isaiah's
overly romanticised version of life

images by onionhead, RebzxJonasxMoseley

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Calm

My supposed best module was really my best module, and my expected worst module was really my worst module.

I thought I'd be "killed all kinds of dead" by maths, so much so that my heart actually leapt when I saw that grade. Not a very high grade, mind you.

That my best module wasn't my core made me think of a few things, but then again, that Japanese Studies module is clearly different from the rest. It'll take me another semester to sort things out, like whether to minor in J-studies.

Meanwhile, I'm just going to visit the Science Library much more next Sem.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

I know what I'll do next summer

This December has been too short and too busy for me to do anything unrelated to school or CCA. Or video games.

But I know what I'll do come summer '09. I'll draw.

It's an old hobby of mine, which nearly reared its head for a comeback during that short period of time in Army when I got fascinated with the world of Anime and related illustration.

I said nearly.

This time, it all started with my little stay at Bedok Library when I was supposed to study Statistics for that fateful Maths Paper.

I had to seat myself near the Illustrations section.

Along came this guy with a book filled with short indie graphic novels, and naturally (for me yes) when I wanted to take a breather, I started to do this sketch of the shelves before me.

One aspect of drawing I avoided like a plague in my textbook-doodling days came right back at me -- the perspective aspect.

I admire people who can draw landscapes. Natural or urban, but definitely 3-dimensional.

A bit of talent, yes, but it's bound to take lots of practice. And that's what I'll start doing next summer.

I was reminded of this Chinese artist called Qi Baishi. Though the sources were of questionable credibility (how else would I classify Secondary School Comprehension passages?), Qi was definitely one of the "practised" artists. He basically mustered the resolve to keep drawing prawns when he was young, and he eventually established himself as an artist famous for his drawings of, erm...

prawns.

Yeah.

As if in silent tribute, and partly because of the fresh impression from the seafood Hor Fun I had the previous day, I made a sketch too.

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prWned

If I go far enough I might just start entertaining that doujin dream I stuffed in the closet long ago.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Always - Atomic on 3rd Street

When we watched Always Sunset on 3rd Street 1 for our post-war Japanese film module, I couldn't really appreciate the "nostalgia" theme (I know what it's there for, though) as it's considered to be a "misplaced nostalgia", i.e. a "longing" (?) for a past that one had never experienced.

Yeah by the way, I wasn't born in the 1950s.

Me and my big mouth. Now in the sequel I got served an uber atomic blast of nostalgia in my face.


I was particularly amused when Suzuki Auto shouted "TEMEE" at the lizard!

Why does it work on me this time? 'Cause I've just watched the original 1954 Godzilla film, so I can even recognise the original theme music they used in this dreamy spin-off!

Ah, in case you're wondering, the above scene was merely the speculations of the novelist character in the story, probably on the day right after a dose of the monster at the cinema.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Transient

"Chancellor's Shield? What Chancellor's Shield?"

Friday, November 14, 2008

Peace'd off

Do you know that...

Nostalgia, when the term was first coined, was used to describe a pathological longing of home, experienced by travelers.

An ancient vending machine in PGP residences awakened my "pathological" longing for the old Heaven & Earth tea series.

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More than anything else, I miss the Imperial Orchid tea the most. And they still haven't brought it back.

Soldier?

"Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them."

-- 2 Timothy 2 : 3 - 4

华川: "...the analogy of soldiers. Isn't the aim of soldiers to 'please the one who enlisted him' - "

在下: "I thought it's to wait for ORD?"

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

"Itadakimasu!"

My pride still threatens to eat me up for breakfast sometimes.

I don't get people telling me I'm wrong. But I hate it when people do or say things that merely give me the idea that they're saying I'm wrong.

"Gochisousama!"

Monday, November 10, 2008

Studio Khowbli (read cow-blee)

During one of the J-Studies lectures our Prof was talking about Studio Ghibli, and there's this logo of the studio in her slide, with a profile view of our friendly neighbourhood Totoro.

Greatly inspired by Totoro-sama and the movie of the week (I'll just very loosely translate it as the Racoon Dog Wars), I doodled the following.

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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Unexpected

Excerpt from conversation with VOICES seniors about upcoming production.

~

Andy: "Emo rock."

Roger: "死了都要爱!"

在下: "Yeah. We'll let the guy scream his lungs out up till the end of the pre-chorus, then...

.

