'd be horrifically good like some other COD4 players at LAN shops I've encountered, but the worries disappeared after the first minute. We maxed out the score cap at 75 kills, they were still meandering around 20. They gave up after awhile, I would have too. I'm not wasting precious time and money getting owned.

I gave up on the Last Stand perk. Hardly ever kill anyone with that, so I traded it in for Deep Impact to shoot through walls. Which means everything from doors to stone barricades when used with an RPD. Finally broke my streak of losing every team match I play in. Sam is frightening when he's mad, almost broke a hole in the table when he slammed it after I shot him out of a window with the mounted SAW at sniper range.

Highlight of it all though, was the final match. Because Jem arrived later, we had five people, so one team always had one more player than the other. And because all the computers he used hanged for some strange unknown reason, we allowed him to use an already existing account. He picked one that already was at level 50 at least, so he was running round with every perk and just about every weapon unlocked.

So as we connected to the Crash map...

----
Me : Right, so I'm a commie, Sam's a commie...Bryant is a Brit... Shen Shin is SAS as well...Jem is SAS...Wait, thats not good...

Sam : HELP ME BABY JEBUS!

Shen Shin : You're screwed Sam! You're SCREWED!

Me (muttering) : You know, I AM still here...
-----

And I did believe that Sam and I were going to get our butts handed to us. We were outnumbered and outgunned since every time Jem died he handed a Barrett rifle to either Bryant or Shen Shin, so all three of them were holding guns that were unlocked at level 49. Till I heard that.

Buoyed by Sam's immense belief in my gaming ability and Shen Shin's overwhelmingly optimistic view on our odds of winning, I rampaged my way to a 3 kill lead. Sam now suddenly looking like Duke Nukem himself had decided to join our team, obligingly acted as bait to lure the three into my sights, or basically just watching the door while we staked out in a building.

They couldn't get me with their Barrett rifles often since they were too busy taking cover from me and Sam, not that cover helped with Deep Impact. We won that match by 40 points. I got 18 kills, double that of anyone else. All three of them looked like they just got beaten by a chicken in Tic Tac Toe.

With the Chinese O-Level oral coming up, and the SPA not long after, its kinda hard to look forward to returning to school. Need something to look forward to. Like another LAN session.

Strange New Directions...

2008-06-18T18:29:00.008+08:00

The holidays have passed in a haze (But what's new there?). Haven't exactly finished all that we were supposed to do for holiday homework (Again, what's new there).

Strange new directions were all over this month of June.

------------
CAD webcomic
------------

Ctrl-Alt-Del has decided to head in a very, very different direction from its easy and light-hearted humour. Tim Buckley has decided to add a very serious side to it, by having Lilah have a miscarriage (*GASP*). Take a look for yourself, if you haven't seen it already When I first saw it, the first thing I thought was "WTF?" The next was "WTF!" The rest were pretty much the same. Apparently, I wasn't the only one to think that, the guys on the CAD forums hit 16 pages of posts in a single day.

----------------------------
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles
----------------------------

My little secret pastime when no one's looking that no one knows. Anyone who has my MSN that is... (And no Sam, contrary to what you believe, it is *NOT*, I repeat, *NOT* hentai).

In the year that I haven't touched it, its storyline has decided it had to become even more confusing. It turns out the Syaoran and Sakura at the beginning were both clones of the originals, Sakura has now taken to wearing Gothic clothing and becoming all ice-queen like, the actual Syaoran turns out to be the son of the *original* Li Syaoran and *original* Sakura Kinomoto from the CCS series, and that Syaoran isn't his actual name, which clears up a lot of the timeline plot holes actually.

But it's even more creepy since he's fallen in love with a girl that doesn't just look like, but looks identical like his mother. Made me blow out a few neurons in horror, that's for sure...

CLAMP is also now trying to make a giant multiverse of all their series with Yuuko as the link it all being the Dimension Witch and all.

Its all probably old news to a die-hard fan (Which I am not), but I've built quite a reputation for being a lagger.

------------

Gee whiz, and here I was worrying that my...Wait, never mind, I said nothing. You didn't see anything! *Lowers self into manhole*

Oh yes, if you can, go out and catch Kung Fu Panda. It follows the life of Po, an overweight panda who is stuck looking after a noodle shop with his father (Who is a goose, don't ask me how that works out), but wants to learn Kung Fu, and join the Furious Five, a group of the best Kung Fu fighters in China, comprising of a tigress, a snake, a monkey, a stork and a praying mantis. Not going to write more because I don't want to spoil it, and also because I am a lazy ass.

My favourite line was this one

-------
Father : Son! You had the noodle dream! Oh! Perhaps it is the time to tell you the secret ingredient to our secret soup, which I learnt from my father! *Hugs portrait of an goose* Who learnt it from his father! *Hugs portrait of another goose* Who learnt it from one of his friends after beating him in a mahjong game. *Points to a portrait of a pig*
-------

Or perhaps this

------
Po : Omigod! Omigod! OMIGOD! YOU'RE ALL SO MUCH BIGGER THAN YOUR ACTION FIGURES! Well, except for you Mantis, you're about the same size.

Mantis : (Insulted screech)
------

This is NARNIA!

2008-06-02T11:29:00.002+08:00

Chris, Sam Wang and Mark invited me to watch Prince Caspian with them since they had an extra ticket and pale Sam couldn't make it. And they've all changed quite a bit since I last saw them, which was... late last year I think. Mark cut his hair short (Probably the reason why he wore the hood), Chris lost 20kg (WTF?!?!), and Sam Wang, well, okay, he still looks the same.

Anyway, we waited at Chris's place while waiting for Sam, before he eventually told us to meet him at Lido, where we went to Pepper Steak for lunch. If that place wasn't so damned expensive, I'd got there everyday. So we chatted as we ate, they asked me what Sam got up to in school and weasel out his results, I asked them what life was like in an IS, so on and so forth.

Since the thing was a fund raising event by Chris's church (I think), it came bundled with a couple of things, a Narnia goodie bag for one. Mark and I tried fruitlessly to play the kazoo that came with it. I'm sure it was broken, some 5 year old kid behind me figured out how to play it.

And I finally found another person who doesn't mind talking in the middle of a movie. Sam Wang and I were going on non stop about how buggy Soulstorm was (He's trying to find a crack for it, so we can pass the disc around like a hookah) and how the kids in Narnia have a SHITLOAD of plot armour. I mean, how the hell does a 14 year old girl like Susan dash into the middle of a melee fight with nought but a bow, and beat full grown soldiers to death with it?

Anyway, there was one scene where they showed a close of Susan in one of them medieval dresses...

-----
Sam : Hehe, clevage.
Chris : Don't go on much do you?
-----

And another one

-----
(After Lucy wakes up from her dream)
Me : See, thats what happens when you use marijuana leaves for kindling.
Chris : So what about the rest of their dreams?
Me : Well...Lucy's was the only one that could be rated PG.
-----

Sam and I came up with a couple suggestions to be inserted into the movie. During the movie, much to the chagrin of Mark and Chris. It should be renamed Chronicles of Narnia : When Nature Strikes Back!

----
(Scene with the Telmarine king Miraz after losing the duel, kneeling on the floor)
Miraz : This is madness!
Peter : Madness? This...is...NARNIA!
(Kicks him into the giant pit the centaurs made on their way out)
----

----
(Aslan opens a portal to transport Telmarines who want to leave Narnia back to their original home, the real world, by opening a hole in a tree. Which coincidentally leads off a cliff)

Villager : What if it leads us to our doom?!
Peter : We'll go

(The four step through, go through to the other side, and fall off the cliff)

Aslan : Wait a minute...

(Leafs through Portal Opening For Dummies)

Aslan : *Facepalm*
-----

Well, despite Aslan bringing all the trees to life to fight the Telmarines in a very Helm's Deep like manner, we all felt the pressing need to see a battle of epic proportions. And where does one find that? LAN of course. So we all took a train to Dhoby Ghout to get to Paradiz.

Unfortunately, the weather decided to be asshat and rain, but we all stoically marched forward with the single minded aim of reaching the LAN center at Paradiz. Okay, Sam Wang had an umbrella, but in the end, he put it away so he could suffer with us like brudders! Or Communists, as Chris mentioned.

Bryant came along as well, but we gave up on Dark Crusade there since only Tau and Necrons were available, so we just played COD4 instead since Chris had bad experiences with Quake 4. Never play with pale Sam on your first time, its very, very demoralizing.

As the Dust Settles

2008-05-28T15:59:00.006+08:00

Chinese O-Level is over!! And I think I can pass!! And I did okay for my Mid Years!

That's a bloody rock off my mind, at last, and the school holidays have technically started, although we, surprise surprise, have to go back for remedial lessons for the whole of this week. Can't really complain though, after reading about how other schools hold their students back for the ENTIRE holidays. Poor sods.

O-Levels weren't as frightening as I thought. Just before the first paper started Mrs. Goh, our vice principal, was going around asking students to "Go out there and get that A1!" for Chinese. Me, A1 for Chinese? What are you smoking woman?

Matthew fell asleep during the first paper in the hall. I almost woke him myself before I remembered I'd be dead if they caught me at it, so I got one of the outside invigilators to wake him up. Then at recess...

----
Me : Hehe, Matthew, I saved your ass up there
Matthew : Saved my ass your ass lah, I was finished!
Me : But there was almost an hour still left, I wasn't sure...
Matthew : I...was...finished...
----

I'm so appreciated by those I try to help huh? In the end he forgave me and Bryant and I down to Thomson Plaza for Subway. Remembered to bring back my two cookies this time, and Matthew and I split the two week old cookie Bryant found in his bag.

Finished off my RE4 game at Bryant's house, now doing round 2. Funny to watch all the little villager Ganado die when I turn my pimped up Red9 handgun on them. To think that we struggled through that and came out with a grand total of 2 handgun rounds the first time round. Unlocked all the characters in mercs in just under one hour.

And Sam, you're right, I'll have to partially retracted my statement that UBCS suck, for Agent HUNK's Neck Breaker is made of win. But he doesn't carry a knife despite being a commando, and he's from USS, who are better than UBCS, so they are still partially noobs.

Played TimeSplitters while I was at his place too, Tuesday. And what a game it was, should have asked to play it sooner. Sergeant Cortez is is like me, only with a shaved head and a truckload of badass-ness injected into him. For some strange reason, he got to play Cortez despite being player 2, so I had to play as all the different supporting characters as he jumps from timeline to timeline, from a hippie to a right dapper British chap.

TimeSplitters doesn't have much of a storyline, which I look out for in just about any game, but with time travel, there isn't room for much of that anyway. Of course, it does make for some interesting side effects, like Cortez appearing to aid himself on many occasions, then in the later parts of the game, you have to time travel back to save yourself. Like this.

-----
Future Cortez : Psst, up here! (From a grating above in the ceiling)
Cortez : What the... You're me!
Future Cortez : Hehe, I knew you'd say that. Take this key. (Throws a key down)
Cortez : What's it for?
Future Cortez : You'll find out. Just don't forget to pass it on.

(Key opens a door later)

(Walking a passage)

Cortez : Hey look, a wormhole!! (Jumps through)

(Ends up above a grating where Future Cortez was, you can see Past Cortez from there)

Cortez : Psst, up here
Past Cortez : What the... You're me!
Cortez : Hehe, I knew you'd say that. Take this key (Throws down the key)
-----

Bryant's parents are coming back from South America, so I don't think I'll be going back any time soon. Give any of us a call if you need to man. If its me, call my home phone, I don't answer my handphone that often, but you probably knew that already.

Respite Before the Tempest

2008-05-18T14:27:00.003+08:00

The pressure from the Chinese O-Level is getting to me. Due in a week's time, there isn't much time left before it.

Am I ready for it? Probably. Will I pass for certain? No, that is the extent of my uLtRa noobness of my Chinese. Am I scared. Hell to the HELL yes!

I've always been terrible at Chinese. Mostly because I lived in Vietnam and Australia for the first 5-6 years of my life, and no one bothering to teach me the basics when I got back.(Got Thrown into a Chinese class not knowing how to even greet the teacher in Chinese at Primary 1)

While my Mid Year Chinese is somewhat promising,(It wasn't a really bad fail, just one mark off passing) and I heard a third of the level failed as well, combined with the fact that O-Levels are easier than normal school exams, I thought I'd be more confident, but I'm not.

Dammit, its so bad, I can't derive pleasure from many things, not from the fact that Untied has won the title and will probably beat Chelsea in the Champions League, and it destroys my writing mood, which isn't good given how I'm starting on something big now. Much big. Very big. Uber big. MADA OF ALL BIGS! Fine, not that big. But its big. I might get the courage to post it up here when its more complete.

All I've got now is the introduction and one chapter (Okay, half a chapter).

It'll all have to wait till my Chinese is over, provided I feel confidant enough of passing...

And a question to all, do butlers do actual household chores like sweeping and cleaning, or are they just there to provide typical British sarcasm and be prime suspects in murder plots?

Another End...

2008-05-08T21:34:00.002+08:00

Forgive me if my writing is disjointed, I have a REALLY bad headache right now....

And its the end to yet another exam. Of course, the Chinese O-Level is coming up VERY shortly, but I think I'll take a break for now. My head hurts like a bitch now anyway...

Physics was pretty good, made a couple of careless mistakes, but I think I can manage an A1. I selected the "moves left option" even though I figured out it was right. Mistook atmospheric pressure for one million Pa when its supposed to be only 100000 Pa. Aside from that, sweet.

Lit, ah yes, lit. It was pretty good, selected the poem for once for the unseen prose, because for some reason, I could just connect real well with another poet for once. It just fitted in so nicely, connected so well, like a plug into a power socket. Of course, insert a plug wrong and you get electrocuted...

Of all times for a headache, why now, after the exams, when I'm a free man for a while... Probably not going for blerrie dragon boat thing Mr. Nathan gang-pressed the team into...

Didn't Get Everything, But Still Got A LOT!!!

2008-05-05T16:46:00.004+08:00

Mid Year Exams have started, so far, it has been pretty good. English, I finished with enough time to re-write my summary for the sake of making it look neater, and wrote a full length poem for the bloody fun of it. I can't remember completely it was about, recall one talking about French cheese, but thats about it. Maybe it was easier than normal because I don't have to help a multitude of people *cough* Kee Hao *cough* with answering every second question, but I hope thats the case.

Social Studies Section A was kinda gay. It looked like it was set by Michael Moore. Out of the 5 sources, 3 blamed AMERICA for the 9/11 attacks.

-One blamed the incompetency of the CIA and the FBI. Gah, stupid red dot, keeps getting in my eye...

-One was a conspiracy theory by a Russian minister that it was all a set up by America to have a new enemy and threat to world peace to unite against, like Fascism in the 1940's and Communism from then till 1991.

-And one was saying its because America oppressed the Arab people, or some jazz like that. Sounded like a sympathizer.

Essay was okay at least.

Then came E Maths. If were Damien, I would have dubbed the feeling I felt at the end as sex (And smart alec from NCC Land will add Shen Shin). I discovered I think WAY better relaxed. Rushing for time, I skipped quite a few questions, thinking I'd run out of time. Realizing that 2 and a half hours stretches for quite a long while, I returned back to them, slow and at ease, and finished all questions except for one subquestion of another subquestion.

Paper drew different reactions from different people...

---------------
Sam : There is a God!!
Me : And it is the Flying Spaghetti Monster!!
---------------
Sam's a proud atheist by the way.
---------------
Zhongxi : How many marks you lost already?
Me : Just 2
(Zhongxi gives me the finger)
---------------

---------------
Mark : GGed....
---------------

---------------
Bryant : Was like a 1988 paper, quite easy.
Me : Tung having one of his senior moments. Thinks he's setting for guys twenty years back!
---------------

An End and A Beginning

2008-05-01T18:06:00.002+08:00

Well, Mid Years have officially started, had the Chinese papers on Monday, which actually went okay as far as Chinese is concerned. It bodes well indeed, the real deal is in a month's time...

Anyway, FINALLY got my medal for rugby yesterday. Its close to a month after our last match, but I can't really get too angry at Mr. Nathan, not after he turfed Eugene Chong out of the front row so I could get a seat there during the photo taking, since I had been with the team about 3 years longer than he had.

It kind of brought a finality of it all, that I've graduated from the team. I felt it coming off from the last game from St. Andrews, watching a match being played without any of the senior players, but it never impacted on me this hard, that its all over now. The memories of the whole time just went round and round my head. First match, first tackle (It HURT), first charge, first gaffe (I make it a point to make everyone laugh when I step on the field, ask around). It sounds like I'm getting awfully worked up about this, but unlike a LOT of people I know, I actually enjoy my CCA, and my team.

