The IT Club June camp was held on Friday and Saturday.
Friday morning was... erm moving computers for the year two guys. We often jokingly say that IT Club has moved computers so often that it's almost becoming a sports CCA. That day we moved more than 10 computers... or even more than 20, but I lost count. We finished moving the computers at about 8:30 a.m..
Then, we went back to the club room for leisure time. Gaming time, to be precise. No worries, because the Exco hustings was to start at 9 a.m., so it didn't eat into the schedlue.
Junqun, the self-appointed Games in-charge, brought lots of PS2 CDs for us... he tried (in vain) to show us that he ws an FF10 pro ... then we went on to less "personal" games (they didn't want Junqun to be the only guy playing with his PS2)... me and Hon Boon (both of whom were Star Wars geeks) tried out the Star Wars Battlefront game... we played the Battle of Geonosis part, and my only remark was "How did the Republic win the battle with such slow walkers?". The Theed battle (taken from Episode 1) wasn't that impressive either. My Droideka wouldn't shoot, and I had difficulties with the controls. I wished they would try more "sequel trilogy" battles like the Battle of Hoth or the 1st Death Star Trench Run, but they've already switched to playing Soul Calibur. I went to play Quake 3 with the rest of the guys, then.
During the Exco hustings we asked some typical questions to the year one Exco nominees... but by then I think most of the current Exco already had the choices in mind. The Forums issue was quite a major concern at that time.
Last year, when we started as trainee moderators at the College Forums, we were already an enthusiastic bunch (I could almost call myself a TJC Forums geek!), and the seniors had no worries about us. Since most of the ITC members were in Forums, our involvement in Forums actualy served to bond us as a group.
This year, however, most of the year ones who joined the moderators did not really come to forums that as often as we did, even at our constant urging. We are worried that when we step down, the new moderators would not be that active.
So last year was a year of active moderators and low level of activity in threads (I recall the various campaigns we launched to promote the Forums to the student body). This year was the direct opposite -- There's a high level of activity in the various sections of the Forums (I've just been checking out this class forum thread where 4 pages of messages were generated in ONE SINGLE DAY!!!) but low level of moderator participation.
Year ones, please keep the Forums team going strong!
Halfway through the hustingsm we were called to help test out this Knowledge building forums software... we tested out this thing some time ago but there were some changes made to the forums... just to change the way it looked. The whole thing was still as messy as the previous one we tested out. This time we were also as crappy as that time we tested this thing. I started the whole crap by posting messages titled "Ankur" (Ankur is, or rather was, one of the ITC Exco members). Soon there were lots of "Ankur" messages all around our forum.
Also, to add to the mess, we decided to move all the message titles to one single spot, and we succeeded!
OK back to hustings... we asked only a few questions and off we went for lunch! During lunch time I checked with the bookshop and discovered that tht T-shirts were ready (thank God) but we didn't have enough money in the treasury to collect the shirts (they wanted at least 50% of the cost, which was $480). But still, it turned out fine (I hope the members would like it) and each shirt costs only $12, so it wasn't that expensive.
After lunch we went back to Club room to watch Jacky and Junqun play FIFA on PS2. Junqun vowed to thrash Jacky, but looks like he underestimated Jacky's prowess. Jacky won 2-NIL. Throughout the game (it was projected on the large screen) we were cheering like mad (most of us the time for Jacky) and for me, it was more exciting than the time I watched the World Cup Finals in 2002. Too bad there was no beer.
Next it was Mr Low versus Jigang, but I think we had to stop halfway because it was getting late and the hike had to start. So off we went, from College to Suntec on foot. The route was the same as that we took during the recee hike (duh!). Refer to the "Hike of the Year" post for details of the recee hike.
Of course, there would be new things happening even for repeats. Just when we walked past the College PE gate, it started to drizzle (what the heck?) and fortunately most of us grought umbrellas. And even more fortunate was that the rain stopped shortly.
I love Coconut drink.
And sorry for not mentioning in the Recee hike post that we saw a red kite stuck near the top of a tall tree. It was necessary to mention it now because on the actual hike, the kite was still there!
Near the canal with the beautiful forest beside it, we rested on some stone benches which were not ideal resting places because of the presence of freaky ants.