.

A girl takes over in the same key. How's that for unexpected?"

Nice try.

I can understand the campaigns against the cruel luxury of, say, sharks' fin and animal furs, but calling this

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"Upsetting of nature's balance"

while simply accepting this

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as "Ecology"

makes no sense to me. Are we not part of the ecosystem as well?

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Immobilised

It's a bit harsh to say that, but I seriously think this,

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might be good news to some.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Fuku'in no Jikan

I was at St. Andrew's Cathedral for a meeting with my fellowship for the coming camp, and alas, at the welcome centre here's what I saw.

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あっ、そうですね...

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Tomatography

I can't tell you how much I love tomatoes.

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Tough love, that's what they call it.

"我已不能多爱你一些~"

Friday, October 31, 2008

LOL Report

Whoever's marking my lab report is so gonna LOL when he sees it.

Lesson learnt. However time consuming and reeking of double work it will be, I'm gonna do a simulation run through the experiments and calculations so that no minor detail will escape my grasp ever again.

I tried my best at titration, but still...

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Wrong Answer

This happened during one of the evangelism discussions with my fellowship.

~

Imagine meeting Jesus (yes the Saviour himself!!!) at the gates of heaven. He speaks.

"Question 1: Give me a reason why you would qualify to enter."


The first thing that actually came to my mind, well actually the first few things:

  • I've been having a burden of prayer over the unsaved...
  • I've been serving in your house... OK maybe not very well on the social interaction side... me being introverted and all, but... still can lah, huh?
  • I...
Then it struck me.

Wrong Answer.

I've never been this surprised since, well, since a certain Sunday night last year, but that's not the point.

5 years into the faith and the first thing that came to my mind when asked about the condition of salvation is still, self-effort.

I felt like kicking myself.

Nothing delivers us from spiritual death except for Jesus' blood shed on the cross. I want you to know as well.

Tada'ima

Dear God,

I'm finally back in business. 我回来了。

Monday, October 27, 2008

After this semester

After this bloody semester ends, I will play my part in

  • CVCF Bible Study Camp
  • NUS VOICES Emerge 2009
  • Somebody's birthday bash. LOL
  • Dunking Liwei at Sentosa beach.
  • Hopefully go for K (finally) with my OG mates.

That, will be after this bloody semester ends.

OK, back to statistics!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Three Sighs

Sigh.

(On Lab sessions)

Eugene: "(on computing) ... it's hard to beat the scholars anyway"

在下: "For me in Chemistry... it's hard to beat those who copy their seniors' lab reports -__-"

~

Sigh.

It's my turn to lead people again. Not that I'm not happy - I'm actually pretty excited.

But I won't be going too far by saying that I'm afraid to lead.

~

Sigh.

Suddenly I'm not used to free Sunday afternoons :(

Thursday, October 23, 2008

*Bump

I really shouldn't leave that lousy-mood post up here at the top for too long.

Especially now that I actually have the capacity to ruminate on my Chem stuff again and to actually think of going Vivo after my short VOICES meeting for an equally short (hopefully) shopping spurt.

For someone like me, it's a good sign that I'm starting to need a belt again :)

I'm finally out of that bloodshot-eyed (well my eyes felt bloodshot; they didn't actually look that way), blocked-nose state of existence, and we've closed the chapter of our J-studies group work. Sorry Rin for the time issues =( , and sorry myself by that stupid pronunciation mistake I made during presentation.

You will get my new mobile number soon.

After the mini-concert on Friday I can finally have a nice Saturday morning. Bright sun, clear sky, just my chemistry notes, some data on ionisation energies, and I.

I'm actually very much looking forward to that.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

I have drunk the green potion

So now, in the very words of Dumbledore himself,

KILL ME!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Bell Bless You

Had a fun night out with Kelvin and Jon at Wala, listening to Unexpected while rambling about the detriments of the legendary Bell Curve.

Glad that our group presentation is more or less finalised, and my own lines are starting to take shape. I must have scared the shit out of my groupmates with my sucky trial presentation earlier today LOL! I will do my best for Monday, I promise.

And my popular writing article about molecules. Rachael seemed to have 无心插柳 when she made a casual summary of the desired style being somewhat like blog writing.

You'll know what my 柳成荫 refers to then.

Looking forward to starting writing it in the first place. After all (act casual)... it's already 2 days left before the deadline...