I'm not sure if I can train under another coach aside from Teo though. I might only ever had trained under him, but its easy to tell he's better than the rest of the coaches. It'll be hard to get used to a lesser coach, after taking him as the benchmark.

Will I continue rugby in JC? Certainly, if its available where I go, and I can make the team.

Thanks for the memories guys.

Sigh, after thinking through all that I feel so melancholic....

Well, there was one event yesterday that I must mention. Khai Sam had managed to convince me to stay back for Mr. Tang's extra lesson. While waiting, we got bored, and Zhongxi attempted to jump over moving OHP cart, and let it sail harmlessly under him as he balanced on top of two chairs on either side of him. Sounded like something straight out of Mythbusters.

Of course, on his third attempted, he not only came within inches of qualifying to work in the ancient Forbidden City, he also bruised himself badly, the said bruise being the size of his hand, causing him to whine and call out for his mummy all throughout Mr. Tang's extra lesson. And thats why they tell kids that not to try this or that at home!

On Your Marks, Get Set, LAN!!!

2008-04-28T21:36:00.004+08:00

Friday was Sports Day, and I stayed up till four in the morning doing random things in anticipation, planning to sleep my way through it. Which I did rather unsuccessfully, given all the noise that was around me. Only parts of the day I clearly remember was Bernard Teo practically walking in the Old Boy's 100 meter race while waving to the crowd, Bryant winning something somewhere, and thinking that if Brandon Yang was an American like they said so over the PA system, then I was a Vietnamese. Or perhaps an Australian.

Anyway, after hazing my way through that affair, I had 3 choices, either follow Bryant with Jin and Daryl for lunch, follow Khai Sam and company for lunch, or go home like a good little boy like Sam had.

Decided on following Khai Sam and Co., since Daryl wanted to go to Orchard for something, and I simply didn't feel like traveling too much after going on barely two hours of sleep. We rounded up the two Chrises and Sam Chou to follow us, Khai Sam apparently bent on bringing us to some food court he thought was good. It involved much walking from the stadium in Toa Payoh, and swore to knock him silly if it turned out to be some Acorn Heaven for squirrels like him.

Turned out to be the food court UPSTAIRS at HDB Hub. At which point I realized I didn't have enough material cash in hand, so I went to Mac's on my own, and chanced upon Dillon there, Sam's protege in the arts of many rather unspeakable practices. When I went back up to Sam Chou, he had got it into his head that now was a very good time to go LANning, but we had a odd number of people. Remembering Dillon, I rushed back down to invite him with us.

Upon which, his other friends also decided to come, and Chou at the same time had managed to attract the attention of another 2 of his NPCC mates to come along while we were at Mac's. I had created a great LAN Waaagh! of close to 15 people. Unknowingly. Do I get Gamer Score for this? Like doing all of Binomial 1 on ONE piece of foolscap?

Unfortunately, our merry Waaagh! was to be disappointed, the nearby LAN center being closed. Sam Chou saved the day with his ever reliable mental map of every LAN center within a 15km radius of the school, led us to Paradiz near Dhoby Ghout, where I convinced them to play CoD4, but with Khai Sam and Chris Ng left early.

In an effort to find more people to play with us, Dillon resorted to asking the CHIJ girls who walked by whether they wanted to play LAN with us. Whether or not he was joking, I don't know. He is Sam's protege after all. Journey there was quite eventful thats to him.

------------
Me : Dillon, you're never going to find a chick who's hot AND likes LANning. Girls like Lilah aren't real remember?

Dillon : Aww...

Me : Unless you create your own hot chicks who like LAN...

Dillon : HOW!!

Me : Well, we need to find a hot guy, a hot chick, get them to procreate, have a hot daughter, get them to teach her how to love LAN, and viola! A LAN loving hot chick.

Dillon : Well, I am hot, so that girl would have to be female version of me...

Me : You would be hailed as a patriarch who started a lineage of hot, LAN loving chicks. Generations of gaming males will salute you for your contribution to mankind!
--------

He also wishes to pioneer the Human-Animal Genome project on his own. Best not to go into details about that.

Chris Chui is a guy who trawls LAN centers at least once or twice a week, but didn't have any idea how to play CoD4. Refer to my earlier post on how Singapore's LAN scene is so undiversified. Sam Chou opted to teach him since he played the single player game, but given how they both played later on, it was like one monkey teaching another how to build a rocket. Out of leftover turkey, chewing gum and plywood planks.

I continued my partnership with the Heavy Gunner class, since I need a big gun with a large ammo capacity to make up for my terrible aim. Shen Shin complains I only got more kills than Dillon the last time because of the sheer volume of rounds flying out of my RPD. To which I reply, getcha own big shoota! I may use up 39 out of the 40 round mag to fire bullet angels around my target, but round 40 always is a headshot!

The habitual CS players never knew what hit them. Judging from their kill cams when they finally did manage to kill me, they hadn't even zoomed in with their sights half the time. I got two triple kills that day, the first one being rather unexpected, and very well timed.

--------
(My junior Tim Zhang walks in)

Zhang : Hey Micro, are you good at this game?

Me : Wah..??

(Sam Chou, Chris and one of Dillon's friends get mown down by RPD fire)

Me : Well, I did just get a triple kill without looking, you think?
-------

Learned the art of building camping as well. Sam Chou managed to knife me in the back once when I did that, but the second time, well, he kinda forgot I put a UAV in the air. *Scratches 4th marking on the wall*

Of course, there's always a bigger fish on the food chain, and Dillon was the apex predator in this one. I was having some much fun long ranging with the RPD that I didn't notice him sneak under the balcony I was camping on, and took me out with a quick burst from an assault rifle, my final moments shown to me on the kill cam. This happened more times than I can count, and I assure you, I can count pretty far.

Oh, I must go on raining praises on the RPD. How many ears have I collected through whoring you like an asshole? And with the laser sight upgrade, I actually gain some semblance of accuracy. Combined with the Juggernaunt and Deeper Penetration (Bow Chicka Wow Wow!) perk, added with the laser sight and my slightly gung ho tactic in charging ahead guns ablazing, all I have to do now to complete the set is find a chain axe and holler "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!" when I charge.

My second triple kill came on our last map, Ambush. Chris, Sam Chou and one of Dillon's friends came at me. Ordinarily, I would have killed one or two guys and died, but with the laser sight, no more OpFor resistance fighters.

I was playing Metroid Hunters on the bus when Bryant happened to board. What are the odds?

-------
Bryant : So you did you do?

Me : I opened the eyes of two CS bottom feeders. They now see the light.

Bryant : LANning I see...

Me : You?

Bryant : Had two lunches, walked about Hiren with Daryl looking for a bag, couldn't find it, he bought a speaker for his iPod instead.

Me : So you guys looked for something you never found, bought something you guys never intended to buy, and had two lunches.

Bryant : Yeah.

Me : You should have come with us.

Bryant : No shit....
----------

I love Sports Day!

What about everyone else?

Hours Mugging : 15

Literature Festival = Zzzzzz

2008-04-24T00:14:00.004+08:00

I didn't exactly enjoy it. They made me wake up early on a Saturday, the fiends... Anyway, my parents sent Bryant and I over to St Nicks after breakfast. Luckily everyone had from our school had decided to stand right at the entrance, so we didn't have to look around for them.

And thats about all I remember!! Why?? Because I wasn't lucid for most of it.

-----------
Bryant : Why does everyone shut up when I turn the camera on???
Jem : Okay, HI! Boner!
Me : You mah hoe!
Bryant : Astounding maturity.
-----------

Well, Bryant's video kinda jolted the memories. And thats what me and Jem pretty much did, after Sam left for a "dental" appointment.

Wait, its all coming back to me now....

We were eventually ushered into a lecture theater much like the one at CHIJ KC (Wonder if they all hired the same architect?) where we waited for close to half an hour for the speaker to actually arrive. We got an introduction to lit by a teacher who obviously did not take lit, before the speaker finally arrived. Can't remember her name, but she had the same surname as Ruizhi.

Anyway, me, Ken, Jem, Arun, Bryant and Sam(At first) were reduced to playing Ghost to stave off the encroaching boredom. Sam left around this time for his "dental" appointment, and after Ghost round 9834, me and Ken even discussed RuneScape openly. Normally, players have to keep this a secret since we are persecuted by SOME people for playing it (UBCS suck!!), and practice it like the Freemason religion.

During the break, we did walk around the place, remarking why the hell they had 3 pianos and a PMS room. Luke tried to prank call from their payphone.

Then came the presentations from all the other schools. Apparently, I failed to make known earlier that there were quite a few.

Well, they weren't all bad. Wait, the Gan Eng Seng one was a bit on the ePiC FaIl side. They came in their blazers and all, but their presentation was only as good as the one my group cobbled together in an hour to prevent BAng from toasting our butts over a fire. And one of them pronounced Atticus as "Ah-tticus". They counted Tom Robinson as a minor character for some reason, and said his trial was the climax in To Kill A Mockingbird.

----------
In Lit class

Me : Mrs Ang, doesn't this book climax multiple times??

Mrs Ang : Yah, like a woman right?
----------

And I thought only Ms Lee did that kind of thing...

Amos's group did a pretty okay job, I actually paid conscious attention to them, which is more than I can really say for some of the other groups.

Chris Gonzali and Liwei's presentation really took the cake though. They opened up with music video. Their theme was on domination in Midsummers Night Dream. The whole thing screamed !EMO!, and maybe they shouldn't have delved so deeply into the masochism bit, but they were easily the best group there. Attention grabbing, if a bit too provocative, and definitely having a good stance, it was made of win.

Went for lunch after that at AMK hub, using my Subway sense to guide our merry band of Kevin, Bryant, Joshua, Jem and I to the Subway there. Of course....

----------
Kevin : Its full...
Me : Apparently...
Kevin : Maybe we can trade. I know, we'll trade anyone who gives up their table Cheng Heng!
Jem : Yeah, ultimate vacuum cleaner! Of course, you'll have to program him to make sure he doesn't regard your dog or your kids as trash/food.
----------

In the end, we did find a table through the crowd, and I moved toward it as politely as I could, before throwing my bag on the empty seat and annexing the table into the Empire of Slumnia.

After lunch and watching Joshua being prodded and tickled mercilessly by Kevin, I scouted out the games shop in AMK Hub with Jem and Bryant. Discovered Metroid Prime : Hunters going at only $35 down there. Its second hand, but I vowed to rescue it from its ungainly position on the bargain shelf. Got it on Monday. Sisters of Battle were cloned from Samus. She is that 1337.

Out Of Order, How Fitting Indeed...

2008-04-14T18:29:00.003+08:00

I'm forced to dub our recent school play, Out Of Order, EpIc fAiL!! Though I think I'd do well to explain the events leading up to it as well.

First off Mr Johnson told the biggest whopper of the month, claiming that tickets were flying off the shelves. They weren't. I managed to buy one for Friday, on the day itself.

Okay, maybe I was just tired and grumpy after my final competitive match for the school against St Andrews (Lost 0-12) having being hit twice in the head, one after the prop on the other side came in sideways in the scrum, the other when my own player kneed me in the face during another scrum. It was a nostalgic event, but thats a story for another post.

Anyway, rushing back for the act, I reached school just in time at 7, still under the impression that it started at 7. It started at 8. I need to read my tickets more often... Spent the hour waiting for Bryant and Shen Shin to arrive hanging out with Reuben and Max, and any other prefect on carpark duty. Managed to get Reuben to dance for me, one of the few things that went right that night. He pwns anyone on Step Up 2. Sam refused to go, said he could have gone LANning for 7 and a half hours with the 15 dollars from the tickets. How wise of him.

Once they'd arrived, we headed to the PAC and let Jin and Shen Shin argue out where to sit. As we filed into a row somewhere along the back, Jia Lei came along, though at least he had taken my advice on changing back to school uniform. The orange shirt he had borrowed to wear with the school pants just looked wrong. Coming from a fashion barbarian like me, yeah, it was that bad.

Of course, no one really relished the idea of sitting next to him, given his penchant for whining at just about everything. Shen Shin had been squeezed out to the outermost seat of our group, so he ended up next to him. While I'm not very fond of Jia Lei myself, the rate at which Shen Shin was openly suaning him was so bad, I was sure there was something in the Human Rights Charter against it. Even an idiot like Jia Lei has to be treated with some respect Comrade Communist.

-------
Shen Shin : Hey, if we threw Jia Lei's bag down, he'd be forced to run down and get it while we pang sei him.

(Stony silence)
-------
Keep in mind, Jia Lei is right next to him. Bryant had to bluntly tell him to give it a rest before he quit it. Even I felt sorry for Jia Lei. Though I did find another line in his long tirade against Mr Strawberry deserving of being a Literature or English question so commonly asked in our school.

-------
Shen Shin : If we dao (To ignore) Jia Lei completely, he might realize he isn't wanted here.
-------

Ferrousy!! Oh the ferrousy!!

Then along came Wayne (Who will now conveniently forget that I owe him 2 bucks), wearing a jacket over his PE uniform, then Jem, who I unsuccessfully tried to steal a Crunchie bar off. If I had known the dress code was this slack, I wouldn't have bothered going home after the match to change...

Anyway, the play started, opening up with the soundtrack from Soulja Boy I think, and numerous other soundtracks Sam Chou helpfully named, but I forgot. Somewhere along the thing, there was a guy named Sky... And a Filipino scholar with a drunk dad... And an invisible girlfriend along the way...

See, thats the problem. They kept jumping from one character's life to another, it was hard keeping track of it all. Worse still, for some reason, they made the audience laugh at really inappropriate moments. There was a bit somewhere where a dad was chewing his son out in Hokkien, but after the "Wo si ni lao pei!" (I am your father) bit, the entire audience was roaring with laughter. Admittedly, I joined them, the Hokkien version of Star Wars coming to mind. Lost lucidity somewhere around the 25 minute, regaining it only when Jem spoke to me.

---------
(Son flings dad to the floor)

Jem : Hey Cheng Heng, can you see who's the ho in that relationship??
Me : Not really, but you mah ho!

---------

Its an inside joke. Bryant says its immature, but he's a shining beacon of maturity and responsibility next to me, so I guess its moderate.

Yeah, anyway, back on topic. Storyline was super garbled. None of the events really flowed in a visible sequence. You have one guy getting wasted at the Ministry of Sound, popping drugs, but coming back perfectly A-OK to steal his best friend's girlfriend. Who is invisible for some reason. Probably because CHIJ doesn't want to collaborate with us anymore, so we got no female actresses. Its not because me and Zach John sabotaged the last time they did so during the Taming Game two years ago. The only major thing we did was screw over the curtain controls so they closed really slowly. I think.

Yeah, anyway, back to the invisible characters. At first I had no idea why the hell the guy was reciting poetry to empty air. It was only when he asked the void in front of him for her phone number did I realize what was supposed to be there. It's kinda freaky and wrong to watch a guy trying to put his arms around empty air and try and get fresh with it. Then there was another Indian character that was talking to an empty chair about how it had failed as a father in Tamil, which had the whole audience laughing again. We pretty much laughed at all the non-English language bits.

Then, all of a sudden, when one of the guys is about to commit suicide, the thing ends. My first thought was "Thats it?!!?!". My second was " F%^&ing scammers!!" I think Mr J was trying to do damage control when he came up to the stage to ask how the audience thought the play was, and passed out survey forms, but it was ePIc FaIl as well, given how it even elicited a "I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!" from a few guys in the crowd when he asked how good we thought the play was.

While filling survey forms with uniform line in the "Strongly disagree" column, Shen Shin asked out of the blue to change seat with me so he could be next to Bryant.

----------
Shen Shin : Cheng Heng, swap place with me
Me : What for....
Shen Shin : Because I want to be next to Bryant
Me : Whats in in for me...
Shen Shin : Jem makes for more interesting conversation for you.
----------

Whether I did it subconsciously to piss him off, or whether I really was too tired to think, but instead of letting move swap seats with me, I moved into the empty seat next to Bryant.

Dammit, I think Shen Shin has a thing for him. Remember here and now, if Shen Shin turns out to be one of the "Out Loud and Proud" guys, I was the first to figure out. Seriously Shen Shin, if you're reading this, you got to do things in a less obsessive way, cause you are sending all the REALLY wrong signals here. Unless they are right signals he wishes to convey, then in that case they are still REALLY wrong, because even if the wrong signals he is sending are right, that still makes it wrong because...because...

Ah son of a Lahore, I confused myself. Again. The point is, Out Of Order was suitably named, and all the poor guys who brought their girlfriends along, my heart goes out to you, you poor men... Kevin got off easy though, from what he told me. And no, I shall not comment whether his girlfriend is "tappable" Sam Loh.

I can't think of a better ending...

Light bulb growing trees!!!

Monday Blues...

