Lightshow

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

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

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.

61

Did someone say "MISIA"?

Aircraft Carrier

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.

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.

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.

Delusion, indeed!

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

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.

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!

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.

Well it goes like this...

Let's do it.

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...

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...

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.

Time for a group shot!

Then it got slightly better... Mass Dance!

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!

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.

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.

Smile before the storm!

Jessie hates cockroaches.

So do I.

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

Nicholas and the juicy roasted cocoons

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

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

OK, my turn to scream.

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...

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

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~"

March on, Naruto!

Trophies of honour.

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...

Caught biting my nails again... oops.

Day 3

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!

"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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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.

Well, at least we got to clean ourselves up!

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

On the way to Vivo!

Food Crossword!

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!

Somerset. Off to the Airport.

On board the Airport Skytrain!

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!

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!"

"1,2,..."

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

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!

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.

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!