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Good NEWS

It's pure coincidence I'm sure. 偶然だよ

The top song for Oricon Single Charts on October 13 was:

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Monday Come

In times like these my mind is just, blank.

Projects to be completed, gig in the afternoon, assignments in the evening. I never thought it to be possible that this blankness and mental fatigue would go out of control, but it just did.

Come next week, I'll be a happier person. Right now I don't even have the capacity for emotions anymore.

Monday, October 13, 2008

祝我生日快乐

Thanks for the well-wishes, the TFU Concept Art book! And the cake!

I really enjoyed the night out with the IT Club guys, at Mel's Birthday chalet. It's really a reunion of old friends; I feel at ease there, not like the kind of gatherings which I'd rather say I'm obliged to go for.

Here I am, 3 a.m., writing this post while waiting for my instant noodle to get done. Burned my midnight oil. Now too hungry to actually have a proper sleep, hence the noodles.

And partly also to view the After-Action-Review of the Voices practice today. I mean yesterday.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Free 个屁

It's good to put into words the tasks on hand. Baby steps away from procrastination-

that word, hurts.

  • J-studies Group work (20 Oct)
  • J-studies Individual Paper (12 Nov)
  • 2000-word essay for Chemistry Freshmen "I-love-you-Jiamian" Seminar (20 Oct)
  • Music at Church and Campus this Sunday.
  • Voices Mini Concert (24 Oct). Yes, this is an advertisement.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Revenge of the Splurge

I regret to inform you (yeah right), that

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.

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What with my recent purchases of

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The Force Unleashed, for PSP

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Yeah that same bag

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Audio Technica ATH-SJ1 headset

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iPod Classic, 120GB

The Splurge has begun, indeed!

Spot the Milo Truck!

I did! Albeit a bit slow, huh.

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What with everyone talking about culture, and how to build a culture in communities which are said to have no culture, I realised that culture is really made up of little things like this, something a community has in common, something that will make everyone's day, something that will...

OK I'm babbling too much. Stop.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Collide

That's called being a fan.

I never got the implication of having crossover characters in Soul Calibur 4 until I saw that gameplay video on Youtube.

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Starkiller looks like a nihonjin here...

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Angol Fear, designed by Yoshizaki sensei based on Angol Mois from Keroro

That means, the galaxies of Star Wars and Keroro, collide.

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Sleeper

Sunday night 2359. Monday morning 0000.

Thought I wasn't going to sleep until 2.

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Then the e-mail came. Irony huh.

*One red bull down*

Monday afternoon 1251,

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Sunday, October 05, 2008

Nostalgia

Back to the time when Fujiwara wasn't the first fictional Tofu shop that comes to my mind...

I guess I'm really getting nostalgic.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Die nice nice

死,也要死得漂亮。

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Sunday, September 28, 2008

养兵千日

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Tomorrow. I will go forth. And fulfil my destiny.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Do's and Don'ts - A Photoblog

What happens when Tagger Bags is having a storewide 50% sale?

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User Warning: Don't say Hi to your friend from PRC.

What happens when the people writing school rules just don't get it, while the advertisers do?

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Yeah, remember, don't go huh.

What happens when you attempt to awake a collective nostalgia?

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Don't forget, nostalgia is the ultimate overrate. And yeah, I got the one with the red bean paste.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Some are more equal...

Ol' Marcus had a farm, Ea-ya-ee-ya-oh!

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Monday, September 22, 2008

Still got milk?

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牛仔 有段时间 不会太忙

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Stardy

Prologue: It might be just me. But I feel like spreading the blame, can?

Well does this come with being too busy in school? That you sometimes have to be reminded about even the simplest things?

Probably because... you worry too much before actually sitting down and think?

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And then comes CCA. I have 2 commitments as a bassist now (暗爽), in church and CCA. I'm loving every minute of it but the problem is, while I don't really pull stunts in church, in VOICES I actually do songs like Jay's 阳光宅男 and 有话直说 by Power Station. Which means I've got to play quavers at about 140 bpm.

Trained musicians (ahem!) won't be impressed, but I've usually played at more reasonable speeds in the past so I actually felt like I've just visited the gym after a jam session! And then I realised that without proper cool-down stretching I'll have significant muscle pain along my lower arm.

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Yeah, that area.

So I did all the stretching I could today.

And since I'm bassist here & there and keyboardist nowhere, I haven't touched the keys for ages. No time for leisure playing, sigh.