2008-04-08T23:36:00.005+08:00

Okay, Monday was bad. Despite the fact it was Founders Day, and a half day. Why?? Because it just so happened our semi-final with ACSI was on the same day, in the afternoon, effectively neutralizing the extra time of the half day, since we all had to report back by 3 for the match.

Founder's Day, well, wasn't different from any other Founder's Day. The usual handing out of prizes, timing of how long Mr. Lui's speech would take this year (12 minutes 31 seconds). I liked last year's Guest Of Honour better. Unlike this one, he was a real average Joe, like 99.9% of the school's population, not like the overachiever this one sounded like. Chess captain AND marathon runner and numerous other notable achievements. Yes, the waves of jealousy and hate are just radiating off me aren't they?? Oh come on, doesn't everyone feel a little tug of envy when they see someone like that??

Shen Shin accidentally let loose that Sam wouldn't be getting a trophy for the fencing competition, not knowing that it was something which the fencing team intended to keep quiet about until a later date, to save him some anguish. He wasn't exactly in a mood to speak after that, so trying to count all the guys on the first floor became my only pastime for the rest of the celebrations.

While I did manage to rush back home by 1, all I managed to save was an hour and a half from the very inconvenient match fixture, which was partially to blame me forgetting the time and nearly arriving late for the match briefing.

Which threw the biggest shock at me yet.

---------
Coach : Micro, today, you start as prop.
Me :????
Coach : Come on lah, don't look so blur today...
---------

Very bad time for my signature blank look to come out. Despite having played in every match this year except on, I'd been longing for a start all season after falling from the starting lineup this year, but now wasn't a prime time to get it back. ACSI were on a roll, not having lost a single match this season yet, and they didn't intend to break the habit.

We conceded the first try in the first minute, but we made a spirited comeback, pushing them all the way back far enough to look like we might actually score. Our forwards flung themselves at the ACSI defense line, trying to take advantage of our heavier players. A couple more runs by Luohan and me had us 10 meters from the try line. Then someone conceded a penalty. We pretty much lost it from then on.

They just ran through us time and again, and I lost count of how many tries they scored. We lost 83-0. I have never seen SJI lose that badly, to anyone in my four years here. Its a terrible feeling, even worse since I played the full match. We can blame it on 4 to 5 starting players, captain included, not being able to play, but it still sucked.

Annoying thing was, they didn't trash talk or play dirty like they had two years ago. That gave me the will to drag a couple of them for a high velocity sand bath in the drier parts of the field. That hurts like a bitch, just ask Tim Foo. They actually were decently behaved and polite, or at least tried to be. While rugby is supposed to be a rough game, I refuse to try anything dodgy unless the opposition does it first. A stupid moral to stick by?? I don't know, I just don't want to hurt another rule abiding guy like me too much.

Sigh, Monday blues....

Jack Black Is Win!!

2008-04-06T14:29:00.003+08:00

Before I continue with this post, I will hereby dub any comedy with Jack Black in it honourarily win.

April has started off rather well. For the first time in my life, I was not pranked on April Fools!

Deon : Hey Micro, got training today.
Micro : Nut off, its April Fools
Deon : Damn...

Maybe if Loy or Gabriel had done it, it would more believable, but this is Deon we're talking about, the one who only shows up sporadically for training.

Got Bryant on April Fools too.

Me : Hey Bryant, Chinese focus group is canceled today
Bryant : YES!!!! (Does dance)
Me : You do remember what day it is today right??
Bryant : **** you...

Ms Kaur's was still the most 1337 prank though. 423 tried to prank her by switching class with 106, she screwed them over, "sent" them down to the first level, then borrowed 422 from Mr Tung to laugh at them while she waved a sign that said "April Fools" at them.

When with Sam (Loh, now to be known was pale Sam to prevent confusion), Sam (Wong) and Bryant, initially to watch Horton at Cineleisure. Got the bus stop late, really late. Bryant was so bored waiting for me, he was studying Chemistry. And apparently, pale Sam had kept him in the dark about what we were going to do the whole time. He thought we were going LANning I think.

Speaking for LANning, I am disappointed in Singapore's gaming scene sometimes. It seems that we're confined to solely playing DotA or some other Warcraft mod, or playing Counterstrike. We lack finesse... Bryant agrees too...

Luohan : Eh best friend, I heard you got 4 kills in 27 CS matches once...
Me : Shut up lah, you want to play me in Call of Duty 4??
Luohan : What the **** is that??? I bet Counterstrike pons it.

This is Luohan, a guy who goes to LAN as often as some people change their socks. And he has never even HEARD of CoD4. Frickin CoD4!!! Of course, one can't really blame him, its the society. Like a Chinese expository, one must blame the society, the school and the parents whenever a problem with the youth comes out as the question.

Anyhow, back on track, Bryant noticed that everyone was dressed to kill on Orchad Road.

Bryant : And here I am wearing a "you mom never gets old" shirt and short pants, not jeans. Why is everyone so image conscious? I mean, I don't really care about my image most of the time.
Me : Herd mentality, they think everyone cares about what they look like. Or maybe because you're standing next to me. Everyone looks pretty standing next to me.
Bryant : Possibly...
Me : We could be the only enlightened ones in the community, free from this strain...Or we could be the insane ones because we don't care about how we look
Bryant : All true...
Me : My Subway sense is tingling!! There is a Subway here too!

We met up with the two Sams, but Cineleisure wasn't showing Horton, so we legged it to Shaw House nearby, with Sam trying to rip out pale Sam's kidney for some reason. I did not get a cheap shot at him while I was at it. I do not lie impulsively. It didn't have Horton either if I remember right, so we decided on Be Kind Rewind.

The saleswoman at the counter gave us the wrong timeslot at first, but even when we switched to the earlier show, we still had an hour to burn. Thank the Lord for Samantha Wong. Between random prodding and attempting to pull out pale Sam's vital organs when he remarks about her lack of height from time to time, she makes for great conversation. And she art generous with hugs.

Bryant : I think I need to get a refund on my ticket, I really need to go...
Me : But why??
Bryant : I really have to leave, my parents want me back home.
Me : Tell them the bus broke down. Or there was a terrorism drill on.
Bryant : No one buys those...
Pale Sam : Come on, you just wasted your whole weekend.
Bryant : I never had one in the first place. I had to spend it studying. Yes, go ahead and insult me.
Me : You are epic fail. Noob.
Bryant : Thats more annoying than insulting actually.
Pale Sam : I think he needs a hug.
(I hug him)
Pale Sam : Now he needs a detox chamber.
Sam : I'll do it
(She hugs him)
Pale Sam : Right, he's good now.
(She hugs the pale one)
Sam : (To me) You want a hug too??
Me : ???? (Out comes my signature blank look)
Pale Sam : You really don't want to do that.
(She hugs me anyway)

Such bravery is commendable, for it is rare indeed. Maybe this proves there actually is a girl out there somewhere who can accept me for the biohazard I am?

Yeah, well Bryant did eventually leave us when he got a refund on his ticket (deserter!). Too bad for him, Be Kind Rewind was hilarious. For Jack Black was in it.

Its about an old man, Mr Fletcher, has a video rental store called Be Kind Rewind, which is failing, so he takes time off to study the more successful chains, leaving it in the hands of his employee Mike, with instructions not to let his best friend Jerry (Black) into the store, for he destroys everything he touches.

Coincidentally, Jerry comes up with a plan to destroy the nearby power plant, believing that the FBI is using it to broadcast electronic waves to mind control him. He attempts to do so by sneaking into the plant at night and throwing a grappling hook into the transformer.

Which gets him electrocuted, and magnetized. Mike reluctantly lets him into the store for treatment when he stumbles in looking wasted, and arranges all the tapes inside, unwittingly erasing all of them, and the rest of the movie follows them desperately trying to re-act (Or as they call it, "sweding") the erased movies that customers want, roping in Alma, a girl in a laundromart, to help them "swede" the movies. Jerry eventually loses his magnetism when he takes a piss on the street, which is also magnetized. It was a true WIN scene to watch all the nuts, bolts, drink

Their "Sweded" movies are a hit with the customers, and they do brisk business, and just in time too, since Mr Fletcher learns that he needs to refurbish the place to prevent it from being demolished by the city council, and needs 60 grand to do so. All goes well till the Copyright Office arrives and destroys all their "sweded" movies for copyright infringement using a steam roller.

With a few thousand left to go, Mike, Jerry and Alma make one last "sweded" movie, one of their own so the Copyright Office can't arrest them. This time, it is about the jazz legend Fat Waller, who never actually lived in the town, using the last week they have before the demolition to film it. Despite a hundred people coming to watch it, they can't raise enough money to stop the demolition. Mr Fletcher resignedly goes out to tell the workmen outside that they can start when he finds out the entire town has gathered outside to watch the film. And it ends there.

Couple of my favourite lines
-----------------------------
Mike : Okay, now to shoot the final scene of Ghostbusters...
Jerry : Hold it!! You can't shoot a dramatic scene during the day! You can't!
Mike : Jerry, Miss Falewicz will be here in less than an hour, we don't have time!
(Jerry reaches for the camera)
Mike : Are you nuts, you're magnetized remember, you'll erase everything!
Jerry : Sigh, there's a button that says "Negative", press it.
Mike : You're right, it works. But I'm white in it. And you're black.
Jerry : Again, I have an idea
(They photostat their faces and wear the paper as masks)
------------------------------
Mike : (Running while filming the credits for the Ghostbusters film) This film was written and produced by Dan Akroyd. (Hums out Ghostbusters theme song)
------------------------------
Baliff : I'm afraid I'm going to have to confiscate every tape here for copyright infringement.
Jerry : You can't do that!!
Baliff : Yes I can. The copyright message is shown at the start of every video.
Jerry : But we erased that too!
------------------------------
JD : Thats a rip off man, ten bucks for a video!
Jerry : They're, erm, sweded...
Alma : Yeah they're, erm, from, Sweden!
JD : Sweden's a country, not a verb.
Alma : Its an expensive country, thats why the videos are so expensive!
-------------------------------
Jerry : Sorry, we only allow 2 movies to be taken out per account, store policy.
JD : Thats cool, I want to start an account right now.
Alma : We're going to need your date of birth, a letter from your parents if you're a minor, a list of countries which you've traveled to prior to registraion, your blood type, records from your last ten dentist visits and your top 10 favourite movies.
JD : You're lucky we don't beat girls up.
--------------------------------

For some reason, Sam kept tapping my feet during the movie. Intentionally or not, I don't know. I was too busy eating my Subway sandwich to ask.

Pale Sam's dad called me on my way home. From Tokyo. To see if I had any idea where his son was. I honestly had no idea where he had gone, though it sounded like I covered up for pale Sam to prevent his parents from tearing him a new bodily orifice in him. So he owes me big anyway.

Back Into the Tempest

2008-03-20T17:07:00.002+08:00

School has returned, with a vengeance. The one week break was short, fast, but appreciated. Had enough time to look back on Term 1. Still okay, but losing steam, and I can't afford to do so now. Not with the stakes so high...

Anyway, back to normal speech. We've made our way to round 2 in the rugby tournament, played our first second stage match against Unity. Which, despite their reputation as one of the better neighbourhood schools, we won by a bigger margin than against the earlier groups. I only managed a 2 minute cameo toward the end. Enough to see one try get leaked past us.

Luhan wishes for an announcement that he has scored his first try ever for SJI! He scored somewhere in the first half after refusing orders from Gabriel to send it out, and became possibly the first retainee ever to score a try for the school. In recent history at least.

Mid Year and the Chinese O-Level are getting uncomfortably close...

Don't have much to say after that...

Its Been A Good Night

2008-03-12T11:08:00.003+08:00

I'd just like to say, UWCSEA's play owned anything our school has put up so far. Of course, its location doesn't...

I rained pretty bad on the day itself, and Bryant didn't finish his dinner till around six, so halfway through our bus journey there the only way to get to UWC before 7.10 was to take a cab (You will now forget that I owe you half the cab fare Bryant).

Our troubles weren't over yet when we finally reached the place. Now we had to locate Sam and Shen Shin, who managed to get there on time. Now we had to find our ticket dealer for the act.

Bryant : And can you stop calling him the ticket DEALER, you make it sound like he sells crack on the side.
Me : Noted, so what does this guy look like?
Bryant : Indi says its a short Indian guy named Nick.
Me : Thats really descriptive of him.
Bryant : Is that him (Points to entrance)
Me : Dude, that can't be Nick, thats a chick...
Bryant : Unless we're at the wrong swimming pool...
Me : If this place has more than one swimming pool, this is one sweet campus

Turns out, we weren't at the wrong one. And for the record, this Nick wasn't that short.

Then came the mix up of the two Sam's.

Bryant : Right, now we've got to meet Sam, Shen Shin, and the other Sam.
Me : There's two Sams??
Bryant : Well, yeah... but...
Me : Sam Wang is here?
Bryant : No, not Sam Wang, Sam's friend Sam...
Me : You're losing me here...
Bryant : Okay, Sam's friend Samantha is studying here as well, and...
Me : Wait, our Sam has a friend named Sam, who isn't Sam Wang, and is a girl?
Bryant : Yes...

We finally meet up with Sam, Shen Shin, and Sam 2, and try to locate the correct theatre. Now, I finally see why having just one PAC in your school is a good thing. There was this huge queue when we found the right place, and keeping in mind that the act was a sellout, I thought to myself "Why doesn't this happen with our school?"

I found my answer. The inside was about the same size as the one the school brought us to on some distant excursion in the Esplanade. (See one of my older posts, the one about leaving reality for fantasy or fantasy to reality, I can't remember)

Nevertheless, the act was good. Not just good, great actually. Way better than the Taming Game and whatever our school's ever come up with. It's about a young man, Eugene Jerome, who is shipped off to boot camp in Mississippi during World War Two, and the hilarious events that entailed. It deals with the interaction with his squad mates, as well as his coming of age, as well as how he survives his sadistic and possibly insane drill sergeant.

It was during the intermission that I got to know Sam 2. As well as learn that she beat up Sam when they were in Primary 4. She seems like a nice person. She gave me something else to taunt Sam with, the pale jokes are getting stale. She whacked me towards the end of the intermission because I was still on my DS.

Here's a few lines which I simply loved. I can't remember some (well, most actually) of the names, so I'll just dodge using them whenever possible.

-----------------
In Eugenes's diary,

And this guy, well, he masturbates about 4 or 5 times a night, and can be heard shouting "Five's been fired, and six is being loaded!".
-----------------

Pretty sure that caused a couple of awkward moments for the younger kid's parents.

-----------------
Sergeant Tuney : Men, in my 10 years of being a noncom, I've dealt with all sorts of offenses, from mutiny to sodomy. Now, I consider those minor offenses. Mutiny is the expression of repressed feelings that are being let out in one go. Sodomy is doing something you really want to do, but with someone you really don't want to do it with.
-----------------

-----------------
When the squad is visiting a brothel

Eugene : What if she's really ugly??
Squadmate : Then you just close your eyes and think of some girl in high school...
Eugene : I don't want to, thats only as good as doing it with yourself...
----------------

----------------
When talking about what they'd do if they had a week left to live

Eugene : So what would you do?
Squadmate : Me?? I'd find that perfect girl for and.... (I can't remember)
Eugene : Got a girl in mind?
Squadamte : Sure do. (Makes humping movements) The Queen of England!
Another Squadmate : What the hell? Thats like doing it with your own grandma!
Yet Another Squadmate : And what about the other guys? Like the King of England?
Squadmate : Of come on, the King and Queen only get it on once a year to make a prince.
Another Squadmate : And isn't the Queen like holed up in Buckingham Palace?
Squadmate : Nope, when she sees me coming, she'll tell the guards "Let that handsome and sexy young man through". So how'd I do Eugene?
Eugene : C-. That was bankrupt, morally, content wise and sexually. But it had style.
Another Squadmate : I'm out of here, I'm not listening to a guy who'd shag is own grandma.
---------------

Well, there's probably more, but I can't remember. It ends with Eugene hurting his back while falling out of a jeep in England and missing the war, and finally fulfilling his dream to become a writer when he is hired to be a writer with the army newspaper.

We decided, after much argument, to head to King Albert Park for dinner. As we were walking out to the bus stop, I saw Bryant and Samantha pull out their phones and consult each other on the topic of numbers. I assumed that Bryant had pulled off one real smooth move, which really surprised me since since he's not that sort of guy.

Samantha is a fun girl to be around with. Not in that sense. She's a laugh a minute, and as Bryant described her, candid. The case with the high heels, butts and sex was one example, and she's pretty cute to boot. Then again, she's too grossed out by my dining experiences in the Chem labs, and she's got the same last name as me, so most stuff would look kind of weird. Then again, I've always been more than a little weird.

