One year

Greetings, Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve (yeah I just watched Narnia)...

... ...

...

it...

it's been...

... a year!

I know I still can't compare to some bloggers who've been blogging for years, but... I can't believe it... I generated one year worth of posts? Wow...

Here I am, typing a post in Marine Parade Library -- the place where I started this little blog! Too bad I'm not using the same computer I used last December 30.

I'm not here just for blogging of course! There's a class barbeque at East Coast Park later...

Anyway, in this year I...

• Gave HTML lessons for the first time (and knew that I could be such a boring teacher)
• Began habitual practice jogging
• Went for the super cool AHS HO camp
• Visited Tekong BMTC
• Learned how to play Bridge (but forgot most of it...)
• Bought a $2 radio which lasted till now
• Once got so worried about my blog's readership
• Did specials for Easter and Star Wars (and I'll never do a post that long again!)
• Took up new games like Initial D (which is actually the only new game I took up...)
• Took the A levels (like, the craziest thing of the year)

This had been an enjoyable year (like all school years) and it's also my last year of going to a "uniformed" institution (the name I give to institutions where students wear uniforms... unless they're really called that).

I have to thank my tutors, who are really very nice people... and my close friends in the class. And outside my class, of course.

I have to thank the College for electricity. I know I'm one of the groups of students who contribute a lot to the electricity bills... the computer users. Because the computer in my house has really reached a cannot-make-it state, I had to do all my computer stuff at College. The bulk of my posts here are done in the CS lab.

I have to thank the IT Club people for being great friends and for tolerating such a useless "Project leader".

And I have a few confessions to make...

I almost got myself into the same mess Zoe Tay got herself into during the Star Awards... damn those spoof reports! I was reading some issue of the then U-weekly and saw this section in a spoof report talking about S.H.E. splitting up. One of the reasons I like S.H.E. was that they were a playful and united bunch... so I got very shocked because it said that the reason for the split was some internal disagreements.

And I almost blogged something about it. Thank God I didn't.

And I'm going to buy their latest album... "Shen Qiang Shou" (Sharpshooter) is such a cute song!

Next confession... I broke a promise.

I promised in some post (I can't find it and I'm in a hurry now) that I wasn't going to touch video games before the end of the A Levels... obviously I failed to do so. DotA, Initial D, Pokemon...

And I think I have to come clean about this particular matter here.

It's obvious that I backslided a bit this year, and I cannot afford to be like this next year... I'll face a lot of temptations and my character and principles will be put to the test in the next phase of my life -- National Service.

And I'm supposed to be an soldier for Christ, not a Prisoner of War under the fleshy nature.

National service next year... on January 20 2006, I'll be sleeping without my family at somewhere other than home... for the first time! Even though I've heard stories about NS and I fear that there will be a lot of politics inside there, the next 2 years will probably be full of challenges and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead.

Poolday again

Today I played Pool with Jiansheng again... this time it's a Wednesday, so it's cheaper... we could play for 2 hours. However, by the time we ended, we realised that it's meaningless to play for such a long stretch of time; the fun is lost upon getting tired after a few rounds. Still, there were some memorable instances...

During a game, I started by accidentally helping Jiansheng score 2 balls on his side. Undeterred, I said that if I could still win that round, that says something.

And I won that round eventually.

Ah yes, the theme song for Jackie Chan's "Myth" movie was really nice (even though I could only make out the "Sa Rang Hae" phrase in the part of the chorus in Korean).

There was another round when most of the balls were crowded on one end of the table and the black ball was alone on the other end. I was very tempted to hit in the black ball as the game was dragging for quite a long time. Then Jiansheng had to hit the white ball in some way that it went close to the black ball. I did a Krum and "ended the game on my own terms".

After 2 hours of Pool (I went off-form after the first hour), we separated and I had one single hamburger for lunch. Plus a slice of watermelon. Poor me.

I aranged an eye appointment with the National Eye Research Institute (a continuation to the eye-OWNING study) at 1:30 in the afternoon. Before that, I wanted to let Mom sign the consent form but thee was nowhere she could sign it... the form only asked for the signatures of a "witness" (I think that means a member of the staff at the Institute), the patient (I gave my trademark Mandarin signature) and the investigator. There was only a space for her to write her name.

Upon arriving at the Institute, they checked the consent form and realised that they didn't insert the field for parent's signature; they said I was the first one to notify them of the problem (?!!). And since the ERG part of the study was "not important", I needn't do it since there's no proven consent from parent.

Oh.