And since self-pity is so addictive (did I hear someone cough up there?), I shall just list down what I've got to do for my coming reading week.

  • 2 Lab reports. Hahahahahaha.
  • Substantial research for my Japanese film module group project. And substantial discussion with my group.
  • At least watch the film on which I've got to write an individual paper, for said module.
  • CCA. VOICES practice and erm, "socialising" with J-Studies Society.
  • Mug for my 2 Chemistry modules and 1 Math module. Yes, the one with the Integration.
  • Wake up my idea and go Google for tests for Sulphur Dioxide gas. I was so humbled in the lab.
  • Wonder how my tutor actually churns out enough material for her J-Studies Master thesis on (get this) SMAP.
  • Then do the same for the movie I've finally decided on (hopefully) for abovementioned individual paper.
  • Take photos of chiral objects. Take my hand can?
  • OK I've so got to include this. "Sleep".

Think that's all?

  • PLUS! Prepare for emcee'ing the coming VOICES mini-concert.

OK I shall spare you. OK actually I'm done :D

Guy

OK. 2 news about guys making silly decisions due to... unrequited love?

So you think you're being faithful and persistent, until the bitterness builds up to the extent that it's no longer under your control?

It upsets me seeing guys losing themselves like that. Brings back unwanted memories.

~

They say 戏如人生, but recent events got me to wonder whether life is really like what we see on TV. What if the people making the shows we watch and the songs we listen to are as clueless as we are?

"Persistence". "Faithfulness". All lauded as virtues on TV. Ask, beg, suck up, get down on your knees, send her creepy and awkward SMSes, stand in the rain. Get the girl. 'Cause all these make her happy.

Yeah right.

"I believe I can give her happiness."

Yeah when even the sight of you pisses her off? Gives her the creeps?

And then when your bubble bursts and nothing works out for you, you get bitter.

Real bitter. And destructive.

My recent readings on self-help made me realise how dangerous it is for guys to, in the words of one of the writers, "give the girl all the power".

Decision making power, power to shake your perception of reality, and then the power to put you down.

Especially dangerous if it's all a one-sided effort.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Do Not Forget

The Force Unleashed launch trailer.

They're letting out a lot more of what's going to take place in the game. Not surprising, now that the novel is already out. And I'm... supposed to have gotten the novel by now, but ever since I recovered from my sickness there's only been my Chem assignment on my mind.

Which was a good thing, of course.

I've watched the gameplay marathon (precious time off my reading for my Chem assignment) and clearly, the environment in Wii and the PSP is totally chui compared to the next-gen consoles, namely the X360 and PS3.

Which kind of makes me wonder if I'll really enjoy the PSP version that much. And the DS version, aww...

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Battery Unleashed

My laptop just made my day by showing me some super imba stats.

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And that's only 50%!

This happened right after I unlocked my laptop and apparently there was some bug in the battery life estimation routine. Otherwise I'd really be surprised!

And Juno Eclipse in the Force Unleashed turns out to be more chio than I expected. Maybe it's the way she talks.

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"You're walking into a trap!"

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Happy Science Friends

There's this beautiful building in our Faculty of Science, called S16.

At the level where I have my maths tutorials there's this place they call Risk-management Institute.

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Upon initial visual scan it's apparent that the place carries a few risks itself.

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Risk #1: You can turn your friend into minced meat by dragging him back & forth against this wall long enough.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

我还在哭

Where did the last tiny wedge of the budget pie go?

Here.

This happens to be one of my favourite songs in the album.

Apparently many other users on Youtube expressed displeasure at this MV as well.

If there're enough voices for change on the Web, I can foresee a remake of this MV.

Please.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Old School

"We're gotta take you back. All the way back... Old School style!"

To the times when "So Tell Me" by Heartsdales was the latest Mass Dance song in TJC and the html source code for our TJC online Forums was not a simple UpgradingInProgress.jpg.

Dear Junqun, found this wonderful site that allowed one to have a look at how websites used to look.

Sent memories flooding back....

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Behold! The logo just as it was!

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Back when 15/04 (my class in the first 3 months) was the reigning class in the Class Forums.

The above shot was taken just after the admin team decided to stop awarding post count to posts made in class forums. 'Cause they're afraid of us :D

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CCA forums. That was the first IT Club thread.