Sam had to leave early because he had something on, so that left us with one Bryant, one Slummer, one Shen Shin, and one more Sam left. Then Sam had to leave because her parents wanted her back, and Shen Shin he might as well head home at that point. So that left just me and Bryant. As we made our way across to the Mac's, I questioned Bryant on his smooth move.

Me : Woah dude, that was one sweet trick to get her number.
Bryant : What? I didn't? What gave you that idea??
Me : Two phones out, discussion of numbers, what do you want me to think?
Bryant : I didn't! I mean, I wouldn't mind her number, but I didn't.
Me : I don't blame you man, she was kinda cute. She was way too freaked out to about my Chem lab mealtimes. Gotta find a girl who's comfortable with that.
Me : Know how Shen Shin left when she did? You think...??
Bryant : Maybe...
Me : Nah, really doubt that... Shen Shin we're talking about here.

----------
At the risk of Shen Shin beating the crap out of me (or trying to at least), I will post the rest of the conversation at the Mac's after Shen Shin came back and left us again after getting a MacFlurry.
----------

Bryant : Well, Sex (Damien dubbed Shen Shin that) just pang sehed us. Again.
Me : The first time had its benefits. Can you imagine discussing emotions and love with Shen Shin?
Bryant : Nope
Me : Yeah, probably when he looks at her, his on board computer lists

-------
Subject : Samatha ???
Status : Worker production factory. Disregard otherwise.
-------

Bryant : And the rest of us?

------
Subject : Wong Cheng Heng
Status : Biological hazard, will eat anything in its path. Eliminate immediately.
------

------
Subject : Bryant Chan
Status : Sarcastic enough to make trees wilt. Eliminate immediately.
------

------
Subject : Samuel Loh
Status : Owns Xbox 360. Subterfuge immediately
------

------
Subject : Mark Chia
Status : Perpetual wanker. Stay out of range
------

On the bus trip back, I asked Bryant whether I really did look like Chris like Samantha had said. I got a "except for the glasses, and maybe the nose, no." Sigh, always being mistaken for someone else. One of Bryant's sisters thinks I'm Jin, the other one things I'm Sam, I'm mistaken for Max in my team now and then, as Amos now and then, and for a Vietnamese scholar by a few Sec 3's.

Big, Big Events

2008-03-01T02:54:00.003+08:00

Big things have happened Very big things

1. An escaped terrorist leader

I shit you not. The leader of the Singapore branch of JI escaped from Whitley detention center, and was supposedly hiding in the woods near Malcolm Park. Which is right next to my school. I normally fall asleep on the car journey to my school but when I woke up, I thought my parents had driven into an army base or something. There was an armed soldier every few meters along the pavement, stretching for about 300 meters. I was like "WTF?!?!?!" (This was before I knew about what was going on) Didn't take me long to hustle out what the situation was, and why the hell it warranted the presence of a squad of Special Forces on the campus, and perhaps an entire frigging company of troops lining Whitley Road, complete with armoured vehicles.

From what I found out, its the same crazy bastard that plotted to blow up the American Embassy here as well as Yishun station before the police forced him to blow the country, before finally being caught in Indonesia. JI are also the same lunatics who planned Bali bombings 1 and 2.

The idea of a terrorist leader running around the woods didn't put the school off from lessons, and classes continued on.

Currently still at large....

2. Physics O-Level SPA

And how I messed it up... I know I did... Don't feel like discussing it....

3. Campaign didn't turn out as planned...

Some of my subjects came up to the mark, some didn't, thats all I feel like saying right now...

Brothers In Arms

2008-02-23T02:05:00.002+08:00

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...

2008-02-23T01:04:00.002+08:00

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

Love hurts, some Valentine's...

2008-02-14T22:44:00.004+08:00

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.

A Happy Birthday, To Me, And My Blog

2008-02-10T02:00:00.001+08:00

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.

Clouds and Cosmos

2008-02-07T18:20:00.000+08:00

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

2008-02-07T17:01:00.000+08:00

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.

>Insert title here<

2008-01-31T16:25:00.000+08:00

When I can't think of a title, that will appear.

I bought myself Rune Factory on a whim on Saturday after I refereed at the Sec 3 Inter Class Soccer/Touch Rugby tournament, and I can't seem to get myself off it... Its got Zelda style game play, inclusive of hacking and slashing monsters in caves, the main thing that separates this Harvest Moon series from the rest and made this spinoff so popular. Its also the only HM game which Sam has not dubbed "gay", since he can't stand a game that doesn't involve killing/shooting/violence.

It handles much like any other HM game, but with better graphics and some voice dubbing (not much though). Most interesting part about it, like I said above, is the the monster caves. Its unique combat element adds a lot of life into the series which was starting go stale, judging by the last one they released for DS... In this one, you happily run through caves, slaughtering all the monsters that you come across, or alternatively, you could tame them so they can help you out, either by giving products like eggs, helping water and gather your crops, or helping you fight in the caves.

This blog will turn a year old on the 8th of February, dug that up going through my old posts. Speaking of birthdays, my own is coming up on the 18th, though I plan to have it on the 9th, since 18th is the starting day of the Common Tests. Haven't filled up the guest list yet, as well as the entertainment, since I got to decide that based on the type of people that are coming. A soccer game might be feasible, though I can't imagine Tim Kwok having fun doing that or any other sport for that matter. Definitely decided on the menu though, and it shall involve steak. Sam, if you're reading this, 360 = more steak.

Good and Bad...

2008-01-19T03:29:00.000+08:00

Week's been pwnage so far for me, was awarded $150 from the school for good progress, got a perfect score for the differentiation test, among other things.

Problem is, Mrs Ang is away on some course of some sort, which means a stand-in for her was needed, and it arrived in the shape of one Miss Yeo. I'll say it direct, she is boring.

-She never deviates from the book, unlike BAng, who would discuss anything from Heroes, to head lice to Prison Break, to name a few.

-Her lisp. I suppose this really isn't her fault, but it isn't making it any easier for us to concentrate in class.

-She is boring.

-Did I mention she was boring?

Eugene seems to fancy her though, I guess he's got a thing for stick insects. Given the fact that she's barely out of university, I guess this could be due to her lack of experience. We all still want BAng back ASAP though.

Sam requested I put this rant of his up. He wrote it in, surprise surprise, Lit class. The original question was "What makes the old woman and unattractive character?"

Sam's Rant
----------
What is unattractive?? Perhaps it is like cheese that has gone bad on a hot summer's day, or a jock strap that has been used one too many times and is growing unattractive fungi, or perhaps even Cheng Heng, who has some serious funk in his trunk (Its only ethanol and grass I swear!!) But why did Tom Robinson kill the mockingbird?? I do not know, perhaps its because I have not read the book and I'm working on the assumption that Tom Robinson was the squirrel who grew opposable thumbs, so it could use a BB gun to shoot that bastard son of a bird. Perhaps the bird stole his cake, soft...moist...and most delectable of cakes. The messiah of the cake world. The Ubercake! But I for one think that the companionship cube called "JEM" was overrated and started talking to Gordon Freeman, causing him to go mad and swing his crowbar around, knocking the remote out of Chuck Norris' hands. After which Chuck Norris went nuts and did a roundhouse kick of awesomeness, cracking the world in half!! Billions died and humanity was on the brink of extinction! Then Optimus Prime woke up and discovered it was all a dream and made the resolution not to watch Oracle and Huntress... Mudwrestling!! In a hot tub!! While making out!! While Lara Croft pours lube on them while screaming "Room for one more!?!"
--------
End of Sam's rant

Don't ask me why, he somehow always draws the topic to his favourite Oracle/Huntress fantasy.

2008-01-13T23:33:00.000+08:00

First of all, let me say a very happy 16th birthday to both the Tims I know, Tim Foo, and Tim Kwok (Yes, I know I'm a week late).

Tim Foo had his birthday party yesterday, a week early if I remember right. I was supposed to get there at 6, my parents got lost trying to navigate to his place, the house numbering coming to an abrupt end at 102 when he said he stayed at number 4 on the same street. When we finally found out that there were two sections that of that same street that were split into two, I finally arrived half an hour late, spotting Poh Chih and him walking to the field at the back of his house with Chris to play soccer.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who as late. Most had arrived by 7, save Raghaav, who got lost as expected. Tim finally found him wandering around a few streets away at around seven thirty, and we could finally get the game started. The game itself was hilarious, mostly since the ground was wet and muddy from the rain. Joel ran around holding his pants up the whole game to keep them clean, Reuben tried not to get his black nail polish washed off (A failure), people missed easy goals because they couldn't see the ball in the dark, the trees were the top scorers with 3 goals, I threw a frog I found on the field at Poh Chih midway through the game, Raghaav nearly broke his neck taking a kick when he slipped and fell, and we managed to roll Zhongxi through the mud just before we ended.

We finally came in close to 9 after Keith nearly killed Joel with a shot, and queued up to take a bath (It took as all nearly an hour to get cleaned off) before we got around to having dinner out in Tim's backyard. Despite the generous spread of food before us, I seemed to be the only one with a significant appetite. Chris suddenly realized it was already 10+ and he needed to be home so we hurried up with the cake cutting so everyone could rush home in time for their curfews.

Coach's selection of the 22 player squad will depend on the match tomorrow St. Andrews on their new artificial turf. My bid for a starting position is shaky at best, doomed at worst. Right now, I just want to fight my way onto the 22 man squad first, then take it from there. My last chance for redemption is at hand, my hand must not falter.

The Return to Reality

2008-01-05T14:00:00.000+08:00

School has started again, and homework that I never knew existed began to appear, like Chinese... Six essays, a couple of comprehensions... This would hard enough already as English, but in Chinese... Can't imagine what the situation would be like if I decided to be lazy and not do any of my other homework.

Mr. Lam's sense of humour seems to have grown over the holidays, unfortunately tipping toward the sick end of the spectrum. Check this out
----
Lam : Joel, tell me, are the wires of the solenoid insulated or not??
Joel : Err... Insulated
Lam : Correct, it must be insulated, with rubber. We are safe people, must always use rubber protection
----

----
Lam : Now, we have a few ways to magnetize a magnetic material. One, a traditional favourite of boys here, is called stroking, where we use one magnet to rub against it. Then we have the method known as double stroking, where we use two magnets to rub against it.
Someone : Is double stroking faster??
Lam : The number of hands does not matter, you still get the same...effect.
----

To try and relax, I decided to skip the selection trials for Sec 1's (It was optional, and it was raining) Chris and company to play table football. Problem was, Bryant was torn between going with them or going home to do his homework and Monty didn't want to go to HBD Hub because it was too far from his house, and we debated on what to do in the CC cafeteria while Daryl took a crap and Mojo ran back to school to buy graph paper

----
Bryant : See, I really have to get back home and finish up the @#*#ing Chinese..
Chris : Just come with us, you can copy off mine. Well, I left a few blank, but those are the harder ones, you can try them out yourself.
Bryant : Arggh, what to do?? Cheng Heng, what do you want to do?
Me : I....Think I'll just flop over and go to sleep.
(Flops onto the table and goes to sleep)
Bryant : Absolutely useless in a crisis...
----

Eventually, Bryant decided to follow Daryl to HBD Hub to help him kill time before he met up with his other friends, and I tagged along. After lunch, we went to MacDonalds to so Daryl and Bryant would have a more a conducive environment to do their differentiation holiday homework in. Having done and handed up mine long ago, I sat there with my McFlurry and helped them out when they needed it, which was pretty often. Flipping through Bryant's Batgirl comic in between rescuing them, I came across a tile with Batgirl and Oracle hugging each other. On a bed. Sam would explode if he saw that. He was went crazy enough at the though of Oracle and Huntress in a mud fight, in bikinis, and requesting to Gail Simone that she include such a situation future issues was on his "To Do" list when we met her at the Writers Festival.

Merry Christmas to all!!

2007-12-25T15:01:00.001+08:00

To all who visit, a very Merry Christmas to you! As is the tradition in my family, we host a huge party on Christmas Eve, but do just about nothing on the actual Christmas, and as usual, my dad requires a kitchen boy/dogsbody, which conveniently happens to be me, and always halfway through a Dark Crusade game or a Pest Control match on Runescape. After much time, effort and swearing from dad, the dinner was finally rolled out in time for most of my extended family.

All my presents involved clothes of some kind, mostly shirts this year. It seems like as the years go by the presents get less and less impressive. Man, I feel old already. After the dinner and presents was the usual haze of Coke and chips and monopoly games which follow just about every celebration my family has. Had a splitting headache halfway through (I blame the ham, always does that to me), so all I can recall is someone getting owned in Monopoly in my room (Might have been me). The party lasted until somewhere around 2. The next morning I found myself asleep on all present wrappings...

Of course, as fun as Christmas is, it normally signals to me that school isn't very far away either. Ah bugger, guess all things have to come to an end...

P.S Sam, where's my Uzi! Did the Bolivian smugglers lose it or get arrested, because I haven't received it yet!

Everyone is away

2007-12-17T15:10:00.000+08:00

Seems like just about everyone is out of the country right now. Tim is somewhere in Germany, Munich I think, Sam is in Bolivia (If someone's arrested for arms smuggling, there we'll know who it is...), tall Chris is somewhere, big Chris is somewhere, Daryl is somewhere, most of the Sec 3 squad is in either Malaysia or New York, and JC is at NCC camp, which might as well be in another country.

Anyway, the night before he left for Bolivia we stayed at Sam's place again, but it was much quieter with Sam Wang and Big Chris. On the bright side, that meant that with just four people we didn't have to take turns using the Box Of Fun. Our theological discussion this time being about Halos, and what counts toward a Beyond the Grave kill. Though I have significantly improved at multi-player, most of my kills consisted of waiting for Mark, Bryant and Sam to fight each other then moving in to pick off the survivors who would by then be low on ammo and other nasty, painful implements to hurt Slummer with, although people have stopped depending on me to be a quick source for kills, that much I'm grateful for...

Sam's dad ordered us to sleep around midnight, and we could have kept ourselves occupied the whole night with my laptop if Sam had remembered his password to his wireless, but seeing as how computers commit harikiri when he goes near them, it might have been a bit much to expect that of him. I tried guessing his password but gave up after 10 minutes. On the other end of the spectrum Tim's wireless wasn't even secured when I went there. Made life easy, but I wouldn't have done that if I were him.

Anyway, unable to play on the 360, I raided Sam's ample bookshelf in the hopes of finding interesting reading material. I settled on Ciaphas Cain : Hero of the Imperium. We were just starting up his computer when his mum came in, and we promptly claimed we were hungry, which wasn't a lie at the time, and his mum, the wonderful lady she was, made us a quick supper of corned beef and instant noodles. I continued to read about the exceedingly lazy, but quick thinking and amazingly lucky commissar with the most plot armour I've ever seen until around 3 before I dozed off.

In other news United has come out tops in last night's hot tempered with Liverpool, winning 0-1 at Anfield, with Giggs unexpectedly sending the corner kick away from the penalty box across the ground. I actually though he mis-kicked when I watched it, but he actually intended to send it to Rooney, who took a low shot/pass which somehow went through the legs of 10 players without being blocked. I doubt he was actually passing, and Tevez just happened to be there to deflect it in during first half extra time. He would have been offside if Benayoun hadn't been camping on the goal line trying to block a goal he didn't manage to stop. Anderson and Evra on the other hand, did a much better job of it when Van Der Sar crashed into his own defenders twice when trying to catch a corner kick, but still saved by the goal line camping duo. Admittedly though, Liverpool could, and should have won, after being denied two goals on the line and the referee not seeing a Tevez handball in the penalty box. Zach will be in a bad mood, I can tell you that...

Although my dad demands I be a United fan since he's been one for the last 22 years, I do enjoy watching Arsenal games, and normally back them if they aren't playing against United. Against Chelsea (minus one Drogba and one Essien) at home, I was quite sure Arsenal would win, and win they did, with another goal close to the end of half time, with more than a little touch of irony. The one who sunk Chelsea just happened to be William Gallas, the ex-Chelsea player who turned renegade and supposedly threatened to score own goals when Chelsea refused to let him transfer, out jumped Ben-Haim to score from a header after Cech strangely failed to catch the corner kick.

The match was hostile at best. The home crowd booed loudly whenever Ashely Cole had the ball. Seen as a traitor to Arsenal and dubbed "Cashely Cole" after he moved to Chelsea for higher pay, he was pelted with fake notes on his first match against his old club with Terry pulling a sliding tackle on Fabergas AFTER the latter had already fallen to the ground which meant his studded foot plowed straight into his chest, which earned the Chelsea and England captain as well as Lampard (Probably couldn't keep his mouth shut) a yellow card, and Arsenal retaliated with Eboue crushing Terry's foot which resulted in a yellow card for him and Terry having to be brought off with a suspected broken foot. The home crowd also chanted "Ian Wright, right, right, riiight..." when Wright-Phillips was taken off to taunt and remind the Chelsea winger that he is simply no where near as good as his adoptive (dad says illegitimate more likely) father and Arsenal striker hero Ian Wright. The tension spilled over after the final whistle had blown, a brawl erupting between Joe Cole (No relation to Ashley Cole) and Fabergas.