At the green bridge where there were lots of those metal chain strung between two metal poles... I wanted to jump over all of them, but I tripped over the second one and fell pretty badly, so I decided to behave decently after that.
The walk over Sheares bridge was one that's unforgettable! And what added to my joy was that at that point of our journey (which was quite near the end), it was only about half-past 3.
So we reached Suntec at about 4 p.m., not the expected 6 p.m.. Part of the reason was because while the Exco wanted to play games on the way to Suntec, the year ones were not exactly enthusiastic about this idea. Seriously, I myself did not really want to play Whacko too.
So we slacked at the Family Walk in Suntec city, and I went to see Hon Boon play his Jedi Outcast multiplayer on his laptop. Lightsaber throw is damn cool!
We went back to Bedok Central for dinner at Long John Silvers (the Terriyaki wrap was not bad!), than I went home by myself as I could not stay overnight... sob.
I heard that the year twos watched the entries for the I-skills video competition... some advertisements, I suppose.
That night I was wondering about this thing about "the peace of God". I was thinking that yes, the peace of God is not that kind of false peace which the world gives, but true peace -- that kind which can exist even in the midst of a storm.
I was also thinking... while the peace is good, what's the use of having peace if something irreversible has happened and I'm upset about it? Peace cannot turn back the clock and make things better right?
But then I realized that peace should be an end, not a means. If I expect peace to "make things better", then I'll be using peace as a means, not an end. And the Bible says that this kind of attitude is wrong.
On the 2nd day I arrived on College at about 7 a.m. when most of them were still sleeping.
In the morning, I played CS with bots (computer players) and set the gravity to extra-low values, causing all of us to float all over the place.
Then it was wet games. It was generally OK, except that Benson's hair was still dry at the end of everything. Following that was soccer, which I was still not good at. I almost played soccer barefooted, but the ground was hot and I felt that removing my sandals wouldn't make my skills any better, so in the end I still played on sandals.
Lunch was at Bedok Cantral KFC, where I saw Zhiren too. The O.R. fillet burger was nice, but a bit too small (at least it was still bigger than Shrooms, which I would call bite-sized).
We followed the year ones to Giant, where they were supposed to buy the barbecue stuff on their own. After that, we went back to College for a brief period of time (CS for me again) before going to East Coast park.
Our trip there (on bus) was quite relaed as Jigang's dad offered to help transport the stuff to the pit. I had to borror Yufeng's slippers as my sandals were spoilt.
I must say, at the pit, the year ones started the fire real quickly! At least quicker than my class BBQ last year.
The BBQ session was very eventful... we almost ran out of drinks and had to impose rations (WTH?!) but some of the members went to buy new bottles of drinks... so much that we had to leave the unfinished bottles for the coming Exco investiture!
Then it was the sausages part... they didn't take out all the packets of sausages, and so after having only 1 sausage and seeing that there was none left on the pit and in the food tray, I almost freaked out! I won't allow myself to eat only 1 sausage at any BBQ session! Fortunately there were still uncooked sausages, but then my sausages consumption rate was lower than last year's. Much lower.
Halfway through the session, the year two Exco people (including me lah!) went to the beach which was far enough from the pit for us to do some secret discussion. And discuss we did, about the new Exco. I thank God that certain choices were made for certain posts, and I feel that all the new Exco members will be able to do their job well.
There's no such thing as a "high" or "low" post in the Exco... the different titles just determine different places and situations for a person to shine.
Before we announced the new Exco, there were even more funny stuff... we brought 3 potatoes and 2 sweet potatoes (especially for Kuti) and one of the potatoes became like charcoal (and had to be cut using a Swiss knife!) near the end of the BBQ session. The other 2 potatoes were edible, and were actually quite delicious!
The session ended with cleaning up and the announcement of the new Exco. It was actually quite late... about 10 p.m., so I was grateful that Jigang's dad gave us (me, Ming Hwee, Kuti) a lift to a convenient spot in Marine Parade. I took a cab back to Tampines, and reached Tampines at about 11 p.m..
Just imagine if I had to go look for transport myself. Mum would have to wait until about 12 a.m.!
P.S. Check out this pic which I found on my College forums.