Yes there were the 2nd and 3rd IT Club threads. Our brains were too big to be contained in just one.

Screenshots are made in IE7. On purpose :D

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Lightshow

Day and Night. 2 extremes of the day when light plays with my eyes in different ways.

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Tampines Stadium. Literally beams of sunlight made possible by the morning mist.

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One night in NUS... it's just the way the base of the street lamp is made, but in a moment of impulse I took a shot anyway.

Vampyroteuthis Infernalis

Vampire Squid from Hell. That's what its scientific name means.

Not exactly very stunning in terms of size (a mere 30cm long), it's famous for its defence mechanism which is shown in this video.

Just a snapshot of our amazing marine life.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

61

Did someone say "MISIA"?

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Aircraft Carrier

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There's a type of sushi called Gunkan which is actually the Japanese word for "Aircraft Carrier".

Gunkan.

Not "Kun-gung". Seriously, I don't know where that spelling came from. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and went to Google this phrase, but the search returned no results.

Not that I expected much from a joint that serves Donburi in plates anyway.

Voices

My new CCA.

I'm happy to have a chance to be part of this big family. Even though things are going slightly off my plan, four years is definitely enough time for me to achieve something I want. So I'm looking forward to whatever comes.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Confusion

I've outgrown begging. And I'm now facing the frustration of seeing people get what they want through begging. Kind of makes me sick, actually.

I get this feeling that my thoughts are taking a darker turn. At least I no longer avoid seeing the flip side of things that appear good on the outside, just for the sake of being a nicer person.

I foresee it breaking apart. And then I'll dive between the cracks to get what I want. And I don't see anything wrong.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Minna Onaji

Watching Kon Ichikawa's Makioka Sisters (known in Japanese as 細雪 Sasameyuki) for my Japanese film studies module brought me back to certain issues of life.

The film is basically about 4 sisters from a traditional merchant family, living in the pre-Pacific War period when the influence of the family business has slowly faded out.

Adhering to their traditions, they treated marriage very seriously, and the whole agenda throughout the entire film was to marry off the 3rd daughter Yukiko through matchmaking.

What made it more urgent was that our dear 4th sister Taeko had to wait for her elder sister to get married before she could do so.

The 2 unmarried youngest sisters had meanwhile been living with the 2nd elder sister Sachiko, inevitably posing a constant temptation for their brother in law Teinosuke.

You know... this whole one sided "imaginary sexual tension" that guys like you and I so freely indulge in.

And it was the ending scene that spoke to me the most. Yukiko had finally made her choice of Mr Right after a long search by her sisters. Brother-in-law Teinosuke is seen drinking alone in a room, muttering "she's getting married" to a puzzled waitress, tearing as he gazed at the snowfall.

Doesn't it happen to us from time to time, this equally imaginary sense of loss? The drop-dead gorgeous colleague from the next department who just got attached? The emotionally jarring bus ride home thinking about that girl you saw for the first time at that event and would never see again? The very chio classmate of yours who just isn't your type?

And then it would fade away. With time, with new preoccupations, with new doors opened.

Guys. I think we're all the same.

Anyway, another thing that amazed me was Yukiko's persistence in, erm, turning down matchmakings?

So that when the right one comes by, she was ready.

I respect that spirit, though not forgetting that it's probably something anyone can do when your siblings are bringing prospective mates to your doorstep by the month.

Still, it awakened the question in me about waiting for the right one.

But it remains a question.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Delusion, indeed!

I was browsing stuff at Times, when I saw this very familiar cover.

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What is that book doing under "Science"?

Thankful

I'm very thankful I got my first choice of tutorial slot for my Maths module. 'Cause anything other than my first choice will mean I either have to wake early on Mondays or compromise my commitment to my church band on Wednesdays.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Science Orientation Week 08/09

El Espia: I'm Spying! As implied, that's the theme of this whole Orientation Week event. Though the only link with spying I could find was from the orientation group names...

Anyway...

It all started with a phone call. The gist of which goes...

"You're in the group Naruto, under the Jappai House. Jappai as in Spies from Japan. See you there!"

Naruto... a spy? OK la... being a ninja, bound to be a bit sneaky here and there huh?

That aside, Jappai! Japanese Spy house! Sure to have lots of quasi-Japanese cheers isn't it? Huh? A simple "Ganbatte" at least?

But let's begin on the day before all the action...