A Gain, A Loss

2007-12-14T01:25:00.000+08:00

Training ended for Christmas, and will stop until the 28. Ordinarily this means even more free time in addition to the holidays, but this year, it means even less time to prove myself as a worthy addition to the starting 15.

The year which has seen stellar improvement in my academic form has also borne witness to my declining influence and hold on the team. I started every match last year, and played all of them from start to end except for the first two. I even had hopes for starting on the B Division team this year, since the senior wing forward had left the school.

It was still no surprise to me that I was still a substitute then, as were most Sec 3s. With that failed plan that my father cooked up to get me to do Bio at the expense of all my Wednesday trainings for 2 terms I lost any chance I had of starting. I still managed 3 substitute appearances, and I was the second most used Sec 3 substitute after George who had four, and we should have been tied since he went in instead of me for one match since I rushed out to help Gabriel when he was injured, and seeing as I wasn't available on hand, Coach brought George on instead.

The failed plan seems to have had long lasting effects. My tackles were either inaccurate or poorly executed, if ever done at all from the lack of practice, my fitness drained when a possible asthma relapse robbed me of my stamina, and a badly healed injury has left a bony lump on my right leg which would leave me in agony if anyone knocked against it. With even Sec 2's who had shown little promise this year's disappointing C Division squad being selected ahead for me, the writing on the wall was becoming glaringly clear. Shape up or ship out.

The future appears bleak for now. Amos could be moved down to wing forward from an in centre, and should that happen I would be in big trouble since I have little hope of pushing my old understudy Max off the team. Playing as my opposite wing forward since he was Sec 1 and a year my junior, he would look to me for guidance. Vice captain of the underachieving C Division squad, a post I felt he fully deserved, he would certainly be picked first should a decision come down to deciding between him and me. He is like a more advanced version of me, same build, same size, same speed, same playing style, but better, like T800 to T-X, IE6 to IE7. The nice guy that he is, he denies it all the time, but he has already surpassed me. Max, modesty is another type of lying, you already went past being my junior and my equal.

There is still hope though. Some of my tackling has come back, as well as my speed. Jamal thanked me for boosting his confidence in tackling after he managed to take me down during one training. Two ways I could interpret this, one would be my team still holds me with some sort of esteem, or two, I've degraded enough to be taken down with relative ease by my juniors, albeit the second vice captain. Hope like hell its the former. With Matthew's return still unconfirmed, that leaves a position possibly open in the forward pack. Although I'd be playing prop instead of wing forward, I'd gladly grasp any chance for a starting position right now.

It seems like someone above is telling me I can't have both things at the same time. At this time last year I played well, but my studies were not too good. With a final year average of 67.75 and an L1R5 of 13, its a big improvement from last year's 62 and 20+ for L1R5. I refuse to use the term can't have your cake and eat it too, since cake is for eating anyway, but it seems like I cannot do well at both at the same time. With the O-Levels drawing nearer, I would pick my studies over rugby should I be forced into that decision, but right now, I want to be part of that starting 15 for the season.

In the thick of it

2007-12-05T00:57:00.000+08:00

Well, halfway into the holidays, and I'm certainly enjoying it. After sleeping before midnight for a change, I managed to get up somewhere around 8, knocked the Imeperial Guard off Kronus in the Dark Crusade campaign, which leaves only the Chaos.

Went to Bryant's at around 3 so he could begin to pay off the money he owes me after I photostated a few things for him and copy down the questions we need to do for Chemistry homework. Since he's broke after buying yet more Birds Of Prey comics, I decided the best form of payment was via Gamecube hours. Speaking of Birds Of Prey, apparently, the Gail Simone posting on his blog is apparently the real deal. Yes, the actual author (Okay, ex-author) of Birds Of Prey is visiting his blog on a regular basis. Of course, both her and her husband now refer to Bryant as "the Sex Man", since all they remember of him were the nature of his questions (See his blog for details). Then again, with the ex-author of your favourite comic visiting your site on a regular, a guy can't really ask for more can he??

Anyway, on to the visit. Despite having a new widescreen plasma TV that has ports specially designated for running diagnostics tests, we couldn't figure out a way to hook his Gamecube up to it. In the end we gave up and played on on the TV in his bedroom, smaller, older, but reliable with the plugin ports in obvious areas. I continued with RE4 where I left of at Sam's place. Mendes, one of the boss fights, must have got stuck in a nuclear chamber with an insect of sorts, or his mum had a thing for centipedes. We have now dubbed all the herbs smokable weed, the combo of Green, Red and Yellow herbs mother of all weed, and the First Aid Spray as Weed Substitute. Eventually I reached the water room where out of frustration, I finally gave up and we moved on the Super Smash Bros Melee. I just can't remember how I got past it with only the bolt action rifle the first time we played it.

----------
(Arriving at pile of rubbish in RE4)
Me : Is that searchable??
Bryant : Yeah, we'll find a colony of Slummers already camping there
Me : Geroff, this my patch see??
----------

Super Smash Bros Melee was a massacre, with Bryant showing no remorse as he hacked the living crap out of the adorable little pink puffball Kirby with Marth. I used to think Marth was a chick till corrected at Sam's place. Seriously though, what kind of guy wears a tiara??

Rev Rev Rev!!

2007-12-02T03:27:00.000+08:00

Stayed over at Sam's place, but I could only get there at around 11 at night due to other pressing matters. Got acquainted with Sam's neighbours and other friends who were staying over, namely Sam Wang, Chris and Mark, all of which were really nice guys.

We played RE4 and Gears before Sam's parents chased us to sleep somewhere near midnight. Then again, when did sleepovers include any actual sleep? After stating that the UBCS sucked since they always get owned by the undead despite being commandos and armed to the teeth with the standard Kalashnikovs and all, Sam decided to make a very violent rebuttal of that claim, and we ended up doing a mattress showdown.

---------------------
Sam with me in headlock

Sam : Is the UBCS gay??

Me : zzzzzzzz.............
---------------------

In the end we settled it with a compromise like civilized people, and agreed that though a good portion of the UBCS get owned all the time, some are still decently good. Its around this time that I realize its Sam's birthday.

No one could sleep, and after finding some rather dubious photos in Bryant's phone (Female Fire Warriors and female Guardsmen), the topic shifted to Warhammer, then slowly to religion. Sam, a proud atheist, was put out like a light. Eventually we did get to sleep at around 4. We all got up around 9, except for Chris who needed to go for tuition and left early.

We played Super Smash Brothers till around 1, had lunch, then headed off to the Writer's Festival, where Gail Simone, writer of the Birds Of Prey comic series, was holding a talk at the Arts House. Bryant is nuts about the series, Sam was excited since she wrote Deadpool, and the rest of us were there because we were going LANning after that.

Of course, we didn't count on nobody knowing where the bloody hell that was. From the taxi driver to the Singapore Tourism Board, no one had a clue. Bryant was hyperventilating until we finally found the place, which turned out to be just outside the Supreme Court.

Talk was okay till Bryant asked his first question regarding why Huntress dresses so promiscuously despite having been sexually abused in the past. My first thought was "WTF?!?!?" My second was to hide under the seat. Mark and Sam Wang followed suit. I didn't dare listen to his second and third one, but judging by Gail Simone's friendly reaction to him and the rest of us at the autograph session, I don't think she had any problems with them. Whew....

Bryant needed to get his fix of Birds Of Prey, so he didn't come LANning with us, which might have been a good thing, since we took awhile to find a LAN center with space and Dark Crusade. Eventually, when we finally did, we had a good time, mostly because I somehow conjured up 6 Flayed One squads along with the Lord and a Pariah Squad backed up by a couple of Warrior squads and an Immortal squad. Poor Sam Wang's Blood Angels never had a chance..... I should go back to Necrons.

OB Sabah, A Summary

2007-11-26T16:13:00.000+08:00

Day 1 - Arrive at the OB Sabah Base Camp late at night, meet the other 11 people in my group for the next 11 days. The 46 of us are split into 4 groups and bunks. Sorted into group Hang Tuah, from what I gathered, its a Malay folk hero. The other groups are Kingfisher, Mat Salleh (Jin says it means "White Man") and Kinabalu.

Day 2 - Have ice breaker games and all that. Trek through nearby hill and beach, informed of 2 expeditions we would be sent on, Jungle and Sea, last 3 and 2 days respectively, 2 groups going one course at any one time.

Day 3 - My group sets off on the Jungle Expedition. The expedition consists of climbing up a 1.5km hill, reaching the top, and camping there for one night,climbing back down another route, and staying in a nearby village, before trekking back 10km to the Base Camp. Dropped of at the starting point in the rain, the way up is extremely muddy, wet, slippery and miserable. Slip and fall numerous times on the muddy slope, and having to resort to crawling up in the mud since there were no handholds, and all the footholds had dissolved in the rain. Coupled to a 10kg backpack, the climb is a real bitch. Rain continues as we set up camp. Robert, our native instructor, brings out his machete, chops a tree down with it, carves out four sticks, gets a groundsheet, makes a canopy, chops another tree down, and starts a fire out of wet wood, all in 15 minutes. Tent is out of space, me and Matthew (Not the rugby one) decide to stay under the fireplace canopy. Gets dark at 8, almost fell asleep when it rained at 9.

Day 4 - The night officially takes the "Worst Night Ever" title from the night I had a migraine on a night flight from Shanghai back to Singapore. Rained the whole night, and my bit of the canopy leaked. At 18 Celsius, it was a wet, frozen hell. Started hearing things, like Ievan singing, and someone saying it was 2 in the morning, but Matthew says no one made any sound, and that it was 11 at night. Slip in and out of consciousness, shivering in a pool of water. The creepy bamboos creaking in the wind didn't help. Rain finally lightens up enough for Matthew to call the instructors at around 5. They order everyone else out of the tent and send me in. Still had to trek down the hill to reach the village and medical attention. Thank goodness the way down was far easier. Once at the village they send for a van to bring me to the doctor. Usual doctor is closed, so they bring me to another one. Bill is ridiculously high at RM150, all the instructors were expecting RM40 tops. Steven, the OB Singapore instructor there and Helse, my other instructor, have me sent back to base camp. Spend the rest of the day asleep.

Day 5 - Spend most of this day asleep as well too.

Day 6 - Recover in time for the Sea expedition. Instantly regret going, get seasick in the sailboat. Lionel and Ray, both sailors, do all the sailing for us, and since the wind was with us, we got to the island we were supposed to camp on in just over an hour. Felt more like a day though... Spend rest of the catching crabs on the beach. Rains once again, but this time, everyone makes sure there's space for me in the tent. Wasn't exactly dry inside either, but compared with the outside, I wasn't complaining.

Day 7 - Storm clouds gather and we are towed back by the rescue boat since it is deemed too dangerous to sail. More casualties from seasickness, Nat and Sam Koh getting it the worst.

Day 8 - Finally, we set off for the main reason why most people come to the camp, which was to climb Mt Kinabalu. We are driven by bus to a hostel a kilometer above sea level to acclimatize. More people are falling sick, Luohan catches stomach flu, Ian gets AMS (Altitude Mountain Sickness) and Ievan gets an eye infection. Everyone is betting that Kingfisher will reach the summit first, since more than half the group were canoeists, Ruizhi among them.

Day 9 - Start the ascent of Mt Kinabalu, which is to be done in two phases, the first would be to climb 6km up to a checkpoint 11000 feet above sea level, stay there till 2 in the morning, climb the rest of the way to the top to catch the sunrise, climb back down to the checkpoint, then climb back to the bottom. Way up was torture, with leg cramps and an even heavier backpack.

Day 10 - We start out to the top in subzero temperature, and with even more people down with AMS. Kingfisher has the most casualties, with 4 people unable to even start climbing. Interestingly, all 4 were canoeists. Climbing the sheer rock faces in the middle of the night is nothing short of exciting, as well as downright scary. Clung on to the support ropes like my life depended on them as the cold wind lashed at us, and it did. The mountain guides that were tasked with looking after us just walked around like they were going around for a stroll at places where I magnetically attached myself to the rocks. My head was pounding, and I felt like collapsing many times, but eventually with help from Luke and Khai Sam I crawled to the top. I blacked at out the top (Second time they said I could have gotten killed) after seeing the view. With the temperature around -5 and winds going at around 60km/h, I think they were right... Khai Sam wakes me up after an unspecified amount of time and tells me I should catch up with the rest of my group.

Have no idea how I managed to get down from the summit, much less reach the foot of the mountain, but I did it. In fact, I dashed down the last 3.5km of the hike down. It all happened like this. We had to reach the foot of the mountain by 3 in the afternoon in order to have enough time to go to a nearby town and souvenir shop, but Eugene was going down as slow as he was coming up, after he held up the group for a good 15 minutes since he wasn't done packing. Jin, Sam Koh and Ray, among others, had already gone down with other groups. With Lionel egging Eugene and me to move faster the whole while, I got so fed up I threw the group's policy of slowest guy in front to hell and dashed all the way down, overtaking Ray, Nigel Sing, Ruizhi, Ben Chin and the rest of Kingfisher on my rampage down.(Third time they say I could have gotten killed if I had taken a spill and fallen)

Day 11 - Half the camp pretends to be sick to skip the last activity, rafting. We depart for home at around 6, and I reached home at about 3 in the morning.
------------------------------

Overall, it was an okay camp. Some people were nice, which is amazing, and some people were bad, but I'll try not to hold it too them. It was a tough camp after all. I'll get around to posting the photos of the peak sooner or later.

What The Heck Just Happened?!?!

2007-11-26T04:13:00.000+08:00

Just got back from OB Sabah a couple of hours ago, and believe me, do I appreciate civilization now... Camp was plenty of fun, although my group claims I nearly got killed a few times, as if spending 10 hours sleeping in the rain at 18 Celsius and 3 hours trek from the nearest settlement was going to kill me. Okay, it might not have killed me, but it certainly takes the title of Worst Night Ever from the time I spent an entire night flight from Shanghai back to Singapore with a migraine the whole time.

I'll elaborate more tomorrow, Micro requires that comfortable state of mind we call sleeping...

School's Out!

2007-11-11T00:50:00.000+08:00

School is finally over for the year, after being delayed for two weeks. My biological clock has been refusing to accept that the delay, and I couldn't really be too bothered with doing any of my homework. Life is good... Holidays have begun, OBS Sabah is in a week's time and my new glasses have arrived. Only thing problem here is that I damaged my leg in training.

Started the campaigns for Dark Crusade with Space Marines, so far, the heads of Farseer Taldeer and the Tau Commander serve as rather interesting wall art at the moment, Pavonis mine to use, and Warboss Gorgutz is now trapped between the Demes Northland and the Necron Army.

Random conversation
-------------------------
Sam : Just take a look at Cheng Heng, he's perfect for a Warboss!! He's slow on the uptake, likes to break things, has no table manners whatsoever....

Bryant : You should had seen him have lunch when my mum was around, he was an angel

Sam : Yeah, invite everyone to your house for lunch but me, thats right, leave Samuel out of everything..

Micro : There was salad Sam. Salad. Fresh plant matter.

Sam : Thats just cruel man, how could you make Cheng Heng eat salad!! How can you make anyone eat salad!
------------------------

To the one whose struggle still continues, I wish you the best of luck, and may the Tome of Adeptus Mathematica aid you in your battle, and a gentle reminder that if you are reading this before two days past today, you should be back reading the Tome and absorbing all it can teach you.

Almost there!!!

2007-11-06T00:36:00.000+08:00

Three days left till our holidays begin. The days have become so long... No, must look on bright side, most of the days are shorter than normal.. And no Chinese.. Anyway, my Dark Crusade career looks grim. The matches I played with Bryant were dismal at best. We lost twice to 2 standard enemies, and only beat one hard one because the silly A.I left all its forces away from its base after their Guardsmen decimated my Space Marines, and stayed there, so it wasn't hard overrunning their base with my Dreadnoughts soaking up the damage while my remaining Marine squads and Bryant's T'au fired from behind. Deepstriking is a lot of fun, dropping pod after pod of Dreadnoughts into someone's base!!