So I went away with a clear vision. The thing was that they almost dilated my pupils (rendering me blur-eyed) before realising that the consent form was needed. So if they dilated my pupils earlier...

On my journey back to Tampines (Wo zai hui jia lu shang...), someone was playing Jay Chou's "Yequ" and "Fa Ru Xue" using his handphone on the train... which reminded me of what a YES 933 DJ said about such "inconsiderate" acts.

I normally won't consider such acts as inconsiderate, and since he's playing some of my current favourite songs, complain I shall not.

No Free Lunch

As for today...

Pool with Jiansheng in the morning.

Lunch (Jiansheng ate first... I was waiting for some great feast when we reached Suntec).

But as it turned out, Carl's Junior's burgers were rather expensive... and the coupon I got from the New Paper wasn't one that gave me a chance to try a burger for free (but to try the double what's-it's-name mushroom burger for the price of a single what's-it's-name mushroom burger). And I thought...

Free flow soft drinks come at a price, my friend...

Ended up having a tasty Terriyaki chicken rice at Carrefour. Not too bad huh?

Window-shopped with Jiansheng for a while before he went for some talk in Suntec Tower 3.

Played Initial D and regretted even trying Time Attack on the Happogahara course. My Skill in the Akina course is improving, though... I feel more in control of my car now.

And then I had to see some guy doing a Time Attack on the Akina course and drifting at about 120 km per hour... almost like Takumi. Some other guy raced with this pro and lagged behind by about 700 meters.

After that I did a practise jog again, back at College, after stopping it for months... this time, I did 3.6 km and my timing was about 20 minutes... I'm surely getting rusty...

And I forgot to bring along my shampoo... so I had to resort to using the hand soap in the toilet for my shower... at least it was better than nothing...

HO Chalet (the wet part)

I went on the 3rd day.

I arrived at Downtown East at about half past 8 in the morning (like, who would go there at this hour?) and since there was no one using the computers there, I blogged my last post with it. The keyboard was better than the one last year, but it sort of had some difficulty inputing the letter "A". I reached the chalet at 9.

Way too early, I suppose... I expected everyone to be snoozing there, but it turned out that most of them have not stayed overnight. Only Allen, Tai Man, Shi Lei, Shaojun and Ningxi were there...

Since I have arrived and they could no longer sleep (oops) we all watched TV... Ningxi was right... there're no good shows at such an early hour, but at least there was AFV (America's Funniest home Videos) which kept us entertained with clips like that one with the guy who was freaked out while riding some bungee jump machine; he screamed so much foul language that we heard only bleeps most of the time.

After that there were no shows that could arouse my interest, so I took out my GBA and trained my Heracross till it reached level 53 and learned Megahorn (just an increase of 2 levels... not that hard).

One of them told me that Waysi asked a very funny question to Geoffrey: "What's your CCA in secondary school?". On the 2nd day of the HO chalet. Too bad I wasn't there.

We then played Identity (which I was very bad at) and they kept saying it is easiest to remember whoever got Shi Lei's name. For that round it was Ningxi.

More guys came later, and we're all set to go to Wild Wild Wet... all but one (Dan) went there topless and Jiaming was wearing TJC PE pants (he got it during his first 3 months there before he went to TPJC... it was funny nevertheless). Dan actually hoped to keep his hair dry, and got a very sensible suggestion...

"Shave your hair."

I was shocked by the admission price... $13 for each individual... I think the @C people had some subsidy last year so I didn't pay much to go WWW with them...

Then there were the usual rides... like Shiok River and Ular-lah... I wasn't impressed by this ride last year but I began to like it this time, except that I kept getting positions where my back was facing the camera (that's saying much, considered the fact that we went for the ride for about 5 times!). What's worse, I mistook the surveillance camera for the one which was supposed to take photos of us sliding down on the big hoop...

Oh yes, the Slide-up was still my favourite ride... I can only use 2 words to describe it: Free Fall.

And I was mystified by Dan's claim that he could actually get stuck halfway through the individual slide... later I learned that he got stuck because he sat up.

Huh?

The wave pool was not bad too... I was treading water all the way and sort of sprained my hip joint a bit. And we went to a section which I knew nothing of last year... the Jacuzzi pool. The jet (is it water or air jet?) was quite strong and if you sit in such a position with the jet shooting into your pants, your pants will bluge up with air... it looks quite obscene.

What I got at the end of the day? Fun, Abrasions, Sunburn.

After that (read: About 5 hours of WWW) we went back to the chalet... I was so hungry (I skipped lunch) that I ate 2 cups of instant noodles. Kelvin, who went there late and missed our WWW trip, was playing Identity with the others.