Matriculation. Student campus card with my bueh song face photo right from my JC years. Student EZ link card with the same mentioned photo. Totally made my day.

Then came the Toshiba Portege M800 laptop!

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Yes I got the Pearl White one!

Then came my vocal classes at Ark!

Then came the overnight Karaoke with Nick and guys! It's Nick's birthday, and they're a fun K bunch, so there I was!

And then at 3 a.m., they all decided that there's no point taking cab home. Might as well wait for the first bus at 0530.

Which meant I'll arrive at home at 0700.

And in case you haven't seen the implication yet, I didn't get any sleep at all.

And I might have even been late for my O Week!

Day 1

Thank God I wasn't late, though.

I arrived at the lecture theatre with a great resistance in my body against the already very Rah-rah atmosphere. Might have felt it even without the lack of sleep, though.

The Audio-Technica emblem on the goodie bag only helped perk me up a little.

We were taught our house cheers and Jappai House cheers were generally on the naughty and suggestive side, so I wasn't very keen to shout it proudly. But I guess it was the way I did the Banzai greeting that made me-

The OG cheer I/C for the day.

Off we went for lunch! Cabbage would turn out to be our staple vegetable for the whole camp, but on the first day we were all grateful enough to have a meal, even just a meal that reminded Nicholas about our Army food supplier: SFI.

And we got to say "Itadakimasu" before every meal (Japanese spy house, remember?) and that really made my day.

Time for games! Still able to keep my heavy eyelids at bay.

Well... the few standard station games... just let the OGLs figure out the clues and I'll stand on the side-

"Time for a cheer!"

OK. Time to brief Naruto on a cheer I learned from my Secondary school days.

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Well it goes like this...

Let's do it.

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I never knew I was that wild! LOL at the 哭笑不得 senior on the right.

One moment we were passing poker cards using straws...

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Then there was that game which involved biting fruits. The girls got all the fruits and the guys got all the fun.

"Fun" refers to having to bite a chunk off a raw cucumber! Ugh! Cucumber was my great nemesis, second only to Maths.

And then we maneuvered through rafia laser grids...

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At this rate I can enrol into Spy Academy real soon!

Followed by that bed of wet flour...

All in all, Day 1 wasn't very physical for me... I just made sure I did my part as the cheer I/C.

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Time for a group shot!

Then it got slightly better... Mass Dance!

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Jessie, my mass dance partner with the wristwatch tanline.

I found out that the Swiss Dance wording on her shirt referred to Swiss Cottage Sec Dance Club... I thought it was some ethnic Swiss Dance LOL.

The organising committee kind of decided that it was only appropriate to gross us out after dinner.

So off we went for the Fear Factor stations!

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In case you were wondering, those were mayo, 韭菜, garlic, some secret recipe milky mixture, followed by...

We played Indian Poker in teams and the winning and losing teams were to drink up whatever concoction we collectively made.

And my team eventually got a cup of that secret potion.

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Hence this infamous photo.

We drank it 'cause we won, if you notice the Ace of Clubs. The concoction was actually quite nice, if not for the stray globs of mayo...

Further up... more stations ranging from lifeless Agar jelly to heaps of mealworms.

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Smile before the storm!

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Jessie hates cockroaches.

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So do I.

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Kaishi at the Agar Jelly station, and her classic line: "Got such thing on Earth meh?"

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Nicholas and the juicy roasted cocoons

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Jocelyn the un-scare-able, at the baby frogs station

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Carolyn and the mentioned frogs. They even videoed that one down.

OK, my turn to scream.

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I can explain...

When blindfolded, I really was convinced that it was an extra big moth crawling on my hands, and I didn't exactly love moths. And while the "moth" crawled up my face, they had to pour a bowl of mealworms onto my open palms,

and I screamed the F-word.

Phew. Phew.

With teeny-weeny mealworm bite marks all over our palms, we were ushered off to Secret Pal night. It was nice to find out that my SP was also from AHS and she knew my junior from Harmonica.

2a.m.. Time to finally get some sleep.

Day 2

I woke up early to get Pipa Gao from Co-op 'cause my I gave my voice away the previous day.

Fruity Splash! Good thing the only connection with fruits was that we'd get fruits for trophies. If we're to be splatted with fruits it wouldn't really be too nice.

Wet games for the day, and after the barely adequate sleep Naruto is now burning with fighting spirit!