I must note though, I am becoming rather concerned with the RuneScape economy. (Laymen, bear with me) With the opening of the Great Exchange, stuff becomes alot more convenient to buy and sell, which means it would be far easier to find people selling a certain commodity at a much lower price than the norm. (eg ranarr weeds, sharks) Which would, inevitably, lead to a price plunge in just about everything. Which obviously, cannot be good. Geez, now I know how it feels to be in an economic crisis. I've already have had to lower the prices of my ranarr weeds from 8k to only 7-7.5k, and with the Great Exchange, it will probably exacerbate. I can only hope Tim's prediction that the market will stabilize again will be an accurate one.

Lam shocked the whole class went he stated he was an average human being. Most of us expected him to be a demonic prince or something of the like, you know, the kind who pop out of occult stars that suddenly form on the ground like they do in Doom 3.

I've realized I've been neglecting my writing for quite a while now. I blame the Goh Sin Tub thingy, bloody drained my creativity. Might just consider starting up what I did in Sec 1, writing nutty little adventures for the class. Okay, I admit, I copied that idea from Kevin.... Well, what better way to spend the next three days in school??

Coming To A Close

2007-10-31T15:55:00.000+08:00

The O-Levels have been pushed forward by yet ANOTHER 2 weeks for our year, so in response, the school has extended school for the Sec 3s by two weeks.... Not sure its helping too much, since no one really seems to be paying attention in class these days. Ms Lee can't really be too troubled to teach too much, and so we spend most of history watching old documentaries, English lessons are now spent watching Dead Man Rising, and Mrs Ang doesn't really feel like educating as well, so I spend some of Lit class in the cupboard of 201. Ah the memories.... Well, except for today when Mrs Ang didn't even come to class because she was sick, and we got that weird old maths teacher coming in as a substitute. She left us a 100 word assignment to do in groups of 3, but Bryant and Sam couldn't be bothered to write even such a small amount, so we spent the lesson watching Sam argue with Jem who was who's "ho", hear how Bryant's sister dislocated his arm when he was 10 and discuss Dark Crusade, and how Shen Shin has an unnaturally strong desire to see me and Jem play DC against each other. Its like watching a Tech Priest fight with a Gretchin since we're both noobs at it.

Problem was, we hadn't realized that she was actually going to collect the work until she refused to let us go home till we had. Cursing under our breath, the three of us churn, or spat, out a 100+ word, well, thing onto the paper before we could leave. Thank goodness she didn't read it, though Mrs Ang probably will, and chew us out for talking about how ultimate chaos benefits society.

I played a couple of Dark Crusade matches with Bryant after getting back. Since we don't live and breathe DC like some people *cough* Shen Shin *cough*, we just play against AI's together to bring our win rate up, which I really, really need to do if I don't want other people to start kicking me out of games. While we owned the first two Standard enemies (Ork and Necrons against my Space Marines and his Eldar), we lost within ten minutes to the other two (Space Marines against my Chaos and his Tau).....

Micro Lives!!!

2007-10-23T16:50:00.001+08:00

Yes, I am back home, in civilization, alive from A.C.E camp. Admittedly though, it was less tough since I was a leader there, which allows me to stone during most activities, cut the food line, stay up all night etc etc...

Day 1
-------
Despite getting up late, I still managed to make it to school in time to catch the bus. Such a pity... Anyway, I find out I'm in charge of Force S.O.Z along with Jared and Azriel, and since the teachers were probably too lazy to jumble up all the classes, it consisted entirely of 212 students, which happened to contain the sons of some very influential people in the school, namely the vice principal. Bus board at Singapore Customs spelled out "F**K" in nice capital letters for all the public to see. Rest of the trip was uneventful. We arrive at the campsite at around 11, set up and repair tents damaged by inconsiderate bastards from Camp 1 and clear the rubbish left behind by them as well. I stay in one tent along with Khai Sam, Azriel, Jia Lei and Joon Kiat. A.C.E camp involves 6 activities

-Rafting
-Kayaking
-Mountain Climbing
-Rappelling
-Jungle Survival
-Orienteering

Two are carried out on full days, and one is carried out on half days like the first and last day. We drew the worst and most exhausting of the lot, which is mountain climbing. Mr. Arul designated me to the back of the group to make sure no one gets left behind. With the pretty female instructor. Everyone struggles up the mountain in the afternoon heat, and even the instructor looked worse for wear. Three boys, the school counseller and the instructor had to be left behind half way up the mountain since they couldn't make it up. Discovered the local fauna is not very friendly when I broke open a termite tunnel when grabbing a tree for a handhold. Finally make it 20 minutes after everyone else after lagging behind to look after the slow ones, and also because I took some time to interact with my charges. South Africa won the Rugby World Cup 15-6 when they won the final against defending champions England in a tryless

Day 2
------
Grateful it didn't rain on the previous night, we go rappelling first. Already an easy activity, made even more so because the leaders have practically nothing to do. Unable to repeat my feat of not taking a dump for 4 days like last year, I am forced to go today due to dubious, but still palatable food served at the camp. In between activities, I was so bored that I slept outside the tents in the noon sun.

Next up was kayaking. Expecting to paddle around lazily with my fellow A.C.E leaders, I was ordered by the same instructor as yesterday to go with one guy was short of a partner since the force had an odd number of people (27) and no one would take him since he was so unpopular (On interaction with the rest of the group, I found out he was a real mama's boy) in the two man kayaks. Halfway through, exhausted and not alert, the son of the English HOD accidentally collided with my own kayak, and since we just happened to be off balance at the time, the force of the impact was enough to knock us over and capsize the boat. My first instinct was to grab my leaders hat, which was one reason I was even at the bloody camp. My second was to flip over the kayak, which turned out to be so full of water already that it was sinking instead of floating, and was far too heavy to float. After bobbing around, Mr. Nathan had us grab hold of another kayak, and we got towed around till the activity was over. It certainly beat doing all that rowing myself. Mr. Nathan takes a picture of me after I capsized as a reminder that I deserve my title of blur blob of the rugby team, and promises to put it on his website. Azriel is so preoccupied with John Foo's Rubik cube he almost forgets dinner and skipped supper all together, preferring to stay in the tent to try and solve the cube while swearing at it. South Africa won the Rugby World Cup 15-6 against defending champions England in a try-less match.

Had a little debate with Mr. Ghazali today

Micro : Mr. G, I had no idea you were here!

Mr. G : What, I was always here.

Micro : But I never see you around.

Mr. G : You don't see God around do you?? But He's around right??

Micro : True, but you can't make sure that it won't rain tonight

Mr. G : Who says I can't?? I just don't feel like it.

Micro : Okay...

Mr. G : This is just turning into a philosophical debate.

Day 3
------
The day began with Khai Sam's high pitched voice telling me to get up. When I realized it was only 4 in the morning, my first thought was "Screw you, bloody tree rodent". My second thought was "Why the **** is the tent sagging downward??" It was raining so hard that the tent was in very real danger of collapsing from the weight of the water. Everyone in the tent gets up to help prop the tent up and prevent the water collecting there again. Jia Lei has the wild idea of going to fix the tent from the outside, which is drowned out by a chorus of swear words and the pounding of the rain. All went back to sleep at 5 when the rain lightened a bit.

Orienteering involves finding your way to a certain checkpoint via map reading and clues like the Amazing Race, and was pretty easy for me as well, as I merely had to sit at one checkpoint with the A.C.E leader in charge of the activity. While waiting for a group to arrive, we chatted a bit and laughed at the groups who thought the stamp they were supposed to be finding for the activity was on top of the nearby water towers. Our checkpoint required for the people in the group to link together to form an imaginary creature with only a certain number of limbs on the floor (For example, 3 legs and 2 hands), then walk in the that formation for a short distance while making a common sound. Out of the three groups who were supposed to arrive, only 2 showed up, and the first didn't appear for a good amount of time. Still, they took only 2 minutes to do the task, while the second group took 20.

Jungle Survival was slack for the leaders as all we had to do start a fire for the instructor (Sadly, not the pretty female one, but the male one with a very bad habit of throwing lighted firecrackers at the floor) to keep the mosquitoes away, and unlike the Sec 2s, we were given a lighter. Helped them finish the food they prepared in their mess tins but didn't dare to eat(Sardines mixed with rice, the sardine sauce from the can and half cooked eggs is good eating), as well as half a stock cube that was left over. My night duty was tonight from 1 to 3. Amazingly, I looked forward to this, as all the leaders on night duty report the teachers and instructors bringing back food like Ramly Burgers and murtabak for them.

They showed a slide show of all the photos taken during the camp. My photo was there as well, but the screen quality was supposedly so bad Miles remarked that Oliver "looked Asian". (He's half Australian and English with blond hair)

On my night, it was a fish Mr. Nathan caught himself. 2 actually. While they weren't wonderful, Mr. Soo's magic show was worth the while. Caught some of my rugby juniors (Oliver, Arjun and so on) out of their tents looking at the stars at 2 in the morning. The night sky was so beautiful, the poet in me overpowered the leader in me, and I let them stay up. Though I could bluff Jared by saying they were leaders too, Loy recognized the whole lot of them as our juniors, and promptly sent them all back to their tents. During duty, as I was flipping through the sports section in the newspapers brought from Singapore, I happened to flip to the report on the Liverpool derby when Luu, one of the two the Vietnamese scholar along on the trip as leaders, asked to see the Premier League table. Surprised that scholars did anything else aside from study, let alone watch soccer, I asked him which team he supported. Turned out to be a fellow Man U fan, which didn't go down well with Mr. Arul. (He's a Spurs supporter) Decided to sleep in front of the teachers hut since it had began to rain, I didn't feel like going through a repeat of last night.

Day 4
------
Yet another disastrous morning.

Marvin : Cheng Heng, get out of your sleeping bag very slowly

Micro : What for??

Marvin : Take a look at your bag

The bloody thing was covered with flying ants. Not the small kind you find in Singapore, but the ones the size of your thumb. Freaking out, I jumped and it scattered a few of them. After trying to spray them with my insect repellent, which was no use, I had plucked up the courage to wave the bag to get rid of the remaining ants.

The final activity, rafting, is the bane of the camp. Conducted in the puddle/pond that has water that looks like slightly less viscous mud, the campers must cross it in a raft they build themselves out of barrels and rope lashings, which capsize and sink very often, sending the campers into the muddy slop. If one is lucky enough not to capsize, fear not, as they'll force everyone to cross the water by pulling yourself through the mud/water with a rope tied between 2 trees on either side of the bank. To top it all off, the instructor in charge was nicknamed Mr. Hornet.

The cry of "HORNET!!" is a sign to all campers to adopt the Hornet position, a protective posture where you lie face down in the ground and cover your neck, which will minimalize the number of stings you get should a hornet swarm appear, though I'd rather take my chances running for the nearest water, although the instructors have warped it to become a punishment, making campers do it on hard gravel roads and muddy patches or wherever they happen to be standing, so you can guess how Mr. Hornet got his name. We broke a record, with 22 hornets in a single session.

But of course, I was an A.C.E leader, and exempted from punishments and actually doing the activity, since force commanders are only supposed to follow the force, not do all the activities with them. So me and Jared sat on a couple of barrels and laughed to ourselves while they were horneted time and again, and Azriel and Luohan got to go out in the rescue kayak, from which they were given the order to splash as much mudwater on them and slow the force's progress down as much as possible, and were allowed ram their raft with their kayak, and anything was okay, short of actually boarding their raft to enter melee combat and bonk them on the heads with the paddles. They were also asked to rescue people who had fallen into the water as a side order. Sadly, since they wanted to save time on the last day, the instructor had already finished up with most of the raft for them, so it was too well made to capsize.

After cleaning out and un-pitching the tents, we were all given a Ramly burger and piled onto the coach and FINALLY sent back to civilization in air conditioned comfort.

The Great Outdoors.... Can we go home now??

2007-10-16T17:14:00.000+08:00

Cramming all the benefits of modern civilization as fast as I can for the next few days, since on Friday, the school will pack me off to be and ACE leader in the wilderness of Kluang. My own experience as a camper there last year wasn't exactly pleasant. On the first night, some idiot slashed a couple of tents, which lead to everyone being dragged up to the big hill where the teachers stayed with a roof over their heads, and being forced to squat for an hour or so while the teachers and camp facilitators interrogated suspects one by one. We all went to back to our tents at around 2. Then blasted awake at 6 for a PT run. Keep in mind, this is the first night, so imagine the rest of the four day camp. Some cracked of course, like normally mild-mannered Tim giving me the finger when I asked him how the rafting went.

So why the heck did I volunteer to go back for round 2?? Well, I didn't, its a package deal if I want to go to OBS Sabah. At least this time, I go as a leader. However, it still doesn't make up for some rather significant losses when I'm away from Friday to Monday.

1. I miss the Rugby World Cup Final (NOOO!!!!)
2. I miss the street party this Saturday (NOOO!!)
3. I don't get to go on flag day with the fencers and do what fencers do on flag day

Sigh.....

I have yet to beat any opponent on Dark Crusade on Standard Level, and almost got killed twice while Barrowing with Gerald. It is a dark day, though school was spent throwing numerous objects at each other since there were no real classes.

And the guns fall silent....

2007-10-10T01:28:00.000+08:00

Its over. Hour, after hour, after hour of training and practice was put to the test over the last few weeks. Our classroom turned into a battleground, one on which we fought with the proverbial and literal pen instead of the sword (Or if preferred, Spartan Laser), all fighting for the same cause. For two weeks, pens did battle with the dreaded exam papers, the annoying piece of **** who was whistling the Gundam Seed Destiny intro during one exam, and that open window which my English paper fell out of. All re-entered the classroom the classroom today and on Thursday at sunrise (except for Zhongxi, who sauntered in at 0930 today), to hear that final affirming or condemning verdict. Some have triumphed, some have fallen, all our fates final, and none shall be retained. I think. To the triumphant, a job well done. To the fallen, and a certain few more so, I offer you my condolences and a hand to get back on your feet. The fight is finished, you have earned your rest. Most anyway.

Okay, I know that was melodramatic, but I just felt it was sort of right in a way. I won't go too much into detail about my marks because of certain seeing (yes, seeing) circumstances. Just know that I did pretty good. At 13 for L1R5, such a mark would get me maybe, second or third in my class, but 20 or 30 in others. My hand and back are still sore from my celebratory bicycle kick on the mean, evil, and unfortunately solid class floor, my legs are shell shocked from my first training in months, and Dark Crusade won't run on my laptop, but other than that I'm feeling right chipper, having once again shown, da Slummer is much more intelligent than he looks. 4+2+1+1+2+3

I headed for my first rugby training in months in apprehension. I saw the danger signs (Even our ra-ra enthu tackler was doing a bunk), but I'm not exactly sure why I went. Didn't turn out to be so bad though, given that at last, we have been handed the power to lord it over the Sec 1's and 2's, and order then them on suicide P.T sessions while we waved and smiled while checking the stop watch and telling them they had 15 seconds to finish their current round before the next one started. To settle my conscience, I ran the 2.4 with them, but thats about it. When Loy needed to leave, lap timing and the rest of the P.T was left to me. Being more approachable than our captain in the wings, my juniors had a really endearing conversation with my in the three minutes they had to recuperate before the next torture segme... I mean training stage.

Ollie : Micro??

Micro : Yes??

Ollie : Sprints aren't compulsory for the Sec 2's right??

Micro : True, unless I didn't feel like it and ordered you back on the track.

Ollie : But you wouldn't do that right?? I mean, you're a nice guy man, you're Micro!

Micro : Maybe I am. That is a rather large quantity of 100 plus you are holding.

Ollie : So you won't force us to sprint??

Micro : I'll see....

Man, authority is fun!! All the Sec 3's are relishing our small period of time as rulers of the roost. Bryant and Sam lead fencing P.T if it ever happens, and Gerard allows for a certain someone to skip it as a birthday present in the even that it does, on one end of the track Damien S is strutting around in all his glory as parade master, on another Adam is twirling his baton while screwing his juniors over, and the both of them blocking the running path of my juniors with their own underlings.

Resident Evil : Extinction has come out. Admittedly, neither of the two prequels have stuck to the game storyline. I mean, the U.B.C.S and Carlos Oliveria are supposed to be noobs, not an actual special forces unit or a seasoned combat veteran. But I shall still find a way to watch it anyway. A friend like FL will come in useful right about now, maybe I should try to get her to come with me, given certain limitations on it.......

Amniotic Fluid Leaks Onto the Sidewalk....

2007-09-30T01:59:00.000+08:00

Well well well, it appears the Blessings Clan have found my blog. Three guesses how. A blog is for divulging personal thoughts and feelings, and so it shall. Since Demongirl is ever so captivated by what I have to say about her, I shall continue.