I later joined them for dinner and after being able to solve the mystery behind the 9 boxes game (which they did back at the chalet after dinner), I went off.

The Great Cockraoch Massacre

Last Friday I went to the bank with Mom to set up a new account for me. I was thrilled, of course...I mean, I know there are some who started their own accounts in their primary school days with $1, but I wasn't one of them. I wasn't better off either... my starting amount was $30.

When we went home afterwards, we were greeted by a horrible sight: dead cockroaches strewn all over the corridor near the void deck. There were some that were alive... Mom stepped on one of them but it didn't die. Thank God... otherwise it would have freaked her out.

I read a newspaper article that afternoon about the outsourcing of gamers...

Huh?!

Yes... there are some who wish to have their characters gain levels but had enough of all the boring routines of training, and others who want to unlock secret stages in games but are unsuccessful in the stages required for the unlocking... these people will then outsource.

Hmm... at that time I was training my Heracross so that it would reach level 53 and learn Megahorn... and was very bored with fighting the Elite 4 (maybe it's because the Battle Frontier was so much cooler)... I had 7 Rare Candies (feed one to gain one level) in hand and my Heracross was at level 46.

I was very tempted to feed all 7 of my RC's to it... but thought better than to do it in the end. Doing that would give me no sense of satisfaction as a trainer.

I have now trained my Heracross up to level 51.

That night, while I was having dinner with Mom at a food court, a guy who was sitting behind Mom suddenly had something like fits. We were freaked out, but fortunately someone who had a handphone called for an ambulance and the guy slightly recovered before the ambulance arrived. Mom concluded that it could have been a heart attack.

Initial F

Farewell

Last Thursday evening was HO farewell... and yes, I know this is a rather outdated post... due to circumstances which render me computer-less for the past few days.

Anyway...

I was sick on that day, as you can see from my last post, so I wasn't sure whether I could go for the Farewell... I was already a bit paiseh about going as an alumnus... and would be even more so if I turned up as a sick man. Thank God, my condition improved by a lot by evening.

Played some ("understatement" is an understatement) Pokemon Emerald before going for that thing, just for your information.

The wait at the MRT station for the Sec Twos was already very eventful. When I arrived at Aljunied MRT station, some of them were already there, and there was this cockroach scuttling around... Ningxi (Ex-chairperson from me and Kelvin's batch) wanted someone to chase it away, but before she could finish her request, some guy who was obviously not looking at the ground stepped on half of the cockroach (I forgot whether it was upper or lower half, but it was only half).

OK after the Sec Twos arrived, we're told to board some bus to the condominium called Pebble Bay (The farewell took place in the function room, and as it turned out, the condo had a bus stop right in front of it).

The juniors who were already there at the function room gave the seniors (meaning us) a hero's welcome which made me even more paiseh, but after some time I managed to settle down (how can I not, in the presence of Wenjun's contagious light-hearted attitude?).

Then it started.

The other HO members started streaming in through the "Starlight Path", followed by some Caucasian boy who just happened to be a resident there yearning for some fun.

OK the teachers were not there... and there was no "VCR" of teachers' speech... so we proceeded to dinner rather quickly... the cheesecakes were really nice!

It was the dinner part that took the longest... because it encapsulated photo-taking and cards-playing. Our table, containing me, Kelvin, Ningxi, Wenrong, Wenjun and Geoffrey, was pretty noisy too, because after the table of Sec 2 girls decided to do a "Yum Seng", we followed suit, in a much louder way (we're guys after all), much to Ningxi's dismay.

The Caucasian boy came in again for a brief period of seconds.

Oh yes... after having our fill, we went to have a look at the list of available songs (prepared by the juniors, of course) and there're some familiar ones... for example, when the player was playing Fa Ru Xue (a very literal translation gives "Hair Like Snow"), we guys were following the "lar lar lar lar" part and we're pretty loud.

Come to think of it, if I set up my blog only after the launch of Jay's new album, I may name it "fa-ru-xue.blogspot.com". then if I turn up at Blogger Con, I may approach Xiaxue and go "Hi Xiaxue, I'm Faruxue".

Better not try that... but I digress.

After the getting-along session, there were performances by the juniors. Song and drama. The drama was a bit... erm... but well, it's just an informal occasion anyway...

Keli's outfit for the event reminded Wenjun of Ron Weasley's dress robe in Goblet of Fire. And I agreed with him.