The first game we got, which was to use all our fingers to stop a major pipe leak, already got us all, erm, adequately moisturised.

We then moved on to stations where we carried sponges on our backs, get shampooed with non other than Johnson's Baby, made paper mache on Nicholas...

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That was one of our dirtiest stations, after which we were relieved to have a chance at a hose shower.

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There's something about this picture...

Just that none of us expected to win the Day 2 wet station games hands down.

"But we did~"

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March on, Naruto!

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Trophies of honour.

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What better way to share the victory than to share the fruits of our labour?

After dinner and some talk from the Science Club Committee (so Science Club is not just about selling ice-creams), we had our SP night again before we turned in. We'll be wearing our orange camp shirt the next day for the in-campus treasure hunt...

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Caught biting my nails again... oops.

Day 3

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Yes, we're ever-photo-ready.

The schedule for Day 3 was shrouded in mystery.

All we knew was that there'll be in-campus treasuer hunt and in the evening we'll reveal our identities to our Secret Pals.

So let's start with the race then.

During one of our waits-to-rush we played this speed introduction game with our neighbouring group L (yes the one from DeathNote). Basically each one of us will have a 1-minute conversation with every member of the other group. That, out of the whole O Week, was when I brought my social energy to the peak. After all, you can't merely stick to a "Who are you? Which JC were you from?" routine for 20 times!

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"Next!"

Having been through the CVCF camp, I was mentally prepared for the pass-your-meal-to-your-neighbour crap during lunch. Surely enough, after our rendezvous outside the IT Co-op with our lunch meals we were told to to exactly that.

Problem was, between our OG we had everything ranged from footlong subs to cup noodles.

They eventually decided to be merciful and just impose the one-bite rule.

So my neighbour Roscoe only had to take one bite out of my Cold Cut Trio. And Nicholas could still have his coffee.

We then began with our campus-wide search! I actually forgot most of the stuff we did that day, except for having to finish a McDonalds ice-cream cone in 12 seconds. I was one of those who tried, LOL.

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And we did a cheer in the most unexpected of places.

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In the evening we finally got to know who our SPs were. After a buffet dinner at the Frontier (the Science Canteen. I heard NTU had theirs at Pariss!) we went for a movie screening at LT27.

"A Walk to Remember". Starring Mandy Moore. First of all, I have no complaints about anything starring Mandy Moore. And she always gets to play the good Christian girl.

It was almost like Sekai No Chuushin with a gospel twist. I was especially moved when Sullivan (Moore) said "(before I met you) I had no reason to be angry at God". But I can't explain too much without giving spoilers, 'cause the last time I spoiled someone I recieved quite an unkind rebuke.

I had to say something about the subsequent Fright Night. Firstly, I think the seniors did a really good job. The selection of one of the Science Fac buildings as the location allowed for more flexibility in terms of the scares they could pull.

My SP and I went into the pitch dark corridor, only to be greeted by-

My OGL.

Seng Tuck was there in a robe and his face painted white, and I kind of spoiled the mood when I kept yelling his name LOL. Next thing I knew we were shoved into a toilet where one of the seniors who had the Ayanami hair was waiting, face painted white as well.

Basically the walk was all about retrieving items and stopping "ghosts" and getting yelled at.

I yelled back, of course.

We later had a photoshoot with our seniors Seng Tuck and Joseph. After all the makeup wasn't easy and it would only do them justice to properly preserve the memory...

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Day 4

Sentosa! Pretty harsh to wake us up at 7-plus after having forced us to stay up till 2 a.m. for meaningless horror films.

Still, most of them were energetic enough. Most.

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You probably won't have spotted Nick and I taking a snooze

After having seen the video where they dunked our dear house leader Alvin, we just had to dunk someone at the beach! The seniors were on the top of the hit list, followed by most of the girls who were light enough.

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We first had station games, followed by the inter-house war game that saw its fair share of casualties (due to inappropriate use of water-bomb). One of the stations we lost required us to muah chee (essentially, to wet and cover with sand) ourselves as a penalty. Don't ask me how it felt.

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Well, at least we got to clean ourselves up!

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What's the banner in the sky called? Naruto!

What happened in between...

Monday. Back to campus looking our best!

For a sponsor talk by Audio Technica?

One of our alumni, SK, who currenty works at AT, brought with him a slideshow worth of AT headset commercials and photos of him with his best friend, none other than (again) our beloved house leader Alvin.