You fit into the social pariah roles that Sue Townsend creates in quite a few of her books, Marigold Flowers of Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction for one, and the illegitimate child of Camilla and Prince Charles of Queen Camilla. Really, you'd be surprised at the number of people who don't really pay attention to you. But of course, there are others who don't want the peace disturbed, so I shall not crack your little shell of isolation, and dance in delight as the amniotic fluid flows out onto the pavement and watch that helpless form shrivel up in the harsh sun we call reality.

Anyway, while you ponder my last paragraph, I shall move on to other, more important events in the world. Like the protests in Myanmar. The situation has obviously deteriorated , and I heard that a monk and some peaceful protesters have been killed by the junta. Now, Internet access from Myanmar is impossible, and according to the junta government, it is down for maintenance. If by "maintenance" they mean shutting down one of the few ways the foreign reporters and locals can get the true story out of Burma. The world can only hope we don't have another Bloody Sunday on our hands tomorrow, the junta have done it before. I doubt sanctions will really work against the military government, since most of their revenue comes from making cocaine from all their opium poppies anyway.

On a lighter note, I'm looking at a very good chance of an A1 for A Maths. Despite not finishing the proving question, and drawing one graph vertically instead of horizontally, the rest were routine. 70 out of 80 is a reality, but I'll leave a gap of 5 marks, I tend to get careless, and hate false hope. Social Studies, well, never mind. I forgot the last point of both essays, but the Section A was easy enough.

What David Dein would call "Irreconcilable Differences"

2007-09-26T15:03:00.000+08:00

Jose Mourinho calls it "Mutual Consent". I too have quit like the self dubbed "Special One" from my clan, in probably the same fashion he did. Does anyone honestly believe Mourinho quit quietly?? I'd bet against that, furniture was probably flung around. His departure from Stamford Bridge is a reason to celebrate, since before him, Chelsea were nothing, and probably after him, they'll be nothing as well. Of course, now there will be no one to throw tantrums on the sidelines, break laptop screens, bypass UEFA match bans and sneak more dogs past immigrations.

I too dislodged myself from my clan in a similar fashion. I joined only because of Tim, and my first impressions of them weren't very good already. So finally, I decided I would exit, but while I was at it, spit out all that I thought was just dumb about it. I left a few constructive comments, all written on grenades. Tim thinks my fiery thread was unnecessary, but hey, whats going to happen?? Even if they lived near me, am I supposed to be scared of a bunch of nerds?? I could probably give the more muscular 18 year-old ones in real life a good run for their money.

Reasons why I left
---------------------
1. Their PKing (Player Killing) strategies as horrible, as well as the Pkers themselves. On my first trip with them, some guy wore metal armour to go maging. For the laymen, thats like wearing a fur coat to go swimming. And they let some stranger join the clan group. Judging by his stats, he could have killed a good number of people if he decided to backstab. Turned out he was a spy for another clan. They spend much of the trip camping at a deserted spot for an hour doing nothing, then getting decimated by a gang of level 100's in less than a minute.

2. Some of their members are real douche bags. One of them, Demongirl, is "socially deprived". Quoted from Timothy. Coming from a guy who exists only to play RuneScape and study, that gives a good idea of how sad she is. For months, she had a crush on Timothy, without ever seeing his face, then cried and whined when she found out he removed her from his friends list because she's such an annoying whore. She skips school to play RuneScape (Oh Sweet Mother Of Christ...), and has that Ryan Singh-ish ability of trying to get attention when in fact everyone just thinks you're an annoying bastard. Judging by the photo she posted, she looked like the girl in Hairspray, but not that fat. Too many jerks for me to list, and the laymen wouldn't understand it anyway.

3. Few people actually took the clan seriously. Plenty of noobs just join and never appear again.

4. They don't enforce clan rules well. The leader, Tiz, is a real life friend to Tim and a nice guy, but you see, thats the problem, he's too nice. He acts like he's running the UN, not a PKing clan.

-------------------------------------

And what's this?? I hear that some members share my views, though they didn't post it. Of course, they told me in private, and I'm not going to say. I could have toppled the entire social structure and torn the clan apart with certain secret information not known to all, but out of respect to Tim and Tiz, I will not flay the clan apart.

Anyway, its a good thing I quit, exams have finally arrived. I was pretty worried when I woke up with a sore throat, but I still got through the English paper. Wasn't exactly smooth sailing, but it was okay. I hope the teachers don't test out what I wrote in my essay though, I said the cineplex at the HDB hub was teeming with patrons, but in actual fact, its pretty deserted. Then again, this is a theory exam, and since all my reasons prove that theoretically business should be good, I think I'm safe. The campaign has not gotten off to a good start, but don't forget, United's worst start under Sir Alex resulted in them winning the Treble, a feat unrepeated by any club in the world.

I R A Neanderthal

2007-09-24T22:53:00.000+08:00

Despite the final exams being close enough to touch, I volunteered to compile a portfolio for the Goh Sin Tub writing competition. Its an internal competition to honour the late short story writer and alumni, giving out awards to budding writers in the school. From what I heard, the response was not good this year, so, probably in desperation, Mrs. Ang had me compile a portfolio to send in too. Mostly I just put all sorts of old work in, and passed an official looking expository I wrote on my own as homework done last year, and threw in a few personal pieces. I wrote the personal reflection and described myself as a "Neanderthalic eccentric eating machine of a madman". All the traits that good Slummers have!

Since there aren't too many participants, and since my Commonwealth Essay won a Commended, the odds that I'll get something out of all this is pretty good. I spent the first 20 minutes of Lit class hiding under the little alcoves in the room. It reminds me ever so much of that little closet I used to stuff myself into in 202. Until someone threw Zach's diarrhea stained shorts in there. Even Slummer must draw the line somewhere. Eventually, I decided to pop out, dying to see the shocked look on Mrs Ang's face on my sudden appearance at my seat. She apparently didn't notice.

With the FYE drawing closer, I must make preparations for my campaign. Got 4 A1s to sustain in both maths and sciences, and hopefully grab one more in English.

Here is where I leave fantasy, yesterday and tomorrow for now, and step back into the reality of today

2007-09-15T00:57:00.000+08:00

Finally, I am back in my own home, with technology. The novelty of staying with my grandparents and being sent to school in a cab wore off in about two days. I sneaked back home a few times to live in the 21 century. Physics and Chem SPA went okay, though I hope they really deduct just one mark for inaccuracy of your results.

Anyway, another brilliant idea from the Arts Department had all the even numbered classes being packed off to the Esplanade to immerse us in the world of arts by sending us to some funny theatrical performance. Okay, lets examine this right. Its after school, its a topic which a good majority of the school population, or all of it I dare say, couldn't give a crap about, and it lasts till 6. If we weren't forced to go, I doubt anyone would have. But someone high up in admin felt that this might actually be a good idea to expose our boys to the arts!! As Damien (Botak) said "I'd rather have studied." Please, does anyone in our school actually want to go for such a career?? Personally, I feel there's a big difference between movies and the theatre. Sure, they both about stories and having a good time, but most movie directors in Hollywood come up with stuff that the ordinary man can understand. But how the hell are we supposed to appreciate some guy hopping on one foot around a box with some weird ass costume that looks like it came from the Twilight Zone??

90% would vote "WTF?", while the other 10% won't even bother to vote. Yes, I hate a good portion of art. Especially abstract and surrealism. If that canvas full of haphazardly thrown paint can be a show piece, the guys who spray graffiti at the void decks are the new Van Gogh's. Like music, art was better in the old days. Who doesn't enjoy looking at Van Gogh's painting of a field of sunflowers??

Right, I'll stop spamming the art world here, and get on with the trip. I got a few photos.

This is Kevin being crazy

This is Bryant simply oozing enthusiasm about this field trip

A typical scene on any school bus

\
A little smaller than what we expected

After a bag check I could have sneaked a few grenades through, we finally settled into the theatre. Whole thing was called forum acting or something of the like, and the audience is supposed to come up with suggestions to advert tragedy. And we kept getting showed up by the other school that was there.

After ending that "lovely" episode we were led around the Esplanade by a guy named Raven. He blew at us halfway, something about "I talk, you listen, school uniform, honour, da da da." Idealism is for the naive. Even Mr. Tung didn't chew us out, so I guess we were at least decently behaved. Though, I'd be angry, emo and lash out at life if my parents named me Raven. Just to spite him, I tried to take a photo of the Concert Hall when he said no photography. Too bad Ms Yam was watching, so I couldn't line up a good shot. Hey, I saw at least 2 camera flashes okay??

And there's Damien's testimonial. Once all that was over, I was too impatient to get to the Subway, and was hungry enough to eat Khai Sam, but then I remembered he ran on nuclear power. Although we initially dragged Ryn and Khai Sam along, they suddenly remembered they were out of money, so we let them off. I swear, there are few things on Earth that are better than a foot long Subway Melt.......

If only Sam was there... But his dental appointment tragically happened to be at the exact same time as field trip, so to make sure he didn't miss out, I filled in a survey form, and wrote his name on it 8 ).

No fatalities

2007-09-02T13:58:00.000+08:00

The guys have returned from OBS Singapore with no casualties. Yes, even Timothy survived the ordeal, which means it can't have been that bad. Of course, Bryant returned to civilization and discovered that the resulting soap suds from his first bath in 5 days were "fecking gray".

The holidays have begun once again (YAY!!!). Unfortunately this time, its only for one week, and from there on its a two week dash before the final year exams, so its more of a break really. With any luck, I'll be able to retain this year's Term 3's academic form and finish off the year on a high note for the first time in a long while.

Still, with my parents out of the country and leaving me, once again, with free reign over the place for the next week, I'll make the most out of it. Hopefully I'll remember to do all that holiday homework and not forget about it, crash in the FYE and curse myself a month or so from now.

Should be especially free, since the Vice Principal called for an immediate CCA stand down, so they have no reason to drag us down to training during the holidays. I actually kind of miss training now. No more running head along into quivering juniors with only a pad of sponge protecting them and all that. Don't miss the mud though, thats for sure. I stopped going for C division training since all the senior B guys down around there is chuck a few balls at each other. Not exactly entertaining, or beneficial for that matter.

Anyway, I felt it was rather foolish of me not to write a short intro for Macon and Drool, and that simply throwing them in was a bad idea, so I've composed a small interview with them.

----------------------------
Macon and Drool interview
----------------------------

Macon : Hi there!! Say hello to the nice people in the real world Drool!!

Drool : Woof??

Macon : He's a little slow on the uptake, don't mind him. Anyway, since our creator is a messy, chaotic person who wanders around in his own world half the time Drool and I have had to do this interview ourselves.

Interviewer : So, tell us about yourself and this whole story Macon

Macon : The name's Macon Frigs, and you all know about the liberation and the war and all. We were actually on the back burner of our creator's mind for quite awhile, but since he's a lazy asshole as well as a messy one, we didn't get created till now. Hopefully, this storyline won't end up a mess of cheesy shorts, but the creator has his moments of genius at times like Slummers, so hopefully that won't happen. There's not much to say about me, since the story has progressed a grand total of one short, aside from the fact that I have very little social awareness at times. [Drool attempts to ingest a nearby chair]

Interviewer : Drool's rather....Erm... Hungry...

Macon : Yeah, thats Drool for you. Monstrosities eat anything like us, so they make great pets and companions, despite the fact they were originally designed as ferocious and near indestructible biological weapons to tear enemy soldiers apart and eat them limb by limb. [Takes out a bottle of mayo with strange stuff inside it and offers it to the interviewer] Want some?? The sawdust gives it a really nice crunchy feel.

Interviewer : No thanks... Are you sure Drool is safe to be around?? [By now Drool
has finished ingesting the chair and is starting on a potted plant]

Macon : Yeah, Drool's pretty tame for a Monstrosity. The can form a few words, but they bark and woof like normal dogs half the time.

Drool : Rargth!! Regetables!! [Spits out the plant]

Macon : Well, as long as you aren't carrying any cheese on you, they love cheese

Interviewer : You mean like this cheddar cheese I picked up just now??

Drool : Chrezee!!! [Leaps at Interviewer]

Interviewer : AH!!! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!!!

Macon : Bad Drool, you don't eat the nice interviewer!! Spit him out now!! You stupid glob of living mayo, spit him out this instan.....erp!! What going on now?? Drool, what you eating?? [Macon has apparently lapsed back into retard mode]

Interviewer : ARGH!!! [Struggles to get out but to no avail]

(End of interview)
-----------------------

Kick back and relax!

2007-08-30T15:47:00.001+08:00

I now sit in the comfort of my room while the rain beats down heavily outside, with my laptop and charger in front of me. While most of my classmates, in fact most of the Sec 3s, are suffering in waterlogged tents in soggy clothes, with little or no sleep for the past 3 days. They couldn't have scheduled OBS Singapore at a worse time. For the last 3 days since Monday, rain has fallen from the heavens without fail. I'm not sure whether I should be laughing or pitying the poor guys in Ubin as I sit in civilization.

For the infirm and those going to OBS Sabah, we were still required to go to school. Quite frankly I feel they should have just made it a holiday for us, since they complained so much about how troublesome it was to arrange extra lessons for those staying behind. Most of the teachers didn't really feel like giving real lessons, and we either did worksheets or watched something in the Lecture Theatre. So far, we've seen Bend It Like Beckham and In the Name of the Father.

The last four days have been spent poking Wayne and the other "Unfit" people who were exempted from OBS. All the teachers are going on and on about the final year, as well as slagging all "Unfit" people and their lousy attitude toward blah blah blah...

A wonderful end to a wonderful term. It marks my best ever academic performance in SJI. With 4A1s, all Maths and Science, and third in class with an average of 69.5 and an L1R5 of 12, this has been a terrific term. It now closes off with a quiet last four days, and my parents departing to Chicago soon during the holidays!! What more could a teen ask for!?!?!

Left behind...........

2007-08-25T18:30:00.000+08:00

I was supposed to join Bryant and Sam in LANing our lives away this morning, but perhaps I overslept (I think 10am is reasonable for a non-school day), or they happened to forget about me, I don't know. Guys, if you did this on purpose, I will wait at the jetty at 0730 on Monday, and laugh many evil laughs as you are herded like lambs to the slaughter on to boats to be shipped to OBS Singapore, and then, wait for you at the jetty on Friday, and laugh even more evil laughs as you step off exhausted, mentally drained, and smelling worse than me for once. Lol.

Taking scant comfort in the fact that now I wouldn't have to pay $2 an hour to be a free frag at Quake 4 and that I wouldn't have to rush back for tuition, I pondered what to do with all that time now that I finished the Legends Quest. In the end, I decided to work on the Slummer storyline.

It shall start and revolve around a new SAL recruit named Macon Frigs, a civilian boy of 18 drafted into the SAL who spends more time than normal in stupid mode, along with his over-playful pet Monstrosity, Drool. Posted to a unit made up of other Slummer-Monstrosity duos, he arrives at Kraft Base to begin training for the mobilization to free humanity.

----------------------------------
Macon and Drool, Page 1
----------------------------------
(Scene shows a busy military camp)

Sarge: Listen up you spineless bunch of scumwads!!! For the next three weeks, you will be the lowest form of life in the ****ing order of nature! You will have no say, no rights, and no authority!!

Macon: Does the canteen serve mayonnaise pancakes??

Sarge: NO RECRUIT, THE ****ING CANTEEN WILL NOT SERVE MAYONNAISE PANCAKES!!! IF YOU WANT YOUR SISSY MAYONNAISE PANCAKES WITH A SIDE SERVING OF WUSSINESS, WHY NOT YOU RUN HOME TO YOUR MAMA AND GET HER TO MAKE THEM!!!

[Drool cringes from the shouting]

Macon: There there Drool, the bad man will be gone soon....

Sarge: YOUR MONSTROSITY IS THE SHAME OF ALL MONSTROSITIES!!! INSTEAD OF BEING WAR IN A GLOB OF MAYONNAISE, IT IS A THUMB SUCKING, MUMMY HUGGING PIECE OF SHIT LIKE YOU!!!
[Turns to rest of the recruits] NOW GET YOUR SORRY ASSES TO THE FIRING RANGE!!

-------------------------------------------------------------
(Firing range)
Sarge: Now, which of you permatards can tell me what this is!

Random recruit: Its a jar of mayo??

Sarge: You must be a godamned genius to give me that answer recruit!! You hear me recruit?? You are a genius!! You must have an IQ of 160 to give me that answer. You are frigging gifted!!!

Random Recruit: Thank you Sergeant!!

Sarge: I was joking. WRONG!! DROP AND GIVE ME 30!!

Random Recruit: Its food?

Sarge: WRONG, 30!!! MAMA'S BOY, WHAT IS IT!!

Macon: Erm, SAL property??

Sarge: STILL WRONG, ALSO 30!!! Listen up good scumwads, this is not just a jar of mayonnaise, it is a symbol of FREEDOM!! It epitomizes JUSTICE!! It is the very foundation that the Slummer Republic was built on! It is the lifeblood of our people! And now, it is being denied from the surface world!! [Wipes tear from eye] Recruits, it represents our fight to be a free people, away from tyranny!!