Ron in his dress robes, looking less than happy, or maybe just a little better than suicidal

The Faruxue incident got us (meaning Kelvin, Wenjun, Geoffrey and I) so fired up that the 4 of us decided to go for a K-box outing soon.

After the farewell there were some crappy incidents too... like when one of the abovementioned 4-guys-gang (I forgot which one) switched off the lights when Geoffrey was in the toilet... and when the bus to Aljunied MRT went pass this large billboard with a woman doing a suggestive pose under a message which says "Are you lonely?".

No... I'm in the company of friends. Thank you.

Hmm... guess that's all for the farewell.

Battle Frontier

Great Scott!

After beating the Elite 4 in Pokemon Emerald (I barely won only using type advantage), I was finally able to access the Battle Frontier. A guy named Scott in the game who looked suspicious in the beginning (he was "spotting talented trainers" and I thought he was doing it for Team Aqua before I knew that he was working for the BF) turned out to be one of my "friends" who brought me to the BF... when I first arrived at that place I was, like, awestruck by that place... it's like a huge carnival going on!

The Battle Frontier, set on a solitary island

The battle facilities there proved to be hard for me... I wanted to earn 48 battle points to exchange for a chance of my Heracross (yes I caught one in the Safari Zone) to learn Swords Dance (a non-offensive move which greatly increases attack rate). After a gruelling battle in the Battle Dome (because I couldn't survive anywhere else), I got...

ONE battle point.

Wow... long way ahead yeah?

Frequently used names

Been listening to YES 933 (and Peifen is my favourite female DJ too) these days and I heard the English version of Lee Hom's "Liu Lei Shou Xin" ("Palms In Tears") which was entitled "Mary Says".

I was remotely reminded of David Tao's "Susan Says".

Hmm... but isn't Mary such a cliched name?

Guess if I become a songwriter in the future, I'll write a song entitled "Xiaoming says".

P.S. "Xiaoming" is a name which you'll see in the Sentence Formation section in most Chinese papers.

Eye got OWNED

Yesterday was testimonial day.

So we basically went to the hall to collect our testimonials from Ms Fong... my testimonial opens with a paragraph which says that I'm quick to grasp ideas in Physics... which reminded me painfully of my failure to do justice to my Physics knowledge during the A levels.

Anyway, after the thing, I went with Kaicheng and Joel to Tampines Mall for lunch... we went to the open gallery (I think it's something quite new for them) and talked about stuff, then Kaicheng was telling us about thie RPG he has in his phone, and I lent my Gameboy Advance to Kaicheng so that he could try out some Battle Tent battles.

Then we had lunch at Long John Silvers... I had this Fish Treasure Meal which gave me more reasons to call LJS my favourite fast food restaurant.

But I forgot to eat fruits after the meal... maybe that's because I'm having a fever now. Am I so horribly dependent on fruits, they're like becoming some kind of drug for me?

Yes I have a fever now... I puked this morning and I'm not sure whether I can go for the HO farewell...

Anyway, after lunch, I went to SGH for an eye inspection appointment.

After I reached there, I was told that I had to make one parent sign a consent form before the inspection could begin, so they had to fax the form to Dad. While waiting for the reply, I played a bit of Pokemon Emerald and was challenged (in the game itself) by a triathlete named ISAIAH.

Haha. So it's Isaiah versus ISAIAH.

OK... the whole inspection comprises some small exercises, including the "look at the red house" thing which you normally go through in optical shops, a measurement of the "pressure of the eye" in which a puff of air is being shot at my eye, 3 times for each eye (more than 5 times for my right eye due to reflex blinking which caused inaccuracy in measure).

Then the dilating of pupils which left me waiting for about 30 minutes (shorter than the wait during my CMPB eye inspection, though).

Then there's this numbing agent they applied on my eyes so that some sensor can be placed on the surface of my eye without me feeling it. But it was quite an experience... imagine the eye feeling numb.

The most gruelling exercise was the OCT. I was supposed to look at a red light nearby while they take pictures of my inner eye (without cutting it up) using a super bright flash light which got me tearing all the way throughout the exercise.

That's a torture, man!

After the inspection, I went to Costa Sands East Coast for the Student Venture chalet, during which we sang songs (as usual) and prayed. I helped set up the barbecue pit at the point when Tim and Jonathan were almost done with it... it was quite fun and I learned the correct way to fan a flame. By the end of it, however, my biceps were in pain. I guess the same goes for Tim and Jon as well.

Then there was this part where one of the co-workers called Moses prayed for the graduating Year Twos that they (meaning "we") will be faithful in obeying the Great Commission.

By the way, the sausages were really nice.