At first I expected it to be a career talk. I have used AT earphones long enough to know how good they are, and I was keen to hear about the career prospects in the company (I haven't signed the MOE bond, remember?), but the talk was all advertisement.

Well, that's what happens in these times when you can just Google everything.

Now for the reason of our dress-up: the Freshmen Inauguration Ceremony! The highlight of which was the musical performances by the Kent Ridge Hall band and Resonance, our very own A Capella group.

And our formal outfit, of course!

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We went for steamboat at Bugis after the caremony, and found out that Joseph was a cockle-eater as well!

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Say "Chilli!"

Flag.

OK. I'm not complaining. Not even when I live in Tampines and the location was Toa Payoh and the time was 7 a.m..

But the 必胜 armband we were asked to wear was far too much. This is Flag, not a deathmatch.

So I didn't wear it.

After Flag, Nick and I went to Sim Lim Square. I was originally there to look at microphone stands, while Nick was there to get a set of speakers for his stay at PGP.

I ended up getting a set of speakers for myself as well.

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Sonicgear Tatoo 320e. Didn't regret my purchase.

Back to campus the next day! It was supposed to be Mambo Night (much to my chagrin) but later it ended up being a Hip Hop night. And I... well I guess I was a bit drunk!

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You could probably tell from my expression that I just had a really good workout.

Round 2

Our second stayover for O Week was simple. Islandwide treasure hunt followed by barbecue.

Simple doesn't mean easy.

First we had to figure out clues to our stations. Good thing, we could confirm with our chaperone if our guesses were correct before we moved off.

Some of the clues are really well done, like how they artfully fused the 2 words "Vivo" and "City" into one.

It was indeed "islandwide". Points were given for every single trip from East to West, so we made sure we planned such a trip in our itenary.

And I just had no photos to show how hard we ran whenever we had to make a trip on foot. Wise of Roscoe to have brought a towel along.

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On the way to Vivo!

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Food Crossword!

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At the photo stickers Print Club at Cineleisure!

We jogged to Cineleisure from a nearby bus stop, and squeezing one sweaty, squirming pile of an OG into the Print Club's photo taking chamber was nothing short of a feat!

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Somerset. Off to the Airport.

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On board the Airport Skytrain!

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Jumpshot Attempt No. 3

After the whole ordeal we realised we were the first to return to campus.

Cue "How to lose" cheer.

Meal or no Meal! Basically Deal or no Deal at OG level, with food items for barbecue. The banker was bright enough to offer to trade drinks for our mysterious bucket (like having five 1.5L bottles wasn't enough!); in the end we stood our ground and won... Stingray!

Itadakimasu!

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The chicken chop and stingray (yeah!) were rather good, but it seemed that we should have gotten more satay...

By then our OG was camera-trained, thanks to Seng Tuck's constant snapping. All we needed was to hear the cue-

"1,2,3!"

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"1,2,..."

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"1,2,3... 45678!"

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Finally, the Prize Presentation! We all knew who got the best OG, so we're just waiting for them to get done with the ornamental awards.

And then I saw my name. Freshie award.

All I could say was, thanks. To the seniors for the nomination, and to the best OG, Naruto!

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Too bad a few of us couldn't witness our glorious moment, 'cause the Rag Day fatigue party was called away just before-

T.T

Still, it's something we'll never forget.

Epilogue

The whole O Week ended off with Rag Day, but it was an anticlimax for me. Hard for a freshman to feel ownership for a project he's only seen for a week, while the seniors involved had invested almost the whole of the summer holidays on it.

So the only thing I paid attention to was one of the final performances by NUS Voices.

One of the seniors' hopes was that we freshies would walk out of O Week as "proud Science students". I was already a proud Science student from the start, if not for some of the Chinese cheers that border a bit on the rude side. While reluctantly doing those cheers I could see the neighbouring Hall crowd looking on at us with... disdain?

For a moment, I was not proud at all to be from Science. But only a moment. Only when I had to blatantly tell lies about what I think of BizAd girls.

That's my only complaint.

Seniors, thank you all for the time and effort in getting us up for the events despite how tired we were, and for guiding us on module bidding despite how tired you were.

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Joseph, Shin Ye, Yixuan & Seng Tuck.

Not to forget Xinwei, our accompanying Science Club senior.

OG mates, you guys were great company! See you guys around in campus!

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