Macon: [Whispered] Like yours??

Sarge: I HEARD THAT MAMA'S BOY, ANOTHER 50!!

(Proceeds when all are done)

Sarge: Now, this is a new prototype fragmentation grenade. Its shape allows your average Slummer to throw, punt, and even kick it at the enemy a la rugby style. Mama's boy, kick this grenade as far as you can into the range [Kicks grenade, and Drool runs after it]

Macon: No, bad Drool!! We no play fetch now!! [Drool fetches it anyway]

Drool: Wruff!! [Places grenade proudly in front of Macon]

Macon: WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!![Cringes as he awaits impending doom]

(A minute passes by with no explosion)

Sarge: Had that been live, you'd be dead. NOW GET ON YOUR FEET RECRUIT! THAT WAS A DUD!! DO YOU REALLY THINK I'D TRUST YOU NINNIES WITH REAL GRENADES??

Macon: Hehehe.....[Laughs sheepishly]

Sarge: Its been a long day indoctrinating you noobs into the SAL. Now, everyone to your bunks.

(Recruits shuffle off)

Sarge: Except you mama's boy. Because of your abysmally crappy performance, you get have to get some more practice. [Taunting tone] So now, I'm letting you stay up past your bedtime so you can have time to think about how to control your Monstrosity properly on guard duty.

(Walks off with a chuckle)

Macon: Its all your fault Drool.

Drool: Woof??
----------------------------------

Yes, I know its bad, but all these tales need to simmer a bit before they get good.

What a Wonderful Week

2007-08-20T19:45:00.000+08:00

I'm telling you, this week is terrific. I stand with 4A1s to my record, having found out I got A1s for both Phyiscs and Chemistry as well, second only to Kevin. Lit was not a ground zero disaster, after Mrs. Ang moderated everyone's papers, allowing me to get a B4, Bryant an A1, and Sam an A2. Can't really complain when 65% of the class failed initially. With an average of 78.1 at the moment, I have finally achieved some real academic success in SJI in the three arduous years I've been here. I could have tied with Kevin for top in Chem. For one question, the correct answer for the pH was 13. I initially wrote 13, but felt it was an unlucky number, so I changed it to 12, which was wrong. Still, Then again, destiny has given me so much already, I've beaten people like Andrew and Chris K at maths and science, and it would be greedy of me to ask for more. I just hope History and Chinese don't drag my average down too much....

This term is one of many opposites. While more hardworking and better students like Kee Hao failed to fire in Chemistry, people like Jialei, a true epitome of slack and a wonderful specimen of a DotA addict, gets 33 out of 40. While I am still half a mark higher and escape the shame of being beaten by the one who lives and breathes DotA but isn't that good anyway, I'm just puzzled at how he managed.... Adhitya claimed at the recess queue that his secret to doing well was watching porn the night before. I want to believe the contrary to be true, and hope that he does try that again, and hopefully, wanks all his brains out hours before the test. Twisted bastard....

Dad is also in Melbourne, so that leaves me with a lot of free reign after the exams. Also managed to wangle a berth to OBS Sabah, since they overbooked for the Ubin trip. The only taint to this wonderful week is United's tragic loss at the Manchester Derby to City. After a long range effort from City's Brazilian player maker Elano, United squandered chance after chance. With both Rooney and Ronaldo unable to play, United relied on Tevez and Nani to deliver the goods, passing long balls to the wings in an attempt to make full use of Nani's agility. It did not good, and United were sent home 1-0 losers, and five points adrift of Chelsea, who thankfully only managed a draw against Liverpool at the Kop.

While extremely bored today, I suddenly had the urge to draw up a Slummer Army. Urged on by Sam as he found it amusing, I expanded a little on it.

======================================================
Slummer Army of Liberators (SAL)
----------------------------------
Long long in the future, on our very own Earth, fascism somehow managed to seize control of the world stage, and now a government called the Submit and Prosper (SAP) rules the entire planet, making every single decision for the citizens of the world, from what they wore to work to what they ate. All who opposed were thrown into a special "Undesirables" Zone somewhere in Death Valley, after being exposed to nuclear radiation to make them stupid, and hopefully unable to think of a way back.

However, these people became so stupid, they occasionally overshot the absolute stupidity mark, and went back into pure genius, but still spent much of their time being absolute retards. Using their newfound intelligence, this new race, self-dubbed the Slummers, built a small underground city and lived in relative peace, excavating the city by eating away the rock walls, this wondrous ability given to them from the nuclear radiation. Their mutation also gave them a craving and need for mayonnaise at constant intervals, which they slaked with huge stores of surplus mayonnaise from the US army buried after Desert Storm which they found while excavating their city.

In one of their lapses into genius, Slummers discovered that mayonnaisium is actually the 116th element, a magical element which had various strange qualities, and produces tenfold the energy of uranium when combined with MSG, which was also buried in large quantities by the US army after Desert Storm. Using this new mayonnaisium energy, the Slummers managed to create a beautiful cosmopolitan city, resemblant of NYC a hundred years ago, all powered by the giant mayonnaisium reactors towering over their subterranean Utopia. However, with great power comes great responsibility, which Slummers don't have in much quantity, and so, adapted their mayonnaisium technology into weapons of war, from mayonnaisium powered armour and artillery units to Mayo Monstrosities, 15 foot tall horrors made of living mayo encased in armour. Some had become so united with the mayonnaisium they learnt to manipulate it with their minds. Provided they weren't in stupid mode of course.

However, because people were either too dumb or too smart at any one point of time to fight over petty things like who gets elected next, they all lived in peace, and therefore couldn't give a shit about the outside world, preferring to live mayo-filled lives in harmony with their fellow Slummers, the weapons all in hangars, and the Mayo Monstrosities becoming household pets in many Slummer households.

Until the day which they heard mayonnaise had been banned by the SAP because it made people fat. In an outrage, they vowed to free the world above from the tyranny for not being able to choose what to eat, and so emerged from the ground and marched forth with their mayonnaisium arsenal with the noble mission of ridding the world of SAP and give people the freedom to eat as much mayo as they wanted.
=======================================================================

Speeches

2007-08-18T20:23:00.000+08:00

While ordinarily not the most entertaining things to listen to, the class speeches in English, while not always well written, were hilarious, though not for their content at times. Jialei's speech had me laughing and swearing at the same time as he spoke on treating juniors as brothers and with respect, and not underlings. I have not heard a more hypocritical statement in a long while. According to Mark, he enjoys knocking down helpless junior scouts for fun. Of course, if he read this he'd probably protest in is whiny voice that they deserved it, but I'd just tell him to screw himself, as would the rest of the class.

I hadn't been listening properly properly to Mr Chua's instructions (No flaming groups of any sort), and constructed my first speech around how boring and dumb philosophy was. In a panic, I attempted to concoct a whole new speech on the spot, but failed miserably, stuttering in front of the class, until I gave up and stormed back to my seat. Mr Chua was kind enough to not mark my failed attempt, and allowed me to go up again on Friday. It pays to do your homework on time and well in times like these.

This time I was fully prepared, and spoke on the issue on whether what we are taught, what we see, and what we think is right or wrong. My argument was that thousands of years ago the ancient Greeks were sure everything they had thought about, and they thought the Earth was flat. Bryant gave a stunning defense of gaming, defying Jack Thompson and Hillary Clinton's claim that gaming making the youth violent (ie. Columbine and Doom, Virginia Tech and Counterstrike). Though it went way over the one minute limit and stretched into a six minute long ovation, Mr Chua gave him some very decent marks (18<).

Maths was a resounding success, with all my hours of mugging paying off well, with 33 and 34 out of 40 for A and E respectively. Could have gotten more, but one cannot really complain. Bryant and Sam did well in maths for the first time in a long while, not just passing, but grabbing an A1 each in one maths. One cannot believe that Adhitya got 32 for both, since he spends more time asleep than awake in any given class. Dad thinks that people like that actually study secretly.
=================================================
Micro: Can't believe that he got double A1s for both maths.

Dad : These people might secretly study son. I never went to any lectures in my first year at Melbourne Uni, and I topped the class didn't I??
=================================================

Rumours floated around the Full Lit was horrendous, but Mrs Ang is remarking, according to Ken. Guess both my humanities will be in the dumps this term. Thank goodness Dad can't give a damn about humanities. He thinks they're pretty useless since they don't really open up and career paths, and I have to agree with him. He's done a good job of ingraining engineer mentality into me....

Such a mixture one can feel....

2007-08-15T15:54:00.000+08:00

Well, exams again, and my hours of mugging had prepared me well for both A and E maths. I've lost a few marks on both out of carelessness, if not, I could have made a push at full marks for both. Chemistry went along smoothly, with no confirmed mark losses yet!! Full Lit went okay, but History is a disaster I wish not to speak of. Its really strange when you feel elated but depressed at the same time.

Apparently, more people read this blog than I thought. Matthew found out that I posted his unlucky, but still humiliating, loss to me through George. I shall state again, though grudgingly, I won on luck.

Anyway, in between studying, I happened to see an article on time travel. I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that going back in time to change something is simply not possible by all counts of logic.

1. If you did you back in time to change something, say, kill Hitler and prevent World War 2 and the genocide of 6 million Jews from happening. You somehow went back, and stuck a pistol up his ass and fired till the chambers were empty.

2. So because of your noble act, World War 2 never happens. However, because it never happened, your future self never finds the urge to return in time to stop this atrocity. So he/she never goes back in time to kill Hitler, so World War 2 does happen.

3. See the paradox?? This apparently applies to everything, from going back in time to tell your past self the answers to the test you screwed to hell, or uttering that stupid line to the pretty girl next door. So, I have just proven going back in time is simply not possible, not because the technology isn't there, but because logic prevents you from doing so. Its as possible as getting a dog from crossing an alligator and a shark.

National Day

2007-08-11T01:44:00.000+08:00

Well, most of the time, I look forward to 8th August for the half day, only to be informed 5 hours before the day itself by Kevan that Nathan (curse him) had volunteered the team to help ferry old folks from the Kwang Wai Shou Home to the school for the celebrations. Hoping that it would not eat into too much of the mana of free time, the ferrying was actually pretty okay. Many of the old people were pretty active, needing no help getting on the bus, and most of our job consisted of assisting the wheelchair bound and hoisting their chairs onto the bus. All were really enthusiastic about a chance to go on an outing, albeit a short 4 hour one. Directed by a number of energetic workers at the home and volunteers, we got them ready to go within a quarter of an hour.

This wasn't the first visit to the school for a few of them, having been invited by the school to National Day celebrations in previous years to join the celebrations and give them the chance to leave the home. Encouraged beforehand to strike up a conversation with the elderly, I asked the man seated next to me his age. I guessed he was around 70, and I was surprised when he told me he was in fact, 89. It must have shown on my face as he added "Don't look like it do I" in Chinese. The school traditionally has the youngest and oldest person in the school to cut a birthday cake for Singapore, and the man must have felt gypped that the honour of cutting that cake would not be his, being just one year younger than the oldest in the group who was 90.

Apart from getting the wheelchair bound ones up the stairs, everything else went without a hitch, and no extra time was taken up, though I hung back a little to help serve lunch to them. My fears that Ms. Mara would still bear a grudge against me when she caught me writing after the time ran out in last term's exam were all unfounded.

Matthew invited me to his house after school ended to attempt to teach me how to play DotA properly. Amazingly, I won the first match against him, but it probably was because he intended to use me as a lab rat for his new Mecurial build, which is a terrible hero in one on one combat. He rectified that by routing me 14-0 in the next match. Just after it ended, his dad came home. In panic, he had me hide in his room until his dad was busy, then having his brother open the door for me to get away.

The actually National Day passed quite uneventfully actually as I spent most of the day camping in my room revising/escaping dad to avoid becoming a runner boy as he drilled a few holes for a few things mum wanted put up. Watching the parade live from my grandparent's house in Tiong Bahru, I could hear the fighter jets roar above my head a short two seconds after they were out of sight from the TV cameras. The idea of staging this year's celebrations on a pontoon stage in the Esplanade Bay was a terrific idea. They should this every year from now. Oh wait, there's still the Padang...

Offered to help FL in her speech/expository/whatever concerning crazy fan girls and the millions they spend on them. Somehow, all I could think of was movies and merchandise, nothing else. Finally ground out something, and had it sent to her a few mintues ago, though it might be too late for her to use it.......

Hours Spent Mugging : 18

Philosophy?? You think too much...

2007-08-03T16:06:00.000+08:00

If a tree falls, does it make a sound if no one's there??

Answer : From a scientific point of view, yes, of course it bloody well does!!!

Is this a question?

Answer : If it is, this is the answer

Some questions posed by philosophers, the people who think far more than they should.
=========================================

Anyway, enough of questions that trap the poor fools who ponder over them in a paradoxical roundabout that ends in them becoming either extremely boring or insane, often a combination of both.

To test the claim of HOL's checking students blogs, I decided, faithful to the Brainiac and Mythbuster way, to test that claim out. My first trial involved searching for Aleena's blog (Which I lost the link to), and googled it on with all the key words I could think of. After 20 minutes, a dozen dead ends and one porn site, I could come up with nothing. Even when she gave me the actual address, typing it in on Google didn't come up with the right place idea, so that effectively puts to rest that rumour.

Of course, in the highly unlikely event that they do pick the right website out the 8 billion on the Net at the moment, links will be the downfall of entire networks of student blogs.

Anyway, while still on the topic of blogs, I visited the blog of an old classmate from Evergreen. Apparently, much of the group still keep in contact, unlike me, who silently drifted away from most, if not all. I blame moving house.

Its a dog's life

2007-08-02T23:32:00.000+08:00

A golden retriever ran into school yesterday morning. I'd have gotten a picture of it, but it was too busy chasing after a Sec one playing soccer (or the ball at his feet, can never tell with dogs). Its not the first time its turned up here, the silly dog seems to like the place. It showed up at least 5 times last year during training, coach leading it away on an improvised leash before it slobbered on the Muslim guys. I saw it once trying to enter the library, and rumours are that it was discovered sleeping the brother's quarters once!!

Trigonometry test results came back today. 22 out of 25 was up to expectations and beat Tim's 18, but a clean sweep was possible if I hadn't rushed through the last question. Apparently Zhongxi suffered a similar fate. Mr Tung appeared to have given Kee Hao full marks at one point, but apparently changed his mind after that judging by the scratched cancellation over the 25, now replaced with a 24.

Arrived late for school for the first time this year. Max seemed quite disappointed at my temporary lack of punctuality, guess I have to set a better example for the junior squads. Detention consists of spending two hours after school in a classroom on the third level. However, the prefects didn't come today for some reason, which is worrying since they confiscate our EZ-link cards to make sure we come, and the prefects have got the lot of them. Finally at 4.00, a 333 guy and I got fed up of waiting and went to the HOL office to complain. We caught Mr Sirhan as he was leaving, and he gave us back our cards, possibly in a rush to leave.

Ms Lee mentioned today that the HOL's actually search for student's blogs, and read them!! Mr Sirhan found a guy who used numerous expletives to describe him, but let the guy the slide. Now the class suspects it was a HOL who spammed Raghaav's blog. The real culprit is actually a Sam in our class (Sam Chou, Sam Loh, Khai Sam, I'll leave it to you to guess)

Personally, I think they stumbled upon that blog by chance. There's no way they can possibly track every single students blog, unless they google every single student's name, and even then, not all of us have blogs. Well, if the HOL's are really doing that, they must really have alot of time on their hands don't they?? I mean, its not hard to check for videos on Youtube, but this would certainly take some effort in finding.

Even so, I don't think I'd care if they did come across this, not like I flamed any teacher or something that may seriously tarnish the reputation of the school. Okay, maybe the bit on IVF and that sexuality course (Failure my dear HOLs if you're reading this, a total FAILURE), and the time I said one RME session felt like a conversion session,or how all the good teachers are jumping ship (Uma Chong, Low Jun Meng, Charles Rajan, Roselind Matthews) but they can't really come down hard on a student for stating obvious, and in my case pretty much neutral, truths.

Hours Mugging : 11

Panic

2007-07-30T21:18:00.000+08:00

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
-------------
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.
-----------------------------------------

Funniest thing is, I've never seen a winter with snow.

He blasted my body, I broke his pride.

2007-07-28T01:22:00.000+08:00

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!!

================================================================================

Hours spent mugging : 5

Green Day got owned

2007-07-26T17:37:00.000+08:00

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.....

2007-07-17T18:27:00.000+08:00

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

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

2007-07-10T00:46:00.000+08:00

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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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
==================================================================================
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.